Respecting history is important as it frames who we are, where and how we do business today, at times offering a more in-depth perspective of the challenges we face. Our industry has a long record of cyclical movements. Most recently, watching housing starts steadily grow from 1.2m to 2.2m from 1992 to 2006, 14 years straight, has created a bit of an expectation in our selling approach. Further, our industry has become much more complex, consolidations have eliminated much of the fragmentation, advances in technology and management practices, have together increased the purchasing, logistic and overall performance of your competition. The economic down turn has removed most of the poor operators, leaving behind a greater competitive environment. The psychological effect of being flattened by the poor economy has taken its toll, creating added fear and anxiety, crushing creativity and innovation when approaching problems. The risk of failing is often perceived as too great limiting the willingness to take the chance of improving a mediocre situation. We have been conditioned to expect easy answers, but when the circumstances require a more cognitive challenging solution, we revert back to our old school thinking, because it's safe and familiar. Here is a list of common marketing strategies we see:

• Cheap and Deep, Dump and Run: Going to market as the low cost provider. This often has extremely limited returns offering less service, less product, less respect, and less trust sends the message to the customer that your company has a minimized value.
• Hook'em at a loss and raise the margin when they're not looking: (and hope they don't catch you) This strategy is often used resulting in the customer shopping your product and service for bid, forcing you to fight for their business every time they have a new project. The pricing pressure results in a downward spiraling effect, often pushing until a net loss becomes too great for the company and you walk away from the business. Frequently, you are consoled by uttering something about how great your service is and how poor your competitor is still hoping the business comes back with another chance to bid 3-6 months down the road. If your value proposition is reliant on keeping your customers ignorant, your success will be limited and short lived.
• Let relationships carry the weight: There was a time when profits and value for the general contractor, owner and distributor were high enough for relationships to bridge any gap in the buying and selling process. Those days are gone. Relationships build the foundation for gaining exposure and developing trust to open the door for the value proposition to be articulated. It is misguided for anyone to believe that relationships can camouflage a poor value proposition.
• Our character and values are much better than the evil empire supplier in town:  We are all motivated at a higher level when we think about competing against a demonic adversary. While that concept may make it easier to get out of bed at o'dark 30, it is nothing more than an illusion. Our industry is full of great people, with great character, ethics, and high family values. This is at best a "me too" strategy, never creating any significant differentiating value.

Looking at the popular strategies above, ask yourself, "How wide is the moat created by each strategy?"

We will likely agree - not wide enough.