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I am looking for good resources for improving my skill and knowledge in business development and sales, speifically for professional (engineering) services.  If you have any ideas please post them here. 

Background:  I am working in the engineering design/consulting area and recently moved from an engineering manager role to a business development role.

Some of the advise I have gotten has been contradictory and some additoinal information would be great.  Also if you are willing to discuss direclty let me know and I will contact you.   

tviemont's picture

I've been in sales for many years.  Manager Tools & Career Tools are among the most useful resources I've come across.  I was just thinking today that the next brand in Manager Tools could easily be Sales Tools.  Quite often, one can find application of a MT/CT 'cast just by replacing a few words.  To be clear, I'm not talking about selling the content, just about applying it for my own use.  For instance, the MT 'cast on Communication Planning and applied it, not to how I'd communicate with my team, but for how I'd communicate with my customers & prospects.   Depending on what you sell, specific tactics differ somewhat, but I believe that many 'casts teach key immutable concepts for successful behavior in sales (and general business):

Relationships are critical. It's all about people: people sell to people who buy.  So many casts to point to here: Disc,

Listen to the Building Your Internal Network 'Cast and retool the concepts into an account review with existing clients/partners and other stakeholders

Execution is key.  Both from an internal and external perspective.  Delivering on your commitments is as important for both your manager and your customer/prospect.

Grow Your Network!

Your Behavior in front of customers/prospects can make you stand out from the rest:

Run Effective Meetings

Send Thank You Notes

I could go on and on....