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Dear Architects and Engineers,
We need to talk.
Please, have a seat. Your principals, project managers, marketing team, and accountant are all here. We know this might feel uncomfortable, but we're having this conversation because we care about you.
You have a problem with saying "yes."
We've watched you do it for years. The client who wants a world-class design on a shoestring budget? Yes. The RFP that's completely outside your firm's expertise? Let's go for it! The project with an impossible schedule, a suspiciously vague scope of work, and a fee that might have seemed generous back in 1997?
"Well, it could lead to something bigger."
We know. We've heard it before.
Lately, with the backlog looking a little thin, things have gotten worse. You're entertaining opportunities you would have politely declined six months ago. You're offering free preliminary design work to every potential client. You're convincing yourself that another complicated, low-margin project will somehow be good for the business.
We understand why. You've got talented people to keep busy, salaries to pay, and overhead that stubbornly refuses to disappear when the pipeline slows down.
But we're worried about you, because we've seen what happens next. The scope expands, the fee stays exactly where it was, and your project managers' eyes begin to glaze over, developing that distinctive stare into the middle distance.
You win the project. Everyone celebrates.
Eighteen months later, your accountant would like a word.
Douglas Teiger, FAIA, puts it rather well in his forthcoming book, The Profitable Practice: "Build in a real go/no-go process for the declined category specifically, so saying 'no' becomes a decision your firm makes on purpose, not something that only happens by accident when you're simply too busy to respond."
That's right. You can actually choose which projects to pursue.
We realize this may come as a shock.
But before committing another hundred hours to a proposal, we'd like you to ask yourself three simple questions:
If the answer to all three is "probably, assuming everything goes perfectly," we may need to schedule another intervention.
We also need to discuss your relationship with proposal volume.
We know how satisfying it feels to have the marketing team working at full capacity, submitting RFP responses, assembling qualifications packages, and coordinating interviews.
But 12 proposals submitted in a month isn't necessarily a sign of a healthy business development operation. Particularly if 11 go nowhere and the 12th becomes a three-year lesson in scope creep.
A healthier approach starts with understanding which clients, markets, and project types your firm actually wins, how much it costs to pursue them, and whether the resulting projects deliver worthwhile returns.
This requires keeping track of your opportunities, measuring your win rates, and making deliberate go/no-go decisions. We appreciate that spreadsheets and someone's encyclopedic memory have served you faithfully for years, but it's time to consider a more reliable arrangement.
That's where BQE CORE Pursuit can help. By bringing opportunity tracking, proposals, and pipeline management into CORE, it connects business development activity with the project and financial information your firm already uses.
That means better visibility into which opportunities deserve your attention, more informed fee discussions, and fewer decisions based on the reassuring but financially questionable phrase, "We've got a good feeling about this one."
You became architects and engineers because you wanted to solve interesting problems, work with great clients, and create things that matter. Somewhere along the way, keeping everyone billable started to feel like the ultimate measure of success.
But a full backlog of poorly matched projects can be every bit as damaging as an empty one. Winning work that exhausts your team, drains your margins, and leaves everyone questioning their career choices isn't much of a victory.
You deserve better. Your employees deserve better. Frankly, your accountant deserves a quiet weekend.
So here's what we're asking.
The next time an RFP lands in your inbox, resist the urge to immediately assemble a pursuit team. Read it carefully. Look at the client, the scope, the fee, and the likelihood of winning. Consider what similar projects have actually earned your firm.
If the opportunity isn't right, say "no". You can do this politely, professionally, and without spending the next forty-five minutes explaining how you might be persuaded to say yes.
Ultimately, successful practice isn't measured by how many projects it can squeeze through the door.
It's measured by how consistently it wins work worth doing.
With concern, affection, and a newfound hope for your firm,
Your Friends at BQE
P.S. Seriously — just sign up for a live look at CORE Pursuit. Because some things are worth saying "yes" to!