How building materials dealers can win more of a builder's jobs

Many builder accounts that look healthy in the ERP are buying part of their work somewhere else. To win more of it, start with individual jobs. Find the addresses where the builder had active work and bought little or nothing from you, confirm each gap is real, then ask the builder about those specific jobs. The reasons you hear tell you what to change and which job to ask for next.

This guide is for outside reps and sales managers at multi-category dealers and lumber yards who sell to builders and remodelers. It covers customers who already buy from you. Opening a new account and adding a missing product category are separate tasks.

Why builders split their business

Splitting is normal, and often deliberate. A 2011 Pro Builder article on lumber purchasing described three approaches among builders: competitively bidding each new phase, which it said most builders do; working consistently with two or three yards; and staying with a single yard, which it said very few do.

Research across the construction trades points the same way. In a 2021 survey of more than 750 contractors commissioned by HMI Performance Incentives, 47% said they use two or three distributors, and only 21% described themselves as loyal to one (Contractors Speak Out). Respondents named product availability, competitive pricing, delivery, brands and location as the main reasons for their loyalty. The survey covered several trades, including building materials, and was produced with vendor partners, so treat it as a general signal for the trades.

A builder who buys from more than one supplier has not necessarily rejected you. Each job is a separate buying decision, and some of those decisions are within reach.

Find the jobs you are not supplying

Your ERP shows what the builder bought from you. It cannot show what they bought elsewhere. To see the gap, you need a view of the builder's work, and in many markets building permits are the most practical public record of it.

Match the builder's permits to your orders by jobsite address. Jobs with permits and matching orders are yours. Jobs with permits and no orders, or only a small fill-in order, are the ones to look into.

SalesJack's Analytics uses AI to match ERP and permit data. Its dashboards show what percentage of material spend you are getting with each customer, and reps can drill down to the addresses they are not winning. In Radar, a rep can ask "Which of my customers have active permits but no recent orders?" or "What has this builder purchased across its jobsites?" and get an answer drawn from connected ERP, quote, permit and CRM data.

Without permit matching, start from what the builder tells you. Ask for their list of current and upcoming jobs at your next meeting and compare it with your order history. It takes longer, but it still turns an account total into a list of specific addresses.

Check each gap before you call

Treat an unmatched address as a question. Before raising it with the builder, rule out explanations that have nothing to do with a competitor:

• The job is too early. A recently issued permit may not have reached the material-buying stage.
• It was bought under another account. Check other branches, job accounts and related company names in your ERP. A homeowner or another trade may also have bought the material.
• The job does not use your products. A permit for a pool, a reroof or a commercial interior may not need what you sell.
• Your team already quoted it. An inside rep or estimator may have an open or lost quote on the job. Check the CRM before the outside rep calls.

What remains is a shorter list of jobs the builder most likely bought from someone else. That list is the basis for the conversation.

Ask about specific jobs

General questions like "Is there anything more we can do for you?" rarely produce a useful answer. A specific address usually does. Bring two or three of the missed jobs and ask about each one:

• Who placed the material order on that job?
• How was the supplier chosen? Was it bid, or did it go to a regular supplier?
• Was there something we did not offer, such as a product line, a delivery window or a package price?
• Will the next job like this one be bought the same way?

Keep the tone factual. You want to understand how the builder buys, and a missed job is already decided. Listen for business problems as well as prices. Sales trainer Bill Lee wrote in LBM Journal that builders do not need more quotes; they need help raising gross margins, reducing labor costs, finding good subs and finding substitute products.

Record each answer against the job in your CRM. One job's reason is an anecdote. The same reason across three jobs is a pattern you can act on.

Sort the reasons into what you can change

Most answers fall into a few groups, and each calls for a different response.

The builder bids every job. Ask when the next bid goes out and who receives it, then make sure your quote arrives on time and complete. If price decides every job, review the account with your manager before discounting. Our guide to handling "your quote is too expensive" covers comparing the same package and explaining real service differences.

A different person buys certain jobs. A superintendent, project manager or partner may order for some jobs and not others. Ask for an introduction, and give that person a reason to call you.

You did not offer something the job needed. The builder may have wanted a product you carry but never quoted, or assumed you do not handle that type of job. Your team can close this gap, often with a package quote that combines categories the builder now buys separately.

The other supplier serves that area or job type better. Distance from your branch, delivery timing or a specialty product may decide some jobs. Be honest about which of these your business can change, and do not promise delivery, credit or pricing that the responsible team has not confirmed.

The builder keeps a second supplier on purpose. Some builders want a backup source. You may not win every job, but you can aim to be the primary supplier on a defined type of work.

Ask for the next job by name

Turn what you learned into one concrete request. "Can we quote your next spec home on the north side?" is easier to agree to than "Can we get more of your business?"

Rick Davis, writing in LBM Journal, argues that salespeople should stop bidding and start proposing. His proposal has four parts: what you heard and observed about the builder's business, objectives, roles and responsibilities, and pricing and products. Roles can include a set rhythm for communication, such as a weekly call about upcoming projects and product needs. A short proposal that names the type of job you want to supply and how the two teams will work together gives the builder more to compare than a number.

A 2016 LBM Journal column describes how this can play out. A builder heard back-to-back presentations from its two primary dealers. One brought its sales rep, estimator, yard manager, accounting manager and owner, along with 15 specific ideas for reducing the builder's cost per house. Within six months, according to the column, that dealer became the builder's sole lumber and building materials supplier. It is one consultant's story, and few accounts will move that far, but it shows the kind of offer that changes how a builder splits its business.

Make the next step a task assigned to the rep, with a reminder set before the expected start. When the builder pulls its next permit, SalesJack's CRM can match the lead to the existing customer and route it to the assigned rep, so the follow-up happens while the job is still being bought.

Review progress job by job

Check the account again after a few months. Look at the jobs that started since your conversation. Did you quote them? Did you win them? Did the reasons change?

Revenue alone can mislead. A builder's purchases may rise because they started more houses while your share stayed flat. Comparing the addresses you supplied against the builder's active addresses shows whether the approach is working. Managers can run the same review across every rep's top builder accounts and spot reasons that repeat, such as a product line the branch does not quote or a buyer no one has met.

For more on how SalesJack supports multi-category dealers and lumber yards, see our building materials dealers page. If you want to see address-level matching with your own ERP and permit data, you can book a demo.

Sources

• Pro Builder, "How to Get the Best Price at the Lumber Yard," October 23, 2011.
• HMI Performance Incentives and Channel Marketing Group, "Contractors Speak Out," 2021 survey of more than 750 contractors across several trades.
• Bill Lee, "Is price your elephant in the room?," LBM Journal, August 16, 2020.
• Rick Davis, "Stop Bidding and Start Proposing," LBM Journal, February 2, 2026.
• "Strategy Z and Opportunity Lost," LBM Journal, March 11, 2016.