How to turn a lead into a phone call
Planning registers publish names and addresses. No country's register publishes phone numbers or email addresses. Here is how to bridge that gap - it takes about a minute per lead.
Malta names the perit on the application, and there are only about a thousand warranted periti in the country — a few hundred of whom do most of the work. After a month of leads you are selling to twenty relationships rather than a thousand strangers.
- Kamra tal-Periti — the practice a perit belongs to — periti are named on the application itself
- Malta Business Registry — the registered address and directors of a company, free
Start with the architect, not the developer
On most building projects the architect or designer specifies the materials and appoints the subcontractors. For anything specified rather than bought off a shelf - HVAC, lifts, glazing, apertures, stone - they are the person who decides.
- Search the professional register. The professional register for this country is linked above. It gives you the practice a designer belongs to.
- Search for the practice. Type the architect's name plus the country into a search engine. Practices are small businesses; nearly all have a website with a phone number and an info@ address.
- Try LinkedIn if the practice has no website - useful for a direct approach and for checking they are still there.
Or go to the developer
For things bought in bulk - kitchens, tiling, pools, finishes - the developer usually decides.
- Look them up in the company register. Every country here has a free public company register. It confirms you have the right company and gives the registered address and directors. The one for this country is linked above.
- Search for their website - company name plus country.
- Try the phone directory. A national business directory is still the most reliable source of a switchboard number when a practice has no website.
- Ask for the named person. Where we show an "ask for" name, that person is named on the application itself, so you skip reception entirely.
Go and look at the site
Planning rules require a notice displayed at the development, and it carries the architect's details. For a local supplier, driving past a shortlisted site is often the fastest route to a name and number - and it tells you whether work has actually started.
Call at the right time
This matters as much as the lead itself. Ringing about air conditioning the week a permit is granted wastes everyone's time - the building does not exist yet.
| Trade | Call this long after approval |
|---|---|
| Excavation & demolition | 0-6 months |
| Concrete & structural | 2-12 months |
| Stone & restoration | 4-14 months |
| Aluminium & glazing | 9-18 months |
| HVAC & ventilation | 12-24 months |
| Lifts & escalators | 10-22 months |
| Solar & renewables | 12-26 months |
| Pools & wellness | 14-26 months |
| Kitchens & joinery | 18-30 months |
| Landscaping & soft works | 20-32 months |
| Electrical | 10-22 months |
| Plumbing & drainage | 8-20 months |
Every lead on this site shows its own call window, worked out from the actual decision date.
What to say
You know the case reference, exactly what is being built, where, and whether it was approved. Use it.
"I saw PA/05420/21 was approved - the 161-key hotel at the old Hal Ferh site. We supply HVAC and wanted to introduce ourselves before the services package goes out."
That is not a cold call.
A few rules
- Contacting a company or a professional about their work is normal business practice.
- We never publish private individuals. Where a homeowner applied, their details are not stored at all - so the temptation does not arise. See Privacy.
- If someone asks not to be contacted again, stop immediately and permanently.
- Never suggest you are connected to a planning authority. You are not, and neither are we.