Hi AG

We have done a lot of work in Specification Sales environments and the most important advice I think I can give you is to ‘follow projects to prospects’, not ‘prospects to projects’.

In other words, I’m suggesting that, in a specification-sales environment, your sales approach should be project-centric, not relationship-centric.

In project environments, stakeholders have a very narrow field of view. They tend to focus only on the particular projects they are working on at that point in time.

Consequently, it tends to be unproductive to approach project stakeholders with a subject other than these particular projects.

My practical advice, therefore, is to use the (BCI) project feed as your primary source of sales opportunities. Filter the list as best you can using the provider’s criteria and then have one or two researchers your end do additional research to identify missing data and to confirm the exact status of each project.

Then convert each project into a sales opportunity when it enters an appropriate phase of the development life-cycle.

Your pre-approach campaigns (and your sales coordinator’s phone approach) should directly reference the project and the development phase.

I’m suggesting, then, that you don’t treat ‘relationships’ as a primary (as your question suggests). Rather, you should treat the development of relationships with stakeholders as a happy consequence of your relentless pursuit of projects.

Aside from this caveat, SPE fits quite nicely into most specification sales environments.

Justin