How General Contractors Can Communicate Better and Win More Jobs (Ep 286)

Are your communication skills costing you jobs, clients, and business growth? 🤔

Today, Max dives into why communication might be the most underrated skill in your business toolkit. 🔨 

It’s easy to focus on strategy or sales in your business—but strong communication builds trust, closes deals, and keeps your teams aligned. 🤝📈

Catch today's episode on the whiteboard --> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL76rc3DrCOMb7VM9icAOQmLodNCSZTfKf

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Do you struggle with communication in your business? If you procrastinate, if your timing is bad and your tone is ordinary, today I'm going to show you what I do to help improve my level of communication. Enjoy. How old are you going to be before you start to experience life like you want it? I want to tell you right now, whether you like it or not, there is a better way to do business. Hi everyone, welcome to the Business for Builders Podcast. My name is Max. I am your host, and today, look, you know where I am. I'm easy to find. Business for Builders, Elite Business Advisory. If you want to email me, elite business Max at elitebusinessadvisory.com, chat with you about coaching, talk to me about how your business is doing. I'll give you 30 minutes of my time. Let's get into it. Today, as you can see behind me, I'm going to talk to you today about something that is super important in all aspects of your life. But I think we we underestimate how important it is in the life of our construction business. Now, is communication something that comes naturally to you and I as builders? Not necessarily. Is it something that anybody can get better at? I absolutely believe so. You've got to be able to reconcile the fact that if you think, if your opinion of yourself is you're you are a bad communicator, whatever that is, someone you know that maybe doesn't communicate so well, know this. If you get outside your comfort zone and you're prepared to do it badly for long enough until such time as you start to polish it up and get better at it, um, all of a sudden you will find being a good communicator uh will start to become just a part of your operation. Okay. So, communication, we're gonna chat to you, I'm gonna chat to you today about procrastination, timing, and tone. Now, that's sort of three things I've got outlined on the board here, you haven't written them up yet. But the fourth one that I'm gonna quickly chat with you about, and this episode is not about how AI can make you a better communicator, okay, because it is just a tool. What you've got to understand is everything that goes around the tool is up to you, okay? So procrastination has nothing to do with AI, timing, nothing to do with AI, tone, maybe, okay. And so I think if I look at what I've done in all of my life up to this point as a 53-year-old, it all revolves around communication. If you fail to communicate, then you obviously you fail to exist in the you know social circles and the community that you're in, the family that you're a part of, and certainly the business that you are trying to develop to feed your family. So um I think it's really important. Communication needs to be done well. And and the first thing I've started there with is uh is uh procrastination. Now, okay, so why why do we procrastinate? Right? This big word here, procrastination, basically what it means is you're kicking the can down the road. We delay the tough conversations. Why? To avoid conflict and uncertainty. And I, you know, I having been in and around general contractors and builders, uh, having coached, having been a franchisor, and seen a lot of the dynamics that happen, both good and bad. So those that choose to communicate promptly and well, whether it's good or bad, versus the guys that put their frigging head in the sand, and you know, they don't intentionally go, look, I'm just gonna not communicate. They don't do that, that's not their intention. And look, you might be sitting there identifying with that feeling of the pain that goes with communication, right? And that's why you don't intentionally, you just disregard it or you choose to ignore it, which is putting your head in the sand, and then all of a sudden you've got something, you got resentment that builds up in the person that you're not communicating with, and it actually only becomes worse. Okay. So, look, I guess what I'm sharing with you is my opinion. Okay. I'm not Dr. Phil, I'm not Tony Robbins, it's not who I try to be. I'm just to build a guy like you, and we're trying to, you know, develop some sort of income that's gonna give us the lifestyle so we can enjoy our life. Like, let's not get it twisted. But what happens is we end up with a shit business and a shit life. You know why? Because we're shit communicators. Well, that's a bit straight, isn't it? Might have to beep some of that out. But guys and gals, I am just reinforcing that you've got to enjoy eating the dog food that's part of your business, it's not just all good. The good is a result of being a good operator. Part of being a good operator is somebody that enjoys communication. Not because it's their goal to be a great communicator, although I think that's an honorable, you know, goal to have, but I think that if we don't learn to communicate at the baseline, then our ability to generate or grow a business to a point where we do enjoy the fruits of our labor is greatly diminished. Okay. So, uh, you know, we don't like the conflict. So we've got I've got a client literally just overnight come in about nine o'clock last night, right? And so obviously, I do what you do. I run through my emails, and I've got several because I'm running a few businesses, and I pick out and I triage, right? One that came in, there's a small warranty issue on one of the jobs that we completed maybe two or three months ago. Yep, probably three months ago. Now, to me, it's I I run to that because I don't give a rat's ass what the problem is, I just need to communicate quickly. So she sends me an email at 9.07 last night. I shoot her back an email at 7:30 this morning and say, Hey, have you got time tomorrow or the next day in the afternoon? I'll be there. It's 10 minutes from my office. I get down there. Now, what crossed my mind is that I should just send them a text and say, Hey, I'll get Jed to drop by. No, it's got to be done promptly. So if I've we've done a good job for that client, happy they gave us a five-star Google review. It's up there if you want to see it. Um, my obligation now is that when everything is good, we communicate well, don't we, folks? Yep. When we're getting the pat on the back, when they give us a check, when they're really excited about the finished product, communication is easy. But anytime someone communicates with you that there's an issue with your work, for whatever reason, we don't run to that. To me, that's a loose end that could affect my reputation negatively if I don't communicate at the highest level. We say we want to be a white glove, top shelf boutique, you know, type of construction or or builder, and that be to get the jobs, we communicate at the highest level. But when there's something negative where we're not getting paid, I'm not gonna get paid to go out there and inspect that defect. But I know this if I don't, what the payday will be is they could snatch that five-star Google review. They could do that. Well, the service was good, but now I'm gonna give them a three-star. It's worse. You know, I'd rather the review not be there at all. Just give them don't do it. So, you know, I think when you understand the importance of good communication, and good means prompt, clear, not passive, aggressive, you know, not resentful. Because at the beginning, when we get the lead come in, we know we're here to serve. As we're doing the job, we know we're here to serve. Right. Let me tell you, once the job is finished, post-construction, post-completion, we are for the duration of our warranty period for us, we've got a 12-month warranty on our labor. Okay, anything that we've done, craftsmanship, etc., 12 months. Then even in that period, we're here to serve at the highest level. That's part of being a top shelf white glove boutique builder. Okay, so stop making excuses and run to communication, whether it suits you, whether it's whether it's uh positive for your business in the here and now, or whether it's part of your obligation to maintain the reputation. See, in the beginning, you're pushing to get to build the reputation. What I'm doing today is I've communicated with that lady, with that client, so that I maintain my reputation. So it's one thing to build it, yay! And then what happens to guys, and I've seen it, I could point to you to guys right now, right, that have started well but they don't finish well. They don't, they start well but they don't finish strong. Part of finishing strong is communication after you've been paid up and the job's done. Do not disrespect your clients. And the way that you disrespect your clients is by not communicating. They feel like, well, it was alright, well, they're getting paid, but they got a defect and now they don't want to discuss it. Okay, fire out, let's keep moving. Lack of clarity leads to hesitation. See, for me, there is no hesitation because I've got clarity in my mind what my obligation is to my past clients, what I'm doing as far as reputational management, okay, and what I'm going to do to resolve that issue. Now, I am going to walk a mile, see a mile. I'm going to go down there and take a look at it. Now, you know, I've got a truck with drawers in it, and there's a few tools in it, right? They don't get out much, right? But for this situation, um, I communicated with the client via email. Jed was CC'd in the email. Communication circles are all there, so Jed will know about that. I will go down there and take photographs, and if I can remedy that straight away within 48 hours of getting that inquiry from my past client, that it that enhances the experience that the client has had with me, the operator at Smith Sons. What do you think that does to our reputation? It doesn't just maintain it, it actually improves it. Okay. Okay, because we why do we hesitate? See, when that when that inquiry came in, or lead, I won't call it a lead, but when that warranty claim came in, I knew exactly what I was doing. So I didn't hesitate. I'm like, first thing I've got to do is get down there, and maybe there's something that I need to put together where, because we never, I don't know that I've ever discussed this on the on the show. I don't know that I've ever talked about how to handle a warranty claim. Maybe I should. And a lot of the time, and in the why we would do that is so that we know what to do and what to say. Right? And I'm not saying that you've got to run out and bow down and go, well, we'll fix everything, because we don't. It's very clear in our contract that anything materials-wise is not covered. Now, if it's a craftsmanship and there's material that needs to be replaced, then as part of our craftsmanship warranty, we will replace that item because we created that issue, not the manufacturer, not the homeowner we did. So we fix that, we include the materials and labor and get it done. Again, that's to help elevate our reputation. Are we perfect? No. Do we make it out like we are? Of course we don't. But anytime that I get to prove to them that in that phase of play or that facet of our business, we are responsible business owners. Okay, now in the event I go out there and I say, look, this has got nothing to do with us, do I do I say it like that? No, I don't. Okay, and we're gonna talk a little bit about tone in a minute. Okay, delayed communications create bigger problems than the message itself, right? So there are a couple of reasons why um why we procrastinate communication. The second thing, and I sort of alluded to this a little bit, is timing. Okay, so we need to have a so speed, this would be interesting. Let's do this. Speed equals professionalism. Ha! Professionalism, right? So when I say that money loves speed, okay, speed equals professionalism. The more professional you are, the uh the the more money potentially you will make. Now, will you make any money from going out and handling a warranty? No. But if that family goes to a friend's barbecue and they're talking about a kitchen renovation or a basement remodel or a second story edition or whatever, then I would hope that not only would my clients say, Oh, they did a really good job on the project, but they almost they might allude to the fact that there was a small issue with this, I got an email back within 12 hours, and I got a visit within 48 hours, and they'd remedied it at the same time or a week later. So what happens is the credibility grows because there was an after-sales call back. So don't look at it necessarily as a negative. And you know what? I'll take photos and I will send it to my business partner and the crew, and I'll say, guys, this was avoidable. This was an oversight, this was a cock-up. So, what we do is we circle back and I'll do a review as to what happened, what the remedy was, and why isn't that it happened in the first place. Okay, so these are all positive things that I draw out of something that could be deemed negative because I know it's gonna sharpen me up, it's gonna make our business better. Okay, so uh fast, clear responses build trust and confidence with clients. I think I've covered that. Now, here's a big one late communication signals disorganization and lack of control. Now, lack of control simply means your business is in a state of chaos. That's what disorganization is, and and and so lack of control. So if you have control in your business, that's a byproduct of order. If you are disorganized, that's a byproduct of disorder. Okay. Lay communication signals disorganization and lack of control. Speed to respond often determines who wins the job and keeps it. Now, we're talking about in the lead, you know, when the lead comes in. It's like if you leave a lead out there for six months, odds on is it's gonna go to somebody else. Matter of fact, I got a message yesterday, went and saw a gentleman uh two days ago, and I said, I made it clear to him, I said, look, uh, so we're in the month of, we're beginning first, second week of April, right? And I made it clear that we wouldn't be able to get to that job till June. Now they told me they were flexible and everything like that, but turns out they're not so flexible and they're gonna go with someone else because I can't get to them until June and they don't want to wait. There you go. Okay, so was it a big job? No, it was probably 30 odd thousand, 35 grand. But the the principle is that if you know, which is fine because we're the bigger jobs are gonna take more time. So we're we're sort of starting to schedule to make sure that we look after our existing clients and get those jobs wrapped up, and then of course, we start scheduling three months in advance to make sure that our workflow is uh and our cash flow is in good order as we move forward, so it's just perpetual project start schedule analysis. I've just scheduled another job for the first week of May that I'd already talked to previous to that other little one. So we're uh you know, that's organization, okay? Speed to respond often determines who wins the job and keeps it, but speed to respond in the case that I've got will reflect professionalism, organization, uh, commitment to clients even after they've stopped paying us. Super important. Okay, so the next thing here, tone. Why do you think tone matters? How you say it matters more than what you say. You know, I am blown away where you've got people that I would regard who are more senior in age than I am, just continue on text message and email. Now, these are let's call them trades in the industry, right? I'm not gonna pick out anyone individually, but there's so much passive aggressive, which is driven by fear because no one wants to accept and assume responsibility. So there's a lot of passive aggressive. So this tone that goes on on text messaging, this is why sometimes you've got to be real careful when you're sometimes it's better off getting a face-to-face meeting or a phone call at minimum because there's tone, you don't get that in a text or an email, it can be misconstrued. So clear, simple, respectful communication reduces the friction. You know, I've had friction from the get-go with some trades because there was a lack of clear communication around what was going on, and so it was assumed that we're all on the same page, but clearly we were not. Um, and because something wasn't made clear by yours truly. So I dropped the ball. Okay, so I'm always looking at okay, there's friction. Is it how I said it? Is it the tone that I presented that with? Now, look, don't be too judgmental because mate, I get told all the time that I've got an angry face, which I don't understand, but it's like, why you look so grumpy, right? It's just the way that I'm geared. If I'm in deep thought, I'm probably not looking like the most social individual around. But I don't, you know, as much as I want to take note and go, yep, there's definitely things I can do better. Sometimes you've got to accept the type of personality like Gary Vaynichuk, right? He missed out on a lot of corporate speaking events because he'd curse a lot and because of the way he dressed. There's a classic video where Gary walks into this fancy club in New York and they wouldn't let him into the venue, even though he was keynote speaker, because he just had a t-shirt and he had his vans on or whatever he was wearing in his in his black jeans, you know. But Gary's just held the line and he's he's just that's him, you know. Big corporate CEO dude who basically looks like one of us. It's pretty cool. But he's committed to still maintaining his narrative and his uh approach because it is the real him. So as much as we want to get better, guys and girls, I would urge you just to understand who you are and the way you communicate and just appreciate that that that's the way you've been made. Okay, so don't get stuck in arrogance that says, Well, I'm not changing for anyone. I think we can all get better, but it depends on your intent, okay? Uh, overly technical or overly formal language creates distance. Okay, so we're talking about tone now, right? Um, and we're gonna get on to AI and how this, and so we might circle back to that one. Um, aim for direct, honest, grade seven clarity. Okay, so it's easy to understand and it's easier to trust. I I just think clients, remember, if there is confusion in the minds of clients, they will not make a decision. You know, um, I've talked about when I was purchasing a vehicle and I was talking to a couple of four dealers, and it was just so hard to nail down based on the truck that I was currently driving, there was there was things moving around, there was inclusions that, you know, like no longer did that model, even though I had the last two with a moonroof, now they just said no, you've got to step up to the next level to get that. And I'm like, what? But it cost me 10 grand more, so I get less truck for I get less truck for more money. Deal, you know, and so whilst I was in that state of confusion, no one could get a final decision out of me. Okay, so it's got it, whatever you're communicating, it needs to be very elementary level, very basic. A, easy for you to understand, easy for me to understand, but also whoever we're dealing with, easy for them to understand. Right now, so the tone that matters, we know that. Um, and the final one here is what we're going to talk about is how do I use AI to communicate, I'm not writing out the word, better. Now, I I just want to caution you right now. I think that AI is a great tool, but all the more reason why you need to understand that it is a tool and that you're not to disengage your brain, right? So when you're using AI to improve your communication so you don't procrastinate, so that you can get to it in good time, and so that your tone is not shitty or passive aggressive, right? We need to be able to use that tool of AI to help us. Now, what you don't want to do when people know me, and if I was not to prompt AI the way I prompt it, people would say, well, Max is kind of it sounds like he talks like this, but in his emails, he talks like a university professor. That's what we don't want. Okay, we want to get some, we want to get some consistency in our communication, whether it's the way we talk here, um, you know, and then in our emails at the same level. Not overly complicated, easy to understand. Okay, and it's at that grade seven elementary level. Language. So when I go in and set up my AI, I will make sure that it's funny because I've got AI saying, right, a no BS, Aussie toned approach. Well, why would I why would I ask it to do that? Because now it's telling it's talking to me. I'll give you that no BS, blah blah blah. It's because I'm an Aussie in Canada. And so people kind of expect my tone in an email to be very similar to the way I talk, mate. You know, like that's what they kind of expect out of me uh when I'm talking to them. And so they would kind of expect that in an email. So why would I get all grandiose, right? Using AI to improve. Better, not different. That's the point I'm making. Okay, you've got to be you. So if you're using AI right now and you haven't gone in and built that profile to make sure that it has a good concept of who you are and what you're trying to achieve and why you're using AI and everything that goes with that conditioning program or part of that program, you need to do it. AI helps you to communicate faster with more structure. What I love about AI is that I can absolutely puke, right? To the point where I'm even dropping, if I'm frustrated about something, I can even drop F bombs inside of that prompt. You know why? Because that's me being me, and I'm just saying it how it is. Now, what why it's it's great because there's times in the past pre-AI, okay, where I would draft these emails, okay, which were never to be sent, but it would get it out of my system, and I would circle back in the morning and I would reread that and I go delete, not sending that. Okay, and so this is the other use. So when I'm talking about communication, so um at the highest level, so I'm not procrastinating, so my timing's good and my tone is on point. I have a tool now that I can run all of my raw, you know, wholesale thoughts through, and it can give me uh some sort of feedback as to how I should handle that, whether it's a rewritten email. A lot of the time I'll write an email in draft format and I'll just cut and paste that into AI and go, this is my objective, this is what I'm trying to do. Give it to me in grade seven elementary language, um, and then I review that. See, so it's like back in the day, there was no such thing as power saws or skill saws or electric saws, it was all handsaw. See, so your ability to use a handsaw, when you introduced electricity and a skill saw or a power saw, all that meant is that you would do the same thing, you would just do it faster. That's the key. That's why we use AI. Not because we want to project and be something different. No, we don't. What we want to do is we want to do it better and we want to do it faster. Because I don't know about you, but my to-do list every day is pretty significant. I got plenty of stuff to get through. So it helps me maintain order and it helps me keep up. Prompt it to match your tone. We've talked about that. Simple, direct, direct, authentic. That's who I am. Like I don't pretend to be one person at home and then I'm out with my mates being somebody else, and then I'm out with clients being someone else. Now I do tone it down a little bit with clients until they get to know me, but it becomes pretty, you know. We can really, there's clients that I connected with after the home show that she, you know, she she was talking pretty, pretty rugged, and I thought, that makes me feel comfortable. Um, you talk like I talk, and she's like, How do you talk? And I'm like, same as you. And so there was this rapport building based on now, if the client's very prim and proper, I'm gonna be up there, professional, prim and proper. But if the client is maybe not as polished, then I'm not gonna be pompous and be above that person. I'm gonna meet them at their level. I think that's important. Use AI as an assistant to refine your messaging, not to replace your voice. Refine the message, not replace your voice. It's important. That's why my AI says back to me, here's a no BS Aussie, you know, response or approach or whatever, okay? Because I've got it dialed so that there's consistency between this and what I put out in written word, let's say. The quality of your output depends on the quality of your prompt. Okay, so if we are going to be using AI to communicate better, so we avoid procrastination so that our timing is good and then our tone is on point, right? It depends on the quality of your prompt, right? So, guys and gals, it's about you we want to build a business, we want to be a better operator, and yet we our communication. Now you do an audit on yourself. I'm not standing here judging you. I'm standing here looking at camera A and camera B. Okay. What I'm doing here is asking you to do an audit of what the what level of communication or communicator that you are. One being frigging ordinary, three being rather average, and five being gangster. Okay. I doubt whether there's a lot of people, if they're on, are sitting there listening, um, whether you're on the podcast or in YouTube, Bill, um, that would say I'm a great communicator. I don't think I'm a great communicator. I'm always looking to push the envelope from a three to a five. I'm always, okay, that was pretty three, but how do I improve that or increase that? Great communication isn't natural for everyone, but with the right tools and intent, it can be learned and improved quickly. See, when you have a system where I have something that comes in. Now, do I go and run every single email through AI? No, I don't. I don't to go and talk to that client about, hey, are you available on you know this Wednesday or Thursday afternoon? Like, come on, be real. I don't need it'll just waste my time. I'll just go straight back in there and go, great. Um, can we can we meet up this week? You don't need to do that. But sometimes when you know there's there's something that's at a higher level, why wouldn't you just use it as a consultant to start helping you organize your thoughts? See, if you're a scatter brain and you're disorganized in your thought process, how the heck are you gonna lead a client? How are you gonna do a deal? You've got to have a really clear way through. Now, is it linear? Does it go from A to B in a straight line? Most of the time it does not. And because of those turns, that's where you know your ability to handle that vehicle through the turns, brake modulation, throttle application, all that, steering inputs, etc., racing, you know, analogies, um, you need to be able to sort of execute quickly. Okay. So in some cases, I'm like, I don't even think about using AI. In other cases, I'm like, this is deep. I need to just puke into AI, ask it to refine my thoughts. Do you have any questions? Have you got it? And I've had situations whereby that the conversation with AI has been extensive, and I've had to answer a list of 10 questions to be able to help the system or the tool do it better and then help me better. Okay. Guys and girls, that'll do for today. If you've got any questions around that or anything else, max at elitebusinessadvisory.com. Um, if you want to just chat with me about business, I'll give you 30 minutes of my time. Uh, one off, uh, hit the book a consultation button on the uh elitebusinessadvisory.com website. Let's sit here and have a chat. You know, like you never get today back again, right? So are you happy with what happened last yesterday or last month or last year the year before? If you're not, you've got to start changing. That means I've got to bring some awareness and figure out where there's gaps in your program. So um get across there, business for builders VIP, answer the three questions, I'll let you in. Or business for builders as an open group there. Get across, get into that community, ask questions. If you're good enough, um, maybe you could respond to some of those questions and help out your fellow builder. Um, that's encouraging because karma is a thing. Um, and if you like what you hear here, if you're feeling generous, leave us a bit of a review and a bit of a thumbs up. I would appreciate it to help us get the word out there. Go build a kick ass business. See you in the next episode. Cheers.