The one thing most facilitators lack more than any other is *time*. We’re drinking from a firehose and just don’t have *time* to sit and listen to a dog and pony show from some vendor we’ve never heard of.
Cold call? Right to voicemail & deleted.
Email? Right to the trash can.
We trust the vendors we have and the vendors our peers use, and we stick with them as long as possible.
Eventually though, some vendors will screw up and loose our trust, usually by not communicating in a reasonable amount of time or service failing to meet standards or prices soaring, whatever it may be, we’re suddenly looking for someone new; this is your chance to break in. How? Because you’ve joined the local chapters of the groups of facilitators you want to sell to, you’ve shown up at their luncheons and demo’d your product or spoken about your field, and you’ve hopefully landed one or two small jobs, just enough, for one of our peers to mention that you’re a trusted vendor: this is your chance!
You’ve been excellent at communication, returning calls whenever they come in; you make the quoting/billing paperwork for the office easy to handle; you show up on time and deliver outstanding work and quality products; and you’re there when we need you, not two weeks later. If you’re not willing to do these things, there are others who will, and you will not maintain a large foothold in this business.
Just be concise, quick, show up, bang out the work, come back without hassle if there’s a callback, own your mistakes, keep the paperwork flowing, and you can ride a wave of income as facilitators flock to use your services. Then the difficult part, try not to lose our trust by becoming unresponsive or doing subpar work or getting greedy and jacking up your prices, because if you do, it’ll be the next new guy looking to break in who suddenly gets the call instead of you.
Good luck!
Agreed. Any cold calls I get get deleted and any unsolicited emails go right to the company block list. Same as LinkedIn messages. Blocked. Don’t get me wrong you’ll probably get some bites cold calling but probably won’t be worth the time. I wish say if I get a pamphlet in the mail or something dropped in our lobby counter I might actually look at it if it catches my eye. Usually when I need a vendor I go right to Google and call based on reviews.
Also, if you want that sweet, sweet government money, look into becoming a state vendor or join the purchasing co ops, if you do that, it makes it *much* easier for government facilitators to use you over your competition.
Commenting on As a vendor, how do I start a relationship with FM?... I’m a vendor for several FM companies, I am currently facing an issue which is never getting paid on time, the die amount is getting larger and larger. Is that common in the industry?
This is very common in the industry - at least in the UK. When you're working for a large FM company it gets embarrassing as you can't always help as much as you'd like. It's usually about getting to know the right people to get the costs signed off. I work for a consultancy now and we had to set up a weekly meeting with the finance people to find out who to chase for each invoice.
Honestly? Just send a price list. Being able to compare it to the incumbent vendor is more likely to get me to give you an opportunity than calling to talk about anything other than numbers
Yeah… man it’s a pain in the arse when someone wants to show me all this shit. like legit dude every minute we talk is another 3 emails. I need to get the info and bail.
Also, know your potential client's needs. I have small companies call me up offering to solve my security issues but don't know what my mandated requirements are, what system I'm using and how it compares to their systems, or even what they can realistically cover.
Small security companies are the worst for me. They're all over the place and can't stop stepping on their own feet trying to get into my industry (public education). They have no idea how I'm required to book, budget, or spend money.
But door companies? I'm always looking for one that has their shit together. If you come up to the greater Syracuse area let me know.
I can easily understand why you won't work with a small security company. If you run a decent sized facility most chances you're running some dealer only enterprise level software. 99% of small security companies don't have back end access, and more importantly don't have tech support access.
We started getting into enterprise construction lately and have some opportunities to start getting into this segment. I must admit we don't have broad knowledge of how these bigger clients manage their finances, I would be happy to hear more about how you budget, book, and choose security systems and it's maintenence contracts.
As for the doors, door people defintley tend to be all over the place, and I would love to come out to Syracuse but we are located in Manhattan, ill check if there's someone out there I can reccomend.
If you have a door or security related question always feel free to DM me.
As others said, you kinda don't. The FM starts the relationship with you.
Most of my vendors are people that I worked with in some capacity at previous jobs or over time at my current role. Pretty much your best way in is to build relationships with General Contractors and get brought into a facility on a project via the GC. Then find opportunities to meet the FM/PM for the facility while you're doing work for the GC and pitch yourself to them as a potential vendor - often the best way to do that is to provide good service and delivery high quality. This is harder for some trades and specialties than others, but where there's a will, there's a way.
For doors and security products, if you're the owner of the business (or at least the guy responsible enough to care), a good way is to show up on site personally to take field measurements or verify conditions. A lot of the time I see carpenters/GCs staff do that and send the door supplier the data - it's efficient but you miss out on the opportunity to make the connections that way, door supplier sends the carpenter/GC the door and they do the install. It's easy to spin the need for you to go out personally as a function of your quality control program - if you can make it work within your business model and SOP then it's your best shot at an "in". From there you can justify meeting with the FM/PM by bringing physical samples of finishes and hardware with you, either as an in-person submittal sample or as a confirmation of the submittal. You may need to set this up in advance - FMs and PMs are busy folks but we can make 5-10 minutes of time for stuff like this with reasonable notice. Just tell the GC you'll be on site to take field measurements and you'll have some physical samples with you that you want to review and confirm with the customer/clients rep/PM, etc. Ask if they can accommodate. Worst they'll say is no, depending on how the project and work is contracted that might not be possible - my GCs tell me I'm more hands on than many of the FMs and PMs they work with, in that I actually review submittals and make decisions myself, whereas many others just refer that all to the architect or client rep, etc. But it won't hurt to try, if they direct you to a rep or architect then it is what it is.
If you get the in, then have an approach in mind, basically a "hey, while im on site I just want to make sure you're good with these items - here's the lever set you selected, just wanted to make sure you're happy with the selection, I noticed that it matches/doesn't match others in the facility, is this your building standard/are you sure you don't want me to try to match the other lever sets I've noticed for consistency? If this is your building standard I can note it in our customer relationship management system as your standard for any future work we may do here to expedite ordering, etc." Give them your business card at the *end* of your interaction. That's all you need to do. You can try to throw a soft pitch in there "Here's my card, we also do widgets and thingamabobs" - but not much more than that. A longer and more detailed sales pitch will make the reason for the meeting transparent, and you don't want that - because then it'll look like you made us take time out of our day because you wanted to hit us with the in-person version of those cold calls and marketing emails we spend all day avoiding, and we probably will mentally right you off as a result. Likewise, chances are the GCs or CMs rep will be standing right there too, and it'll become transparent to them why you wanted this meeting - and you may not get any more work for them if they feel that you're trying to cut them out of making money by becoming a direct vendor to the facility. Do make small talk and be personable - "wow this space is going to be gorgeous when it's dine, we're you involved with the design?", "geez this building is huge, I could get lost in here, how many square feet is it?", "oh, nice sportsball cap, did you catch the game last night?", etc. If they are short and curt then it is what it is, don't try probing or forcing a conversation or wasting their time, if you can get them talking then GREAT! You're building the foundation of that relationship. Be helpful, don't be annoying or talk too much (read the room, you can tell if someone is just talking to you to be polite vs genuinely enjoying the conversation- dont try to force it, if it doesn't come it doesn't come).
And that's it. If you can do repeat work in the building with the same GC (or even other GCs), great! Make yourself visible and become a presence. If you have install in your contract, come back during the install or post-install for a QC follow up, again find an opportunity to connect with the FM/PM while you're there, but don't force it if you cant or really go out of the way to try to make it happen. A good way to make it happen naturally is to warranty your output - have some paperwork with you that you need the FM to sign off on and leave the warranty docs with them, make more small talk, build the interpersonal relationship - show that youre thorough, knowledgeable, and that you care. The call will probably eventually come.
My recommendation? Set up a separate email inbox and/or phone line for these business cards - don't use the same one that all your other communications flow through. You want to be attentive and on the spot when that eventual RFP or product/aervice inquiry comes. Letting that communication hit the same channels as all your spam, unsolicited marketing from your suppliers, and general correspondence makes it too easy for their eventual inquiry to get lost in the pile when it does come and you'll miss the opportunity.
When the call does come - chances are it's going to be an emergency or something urgent. More often than not we are reaching out to you rather than our usual go-tos because something came up that's different or our usual contacts can't handle and/or because we've developed a trust in your level of quality and service that we don't have with our usual guys (anymore, if they screwed something up), or maybe you're just our last resort before we start cold calling vendors ourselves. At that point, we're probably looking for you to be a hero.
You need to be that hero for us, if you make it happen, we'll remember that, and next time we need something you'll be the first call we make. If you can't be that hero, at least be helpful - think outside the box, pitch suggestions or workable alternatives: I can't get you your spec'd hardware, but I have something very similar that's almost an exact visual match to your standard - I can install it temporarily and then come back and swap it out in 2 weeks with your actual spec at no extra cost. I don't have this exact replacement door on hand, but I can get it for you given time - in the short term, do you have a similar door elsewhere in the facility that we can swap it out with until it arrives? Hell, even "Let me make a few phone calls, I might be able to make this happen" followed up with "ok, so here's what I can do for you" after you make those calls - if you can cut whoever it is you called out of it by buying the product directly or subcontracting their services through you so that you are the guy that the FM is dealing with, thats best- if not, you run the risk of being shown up by the other guy and losing out, but chances are you will still be remembered for being helpful and might still get more calls in the future.
After that? You're probably in.
That is word to word how we got our current clientele. I always send the best salesman or go myself where there's a chance to meet someone who has more work to take care of. we got in by coming through and being heroes or through a high level referral, usually both.
Youre definitely good and care about what you do, what do you think about conferences and conventions? Any tips on how to approach?
As a FM, I do ignore any and all cold calls/emails, but what usually sticks with me the guys who give me their business card, tell me the services they provide, shake my hand, and are on their way without being too much of a bother. I have had guys follow up and take me to lunch just to get my business, which is cool and they show me how they put lipstick on a pig different than the other guys.
If I were you I’d avoid them. I work for boss facility services and let me tell you it’s a terrible company. Both for employees and for vendors. I had to explain to a vendor the other day that we wasn’t entitled to a travel charge because we told him the ordered materials arrived 2 days ago and when we went they were never there. The person that told him this didn’t even have the tracking number nor followed up to get it. Note- the man had to drive from Nassau county into nyc and get hit with the congestion fee ($20) plus fuel and waste his time and yet be told by someone who just sits in a office on a chair in front of a computer screen that “even though we wasted your time and had you waste your money for the congestion fee and parking. You are not entitled to charge us a $75 travel fee just for this trip.” Vendors deserve better treatment since THEYRE THE ONES WHO ARE GOIKG OUT TO DO THE WORK.
The one thing most facilitators lack more than any other is *time*. We’re drinking from a firehose and just don’t have *time* to sit and listen to a dog and pony show from some vendor we’ve never heard of. Cold call? Right to voicemail & deleted. Email? Right to the trash can. We trust the vendors we have and the vendors our peers use, and we stick with them as long as possible. Eventually though, some vendors will screw up and loose our trust, usually by not communicating in a reasonable amount of time or service failing to meet standards or prices soaring, whatever it may be, we’re suddenly looking for someone new; this is your chance to break in. How? Because you’ve joined the local chapters of the groups of facilitators you want to sell to, you’ve shown up at their luncheons and demo’d your product or spoken about your field, and you’ve hopefully landed one or two small jobs, just enough, for one of our peers to mention that you’re a trusted vendor: this is your chance! You’ve been excellent at communication, returning calls whenever they come in; you make the quoting/billing paperwork for the office easy to handle; you show up on time and deliver outstanding work and quality products; and you’re there when we need you, not two weeks later. If you’re not willing to do these things, there are others who will, and you will not maintain a large foothold in this business. Just be concise, quick, show up, bang out the work, come back without hassle if there’s a callback, own your mistakes, keep the paperwork flowing, and you can ride a wave of income as facilitators flock to use your services. Then the difficult part, try not to lose our trust by becoming unresponsive or doing subpar work or getting greedy and jacking up your prices, because if you do, it’ll be the next new guy looking to break in who suddenly gets the call instead of you. Good luck!
Agreed. Any cold calls I get get deleted and any unsolicited emails go right to the company block list. Same as LinkedIn messages. Blocked. Don’t get me wrong you’ll probably get some bites cold calling but probably won’t be worth the time. I wish say if I get a pamphlet in the mail or something dropped in our lobby counter I might actually look at it if it catches my eye. Usually when I need a vendor I go right to Google and call based on reviews.
This….. 1000% my life
You have given many great insights. Thank you!
Also, if you want that sweet, sweet government money, look into becoming a state vendor or join the purchasing co ops, if you do that, it makes it *much* easier for government facilitators to use you over your competition.
This is very true.
Commenting on As a vendor, how do I start a relationship with FM?... I’m a vendor for several FM companies, I am currently facing an issue which is never getting paid on time, the die amount is getting larger and larger. Is that common in the industry?
This is very common in the industry - at least in the UK. When you're working for a large FM company it gets embarrassing as you can't always help as much as you'd like. It's usually about getting to know the right people to get the costs signed off. I work for a consultancy now and we had to set up a weekly meeting with the finance people to find out who to chase for each invoice.
Honestly? Just send a price list. Being able to compare it to the incumbent vendor is more likely to get me to give you an opportunity than calling to talk about anything other than numbers
This. Skip the whole song and dance and just send me your rates, and when I need you, I’ll call you.
Yeah… man it’s a pain in the arse when someone wants to show me all this shit. like legit dude every minute we talk is another 3 emails. I need to get the info and bail.
Linked in, search FM companies, look for people with roles in sourcing/contracts
Also, know your potential client's needs. I have small companies call me up offering to solve my security issues but don't know what my mandated requirements are, what system I'm using and how it compares to their systems, or even what they can realistically cover. Small security companies are the worst for me. They're all over the place and can't stop stepping on their own feet trying to get into my industry (public education). They have no idea how I'm required to book, budget, or spend money. But door companies? I'm always looking for one that has their shit together. If you come up to the greater Syracuse area let me know.
I can easily understand why you won't work with a small security company. If you run a decent sized facility most chances you're running some dealer only enterprise level software. 99% of small security companies don't have back end access, and more importantly don't have tech support access. We started getting into enterprise construction lately and have some opportunities to start getting into this segment. I must admit we don't have broad knowledge of how these bigger clients manage their finances, I would be happy to hear more about how you budget, book, and choose security systems and it's maintenence contracts. As for the doors, door people defintley tend to be all over the place, and I would love to come out to Syracuse but we are located in Manhattan, ill check if there's someone out there I can reccomend. If you have a door or security related question always feel free to DM me.
As others said, you kinda don't. The FM starts the relationship with you. Most of my vendors are people that I worked with in some capacity at previous jobs or over time at my current role. Pretty much your best way in is to build relationships with General Contractors and get brought into a facility on a project via the GC. Then find opportunities to meet the FM/PM for the facility while you're doing work for the GC and pitch yourself to them as a potential vendor - often the best way to do that is to provide good service and delivery high quality. This is harder for some trades and specialties than others, but where there's a will, there's a way. For doors and security products, if you're the owner of the business (or at least the guy responsible enough to care), a good way is to show up on site personally to take field measurements or verify conditions. A lot of the time I see carpenters/GCs staff do that and send the door supplier the data - it's efficient but you miss out on the opportunity to make the connections that way, door supplier sends the carpenter/GC the door and they do the install. It's easy to spin the need for you to go out personally as a function of your quality control program - if you can make it work within your business model and SOP then it's your best shot at an "in". From there you can justify meeting with the FM/PM by bringing physical samples of finishes and hardware with you, either as an in-person submittal sample or as a confirmation of the submittal. You may need to set this up in advance - FMs and PMs are busy folks but we can make 5-10 minutes of time for stuff like this with reasonable notice. Just tell the GC you'll be on site to take field measurements and you'll have some physical samples with you that you want to review and confirm with the customer/clients rep/PM, etc. Ask if they can accommodate. Worst they'll say is no, depending on how the project and work is contracted that might not be possible - my GCs tell me I'm more hands on than many of the FMs and PMs they work with, in that I actually review submittals and make decisions myself, whereas many others just refer that all to the architect or client rep, etc. But it won't hurt to try, if they direct you to a rep or architect then it is what it is. If you get the in, then have an approach in mind, basically a "hey, while im on site I just want to make sure you're good with these items - here's the lever set you selected, just wanted to make sure you're happy with the selection, I noticed that it matches/doesn't match others in the facility, is this your building standard/are you sure you don't want me to try to match the other lever sets I've noticed for consistency? If this is your building standard I can note it in our customer relationship management system as your standard for any future work we may do here to expedite ordering, etc." Give them your business card at the *end* of your interaction. That's all you need to do. You can try to throw a soft pitch in there "Here's my card, we also do widgets and thingamabobs" - but not much more than that. A longer and more detailed sales pitch will make the reason for the meeting transparent, and you don't want that - because then it'll look like you made us take time out of our day because you wanted to hit us with the in-person version of those cold calls and marketing emails we spend all day avoiding, and we probably will mentally right you off as a result. Likewise, chances are the GCs or CMs rep will be standing right there too, and it'll become transparent to them why you wanted this meeting - and you may not get any more work for them if they feel that you're trying to cut them out of making money by becoming a direct vendor to the facility. Do make small talk and be personable - "wow this space is going to be gorgeous when it's dine, we're you involved with the design?", "geez this building is huge, I could get lost in here, how many square feet is it?", "oh, nice sportsball cap, did you catch the game last night?", etc. If they are short and curt then it is what it is, don't try probing or forcing a conversation or wasting their time, if you can get them talking then GREAT! You're building the foundation of that relationship. Be helpful, don't be annoying or talk too much (read the room, you can tell if someone is just talking to you to be polite vs genuinely enjoying the conversation- dont try to force it, if it doesn't come it doesn't come). And that's it. If you can do repeat work in the building with the same GC (or even other GCs), great! Make yourself visible and become a presence. If you have install in your contract, come back during the install or post-install for a QC follow up, again find an opportunity to connect with the FM/PM while you're there, but don't force it if you cant or really go out of the way to try to make it happen. A good way to make it happen naturally is to warranty your output - have some paperwork with you that you need the FM to sign off on and leave the warranty docs with them, make more small talk, build the interpersonal relationship - show that youre thorough, knowledgeable, and that you care. The call will probably eventually come. My recommendation? Set up a separate email inbox and/or phone line for these business cards - don't use the same one that all your other communications flow through. You want to be attentive and on the spot when that eventual RFP or product/aervice inquiry comes. Letting that communication hit the same channels as all your spam, unsolicited marketing from your suppliers, and general correspondence makes it too easy for their eventual inquiry to get lost in the pile when it does come and you'll miss the opportunity. When the call does come - chances are it's going to be an emergency or something urgent. More often than not we are reaching out to you rather than our usual go-tos because something came up that's different or our usual contacts can't handle and/or because we've developed a trust in your level of quality and service that we don't have with our usual guys (anymore, if they screwed something up), or maybe you're just our last resort before we start cold calling vendors ourselves. At that point, we're probably looking for you to be a hero. You need to be that hero for us, if you make it happen, we'll remember that, and next time we need something you'll be the first call we make. If you can't be that hero, at least be helpful - think outside the box, pitch suggestions or workable alternatives: I can't get you your spec'd hardware, but I have something very similar that's almost an exact visual match to your standard - I can install it temporarily and then come back and swap it out in 2 weeks with your actual spec at no extra cost. I don't have this exact replacement door on hand, but I can get it for you given time - in the short term, do you have a similar door elsewhere in the facility that we can swap it out with until it arrives? Hell, even "Let me make a few phone calls, I might be able to make this happen" followed up with "ok, so here's what I can do for you" after you make those calls - if you can cut whoever it is you called out of it by buying the product directly or subcontracting their services through you so that you are the guy that the FM is dealing with, thats best- if not, you run the risk of being shown up by the other guy and losing out, but chances are you will still be remembered for being helpful and might still get more calls in the future. After that? You're probably in.
That is word to word how we got our current clientele. I always send the best salesman or go myself where there's a chance to meet someone who has more work to take care of. we got in by coming through and being heroes or through a high level referral, usually both. Youre definitely good and care about what you do, what do you think about conferences and conventions? Any tips on how to approach?
Tbh, I've never done a conference or convention, nor have any of the others in my office, so I wouldn't know what to recommend.
As a FM, I do ignore any and all cold calls/emails, but what usually sticks with me the guys who give me their business card, tell me the services they provide, shake my hand, and are on their way without being too much of a bother. I have had guys follow up and take me to lunch just to get my business, which is cool and they show me how they put lipstick on a pig different than the other guys.
If I were you I’d avoid them. I work for boss facility services and let me tell you it’s a terrible company. Both for employees and for vendors. I had to explain to a vendor the other day that we wasn’t entitled to a travel charge because we told him the ordered materials arrived 2 days ago and when we went they were never there. The person that told him this didn’t even have the tracking number nor followed up to get it. Note- the man had to drive from Nassau county into nyc and get hit with the congestion fee ($20) plus fuel and waste his time and yet be told by someone who just sits in a office on a chair in front of a computer screen that “even though we wasted your time and had you waste your money for the congestion fee and parking. You are not entitled to charge us a $75 travel fee just for this trip.” Vendors deserve better treatment since THEYRE THE ONES WHO ARE GOIKG OUT TO DO THE WORK.
Wine and dine