Getting Specified on construction projects and still losing the sale.
Getting specified on a construction project and still losing the sale is a challenge for most brands. You’ve spent hours attending meetings, answering questions and supplying samples to finally get your products specified. The design development phase is complete and next up – the bidding phase!
The bidding phase starts and your reps call the local distributors, installers, dealers and simply hope that someone on your team wins the bid. More than we would like to admit, manufacturers reps simply hand specifications off and never look back.
In fact, some manufacturers focus on getting specified so much, they overlook the 5 stages of archtiectural sales = Return on Investement.
I think the logic is to create so many specifications that there is just an aboundance of wins and loses that equal an increase in sales. The more specifications you create, the more opportunities to increase sales. This is similar to throwing mud at a wall and hoping it sticks.
It seems logical until specifications don’t increase sales. Then you ask yourself, what when wrong?
Is a specification equal to a sale? The answer is no. It’s the start of your journey.
Most specifications are lost to substitutions and installers with better relationship with the awarded general contractor. Distributors and installers are to busy to fight the battle and the archiectural rep, well, he’s off to the next project to write another specification.
This is the sign of a broken process, not the specification process or bad specs. The best written specification can be lost to substitutions for several reasons. Unless you follow your specifications into a contract, you’ll never see a return on investement.
So to help you turn specifications into a sale, here is a checklist to get you started.
- Learn how to write 3 part specifications. Not just copy and paste from a bad spec or your competitors.
- Learn how to read specifications and a project manual.
- Understand the product substitution process on each project.
- Follow specifications through to the bidding process.
- Create an estimating department that understands how to read specifications and your products.
- Maintain a list of contractors that install your products and competitors’ products. This is your hit list to increase sales.
- Identify and maintain a list of architects that specify your products and track their projects. You need to show up during the bid process to make specifications count
If you’re getting specified on construction projects and still losing the sale, you’re yearly sales will not increase. For brands that don’t see a year-over-year sales increase, you may need to hire a consultant to check your process. Most often we find an infrastructure that doesn’t support transforming specifications into a sale. So trying to determine the return on investment (ROI) of your architectural sales team is pointless.
When you’re getting specified on construction projects consistently, and have see orders increasing, your next skill to learn and master is the art of substitutions.