Where do you rank as a deck builder?

IFYOU WERE to rate yourself as a competitor in your market, how would you compare with those you compete with?

Do you see differences, or are you just a version of others? How do you think potential customers perceive your company? If a potential customer has three proposals, why should they choose you?

What does it take to be a Deck Specialist Award-winning builder like the others in this issue?

How you’re perceived matters. It matters in terms of staying busy when a market tightens. And it matters in a good market to maximize profits.

If you’re perceived to be like others, you have to charge the same as others. You’re just one of many in a customer’s mind.

There have to be discernible differences to justify and allow an increased price tag for your services. The types of projects you deliver, the manner of approach, and processes you utilize to deliver them directly affect the results you’ll have as a builder. Adopting premium products and custom details as a standard and signature of your company provides benefits for your positioning and reputation.

The simpler a project is to deliver and the less skill it takes, the more who will be competing for it. Ease of build usually equals lower pricing and profit. If this is where you choose to compete, that’s fine, but those who demonstrate a better and best-delivery history will look better to a prospect than someone who shows a diluted mixed bag of project types.

Skill levels also factor in, but for most it’s the attitude of approach—which includes motivation, ambition, and competitiveness—that drives builders to be better. Many evolve and improve over time in quality, creativity, and process. Many get better with developing people skills and approaches to communication and sales. As their confidence in themselves and the value they offer rise, so too will their pricing.

Don’t think that because you’re “staying busy” now means that you don’t need to implement elements that shape your future trajectory as a builder. Staying busy doesn’t necessarily mean you’re healthy as a business. Don’t just settle for making good wages as a self-employed business owner. Strive to create another bank account of accrued company profits aside from your production earnings.

It takes years for most builders to refine their skills, fine-tune production, and balance their business in order to advance to the point they can deliver higher-end projects in a clean and efficient way. The sky’s the limit for those who are creative, take pride in their work, and possess ambition, discipline, and people skills. You don’t have to build a huge company—you just have to build the right kind of company. You can have good success operating as a one-crew operation if you approach it correctly and there’s an opportunity to grow your company through margin, instead of production.

The objective is to raise your credibility to a high level and your perceived risk by the customer to a low setting. If you can adopt a building philosophy that includes a high standard of job types; take, edit, organize, and present photos on an iPad (not a cell phone), and build up solid reviews, you’re positioning yourself for better results. If you can add an effective website and communicate simple messaging to that, you’ve laid down a solid foundation.

These skills strengthen your credibility and value:

• Possessing refined people skills.

• Being a good listener and communicator.

• Having a solid process.

• Being organized in how you present, price, and deliver proposals.

This is simple professionalism. The more of these aspects you accumulate, the more you will separate yourself from others in your market. These elements along with your realization of your value impacts the price you’ll charge for your jobs. It will allow you to grow your company with margin instead of production. This applies if you’re a one-man show or a multicrew-based operation.

Most customers are risk averse and will pay higher prices if you create the layers of credibility and show a reduced risk factor. They will spend more with those that appear to be above average, that provide a perceived guarantee of delivering what they want versus an average proposal, and instill the hope that they’ll get what they want.

But it has to be a clear choice. They must believe in you. Showing a consistent delivery history of job types creates comfort for a customer. It really comes down to what you want to do, what you want to be known for, and what your financial goals are.

In today’s world, it’s not that hard to stand out in a good way. You don’t have to be the “top builder,” but you do need to be in the group of best builders. Do a self assessment to determine where you stand now and what you want to accomplish. It may take time to put the pieces in place. Strive to create building and business side balance. Adopt the right building philosophy and set goals to improve your business step by step. Then re-ask yourself: “Where do I rank in my market?”

Bobby Parks is a wellknown contractor who has delivered more than $40 million in outdoor living projects. He is the former owner of Peachtree Decks & Porches.

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