by Larry Silver, Contractor Marketing Inc.

One of my fellow construction consultants was an expert on proposals and was contacted by a top-tiered ENC firm. My friend showed up in their conference room to review their current proposals and to evaluate why their win ratio was so low.

He slowly and deliberately was turning the pages of their proposal in silence. After some time, the client was irked. “Why do you keep doing that?” “Well,” he replied, “You stated that your company slogan was ‘Client-Centered.’ I just found the first slide on your proposal where a client was mentioned. It’s page 29.”

So often in the AEC industry, we think that to sell our firm it is all about us—the features of what we do and how we are that will attract a client. But actually, clients do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. They want you to bring them value, something that will help their business to flourish, grow, and expand.

They want their vendors and suppliers focused on their business and cued into the goals, concerns, and issues they are grappling with day to day. If you can become a consultant and solve their problems and dilemmas, your firm’s stock can rise and you can sell your price on every project, even if it is not the low price.

What are you really offering them? A design? A building? A hole in the ground with some structure on top of it? Really, you are offering them a partnership, a relationship they can trust to bring savings to their bottom line, comfort for their hassles, mitigation of their liability and insurance for their risk.

You bring a listening ear instead of a talking tongue. Do you really want to bring the same old rant that they hear from other competitors in your line of work? If so, then your price had better be lower, because that is all that will separate you. Your service is now a commodity, a no-frills approach to a necessary evil.

Do you believe your clients really want to invest millions of dollars on construction because it is sexy, fun, and a thrill? I hate to burst your bubble, but none of them think this.

This capital-heavy purchase is necessary for their growth, but it is not a fun or instinctive process to go through. Figure out an approach to make construction easier, simpler, and more practical.

Easier

One of the challenges of construction is that your clients do not know what to expect. The majority of clients have never built a multi-million dollar facility. Set up a clear communication system that brings their expectations in line with reality. Offer them regular updates without too much detail, scratching where they itch. Let them know if a major milestone changes and the reason for it. There are many factors that clients need to be addressed—ongoing budget considerations, schedule priorities, safety, ascetics, and overall progress.

Simple

Construction can be very complex and very demanding. However, for most clients, it helps to keep it simple, to the point, and short. Explain things in layman terms and ask questions that reveal the heart of the matter so that wise decisions can be forthcoming. Keep the staff at your firm cued up to the corresponding staff at your client’s firm. Don’t have an engineer explain to the CEO what the problem is. This is asking for trouble. Have people at similar levels communicate to their counter parts, so that things are straight-forward.

Practical

Take off the mask and do not pretend to be someone you are not. Be practical and relevant. If you are a business developer, then do not try to be technical. If you are a superintendent, then do not talk about marketing and PR. Each team member in your firm has a role that they are suited for that has practical value for the client. Celebrate your milestones together and meet when trouble comes unexpectedly to solve the challenge. Be real. Construction is an art and a science and problems always come. It is just a matter of where and when.

Now that you have a mindset to make things easier, simple, and practical, you are putting your best foot forward with every project. Think about your focus and your value proposition. What are you offering that no one else is? Where are you strong where you can differentiate from the competition?

Don’t wait until page 29 of your proposal to show the proof of your value. Then clients will see your worth, and they will be attracted to doing business with your firm for their upcoming work.

Larry Silver is president of Contractor Marketing Inc., a national consulting/recruiting firm specializing in the AEC industry. Silver can be reached at (937) 776-7170 or larry@contractormarketing.com.