One of the most common pieces of business development advice in the AEC industry is this: start before the RFP drops.
And I agree.
Some of the strongest pursuits I have been involved with were won long before procurement ever began. The relationships were established. The client knew who we were. We understood their organization, their challenges, and their goals. We had invested time learning about their business and demonstrating that we genuinely cared about helping them succeed. By the time the RFP arrived, we were not introducing ourselves. We were continuing a conversation.
That is how business development should work.
One thing I want to clarify, however, is that I am not advocating for showing up only when you hear an RFP is coming.
Clients can feel that.
In fact, most of us can.
We’ve all experienced the person who suddenly starts calling, emailing, inviting us to coffee, or asking how we’re doing after months or years of silence. It doesn’t take long to figure out that the relationship is tied to an opportunity.
People don’t want to feel like a pursuit strategy.
They want to feel like a person.
The strongest business development professionals I know build relationships whether there is an opportunity on the horizon or not. They stay connected because they are genuinely curious about their clients, their organizations, and the challenges they are facing. Opportunities eventually emerge from those relationships, but the relationship itself is never treated as a transaction.
Ironically, that is what makes those relationships so valuable when an opportunity does arise.
Over the years, I have also noticed a trap that many pursuit teams fall into. Sometimes they become so focused on preparing for an opportunity that they stop paying attention to what the client is actually telling them.
I have sat in countless pursuit planning meetings where everyone around the table was convinced they knew exactly what the client wanted. Someone says the client is focused on sustainability. Someone else says schedule certainty is the most important thing. Another person insists that innovation will be the deciding factor. Before long, the entire team has aligned around a win strategy, marketing is building messaging around it, and technical staff are tailoring solutions to support it.
The problem is not that these ideas are wrong.
The problem is that they are often based on assumptions.
And once we start building a narrative, we naturally begin looking for evidence that confirms it.
I think this is simply human nature. We all do it. Once we believe we understand the situation, we tend to filter new information through what we already think we know. We pay attention to comments that support our assumptions and unintentionally dismiss the ones that challenge them.
The danger is that clients are not static.
Leadership changes. Funding changes. Political priorities change. Communities evolve. New pressures emerge. A client who was focused on growth two years ago may now be focused on operational efficiency. A school district that was once talking about innovation may now be consumed by budget constraints and deferred maintenance. A healthcare organization planning expansion may suddenly be facing workforce shortages and looking for entirely different solutions.
Meanwhile, pursuit teams are often still operating from information gathered months, or sometimes years, earlier.
I think this is where many firms misunderstand the purpose of business development. We often talk about relationships as a way to gain access. We want the meeting, the introduction, the seat at the table. Those things certainly matter. But the greatest value of relationships is not access. It is understanding.
Strong relationships allow us to keep learning.
They give us permission to ask questions. They help us understand what is changing inside an organization. They provide context that never appears in an RFP. They reveal concerns that clients may not yet be ready to state publicly. They help us see around corners.
When I think about the best business developers I know, they are rarely the people who walk into a room convinced they have all the answers. They are usually the most curious people in the room. They continue asking questions long after everyone else believes they understand the situation.
What has changed?
What are we missing?
Who else should we be talking to?
What is keeping this client awake at night?
Those questions have often uncovered more useful information than an entire pursuit planning session.
The longer I work in this industry, the more convinced I become that curiosity is a competitive advantage. Confidence is important. Clients need to trust that we can solve their problems. But confidence without curiosity can become dangerous because it convinces us that we already know.
And the moment we think we already know, we stop listening.
So how much work should you do before the RFP drops?
A lot.
Build relationships. Understand the market. Learn your client’s business. Study their challenges. Invest in the relationship long before an opportunity appears.
But leave room for discovery.
Leave room for the possibility that your assumptions are incomplete.
Leave room for the client to tell you a different story than the one you have been telling yourself.
Because preparation creates readiness. It should not create certainty.
The firms that consistently win are not always the firms that prepared the most. More often, they are the firms that remained curious the longest. And in a profession built around solving problems, that may be one of the most valuable skills we can develop.
#curiosity #relationshiptoroi #beprepared #businessdevelopment #businessstrategy
