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Earning Trust By Using Empirical Data

Will Lead To Product Specifications

Pete Bynum

Burrus & Matthews

Irving, TX

Dealing with Specifying Engineers: The Importance Of Empirical Data

Part of the duties of Consulting Specifying Engineers (CSEs) includes identifying major risk and regulatory compliance issues. Order-of-magnitude estimates of the costs associated with identified project improvements need to be prepared and provided to the client as part of the specification. By doing so, CSEs provide their clients with a sound assessment on which products and services are ultimately selected.

As Independent Manufacturer's Representatives, our firm offers a wide variety of products and we need to be constantly prepared to provide CSEs with empirical data specific to those products in order to meet their project and job application needs. For such data we are dependent on the manufacturers we represent. Frankly, there are some that provide us with solid evidence of product performance, and some that don't. Not surprisingly, we are significantly more successful in positively influencing CSEs when we are able to provide them solid empirical product data: that is to say, documentation of product performance that is independently validated by recognized, objective, third-party sources.

One Example of Meaningful Evidence: ETL-Verification

When an engineer is faced with specifying products for highly corrosive environments, such as those found in Water/Wastewater or Food Manufacturing facilities, conduit for protecting electrical raceways and connections is often required. In such instances we always strongly recommend that they specify Plasti-Bond PVC-coated galvanized rigid conduit. The reason is built upon solid empirical facts. First: all available brands of PVC-coated galvanized conduit meet exactly the same UL 6 standard and carry the same UL label relating to safety conformance. Second, however: only certain brands, including Plasti-Bond, are authorized to carry the ETL-Verification label. The significance of this is that ETL testing, and consequently ETL-Verification, is based on actual product performance, as a predictor of reliable service life. Plasti-Bond, therefore, has a documented, proven ability to perform in a corrosive environment over an extended time --- a fact which has been evaluated and confirmed by a world-recognized, third-part source. To us, and to most CSEs, this is a vital reality because it addresses the extremely important need to specify products that will enable users to avoid the high cost, and sometimes disastrous, effects of product failure.

Objective testing of actual product performance is the key element of ETL-Verification. ETL evaluates how well the coating on PVC-coated conduit adheres during ASTM-designed high heat/humidity testing and high temperature boil testing. The regulated and quantitative test protocol used by Intertek ETL SEMKO to determine eligibility for ETL-Verification concludes that Plasti-Bond brand of PVC-coated conduit provides at least ten times the coating reliability versus competing, non-verified products.

Intertek ETL SEMKO administers a quarterly follow-up program by selecting and testing coated conduit specimens to insure continued compliance with the adhesion requirements in the specification. Randomly selected conduit specimens must also successfully pass the adhesion tests to maintain the listing and ETL label. This performance testing is open for any manufacturer who would like to verify superior product performance.

Therefore, if predictability of product service life is important to engineering design, avoidance of costly, or catastrophic product or system failure, it should be assumed, in the specification process, that only PVC-coated galvanized conduit carrying the ETL-verification, will meet the standards established by all relevant ASTM tests, including those predicting service life.

Going beyond Empirical Data: Developing Trust

Presenting CSEs with empirical data supporting the recommendations is the first step in an effective working relationship. The next stage, developed over time, is the all-important matter of building trust based on the ongoing reliability of recommendations. Here are some of tips that will ultimately cause CSEs to value and follow your product-related advice:

• Always be willing to help. This establishes a bond based on mutual needs and fulfillment of those needs.

• Keep your promises --- that's the only way to establish confidence.

• Treat customers as individuals. By understanding how each CSE is oriented you can best serve such persons with information that addresses their specific project needs, and provide with product data to educate CSEs as to the product opportunities available to them.

• Make it easy. CSEs are looking to you for real data, not smoke and mirrors. Be honest, be straightforward, and provide them information that really matters.

Trust is significantly related to sales, profits, and turnover. Long-term, trust-based working relationships are an important source of your sustainable competitive advantage, but must be based off the quality of product-related information upon which recommendations to CSEs are based.

For more information about Burrus & Matthews, visit: www.b-m.com

For more information on Plasti-Bond: www.plastibond.com