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FEATURE ARTICLE:
No Pain No Gain
Here's an ugly truth that many contractors just don't "get" about selling: It isn't about YOU. There, I said it, and I am calling you out.
The construction industry has come a long way in refining their image to be more "professional" and business minded; and yet, I still run into contractors who can't seem to grasp Sales 101, which says (and I may be paraphrasing here): Shut up! Stop talking about your company and listing your features, and listen to the customer. If given the chance, the customer will most likely tell you exactly what they need, what their pain is - and therein lies the key to making the sale, I guarantee.
Many builders, remodelers and other specialty trade contractors want to give you a long list of features they bring to the project. Does this sound familiar?
· Experienced staff
· Trusted name-brand building materials
· Warranty program
And from there, they launch into details (ACK! the industry-lingo spec sheet): Superior Wall foundations, moisture-resistant drywall in baths, R-20 wall insulation, exterior house wrap, maintenance-free vinyl windows ... (I could go on and on).
Some homeowners care about those details right out the gate, but most do not. By the time the prospect narrows down their contractor to the top 5, they've already determined that you can build a home or remodel their existing one to code, and that spec list doesn't end up meaning much. Yet those are the listed "features" that many contractors go back over and over again.
Clinching the sale isn't about your eco-friendly building products; it's about whatever the customer wants it to be about. Thus I ask, do you know what your customer wants? You've got to LISTEN! That's the only way you, the trusted contractor, is going to turn into the knight on the white horse who solves their pain.
Here's an example from my personal life as a homeowner (and any remodeler who is a client of mine has probably heard this story). I hate my kitchen. It is the room I spend the most time in (other than my home office) and yet, I hate it. I don't like the colors of the countertops and cabinets.
I also don't like the paper-thin linoleum that is already torn in two spots in front of the refrigerator, and that my cheaply installed backsplash is pulling away from the wall in several places. Furthermore, I am constantly frustrated with the lack of countertop space. I find the entire room awkward to work in, and I have lived with it for nearly 10 years.
 Now I've revealed many pain points that Jason and I share about our kitchen, but one pain point, above all others, ticks me off to no end. The team of "geniuses" who designed this house did not include ANY standard-sized silverware drawers in the kitchen - and we didn't discover this until we moved in. The model home we looked at was the next model up, and yes indeed, that model did have silverware draws. Not ours. What's the point of designing a kitchen without silverware drawers?
If you were the remodeler we were interviewing on our kitchen renovation project and you had not listened to my entire story and had interrupted me after I said, "I hate my kitchen. I don't like the colors of the countertops and cabinets..." do you think you'd get to my real pain?
You can show me all the fabulously designed countertops and cabinets you want, but my real pain points - the ones that absolutely drive me bonkers - are the last two. How the space is awkward to work in and how we don't have any standard-sized silverware drawers. Therein lies my true pain and that's what the contractor must address to get my sale. That needs to be the focus of his presentation to us.
Take this a step further ...
When you make your presentation to the homeowner, address their pain points in your written materials. Don't simply provide them with a standardized quote and call it good. To really win a place at their bidding table (and to ultimately win the job), you must address how your design SOVLES THEIR PAIN in your cover letter - in addition to talking about it in your contractor-to-owner presentation.
I promise you, when you stop focusing on your features first and begin addressing your customers' pain, you'll start seeing better results (the gain!) with your bidding process.
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I've always been a reader. As a kid, my nose was constantly in a book (yes, I did the "reading-with-a-flashlight-under-the-covers" thing), and my little town libraries in Canaan, New Hampshire and Lock Haven, Pennsylvania were two of my favorite places to explore. My other favorite pastime was tromping through the "scary" woods behind my house and just being outside.
