Issues 14: Specifiers

SPECIFIERS

...hundreds of em! Fifteen hundred of them, in fact. Housing specifiers, that is. Anyone who's heard of our PM Housing Directory knows how good that was. Well, this is the same formula, only with even more specific information. Naturally, you'd expect everyone's name, address and phone number, because that's the way Windowbase does it. And of course you'd expect every record to have a date to show when the research was done. So, imagine every local authority in the country, from Shetland to Penwith (and if you don't know the difference between Penwith and Penrith, you really need this database) and every housing association with more than 500 dwellings, then imagine having the names of all the contacts for each one of them. How would you feel if your brochure went straight into the bin because it was addressed to Mr Harkinson, instead of Mr Harrison? (And a VERY big name company went to a lot of time and trouble to mail it!) Yes, that's what the all-new Windowbase Specifiers Data includes but it tells you far more than that. To ensure you put an end, once and for all, to cold-calling, each record comes complete with a description of their requirements - whether they specify PVC-U windows, or stained softwood (or whatever), what types of external doors they prefer, then lots of detail about the specification . . . What it's based on, be it BS 7950, Macdata or whatever, what systems are named (if they are named, that is), whether fabricators have to have some sort of certification or not, internal glazing beads, types of locking mechanisms and so on. So, if you're planning to send out a mailshot, you might have to think again because, with this data, there's every chance you could be sending out three mailshots - one for each target group you identify from the data. And we all know how important it is to aim your message as specifically as possible. Do you know which local authorities have DLO's? It's important to, because some Direct Labour Organisations are very significant installers in their own right. And that information comes on top of the local authorities that make their own windows. Naturally, you'd hate to waste time on specifiers who haven't got any money to spend, so the database also tells you how much money there is in this year's budget for replacement windows. Sometimes it can be a few million, and there's plenty that haven't got any money at all. Budgetary problems in local government have speeded up the move to transfer housing stock. Of course you that, during March, the tenants of Chester voted for a move to transfer all the housing stock to a housing association. Chester & District Housing Trust, it will be called from, according to informed sources, 27th November this year. Informed sources. Are you one of them? If not, is your sales team? Have you tried keeping tabs with what's going on in Manchester? Does someone in your company know where the City Council's houses are going? How up-to-date are you with the changes in Newcastle-under-Lyme? If you're looking to sell to these people, surely you should know who you're supposed to be selling to...

THERE'S THOSE WHO KNOW

There's absolutely no excuse, these days, for wishing your company knew exactly who it should be dealing with, in every council and housing association throughout the land. What's the point of getting someone to find out lots and lots of details, when they already exist? What could be more infuriating than finding out the cost of researching your data, only to find that your competitors just buy it in, off-the-peg, and ready to use? If you have a new product, surely you should be devoting your energies to ensuring these people know about it, immediately. It can't make sense to waste time and money ensuring you know who these people are. That's the wrong way round. You should know who they are, so that you can devote your precious (and expensive) time to making sure they know who you are. That's the way to do it! Fifteen hundred names and addresses. Think about it for a minute. Just imagine how it sets the creative juices running. Suddenly, a whole new range of possibilities opens up . . . We could mail them all about the new whatever-it-is within an hour of me thinking up what the letter should say. Send them the latest catalogue. Get the guys to make appointments to go and replace the old library information with the new stuff. Instead of wondering how to get our feet under the table at Such-and-Such Borough Council, we could be hearing about how the stock's going to be transferred, what the name's going to be, where the new offices will be., how much they're going to have to spend, what they're going to spend it on, and who they're going to spend it with. If your company is doing that already, you can rest assured you're doing it right, because plenty of others are. Windowbase made a name for itself with its data on the window industry. Top quality data, good enough to make it the window industry's research department. Off-the-peg, and as good as it gets. If you aren't already using Windowbase data, either you haven't yet tumbled to the importance of knowing everyone you should be dealing with, or you're still trying to go it alone. Well, if you come in the latter group, you must be profitable enough to waste good money on research that you could buy for . . . what? A tenth of the price, at least. Work it out for yourself. For a start, how many people do you need to contact? Well, you know the answer to that one already - 1500. How long would it take to get all their names? Ah yes, your sales team know most of them anyway. Or they say they do. In that case, you've chosen a few key details to record, so that your approach is consistent from one end of the country to the other. It would be nice to be certain, though, wouldn't it? How many goes do you reckon it takes to get in touch with every architect and surveyor who deals with window specification? At ten minutes a go for each phone call, and this assumes you get through the first time, every time (fat chance), the phone bill alone would cost a packet. Then someone is paid to make those calls. On top of that, all the records have to be entered into a computer. That's about £5,500 so far...

IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE?

Hang on a minute, maybe you could just get an agency to knock up a smart advert for you to run in the right magazines, three or four times. Let them see your message, circle your number on the bingo card. After a couple of months, there'd be dozens of responses from serious specifiers, all of whom give their names and phone numbers, for you to pass on to the sales team as Hot Leads. Dozens! Dozens? Five dozen's a lot, and that's only sixty. Take out the young technicians and students who collect brochures, the librarians whose job it is to keep the shelves stocked, and you're looking at possibly forty-five people. The rest is arithmetic. Divide the cost of creating the ad by the number of replies, and what do you get, apart from depressed? Each single lead could easily cost you anything from £150 to £300. Five grand for an advert is peanuts, which might explain why you don't see as many as you used to. The smart money's going elsewhere. It isn't exactly rocket science, this, is it? Buy in a database of fifteen hundred contacts, imagine that you could pick up a quarter of them one way or another, and you're looking at £4 a lead. If you're pessimistic, and reckon you'll only pull a tenth of them, the cost rises to a tenner! Now that IS peanuts.

KEEPING UP-TO-DATE

If you're not already a Windowbase data user, you won't know how easy it can be to keep your records up-to-date. It's like painting the Forth Bridge, otherwise. The whole point of running a database is for the records to be accurate. There's absolutely no point at all in having dozens (or, worse still, hundreds) of out-of-date records. That's throwing money down the drain. A small database, if it's accurate, is better than a big one that isn't. So, by starting with the right information, you can concentrate your efforts on market penetration. That means selling to the right people, which isn't the same as finding out who they are. They won't let me stick in an analogy about knickers here, for fear of offending someone. Pity, because it would have made the point rather well. Data on who you're dealing with, and how you're doing with them, is every company's life-blood. No window industry supplier has any interest in the councils for South Staffordshire, Congleton or Bromley, if they're looking to get their products into houses. The fact is they ain't got no houses and, if you didn't know that, it's time you did because somebody could racking up a few quids' worth of expenses, going to see them once a month - or saying they are. Hmmm. All Windowbase data is updated regularly. That's an essential part of the service. How else would you be able to relax and get on with your job? Let someone else do all the worrying about all the changes of local authorities to housing associations. Pay professionals to do that sort of thing. The sales director's job is to increase sales, not to find out who to sell to. It's not the sales director's job to clean the office regularly, so it certainly isn't his/her job to clean the company's data, either.

So, if you want to take a look at a sample database, ask Windowbase to send you one. See what you're missing. Just call Mike Davis on 01706 644308 and start the ball rolling. Now, while it's still on your mind.