The Monday Morning Building Product Advisor
​Issue #97

20 years ago, I stood in a rented tux at the opening gala of a hospital in Williamsburg, VA that I’d been working on for 3 years (from design through construction).

Bruce Hornsby was playing the piano. [Yeah, THAT Bruce Hornsby. The CEO had connections, apparently… plus, Bruce is a lifelong resident of the town.]

Anyway! It was one of the most perfectly choreographed events that I’ve attended. The glass staircase, champagne flutes, city officials, and board members. The whole thing felt a little too polished… but it was nice.

And I was honored to be there.

I wasn’t there as a special guest. I was part of the design team. There were about a dozen of us who made the trip from Omaha along with our spouses. [Except my wife, who was stuck home with our little ones…] From my past ribbon-cutting experiences, being invited usually means you show up, smile politely, stay in the background, and watch someone else cut the ribbon on the thing you bled over for years. That’s just how it goes in this industry.

Then the CEO got up to speak.

He stood at the top of that big glass stairwell [the one we’d had to fight for in about 10 separate design meetings] and gave the usual opening remarks. He thanked the donors, the staff, and the executives.

And then he did something I’d never seen before. Caught me totally off-guard!

He thanked 3 of us architects by name.

Not the firm. Not “the design team.” He looked out at that black-tie crowd and named three of us (the project principal, the lead designer, and me, the project architect) individually, like we actually mattered.

The applause that followed felt different. My face turned red, and I was a little embarrassed when my colleagues started elbowing me, saying, “Nice! Look at you!” Because that never happens.

I’ve never forgotten that CEO or those 2 seconds of fame.

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“Nice story, Neil! So why you tellin’ ME?”

Because I’ve been thinking about what that moment actually did. And how it applies to what you’re posting on LinkedIn.

Yes, I know… The situations aren’t identical. That CEO was a client thanking his service providers. You’re a rep trying to win over architects. The power dynamics run the other direction.

But here’s why I think the principle still transfers: in both cases, you’re breaking an expected pattern. Design teams expect to be invisible at ribbon cuttings. Architects expect reps to post project wins without mentioning who actually designed the thing.

When you violate that expectation… When you publicly acknowledge the people who usually get overlooked… You create the same jolt I felt in that atrium.

They remember. They share your post. And they talk about you to their colleagues.

That CEO didn’t thank us to get something out of it. But the effect was that everyone on that design team became an advocate for that client. We talked about that project differently. We referred colleagues.

Hell… 20 years later, and here I am telling you about it.

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The problem with most rep’s content

There’s a content strategist I follow, JK Molina, who puts it simply: “Likes ain’t cash.”

He’s built his entire business around those 3 words. And I think about that line a lot. Because most reps I see on LinkedIn are optimizing for the wrong scoreboard. They’re posting beautiful project shots. Big, abstract captions. Content that racks up likes… from other reps. Other manufacturers. A few contractors.

But rarely from the people who can actually specify them.

It looks successful on the surface:

• Your numbers go up
• You get those lovely dopamine hits
• You feel like you’re actually doing something right

But the uncomfortable question remains: who’s actually liking your posts?

If your last 10 posts got tons of engagement from people who will never specify your products, you’ve built an audience that can’t help your pipeline.

The applause feels good. It just doesn’t convert.

Now, as I’ve told some reps before, if that’s what you’re after and you’re happy with your results, more power to you. Keep doing what you’re doing.

[Fun fact: Yesterday, when I wrote a teaser LinkedIn post for today’s newsletter on this topic, the first 4 likes were from people I wasn’t connected with, had never heard of, and weren’t even in our industry. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ ]

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What actually works (and why it feels worse at first)

Instead of posting that gorgeous exterior photo of a recent project with a caption like “Another great project in the books,” try this:

• Pick a real project you worked on
• Include a photo of a detail you helped with
• Name the designer or architect you worked with
• Mention the specific challenge you solved together
• Tag the firm

Here’s an example:

“Just wrapped up the nurse station millwork at Riverside Methodist with @HKS. The interior designer, @Suzie Smith, and architect, @Robert Jones, wanted integrated charging stations that wouldn’t clutter the work surface. We went through four mock-ups before we nailed it. The final solution used a routed channel with wireless pads that staff didn’t even notice until someone pointed them out. That’s good design. Proud to have been part of figuring it out.”

Bad news: That post won’t get you 100 likes. It might get 41… Or 15.

But here’s what it will get: a message from the designer saying “thanks for the shoutout.” A share that puts your name in front of their whole firm. Maybe even a conversation 6 months later that starts with, “Hey! You’re the one who posted about that nurse station detail, right?”

That’s the stuff that actually builds a pipeline. Quietly, consistently, and below the surface.

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The “Low-Like Valley” you’ll have to walk through

I won’t sugarcoat it.

When you shift from posting crowd-pleasers to posting client-magnets, the numbers often drop. Sometimes significantly.

That’s where most people quit. The feedback loop feels broken. You start wondering if you’re doing something wrong.

You’re not. You’re just measuring the wrong things.

Here’s what to watch instead:

• Who comments? (Not how many.) If an architect you’ve been trying to reach for two years suddenly engages with your post, that’s worth more than 200 likes from other reps.
• Who DMs you? The project credit posts tend to generate private messages. “Hey, thanks for the shoutout,” or “I didn’t know you worked on that project.” Those conversations don’t show up in your analytics, but they’re where you can start building relationships.
• Who remembers you 6 months later? This one you can’t measure in real time. But I’ve had product reps mention posts I wrote months ago when I finally got a meeting with them. The content was working underground, even when the surface metrics looked quiet.

Those signals don’t show up in your analytics. But they’re where relationships actually form.

I’ve experienced this myself. A while back, I wrote a post about what architects wish reps understood about their jobs. Nothing flashy. Modest engagement. But over the next few weeks, I got more DMs from that post than almost anything I’d written. Reps forwarding it to their teams. People were subscribing to this newsletter because of it.

I could be posting about projects that my firm is working on. Or other cool architectural things that other architects would like and share. But they’re not my audience. My audience is product reps like you.

The math that matters isn’t likes. It’s trust.

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A place to start this week

Write one post about a real project. Name the design team. Tag them. Give them credit for something specific, like an idea they pushed for, a problem they solved, a detail they fought to protect.

Don’t do it to go viral. Do it because it’s true.

Then pay attention to who engages… Not how many… Who.

That’s the metric that actually matters.

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That's it for this week!

Cheers to building more than just buildings, and see you next week,

​

Neil "I-blush-too-easily" Sutton
​Architect | Speaker | The Product Rep Coach

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P.S. That hospital opening was 20 years ago. I still remember the CEO's name. I still remember how it felt to hear mine from the top of that stairwell. That's what public credit does. Your architects will remember too.

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