Spec Shaman

Spec Shaman: Getting Specified

Building product manufacturers who want to get specified by architects can find strategies and suggestions in our weekly blog posts. Building product specification is crucial for manufacturers and our team offers the best resources available. Blog post topics include: 3 part CSI guide specifications, AIA continuing education, and building product rep training. Building product manufacturers who want to get their products specified can check our platform every week for valuable information about the AEC industry. Guest bloggers are always welcome. Please contact us for submission information and requirements.

On: Aug 3, 2018 By: Stacie Townsend
Creating Space to Nurture Our Human Nature in the Built World
In 1925, Henry Beston wrote The Outermost House, in which he chronicled a year spent alone on a Cape Cod beach. His solitary time revealed truths relevant to nature, including human nature. Beston said, “Nature is a part of our humanity, and without some awareness and experience of that divine mystery, man ceases to be man.” All our evolution toward a more civilized society has crippled our connection to an elemental part of the human experience.
On: Jul 27, 2018 By: Brad Blank
How Risk Simulation, Uncertainty, and Randomness May Affect Building Product Manufacturers
How can building product manufacturers distinguish between luck and skill? How can product reps determine if their specification efforts got them specified on a large NFL football stadium or if it was simply chance and good luck? Being at the right place at the right time. We’ve all seen the lucky fool who benefitted from a disproportionate share of luck but attributed their success to their skillset.
On: Jul 26, 2018 By: Stacie Townsend
3 Tips for Writing AIA Course Learning Objectives
I’m not a fan of NASCAR, but I love people who are. I’ve had to find interesting things about it to endure watching it with them. Did you know that the cars don’t just fly around the track willy-nilly? The drivers have a strategy, much like a business plan.
On: Jul 23, 2018 By: Brad Blank
Product Manufacturer’s LEED Certification Update and Specification Strategies
Building product manufacturers have many new specification opportunities in 2018, especially for green building projects. The USGBC has released the LEED Certification Update for the second quarter of 2018. The data suggests golden opportunities for manufacturers who are smart, proactive, and manufacture awesome products.
On: Jul 18, 2018 By: Brad Blank
3 Mistakes Building Product Manufacturers Make with Specifiers
“If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end us someplace else,” said Yogi Berra. The baseball legend was one of only five players ever to win the MVP award at least three times. He became one of the best players in the league and manufacturers can learn a lot from his wisdom. Sometimes building product manufacturers get lost in the day to day circus of life. There’s quotas to meet, fires to put out, egos to massage, and a host of other baloney.
On: Jul 15, 2018 By: Stacie Townsend
Working Together: Partnership Between Resiliency and Sustainability
When I tell people that I work in the sustainable build and design industry, they usually assume we’re all tree huggers collecting plastic bottles and straws and wearing hemp clothing. They don’t understand that sustainability goes much deeper than that. Its official focus is to avoid the depletion of natural resources, so ecological balance is maintained. In laymen’s terms, we just want to save the environment so that it’s still alive and healthy in a thousand years, right?
On: Jul 10, 2018 By: Brad Blank
Critical Reasons Why Building Product Manufacturers Become Anxious
Change is the only constant in life. Currently, we are witnessing one of the most significant changes in history. Business practices that worked 20 years ago now look antiquated and are destined to fail. Building product manufacturers can become anxious when trying to navigate the current marketplace.
On: Jul 3, 2018 By: Brad Blank
Elixir Environmental’s Top 6 Tips for Product Manufacturers Developing HPDs
Developing HPDs can be a confusing and frustrating experience for building product manufacturers that are not prepared. “Be Prepared” is the Boy Scout and Girl Scout Motto and underlines the mindset one should have when developing HPDs. The benefits of HPDs to manufacturers and architects outweighs the burden of preparation and publishing them, as we shall see.
On: Jun 28, 2018 By: Stacie Townsend
3 Reasons to Say YES to Becoming a LEED Green Associate
Opportunities don’t happen, they are created. One of the ways to create opportunity is to say yes when your first reaction is to say no. Usually, we say no because we think we’re unqualified or won’t succeed, or we think it doesn’t apply to us. Maybe you have thought this regarding the LEED Green Associate accreditation. But you could be limiting your opportunities.
On: Jun 25, 2018 By: Brad Blank
Product Manufacturers Who Dare to Be Dumb
“The biggest criticism of salespeople by customers is that salespeople don’t ask enough questions. Preplanned, practiced questions are arrow’s in the salesperson’s quiver. Good questions get the customer talking, elicit information, allow the salesperson to listen, and demonstrate to the customers the salesperson’s genuine interest,” says author Jeffery Fox.

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