An embedded BD department for growing firms
BD-AEC provides embedded, fractional business development leadership and the intelligence, strategy, creative capacity, and execution needed to keep growth moving while principals and technical leaders focus on clients, teams, and project delivery.
We build pipeline. You build everything else.
01 / The growth equation
01 / Strategy
Strategy without creativity is invisible.
02 / Creativity
Creativity without strategy is a hobby.
03 / Execution
Without execution, both remain ideas.
Strategy + Creativity + Execution creates growth.
We take ideas to market, learn from the response, adapt, and keep moving.
The strategy + creativity principle comes from our partners at BLDG Brands. BD-AEC adds execution.
02 / The gap
Established AEC firms often know where they want to grow. Their principals and technical leaders understand their markets, know relationships matter, and have ideas about the clients, opportunities, and markets they want to pursue.
They're also responsible for delivering today's work.
So business development becomes intermittent. Follow-up slips. Marketing and BD lose their connection. Opportunities receive inconsistent attention, and good ideas don't always make it into the market.
That's the gap BD-AEC fills.
03 / The offer
Hiring an internal Business Development Director can be the right move. But one hire alone doesn't create the research, systems, creative support, pursuit capacity, and continuity of a complete function.
BD-AEC embeds leadership, an integrated team, and an operating system alongside your principals and technical teams. You gain the capacity to find, win, and manage the right work.
04 / Capabilities
Leadership, intelligence, creative support, and execution in one coordinated function.
Set the direction and own the decisions that keep growth moving.
See the right buyers and opportunities, then build access before and after the RFP.
Make a firm easier to understand, remember, shortlist, and select.
Give the work a consistent rhythm and make every next action visible.
Strong pursuits start before the deadline. We build reusable case studies, project descriptions, resumes, capability statements, brochures, photography, websites, and other digital assets that make each proposal and SOQ stronger.
05 / The Growth Engine
The team learns from what happens in market, then adjusts the next move.
Read buyer signals, opportunities, and what past pursuits taught us.
Choose markets, priorities, and where the firm can win.
Make the firm’s value clear and memorable.
Build access and turn it into better capture.
Take the work to market, measure the response, and adjust.
Creative Mapping explores possibilities. Kinetic Rebalance adjusts the growth effort based on what we learn. Together, they keep one integrated BD-AEC team moving with your market.
How we work06 / Who we serve
$500K–$20M
Approximate annual revenue of the firms we serve.
07 / Results
The measure isn't activity. It's stronger positioning, better pursuits, healthier pipeline decisions, and more valuable work for the people who deliver it.
$8M+
Work awarded
New project awards secured for a single client firm in one year
3×
Business performance
Growth in monthly billings for one client from February through August
30%
Pursuit effectiveness
Proposal and SOQ win rate for one client on public-sector pursuits over a 12-month period
2 → 8
Delivery capacity
Growth in technical staff from February through September to deliver BD-AEC-generated project workload
08 / The people
Scott Mann leads the engagement. Vanessa Mann, Flavia Miller, and the wider BD-AEC team bring operations, proposals, web, strategy, and creative support into one coordinated growth function.
Meet the full team
Scott Mann
Founder + Lead Business Development Director
Vanessa Mann
COO | Director of Operations & Client Services
Flavia Miller
Digital Marketing & Proposal Coordinator
09 / The Pursuit
Practical thinking on how AEC firms find, win, and learn from the right work.
Knowing what projects are available is useful. Knowing why they are happening, who is influencing them, what clients are thinking, and how to position your firm to pursue them is business intelligence.
Read article
Strategy gives an AEC firm direction. Creativity makes that direction visible. Execution takes it into the market. What comes back should change what happens next.
Read article
AEC firms need business development capacity. The real question is whether to build that capability internally or plug into a team already doing the work.
Read articleYour next move
Let’s talk about where you want to grow.
Talk with Scott Mann
Founder + Lead Business Development Director
What happens next
Scott responds within one business day to arrange a conversation about your priorities and whether BD-AEC is a fit.
This requests a conversation. Scott will follow up to find a time that works for you.
