Hello everyone, It would be greatly appreciated if you would share a few good examples of how a product manufacture can get you to use their products. Do you normally just ignore sales emails and calls? What are some of your personal preferences when being introduced to a new company? I am just beginning to sell my products and the last thing I want to do is be to intrusive and be "blacklist" by a firm. Any insight is deeply appreciated, thank you.
no_form
Dec 10, 15 5:18 pm
usually getting personal phone numbers and calling during 6-8pm at their homes. second to that is showing up at the office from 12-2 and asking to speak with the owner while handing out poorly designed brochures with crappy photographs and ogling any woman you see in the office.
also if you can get a fax number, fax them brochures every day.
Non Sequitur
Dec 10, 15 5:18 pm
I am the Gate-Keeper in my office and I blacklist any rep who sprouts off green washing jargon or tries to trick me into false science on their product. There is little that gets through my office doors that I'm not already familiar with so if someone wants their product considered, then they need to present it to me in a non condescending, cure-for-cancer type of way.
Also, make an appointment. If you show-up unannounced and expect me to speak to you for 30mins about your things... I'll leave you with the receptionist.
JLC-1
Dec 10, 15 5:20 pm
go to gc's first, win the architect by the stomach.
senjohnblutarsky
Dec 10, 15 5:23 pm
Don't call us, doot do doot do dooo doot do doot
Weeee'll caaaall yoooouuuuuu
Everyday Intern
Dec 10, 15 7:25 pm
Depends on the product and what it's used for. What do you have and what problem is it solving?
tduds
Dec 10, 15 7:30 pm
If I want something I'll seek it out, and you should be the first thing I find when I look for whatever you're selling.
On the other hand, no one in my office will ever turn down a lunch & learn.
Josh Mings
Dec 10, 15 8:09 pm
Yep. Feed us lunch, give us cookies and candy and we will listen for a bit.
That kind of makes us like children.
Lee Robert
Dec 11, 15 3:51 pm
Photograph your work well. Whatever it is. We'll respond better to pretty pictures and a great website. Bad photos and bad graphics make it hard for us to share the products with others (even if we like it).
Miles Jaffe
Dec 11, 15 3:59 pm
A $60 bottle of Tequila will get you in the door.
You need a basic class in sales.
Carrera
Dec 11, 15 5:38 pm
mhhertzz....Depends on the product, but if it’s a staple like glass, storefront, brick, roofing, MEP stuff etc. you don’t need to make a sales call to an architect…the smart reps just sit back and monitor the jobs out-to-bid on plan services and if they see their product type in a spec and it isn’t theirs (or they are not listed) they write an email to the architect for a “or equal” to get permission to bid with their product…even if the architect says no, if the job is worth getting and you know you can save them money, bid your product to the contractors anyway and they will likely offer it as voluntary alternate on their bid. What products today aren’t equal?
I am an architect but I also owned a glass business, lunch-and-learns with teenagers and chasing socially inept architects with phone calls and unanswered emails is a waste of time, energy and money….price is king….if architects didn’t think so why do they all bid their projects?
Non Sequitur
Dec 11, 15 6:18 pm
^ you make a good point about the high school kids. If the product presented at the lunches is not work the decision makers' time, why bother if all you're getting are techs and interio designers who are only there for the free food?
gwharton
Dec 11, 15 6:18 pm
From the perspective of a firm design leader, there are few things you can do to make it much more likely that I will design your product into my project (which is how it ultimately will get specified...if I put it in the project in concept design, it's very likely you will be selling it to us when we get to construction):
1) Provide clear installed cost data so we can evaluate your product's value for our project.
It infuriates me when suppliers won't make cost data easily available. I am constantly being asked by my clients whether or not a material or product I have included in the design for the their project will meet budget criteria. Very often, suppliers make it almost impossible to answer this question. It's important. You know what your product costs. Don't keep it a secret. I understand you need contingencies and wiggle room and all that. Give us a range if you have to, but GIVE US A FUCKING PRICE. And put it in a place where we don't have to dig or beg for it.
2) Make computer models and texture files of your products freely and easily available on your website.
I just had this conversation yesterday with a very large cladding supplier you've probably all heard of. I wanted them to give me some seamless texture files for a few of their cladding products, so I can use them in a design model my team is developing for a very large project in the Bay Area. Could this huge company help me? NO. Could their much-smaller competitor? As it turns out, yes. Guess whose product got used in the design model?
It doesn't take a big effort to build some simple 3D block files for your products, or to create some seamless textures or Vray .vismat files which accurately represent your stuff. But doing so makes it hugely easier for us as project designers. And when you do that, please remember that your product is not the only one we'll have in our model. Don't make them gigantic or needlessly complex. Make it easy for us, and you'll become the path of least resistance.
3. Give us options.
I understand that there are limits to your product lines and what you can do. But if I ask you to help me figure out how to accomplish what I want to do using your product, the last thing I ever want to hear is how there's only one color / way to install it / whatever. The more limits you put in place, the less chance your product is going to be suitable for what we might want it for. Help us be creative with your stuff. After all, you know it better than we do.
Related to this point, be more design-minded. Most product suppliers are too focused on technical specs and the construction end, because that's where you get paid. But the sale is made way earlier, in concept design, not spec-writing or bidding.
4. Be interesting and compelling.
Free lunches are great and all, but even though my office has about three of them a week I generally skip them all. Why? Because they're boring as hell and much too salesy. And yet, practically speaking, I specifically am the person you most want to get in front of to talk about your product, because as the lead designer, I'm the one who's making most of those decisions at the early stages of the project. A good way to get my attention is to send me interesting info about something really cool you're doing, or a really interesting way of doing something. You say you have a cladding system that can let me do really cool textural effects or have a clean, panelized appearance at a competitive square-foot cost? You can achieve the look of steel window frames for the cost of vinyl? You now have my undivided attention, even without a free lunch.
gruen
Dec 12, 15 10:13 am
To echo ghwarton- give me product data and cad/revit files on your website, without having to hunt for it AND WITHOUT HAVING TO LOG IN FIRST. Nothing more annoying than having to give you my personal data. And have decent reps. Here in the NE the daltile rep is USELESS. You need to test them.
gruen
Dec 12, 15 10:15 am
Oh yeah-and have an actually useful product. I laughed out loud at the rep for the green countertop material-made from recycled paper-when they told me it wasn't for wet environments. WTF it's countertop!! Of course it's wet!!
archiwutm8
Dec 14, 15 4:39 am
Know your project and not just the 3 sentence your company told you to rehearse.
I have experience working with technical sales, please don't try and bullshit your way through a client 7/10 times the client will know more than you when it comes down to technical.
kimchoudhary
Dec 14, 15 6:07 am
When you are going with any new product or new idea, failure is a part of it. You cant judge people behavior so easily. It will need lots of year and lots of expertise to come on any conclusion. Just do your work, try to implement new strategies, try to overcome your faults. Don't accept the failure so easily.
Everyday Intern
Dec 14, 15 4:51 pm
Has anyone found a tile rep that wasn't useless? I've met plenty of tile setting material reps that were fantastic. Tile reps on the other hand ... leave a lot to be desired.
Also, know what interfaces with your product and it's compatibility. I hate it when I ask about compatibility and reps can't give me a straight answer. I'm sure your product is awesome and does everything it claims, but if I can't get it to interface with other things on my building, it doesn't really matter does it?
Also, respond to questions on discussion threads you start. I am seriously curious about what you have and what it does. Others will be able to give you more specific feedback and opinions as well if they know what you have.
Hello everyone, It would be greatly appreciated if you would share a few good examples of how a product manufacture can get you to use their products. Do you normally just ignore sales emails and calls? What are some of your personal preferences when being introduced to a new company? I am just beginning to sell my products and the last thing I want to do is be to intrusive and be "blacklist" by a firm. Any insight is deeply appreciated, thank you.
usually getting personal phone numbers and calling during 6-8pm at their homes. second to that is showing up at the office from 12-2 and asking to speak with the owner while handing out poorly designed brochures with crappy photographs and ogling any woman you see in the office.
also if you can get a fax number, fax them brochures every day.
I am the Gate-Keeper in my office and I blacklist any rep who sprouts off green washing jargon or tries to trick me into false science on their product. There is little that gets through my office doors that I'm not already familiar with so if someone wants their product considered, then they need to present it to me in a non condescending, cure-for-cancer type of way.
Also, make an appointment. If you show-up unannounced and expect me to speak to you for 30mins about your things... I'll leave you with the receptionist.
go to gc's first, win the architect by the stomach.
Don't call us, doot do doot do dooo doot do doot
Weeee'll caaaall yoooouuuuuu
Depends on the product and what it's used for. What do you have and what problem is it solving?
If I want something I'll seek it out, and you should be the first thing I find when I look for whatever you're selling.
On the other hand, no one in my office will ever turn down a lunch & learn.
Yep. Feed us lunch, give us cookies and candy and we will listen for a bit.
That kind of makes us like children.
Photograph your work well. Whatever it is. We'll respond better to pretty pictures and a great website. Bad photos and bad graphics make it hard for us to share the products with others (even if we like it).
A $60 bottle of Tequila will get you in the door.
You need a basic class in sales.
mhhertzz....Depends on the product, but if it’s a staple like glass, storefront, brick, roofing, MEP stuff etc. you don’t need to make a sales call to an architect…the smart reps just sit back and monitor the jobs out-to-bid on plan services and if they see their product type in a spec and it isn’t theirs (or they are not listed) they write an email to the architect for a “or equal” to get permission to bid with their product…even if the architect says no, if the job is worth getting and you know you can save them money, bid your product to the contractors anyway and they will likely offer it as voluntary alternate on their bid. What products today aren’t equal?
I am an architect but I also owned a glass business, lunch-and-learns with teenagers and chasing socially inept architects with phone calls and unanswered emails is a waste of time, energy and money….price is king….if architects didn’t think so why do they all bid their projects?
^ you make a good point about the high school kids. If the product presented at the lunches is not work the decision makers' time, why bother if all you're getting are techs and interio designers who are only there for the free food?
From the perspective of a firm design leader, there are few things you can do to make it much more likely that I will design your product into my project (which is how it ultimately will get specified...if I put it in the project in concept design, it's very likely you will be selling it to us when we get to construction):
1) Provide clear installed cost data so we can evaluate your product's value for our project.
It infuriates me when suppliers won't make cost data easily available. I am constantly being asked by my clients whether or not a material or product I have included in the design for the their project will meet budget criteria. Very often, suppliers make it almost impossible to answer this question. It's important. You know what your product costs. Don't keep it a secret. I understand you need contingencies and wiggle room and all that. Give us a range if you have to, but GIVE US A FUCKING PRICE. And put it in a place where we don't have to dig or beg for it.
2) Make computer models and texture files of your products freely and easily available on your website.
I just had this conversation yesterday with a very large cladding supplier you've probably all heard of. I wanted them to give me some seamless texture files for a few of their cladding products, so I can use them in a design model my team is developing for a very large project in the Bay Area. Could this huge company help me? NO. Could their much-smaller competitor? As it turns out, yes. Guess whose product got used in the design model?
It doesn't take a big effort to build some simple 3D block files for your products, or to create some seamless textures or Vray .vismat files which accurately represent your stuff. But doing so makes it hugely easier for us as project designers. And when you do that, please remember that your product is not the only one we'll have in our model. Don't make them gigantic or needlessly complex. Make it easy for us, and you'll become the path of least resistance.
3. Give us options.
I understand that there are limits to your product lines and what you can do. But if I ask you to help me figure out how to accomplish what I want to do using your product, the last thing I ever want to hear is how there's only one color / way to install it / whatever. The more limits you put in place, the less chance your product is going to be suitable for what we might want it for. Help us be creative with your stuff. After all, you know it better than we do.
Related to this point, be more design-minded. Most product suppliers are too focused on technical specs and the construction end, because that's where you get paid. But the sale is made way earlier, in concept design, not spec-writing or bidding.
4. Be interesting and compelling.
Free lunches are great and all, but even though my office has about three of them a week I generally skip them all. Why? Because they're boring as hell and much too salesy. And yet, practically speaking, I specifically am the person you most want to get in front of to talk about your product, because as the lead designer, I'm the one who's making most of those decisions at the early stages of the project. A good way to get my attention is to send me interesting info about something really cool you're doing, or a really interesting way of doing something. You say you have a cladding system that can let me do really cool textural effects or have a clean, panelized appearance at a competitive square-foot cost? You can achieve the look of steel window frames for the cost of vinyl? You now have my undivided attention, even without a free lunch.
To echo ghwarton- give me product data and cad/revit files on your website, without having to hunt for it AND WITHOUT HAVING TO LOG IN FIRST. Nothing more annoying than having to give you my personal data. And have decent reps. Here in the NE the daltile rep is USELESS. You need to test them.
Oh yeah-and have an actually useful product. I laughed out loud at the rep for the green countertop material-made from recycled paper-when they told me it wasn't for wet environments. WTF it's countertop!! Of course it's wet!!
Know your project and not just the 3 sentence your company told you to rehearse.
I have experience working with technical sales, please don't try and bullshit your way through a client 7/10 times the client will know more than you when it comes down to technical.
When you are going with any new product or new idea, failure is a part of it. You cant judge people behavior so easily. It will need lots of year and lots of expertise to come on any conclusion. Just do your work, try to implement new strategies, try to overcome your faults. Don't accept the failure so easily.
Has anyone found a tile rep that wasn't useless? I've met plenty of tile setting material reps that were fantastic. Tile reps on the other hand ... leave a lot to be desired.
Also, know what interfaces with your product and it's compatibility. I hate it when I ask about compatibility and reps can't give me a straight answer. I'm sure your product is awesome and does everything it claims, but if I can't get it to interface with other things on my building, it doesn't really matter does it?
Also, respond to questions on discussion threads you start. I am seriously curious about what you have and what it does. Others will be able to give you more specific feedback and opinions as well if they know what you have.