How Building Product Manufacturers Can Win More Business Despite COVID-19

2020 has been an interesting year for building product manufacturers.

With COVID-19 testing the resiliency of the building industry and material costs the highest we’ve seen in years, savvy building product manufacturers are leveraging future-looking construction data with well-managed takeoff practices to grow despite today’s challenges.

Read on to learn how to find more projects, develop more business at scale and thrive despite today’s challenges.

Using pre-construction data to win more projects

When time is of the essence, your business development efforts need to be focused and refined.

Instead of spending hours on LinkedIn hoping to find prospects, why not influence deals with specifiers as soon as you are aware a new project is being planned?

Good pre-construction data will have upcoming project details and construction schedule information, as well as contact details for any projects owners, developers, architects, engineers and general contractors.

An excellent pre-construction data product may also offer relationship insights, market analytics and historical data to help warm up cold outreach.

When armed with granular project details and relevant contacts, any BPM can enter talks with confidence.

Why quantity takeoffs are crucial to developing business at scale

The takeoff process involves providing informed estimates on the amount of materials needed for a project, as well as material costs.

The more takeoffs a BPM can complete for specifiers, the better able they are to bring in new business. It’s still a numbers game after all.

Many firms do takeoffs in house, but sometimes find themselves spread too thin.

When working with a takeoff specialist, BPMs can do what they do best — only now at scale.

But not every takeoff provider is the same. And those who rely solely on takeoff software are likely missing crucial project nuances.

When working with a takeoff partner be sure they are accurate, can handle volume and that work is done to specifications that make sense here in the U.S.

The one + two punch of pre-construction insights and takeoff expertise

Imagine you’re a building materials firm with aggressive goals for 2021.

Scouring the web for new projects to call on is tedious and time-consuming.

So, you end up using a tool like BuildCentral’s ConstructionWire to find more projects in the pipeline that look like projects you’ve won in the past.

Maybe you specialize in cladding that helps protect building exteriors from wind and rain.

Knowing that hurricane season is likely to wreak havoc on the Gulf Coast and Southeast you might search for specifier contacts in Louisiana, Florida and the Carolinas.

With these details you can craft a simple outreach to architects and others likely to be in the market for cladding soon.

A simple cold email script for Building Product Manufacturers might go something like:

Hi Jack,

I noticed you’re working on a new project in downtown New Orleans.

We supplied the exterior cladding for Commander’s Palace which helped them weather the major storms after Katrina, saving them a few hundred thousand dollars in repair costs over the years.

Would it make sense to review some lesser-known uses for our cladding product as we enter hurricane season?

Either way, stay safe out there. And have a beignet for me, love those things!

Best,

Matt

Now, imagine you get an email back from an interested architect.

Sounds great, right?

But your email was so effective that four more specifiers are interested. Now you have multiple takeoffs to execute, PLUS there are competitors in the mix.

What to do?

Work with a takeoff service like Max Takeoffs to deliver accurate materials lists and quantities at scale, so your business development pipeline never gets clogged and you serve more people in the same amount of time.

The one + two punch of actionable pre-construction insights combined with a strong takeoff partner helps you influence more projects, with less work for your team.

Summary

With belts tightening and concerns about how to thrive in today’s commercial construction space, it’s important to maintain a consistent focus on paths to new revenue.

Win more opportunities by being more informed than the other guys and proving to specifiers that you can deliver critical information quickly and accurately.

Visit BuildCentral and MaxTakeoffs to learn more.

#buildingmaterials #construction