Real estate developers - what has a new firm done to win your work?
I run a small civil engineering firm (land development) and trying to make inroads with developers has been challenging. I've written some proposals I know are competitive and if I'm lucky I get told "no" with no feedback but more often than not get ghosted. I know it's a relationship based business, so I know going with who you know and trust obviously plays a big part. Cold call / Email / LinkedIn outreach typically goes unanswered in trying to set up lunches or happy hours to get a foot in the door. I've been on the developer side and know that you are constantly being hit up to get taken out by vendors so I also completely understand haha.
We've got a small but solid portfolio and have had happy clients, typically smaller architecture firms, one-off landowners turned developers, or contractors taking on bigger jobs that need entitlements. For the developers who will contract directly with the civil (as opposed to having the architect run entitlements), what has a new (and probably unknown to you) civil firm done to get on your bid list and win the project? Thanks!