Rethinking Seller-Doer Skills in the AI Era

The skills required to succeed as a seller-doer remain relatively consistent from year to year and decade to decade, yet the need to upskill and reskill continues to evolve.

In a prior post, The Skills It Takes to Be a Successful Seller-Doer, I referenced the trifecta of aptitude, tools, and skills. For a seller-doer to succeed, they need a certain level of aptitude, or natural ability. This is an immutable truth; however, too often we confuse business development with cold calling and networking events. The good news is that almost every technical professional has an aptitude for some area of business development.

This is why it is critical to understand the tools that are used in business development. The modern BD toolkit is vast and includes so much more than outreach – there’s much more to it! Tools are the second critical component of the trifecta, and matching each seller-doer to the tools they feel most comfortable with is an important element in a successful seller-doer strategy.

And this brings us to skills. Unlike aptitude, skills can be taught. Yet, within the AEC industry, we tend to hire or promote people into seller-doer roles without understanding their natural abilities, without aligning the proper business development tools and their interests, and without providing the skills training needed for success. We simply send them out with the instruction: “Go get work.”

Although we are in the early stages of the AI Era, the seller-doer skills needed for success are far more than technology, which by itself is a tool, but rather human skills, relationship skills, and communication skills.

12 Essential Seller-Doer Skills for the AI Era

Seller-doers must master a blend of timeless human-centric abilities while learning to leverage modern technology as a powerful assistant.

1. Active Listening: The Foundation of Communication

Seller-doers need to be great communicators, and the foundation for communication lies in their ability to listen. This is why many introverts and ambiverts can be very successful at business development: they listen first and then respond appropriately. Active listening is a foundational skill from which others build.

2. Storytelling: Making Data Memorable

The AEC industry is awash in data: facts and figures like square footage, building codes, and certifications. Humans are not good at remembering statistics, but we are very good at remembering stories. Storytelling is another essential skill for seller-doers.

3. Crafting Value Messages: Bridging Listening and Storytelling

Crafting value messages on the fly allows seller-doers to bridge listening and storytelling, sharing relevant information that demonstrates an understanding of the prospect’s (or client’s) challenges. To succeed, it is important to become unconsciously skilled at creating these messages before, during, and after conversations.

4. Public Speaking: Mastering Everyday Communication

This activity terrifies many technical-focused seller-doers, but public speaking happens every day in a business environment: one-on-one meetings, project meetings, and internal trainings are all examples. Being comfortable communicating with others is foundational, and thus, the ability to speak publicly is necessary for seller-doer success.

5. Time Management: Balancing “Selling” and “Doing”

While no skill is more important than another, time management is a skill that often separates successful seller-doers from unsuccessful ones. By definition, a seller-doer is balancing business development (“seller”) and billable work (“doer”). Successful seller-doers know to make regular, consistent time for business development, or it won’t happen.

6. Networking: Turning Conversations into Opportunities

Networking is both a tool and a skill. Attending events to interact with clients and prospects is a valuable tool. Knowing how to have the conversations – including starting, maintaining, and leaving – is part of the skill. Seller-doers need to understand how to network, as these situations are inevitable.

7. Becoming a Trusted Advisor: Building Long-Term Relationships

Most successful seller-doers seek to become trusted advisors with their clients. This skill requires a deep knowledge base, a desire to help others, and an understanding that seller-doers are on the front lines of the AEC client experience. Because they often continue the relationship on the “doing” side of a project, seller-doers can demonstrate subject matter expertise and build trust very early.

8. Curiosity: The Engine for Deeper Understanding

Curiosity may sound more like a behavior than a skill, but successful seller-doers understand its value. Wanting to understand the prospect, their organization, stakeholders, and challenges drives seller-doers to do research, leverage relationships, and better look at the big picture. This strategic curiosity is the first step to nailing your Ideal Client Profiles for AEC success and ensuring your team isn’t just fishing everywhere for opportunities.

9. Anticipatory Thinking: Adding Future-Focused Value

I’m a huge fan of anticipatory thinking as an important skill. If a seller-doer embraces their curiosity and understands current trends and forthcoming disruptions, they can demonstrate unique knowledge and provide higher levels of value. This is especially critical for generating work in uncertain times and allows them to guide clients through periods of disruption.

10. Persuasion: Guiding Clients to Better Outcomes

Seller-doers must be able to persuade – but not in a manipulative way. Persuasion is necessary every day to help clients understand that a schedule is unrealistic or that a certain project delivery approach makes the most sense.

11. Writing: The Cornerstone of Credibility

Writing is another skill that is not going away. Yes, we can use technology to draft emails, blogs, and social media posts, but we still need to understand the point we want to get across and the call to action for the reader. Poorly written communication can be off-putting to prospects.

12. Leveraging Technology: The Seller-Doer’s Assistant

Finally, seller-doers do need to understand the role that technology plays. The technology is the tool: leveraging that technology is the skill. Successful seller-doers use automation, large language models, CRM systems, and other tools to improve their time management and more effectively balance selling with doing.

Why This Training is More Urgent Than Ever

Technology can be a valuable assistant; however, no technology will replace the critical human skills necessary to succeed in business development. In the years I’ve been training seller-doers, two trends stand out.

First, the retirement of rainmakers and senior business developers from the industry is a key factor in the evolution of AEC Firm business development, leading to significant growth in the seller-doer model. Research conducted by Stambaugh Ness and the SMPS Foundation found that 89% of AEC firms are now using seller-doers.

Second, the skills development of these seller-doers is increasingly lacking. On one hand, individuals moving into these roles often didn’t gain many of these skills in their prior learning and development. On the other hand, AEC firms often lack the mentorship required for building a better seller-doer, nor are they implementing formal programs, even though seller-doer training is an essential tool for sustainable growth.

Ready to Rethink Your Business Development Program?

From business development strategy to seller-doer training, Stambaugh Ness has you covered. Contact us today to discuss how we can strategically enhance your business development program or elevate your next generation of seller-doers through targeted learning and development.