Construction Strategy

Selling to specifiers

Working with you to achieve added value for your customers.

Specification selling is a complex process. It is not just about selling to architects but involves all members of the construction team. It is about creating awareness of your products and the benefits that their use can bring to a project.

It is also a whole company activity, requiring technical input and involving the whole supply chain, not just the sales team.

The approach draws on the principas of Key Account Management (KAM) and is a crucial construction sales activity for any business that wants to reduce dependence on price and create demand for its products.

Specification selling in the construction industry

Chris Ashworth of Competitive Advantage is one of the industry’s leading authorities on specification selling, having written numerous articles and papers on the subject, and delivered training programmes and spoken at seminars. He draws on practical experience and the knowledge gained from extensive marklet research into the subject.

Additionally the team at Competitive Advantage have extensive construction industry experience and are familiar with the industry's relationships, language and practices and understand the challenges you and your customers face.

The benefits of specification selling are:

Reducing the focus on price
Demand creation
Streamlined business processes
Stronger business relationships, enabling greater repeat orders
Lessons that can be applied across your customer base
Improved customer satisfaction

How the process of specification selling works:

We work with you to create a specification selling strategy and look at how to implement this in practical terms.

With your input we complete research that will inform your marketing strategy. We then develop this strategy for marketing to specifiers, delivering targeted communications via the internet, literature, PR and advertising in a format which suits the recipient.

We work with you to develop the knowledge of your team, by delivering tailored training.

We are happy to meet with you to review your requirements and for you to decide if you are happy to work with us. You are under no obligation to commit, the meeting is an opportunity for us to learn about your business and propose an approach with an indication of costs.

Once you are happy with the proposal we will commence work, keeping within the agreed budget and action plan, with regular reviews taking place.

The team:

Chris Ashworth of Competitive Advantage is one of the industry’s leading authorities on specification selling, he has experience of running specification selling teams and he regularly speaking at seminars for organisations such as the Association of Interior Specialists, Electrical Contractors Association [Link] Council for Aluminium in Building, RIBA Insight and CIMCIG

Our team at Competitive Advantage have extensive construction industry experience and are familiar with the industry's language and practices and understand the challenges you and your customers face. Our commercial experience means we are able to understand the complex marketplace. We aim to provide high quality consultancy at an economic cost.

View our case studies page to learn more about the work we have completed, or feel free to contact us to discuss your requirements.