Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in 2013 and was updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness on January 8th, 2018.
When was the last time you heard a lead architect on a multi-million pound project say:
“I’m specifying this [insert high-end building product here] because I reckon the head of sales and marketing needs a pay rise”.
Or maybe you’ve recently overheard a roofing contractor say that he kept a premium product on the spec because he had a bit too much in his profit margin?
I’m guessing not recently.
Lets face it, it ‘aint happening. Neither are really concerned about choosing products out of the goodness of their hearts.
Strangely enough even in construction it is accepted, expected even, that certain products just cost more than other similarly performing products. Just why is that?
Brand Building
I think I know. I think it’s called brand and I think most companies who carry ‘premium’ products will have built a good one.
Rightly or wrongly, specifier folks want to believe they are doing the right thing. They want to believe they are aligning their company and their personal reputation on choosing the best product for the job.
When we talk to Architects we’ll often ask ‘why?’ they specified one particular product over another.
We’ll hear the same reasons time and time again: Quality product and customer care, sales and technical support etc.
Rarely do we hear “because they’re the cheapest”. Contractors may be perceived to be different but that’s not always the case either.
While belief systems are hard to prove, hard to instill and equally hard to maintain – you can change this if you’re persuasive enough…
Build trust and credibility
Building trust and credibility will enable cost to become much less of an issue: Get your audience to believe in your company’s products and you’re winning.
Remember that people don’t buy what you do – they buy into why you do it…
It’s about expressing your company’s intrinsic value.
In other words, how do you positively affect the lives of the specifier, the contractor, the building owner and even the end user?
Your brand isn’t a logo, in the same way as your ‘Why’ isn’t an expensively crafted three-word USP.
It’s not a BBA certificate, or an ‘Excellent’ rating under BES 6001, or even a case study about a finished building.
What’s Your Story?
Dare I say, building trust and credibility comes with building an ongoing story: a ‘clarity of purpose’ in everything your company does. A purpose that, once articulated, flows through your business, your people, your marketing communications, your sales process like blood through healthy veins.
Provide your audience with a vision or story that they can believe YOU believe in.
Something more than just the ‘features and benefits’ of the products and services, something that your company fights for.
Work out your ‘Why’ and over time it’ll give your prospects a unique perspective, it’ll add credibility to your business, it’ll find you followers and create advocates.
This is what we believe in – our ‘Why?’ – condensed into 10 easy to swallow beliefs.
If you like what we believe in, then there’s probably a good fit, and if that’s the case then maybe (when the time is right) we should talk.
Until then, why not view our case studies or download our free resources to help guide your construction marketing strategy choices this year?
Get articulating your ‘Why’ today.
