Construction marketing and the circle of life

Vancouver, BC viewed from the south with mountains behind. Blended exposure version. 20 stitched images
Mfield, Matthew Field, http://www.photography.mattfield.com. Reproduced within Creative Commons License

Yesterday, after an intense day of work, my wife drove me to the airport, and seven hours later, (with a connection), I arrived in Vancouver. Today is my mother's 85th birthday party, and her children and several of her grandchildren are joining for a celebration.

This point-of-life event will leave me with mixed emotions. Mom is getting older, of course, but her grandchildren have started raising their own families, so she can see the next generation.

We are all experiencing life transitions and experiences; individually these influence our perceptions and decisions, as a society the demographic shape defines largely what will be built and what must be replaced.

Planners use demographic data to scope out what to expect, but I suspect that decision-makers base their choices more on their emotions. The entrepreneur has an elderly relative needing care, so decides to build a care home; a contractor working in area with many teenagers about to enter college might see his own sons and daughters heading forward, and think about bidding on college projects.

We also make the decisions on quality, price and choice. I hate spending money on travel, so the business class airline seats are with points, and I arrived in a very large chauffeur driven vehicle (also known as a city bus) at my mom's condo late yesterday.

In construction marketing, consider your emotions, your choices, and your demographics. Then think about how these elements relate to your current and potential clients, and how you can make the connection. You will succeed.

Personal and business crises

One thing I've discovered over the years is that your personal space truly impacts your working space, especially if you are responsible for selling and marketing. No matter how much you try to mask your distress, family problems, or other personal difficulties, they shine through loud and clear in a matter of days or weeks.

These problems create a spiral effect: You are distressed, your performance and effectiveness decline, and then you lose your job, only to make things even worse. And as you battle your demons on several fronts, the compounding pressure of negative circumstances (often totally beyond your control) overwhelm your immune system, and you become ill.

Businesses need to tread carefully when evaluating current and prospective employees for personal problems. You might run afoul of anti-discrimination or human rights rules, and an angry person with emotional angst and hurt will often want to raise a fuss.

Here are some possible solutions to this type of problem:

Know your law and have a good employment lawyer available. It is better to pay for some advice before you get into a mess, than to help you get out. In some areas, employment contracts can save you many headaches.

Evaluate thoroughly before hiring
We recently concluded the evaluation of someone who did not score too highly on the initial test but "interviewed well". (Oh no, I broke one of my own rules. Saved, however, by the other rule; no one gets a job with us unless they actually perform effectively in the evaluation stage.) The prospective employee crashed. Yesterday, I learned the reason -- a personal life crisis that probably recurs frequently.

Respond quickly when performance falters
You cannot (usually) solve the employee's personal crisis, so you are faced with the choice of subsidizing the employee as he or she works through it, or parting company. You might (as we did once) co-ordinate with the employee "stress leave" and have the government's employment insurance program pay the costs.

Second chances are reasonable, third chances are insane
Obviously you should not rehire or reconsider an employee who must leave because of serious failures or criminality, but often personal stress will cause behaviour that results in a firing offense. If the employee had performed well before the personal crisis, and has resolved it, you can rehire, cautiously -- just don't allow a repeat show.

Choices and focus

Have you ever experienced days when you felt like celebrating, and crying; when you felt both excitement for the future, and the feeling of (potential) loss; when you reached to the future but connected or were trapped in the past . . .

. . . .all at the same time.

Of course, for most of us, most days are like this; some good things happen, some bad, and we take it in stride with our basic nature and circumstances and move forward. Some days, everything goes well, and others, everything seems to go wrong, and occasionally the intensity of good and bad (either on different or similar circumstances) is truly higher than usual.

Now consider an important additional variable: If you have these variable feelings and experiences from day-to-day, what do you think is going on in the world around you, among your current and potential clients, your colleagues, your competitors, and complete strangers?

Some are in acute crisis, some are smiling with joy, some are just resting, and others are having a mixed bag of experiences and emotions, sometimes conflicting, and of varying intensity. So how can a one-size-fits-all "marketing solution" apply to all of these circumstances?

Social scientists will respond that you can predict and in many cases manipulate human behavior. Give a small gift, for example, and people will reciprocate, often out of proportion to the actual value of your gift. Use the word "because" in your marketing materials, and people will accept your request as credible, even if there is no intrinsic merit. Price something by mistake at twice the level it should be -- and people will say "sure" if the existing relationships are strong enough and the price appears consistent with other offerings.

(This happened earlier this week with one of our newly hired salespeople; we debated whether to simply change the offering to 'justify' the higher price; or let the clients know about the mistake; as it turns out, despite my initial misapprehension about losing revenue, the sales representative did the right thing and let the clients know about the mistake, and they paid the lower price.)

But the reality is that you can't read every situation and predict every mood and experience. So you do the best you can. Sometimes the oft repeated phrase: "Don't sweat the small stuff" is worth remembering. If something is going wrong, of course, we need to look into ourselves to make sure we have not caused the problem, and do what we can to fix it, if we have.

If the problem is external and is causing you distress, ("It's the economy, man") we need to remember that while there are things beyond our control and responsibility, the only thing we can control is how we respond.

Sure, this advice is standard stuff. We are not alone.

Now I need to reconnect with my son, who came down to the family room as I was writing this blog entry, and turned on the television. "This is irritating me," I told him, firmly. He got up, turned off the television, and said: "You have an office where you can work", before heading to his room, slamming the door.

He is right. So am I. It is a minor matter in the world of construction marketing. But that is life. (Why do people enjoy gambling?)