Beat Your Home Services Competition Every Time

Part 1 of 5

In today’s competitive home services industry, being able to beat out your competition, be it plumbers, electricians or HVAC providers, can be a daunting task.  In this series we will explore the top 5 things you need to do consistently to beat your competition every time — no matter what!

#1 Differentiate Yourself

In your local market, it’s likely that you have an average of 10 or more “direct” competitors. These are competitors that do what you do (some better, some worse), are about the same size as you, have pricing that is close to yours (maybe a bit higher or lower) and get clients the same way you do (personal referrals and online). Competition in your industry is higher than ever right now, so it has become essential to cut through the noise to get leads, build customer loyalty and cultivate raving fans.

Noise occurs when anything distracts from your message.  It can come from too many differing messages about your company or messages that are too similar to your competitors.  Your customers need to be able to easily 1) identify your company and what it stands for and 2) know how you are different from your competition. Seth Godin recently said that one of the best ways to fight the noise is to “stick to the work, to the smallest possible audience, to building something worth talking about.  We don’t need more hustle. We need more care and generosity.”  

So what is your work?  What is it that your plumbing company really does?  Does it fix leaks? Unclog toilets?  Of course, but what does it really do?  Sometimes this is described as finding your purpose or your why.  Taking the time to develop a very clear purpose or why can help you to clarify your marketing message by making it clear and allowing you to focus on the actual work you do and doing it well so that your customers want to talk about you.  Here are some tools to help you develop your why if you don’t already have it:

1. Start with Why by Simon Sinek
2. Start with Why website https://startwithwhy.com/find-your-why/
3. Find your Why

Once you have determined your company’s “Why”  you can leverage it determine how you perform your services differently than your competitors. This is called your differentiation. For example, do you offer a money back guarantee? Are you available via text 24/7? Do you have white glove in-home service standards?  

This differentiation can become the cornerstone of your marketing message – one that is worth talking about and cuts through all the noise. This message should be consistently conveyed in your digital brand strategy and in tools like your website and your online advertising.

What’s your “why”? We’d love to hear about it- send us an email, or post it on our Facebook page.

Part 2 of this series will cover Having Strong Systems.