Poor writing is costing your engineering firm money

IT’S ALSO SUCKING YOUR MOTIVATION AS THE VIRTUAL COMMUNICATION EXPLOSION TAKES YOU AWAY FROM REVENUE-GENERATING WORK.

If you’re a manager in a consulting firm and tired of wasting time, money, and energy on poorly written communication, we can help!

Are you tired of spending countless hours editing and revising your staff's written communication? Clients judge your technical expertise based on the quality of written and virtual communication from your office, so you know it’s essential to put your team’s best foot forward.

But let's be honest - you didn't become an engineer to focus on writing skills. You're a technical expert, and that's why you've been promoted to a leadership position. However, managing staff, keeping clients happy, and bringing in new work take up most of your time. The pandemic has exploded the volume of written communication you receive and highlighted the lack of writing skills of some of the engineers you manage.

The real issue isn't that engineers can't write effectively. It's that they've been taught that they don't need to. Written communication skills are often given minimal emphasis in engineering curriculums, resulting in young engineers who struggle to communicate their ideas effectively. This is particularly harmful in the consulting firm environment prevalent in the engineering, construction, architecture, and infrastructure industries, where engineers routinely interface with non-technical clients and decision-makers.

But there is a solution. We have developed a business writing program for consulting engineering firms like yours. Your staff learns how to write clearly and effectively, so you can spend less time troubleshooting poor writing, less time in your inbox, and more time on revenue-generating work.

In the process, you’ll empower your staff to develop their leadership communication skills and demonstrate their own (and, by extension, your firm’s) technical expertise through effective written communication.

Benefits of the Business Writing Technical Program for managers and firm owners who enroll their teams

01.

Save time editing and revising staff's written communication so you can focus on your revenue-generating work

02.

Develop your emerging leaders’ communication skills

03.

Empower your engineers to position your firm as a technical leader in every piece of written communication that leaves the office so that you can maintain and expand your firm’s client base

04.

Staff learns how to make points clearly and concisely so that audiences of all types understand. That means less time for you to make sense of and troubleshoot staff communication with other decision-makers

05.

Enhance firm credibility and confidence of clients in your organization’s technical expertise

06.

Stay competitive in today's virtual and hybrid work environment, where written communication is essential

What attendees of the program are saying

Written communication has exploded post-pandemic and IS how clients judge your technical expertise.

What is the writing going out of the office saying about your firm?

The shift to more virtual communication has resulted in higher client expectations that individual technical professionals can demonstrate their technical competence in their virtual written communication, such as emails, reports, RFI responses, proposals, etc. In a virtual and hybrid environment, strong writing skills are essential for conveying technical expertise to clients and ensuring the success of your team and organization.

In other words: In a virtual and hybrid environment, if you can’t communicate well via writing, it doesn’t matter how amazing YOU or YOUR technical team are. If you can’t convey that to your clients and speak their language, your team and your organization will suffer the consequences.

Traditional “technical writing programs” – such as those you find in universities - often teach minimal basic writing skills. They lack the business writing training engineering consultants need to develop their skills in communicating technical competence to non-technical people. This leads to writing mistakes (due to a general lack of writing training) and the AEC-specific problem of overwhelming clients with too much technical information and being unable to translate their technical knowledge into what’s most relevant to a client.

The result is less revenue for your firm – despite technical excellence - and manager frustrations of late nights fixing poor writing. Engineering consultant-specific business writing training addresses these issues and helps technical professionals effectively communicate with clients, positioning your organization as a technical leader.

Attendees of the Program Learn:

• Why excellent written communication is essential for success in the modern consulting firm

• The bottom-line costs of poor writing for engineers and firms

• The top mistakes consulting engineers make when writing and how to avoid them

• The 4 Cs of effective business writing

• A simple framework for writing emails that minimize back-and-forth and increase the likelihood of a response, so you’re spending less time in your inbox following up

• Common sentence structure problems and how to fix them

• Techniques for writing clear, concise, and compelling sentences and paragraphs that get your message across effectively

• A streamlined refresher on writing mechanics like grammar, parts of speech, and proper writing voice so you can eliminate the noise that makes your writing look unprofessional to the recipient

• How to write to de-escalate a conflict with a contractor or client via email

• How to identify your audience and write to their needs for maximum impact

• How to effectively communicate with non-technical decision-makers like contractors and clients

• A proven writing process and checklist for efficient planning and editing so you write faster

How the program works

This program can be taken as a live-training cohort-based program (for groups within a single firm) or an individual program with 1:1 writing coaching (for individual engineers). Attendees receive training and direct instructor feedback on their writing. They complete quizzes and writing exercises to apply what they have learned and make their learning stick.

Designed to fit into the schedules of even the busiest professionals, this program is a 6-month course where attendees will spend an average of 1 hour per week honing their written communication skills.

A detailed sample program outline is available HERE. The program is customized to your organization; attendees will be asked for writing samples in the pre-assessment, and content is tailored to those specific needs.

Meet the instructor