Rain Making: The Professional’s Guide to Attracting New Clients by Ford Harding is written for anyone who wishes to bring in business, generate leads, and develop relationships that turn into profitable projects. In essence, this book—chock full of resources, research, and technique—is for anyone who wants to hone a marketing mentality, made accessible.

A proposal is nothing without prepared technical professionals, but preparedness takes a lot of legwork before even the RFP drops. Positioning in advance puts proposals at an advantage throughout the entire process.

Whether your firm has a formal Client Care Program or not, one way to enhance your client relationships and further your career is by thinking of yourself as a Client Care Manager.

As we continue to adapt to the new paradigm, we must adjust to the limited ability to meet face to face, while remembering how important this activity is to creating a longstanding relationship. Here are six suggestions for pivoting and making the most of your business development efforts.

We’ve all heard the adage “the best way to get somewhere is a straight line,” but author Rich Christiansen suggests otherwise. Christiansen is an entrepreneur who has founded or cofounded more than 30 businesses. Some of them were colossal failures, others were multi-million-dollar successes.

In the professional world, bad writing isn’t tolerated. It’s the difference between winning a project and being stuck scrambling for more work.

Excel spreadsheets, workflowy lists, and back and forth emails, move over! If you’re looking for an app to keep everyone in your organization on the same page, we suggest Asana. Asana is a simple yet powerful work management platform full of features that project managers of all types need.

How do you approach your annual strategic plan? Many AEC firms use the same tactics they did last year, not considering whether their end goal has changed or what they want to get out of their marketing efforts. We recommend a more methodical, strategic approach.

When it comes to shortlist interviews, the Q&A session often has presenters shaking in their boots. It’s been our experience that all the hard questions you’d prefer to avoid are going to be asked. Our advice? Prepare beforehand for the worst so that your experience can turn out for the best.

Presenting is crucial to gaining business in the AEC world. Take advantage of a captive audience by following these six topics for a successful AEC presentation.