If your building product has the lowest cost in the market, allowing you to win work by undercutting the competition, then you might feel you don’t need a construction specification strategy. Your focus may simply be to get your product into as many builders’ merchants and distributors as possible.
However, if you don’t have that cost advantage—or you want to maximise your margins—then you must adopt a construction specification strategy that highlights the specific benefits your product brings to a project. These benefits might include ease of installation, lifetime cost savings, sustainability, aesthetics, or superior performance, to name just a few.
Why invest in a construction specification strategy?
A considered construction specification strategy will build awareness of your building products and their value. This creates demand pull from key stakeholders including Clients, Architects, Engineers, and Interior Designers. The strategy should also extend to influencers such as Quantity Surveyors and specialist consultants.
There’s a wide toolbox of resources to support your strategy: brochures, CPD seminars, and design aids all help influence specification. But the cornerstone of any good construction specification strategy is a set of well-written product specifications.
What is specification in construction?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a specification as:
“A detailed description of the construction, workmanship, materials, etc., of work done or to be done, prepared by an architect, engineer, etc.”
Specifications communicate critical information that cannot be shown easily on drawings. They also form a key part of the contract. Importantly, when alternative products are suggested—often under the guise of ‘Value Engineering’—a robust specification provides the basis for comparison and protects the original intent.
Writing a specification for a construction product
Providing the architect or engineer with a clear, comprehensive specification helps them define precisely what they want on a project. Many specifiers find it challenging to write detailed product specifications or respond to changes suggested by contractors. A well-drafted specification makes it harder for subcontractors to swap out your product for an alternative.
Two main types of construction specification
There are two principal forms of specification, both of which should be addressed in your construction specification strategy:
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Performance Specification:
No brands are named. Instead, performance criteria—such as material types, relevant standards, and installation requirements—are defined. Crafting an effective performance specification requires a solid understanding of the application. Weak specifications in this format often lead to poor substitutions and substandard installations. -
Nominated or Proprietary Specification:
Here, specific brands are listed. This makes life easier for the specifier, who knows exactly what they’re getting. However, performance criteria remain essential, providing the benchmark against which any proposed alternatives must be judged.
Manufacturers should prepare well-written specifications in both formats. These should describe all key product benefits, aligning with wider marketing materials such as CPD seminars or case studies. The messaging should consistently reinforce how the product contributes to the building’s overall performance.
Making specifications accessible
A critical part of your construction specification strategy is ensuring your specifications are easy to access. They should be downloadable from your website, readily available to your sales and technical teams, and handed out during CPD sessions.
A strong set of product specifications is at the heart of an effective construction specification strategy. Get this right, and your investment in awareness-building activities will deliver returns. Get it wrong—or neglect it entirely—and that effort, and cost, may be wasted.
At Competitive Advantage, we specialise in helping building product manufacturers get specified. From developing persuasive CPD content to writing robust product specifications, we support every step of your strategy. Whether you’re looking to raise awareness, influence specifiers, or reduce product substitution, we can help you create a tailored approach that delivers results.
