The 6 ‘P’s in Profit ~’Producing’ for Trade Professionals

I started out writing the title of this post as; ‘Producing for Tradesmen’ before realising that there are all sorts of assumptions attached to the word Tradesman and they are often quite negative in terms of business potential.

So without wasting a lot of time on it let’s just consider that mediaeval cathedrals were built by master builders – highly respected professionals who were at the top of their professions – and who probably started their working lives as carpenters or stonemasons.

So being a ‘tradesman’ is absolutely no limitation on your business potential either on or off-line.

However, the problem of being time limited in earning potential is even worse for tradesmen than it is for professionals.  Why?  Because your customers tend to associate you (and your invoices!) with physical products and services delivered to them rather than professional services and advice which tend to be higher valued

If you don’t have a spanner or hammer in your hand then you’re not considered to be working.  If you don’t deliver a working boiler or a new house extension then you are not working – and are not perceived as having value.

So how can you ‘produce’ something of perceived value online when your business is directed entirely to physical services?

The answer lies in those 3 magic letters of DIY.  Do It Yourself is the biggest activity among the aspiring population to have developed since World War II.

DIY is both the bane of the tradesman as well as greatest boon.  Home and property owners who don’t want to pay for your professional services and insist on trying to do the work themselves must be taking the bread out of your mouths – or are they?

Firstly, let’s consider that there is no way that you can stop this activity.  Nobody wants to pay for something they can do themselves and with the explosion in property ownership more people than ever before now own their own property.

So they are going to work on their own property whether you like it or not.  And there are 3 possible consequences to this activity.

1. If they have some knowledge and skill they’ll get by and do a passable job
2. They will try to find information to help them do a passable job.
3. They will make a mess and need you to sort it out.

Being philosophical again, there’s nothing you can do about those people who have learned how to do the job reasonably well – bearing in mind they have probably made a few botches in the past that they have had to pay professional to come and sort out.

Number 2, when the DIY’er is looking for information about how to go about the job they plan to do themselves is your golden opportunity for you to ‘Produce’ something by way of useful information to help them that can build a long term relationship with them as prospects and customers.

As a tradesman you have years of experience and a wealth of knowledge available to you.  That’s why you are able to do a good job when a client hires you.  So why not spill that information out into the printed word, audios and videos to show the DIY’er how to do the job?

After all you can be safe in the knowledge that even if you tell them how to do the job they won’t have the years of real expertise so they may well still botch it up.   What does giving away this information achieve?

By providing useful information when they need it you begin to create a relationship – the first step in the selling process.

By demonstrating your knowledge and expertise you build authority and credibility and you become the ‘go to’ person that prospect turns to each time they want to do a job in your field.

Give something away and you are entitled to something in return.  How about a name and email address?  Then you can stay in contact with automated emails and stay in their ‘top of mind’ ready for the day that they decide they really need a professional to do the job.

The 3rd consequence of a DIYer making a mess of the job and needing a professional tradesman to sort it out is manna from heaven for you.  But unless you are already in their mind in some way then how do you ensure that it is your number they call and not one of your competitors?

Answer; you need to have created a relationship in some way.

So whether you are a ‘professional’ or a ‘tradesman’ the answer to how you produce something of perceived value to give away to your website visitors in exchange for their name and email in order to start building a relationship on autopilot is the same.

Start taking information that is commonplace for you in your business and make it easily available to your visitors.  In the case of tradesmen you will probably use far more images in your ebooks or use videos extensively in order to use the ‘show me’ method of providing information.

But the principle is the same. Give information away to start developing that relationship.  Become *the* tradesman in your business as far as that prospect is concerned so that they don’t think of going to anybody else when they need someone.

The same principles apply throughout online marketing.  The 2 advantages of the internet for marketing purposes are automation and speed.  Automation allows you to do something once and use it many times.   Write your ebook once and deliver it many times using your autoresponder.

Write your helpful follow up email messages once and use them thousands of times with no further work on your part.  Create show and tell videos once and educate your community thousands of times – every time building your authority and credibility.

Creating giveaway products to build your relationships with your prospects is just as valuable a technique for tradesmen to build their businesses as it is for professionals.

See how a ‘tradesman’ became on online star:

• MyBuilder.com Makes Top Ten in Startups 100 (prweb.com)
• MyBuilder.com Helps to Set up a Surprise Home Makeover (prweb.com)