Market your services!
By Julie Adamen

Continuing our comments based on the results of our web survey, we focus this month on one of the industry’s “If Onlys:”

What we are doing now WOULD work
IF ONLY the competition wouldn’t low-ball the bids.

It’s the lament heard round the country: “I lost and account because ABC Company low-balled me.  And they don’t offer close to the amount of service WE do!”  Conversely, when we bid a new contract, we send them a package, then subsequently are herded in to the Board of Directors meeting, one after the other, given our 15 minutes of fame and then the chips fall where they may.  And let’s face it, most people who manage don’t like to market, and especially hate to sell, or close the deal. More often than not, it comes down to 1) Price and 2) Personality.[1] And why not? Most of our services appear to be the same because we continue to use (say it with me now!) virtually identical full service contracts. Landing that account can often a crapshoot, as the Boards don’t know anything about our companies, our services, or what to expect, because our contracts appear the same and we don’t market our services.

What’s wrong with this picture? Is there any other industry that does not actively and continually market its services to the public, or to its targeted audience?

Why we don’t market

Sales are icky!  A lot of us have the perception that marketing and selling go hand in hand with used cars and loud sport coats. This may apply to used car salespeople (and some telemarketers) but not to most industries, and definitely not to community management. Sales and marketing should be as natural to our industry as it is to others.

It’s unethical.  That’s a load of beans. Marketing is not unethical, and neither is letting potential clients know they have options. Doctors and lawyers actively market their services, and so should we, as professional service providers.  The community management industry is not building cold fusion reactors, its managing HOAs.

What will the others think? Naturally, when you step out of the carefully drawn (and some say barbed wired) box, others will be pretty ticked off – remember, when you are out of the protective custody of the collective, you’re an easy target. Once they get over the initial shock, they’ll attempt to meet the challenge or not – it’s their choice.

Why should we market?

Openly marketing services is the hallmark of a free market society.    (For those who know me, this does sound awfully Republican, but…) We are a part of that free market society – and guess what – it works!

That free market society and open marketing of services …leads to competition! Competition is good! Competition will lead to innovative thinking in how we market our services, meet niches in the industry, design and execute our contracts and define ourselves for the future – not the past.

Which leads to better-educated consumers who will demand, over time, better service tailored to the needs of their community because they will know it is available to them. Why take one size fits all when you can get a perfect fit? Why take Company A when Company B is the one you’ve heard about?

Which then leads to… Choices for the consumer. Let’s face it, water seeks it’s own level. There are just going to be those accounts that want (and deserve) $8 per door treatment. Good. That just ties up those who low ball bidders with accounts that drive them nuts – not you.

How should we market? 

Best to have a marketing plan. Most companies that implement a marketing plan are great at the plan and the first couple of meetings… then someone quits, or there’s an annual meeting, or an emergency meeting of the flower committee… and the marketing plan goes kaput. It’s not the plan’s fault – those who should have been executing it failed it. If you need professional help with a marketing plan, get it. Then stick to it.

Where to market? The everyday association member is a potential board member and thus a potential client. Where are they? At the movies, at the fair, at the chili cook off, listening to talk radio, in the supermarket. Think different, do different. Then be consistent, and don’t expect to see results in 30, 60 or 90 days. This is a long-term commitment, which will be measured incrementally over a period of years.

Somehow along the way in the community management business, we came to a mass conclusion that there is something wrong with openly marketing our services, something “unethical” about it. I can’t really pinpoint where it started, but I suspect it was borne of good intentions now gone awry, and/or a loose plan to control competition. The irony is that the by-product of our over sensitivity to what is “ethical” in terms of marketing has backfired for everyone: It has kept the consumer ignorant - and ignorant community association consumers are the driving force behind the low bidders, they are the low bidder’s niche.

The low-ball bidders are not going to change, so if we want to uplift our little section of the world, we must change the way we do business. We must make that niche borne of ignorance evaporate.

Marketing = Consumer Education = Increased Consumer
Demand for Better Service =
Less Business for the Low Bidders

Open competition through creative, high profile marketing would promote innovation in services, public awareness of the importance of the industry, show the value of our products and services and drive us to a new level of excellence through (educated) consumer demand.