Sniper Approach to Marketing

During many of my phone discussions with building product manufacturers I suggest they undertake a sniper approach to their marketing and sales strategy.

In thinking through this newsletter I realized I had covered this subject again and again over the past 25+ years.

I went back and looked at the older 4specs newsletters and decided to list them with a brief summary.

A complete list of all the 4specs newsletters back to 1996 can be found here.

2015-09 - How Many Architectural Firms? - While this newsletter is 8 years old, I expect the number of architectural firms is not that different. It is a way to identify how many firms have more than 30 or 40 employees.

2015-11 - Finding the Specialty Firms and Specifiers - Suggestions on how to identify and follow up with firms that include products such as the ones you make.

2015-10 - Finding the Spec Writers - Thoughts on how to identify the person who actually writes the specs and decided which manufacturers to include.

2021-12 - What Are You measuring and Tracking - The ultimate goal of "Specified Product" marketing is the sale of your products. Think of your efforts as a 5 year strategy to get into specifications as an equivalent product to the market leaders.

2022-08 - The 5 Costliest Manufacturer Mistakes - This looks again at a 2010 newsletter witten by Phil Kabza. What was aimed at “post-recession” is now “post-Covid,” but little has changed, except there are fewer specifiers working longer hours and figuring out how to be more efficient. [emphasis added]

2022-09 - What is Your Marketing Strategy - Some people I talk with have no understanding of which design firms will specify products they make. They adopt a blunderbus strategy - contact every architect and see where the spaghetti sticks on the wall.

2022-10 - A Second Perspective on Marketing Strategy - The most efficient path to increased and sustainable MindShare is getting specified. Specifications, “basis of design (BOD)", or “approved manufacturer,” all will generate a quote request to your distributor channel from the general contractor.

2023-07 - Exhibiting at Major Shows - Many small and medium building product manufacturers have a specific niche market they need to develop. One example is the pull-out bleacher found on high school projects. There is no need to try and market to hospital design firms. I call this my sniper approach as covered in an earlier newsletter.

Contact me if you have any questions or suggestions.

Colin

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Colin Gilboy
Publisher - 4specs
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