Scott Cooper
Marketing Manager
BBCEL Southern NW Region
After graduating from Nottingham Trent University (2:1 B. Eng. Engineering Surveying) I worked on numerous sites in the North of England as a freelance engineer. Previous experience on a sandwich year with Balfour Beatty on the A30 Exeter-Honiton DBFO, combined with a practically orientated degree course, gave me enough experience and expertise to fulfil this role.
Over 12 months I worked in different sectors of the civils market for a range of clients. The role gave me a good appreciation of the industry and the varied challenges it presents. I quickly learned to adapt to pressure situations and developed good time management to ensure key production deadlines were met. A quality focus ensured clients were satisfied and further work was secured.
Whilst working as a freelance engineer for Balfour Beatty the Project Manager highlighted an opportunity that had arisen in the Marketing Department. He was aware of my desire to meet a new challenge and arranged for me to meet the Regional Director. The role described accurately met my personal skills and I subsequently joined as an Assistant Marketing Manager in July 2000. In this role I was primarily responsible for all prequalification documentation under the supervision of the Marketing Manager. This suited my IT skills and I was able to develop the format of the prequalification process, which resulted in a strong success record.
Over the last 5 years at Balfour Beatty my role has continued to develop to meet the changing demands of the regional business and the market. I currently fulfil the role of Marketing Manager and am directly responsible for securing future work opportunities valued at £5m and below. This involves direct client liaison and lead generation. Projects are tracked from their inception, through various sources, ideally leading to the team tendering schemes from a position of strong scheme intelligence. A key aspect of the role involves listening to our current and proposed clients and understanding their needs and goals. It is essential our approach accurately meets their demands if future growth and profitability are to be secured.
In addition I continue to oversee the production and management of prequalification submissions, co-ordinating input from internal and external parties. Often proposals detail design partners and members of the supply chain as we seek to offer multi-disciplinary integrated teams from the outset. Additional client liaison has helped me to develop our documentation to accurately reflect our expertise in line with each project’s requirements.
Marketing/Business Development performance is continually monitored through detailed statistical analysis to ensure targets are met and continual improvement achieved. I am responsible for this information capture and analysis.
Overall the marketing role can be varied and challenging. Consistent focus is required as several hundred projects may be tracked at any one time. Quality is paramount and key deadlines must be met.
