Becoming a Seller-Doer: Succeed at Business Development and Take Command of Your Career

I believe many older professionals will have the same reaction when they discover this book: If only it had existed when I was younger! As professionals, we’re proud of our technical skills, but also understand that to move up in our companies, learning how to bring in revenue for the company is key. But where do we start? By demystifying business development, this book unblocks the path to career success. It’s all here: the skills we need to build recognition for our company (and ourselves) and develop leads, how to turn client work into new sales, how to develop seller attributes when we’re uncomfortable with selling (if not downright terrified, speaking from my own experience), and so much more. There’s even a personal marketing plan and a stage-by-stage guide for the doer to seller-doer journey. Author Jim Rogers has written a practical, applicable career guide, and not just for engineers or construction professionals. It’s for anyone who’s good at what they do, but not so good at selling.

I began my career in business development, marketing, and sales in 1974 in the A/E/C world. Leaving the comfort of the engineering office where I worked, with the familiarity of the drafting table and a coffee pot nearby, to develop relationships with architects and structural engineers was exciting and uncomfortable at the same time. I was fortunate to have a senior engineer as not only my boss but an empathetic mentor who was feeling his way through BD methods as well. Back then, before the internet and all it offers, we began with making in person cold calls on A/E/C firms. When I retired in 2019 at age 70, I had spent the last five years of my career providing Lunch & Learn programs and speaking at conferences.I had begun my journey comfortable at the drafting table and behind a transit, but very uncomfortable even introducing myself in a conference room. But, over the years, through trial and error and hard knocks, I discovered many of the tools and techniques that Jim Rogers lays out so well in this book. If my boss and I could have had this information in 1974, we would have had more success, faster with less stress. To be clear, I did not spend my career as a "doer." I became a full time "Seller" touching all of the bases involved with marketing, sales, and business development. I did not have a degree in any of these areas. I learned on the job day by day.I wish I'd had this book. The term "game-changer" is maybe a bit overused. But I am sure that this book would have been a game-changer for me and my organization if we could have had it as a map to follow back in the seventies.Even though I am now retired, I greatly enjoyed reading Becoming a Seller-Doer. It was a wonderful journey down memory lane, and almost inspired me to get back into the game. But at age 73, I'll enjoy the memories. I do highly recommend that anyone even thinking about promoting their firm, or themselves, study this book. And that senior people buy it for their staff.

Jim's book is an excellent resource for new engineers. He does a great job of outlining our profession and showing young engineers how the parts fit together. This is a must read for any engineer that is looking to become a project manager or leader in their firm. It is required reading in our firm.

If you've ever wondered how more experienced professionals seem to knock it out of the park every time, this book is for you. Once you understand the basics of a seller-doer model your career will take off. This book is an easy read. I'd recommend it whole-heartedly for AE professionals with 0-10 years experience.

I’ve worked with Jim in the past and both his training and this book have helped me 2. We share this book around the office!

Becoming a Seller Doer does a tremendous job providing a Road Map for team members at all levels of an organization. As the CEO of a 125 employee transportation engineering firm, I found myself taking notes of things to try with my team nearly every chapter. I wish that I had this resource in my early years. The reality in technical industries today is that each person within the organization is responsible for the success of the firm (present and future). Jim does a great job giving immediate short term and long term actions for readers to take to better themselves. Highly recommend and I will be purchasing multiple copies to provide to young professionals within our firm.

Jim Robert’s book is spot on for what it takes to develop professionally to position and win opportunities in professional engineering and consulting space. He provides great coaching, practical approaches, and additional resources for engineers to develop the skills we need to position our teams to win and clients to succeed as well.

Finally a book written specifically for developing seller-doers in the AEC industry! I will say though the book applies to any company wanting to develop seller-doers. As soon as I finished reading it I ordered 10 more copies for my team and will also be adding it to our reading list for our internal seller-doer training program I run at my firm!

I have a copy of this book in my library and strongly recommend it to those Engineers who have aspirations of becoming Rainmakers!