Box Lunches for Architects are a Waste of Good Food!

• By: admin
• On: 01/11/2010 12:59:20
• In: Product Representation Practice Group
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Box lunches can be an expensive gamble for a product rep. A lunch can run $15-$20 per head, and firms aren’t always good about giving the rep an accurate count for attendees. A lunch could take place in an office with five people, or in a conference room filled with 30. Independent reps have to watch their spending on lunches especially closely because they’re often paying for the meals out of their own pockets.

Once the presentation has started, reps can find themselves in front of a roomful of people who have no influence over whether a product is spec’d, or could be in front of just the right person, except that person is asleep!

"We've all been in that boat,” said a Detroit-area rep. “There's always someone nodding off in the room after lunch. Hopefully you find one or two people you make some eye contact with and get their support."

It’s a lot of effort for an event that won’t pay off for sometime, said Practice Group Leader Alana Griffith, FCSI, Lifetime member, CCPR. "The box lunch you're paying for today may not pay off for 3-4 years."

So Why Do It?

“In-person box lunches gives us textile time,” Griffith said. “It gives them a much better sense of the mass and weight (of a product). Just that can heighten their awareness of the challenges people have in the field."

You also establish yourself as a living, breathing, go-to person for a topic. "We do get to press the flesh,” Griffith said.

Sometimes architects engage in behavior that would pale Miss Manners. One caller described a firm that asked for the rep’s credit card number so the firm could order the lunches. The rep needed to stick to a budget, but how do you tell a potential client they can’t order the meals of their choice on your card? Especially after you’ve worked hard to win a space in that firm’s coveted calendar?

"I’ve been trying to book box lunch presentations, and firms are limiting their times for those to one a month,” said one rep. She has booked lunches months in advance in some cases.

There are many stories about architects who walk in, pick up a box lunch, and walk out during the session, without so much as looking at the presenter. One rep reported that an architect was brazen enough to ask her to put him down for the CEUs even though he didn’t stay for the presentation. She didn’t -- the rep could loose her standing as an AIA education provider if she had acquiesced.

"I'm a registered provider. It's against the rules,” said one group member. "That is nonsense and I'm not going to support it. It puts us at risk."

Griffith has had participants who stayed for the whole lunch, but had a chilling effect on the room. "I think sometimes you have to break through shells,” Griffith said. “I have seen principals in box lunches who have been showing this sense of superiority. It really stifled the comments."

Ideas for Better Box Lunches

A former teacher reminded everyone that attention waxes and wanes over an hour.

"At least 1-2 do grip onto the presentation and want to listen,” he said. “You may not get everybody's attention all of the time, but you get attention little by little over time."

Griffith said that adult learners have the attention span of 5-year-olds because there’s so much competing for their focus. Changing how you’re presenting information every few minutes forces your audience to re-start their learning process, which bring their attention back to you.

"You need to break it up every 10 minutes,” Griffith said. “Pass around samples, move around the room,” she said. "It changes their learning because they have to adjust to whatever change you've made."

Other ideas:

• Ask what the client wants to know. "I interview the client beforehand,” Griffith said. “What do they need their staff to learn?"
• Order lunch to whoever set up the event for you. Even if it’s someone who has no influence on whether you get spec’d. They’ll remember you.
• Know the venue. If the competition is a bar with a band, your slides are not going to win.
• Ask about inviting engineers, independent specifiers, and others who work with the firm. "I've had a couple of firms who invite in their other players,” one rep said. “You can always encourage that. Then you get the targeted audience you're looking for."
  "I invite everyone, even the local contractor who does the installing,” another said. “The kind of conversation this causes is interesting. I've gone so far as to invite the building department."
• Identify a leader in the firm who can guide you. The right person in the room can change the dynamic of the meeting. "I try to orchestrate it around a key specifier. They act as your coach, as your pinpoint to reassure the crowd around what we want to focus on." 
• Teach a firm-wide topic. "We're going to come in and talk to them about networking in the industry, or the master specifying tools. You can get your face in front of these people, if you're the industry expert."
• Don’t ignore interns. "You'll see people later on, who maybe were not players when you made a presentation, but who have moved on and remember you."
• Tell your audience what you want. “The bottom line for me is I want to be in your spec. I say it. ‘I want to meet with your spec-writer and I want to be in your spec.’ They know what I want, it's clear."
• Use your giveaways as prizes for right answers.
• Ask someone else to hand out and collect evaluation forms. It’ll help you keep their attention on your presentation.
• Turn your evaluations into a prize drawing. Pull a winner from the completed evaluations that are turned in.
  

Alternatives to box lunches include:

• Webinars. Do a webinar-based “lunch,” then send a rep to the firm to follow-up in person.
• Salons. Have a salon-style event instead of a lunch, where people can informally nibble and chat, instead of formally dine and watch.
• Coffee breaks. Try a coffee break for several firms at a restaurant. Cookies, sodas, and a mini-tradeshow for the afternoon has worked for one rep.
• Breakfast. How about a pancake breakfast if lunch is booked?
• Skip the meals altogether. One rep reported sending articles with questions that earn CEU-credit to clients. "We do it about once a quarter, and it's worked out."
  

The Product Representation Practice Group’s next meeting will be Jan. 25. The topic is What Happens When a Product Rep Loses a Line in a Down Economy?

Got an idea for a session? Send it to Griffith at alana@empirehouse.com, or CSI Education Manager Erica Cox at ecox@csinet.org.

CSI’s Product Representation Practice Group is a community for people working in product representation, whether they represent one manufacturer or several. Join the group! It’s free!