We can’t do what you do. 

We couldn’t analyse Metocean data or manage a supply chain.

So why are you trying to generate your own contracts and handle a sales cycle?

They’re different skillsets. 

In the last 6 months, I’ve had face-to-face conversations with over 20 small firms whose business development was handled by technical teams. 

It’s no surprise that all of them: 

• Had sales cycles longer than 12 months for a cold lead

  
  

• Relied exclusively on referrals and trade shows for new contracts

  
  

• Lacked a reliable way to source new target companies

  
  

• Stopped business development when delivery took over

  
  

You think you’re saving money by covering it yourself. 

You think buying committees choose you because of your technical expertise.

But truth be told, they don’t understand your technical expertise as much as you. 

If they did, they wouldn’t be hiring you. 

Technical expertise isn’t the most important part of the buying process. 

The level of trust they have in you is more important. 

Technical expertise doesn't build that. Communicating effectively does

How you stay front of mind during the buying decision is more important.

If you let people forget you, they will.

That means things like consistent outreach, useful follow-ups, and staying visible between conversations.

At best, technical expertise is the 3rd most important part of getting a committee to say yes.

You’re not saving money, you’re missing out on new opportunities, and most importantly, you’re losing contracts you should be securing. 

You’re spending your time on something that’s not your expertise for a worse result. 

A past client shortened their average cold sales cycle from 12 months to under 8 because we took over. 

That 4-month difference, and all of the time they got back, is why technical teams shouldn’t handle your business development.

I know what you’re thinking, I hear it in every meeting:

“You’re not an engineer, you won’t be able to understand what we do.”

Let’s ignore all the case studies, client results, and testimonials for a second. 

Not being an engineer is my greatest attribute. 

The companies hiring you don’t have your engineering knowledge. 

As if they did, they wouldn’t need you. 

They don’t understand the technical specifics you think are important. 

We understand what makes them like you, what makes them trust you, what they actually want, and what makes the committee buy.

We translate complex language into marketing materials that resonate with them, that they actually understand. 

Plus, most importantly:

• We source and get you in front of new companies

  
  

• You get in front of these companies months sooner 

So what are some of the things we do that engineers overlook:

For those who aren’t big readers, here’s the TLDR:

• Source and establish 50 of the companies you want to work with.

The tool you use varies depending on the size of your target companies. If they’re in the 1000s of employee range, use SalesNav, but if they’re smaller, there are a few options depending on the specifics about yourself. Reach out to me, and I’ll point you in the right direction. 

• Map out their company hierarchy and their likely decision-making process

Establish who is on their buying committee, who are the parties who’d bring your solution to the table, who directly influences them, and who experiences the problem you solve on a day-to-day basis.

• Establish the most relevant intent triggers and create primary marketing material around that

Again, I’d need to know the exact specifics of your business to tell you the ones that you should use, but I’ll give you some examples: 

-They are hiring or advertising for a new commercial director, BD manager, or procurement lead.

-They announce a new contract or a planned expansion into a new geography or service area.

-Specific decision makers' online activity and public engagement (for example, frequently liking/commenting on posts of a specific topic) 

I know keeping track of all of this sounds like a full-time job, but there are some great tools out there that can provide you with this information instantly. Again, reach out, and I’ll share the one most relevant to you. 

• Stay front of mind with relevant, quality marketing material

This is where every firm goes wrong; they turn this tap on and off too frequently. 

Quality marketing materials can include articles (like this one), white papers, storyboarded brand videos, consistent LinkedIn content from the company page, and executive accounts. 

My general rule is to invest either time/money into high-quality marketing and get the absolute most out of it. 

For example, I’ll turn this article into 4 LinkedIn posts (one for each TLDR bullet point), a LinkedIn-specific article, a company post, and a lead magnet asset I’ll use for retargeting. 

That’s one article becoming the equivalent of 8 pieces of quality marketing. 

And if you’re pushing your firm’s marketing from multiple executive accounts, you can multiply that by each person.

Do you see why I say running business development yourself isn’t saving money? 

That might’ve been my longest ever TLDR, but if you’re still here, thank you! I’m assuming you want to know why we do everything we do:

Why 50 companies?

It’s a big enough number that: 

• The data is valuable. 

• You can get better at identifying lookalike companies and mapping out hierarchies.

But it’s small enough so each message can be personalised, relevant, and targeted. 

Any bigger and the quality will start to wane; any fewer, the data from your effort comes from too small a sample size. 

For context, we map out, track, and approach 30 new companies every month, but we’ve also done this every day for years. If this is a new strategy for you, expect the initial 50 to take around 8 weeks.

Why map out the full company hierarchy and the buying committee? Shouldn’t you only focus on relevant job titles?

If you’re only visible to the relevant job title, for example, the director of operations, you’re relying entirely on them to champion you internally. Not just to close the deal, but to bring you to the table in the first place.

But if you know every person on that buying committee months before you plan on being visible to them, you can factor that into your strategy. Something as simple as adding them to your LinkedIn network and introducing yourself.

With the way that platform works, exchanging a couple of messages means your posts (marketing material) will show up in their feed organically. 

So in a few months, when the director of operations brings your business to the table, a few people in that room will say, “Oh, I know them, I’ve seen him on LinkedIn.”

Strategically building human relationships is how you shorten your sales cycle. 

Staying Visible. What Does This Look Like? 

I know “visibility” and “staying visible” sound like buzzwords or pointless marketing terminology. 

But it’s what allows you to shorten your sales cycle at scale. 

The approach varies depending on your service, strategy and specific buying committee.

For example, if the director of operations is the one who brings your solution to the table, staying visible means direct communication and genuine engagement. 

This means creating the quality marketing material I previously mentioned, and directly sending it to them. It’s tracking their own actions via intent data or the human eye, and engaging in human discussion.

Think of the casual conversations you’d have at trade shows, do that on LinkedIn or via email. It’s the easiest way to differentiate yourself from everyone else, either cold selling or keeping things so formal that there’s no human connection.

So how do you stay visible to the rest of the buying committee? Or other relevant parties?

It’s much simpler, but it still needs to be tracked. 

The quality marketing material isn’t as relevant to these parties as they don’t face the problem you solve daily, so visibility here looks like:

• Connecting with them on LinkedIn and professionally introducing yourself weeks before your solution is brought to the table

• Using intent data to see what LinkedIn posts they interact with and start commenting on similar posts to get your face in their feed

With the way LinkedIn works, these actions make your posts, and your executive team's posts, show up in their feed organically, which is how we genuinely stay front of mind. 

With a strategic approach like this, we’ve had clients close £70,000 worth of contracts in 8 months, despite their average sales cycle being 11. 

We’ve booked meetings with companies worth $37bn, £22bn, and £2bn. 

​​This isn't a criticism of engineers.

The firms I work with are genuinely excellent at what they do. In most cases, technically superior to their competition.

But running a consistent BD function alongside delivery is a full-time job. And when delivery takes over, which it always does, the pipeline suffers.

I understand it’s comfortable running business development yourself, but you’re too close to your expertise, and it’s not your skillset.

It’s why your average sales cycle is over 12 months, and you rely exclusively on referrals/trade shows for new contracts. 

The firms that shorten their sales cycles and stop losing contracts to less qualified competitors are the ones that stop treating it as something that can be picked up and put down between projects.

If your pipeline feels fragile, or you're not sure why good conversations keep going quiet, that's usually where the answer is.

If you want to explore whether this makes sense for your firm, book a conversation via the calendar link in the footer.

Either way, thank you for reading.

-Joe