3 Reasons Why Your Customers Love Typicals

Render by ofcdesk Connect

Often known as "configurations," "planning ideas," or "planning starters,"  what I call "Typicals" are one of the most powerful selling tools available to you as a manufacturer or dealer.

Lets take a look at the benefits that Typicals offer your customers.

Typical Configurations are pre-configured product arrangements that are often created for marketing materials.  Typicals are also popular for AutoCAD, Revit, and SketchUp product symbols and are a key part of your symbol content strategy.

These appealing product arrangements help your customers understand how your product lines come together in a practical way in a designed space.

Typicals for Furniture manufacturers are similar to the mannequins used in the clothing industry. That pair of jeans looks a lot better when its paired with a nice shirt and a sweater.

This is why you rarely see a single piece of furniture displayed on its own at NeoCon: give your products some complimentary "friends" and watch your customers flock to your showroom display.

This Typical concept carries over to how your design customers work with your products in a virtual space.

Here are some reasons why Typicals should be a part of your symbol content strategy:

Render by ofcdesk Connect

1. Typicals give your customers a place to begin.

The majority of your customers don't have the deep understanding that you do about your products. They don't understand how product number xxxx-xxx fits with product number yyy-yy.

Symbol Typicals put your products in context and help designers see how the parts come together. From there, they can change the arrangement, as needed, by swapping out individual products.

Render by ofcdesk Connect

2. Typicals show how multiple product lines can come together.

Typicals aren't limited to one product line.  You as the manufacturer can mix and match different products in your Typicals to add variety and introduce another product line to the designer.

For example: a designer may have seen an image of your chair and downloaded the Typical that contains the chair.  The Typical that you offered them may also contain a table from an entirely different product line.

Now your customer has been introduced to this new table product line.  Cross selling at its finest.

Render by ofcdesk Connect

3. Typicals are fast.

Whether a designer is in a dealership or an architecture firm, its understood that time is money.

Giving a designer the ability to download a pre-configured Typical right away will save them time. Don't make your potential customer sift through long lists of individual products to figure out how they come together.

Remember, they don't know the details of your products--they just want something that looks nice at the right price.

So what now?

Typicals are important to the design process--not having them could mean leaving money on the table (no furniture pun intended).

Here are some simple steps that you can take to prepare your Typicals right away:

1. Build them: Use your existing Typical arrangements and reproduce them with your AutoCAD, Revit, and/or SketchUp symbols.  If you can't create them all on your own, hire a service to create them for you.  Also, focus on creating Typicals for your most popular product lines first, if you're unable to build them all at once.
2. Create enticing Typical images: Create images for each Typical, so designers can see what they will download and eventually use in their design.  Keep the images clean and place them in a white environment, so the background is not distracting.  See the above images as an examples of Typical renders.
3. Put them on your website: Create a web page on your site where designers can download your Typicals.  Name the Typicals something like "design starters" or "planning starters." 

Do you already have Typicals?  How do they help you sell more?

5 Reasons Interior Designers Use Revit/BIM Software

Photo by Jakob Salovsky

For contract furniture manufacturers and dealers, understanding how their customers are using their products in a virtual space is becoming more and more important.

This post is a primer for members of the contract furniture industry to understand how their customers are interacting with their products in a BIM environment.

For those of you new to BIM, the acronym stands for Building Information Modeling. BIM is a streamlined, collaborative process used by architects, engineers, construction companies, and interior designers to efficiently plan and visualize buildings.  

Revit is a BIM software that works in this process.  In comparison, AutoCAD is not a BIM software.

In many cases interior designers may work with a manufacturer's products in a virtual space before even seeing the physical product.  

Designers may design a space using your task chair (provided you have Revit models available for them) before they've had the opportunity to sit in it.

This is the new reality for interior designers who collaborate simultaneously with other disciplines on BIM projects, the most popular BIM software being Autodesk Revit.

BIM has become an integral part of most large scale building projects and those who work with interiors have been in the process of making the switch for the past five years.

Here are 5 reasons that interior designers are making the transition to the BIM process using Revit:

1. Revit helps them visualize in 3D

BIM software, like Revit, helps designers create their space in 3D and then view that space. The ability to switch between 2D and 3D views helps the designers on both practical and creative levels.

In our interview with Linette Kilbourn, an interior designer working at Interior Architects, we learned the importance of BIM in the interiors space.  Linette told us:

"Personally, I feel that the (BIM) benefit for interior designers is even more than for architects.  First, we can immediately see the space in 3D, even right after the plan is drawn." 

For example, the concept of "clash detection," the ability to avoid errors when two objects are laid out in the same space, become more important. Designing in 3D makes inserting objects into a space as intuitive as placing a physical object in a room.

Revit designers use 3D Revit views to generate basic renders for their clients.  This is an opportunity for designers to impress and discuss their ideas for the layout for a given space within the building. 

It's in this phase that the designer showcases the furniture in the space, making it even more important for manufacturers to offer accurate Revit representations of their products.

Photo by stuart.childs

2. Data is easier to manage

There are a lot of 3D design tools on the market that the interiors community can use for free.  But the real power of BIM comes, not only in the ability to design in 3D, but in the easier management of all the data that can be used to plan the space.

Think of well made Revit/BIM models as little computer programs that hold data and options for manufacturers' products.  The bulk of the work that uses BIM models relies on product data and is not concerned with graphics.

Revit/BIM models often contain valuable data that assists with GSA and LEED requirements to be calculated for the space.

3. The Revit schedule helps them slice and dice data

Schedules provide an organized foundation for extracting and using BIM data as designers work through their projects.  If you're familiar with a Bill Of Material, schedules are a similar concept. Revit schedules provide an interface that could be compared to Microsoft Excel.

Revit designers use schedules to edit and view data in different ways.  For example, Room Data sheets are commonly created from schedules for an inventory of products which are added to the design.

Adding non-graphic data within the individual Revit symbols, enables interior designers to perform accurate quantity calculations in relation to surface areas and material amounts with ease.

Picture by GotCredit

4. BIM promotes collaboration

Furniture is just one aspect of a building project.  Interior designers involved with building projects are not only looking at their piece, they're collaborating in a virtual model that is simultaneously being worked on by other disciplines.

The days of passing architectural data from architect to engineer to construction and finally ending in the designers lap are fading fast.

BIM helps multiple disciplines work data for a building simultaneously.  That means engineers, MEP, electricians, and designers could theoretically still have their hands in a BIM model at the same time.

Creating in Revit helps designers capture and manage the design with multiple options such as space layout and material selection, within a single model, while communicating with their colleagues in other disciplines.

5. No fudging, accuracy is improved

With BIM/Revit there are fewer change orders as well as requests for information from the contractor and their subcontractors.

Revit doesn't let you fudge the numbers because its a 3D software.  In the old 2D software, dimensions can be overwritten, making the finished documents incorrect.

Revit doesn't let designers make up the numbers, and they appreciate the software for its accuracy and honesty.  In a BIM environment everything is as it appears, and if it is modeled incorrectly it will be caught in advance and fixed as soon as possible.


What have you heard about BIM technology for interior design?  Leave us comments below.

7 Signs Dealers Need to Invest in Revit Technology

Contract manufacturers and commercial furniture dealers always ask us about the value of investing in Revit technology for their businesses.  The most common question is:  "Is Revit a fad?"

In other posts, we've proven time and time again that Revit technology in the commercial furniture industry is not a fad.  Your clients’ demand for Revit designs is only going to grow in the coming months.   

From conversations that we've had with our clients, I've compiled seven, clear signs that it's time to invest in Revit technology, if you're a dealer.  Read through the following list and ask yourself:  is this something I need to look at?

1. You received an RFP for a project that required you to provide your designs using Revit symbols.

This is the simplest reason to invest in Revit technology.  Your potential customers who have considered you for a project have decided to reach out to you for a chance to win their job.

Most importantly, they see your company as forward thinking enough to offer them the technology they need to help them with their project.  Don't let them down.

2. Your client has told you that they are using Revit.

Clients who use Revit might not always tell you.  This doesn't mean you can overlook the design tools they use.  Anytime you share designs with them they're going to put in more hours to take your design and bring it into their Revit projects.  This process can be taxing and time consuming for your client.

You'll add more work for them and not know it, as they may view you as a company who could not help them.

Ask your clients and see what design tools they use, and then, as you make the transition to Revit technology, you can be prepared to win them over with new capabilities.

3. You've never received a customer request for your designs in Revit... ever.

This is a problem.  If you've never received a request, beware.  This could mean one of two things:  your competitors are receiving those bigger Revit bids, or your clients don't think you have the ability to work with Revit technology.

Either way, there is an opportunity to help your client by understanding their design process, so that you are considered for Revit bids.

4. You're looking for new services to offer your clients.

Competition is high in the dealer world, so businesses are looking for new ways to stand out.  Enabling your business to offer Revit technology to your clients is a potential new revenue stream.

Provide ways you can save your clients' time with Revit designs in the beginning or during the project.  They may be willing to pay a little more, to give you some of their Revit work.

5. The manufacturers you represent have created Revit symbols.

The manufacturers you represent are just like you, businesses looking to increase profits.

If you find that the manufacturers you represent do offer Revit symbols, it's a good sign that they have researched to find that their customers are requesting Revit content from them.

6. You had to turn down a project because you didn't have the ability to offer Revit designs.

If the RFP or bid requires Revit designs and you don't have them, someone else is going to win the bid.  In our experiences, dealers are reactive and not proactive about responding to Revit bids.

Plan ahead and be ready to respond with confidence to those RFPs by having your Revit tools in line. 

7. The number of requests for your designs in Revit has increased in the last three months

When it comes to Revit technology for your business, it's important to assess the demand.  Is it the right time to invest in Revit technology?

You need to justify your investment in Revit technology.  The final and simplest answer to this question is:  If the number of Revit requests has increased in the last three to six months, it's time to invest in Revit technology.

The Revit tidal wave is coming, so prepare for the splash.