Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI, CDT
Senior Member
Username: rliebing
Post Number: 1284
Registered: 02-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 28, 2011 - 07:57 am: |    |
111221
“BY GOSH, YOU’RE GONNA SPEC MY PRODUCTS !!!”
by Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI, CDT, Cincinnati, OH
Uh!, No! Well, we all pretty well know that line doesn’t work [along with whining, crying or begging]. But certainly lingers in the mind of every product representative [or should] as their basic motivation. It’s just a direction that needs massaging and a re-fashioned presentation. We all know that!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!-Blessings,joy,health & prosperity!
But what to do? How to do it with consistent success?
Start by envisioning what the design professional is trying to achieve and how your product lines enhance that effort and benefit the projects. It’s all about better, longer lasting, reasonably priced and successful performance.
But every product has that! Perhaps! Products are not omnipotent or magic potions that automatically apply to every project. Their attributes are special [their chemistry, design, production and use] and hence need to be shown with their range of use, application, flexibility and ancillary modifiers that can make them suitable for every-changing project requirements. Ah, ha-- the rep’s work and contribution!
Design professionals expect a lot of representatives! The professionals have to innumerable decisions and choices. Hence, they want them to know their product lines so well, that the rep can contribute pertinent and appropriate detailed information for ANY project-- no matter how the product may be used, fashioned, manipulated, or re-fashioned as part of an assembly. That flexibility is the key to the rep’s contribution and is really an assumed attribute [on the part of the design professional]. In effect, the representatives then are part of the project design team-- an essential part! Their products at this point become integral parts of the project and may lose their identify to some degree, but provide a needed solution leading to a successful project. That is NOT just selling a product, blindly, or updating literature.
The trick [if you care to call it that] for the representatives is to establish an on-going, professional, informative relationship, fully open, current and pertinent to the design professional. Maybe a kind of “selling” but really more like “servicing” and being at the ready when called or informed by the grapevine!
Be ready; respond; always be truthful; if you don’t know, admit it and find out!; be helpful; suggest other variations; identify misuses; understand that your products are not omnipotent [so in some scenarios, you may withdraw without prejudice!-- it simply isn’t a right use].
And, too, it is absolutely necessary that you have and convey integrity along with depth of knowledge. It is the design professional [via legally required seal and signature] that carries the first and bottom line responsibility [you cannot claim this by mere declaration]. In that, the professional must have an instinctive impression that you can be relied upon and your information is correct, current, and well-founded. Every professional cannot and does not have intimate, all-inclusive knowledge that you carry about your product lines. Trust the, becomes a primary consideration!
Trust and the depth of the contribution are the crux of the rep’s value to the design professional. In it’s way, it is professional and professional combining skill[s] and knowledge to accomplish the project. Open, free, straight-forward informed communications, in a timely manner is necessary in today’s economy and time-schedule oriented projects. Together, this IS achievable, with each doing their work in the best fashion!
And of course, some projects will not include your product[s]-- but there is no prejudice or rejection, per se; it is just that another product appears to be a better fit for the conditions involved. |
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