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You Don’t Need No Stinking Marketing!

Nov. 16, 2018
Ignore marketing if you want your contracting business to remain small and insignificant.

"Marketing," you say with a snarl. "Bah! Who needs that?" Not you. You certainly do not need it if the following five characteristics apply to your business.

1. You Like Commodity Pricing
You are just like every other contractor in town.  There’s nothing much different.  Certainly, there’s nothing different that is worth communicating to others.  Thus, price is the best and only way to gain preference. 

Accordingly, you run such a lean, low overhead operation that you can survive on the thinnest of margins and lowest levels of personal income.  If some idiot doesn’t understand his costs and prices below his (and yours), you will still beat him on price and try to make it up on volume. Yup, it’s a winning strategy, alright. 

Besides, the entertainment industry and talking heads say profit is rather evil and you believe them. No one wants to be evil.

2. You Don’t Want to Grow
Growth is just more headaches. It means hiring people.  It means creating personal growth opportunities for them. It means training them. And they can be so ungrateful, always wanting another dollar an hour and leaving when someone else gives it to them.  Who needs it?  Who needs them?

Who needs to get out of the truck and put away the tools? You look forward to experiencing crawlspaces and 130 degree attics in your 60s. Who needs the greater pay that comes from running a larger business?  Who needs the ability to build a salable company? Who needs a company that can provide an income if you’re sick or injured. You’ve survived so far.  It’s much better just to coast, even if coasting involves going downhill.

3. Your Customers Know Everything About You
Your customers have perfect knowledge of your products and services. There is nothing they might want or need that they do not already know about and understand completely. This means there is no reason to communicate anything with them that might lead to additional purchases or inquiries.

Furthermore, your customers are unlikely to conduct an Internet search, watch home improvement television shows, get confused or encounter misinformation. Since they hold no misconceptions, there is no reason to communicate with them about the features and benefits of everything you do and everything you offer.

4. You Are Amazing
Your customers love you. They will never leave you. They are customers for life. Perish the thought that a customer might forget who you are or switch to another company over something as crass as a promotion, coupon, or marketing message. 

Your customers cannot wait to tell all of their friends, neighbors, and co-workers about you. Thus, all you need is word-of-mouth.  It gets you enough business to easily replace any customers who might move away or pass away. 

No one ever says anything bad about you either. You are simply so amazing that people seek you out without the need for marketing.

5. No One Competes For Your Customers
Because you are amazing, you really have no direct competitors. Furthermore, no one is competing with you for your customers’ disposable income.  How can they?  People need you.  They hardly need things like high-end consumer electronics, new furniture, vacations, and so on.  You win those battles hands down.

FACT: Every Business Needs Marketing
The business that doesn’t need marketing is a unicorn. It simply does not exist.  Every real business needs marketing even it every business doesn’t market.  Every business needs to show why they are worth more that the cheapest guy in town. 

Every business needs to grow. The alternative is stagnation or decline. 

Every business needs to communicate information about the products and services it offers. Every business needs to share why their products and services matter to customers and prospective customers. 

Every business should feel insecure about what people say or might say about them online. Once they told all of their friends about a bad service experience. Today, they tell millions.

Every business needs to recognize it is in a bare-knuckle fight for the consumer’s disposable dollar. Moreover, contractors need to recognize that needed or not, other offerings (e.g., furniture, consumer electronics, etc.) are more desirable on the surface.  Marketing can help the consumer understand why contractors should get those disposable dollars.

Want help marketing?  Selling?  Managing?  Try the Service Roundtable.  It’s only $50 per month.  Call 877.262.3341 and ask for a tour of the private side of the website or visit the public side of the website online at www.ServiceRoundtable.com.

About the Author

Matt Michel | Chief Executive Officer

Matt Michel was a co-founder and CEO of the Service Roundtable (ServiceRoundtable.com). The Service Roundtable is an organization founded to help contractors improve their sales, marketing, operations, and profitability. The Service Nation Alliance is a part of this overall organization. Matt was inducted into the Contracting Business HVAC Hall of Fame in 2015. He is now an author and rancher.