TZL 1409 (web)

people do (happy hour, lunch, coffee), but why does it need to stop at that? My personal brand includes a health and wellness lifestyle and many of our clients know and appreciate this! I’ve had several clients reach out to ask for a healthy lunch spot, a green juice instead of a coffee, and even walking meetings. They know they can count on me for something fun and different. I encourage my engineers to truly get to know one another – not just talking about work projects. We all have hobbies and interests that others might have as well. We may have some of the same hobbies as our clients and this leads to the potential of a friendship – not just a working relationship. “Business development is the backbone of building business, even if we don’t realize we are doing it.” TZL: Trust is essential. How do you earn the trust of your clients? AP: This is huge – especially with business development. I say this on a daily basis, if not more, and have drilled it in at RLG: People do business with people they know, like, and trust. 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. TZL: How is your office cross selling services? AP: Many times when an office offers multiple services, the employee focuses on their specialty. We have been building the relationships internally across the office to help one another remember to offer the other services. This also comes out at our weekly meeting discussing projects – if there is a new project on the list many times someone in the meeting will say, “Hey, do they need civil, structural, or survey?” That is an easy reminder and another business development touchpoint to remind our clients we offer multiple service lines. TZL: How have you encouraged your staff to participate in business development activities? AP: I always say you need to set people up for success. You can’t just hope they know what to do. Train them, teach them, give them some skills to keep in their

back pocket. Once they have a toolkit for success, they have to experiment to see what works (and what doesn’t work) for them. I do a lot of activities with them at first and then when they are comfortable they can start doing these things by themselves. I might take an engineer to several lunch meetings and then when I see they are comfortable I will encourage them to do a lunch meeting without me. I have shown them that business development is enjoyable and they can do it too! TZL: What role does your family play in your career? Are work and family separate, or is there overlap? AP: This is a great question. My husband is actually in the industry as well. He is the Gulf States president for Adolfson & Peterson Construction. We are able to work together with client introductions, talk about upcoming events, who to get to know, and more. We actually even present together on business development. Several years ago we put a presentation together, for AIA continuing education credit, and have been presenting quite often to architects and sub-contractors. It is a great way to work together, get to know more people in the industry, and share our business development experience with others. We have learned to keep a work-life balance though. This is extremely important to keep us performing optimally at work. There is a time for work and a time for play, and that needs to be clearly defined. TZL: In one word or phrase, what do you describe as your number one job responsibility? AP: My number one job responsibility is to make the RLG name familiar to everyone in our industry. TZL: What challenges are you facing? “We really are growing with business development. The engineers are much more comfortable with offering to have lunch with their clients. This is an opportunity to get to know their clients more on a personal level.”

HEADQUARTERS: Dallas, TX NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 71 YEAR FOUNDED: 1953 OFFICE LOCATIONS: ❚ ❚ Dallas, TX ❚ ❚ Fort Worth, TX ❚ ❚ Peoria, IL SERVICES: ❚ ❚ Civil engineering ❚ ❚ Structural engineering ❚ ❚ Forensics/repair/strengthening ❚ ❚ Surveying PROJECTS: ❚ ❚ Civil

❚ ❚ Structural ❚ ❚ Surveying ❚ ❚ Forensics ❚ ❚ Data center ❚ ❚ Education ❚ ❚ Healthcare ❚ ❚ High-rise ❚ ❚ Hospitality ❚ ❚ Library ❚ ❚ Multifamily ❚ ❚ Municipal

❚ ❚ Offices ❚ ❚ Parking ❚ ❚ Religious ❚ ❚ Retail ❚ ❚ Senior living ❚ ❚ Sports facilities

See GET TO KNOW THEM, page 8

EMBER 20, 2021, ISSUE 1409

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