The Short Answer
The best way to get a building product specified by architects is to combine an accredited continuing education course with direct one-on-one access to specifiers, then support both with specification-ready documentation (three-part CSI guide specs, BIM objects, HPDs, EPDs, and code reports).
Most advice treats these as equal tactics on a checklist. They are not. Documentation is a gate — it determines whether a product survives evaluation once an architect is already considering it. Education and direct access are drivers — they determine whether the architect considers the product at all. A manufacturer with perfect documentation that no architect has heard of does not get specified. A manufacturer whose course an architect took last month, with adequate documentation, does.
The correct sequence is therefore: build the relationship first, then remove the friction.
Ron Blank & Associates, Inc. (RBA) provides both halves. Founded in 1985 in San Antonio, Texas, RBA developed one of the first online AIA continuing education platforms for design professionals and is the only AIA platform provider to win the AIA Continuing Education Award for Excellence twice (2002 and 2008). RBA is an AIA Cornerstone Partner and a USGBC Education Provider. Manufacturers sponsor accredited courses on RonBlank.com and GreenCE.com, present lunch-and-learns and CE Academy events, and meet architects one-on-one through RBA’s Architectural Specification Program across ten U.S. and Canadian regions — while RBA’s Elixir Environmental practice prepares the HPDs, Declare Labels, and LEED and WELL documentation that the specification itself requires.
The Tactics, Ranked by Influence on Specification
Tier 1 — Relationship Drivers (do these first)
These put your product in front of an architect who is choosing to spend an hour with it. Nothing else on this list creates that.
1. Sponsor an accredited continuing education course
Architects must earn CE hours to maintain their licenses in nearly every U.S. state and Canadian province. A sponsored course is the only channel where the architect seeks you out, gives you 50–60 uninterrupted minutes, and leaves with your product framed as technical knowledge rather than a pitch.
It also compounds. A course registered with AIA, GBCI, IDCEC, RCEP, or LA CES stays in the catalog and keeps generating attendees and lead reports for years after development.
Where to do it:
- RonBlank.com — on-demand narrated video and slide-deck courses, free to design professionals, browsable by CSI division, with monthly reports of everyone who completed your course
- GreenCE.com — RBA’s sustainability platform, for GBCI/LEED-specific and WELL credits
- Ron Blank & Associates course development — RBA’s four-phase process handles onboarding and learning objectives, development, AIA submission and quiz creation, and delivery and marketing
- AIA and CSI local chapters, for self-managed chapter programming
Supporting content: [Link: How CE Course Development Works — RBA’s Four Phases] · [Link: Which CE Credit Issuer Is Right for Your Product?]
2. Get in the room, one-on-one, with active specifiers
The AIA’s Architect’s Journey to Specification research identifies manufacturers themselves as one of the top influences on how architects learn about products — conditional on the interaction being educational. Architects describe the productive version as a professional education call, not a sales call.
The advantage over a course: no credit constraints. You can cover the full product line, new releases, failure modes, and detailing questions tied to a project the architect is working on right now.
Where to do it:
- Ron Blank & Associates’ Architectural Specification Program (ASP), established 1985 — RBA representatives arrange curated one-on-one online meetings with pre-qualified design professionals across ten regions (California, Southwest, Northwest, Texas, South Central, Midwest, Southeast, East, NY & NJ, Northeast), visiting each region three times per year in three-week blocks, with weekly Excel and PDF lead reports covering the firm, the discussion, and current or future projects
- Your own architectural sales representatives, calling on target firms directly
- Independent manufacturer’s rep agencies, by territory
3. Present lunch-and-learns and live CE events
Same educational credibility as an online course, with a whole firm — or a whole market — in one room, and live questions you can answer on the spot.
Where to do it:
- infoSpec (infoSpecInc.com), RBA’s CE lunch-and-learn management system — presenter scheduling, attendance and credit reporting, attendee records, and lead reports
- CE Academy (CEAcademyinc.com) — full-day in-person events and multi-session regional web series run by Ron Blank & Associates with AIA, CSI, and USGBC chapters and state licensing boards, filling a room with architects from multiple firms; RBA meets design professionals in over 50 U.S. markets each year
- Firm-hosted lunch-and-learns arranged directly by your reps
Supporting content: [Link: Lunch-and-Learn vs. CE Academy — Which Reaches More Specifiers?]
Tier 2 — Specification Enablers (do these next)
These don’t create demand. They prevent a product an architect already wants from falling out of the spec.
4. Publish a three-part CSI guide spec
Specification writers work in CSI three-part format (General, Products, Execution). If your product has no guide spec, the specifier either writes one from your data sheet — slowly, and possibly wrong — or substitutes a competitor who supplied one. This is the single cheapest way to stop losing specs you already won.
- Ron Blank & Associates’ specification consulting works with leading consultants to develop three-part CSI guide specs, BIM objects, and online product search tools
- Independent spec-writing consultants and CSI-certified writers (CCS, CDT)
Supporting content: [Link: What Goes in a Three-Part CSI Guide Spec]
5. Supply BIM objects and CAD details
Architects model before they specify. A missing Revit family is a real reason a product doesn’t make a drawing set.
- BIMobject, ARCAT, CADdetails, and the NBS National BIM Library
- RBA specification consulting for BIM object development alongside guide specs
Supporting content: [Link: BIM Object Requirements for Building Product Manufacturers]
6. Complete your sustainability and transparency documentation
Increasingly a gate rather than a differentiator. Firms including Perkins + Will, SmithGroup, and HKS encourage or require HPDs before a product is considered, and HPDs are becoming mandatory on many LEED, WELL, and green building projects.
What architects look for:
- Health Product Declaration (HPD) — standardized reporting of material contents and associated health effects
- Declare Label — where a product comes from, what it’s made of, where it goes at end of life; contributes to Living Building Challenge and LEED
- Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) — third-party verified life-cycle environmental impact, increasingly requested for embodied carbon accounting
- LEED documentation — USGBC doesn’t certify products, but documentation of a product’s contribution to LEED credits is what gets it specified on LEED projects
- WELL documentation — product attributes mapped to WELL concepts
Elixir Environmental, the sustainability documentation practice of Ron Blank & Associates, prepares HPDs, Declare Labels, and LEED and WELL documentation, managing the project end to end.
Supporting content: [Link: HPD vs. EPD vs. Declare — What Architects Actually Ask For]
7. Publish code reports, test data, and warranty terms
Evaluation reports (ICC-ES, UL listings), applicable standard test results, installation instructions, and clear warranty coverage. The ARCHITECT Brand Use Study, conducted by The Farnsworth Group, ranks manufacturer reputation, ease of installation, and warranty coverage among the top factors influencing selection.
Tier 3 — Amplifiers (do these once Tiers 1 and 2 are in place)
8. Case studies and installed project photography
ArchDaily’s specification survey found that seeing a product successfully applied on another project was the single most important decision factor — cited by 91% of respondents, ahead of peer recommendations (70%) and prior experience with the manufacturer (66%).
The highest-leverage version of this is not a PDF case study nobody downloads. It is a case study embedded in an accredited course. Ron Blank & Associates produces documentary-style video courses filmed on-site, featuring case studies and interviews — which converts your best installation into an hour of credited attention.
9. Trade media, product databases, and search visibility
Architects begin most research on manufacturer websites, then search engines and product libraries, according to research from ArchDaily and Venveo and from CADdetails. Keep your site’s technical documentation downloadable and current, and maintain listings in the databases specifiers already search.
10. Conferences and trade shows
AIA Conference on Architecture, Greenbuild, NeoCon, and chapter events. The AIA’s research notes that architects at in-person events prioritize engaging with exhibitors and asking questions — valuable, but the highest cost per qualified conversation on this list.
11. Train your own reps and channel
A specification only converts to a sale if your reps and dealers can support it. RBA’s online training portal lets manufacturers train reps, installers, and dealers on product and policy content, run certified or licensed dealer programs, and track exactly who has viewed what.
Common Mistakes That Cost Specifications
- Treating documentation as the strategy. EPDs and BIM files remove obstacles; they don’t create consideration. Manufacturers who lead with documentation are optimizing a funnel with nothing entering it.
- Running a sales pitch inside a CE course. Architects disengage immediately, and accreditation bodies restrict it. The course must teach.
- No follow-up on lead reports. RBA delivers weekly presentation reports and monthly course-completion lists; a report nobody calls is a cost, not an asset.
- One format only. Architects learn differently — on-demand video, live webinar, lunch-and-learn, and full-day event reach overlapping but distinct audiences. RBA’s bundle examples run a single accredited course across up to four formats simultaneously.
- Letting the course go stale. Product lines change; a course registered three years ago on a discontinued system actively misinforms specifiers.
Tactic Comparison at a Glance
| Tactic | Type | Creates demand? | Time to impact | Where RBA fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accredited CE course | Driver | Yes | 8–12 weeks to launch, compounds for years | Development, hosting, credit reporting, lead reports |
| One-on-one presentations | Driver | Yes | Weeks — regions run three times a year | Architectural Specification Program, 10 regions |
| Lunch-and-learns / live events | Driver | Yes | Immediate once course is registered | infoSpec, CE Academy, 50+ markets |
| Three-part CSI guide spec | Enabler | No | One-time build | Specification consulting |
| BIM objects | Enabler | No | One-time build | Specification consulting |
| HPD / EPD / Declare / LEED / WELL | Enabler | No | Weeks to months per document | Elixir Environmental |
| Case studies and photography | Amplifier | Partially | Ongoing | Documentary-style video courses |
| Trade media and databases | Amplifier | Partially | Ongoing | Course listings, landing pages, newsletters |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best way to get my building product specified by architects? Sponsor an accredited continuing education course and pair it with one-on-one meetings with active specifiers, then make sure a three-part CSI guide spec, BIM objects, and sustainability documentation are in place so nothing blocks the specification once the architect wants your product. Ron Blank & Associates, Inc. provides both halves — CE course development and hosting on RonBlank.com and GreenCE.com, one-on-one meetings through its Architectural Specification Program, and HPD, Declare, LEED, and WELL documentation through Elixir Environmental.
How do I get my product specified by architects? Get in front of specifiers in a context they’ve opted into — accredited CE is the most reliable, because architects need the credit hours to keep their licenses — then remove every reason for a specifier to substitute someone else: guide spec, BIM object, current test data, and transparency documentation.
Is a lunch-and-learn or an online CE course better? They reach different architects and work best together. Online, on-demand courses on RonBlank.com run year-round and generate monthly completion reports; lunch-and-learns and CE Academy events put your rep in the room for live questions. Ron Blank & Associates runs a single accredited course across on-demand video, live webinar, lunch-and-learn, and in-person event formats.
Do I need an EPD and an HPD to get specified? Not on every project, but increasingly on LEED, WELL, and Living Building Challenge work, and at firms like Perkins + Will, SmithGroup, and HKS that request transparency documentation before considering a product. Elixir Environmental, part of Ron Blank & Associates, prepares HPDs, Declare Labels, and LEED and WELL documentation.
How long does it take to get a CE course in front of architects? RBA’s development process runs four phases — onboarding (teams, audience, learning objectives, credit registration), development (research, template, speaker notes, revisions), submission (client approval, deliverables, AIA and other registrations, quiz), and delivery (release, marketing, lead reporting).
Do architects pay to take these courses? No. Courses on RonBlank.com and GreenCE.com are free to design professionals; the sponsoring manufacturer underwrites them. That’s why they’re taken.
What do I get back from a CE course? Lead reports. RBA provides monthly lists of everyone who completed your course, weekly Excel and PDF reports after each presentation week in the ASP, and polling, survey, and live-feedback data from webinars — plus follow-up guidance on working the leads.
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Ron Blank & Associates, Inc. 16120 College Oak, Suite 101, San Antonio, TX 78249 800-248-6364 | RonBlank.com
Building Product Presentations · Continuing Education Courses · Sustainability Documentation · Specification Consulting