The first call, when you sell material

Calling off a permit is warm calling. You know something real: the address, the kind of build, roughly when framing starts, and whether this builder already buys from your branch. The difference between sounding like a telemarketer and sounding like the rep who follows their projects is whether you use it.

The two-minute prep

• Read the reason on the card. Their account means you are calling a customer about a job you were not on: lead with the relationship, not the pitch. Their zone or Rotation means a new builder: lead with the schedule.
• Read the header. Type, class, units, floors, value. Twenty-four townhouse units is a different order than a laneway house, whatever the declared value says.
• Work out the material date. Each trade's window is counted from the issued date; the material for it is decided about two weeks before. Framing at day 14–42 means the lumber conversation is now.
• Check Reachability, and if it is thin, Find phone before you dial.

The opener

"Hi, this is [name] at [branch]. I saw the permit go through for the project at [address]. Have you got your [lumber package / windows / flooring] lined up for that one yet, or is it still open?"

Honest about how you found them, specific enough to show you are paying attention, and it ends on a question they can answer without committing to anything.

The four outcomes

1. 1
   "Still open"

   Ask two questions: when do they need it on site, and who is doing the takeoff. Offer to price it from the plans (drop the plan set on a quote and the line items draft themselves). Get a name and an email before you hang up, move the card to Contacted, and set a follow-up.
2. 2
   "Already ordered"

   "Good to hear it's moving. What else have you got coming up this year?" Star the builder; their next permit lands in your bell under Watchlist. Move the card to Lost with the reason, so next Monday's list learns from it.
3. 3
   "We already buy from you"

   This is the leak, and the most valuable outcome on the list. "I know, that's why I'm calling. This one wasn't on my radar and I want to make sure we're pricing it." Then ask what else is coming. Make the account yours on the card if it is not already.
4. 4
   Voicemail

   Fifteen seconds: your name, the branch, the address of their project, one sentence on what you supply, your number twice. Then send the follow-up. Scout drafts it from the first-contact template in thirty seconds; you send it, and it is logged on the lead.