“Let’s talk about something important! Put that coffee down! Coffee’s for closers only,” said tough guy Blake in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross. You either made the sale or didn’t. No one cares why you didn’t bring in the deal. No one cares about why an architect didn’t specify your product.

As author Jeffrey Fox says, “the hunter either comes home with the game or doesn’t. His family eats or goes hungry.” Product reps either get their building product specified or they don’t. Excuses, acts of God, poor outreach, etc. are not going to cut it in the specification game.

Specification Decisions

Architects, specifiers, designers, owners, and contractors make the decisions of what building products to use. Typically, design professionals create the project, produce drawings and specifications, and then take on the role of “observer” during the bidding process.

Thousands of product decisions are made for a typical construction project. The trick is to reach the appropriate person at the appropriate time during the specification process. The most suitable person to reach out to could be the owner, architect, engineer, contractor, interior designer, or consultant. Product reps should maximize their efforts by reaching out to design professionals during the design development phase or contract documents phase.

Why Products Don’t Get Specified

There can be a million reasons why a building product doesn’t get specified but we can narrow the reasons down to a few core reasons. Most product reps fail to get their product specified because they can’t reach the decision maker, or they lack the resources to get their product specified.

You can’t get specified unless you talk with the decision maker. Getting face time with the decision maker can be difficult. Even a phone call or an email response can be like Mission Impossible. Why would the architect, designer, specifier, owner, etc. speak with you about your building product?

How to Reach the Decision Makers

In our blog, How to Get Specified by Architects, we discussed two key concepts for product specification: brand awareness and AIA continuing education course. Both are crucial. Brand awareness can be defined by the extent to which your building product is recognized by architects, specifiers, contractors, interior designers, engineers, etc. Brand awareness is the first step for product manufacturers as it affects the specification opportunities that are made when it comes to the phase of product selection.

Education is a significant strategy to build awareness about your building products. Education equals specification. If an architect or specifier does not know about your product, its benefits, its applications, how the heck can they specify it? AIA online continuation courses help architects maintain their mandatory CE hours while learning about your products. Education can also include lunch and learns, webinars, and industry events.