Heard it again last week: “Our clients are increasingly treating us like we’re a commodity!”
Yes they are. And why shouldn’t they?
The economic definition of a commodity is any product or service for which, in the perception of the buyer, the only difference between one supplier or another is price. One bushel of wheat is exactly the same as another whether it was grown on the Russian steppes or the Canadian prairies. And one Civil Engineer or Architect or Contractor is the same as another. Right?
I can feel you bristling from here!
But let’s be frank, if your firm is like most, the only time a prospective client encounters you is when you respond to their RFP. Your proposal is one of many in a big stack all competing in “the Battle of the Lists,” where your list of projects is pitted against the others. Be honest, if you were a client, wouldn’t you select on price too?
There is good news though. It lies in that definition when we said, “in the perception of the buyer…” While it’s pretty hard to make one bushel of wheat any different from another, it’s very easy to make your firm stand out from the rest as something very special indeed. But the onus is on you to communicate those differences.
The biggest opportunity you have to fight the trend towards commoditization is to proactively and aggressively build your firm’s brand. It’s the easiest, least expensive and most powerful marketing tool you’ve got. But it’s also the least understood and least utilized among design and construction professionals.
What is your brand? It’s the sum of all the perceptions and experiences that reside within the hearts and minds of clients, prospects and indeed your entire market. In other words, it’s not what you are; it’s what the people who do and who might hire you think you are.
While the clients you actually work with have a front row seat as they develop those perceptions and experiences, the rest of the market – those people you hope will hire you in the future – can only judge you based on what they encounter in their world.
Imagine the view from behind the eyeballs of a prospective client who may or may not have heard of your firm. Their exposure to you consists of a Qualifications package filled with boilerplate, a call from a business developer who has obviously got word that you might have a project on the street and is anxious to build an instant relationship, and a proposal in response to your RFP. When a long parade of firms suddenly shows up at your door, all claiming to be uniquely qualified but all looking and sounding the same, you don’t have much on which to build a really informed perception.
Brand building takes place over long periods of time. Think about the big names – Apple, Disney, American Express. They’ve all invested millions of dollars over many years to teach you about their companies and their products. Those branding messages have been both carefully crafted and relentless. Which makes it very easy to sell you their products and services when it comes your time to buy.
But if you’d never heard of them before, they’d have a hard time convincing you that you should stand in a long line or fill out an application form before they charged you a premium for what they sell.
You can influence the perception of your buyers to where your firm is seen as something different from all the rest. A well-orchestrated branding effort that uses advertising, email, public relations, social media and other select tools is an anti-commodity investment that will return many times its cost.
Yes they are. And why shouldn’t they?
The economic definition of a commodity is any product or service for which, in the perception of the buyer, the only difference between one supplier or another is price. One bushel of wheat is exactly the same as another whether it was grown on the Russian steppes or the Canadian prairies. And one Civil Engineer or Architect or Contractor is the same as another. Right?
I can feel you bristling from here!
But let’s be frank, if your firm is like most, the only time a prospective client encounters you is when you respond to their RFP. Your proposal is one of many in a big stack all competing in “the Battle of the Lists,” where your list of projects is pitted against the others. Be honest, if you were a client, wouldn’t you select on price too?
There is good news though. It lies in that definition when we said, “in the perception of the buyer…” While it’s pretty hard to make one bushel of wheat any different from another, it’s very easy to make your firm stand out from the rest as something very special indeed. But the onus is on you to communicate those differences.
The biggest opportunity you have to fight the trend towards commoditization is to proactively and aggressively build your firm’s brand. It’s the easiest, least expensive and most powerful marketing tool you’ve got. But it’s also the least understood and least utilized among design and construction professionals.
What is your brand? It’s the sum of all the perceptions and experiences that reside within the hearts and minds of clients, prospects and indeed your entire market. In other words, it’s not what you are; it’s what the people who do and who might hire you think you are.
While the clients you actually work with have a front row seat as they develop those perceptions and experiences, the rest of the market – those people you hope will hire you in the future – can only judge you based on what they encounter in their world.
Imagine the view from behind the eyeballs of a prospective client who may or may not have heard of your firm. Their exposure to you consists of a Qualifications package filled with boilerplate, a call from a business developer who has obviously got word that you might have a project on the street and is anxious to build an instant relationship, and a proposal in response to your RFP. When a long parade of firms suddenly shows up at your door, all claiming to be uniquely qualified but all looking and sounding the same, you don’t have much on which to build a really informed perception.
Brand building takes place over long periods of time. Think about the big names – Apple, Disney, American Express. They’ve all invested millions of dollars over many years to teach you about their companies and their products. Those branding messages have been both carefully crafted and relentless. Which makes it very easy to sell you their products and services when it comes your time to buy.
But if you’d never heard of them before, they’d have a hard time convincing you that you should stand in a long line or fill out an application form before they charged you a premium for what they sell.
You can influence the perception of your buyers to where your firm is seen as something different from all the rest. A well-orchestrated branding effort that uses advertising, email, public relations, social media and other select tools is an anti-commodity investment that will return many times its cost.
