LinkedIn for bespoke makers who sell through architects

By Peter Solarski, founder of Forge Lead · Updated 5 November 2026

Forge Lead helps UK bespoke makers get known by the architects who could specify them. I write LinkedIn posts in your voice from two calls with you, connect you with the right architects and start real conversations from your own profile. When an architect asks about a project, you take the call. It is built for makers whose jobs run into five figures, and I work with one maker per category.

What is LinkedIn for bespoke makers?

Most bespoke work does not get bought from a website. It gets drawn in. An architect writes a maker's name into a drawing or a schedule, and the order follows months later, through a contractor. If the architect has never heard of you, the order goes to someone they have.

So the job here is simple to describe and slow to do: make sure the right architects know your name, your work and how you think, before their next suitable project arrives. LinkedIn is where most UK architects already keep their professional network, and it is the one place a small workshop can be known as a person rather than a logo.

That is what Forge Lead does. It is not an ad campaign, and it is not posting for the sake of a busy feed. It is a steady, personal presence in front of a few hundred of the right people, in your own name, with real conversations behind it.

Who is it for?

It is for UK makers who sell through architects and designers, and whose work is made to order. Typical categories:

• Steel doors, windows and glazed screens
• Architectural glazing, from frameless balustrades to structural glass
• Bespoke staircases in timber, steel or stone
• Natural stone, from worktops to whole facades
• Architectural metalwork, gates and railings

The sums matter. Building relationships with architects takes months before the first order, so it makes sense where a single job runs into five figures and one good architect can bring a project every year or two. If your jobs are small and architects rarely repeat, the money is better spent elsewhere, and I will say so on the first call.

How does it work?

There are four stages. Your part is two one-hour calls at the start, then approving your posts.

Week 1: two calls with you

One hour each. You talk about your work: the jobs you are proud of, the detail that was hard, the client who came back, what architects usually get wrong about your trade. I listen and take notes. Those calls are the raw material for everything that follows.

Week 2: a month of posts, in your voice

I write a month of posts from those calls, in the way you actually talk. Nothing goes out until you have approved it. If a sentence does not sound like you, it changes. The posts are written for architects first: real jobs, real details, real problems solved on site.

Every week: architects get to know you

Your posts go out. I connect you with UK architects and architectural technologists who work on the kind of projects you make for, and I start conversations with them from your account. Every new connection gets one short, useful note. It makes no pitch and asks for nothing. Old connections who have never heard from you get the same. I also leave thoughtful comments where architects are already talking, on their own posts.

When they are ready: you take the call

When an architect asks about a real project, wants a brochure for their product library or asks to visit, the conversation is yours. You know the product. I make sure the right people know you exist.

What happens in the first 90 days?

The honest answer is: conversations, not orders. In this trade an architect can find you today and specify you a year from now. What 90 days shows is whether the right people noticed, and whether any of them moved.

Here is what that looked like for a luxury steel door maker in London, the first category I took on, between 6 July and 3 October 2026:

Architects asked for brochures for their product libraries. One asked about fire-rated doors. One raised a project starting the following week and offered to pass the details to the contractor. One visited the showroom and wrote:

"I am truly impressed witht the products you make and will be more than happy to specify them..."

Architect, the day after her showroom visit, 2 October

The full account, with screenshots of the architects' own messages, is in the steel doors case study. Treat it as an example, not a promise. Every category and every region moves at its own pace.

Why your own profile and not a company page?

People trust people. An architect with a question about fire ratings or U-values wants a person who can answer it, not a logo. A personal profile also reaches further: in the case study, 72% of the people who saw the posts were not already connected to the maker.

And the relationships stay with you. They are built on your profile, in your name. If we ever stop working together, every connection and every conversation is still yours. A company page is fine to keep alongside it, but it is not where the relationships happen.

What do you need to bring?

This can win attention. It cannot make the product better. Once architects are paying attention, the work gets tested, so you need three things:

• Work worth showing. Finished projects, photographed properly, and details you can explain.
• Technical answers. When an architect asks about fire ratings, thermal performance or lead times, someone in the business has to know, and answer the same day if possible.
• Somewhere to see the work. A showroom, a workshop or a finished project an architect can visit. It turns an online conversation into a meeting.

Why only one maker per category?

Because I would be introducing you to the same architects. If I worked for two staircase makers, every conversation would be a conflict. So it is one maker per category, and once a category is taken, it is closed.

Right now steel doors and windows is taken. Architectural glazing, bespoke staircases, natural stone and architectural metalwork are open. See the current list.

Who is it not for?

It is better to say so now than to take on a maker it cannot help.

• You want orders next week. Architects work to project timetables, not to a supplier's sales target. In the case study the six-figure enquiry arrived 12 weeks in.
• You aren't proud of what you make. Being better known will not help if every job is won on price.
• You'd rather not show your work. Without finished projects and details, there is nothing to put in front of an architect.
• You're just after followers. Followers are a side effect. The goal is architects who write you into their projects.

If you would rather run LinkedIn yourself, Voice OS gives you an AI writing system that sounds like you, without me in the middle.

Questions makers ask

How much of my time does it take?

Two one-hour calls in the first week, then approving your posts. When an architect wants to talk about a real project, you take that call.

Will architects know someone else is writing my posts?

The posts are written from your own stories and in your own words, and nothing goes out without your approval. They say what you would say if you had the time to write it down. Plenty of business owners work with a writer; what matters to an architect is that the person they talk to knows the work.

Do you send messages from my account?

Yes, with your agreement. Connection requests and a short opening note go out from your profile, because that is where the relationship needs to be. When an architect replies with a real question or a project, I hand the conversation to you.

How long before architects get in touch?

In the steel doors case study, the first replies came in the first two weeks and a six-figure window package came up 12 weeks in. That is one maker, one category and one region, so treat it as an example. Expect months, not weeks.

What if my category is already taken?

Then I will tell you on the call, and I will not take on a competitor of an existing client. If your work sits between two categories, we will talk about where the overlap is.

Do you guarantee orders?

No. Nobody honest can. What I can do is make sure the right architects know you, hear from you regularly and have a reason to ask you a question. Whether they specify you depends on your product, your answers and their projects.

Is this only for makers in London?

No. I work with makers across the UK. The architects we contact are chosen by the kind of projects they work on, and by the area you can deliver to.

Read more: How to get specified by architects · Steel doors case study · About Peter Solarski · All questions