That means that contractor-seeking homeowners are likely bombarded with lines like, “We do quality work” or “I have years of experience” or “I am honest, I work for you!” Nowadays it takes more than a smile and a handshake to get work. It takes some creative selling. So the question becomes: What is your unique selling proposition? Your USP?

The USP is not new to marketing. Today a number of businesses and corporations search for and use their USP to the fullest extent. And in a highly competitive market it is vital that you realize and utilize your company’s unique selling point. A recent post from Qualified Remodeler offered some good advice for contractors seeking out their own USP.

That advice includes something that many of you are likely already doing — contacting past clients. But instead of contacting them simply to maintain a relationship and check on past work (an increasingly important approach in its own right), you can use them as a marketing research tool. Surely there is some reason that those past clients chose you in the first place; something about your company that somehow appealed to them more than your competition.

So the deal is to call some of your favorite, most successful clients past, of course check up on the finished project and offer any assistance needed, but also schedule a rendezvous (i.e., dinner, lunch, etc.) where you can probe them as to why they hired you. As Qualified Remodeler suggests, do this with about five of your favorite clients and look for a theme to arise, the odds are good that you will find one. This may very well by your company USP.

Of course you can also search within. Your competitive bids and quality of work will speak for themselves. Is there anything else you have to offer? Perhaps some specialized skill that you can capitalize on? It could be a unique work method that ensures fast work without sacrificing quality. In what ways are you inventive? How do you go about your work differently than the competition?

Your unique selling proposition lies below the surface and only you can know it. It may seem a bit difficult to come by at first, but once you’ve grasped it, it will be as easy as A-B-C. Just don’t forget to include past clients in the search. They will be your most informative and valuable resources during your search. Surely it is past clients who can best reveal exactly what it is about you that will appeal to future clients.

The town also flooded with contractors. Anyone with a hammer and a pick-up truck was in the business. But when things started to collapse (last I heard the number of homes on the market was up roughly 1000 percent), many contractors were left holding their hammers. That’s when the undercutting started. Bids dropped like Wile E. Coyote off a cliff.

Suddenly we were losing work, right out from under our noses, because everyone was trying to cut costs. For a time, quality of work gave way to quantity of work, often awarded to the lowest bidder. Not surprising, this only complicated things. Just a few months later we found ourselves being hired to finish work left incomplete by low-balling contractors who were either fired or just disappeared.

The moral of the story here is that underhanded bidding is not only unfair but unhealthy as well. Unhealthy for business, unhealthy for everyone involved. Even in a time of recession, the traditional rules of bidding still apply and contracts are not won, nor is work retained, simply through low bids.

Now, of course competition is high, demand low, and everyone has to lower their prices, but good contractors know the business and know reasonable prices. It is these contractors that work with each other and form a community of builders that will weather such times as these.

It doesn’t take long, as illustrated above, for low-balling, high-risk contractors to be weeded out. The essential fact remains: The best way to win a contract is by establishing a good rapport with the homeowner. And that still comes from being honest, knowledgeable, and diligent in your craft.