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P R O F I L E
Get to know them: Andrea Pender Director of business development with RLG Consulting Engineers (Dallas, TX), a firm that specializes in civil, structural, survey, and forensic engineering.
By RLG
P ender has more than 16 years of business development experience. As director of business development with RLG, she works closely with her clients and uses her leadership skills to mature and develop strong client and consultant relationships. “People do business with people they know, like, and trust,” Pender says. “If something is missing from that equation, they will do work with someone else. We earn this trust by taking the time to get to know our clients and doing great work. Getting to know our clients as people, not just discussing projects, is a step toward building trust.” A CONVERSATION WITH ANDREA PENDER. The Zweig Letter: How are you engaging your staff in business development? Andrea Pender: We have been doing small group business development meetings once a month. I have put together curriculum and we discuss those items at each meeting.
It’s a great place to bounce ideas off of one another and see what’s working. I normally end the meeting with a challenge of some sort as well. It is really nice to see the engineers try new things – and that’s contagious for the group. TZL: What type of leader do you consider yourself to be? AP: I lead by example. I have amazing co-workers who were hired because they’re great at what they do. I work hard to prepare my engineers for all of their business development interactions. I share with them what has been working, what isn’t working, and make suggestions on things they can try. We are in this together. TZL: How do you encourage personal branding? AP: Personal branding is very important. This seems to be a new phrase in our industry, but I want to capitalize on it as much as we can. Who are we? What do we like to do? Can we be known and remembered for those things? There are the typical business development activities that
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