April, 2009

Tribal Marketing

In times of scarcity, people want to buy from people with shared values: i.e., members of their tribe. With green building products, that’s truer now than ever before.

By John Wagner

I have been recently working with Boston Cedar and Millwork putting on a Green Road Show, and I’ve been on the road a great deal, traveling to present green sales techniques at (initially) 55 East Coast lumber dealers. I’ve been doing lots of speaking at yards outside of the Green Road Show coverage area as well. Here are a couple things I’ve consistently found: First, lots of yards are starting out down over 2008 numbers, and especially over 2007 numbers. I hear a lot of revenue ranges tossed around, -4%, -15%, -8%. Some yards were tracking even money (but with no real growth) through the end of 2008…until January or February of this year, when sales, in some cases, “fell off the table.” (Probably the guys hurting the most are yards that have truss shops in boom-bust regions, like Florida, where I’ve heard some yards are off 85%.)

Secondly, the last thing anyone is cutting is service. That’s a key differentiator to fight off the perceived lower prices of the warehouse chains, and it is servicebased personal relationships that have kept so many of independent yards afloat. Third, as for layoffs, so many yards have relationships with long-term employees that go far beyond traditional employeremployee, they’ll do anything to keep and protect “family.” Last hired, first fired is a common refrain. That’s an ancient human instinct, isn’t it? In times of scarcity, as now with scare sales, we really want to protect the members of your “tribe.” (Your tribe is your family members, your trusted employees, and the customers that are stickin’ through tough times.) And it’s an instinct that can be instructive and inform the ways we market our products and services. Here’s why: After all is said and done, in tough economic times, people primarily want to do business with members of their tribe. Contractors will sub out work to his family first, and next, to friends, assuming they can the job adequately. Seems only natural. After all, who wants to give scarce work to strangers?

A Connection is Critical
Contractors want to buy from members of their tribe too, and this instinct is no different in the realm of building products than it is in the realm of shopping for cars, clothing, or beer. You buy sandwiches and coffee from a guy who you can talk sports with or toss jokes back and forth, knowing he’s not going to take something the wrong way. That’s a tribal  connection; the salesman is one of your own, in a way. The lumber salesman who shows up on jobsite in loafers and spotless clothes?

Well, that might work well in real estate or banking, but a contractor customer will look askance as someone who doesn’t look like he knows how to swing a hammer. The lumber salesman who dresses in Carhartts, wears a battered tape measure, and is just as likely to help unload a truck as sort out a variance purchase order…he’s the guy likely to retain the contractor’s business. Why? Because, just like you, the contractor wants to give business to people he likes, to someone who is like him.

Clothing, conversational styles, the food we eat, our humor, the kind of truck we drive…all of these thing signal the kind of person we are, the tribe we are from. And by recognizing this instinct, you can take advantage of it when marketing your products, green or not. With green building, even just a decade ago, people who hawked green products were looked upon as out-side of the tribe, maybe even a bit flaky. But no longer; there’s big money in green now. Moreover, the tribal instinct has kicked in here too. A recent McGraw Hill-NAHB statistic pointed out that 82% of people believe it is “important for companies to implement environmentally friendly practices.” This means that people not only want to buy green products, they want to buy them from green companies.

They want to buy from people who share their concerns. They want to buy from people of their tribe. So, in tough times, whether you are marketing green products or traditional products, spend a minute considering how your marketing, message, and presentation will be perceived from the customer’s point of view. Pay attention to the signals (signage, displays, slogans, styles of personal contact, the character of the people you put on certain accounts) which all convey that your values are shared by your buyer. Believe me, in times of relative scarcity, your contractor customers are looking for the same thing in you.

The award-winning author of many articles and books—and a sought-after green trainer and keynote speaker for dealer events— JOHN D. WAGNER is the Green Editor for LBM Journal and the content manager for the Certified Green Dealer Program. Contact John: John.Wagner@LBMJournal.com. Or visit: www.JohnDWagner.com