Community vs. Competition

Do you look at other facade companies as your competitors? In this episode, we talk about why that’s the wrong move, for you, your clients and the industry. 

More About the Show

The Build Perspectives podcast shares insider knowledge to build connections and community in the facade and cladding industry. Tim and Carolina are friends, colleagues and former coworkers who love facades and their clients, and want to share their passion and insights to attract future talent to the building industry.

In this episode, Tim and Carolina talk about community and competition: Are facade and cladding manufacturers in a zero-sum game, is competition necessary and how can we all work better, together?

It’s Not a Competition, It’s a Community

It’s inevitable that facade companies compete; after all, there’s only so much wall square footage. And a little competition is healthy, especially when you’re competing with yourself to improve over last month or last year. 

But because there’s only one you, really, you have no competition. Tour product, your offering, your ideal client, the type of buildings you target and the type of project you want to work on all combine to make you totally unique. Clients choose you for who you are, not just what product you have. 

So instead of thinking of other facade companies as the competition, think of them as a community. After all, architects change firms all the time and they don’t think of each other as enemies: they are still an architectural community. 

Join the Conversation

Have you ever been on a large job site that’s using another facade company and they wouldn’t even look at you, let alone talk to you? Carolina has. 

Instead of communicating on how their products could work together for the project, they chose to give the cold shoulder. That’s not good for anyone: not the General Contractor, not the project, not you or the competitor. 

Instead, communicate with other manufacturers, especially when on-site. Talk about things like how can we make the transition from your product to my product work on the wall? How can we work together to make this project a success? This willingness to work together and share knowledge and perspectives leaves a good impression with each other and with your client. They’ll want to use both of you again if you can get along, instead of wanting to use neither because the entire project was too tense and difficult. 

Communication Saves Time

With all of the people involved in a project, the client, supplier, general contractor, manufacturer, and more, time can be wasted when people won’t walk to each other. Instead, everyone is trying to go through another person, such as the tired, overworked architect, adding a middle conversation that is completely unnecessary. 

Instead, if each of the people in the conversation would talk to each other, everyone would get the benefit of different perspectives, personalities and experiences. 

No one is saying you need to share intellectual property. You still need to stay true to your company’s identity and story. But you can share ideas, frustrations and solutions in order to serve the greater good. The sum of the parts is much greater than the individuals, especially in construction.

Imitation is the Highest Form of Flattery

There’s always going to be unethical people who try to steal your ideas. It’s a sad fact of life. And it gets especially true if you are good at your job. Tim has had people try to knock off their panels and instead of being upset or stopping communicating with other companies and people, he saw it as a sign that they were doing something right. 

It doesn’t matter if someone tries to copy your product. The risk of loss is far outweighed by the value of communication and collaboration. 

Working Together Could Increase Building Activity

There’s the prevalent idea that there’s only so much square footage out there and that sales reps need to be ruthless to get business. But the reality is, if companies and sales reps could work together, there could be a lot more building activity. 

As stated earlier, one of the biggest constraints to actual production is communication time. If everyone was working together to get stuff happening, projects would be finished faster and new projects started more quickly and more often. And more projects mean more square footage. 

So the next time you are on a job site or a call with your competitor, make the choice to look at them as your community, and not your competitor.

Join the Conversation

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this week’s episode! Shoot us an email at buildperspectives@gmail.com