The Integrated BD & Marketing Playbook
In about 90 to 120 days, leadership teams across our industry will start sitting down to "plan next year."
For most AEC firms, that planning meeting will look almost exactly like last year's.
Someone will pull together a revenue target. Someone else will list the conferences the firm attended. Marketing will share a budget that's roughly inflation-adjusted from the prior year. BD will commit to "more outreach." Everyone will nod, the meeting will adjourn, and within sixty days the plan will be sitting in a drawer.
Six months later, the firm will wonder why pipelines are thin.
This is not a talent problem. AEC firms are full of brilliant marketers and BD people, as well as designers and constructors - seller-doers. It's a planning problem — and more specifically, it's a problem of how Business Development and Marketing are (or aren't) wired together against the accounts that actually move the needle.
A Better Plan
Working with firms of various sizes, I've built out, delivered, and implemented complete, proven, frameworks that a firm can actually advance your growth: a 12-month integrated BD and marketing plan structured specifically for AEC firms.
It covers the things you'd expect — target market research, conference and trade-organization engagement, BD/marketing integration under ABM principles, budget formation against industry benchmarks, KPI dashboards.
And it covers the things most plans skip: the initial 90-day launch sequence, the weekly and monthly meeting cadence that keeps the plan alive between quarterly reviews, the semi-annual recalibration, and the year-end evaluation that feeds the next year's plan.
Deliverables include:
The Integrated Annual Plan Framework
A 90-Day Launch Roadmap
Three-Tier Account Targeting
The BD–Marketing Integration Model
Conference & Trade Organization Playbook
Budget Model & Benchmarks
Meeting Cadence & Governance
KPI Dashboard Framework
Available To You
I've packaged a five-page abstract that walks through what's in the full implementation and how firms can engage with it.
If you'd like a copy of the abstract, comment "send" below, message me directly, or email me at steven@fusionbdllc.com I'll send it over with no further obligation.
Or, see it instantly on my website: https://www.fusionbdllc.com/integrated-bd-marketing-playbook
If you're a programs chair at SMPS, ACEC, AIA, AGC, DBIA, etc., or a regional AEC chapter and you're looking for applied content for your 2026 -27 calendar, the same material adapts to a 60-to-90-minute session — also happy to talk.
One Last Thought
The firms that will win the most work over the next three years are not necessarily the firms with the deepest expertise or the longest history. They are the firms that decide, “before” the next year starts, which clients they are going to invest in — and then build the BD and marketing engine to actually do it.
90 – 120 days from now, your firm will either have that plan in writing, or it won't.
About Me
I help AEC Principals reduce non-billable BD costs, increase BD/Marketing ROI, and maximize target client engagement. With 30 years leading AEC business development at firms including Haskell, CRB, IMEG, and BSA, I've navigated multiple market shifts and changes in buyer preferences. I know what works — and what doesn't.
Lets Connect. If this resonates and you would like to learn more, I'd love to connect. No sales pitch. Just three decades of field-tested experience and the latest industry data - available to answer your questions. steven@fusionbdllc.com
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