Speaking Engagements
Bring the BD Conversation Your Audience Actually Needs to Hear
Steven McGill, Founder, Principal
Fusion BD, LLC
Steven helps A/E/C audiences confront the structural problem most firms refuse to name: their business development function is built for a market that no longer exists. Drawing on 30 years in the field and original end-user research, his sessions give principals, marketers, and firm leaders a clear, data-backed path forward.
Spend Less. Pursue Smarter. Win More
How ABM and the Marketing/BD Hybrid Model Converge Into A Single AEC Growth Strategy
Why Your Members Need This Session
This Session is new, built for the modern AEC audience,
and is not offered by any other speaker.
The AEC industry is undergoing a fundamental restructuring of how firms grow — and most of your members' firms are caught in the middle of it. They're seeing BD costs rise while win rates plateau. They're hiring Business Development Directors who clients increasingly bypass. They're hearing about Account-Based Marketing but unsure whether it fits AEC. They're watching competitors restructure into something called the Marketing/BD Hybrid Model without quite understanding why.
This session connects the dots. It demonstrates that two strategic shifts your members are tracking separately — the rise of ABM and the emergence of the Marketing/BD Hybrid Model — are actually two halves of the same transformation. Implemented together, they form a single coherent growth strategy. Implemented separately, they leave significant value on the table.
"Two strategic shifts. One coherent strategy. The session that connects them — and shows your members a clear path forward."
Attendees leave with frameworks they can apply Monday morning, an honest financial case to bring back to firm leadership, and a clear point of view on where AEC growth strategy is heading over the next decade.
What Attendees Walk Away With
Sessions live or die on takeaways. Here's what your members will leave with:
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A clear framework for distinguishing volume-era, efficiency-era, and strategic-precision-era pursuit operations — and identifying which era their firm currently operates in. This single diagnostic alone has driven attendees to rethink their BD operations.
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Documented cost benchmarks comparing traditional Business Development Director loaded costs against the Marketing/BD Hybrid Model and the integrated Hybrid plus ABM approach. Real numbers, not abstractions.
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A practical four-phase implementation roadmap covering Foundation, Build, Execute, and Optimize, with specific deliverables for each phase.A compatibility matrix mapping AEC industry realities against what each model contributes — suitable for direct use in internal firm-leadership presentations.
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Documented research from Gartner, the SMPS Foundation, FMI Consulting, and ZweigGroup supporting every quantitative claim. Members can cite this evidence when bringing the framework back to their firms.
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A specific point of view on where AEC business development is heading over the next decade — including where the volume-era and efficiency-era playbooks fail and where strategic precision wins.
Session Formats
The material adapts to multiple delivery formats. Pick the one that fits your program slot:
60-Minute Educational Session • Standard breakout format
Includes the strategic framework, integrated cost modeling, the documented research synthesis, and the implementation roadmap, with 10 to 15 minutes reserved for audience Q&A. The most common format for SMPS chapter events, ACEC track sessions, and similar breakout slots.
90-Minute Interactive Workshop • Includes hands-on application
All educational content plus a structured working session in which attendees apply the diagnostic framework to their own firms, draft an initial target account profile, and identify the first three implementation steps for their organization. Best for events with workshop tracks or pre-conference sessions.
45-Minute Keynote • A condensed version that emphasizes the strategic narrative — why these two shifts are converging, why the volume era is over, and what AEC firms must do next. Designed for opening or closing general sessions where the goal is to set the conference's intellectual tone.
Moderated Panel Discussion • 60-90 minutes, multi-speaker
The session content can anchor a moderated panel featuring AEC firm leaders who have implemented one or both models, with Steven serving as moderator or contributing panelist. Best for events that have already booked a roster and want to add depth to existing programming.
Custom Format • Variable
If your program has a unique slot or audience consideration that doesn't match the formats above, Steven adapts. The underlying material is flexible. The session has been delivered in lunch-and-learn formats, dinner keynote formats, half-day intensives, and virtual formats.
Who The Session Serves
This session is built for AEC professionals responsible for firm growth, business development strategy, and marketing operations. Specifically:
• Firm principals, partners, and managing principals who are evaluating their BD function's effectiveness
• Chief Marketing Officers and marketing directors navigating the structural shifts in AEC marketing
• Business Development Directors and BD professionals evaluating their role's evolution
• Marketing managers and coordinators positioning for expanded strategic roles
• Firm operations leaders and CFOs evaluating BD overhead and pursuit ROI
Most relevant for firms ranging from 25 to 500 employees, though the principles scale to firms above and below this range. The session has been calibrated for AEC audiences specifically — every example, every benchmark, every reference is grounded in the AEC industry context.
Trade Organizations Where This Fits
SMPS (Society for Marketing Professional Services) — Build Business, regional chapter events, and continuing education programming. SMPS audiences are particularly well-aligned with the session's focus on the marketing/BD intersection.
SAME (Society of American Military Engineers) - National conferences, post events, and federal/public-sector audiences. The principal-led engagement framing aligns with how federal clients prefer to engage.
ACEC (American Council of Engineering Companies) — Annual convention, chapter events, and engineering-firm leadership audiences. The firm-economics framing resonates strongly here.
DBIA (Design-Build Institute of America) — Conferences and chapter events for design-build collaborative-pursuit audiences. The multi-stakeholder ABM framework fits the integrated project delivery context.
Regional chapters and AEC affinity groups — CSI, ABC, AGC, and similar construction-focused organizations welcome the practical, ROI-focused framing.
AIA (American Institute of Architects) — National convention, state and local chapters, and continuing education programming. Learning objectives are formatted to AIA CES standards.
Substance Behind the Session
Original Primary Research
The session is anchored in Fusion BD's 2025 End-User Survey of AEC clients, which produced one of the most direct findings in recent AEC research: clients overwhelmingly prefer to engage with principals and project leaders — not Business Development staff — in the activities that actually win work. This finding restructures the economic case for how AEC firms organize for growth, and it sits at the center of the session's argument.
Real Benchmark Data
The cost-modeling exercise demonstrated live in the session uses Fusion BD's benchmark research on AEC firm BD cost structures. Audiences see the actual math — traditional BD Director loaded cost of approximately $269,500, Marketing/BD Hybrid loaded cost of approximately $129,600, and the integrated approach delivering approximately $99,900 in net annual savings even after funding a substantive ABM program. These are not theoretical figures.
Documented Third-Party Research
The session draws on documented research from Gartner (B2B buyer behavior, including the 17% supplier-meeting time finding and the 73% irrelevant-outreach avoidance finding), the SMPS Foundation in partnership with FMI Consulting (AEC marketing and BD trends research), and ZweigGroup (AEC firm operations and hybrid BD role case material). Every quantitative claim in the session is attributed and verifiable.
A Defensible Point of View
Most AEC marketing and BD content is careful not to challenge any conventional wisdom, careful not to say anything that might offend any sensibility. This session is the opposite. It argues plainly that the volume-era playbook is over, that traditional BD Director roles are increasingly economically indefensible, and that the firms restructuring around the integrated approach are the ones that will lead AEC growth. Audiences appreciate the directness. Program chairs appreciate that the session generates discussion rather than passive listening.
Schedule a Speaking Inquiry Call
If your program has a slot that would fit this session, the next step is a 15-minute call with Steven to discuss your event, audience, format, and timing. The call covers what your members need, what format works best, what dates are available, and what coordination is required to make the session land.
