The building game and which is a video about price and risk.
You could call it Episode 2 if you like. I'm calling it Episode 2. I spoke last week or the week before
about how price and risk are very intricately related for your customers.
A cheap builder or a cheap trade for a project comes with a lot more risk
than a more expensive trade who's included everything,
who you an trust and rely on and comes with longevity and all those other things.
I'm not going to dig it into that too much now.
It was in the other video.
I do want to point out that I don't necessarily mean that all expensive things are better than all cheap things
because they are very clearly not true.
But there is a correlation in our minds between price and value and that risk certainly of something being
significantly cheaper
is very high. Also it's your job to point out the risk that people take when they buy something
cheaper. You can't prove that the other guy's rubbish but you should be educating your customers
about what to look for so they can meaningfully
compare the cheaper solution with your somewhat better solution or offering
or package or whatever. And that's your job in your sales process.
So today I want to talk about the game
and like I said it's not just for builders it's for all trades
and it's also called or is also known as cheap things aren't necessarily
or aren't always as cheap as they seemed at first.
So this is the builders game, a slightly unscrupulous trade business presents to the customer.
They're less expensive solution that looks like it includes all the stuff
that you're more honest quote includes.
It's a fixed price quote or it looks like a fixed price quote and it looks like it includes all the same thing
but sneakily perhaps with some weasel wording or not being very thorough in the way the wording is.
It doesn't necessarily really cover the same stuff.
The customer of course, being uneducated in such matters can't tell the difference between their
quote and yours, chooses the cheaper one because if they're the same
cheap has better and then has an unhappy experience throughout the job
when the other trade starts trying to recover if that's really what's going on.
The costs he lost when it was being cheap. Pricey variations,
things that you might have assumed would be included. You suddenly realize aren't,
that kind of thing. We all know this occurs. Has it happened to you? and I don't mean
have you been a victim of it so much as have you lost business by to somebody else playing this game?
I bet you have.
How do you counter it? I believe it's relatively common.
And one of the difficult things about it from your perspective anyway
is that of course, a customer stuck in that slightly unpleasant experience hasn’t got
the first builder, the good guy, to check with.
He’s running now, talking to the builder he's stuck with, and the customer is having a poor experience,
probably a damaged relationship, and quite possibly ends up paying more than they would have
if they’d chosen the more honest tradesperson or trades business in the first place.
So all over, it's a big shit, a part from the unscrupulous guy who's making his money at someone's expense.
So what should you do as the honest builder? I’m assuming I'm talking to honest builders
and honest trades businesses working with consumers or businesses or even corporations
and you want to prevent them from making the wrong choice of not choosing you,
and getting caught by this building game and ending up with a poor experience.
And of course, you get to win by winning more customers.
There's only one thing to do. I've written it down just here.
How to counter it?
The real answer is to educate your customer early.
Educate them that this is a thing that goes on. Educate them that if they choose the cheap person
and they don't get the same inclusions in that cheaper price,
they might regret it later and they might end up paying more later.
Educate them that there's a game.
Educate them that it doesn't happen when they choose you
and educate them how not to get caught in the game.
So at least, they have a choice to make. They can take this other guy and risk that he's playing the game
or they can work with you and not have that risk.
You might teach them how to compare apples to apples.
You might teach them how to look at a quote for a project like this
and understand about what's included and what's not.
You might teach them that if something is not explicitly included in a quote, it's not included at all.
If it's not written down as included, no matter how obvious it might seem that it should be included,
it probably isn't.
And of course you need to make sure that your quotes explicitly include everything that is included
and are written properly, and appropriately and reassuringly.
Of course, that doesn't sound like an easy silver bullet and not many of the things I teach are
easy silver bullets. I don't think there are many of those things around. If it was all easy,
everybody would be doing it and it would be lovely. But business isn't easy. There is work involved
and a bit of thinking.
What you need to do of course is put this into your sales process. Put it into your sales proposal
documentation.
Note: I say your sales process and your proposal documentation, not your quote.
You should be writing a proposal, not a quote.
That's a topic for another day.
You need to be educating your customers. You need to document this stuff in your proposal.
You might give them paperwork to take away and read so that they can go back and look at it
and have this proper understanding of how to compare trades businesses.
Now, if you want help with that, of course, you're in the right place. I'm the person who can help you
and if you do want me to help you, there's a link below.
Book yourself a 10-minute chat with me and explore whether this is something I can help you with
in your business, with my coaching because, of course, that's what I do.
It's Jon signing off. See you later!
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