Established 2016
Stoke-on-Trent - Staffordshire
www.hayward-ce.co.uk
info@hayward-ce.co.uk
How I Can Help
You may know what you want to change in your business without being certain how to make it happen.
Perhaps you want a stronger pipeline, a broader client base or more opportunities in a particular sector. Perhaps you’re putting effort into business development but aren’t seeing the results you hoped for.
I help engineering and built-environment consultancies take a more deliberate approach to winning suitable work. You might recognise one or more of these situations:
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Work arrives unevenly, making it difficult to plan ahead.
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A small number of clients account for a large share of your revenue.
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You have capacity available but too few suitable opportunities.
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You want to reach new clients or sectors that better suit your expertise and commercial aims.
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Business development depends heavily on you and slips when project delivery gets busy.
We begin by understanding what is happening in your business, then agree where to focus and what needs to change.
How We Work Together
1. Understand the Business
We look at your ambitions, client base, current pipeline and how you win work. Where have recent projects come from? Which relationships are most valuable? What is working, and where are you exposed?
We also consider your capacity and the time and people available for business development.
2. Choose Where to Focus
We agree which clients, projects and markets deserve your attention, taking account of your technical strengths and commercial priorities.
This includes considering opportunities within existing relationships, the new clients you want to reach and why they would choose your firm.
3. Build a Practical Approach
We turn those priorities into clear actions. This might include identifying target organisations, preparing introductions, improving follow-up and establishing how opportunities are recorded and reviewed.
We agree who does what and when, with a realistic routine that fits alongside project delivery.
4. Put It into Practice
I support you as your team applies the approach to real prospects, clients and opportunities.
We might prepare for an introductory call, work through a forthcoming client meeting or review an opportunity that has stalled. Where particular skills need developing, I provide focused training and feedback.
5. Review and Adjust
We review the activity taking place, the responses it generates, the quality of opportunities developing and, over time, the work being won.
We examine what is getting in the way and adjust the approach as we learn.
What We Are Working Towards
The intended outcomes depend on your priorities. They may include:
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Better visibility of future opportunities.
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A more consistent pipeline of suitable work.
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Less dependence on a small number of clients.
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A client and project mix that better suits your business.
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Clear responsibility for business development.
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A routine your team can maintain alongside project delivery.
We agree what meaningful progress would look like for your firm and how we will assess it.
What You Can Expect From Me
You can expect an independent view, practical help and honest advice.
I’ll take your ambitions seriously, challenge assumptions and help you weigh decisions. If agreed actions keep slipping or opportunities are going nowhere, we’ll examine why and decide what to do about it.
You can also expect patience, encouragement and support when something feels unfamiliar or proves harder than anticipated. Having balanced winning work with delivering engineering projects myself, I understand the competing demands on your time.
What the Work Needs From You
You bring knowledge of your business, access to relevant information and the authority to make decisions.
You and your team carry out the agreed business development activity, with my support. Someone needs to take responsibility, and time needs to be available to follow through between our sessions.
We discuss that commitment at the outset so the work is realistic for your resources and workload.
Engagements and Fees
We start with a conversation about your business, what you want to achieve and whether I can usefully help.
From there, the work is agreed in stages. Each stage has a defined scope and fee, so you can decide how to proceed with a clear understanding of the commitment involved.
Initial Consultancy
£2,000–£5,000 + VAT
We take a closer look at your business before deciding what needs to change.
This includes your ambitions and plans, client relationships, sources of work, current opportunities and business development activity. We also consider relevant financial information, capacity and the people involved.
Together, we establish what is working, what is getting in the way and where attention would be most useful.
You receive a clear summary of the findings, recommended priorities and proposed next steps. These inform any further work we agree.
Focused Consultancy
£5,000–£15,000 + VAT
An agreed piece of work addressing the priorities identified.
This might involve choosing target clients and markets, developing your approach to winning work, strengthening how opportunities are followed through or establishing responsibilities and routines across the team.
The assignment may combine advice, practical working sessions and focused training. Its scope depends on what your business needs.
Team Training
From £5,000 + VAT
Training to develop the skills your team needs to put the approach into practice.
Depending on the priorities, this might cover opening conversations, preparing for client meetings, understanding client needs, following up or progressing opportunities.
Training can be commissioned separately or included within a wider consultancy assignment.
Ongoing Advice and Accountability
£1,000–£1,500 + VAT per month, over twelve months
Regular sessions to review progress, work through decisions and maintain attention on the actions you have agreed.
You lead the implementation. I provide an independent perspective, constructive challenge and support as you put the approach into use.
Ongoing Implementation Support
£2,000–£4,000 + VAT per month, over twelve months
More involved support for you and your team as you apply the approach to live prospects, clients and opportunities.
This can include preparing for important conversations, reviewing prospect lists and follow-up, working through stalled opportunities and providing focused feedback and training.
Your team carries out the agreed business development activity. I help you prepare, make decisions, address difficulties and improve the approach as you go.
A Clear Scope Before You Commit
You will not necessarily need every element. We agree the combination that fits your priorities, resources and capacity to put the work into practice.
Your proposal sets out the objectives, work included, people involved, working arrangements, responsibilities, timescale and total fee. Where consultancy, training and ongoing support are combined, the proposal makes clear how they fit together and what is covered.
Each stage is agreed before it begins. There is no automatic commitment to further work.
The Experience Behind the Advice
I’ve spent two decades in building services engineering, much of that time running my own consultancy.
Across ten years, the business generated £1.33 million in consultancy fees. Almost £1 million came from 15 client relationships I personally initiated, including the repeat commissions that followed.
That experience informs how I help other firms choose suitable clients, open conversations and build lasting commercial relationships.
Explore the experience and figures behind the approach