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OPINION
Speed is your strategy
In 2025, faster firms win – optimize key processes from proposal to payment to stay competitive in AEC.
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“I started running an engineering firm, and my plan to win was that we’d respond to emails in less than a week.” This is some hyperbole from one of our customers, but the statement contains a nugget of truth. Speed matters in an AEC industry not known for its pace. This is especially true in 2025. Client demands, generational workforce shifts, macroeconomic trends, and technology are all changing at an accelerating rate. The firms moving quickly are the ones succeeding, while most firms are feeling squeezed.
Matt Cooper
As Larry Fabbrioni of Practice of Architecture put it, “If it feels like it’s become more challenging to maintain the same levels of prosperity, that’s because it has.” With lower fees for bigger scopes and faster turnarounds (among plenty of other challenges for architecture and engineering businesses), firms need to prioritize speed. Not only for project delivery, but across all aspects of the firm’s operations. So how do AEC firms move faster? A good framework helps. Start by breaking down the “proposal to paid” process for firms: ■ Win new clients and projects. How quickly are you responding to leads? A Harvard/InsideSales
study suggests that conversion rates drop by eight times after only five minutes following submission of a lead. Further, responsiveness can set the tone for the client relationship. A firm that follows up on a lead quickly indicates to a prospective client that they will be responsive and engaged partners during the project. That’s why “speed to lead” can be such an important metric. Time to submit proposals also matters. Firms are often held back when employee bio/project data isn’t well organized and accessible. Historical data
See MATT COOPER, page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER JULY 21, 2025, ISSUE 1594
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