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Monday Morning Building Product Advisor

Neil Sutton

Connecting with architects should be simple. I'm a veteran architect (28+ years) who's been helping architectural product reps get even better at it for 11 years. So we're all working toward a stronger industry. Get the weekly insights by signing up here.

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Featured Post

🏛️ FOR PRODUCT REPS: Broken glass, a polite yes, and a problem you created by accident

The Monday Morning Building Product AdvisorIssue #139 Back in 1974, two researchers showed 45 students a film of a car crash and then asked them one question: “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?” Except they didn’t use the word “hit” with everyone. Some heard “smashed into.” Others heard “bumped,” “collided with,” or “contacted.” It was the same footage and the same crash, but only one word was different. Not the actual footage from the 1974 study The people who were...

about 8 hours ago • 7 min read

The Monday Morning Building Product AdvisorIssue #137 Steadfast Steve, Part 2 We found ourselves 900 miles away in Wausau, Wisconsin, sitting at a table to review the shop drawings before they were officially submitted. If you missed last week, here’s a quick recap… Steadfast Steve spent around 3 years helping our teams solve curtain wall details, often on projects he wasn’t likely to win. When the research campus moved to phase two, he put in a substitution request for the new system he...

14 days ago • 5 min read

The Monday Morning Building Product AdvisorIssue #136 Steadfast Steve, Part 1 Our design team had a problem at the front door. We were working on a research tower for a big client in town, and our team wanted the main entrance to make a statement. They wanted the curtain wall to blend smoothly into the limestone. With no bulky frame where the glass met the stone. It looked great on paper, but it would be hard to make it happen during actual construction. “Steve” sat at the end of our...

21 days ago • 5 min read

The Monday Morning Building Product AdvisorIssue #135 Here’s what usually happens after a lunch-and-learn. The team eats… someone asks a question about your warranty or something… someone grabs the leftover sandwiches… people thank you as they leave… and the person who helped you set it up walks you to the elevator. Afterward, no one feels like they owe you. You’ve probably heard that bringing lunch helps build relationships and earns goodwill. That’s true! It’s a good way to get your foot in...

28 days ago • 6 min read

The Monday Morning Building Product AdvisorIssue #134 I have a stamp & ink pad in my desk drawer, but these days they sit there collecting dust. It’s got my name, my license number, and the seal from the state that licensed me. Nowadays, I mostly use the digital version, like most architects and engineers do today. No matter which version I use, when I put my stamp and signature on a set of drawings, I’m not just saying, “I think this’ll work.” I’m saying this is my responsibility, and if...

about 1 month ago • 6 min read

The Monday Morning Building Product AdvisorIssue #133 3 weeks into design development for a medical office building, we ran into a problem with the curtain wall at the northeast corner. The sill & jamb details weren’t clear. What we’d drawn so far was more hopeful than practical. That morning, I emailed two product reps to ask for cut sheets. The first rep got back to me in 30 minutes. He sent the PDF and wrote a friendly note: “Let me know if you need anything else.” It was quick, clear, and...

about 1 month ago • 5 min read

The Monday Morning Building Product AdvisorIssue #132 Today's issue is a shorter one. But I thought you'd appreciate a little "insider baseball" about some architectural project stuff you probably don't always get to see or hear about. Last week, a rep called and said, “Whatever happened to that project we helped you out with? I’ve been watching for it so I can submit a quote, but I haven’t seen anything yet…” No it hasn't... but it feelz that way The project isn’t dead, and it hasn’t been...

about 2 months ago • 3 min read

The Monday Tuesday Morning Building Product AdvisorIssue #131 In the last few issues, I’ve given you tools to highlight the size of a problem. Today, we should probably talk about when to stop. And, come to think of it, I probably should have brought this up sooner. If you’ve taken sales or copywriting training, you’ve probably heard of the PAS (Problem-Agitate-Solve) framework. If not, this should help… A quick breakdown of the PAS framework: Problem: Identify a problem or pain point your...

about 2 months ago • 6 min read

The Monday Morning Building Product AdvisorIssue #130 Our old pal Frazzled Frank, the product rep, had another tough week. I’m sharing his story not to embarrass the fictional fella. But to show how he blamed the wrong thing. Last week, he met with two different firms and gave the same product presentation. He did a fine job both times. Monday’s meeting went swimmingly. The architects got interested, pulled up a project on their screen, and started asking about lead times and warranty...

2 months ago • 6 min read

The Monday Morning Building Product AdvisorIssue #129 A few weeks back, I pointed out that your product’s best fact is probably already in your technical documents, just waiting for someone to spot it. Today, I have even tougher news for your marketing team: The best sentence for your presentations is already out there. And your team didn’t write it. An architect did. OK, OK... easy now... Let me explain by sharing the most useful headline test I know. Joanna Wiebe, founder of Copyhackers,...

2 months ago • 5 min read