Contractors are Selfish

A lawyer, a priest, a doctor and a little boy were flying in an airplane together when the engines started to fail. The pilot did all he could but determined hope was lost and they were going down. He grabbed his parachute, told everyone where the other parachutes were stored and bailed out. The four passengers were all terrified, and the situation turned worse when they saw that there were only three parachutes left on board.

The doctor grabbed the first and said, “I’m a doctor, I save lives! I deserve to live!” Then he jumped from the plane. The lawyer said, “I’m a lawyer, and lawyers are the smartest people in the world. I should live too!” He grabbed the second parachute and followed the doctor, leaving only the young boy and priest. The priest said, “Son, I’ve lived a long life and I know Heaven awaits me. You take the last parachute.” The boy replied, “Thanks Father, but we don’t need to worry. The smartest man in the world just jumped out of the plane wearing my backpack.”

Being focused only on ourselves can get us into a heap of trouble.

So, why did I start the article off with a pretty unflattering headline accusing contractors of being some of the worst offenders? Because I look at a lot of contractor marketing daily… a LOT of it. And you know what contractors love to talk about the most? Themselves.

Selfishness:Being concerned excessively or exclusively, for oneself or one's own advantage, pleasure, or welfare, regardless of others. See: egocentric, self-absorbed, self-centered.

Now, before you fill up my inbox with a whole lot of unflattering names you’d like to call me, hear me out. Contractors are, overall, some of the nicest and most others-centered people out there. You live to serve, and most of you do honestly care if your customers are happy, even going the extra mile to make sure that happens.

But sadly, that personality rarely translates to your marketing. And that’s what’s killing it.

Why is it that normal, EXPECTED, contractor marketing is a picture of a shiny truck, a list of why XYZ Air is the greatest and a short description of how many years they’ve been in business? When our goal is to serve the homeowner, why does most of your advertising skip over talking about THEM completely?

You can say you’re listing off the things that set you apart from the competition, but the competition is out there bragging about their own list of accolades, and pretty soon it all just gets redundant. How many people do you honestly think have gone line by line through your credentials and chosen you over your competition because you’re a Platinum Plus Elite Four Star System Dealer and the guy down the road is just a puny Diamond Three Star? It rarely works that way.

In his bestselling marketing book called The Wizard of Ads, Roy Williams said this, “Most ads are written under the assumption that the customer is asking, ‘Who are you? What is your product? When are you open? Where are you located?’ When, unfortunately, the customer’s only real question is, ‘Why should I care?’”

The truth of the matter is, our market is full of consumers who are selfish. You and I are selfish when it comes to buying decisions, and we have every right to be. It’s our money, we worked hard for it and it’s our choice who gets it, right? Whether it’s through a postcard, an online ad, a commercial or whatever, someone is coming to us with a proposition. They are trying to sell us something that, in most cases, we didn’t even ask for. The burden is on the advertiser to give a good reason for why we should buy, right?

If their entire message is simply, “We’re better than our competition,” with no focus on how this transaction benefits me, I’m out. As is most of the buying public. I honestly don’t care how shiny my contractor’s truck is, I care about saving money on monthly power bills so I can take my little girl to Disney World. It doesn’t matter to me if you’ve been in business 50 years or 2, focus on convincing me you can help bring me one step closer to achieving MY goal, and you’re my choice.         

Think about the guy at the party who only talks about himself — yeah, the guy everyone runs from — and try to never become that guy. Social settings can usually teach us a ton about marketing, because well, marketing really is just social interaction on a grander scale. If your advertisements read more like a conversation than a bragging board and people see that you are more interested in them than yourself, you become the life of the party.  

Just take a quick look at your own ads and compare how many times the word WE, or your company name, is used compared to the word YOU. Another truth from Roy Williams, “The most irresistible word in the English language has only three letters. The most powerful of all words is ‘you.’ Skillful use of the word ‘you’ makes the listener an active participant in your ad.”

So remember, if you want the chance to show homeowners how considerate, attentive and customer-focused you really are, drop the one-sided messaging in your advertising. Seek to answer the question your prospects are really asking. It’s not “Who are you?” but “What’s in it for me?”

More than media choice, great design or really any other factor, the message your prospects hear from you will always be the most important part of marketing. If done wrong, it can turn them away before they ever even see what you have to offer. Hudson,Ink has been writing proven and effective marketing content exclusively for in-home contractors for close to two decades, and we can help you make sure you’re truly connecting with your audience. Give us a call at (800) 489-9099or shoot me an email to [email protected] to start a conversation!