From 1964 to the present day, the average dollar volume of work in construction has stayed about the same but the amount of competition has risen three times. This has had a massive impact on the industry, both in terms of labor availability, in terms of profit margins and all kinds of issues.
How can you set yourself apart from the crowd of construction companies and establish yourself in the mind of your client base, as someone who is different?
I just interviewed Mike Ghilotti of Ghilotti Brothers in San Rafael for the Construction Leaders podcast launching in January, and he said something that actually blew my mind because I’ve never heard a construction company owner refer to themselves in this way. He sees himself as a trusted business advisor to the people that he builds for, and the way that he establishes himself in their minds as an advisor is:
- He makes sure that he’s crystal clear on their expectations and goals;
- He focuses in on understanding their risks and then doing whatever he can to mitigate those risks;
- He takes a partnering approach to dealing with any of the change orders that occur on a project.
If you’ve established yourself as a trusted business advisor with the client, that trust, that bond of trust will help you to be able to get paid fairly for the changes on a project without hosing the client or, in some way, coming to the end of the project and both of you thinking, “I never want to work with that person again.”
Think about how you can establish yourself as a trusted business advisor in the mind of the people that you build projects for.
