To find where your products have been specified in construction projects, monitor live project documentation rather than tender alerts. Use a tool like E1’s Speci-Finder to scan project documents for your product or brand name across the active pipeline. This will help you see where you’re named, where a competitor is named instead, and which projects are approaching tender with your specification already locked in.
Finding construction projects where your product is specified these days can be as simple as using a specification-tracking tool. There’s nothing worse than finding out you were specified after the project is built.
This knowledge is important, as it allows you to protect the specification at tender, follow up on the relationship with the architect, and point to the project in your next conversation with that firm. After all, by the time a project reaches open tender, the specification is largely set. The strategy to focus on is knowing where your product is specified, early enough to influence its use.
Let’s dive into the visibility problem. Solving it will help you see where you’re already specified across the live pipeline, early enough to protect it, build on it, and use it to win more work.
Why should I be tracking specifications?
Tracking specifications is crucial for understanding where your product or your category appears across live project documentation as projects develop. There are two ways to track: a manual approach and a data-assisted one.
Without a dedicated system, you’re piecing it together from relationship check-ins, site visits, and the occasional tip from a subbie. This can be a lot of (unnecessary) work, and it creates plenty of opportunities for things to be missed.
With a tender network like E1 (EstimateOne), you can have direct access to live project documentation, such as tender packages, specification and finishing schedules, and consultant drawings, across a broad pipeline of construction activity. This makes it much easier to see which projects name your product, which name a competitor, and which carry a generic clause where neither of you is locked in. E1’s Speci-Finder tool automates this by scanning documents for your nominated keywords and flagging matches as new projects enter the network.
Whichever way you go, the goal is to know which architects and consultants are specifying you, which are specifying a competitor, and which projects are approaching tender with your product already designed-in. Project documents are your main data source here. At scale, project documentation tells you:
- Who is specifying what
Specification patterns across a firm and multiple projects over time tell you far more than a single project. An architect who has specified your product three times in eighteen months is a relationship worth investing in. One who has specified a competitor across four recent projects is a conversion opportunity. Neither of those patterns is visible if you’re only looking at individual tender document releases.
- Where your product is named versus generic
There’s a significant difference between a spec that reads ‘Product X by Manufacturer Y’ and one that reads ‘Suspended fabric/fibreglass acoustic clouds (NRC 0.90–1.0) or equivalent.’ The first locks the builder to your product, and the second opens a substitution conversation. Knowing which of your specifications are locked and which are vulnerable tells you where to focus your retention effort.
- The timing of approaching tenders
A project with your product designed-in eight weeks from construction is a different priority than one that’s twelve months out. Knowing the pipeline helps you to make sure you’re in contact with the right parties before the tender window closes.
None of this very helpful information is available if you’re waiting for tender releases. Live project documentation as it develops is your ultimate guide.
What do you do with the intelligence of knowing where you’re specified?
With the intelligence you’ve gained by a good data layer, you can lessen your reliance on direct outreach. A tender network like E1 provides document-level visibility across a live pipeline of projects, and scans project documents for your nominated keywords.
These can be your product names, brand variants, or category terms that get flagged in every project where they appear. This means you see where you’re named, or just as importantly where a competitor is named instead. If the spec is generic and the door is still open, you’ll know about it, all while identifying trends across a firm’s projects over time.
Tips for using this information from E1:
- Protect and grow specifications with consultants you already know
If a firm is specifying you on some project types but not others, you now know which gap to address and with which specifier. If a cut-and-paste template is locking in an old product, you have a specific project and a specific schedule to point to when you make the call.
- Where you have no relationship, a competitor specification gives you an opening
Cold calling a consultant to introduce your product isn’t as effective as calling to say you noticed a particular product specified on a named project and wanted to discuss how yours compares.
- Defend what you’ve won
Once your product is specified, the risk shifts to tender stage, where builders and subbies make procurement decisions under price pressure. That conversation is important, and easier to catch if you know which of your specifications are active, and E1 makes this easy.
Frequently asked questions
How do you find out which projects your product is specified on?
The direct method for understanding where your products have been specified is monitoring live project documentation. These can be tender packages, specification schedules, and consultant drawings across the pipeline as projects develop. A tender platform like E1 (EstimateOne) with document-level search gives you visibility into where your product or category appears without the need to rely on architects to inform you.
What is the difference between being specified and being approved?
Being specified means your product is named in the construction documents as a deliberate selection, and there are ways to see if this is the case. Being approved means a builder has submitted your product as a substitute for a named product, and the architect has accepted it. The first position is stronger; the second puts you in a price negotiation with some time pressure.
When do architects decide which products to specify?
Architects make most product selections during schematic design and design development. It is important to understand that this is well before documents reach tender. By the time a project is on a tender portal, the specification is largely written, so reps should try to engage as early as possible.
What does ‘or equivalent’ mean in a construction specification?
‘Or equivalent’ means the architect has named a preferred product but will consider alternatives. This essentially transfers the task to the builder to submit a substitution request and justify performance, compliance, and aesthetics for an alternative product.
Using the tools that show you where you are specified
E1 (EstimateOne) makes it easier for you to track where your products, brands, and materials are specified in tender documents; we help you connect with Builders and Subcontractors to win more business. Sign up today.
Doris
Wu
General Manager - Supplier
