Ohio Dealer Touts the Use of Lead Service

Government projects represent a goldmine for window film dealers willing to track down and seek out these opportunities. Similar to commercial projects, however, the most challenging aspect often times is discovering projects and determining who you should speak with to culture the deal. One Dublin, Ohio-based dealer says he's discovered an edge.

"Onvia offers contact information for a large number of architects and engineers," says Sam Elzein, chief technical officer of Pentagon Protection USA. "We want to start talking with them at the design and specification phase of projects instead of waiting for project bid requests."

Elzein's company prescribes to a service that provides leads for potential and upcoming government construction projects. The lead generating company helps connect companies to government opportunities and buyers online. Prescribers act on daily e-mail alerts listing upcoming public projects and have access to a database of historical government purchasing records to identify architects, contractors and agencies that might need window film, among other products and services.

Elzein says the information service is a valuable planning tool for his company. He uses the service to find plan-holder lists and award data to identify the right point of contact.

"Currently, I'm talking to different levels of authorities to raise awareness of the importance of using anchored window film for security or using solar film for energy efficiency. Anchored security film and solar film are less expensive than other options and pay for themselves in the long run by protecting lives and reducing operational costs," Elzein explains.

While Elzein acknowledges that most government and commercial projects tend to be for solar film, his company also installs a fair amount of security film and anchoring to protect storefronts against smash-and-grab problems. "A single event can cost a store thousands of dollars in lost merchandise and downtime," he says. "Some chains can easily justify the cost of window protection."