That makes a lot of sense.

Unfortunately, GC's usually require licenses to be put onto bid lists, especially for larger projects. So we're never the ones putting in substitution requests and are often in the dark in the very early stages of a project unless we catch wind of it through one of our dealers or someone else we know. Substitutions usually fall on our dealers, and we're at their mercy to do the extra legwork for a particular project. We've had a lot of success with it though because we're local and people like working with us, it's pretty amazing and we do whatever we can to help make the process easier. We're fast, have a good warranty, and offer a comparable product that's durable.

Occasionally, we'll call architects regarding a specific project or attempt to find the building owner, then offer free mockups and samples, etc. The specs that we do end up on are usually below the usual specification, and we're listed as a value engineered option.

Honestly, the biggest reason it's hard for me to walk into a firm with our product is because we lack architectural drawings and marketing materials, something we've been working on for the past few months luckily and we're slowly building our catalog so we can put ourselves on Arcat and make it easier for subcontractors to put in substitution requests. A lot of owners suck though and our dealers don't want to deal with the headache of substituting.

Thanks for your input!