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BUSINESS NEWS DEWBERRY AWARDED ENGINEERING SERVICES CONTRACT FOR BERKELEY COUNTY INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTS Dewberry , a privately held professional services firm, announced that it has been selected to provide engineering services for the Berkeley County Public Service Water District’s water distribution system in Berkeley County, West Virginia. Task orders may include water modeling and capital planning, new groundwater source development, new water booster pumping stations, raw water pumping stations, finished storage tanks, and new water mains. The need for these projects comes from the rapid growth in Berkeley County, which is the fastest growing county in the state with nearly 1,000 new residential connections added to the water distribution system each year. “Dewberry has been serving Berkeley Water and county residents since 1979 under multiple administrations, making them one of our
longest-term clients,” said Dewberry Project Manager Martin Kazmierczak, PE, PMP. “We are both proud and humbled to be selected to serve Berkeley Water for another five years.” Over the last five years, Dewberry has designed extensive water infrastructure to serve both major industrial clients and commercial and residential users while helping Berkeley Water develop a capacity improvement fee to fund new growth and development. Dewberry is a leading, market-facing firm with a proven history of providing professional services to a wide variety of public- and private-sector clients. Recognized for combining unsurpassed commitment to client service with deep subject matter expertise, Dewberry is dedicated to solving clients’ most complex challenges and transforming their communities. Established in 1956, Dewberry is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, with more than 50 locations and more than 2,000 professionals nationwide.
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JOHN BRAY, from page 1
your clients’ changing needs and be able to offer them what they want, or they’ll find it from someone else. ❚ ❚ Be persistent. As noted above, it may require more contact “touches” to have an impact than you were accustomed to before. Dr. Jeffrey Lant’s “Rule of Seven” states that you must contact your buyers a minimum of seven times in an 18-month period for them to remember you, and it can often require more than 10 touches just to get a response. ❚ ❚ Make a list of new people/companies that you would like to work with and reach out to them. What companies do you admire? Where do you have existing connections that could help you gain a foot in the door? Any local companies you’ve always wanted to partner with? Who are the decision-makers within those companies? Make a list, make contacts, and keep following up until you get a chance to show them why you deserve an opportunity to work with them. ❚ ❚ Work with your marketing department to develop new messaging and materials. At the very least, these need to be updated for your company’s latest policies regarding COVID-19 and safety, as appearing tone-deaf will certainly hinder your chances of being effective at winning work. It is also important for you to be able to effectively market and explain your firm’s new products/services, approach, and outlook to people externally, oftentimes without being able to speak to them face-to-face. ❚ ❚ Ask for referrals/introductions from your existing contacts. Far too many people are tentative or even downright afraid to do this for some reason, but it can be one of the most effective ways of building new relationships (and business). If you enjoy working with someone and you know they enjoy working with you, why wouldn’t they want to introduce you to someone in their network that you could also work with? It won’t turn into a contract after the first conversation, but you will never know what that relationship could turn into unless you ask for the referral. ❚ ❚ Make introductions for your co-workers to create new connections and possible cross-selling opportunities. Do you have a good relationship with someone who could benefit from knowing one of your co-workers, or vice versa? Make the introduction, and follow up until it happens. It sounds so simple but I cannot tell you how often we see these opportunities lost within AEC firms, especially right now when everyone is “so busy.” Making these connections will allow your connections to see firsthand how great other areas and people at your firm are. This will present opportunities for you to expand services with a client, participate in speaking/thought leadership engagements, make further connections, and a number of other benefits that can only take place if you make the introduction. JOHN BRAY is an advisor with Zweig Group’s executive search and recruiting team. Contact him at jbray@zweiggroup.com.
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THE ZWEIG LETTER OCTOBER 19, 2020, ISSUE 1364
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