Specifications Consultant in Independent Practice

Specifications Consultants in Independent Practice (SCIP.com) is an international technical resource organization which assists design firms, owners, and manufacturers in acquiring professionally written construction specifications from qualified independent and employed specifiers, who:

• advance excellence in preparing construction specifications. 
• promote their special services and expertise to potential clients. 
• share their knowledge, experience, and resources through discussions, conferences, and educational programs. 
• network for mutual benefit.

Building product manufacturers will find this a good group with which to connect. The organization has opportunities for event sponsorship that can serve this purpose.

Many SCIP members are sole practitioners or have small firms, but they should not be overlooked by manufacturers or rep organizations. Make sure your folks in the field know of the SCIP members in their territories.

Most SCIP members, however, work as consultants to architectural firms;  their clients are the ones that make most of the major product decisions. This means that SCIP members want access to technically knowledgeable members of your team instead of "sales" calls.

I am a SCIP member, and personally endorse the organization.

Identifying Prospects

The best predictor that 
someone might use your product

is if they have used it before.

Networking for Fun and Profit

I got 20+ solid leads during a two-hour networking event this week.

Sponsored by a CSI Chapter, there were about 45 table top displays from building product companies, and over two hundred attendees. The leads were generated by brief contacts in the exhibit space, in the lobby outside the meeting space, and even in line for the parking lot attendant afterwards. The leads created opportunities for follow-up phone calls or emails or generated new leads and introductions. On top of that, I got to say hello to dozens of other industry contacts to keep our relationships fresh.

You can create similarly high results at similar events. Here are five tools to make the most of networking events:

1. Know your goal: I went to the CSI event with the intent to interact with a lot of people, and I succeeded. But I may have had other purposes in mind. For example, I went to a party at a trade show for the specific purpose of meeting a potential client that I anticipated would be there.  He was, and I was able to get him to join me for a full hour at a table on the periphery of the event.

2. Be prepared for surprises: Be ready to change your goals as opportunities or circumstances arise. I was at one conference, anticipating an afternoon of glad-handing, when the conference organizer approached me and asked me to be on a panel discussion in place of someone that cancelled at the last moment. Instead of 20 1-on-1 conversations, I addressed an audience of 200. At another event, I was drafted to serve at the registration desk, and got to introduce myself to everybody at the show.

3. Ask others questions about themselves: You are itching to talk about your product or service. But start by asking others about their businesses, their families (if you have a personal relationship), or any new products/projects they have. Networking has to be a win-win situation, and your interlocutor must feel a stake in the conversation. More, his or her comments may reveal needs or opportunities that are openings to sales opportunities.

4. Get to the point: Everyone at the event is there for networking. So forget the small talk during business hours; save it for receptions and the lounge.

5. Get contact info and set up a follow-up: Carry more of your own cards than you think you will need. But be sure you know how to contact the person with whom you are speaking. Get permission to recontact the person when possible. This could be as simple as saying, "I'll send you XYZ with more info." or, "Would it be better for me to call you tomorrow or later in the week?"

To learn more about networking, sign up for this webinar offered by Ceiling and Interior System Contractors Association (CISCA):

How to Construct a Strategy for Networking at Conferences
Wednesday, March 12, 2014. 2:00p.m. ET
Free for CISCA members, $49.95 for others

Networking creates an opportunity and strategy to build and maintain relationships with current and prospective customers. Networking involves more personal commitment than company money. No matter how busy we are, we all still need to make time out of our schedule to network. It requires dedication on an individual level. This webinar will examine specific ways you can expand your network for yourself and your company.

Learning objectives:

• The Keys of Successful Networking
• Networking Etiquette: What works…. and what does not
• How social media can aid in your Networking goals
• Building and Maintaining the New Relationship by adding value

Click here to register.

Etiquette

If you are not an exhibitor at or sponsor of the event, don't be a carpetbagger. It may be a fine line, but there is a difference between doing sales and networking.

If you are networking with an exhibitor for purposes other than learning about his or her product, do it only when there is not a real prospect in or approaching the booth.

HonestBuilding.com

The iconic 87 ft. dia. sphere containing the Hayden Planetarium was fabricated by Ceilings Plus, as anyone visiting HonestBuilding.com can now find out.

A new website, www.HonestBuilding.com, attempts to create social networking with a cloud-sources database of commercial buildings. They say, "Honest Buildings is a software platform focused on buildings. It brings together building service providers, occupants, owners, and other stakeholders onto a single portal to exchange information, offerings, and needs. It provides a voice for everyone who occupies buildings, works with buildings, and owns buildings globally to comment, display projects, and solicit business with the macro goal of creating a more sustainable environment."

It may be useful to Building Product Manufacturers, too. As the site says, service providers can:

• Increase company exposure and build brand awareness.
• Share completed projects and highlight team members across popular social networks including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
• Drive business by attracting new clients with your showcased projects and networking with the Honest Buildings Community.
• Profile information will be included and searchable in the Honest Buildings directory.

I add to this list:

• Identify prospects, especially for maintenance of existing buildings.

I have started populating the website with photos of notable work done by Chusid Associates' clients, including case studies about the firm's contribution to the success of the project and links to websites and other sales collateral.

Finally,

• Remember to maintain the description of your own building as part of your overall online reputation management program.

New "Speed Dating" Event

Instead of flying from city to city to meet with key architectural specifiers, imagine having them congregate in one location in a format that allows you to have one-on-one meetings and networking opportunities.

This is the "speed dating" concept of building product sales calls.  Like the social speed-dating programs where the ladies get in without charge, specifiers will attend these junkets on an all-expenses paid basis. Manufacturers pick up the tab, starting at $6000 per sponsor.

Forums like this, from Arc-US and others, are already part of many manufacturer's marketing mix. Now, the Construction Specifications Institute has decided to play matchmaker, too.

CSI has announced a "Master Specifiers Retreat" to be held March 8 – 10, 2012 in Tucson, AZ. It will "bring together senior specifiers from across the country for an intimate gathering of focused education, group networking, and one-on-one meetings with building product manufacturer executives." The event, they say, is for:

• "Expert specifiers who specify millions of dollars of products, and who are ready for a high-level discussion about specifying.
• "Manufacturer executives who are ready to develop profitable, mutually beneficial relationships with these specifiers."

The mix of attendees is likely to be different than those at the Arc-US events, attracting more people with titles like "director of specification" or "specification consultant" and fewer people with titles like "project manager" and "principal." This is a useful cohort for manufacturers in many product categories.

For more information, contact Susan Konohia, skonohia@csinet.org or 703-706-4744.

Switch gears when prospecting for specifiers

This is an encore of a column Michael Chusid wrote nearly 20 years ago.
 
To sell a product line that I recently began distributing, I must get it written into specifications. I am used to finding jobs to bid by checking the plan room and staying in touch with the contractors I serve. But these methods don’t identify projects still in the design or spec stage. How should I prospect for architect/engineer work?—M. T. Humphrey, distributor

Successful prospecting depends on understanding your strategy and on having a good plan. Answer the following questions to determine whether it makes sense to depart from your traditional business to call on specifiers:

• What is your competition? If other products are established in your market, success at the specifier level will be difficult unless your product offers significantly greater value.

• Does your contract with the product manufacturer assure that you will be able to keep the line after you have developed its market?

• Will specifiers take an interest in and be willing to make a commitment to your product? Do some market research before you launch an all-out initiative. This can be as informal as making a trial presentation to several dozen prospects and asking for feedback. Or you can use a marketing consultant to conduct an independent, objective survey or focus group.

• Do you have the time, talent, and money to support the new venture?

• Will calling on specifiers strategically benefit your other product lines?

Next, you need a sharper focus on who your best prospects are. Does your business plan require you to take a project-oriented approach, calling on firms with jobs on the drawing boards regardless of their potential for repeat business? Or can you pursue a relationship-oriented approach, targeting individuals and firms with the best long term prospects regardless of the work they have today?

Assume, for instance, your product is used in hospital surgical suites. In a project- oriented approach, you may want to subscribe to a construction news service that reports on health care facilities and to go after immediate business by calling on designers of current projects. You would not be concerned with how often they do surgical suites. Alternately, the relationship-oriented approach requires you to identify designers and firms with a long-term involvement with hospital design and who, as industry leaders, may be in a position to influence others.

Once you understand whom you want as a prospect, you can define sales tactics and select the prospecting technique that best fits your target. There are, in general, three methods for locating prospects:

1. Construction news services gather information about proposed and actual building projects and make it available to subscribers. The largest and best known service is the F. W. Dodge division of McGraw-Hill Inc. Dodge has an international staff of reporters to collect project news, and it delivers information in a variety of formats, including microfilmed bid documents.

Another nationwide news service is Construction Market Data, owned by Southam Co., Canada’s leading construction industry publisher. Southam recently acquired R.S. Means and Co. and has launched several other U.S. construction publications, suggesting that Construction Market Data is an organization to watch. (CMD is now Reed Construction Data.)

The Clark Reports searches for projects by scanning thousands of magazines, newspapers, and other documents every month for news suggesting a company is considering a new facility. Clark also prepares customized reports. (Now part of Reed Construction Data.)

There are many local and regional construction news services that sometimes do a better job of covering their specific communities. Check the Yellow Pages or ask a local contractor for help in locating these services. Other news services concentrate on specific industries or types of construction. Many services are now available through online computerized databases.

2. Networking not only identifies projects but also helps to build relationships. Your customers are watching what their competitors and customers are doing, and they may be glad to share their insight with you, especially if you reciprocate. Referrals from satisfied customers are among the best leads you can get.

Many salespeople take established customers for granted and make no effort to stay in touch with them. Your prospects are not only design firms, but individuals within those firms. Architects and engineers often change firms as project workload dictates. Try to maintain your relationships with these migrant designers; they can get you in the door at a new employer’s office. Keep track of their home addresses so you have another way to reach them.

Building owners, developers, real estate brokers, chambers of commerce, and economic development agencies are other sources of news and referral. In many cities, there are “breakfast clubs” where noncompeting contractors and material suppliers gather monthly to share information about prospects.

3. Advertising and other promotional activities such as trade shows and public relations can also be used to build your prospect list. The proper measurement of the effectiveness of an advertisement is not how many inquiries it produced, but the number of inquiries it produced from people fitting your prospect definition.

Finally, give your strategy enough time to work. When you bid to contractors, you usually know a construction schedule and delivery time. Calling on designers, however, requires a much longer fruition period. Allow time for the designers to get to know and trust you. Remember that design projects are often placed on hold while owners re-evaluate financial or other considerations. Along the way, you must guard against substitutions and be alert for new members who join the design team.

A project may take months or even years to get through design to the point where you can actually bid the project. But if your strategic plan is solid, keep with it, and you will find selling at the specifier level to be worth the effort.

----------
Have a question you'd like us to answer?
Send an email to michaelchusid@chusid.com 

By Michael Chusid. Originally published in Construction Marketing Today, ©1992

Positioned for the Upturn?

The Upturn in construction is coming.

Eventually.

The McGraw Hill-2011 Construction Outlook predicts “modest” improvement in 2011, with an 8% increase in construction starts, as compared with a predicted 2% decrease in 2010. Robert A. Murray, Vice President of Economic Affairs at McGraw-Hill Construction, commented, "We're turning the corner, slowly. 2011 will be the first year of renewed growth for overall construction activity, and 2010 becomes the final year of a very lengthy and unusual construction cycle."



Which means that now is exactly the time to ask yourself, “Is my company positioned to succeed in the coming upturn?”  When projects start ramping up again, some companies will be well-positioned to attract business and prepared to do business.  Their products will be top-of-mind when specs are written and bids are solicited. Other companies, who have not used their down-time wisely, will be playing catch up.

During the downturn, many businesses slashed marketing budgets.  As things turn around, it’s time to revise that strategy.  Marketing communications is the only thing that will keep your brands visible during a period when both planning and actual construction are down and the products themselves are not actively being spec’d or used.

If you cut (or eliminated) your marketing budget, now is the time to re-build it with a solid strategy.


Step One: Marketing Materials

When you slashed the marketing budget, you probably stopped keeping marketing materials up to date.  As thing start to improve, you will need them in your hands and ready to go.  When you reach out and get the attention of a spec writer or a contractor, they’re going to say, “Send me something.”  Are your materials ready for action now?

Have you improved any products or introduced new ones? If you have introduced new products over the past three years, you might need to re-introduce them in 2011. 

Do you have any new competitors?  You might need to revise your selling points to counter their strategy.

Have there been changes in code that affect your products?  Do your selling points refer to LEED, which has been changing?  Your sales literature needs to reflect current conditions.

Does your sale literature look outdated?  If you haven’t revised it for two or three years, the answer is probably Yes.

Do you have any news that might get you editorial space in magazines or online?  Refresh your press kit.  (Or perhaps, create a press kit?)

You still have time to prepare company to attract business when things start to move again.  And if business is slow now, it makes sense to use your current downtime to prepare for a better future.



Next Time:

Step Two: Reaching Out to Idle Architects, Engineers, and Specifiers

Recession Changes Where Designers Work

One result of the recession may be a further decentralization of architectural practice. This will create new challenges for sales reps wishing to make calls on design offices.

I began reflecting on this after receiving the following email from an architect that had closed his small office after 25 years of practice at the same location. While his direct impetus was a downturn in workload, he points out the shifting nature of practice as follows:

"We have seen the tools of the trade evolve from Phones, Pencils, Parallel Rules and Paper - to black and white computers, fax machines, and pagers - to color computers and mobile phones the size of bricks - to 3D CAD drawings, remote access, and multi-media cell phones. Over the past several years, staff and I have taken advantage of this technology to work more and more from homes where we have ready access to our server and speedy graphic communications. So we have now moved our operations into our home offices."

Another friend, a construction specifier, opened a home-based consulting practice after being laid off by a large A/E firm. After getting use to more flexible hours and being more available to her children, I doubt she will ever again take a job that requires her to commute into the city.

These two examples are being replicated throughout the country. The recession is accelerating a fundamental shift in design. More online bandwidth allows easier and speedier collaboration among far-flung project teams. Even as the recession recedes, it is likely that corporate offices will remain leaner while more employees work from the field or from home.

In the past, a rep could visit four or five design offices in a day and potentially see dozens of architects and specifiers at each. It would be a challenge to have as many face-to-face contacts with people working out of home offices or remote locations.

Unless, that is, the sales rep embraces the same communication technologies that designers are using: email, social media, file transfer protocols, webinars, computer-to-computer video links, mobile applications, and the rest.

The other response available to a sales rep is to take advantage of professional society meetings and other events that attract large numbers of designers.

Happy Hunting!

Finding Specs Without the Plan Room

To sell a product line that I recently began distributing, I must get it written into specifications. I am used to finding jobs to bid by checking the plan room and staying in touch with the contractors I serve. But these methods don’t identify projects still in the design or spec stage. How should I prospect for architect/engineer work?—M. T. Humphrey, distributor



Successful prospecting depends on understanding your strategy and on having a good plan. Answer the following questions to determine whether it makes sense to depart from your traditional business to call on specifiers:

• What is your competition? If other products are established in your market, success at the specifier level will be difficult unless your product offers significantly greater value.
• Does your contract with the product manufacturer assure that you will be able to keep the line after you have developed its market?
• Will specifiers take an interest in and be willing to make a commitment to your product? Do some market research before you launch an all-out initiative. This can be as informal as making a trial presentation to several dozen prospects and asking for feedback. Or you can use a marketing consultant to conduct an independent, objective survey or focus group.
• Do you have the time, talent, and money to support the new venture?
• Will calling on specifiers strategically benefit your other product lines?

Next, you need a sharper focus on who your best prospects are. Does your business plan require you to take a project-oriented approach, calling on firms with jobs on the drawing boards regardless of their potential for repeat business? Or can you pursue a relationship-oriented approach, targeting individuals and firms with the best long-term prospects regardless of the work they have today?



Assume, for instance, your product is used in hospital surgical suites. In a project- oriented approach, you may want to subscribe to a construction news service that reports on health care facilities and to go after immediate business by calling on designers of current projects. You would not be concerned with how often they do surgical suites. Alternately, the relationship- oriented approach requires you to identify designers and firms with a long-term involvement with hospital design and who, as industry leaders, may be in a position to influence others.



Once you understand whom you want as a prospect, you can define sales tactics and select the prospecting technique that best fits your target. There are, in general, three methods for locating prospects:


1. Construction news services gather information about proposed and actual building projects and make it available to subscribers. The largest and best known service is the F. W. Dodge division of McGraw-Hill Inc. (800-541-9913). Dodge has an international staff of reporters to collect project news, and it delivers information in a variety of formats, including microfilmed bid documents.



Another nationwide news service is Construction Market Data (404-449-0566), owned by Southam Co., Canada’s leading construction industry publisher. Southam recently acquired R.S. Means and Co. and has launched several other U.S. construction publications, suggesting that Construction Market Data is an organization to watch.



The Clark Reports (800-222-0255 or 708-234-6665) searches for projects by scanning thousands of magazines, newspapers, and other documents every month for news suggesting a company is considering a new facility. Clark also prepares customized reports.



There are many local and regional construction news services that sometimes do a better job of covering their specific communities. Check the Yellow Pages or ask a local contractor for help in locating these services. Other news services concentrate on specific industries or types of construction. Many services are now available through online computerized databases.



2. Networking not only identifies projects but also helps to build relationships. Your customers are watching what their competitors and customers are doing, and they may be glad to share their insight with you, especially if you reciprocate. Referrals from satisfied customers are among the best leads you can get.



Many salespeople take established customers for granted and make no effort to stay in touch with them. Your prospects are not only design firms, but individuals within those firms. Architects and engineers often change firms as project workload dictates. Try to maintain your relationships with these migrant designers; they can get you in the door at a new employer’s office. Keep track of their home addresses so you have another way to reach them.



Building owners, developers, real estate brokers, chambers of commerce, and economic development agencies are other sources of news and referral. In many cities, there are “breakfast clubs” where noncompeting contractors and material suppliers gather monthly to share information about prospects.



3. Advertising and other promotional activities such as trade shows and public relations can also be used to build your prospect list. The proper measurement of the effectiveness of an advertisement is not how many inquiries it produced, but the number of inquiries it produced from people fitting your prospect definition.



Finally, give your strategy enough time to work. When you bid to contractors, you usually know a construction schedule and delivery time. Calling on designers, however, requires a much longer fruition period. Allow time for the designers to get to know and trust you. Remember that design projects are often placed on hold while owners re-evaluate financial or other considerations. Along the way, you must guard against substitutions and be alert for new members who join the design team.



A project may take months or even years to get through design to the point where you can actually bid the project. But if your strategic plan is solid, keep with it, and you will find selling at the specifier level to be worth the effort.




Have a question you'd like us to answer?
Send an email to michaelchusid@chusid.com

By Michael Chusid
Originally published in Construction Marketing Today, Copyright © 1992

High Hopes For The Green Button

Try this: Look up a product category on www.4specs.com. (Make it a big one, like Steel Doors and Frames.) Now, scroll to the bottom of the page. There’s a green button there that says “Show these listings in Zip Code Order.” Click it.

Now, scroll to the part of the page nearest your zip code. See how the companies whose headquarters are closest to you are clumped near your zip code? If you looked up your own product category, does your headquarters location appear in the right place?

How might this function help you? Perhaps it will help design professionals in your area find you. Perhaps it will help you find fabricators who are interested in working with your raw material, or a company you can co-market your product with.

There’s an important thing to know about this button: what it wishes it could do. It can’t find manufacturers who can fulfill the LEED credit for products sourced and manufactured within 500 miles of the job site. Publisher Colin Gilboy’s disclaimer at the top of the page warns that it’s only a first step in a complex discovery process.

The bottom line lesson goes beyond the green button, though. It’s about transparency of information, and it’s about finding companies to form lasting relationships with. Design professionals are looking for companies that share information, like where their raw materials come from and where they manufacture their products. They also are looking for companies who speak their language, answer the phone in their time zones, and who can send someone to their job sites if problems arise.

These are high hopes for one little green button, but there are people out there pushing it. Do you show up?

Dont SCIP These Specifiers

Here are over one hundred of the most important prospects a building product manufacturer can know. Specifications Consultants in Independent Practice (SCIP) is a nationwide organization of professional specification writers who practice as consultants rather than on the payroll of an architectural or engineering firm. They are, by and large, fiercely devoted to their craft and passionate about understanding building products.

Because they typically consult to several design firms, each independent specifier can have a broad reach within their community; their opinions and recommendations count. Make sure your local reps know the SCIP members in their territories and provide them with service. A directory of members is on their website at www.scip.com.