Don't Cheapen Your Brand

In this econ­o­my, many con­trac­tors are becom­ing des­per­ate, that is…if they are still in busi­ness. Instead of think­ing smart about their busi­ness, they are doing the first thing that comes to their mind: low­er­ing their price. Who can blame them? I’ve been there plen­ty of times myself. You go into a sales sit­u­a­tion, bond and rap­port with a home­own­er, dis­cuss their project and then get down to the price. All of a sud­den, your not their friend any­more. They say, ​“Oh wow…that is way too much. The ​“oth­er guy” will do it for half!” I’d sure like to meet the ​“oth­er guy” some­day. I’ve heard about him, and he does not have a good rep­u­ta­tion. So, what’s a con­trac­tor to do when he hears those words? Cut his price or cre­ate some­thing new and dif­fer­ent for his clients? My sug­ges­tion would be to not cheap­en your brand but pro­vide a solu­tion to your poten­tial clients that is new, dif­fer­ent and might cost less. So for exam­ple, instead of try­ing to sell a com­plete exte­ri­or paint job or inte­ri­or ren­o­va­tion, try giv­ing the prospect some­thing tan­gi­ble for less. I recent­ly talked to a painter who cre­at­ed a ​“curb­side spe­cial” pack­age and sold it for a flat price. He told home­own­ers that they could fresh­en up their fas­cia, shut­ters and entry wood trim for less than a thou­sand dol­lars. The paint­ing own­er came up with this idea for a few com­mu­ni­ties with sim­i­lar look­ing homes. He knew he would not loose mon­ey as well. The ben­e­fit to the home­own­er was it would tie them over for the next few years until they were ready for a com­plete paint job. Anoth­er exam­ple is my dad, Mike Chism, cre­at­ed a Painter for a Day dur­ing the mid and late 1990s to offer small paint­ing projects to his clients. Dur­ing this slow­ing econ­o­my, his Painter For a Day con­cept has worked quite well. In fact, dozens of oth­er painters are using a sim­i­lar pro­gram to pro­mote their ser­vices. A Painter for a Day real­ly is a great way for clients to sam­ple one’s ser­vices before com­mit­ting to a larg­er project. My dad tried hard not to dis­count the work as well, because the val­ue to the client was obvi­ous: he did small jobs. Many times, cus­tomers began to add more than just one day of paint­ing. He even had a cus­tomer hire his com­pa­ny to paint the entire inside of the house, which start­ed with a Painter for a Day dai­ly rate. It was tangible…and easy for cus­tomers to swal­low. Cre­at­ing val­ue and new pro­grams for your cus­tomers is far bet­ter than just low­er­ing your price. Now is the time to real­ly get your cre­ative juice going and try dif­fer­ent ways to con­nect with home­own­ers. If you don’t know what to do, ask them. Call up your exist­ing clients and talk to them about some of your ideas of mar­ket­ing your business.