Lifecycle of Project Sales for Building Materials

A Project is used to manage a sales opportunity where the buying decision is made across several companies rather than by one. Typically, one stakeholder in a Project is a company that creates the project specification — architects, interior designers, or electrical planning companies. There are also processors, who install products in the project, such as electricians. In some cases processors buy products directly from the producer, but often through distributors or dealers instead. The different stakeholders at each stage increase the complexity of managing the project.

Example

Simon is an architect for a new hotel at Munich Airport. Max, a Sales Rep at Building Inc, is responsible for projects in the Munich area.

Once Max learns about this new project, he contacts Simon and convinces him that his products are the right fit. Simon creates the blueprint and requirements for the project — Max is glad to support Simon in putting the requirement document together.

After finishing the requirement document, Simon sends it to several processors he usually works with. Those processors send an inquiry to their building-material distributors, or sometimes directly to Building Inc, to get pricing for the products they need. Multiple sales reps at Building Inc receive inquiries from multiple companies for the same project.

To win the project, Max has to stay aware of the project’s different stages — defined by Simon as the project’s architect — and know which stakeholders are his fans and which aren’t.

Tom is one of the processors, and he wins the tender. Since Tom is based in Austria, Tim — the Building Inc sales rep for the Austrian area — gets a notification to make sure Tom uses their products for this project. If Tom buys products from a distributor rather than directly from Building Inc, Tim has to make sure Tom goes to the right distributor. At the end of the process, the distributor buys the products from Building Inc to be sent to Tom at the Munich Airport hotel project.

Related

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• Best Practice to win Projects for Building Materials
• Win Projects for Building Material Manufacturers