| From Chuck in the Great North: My sales team and I struggle to have builders even consider our proposal / value proposition. I agree we need to “deliver value first,” but to articulate that value, you at least need 15 minutes of quality time with a prospect. Our problem is that builders have no available time. They have 100 problems and maybe “the value we deliver” helps with problem #37 on their list. One of their largest problems is labor. I can come up with creative ways to help them make their current labor force more efficient, but they need to take the time to hear our proposal. Builders and contractors try to extinguish their hottest fires and then leave the office to get to a youth sporting event or to their lake cabin. |
| Thanks, Chuck. There’s a lot to unpack here, so I’ll do it with equal parts empathy and tough love. Let’s begin by revisiting the foundation of the sales craftsman mindset: You are owed nothing. Deliver value first. You invoked the “Deliver value first” principle twice, but in your email there’s an undercurrent that the builder is the obstacle. And this is where salespeople slip into the victim mindset: “Builders are too distracted and disorganized to even listen to our value!” Don’t do that. When salespeople drift into victimhood, underperformance follows. Nobody owes you their time. If you haven’t earned a builder’s attention, that says more about you than it does about them. As Steve Martin said, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” Now, let’s break down the three main parts of Chuck’s note. |
| Part I: “Builders have no time.” That’s right. They don’t. So, Chuck, why are you asking them for the very thing they don’t have… before you’ve delivered value? That’s like trying to send an airplane down the runway with flat tires. Ain’t gonna fly. You’re also violating the “deliver value first” principle. You’re asking them to give you something (time) so you can give them something later (value). From the builder’s point of view, it sounds like this: Builder: “What’s in it for me?” Chuck: “Oh, just wait… you’ll see.” Too much risk. Not enough reward. What to do instead? Deliver value before the meeting. How? Start by identifying their top NFPOs: Needs, Fears, Pains, and Opportunities for growth. These are the answers to the test. Do you know what they are? Part II: “We only help with problem #37.” This is the Jay-Z Conundrum: I got 99 problems and roofing ain’t one. Builders learn to live with problem #37. However, Problem #37 is only #37 because you talk about it that way. Builders don’t rank problems—salespeople do. To prove this out, call your best customers and ask why they choose you. They won’t say, “Because you solve a teeny-tiny issue I care nothing about.” They’ll talk about real pain: Unreliable subsConstant fires and poor processesPoor communication everywhereCrazy homeowner expectationsOnboarding employeesPricing volatilityScheduling unreliabilityUnbilled changesSloppy estimatingDesign changesMarket uncertaintyCompliance riskJobsite injuries If you draw a straight line between your solution and one of their primary pain points—time, labor, risk—your “minor” problem becomes part of a much larger one. But you gotta sell yourself first. If you don’t believe your offering solves big problems, your prospect never will. Part III: “Labor is their biggest issue, but they need time to hear our proposal.” Aha. Here we go. Labor is one of their biggest constraints. And you, Chuck, have creative solutions? Perfect. You even know their motivations: family time, freedom, and yes, weekends at the lake murdering innocent wildlife. So, you know their pain. You have a solution. And you know the tradeoff they’re making by not listening. So why insist they must “take the time” to hear you? Your job is simple: Deliver value first. Package your value in a way that makes consuming it easy:Write an article and print it out.Send an email.Record a 90-second video.Read it as an audio file.Make a Loom.Create a one-page visual showing “today vs. tomorrow” and the minutes saved. I’ll suggest you do ALL of these over the next 30 days. You can take that one step further and ask your favorite client to be part of the article/video/audio. A smart idea that will make, find, or save your prospect money that ALSO features another builder just like them? Yeah, that’ll earn some attention. If time is the scarce resource, your currency is speed. Don’t try to sell a meeting—sell moments.The twenty-second insight.The one-minute management secret.The two-minute tweak. Don’t ask, “Can I have 15 minutes?” Deliver your idea first: “Here’s an idea that’ll save your framer 90 minutes next week. Thank me later.” So Chuck, be the moment of relief in their hectic day—not another calendar invite they avoid. Thanks for reading. Happy Thanksgiving—I’ll see you back in two weeks! |
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