Category Archives: Vlog

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Construction Executives: Stop Setting Your BD Leaders Up To Fail

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Some construction executives think they’ve covered their bases around business development once they’ve hired a leader to take responsibility for it.

But this line of thinking often leads to truly disastrous results — not just for the BD leader, but for the whole firm.

In his latest post, Pete shares his thoughts about what senior leaders at every construction firm can do to position the BD leader for success, and to help the company grow.

For more about how SagePresence can help your firm grow, check out our GROW-it program here.

When Your Specialty Engineer Is on Every Team

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When your specialty engineer is also on a competitor’s team, it’s tempting to treat them as a wash. If the competition has them too, you’d better bring them, but it doesn’t buy you anything.

In this post, Dean explains why it’s not who’s in the room, it’s how you use them. He shares the shift that turns a shared team member into your differentiator: stop treating your specialty engineer as a solo act with two minutes and a slide, and start weaving them into your team’s story.

For more help turning every member of your team into part of a story that wins, check out our WIN-it program.

The Designer Stereotype You Don’t Realize You’re Projecting

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A brilliant designer who talks a lot in an interview can accidentally come off as a “know-it-all” or a windbag. Both read the same way to a shortlist committee: like the interview is about you, not them.

In this post, Dean shares a simple shift that fixes both traps at once — moving your focus from the work itself to the people you’re presenting it to.

For more on building the kind of presence that lands with shortlist committees, check out our WIN-it program here.

Why Seller-Doers Struggle to Follow Up

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Most seller/doers have never been trained in the art of business development. They’ve just had to figure it out as they go along. Which means they often struggle to figure out how to follow up after initial conversations go well enough to leave them with a prospect’s business card.

In his latest post, Pete shares a simple, two-minute habit Seller/Doers can build into the moments right after those conversations end — one that makes following up almost automatic.

To help your Seller/Doers build their business development skills further, check out our GROW-it program here.

Superintendents Hate Interview Prep (Here’s the Fix)

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When superintendents get asked to participate in a shortlist interview, they can get the idea they’re being asked to do something way outside their comfort zone.

The good news is, it doesn’t have to be that way.

In his latest post, Dean offers a fix — a different way to think about the challenge, and a different way to tackle it that feels more comfortable and familiar.

For more help elevating the skills of your team for shortlist interviews, check out our WIN-it program here.

The Bane Of The BD Manager

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The bane of managing a Business Development team isn’t just juggling client-facing staff and seller-doers — it’s that your own direct reports often need completely opposite things from you. Half want a detailed roadmap. Half want a target and the room to run with it. Treat them the same, and your pipeline stalls.

In this post, Pete shares a simple, three-question framework for finding out exactly which kind of support each person on your team needs — before it costs you the pipeline.

For more help managing your Business Development team through exactly this kind of friction, check out our GROW-it program here.

Project Managers: Quit White-Knuckling Interview Prep

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Your best PM instincts might be working against you in interview prep. The same instinct that keeps a project locked down tight — tracking every detail, leaving nothing to chance — can turn into white-knuckled control the night before a shortlist interview. It’s not a flaw. It’s just aimed at the wrong altitude.

In this post, Dean explains the value in turning off the part of your brain that tracks daily specifics, and focusing on mile markers and bigger movements instead. In the end, it is the same PM instincts, just zoomed out one level, so what needs to be free as a bird actually gets to fly.

For more on winning more work, check out our WIN-it page here.

The Angry Question Every Civil Engineer Will Get

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One of the biggest challenges for civil engineers talking to the public is that the public can bring a lot of negative energy in their questions and comments. This can easily create defensiveness, self-consciousness, and a response that does not make the public feel any better.

In this post, Pete shares a simple solution for how to improve the quality of your response, and transform negativity into positivity.

For more help with generating positive presence in the face of negativity, check out our Presence Coaching here.

When Synergy Jumps The Gap

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Team synergy usually comes from getting presenters to interact—listening, responding, building on each other.

In his latest post, Dean explores what happened when a team created that same collective confidence without saying a word, and how contagious enthusiasm for the work itself can be just as powerful.

For more on building unified team presence, check out our WIN-it program here.

Getting More Out Of Networking

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We all want to get something out of networking, but if somebody asks us on any given day what that is, we can be hard pressed to answer the question.

In his latest post, Pete shares a simple thought about what you can do to get more out of your networking efforts.

To explore how more effective networking can help your business, check out our GROW-it program here.

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