Product Reps: Work that CSI Certification!

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• On: 06/16/2010 17:30:33
• In: Product Representation Practice Group
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CSI’s Product Representation Practice Group meets monthly by webinar. Join now! It’s FREE! Download the slides from this month’s presentation. CSI will make a recording of this presentation available until July 15, 2010.

Alana Sunness Griffith, FCSI, Lifetime Member, CCPR, started the discussion with a short primer on the CDT and CCPR:

• CDTs are known “for their comprehensive knowledge of the writing and management of construction documents.” They understand every phase of construction.
•  CCPRs know all that, and serve as a technical resource to the design team. “You speak the same language as architects, engineers, specifiers, contractors.”
  

The exams for both are primarily based on CSI’s Project Resource Manual (PRM), “The authoritative resource for the organization, preparation, use and interpretation of construction documents,” according to CSI.

Griffith said one way she uses her CCPR is to search CSI’s Member Directory and for other people with CSI’s certifications to call on when she has to visit an unfamiliar area. These certification “kinfolk” can be a lifeline for a product rep who is suddenly drowning in an expanded territory, she said.
"I need a conversation spring board,” she explained.

In this way, getting certified is an indirect path to more work. Architects depend on reps they can trust, and many of them trust those certifications at least enough to let a new rep into their office.

But what do you do if the designers you’re calling on don’t know what CSI or its certifications are, asked one caller. "Sometimes I threaten to bring in my PRM and show them what I went through,” he said. “Trying to get more value out of it to date has not worked because people don’t know what it is."

"It’s up to us to tell them, was Griffith’s answer.

"If you go in for a sales call, explain what it means. You're the educator out on the street,” Griffith said. "We need to get the word out that we want to be a knowledge source.”

CSI’s certification program is a way to demonstrate that you’re more than a salesman – you’re a resource who can help the design team solve problems in their documentation, according to other callers.
Certification is something you advertise because it shows you’re a “Golden Rep,” Stirling Morris, CSI, CDT, said.

"It's helped a lot as a basis for starting a good conversation and telling the construction industry who I am,” he said. "It offers a chance to show yourself as a knowledgeable, capable person."

What to do with your certification?

• Put it on your business card, letter head, email signature, etc. If you pass the CCPR, you drop the CDT and just list CCPR after your name. It’s assumed you have the CDT at that point, because you can’t take the advanced exam unless you have it.
• Put it on the handouts you use. Leave space on the other side for taking notes during your presentations, so that participants take your information back to their office.
• Go through CSI’s directories and find other CSI certification-holders. One caller described how a principal at a major architecture firm took his call because of the letters after his name. The Certificants Directory and BusinessLinx are open to the public. CSI members can also search the Member Directory.
• Mention your qualifications at the end of your presentations. Take a minute to explain what your certification means. 
• Use it to start a conversation. 
• Make it part of your personal brand and the way you market yourself – especially if you’re an independent rep.
• Send your clients an announcement when you pass the exam. No reason not to share the happy news – and a brief explanation of what it means.
• Tell the manufacturer why you know what you’re talking about when you’re pitching his product. A caller described taking a representative of his manufacturer with him to a presentation, where he was able to talk to designers on their level, in their language. “He asked me, ‘How the heck did you figure all that out?’ and I said, ‘Part of it is CSI.’ He joined his local CSI chapter.”
  

The most important thing you can do is put the knowledge you gained while studying to use, Griffith said. She recalled the day she saved the company $3,000 and got an “attaboy” from the boss.
"The contractor was trying to force something down my throat,” she said. “I went back into the documents -- I had just learned this in my class -- and I cited the article and the section in a letter to the contractor. I got a call back that said, ‘When did you start reading the documents?’”

PRA Update
Griffith also gave the group an update on plans for the 2011 Product Representatives Academy (PRA), which will take place in Dallas, Feb. 24-26. The practice group’s discussions have influenced the planning for the academy, especially the education, Griffith said. The most recent session added to the roster has working title of “Blueprint 101.”

Organizers plan to post information about the PRA education sessions and to open registration in a few weeks. Practice group members will get an email when that happens. Watch www.csinet.org/academies and the CSI Weekly e-newsletter for updates.

CSI’s Product Representation Practice Group meets monthly by webinar. Join now! It’s FREE!