Knowing What
Your Market Values

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Money is objective.

Money is absolute.

Value is subjective.

Value is relative.

Think of a bottle of water.
The PRICE of the water is $1.69 per bottle. Objective and Absolute.
The VALUE of the water depends on my circumstances.  Subjective and Relative.

The value, not the price, is the important factor--

What determines whether or not I make the trade is the VALUE I place on the benefit of reducing my thirst. The price of the bottle of water is just an arbitrary point at which I make the decision of relative value.

Buy...or Don't Buy

If I have been on a roof all day in the hot sun without a drink, the value of the water is high — I buy. 

If I have just finished a cold iced tea, the value of the water is low — I don’t buy.

If my thirst is completely satisfied, the water may even have a negative value (the fact that I have to carry the full bottle until I am thirsty again) — definitely will not buy.

It doesn’t depend on the price of the item. It depends on the value placed (subjectively) on the benefits provided by the product or service.

If I want the item more than the money, I’ll buy.  Buy if Item Value > Money Value

If I want the money more than the item, I won’t buy.  Don’t Buy if Item Value < Money Value

This concept has enormous importance to your construction business.  At its simplest, it suggests (no, it demands) that you have both a valuable product and a market that recognizes its value.

Having a comprehensive understanding of your market segment is critical to your branding and marketing success. This survey tests the depth of your knowledge about the Buyers in your market segment.

Since value is subjective, it can be influenced.
Adding value to a product is what marketing is all about.

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Knowing What Your Market Values


PRICE vs VALUE:

YOUR PROSPECTIVE BUYER:

The Central Model

The Central Model presents a market that:
Is sufficiently large to provide the revenue stream your company needs;
Is sufficiently small that it can be identified and addressed efficiently;
Has many of the same beliefs and values;
Has many demographic characteristics in common;
Has many psychographic characteristics in common;
Represents a group that your company and you can and do understand.

The Flanker Markets
Inevitably, you will draw interest from prospects not in the Central Model. These prospects will respond to certain of your marketing messages, but will differ in important ways from your Central Model. They will respond to your value message, but perhaps not to your design message. Or they may respond to your design message, but do not fit the demographic model. These prospects comprise your "Flanker Markets". Flanker markets do not precisely fit your Central Model. However, such markets represent sales opportunities that you cannot ignore. Additionally, the flanker markets provide important information to you regarding where your market is heading, and clues as to how to tweak your offerings to align more closely with potential clients.

MASLOW'S NEEDS HIERARCHY:

According to the "Hierarchy of Needs" theory of Abraham Maslow, the most useful way to try to understand human values is to place those values in a pyramid of needs, beginning with the most basic need of survival and ascending to a state of realizing one's full potential, or self-actualization.

As each level of needs is fulfilled, the next level can be addressed.

This concept is valuable for attempting to understand and address the aspirational values of potential home-buyer clients.
The pyramid illustrates that the first level of need is physiological, i.e. for some form of shelter.
Once that need is met, the desire is for safety and security.
When the individual feels safe and secure, she aspires to belong to a group (or tribe).
When the individual is ensconced with a group (such as a neighborhood), he aspires to be valued or esteemed within the group.
As the individual grows in terms of standing in the community, he or she can begin to realize their full potential as a member of society.

The illustration would also suggest that an individual does not progress to the next level of the hierarchy until they have substantially realized the characteristics of the level below.
In essence, as humans, we progress from survival --> comfort --> sharing --> respect --> fulfillment.
Our housing aspirations follow the same path.

IS YOUR MARKET SEGMENT WILLING TO PAY FOR VALUE?



Thanks for completing this survey in the FOUNDATION series. Be sure to request a copy of the survey for your records, as Builder Academy does not retain this information.

🏅 Create a Business Worth Owning

📶 Integrated step-by-step program using all tools and systems

💡 Two coaching sessions per month

📊 Monthly scorecard to measure the journey

🛠️ Tools: All tools (Chart of Accounts, Cost Codes, BBOS Estimator, Builder Business Model Canvas, SubManager, ClientManager, Policy Handbook, Management Scorecard).

🤝 What we do together:

  • A 180+-day engagement covering financials, estimating, subcontractors, clients, and workforce.
  • Coaching sessions every two weeks to review your real numbers and coach policy implementation.
  • A monthly “Business Health Scorecard” that shows where you are strong and where to strengthen.
  • Focus on building a business system that allows you to:
    • move out of day-to-day management;
    • develop a valuable legacy enterprise; and
    • create a business with significant market value.

💲 Investment: $3,500-$5,000.

🪜 Progression logic:

  • This is the capstone — combining all five prior steps into one system that builds a business worth owning.

🎯Outcome: "Now I control my business, not the other way around."

👷 Manage Your Workforce

👷‍♀️ Put the right people in the right position

📄 Create an Organization Chart and Position Descriptions

📄 Integrate employment policies

🛠️ Tools: OrgChart, Position Descriptions, Company Policy Template

🤝 What we do together:

  • Create a Company organization chart.
  • Create Job Descriptions.
  • Implement employee policy handbook
  • Identify inefficiencies in labor margins.
  • Discover hidden labor costs.

💲 Investment: $1,250-$1,500.

🪜 Progression logic:

  • Labor is usually the last controllable variable — now you are tackling optimization and efficiency.

🎯Outcome: "Now I am in control of the work that must be completed, and my employees understand their positions and accountabilities."

🗣️ Control the Client Relationship

📄 Client log, Change Order system

📄 Notice of Completion, Draw Requests

📄 Communication templates for disputes

🛠️ Tools: ClientManager, Client Contact Log, Initial Specifications, NAHB Residential Construction Guide

🤝 What we do together:

  • Implement a structured client management system.
  • Introduce the Client Contact Log.
  • Provide templates for change order and scope adjustments.
  • Train on reducing disputes and managing client expectations.

💲 Investment: $750-$1,250

🪜 Progression logic:

  • With the business financially stable and risk-protected, control of clients and their expectations ensures smoother operations and fewer profit leaks.

🎯Outcome: "Now I can manage clients and their expectations without projects spinning out of control."

🧯Identify and Manage Risks

🏠 Project Risks:

  • Site Risks – site injuries with no primary insurance coverage.
  • Reputational Risks – You don’t deliver what you promised because your subcontractors were not on the same page.
  • Capacity Risks – You can’t deliver what you promised because you don’t have the organizational structure to support your sales.

🔍 Management Risks:

  • Company Structural Risks – You don’t have the right people in the right positions.
  • Promotional Risks – Your market doesn’t know or care about your products.
  • Competitive Risks – You haven’t differentiated your company, so lowest price is the only way you can compete. 
  • Market Demand Risks – a bad market cycle will cripple or destroy your business.

🛠️ Tools: SubManager, Organizing for Success, Builder Business Model Canvas, Budgeting Forecasts

🤝 What we do together:

  • Implement Terms and Conditions, Scopes of Work, and Inspection Reports for all Subcontractors.
  • Review how you track subcontractor insurance and compliance.
  • Analyze your organizational structure to optimize production capacity.
  • Review your business model.
  • Create “Expected Case”, “Best Case”, and Worst Case” budgeting scenarios.

💲 Investment: $1,000-$1,500

🪜 Progression logic:

  • After financial clarity and profitable estimating, risk management provides the next layer of company stability.

🎯Outcome: "Now I can reduce or transfer risk exposure; identify and appeal to my primary market; and plan for any type of economic environment."

🧮Price with Confidence

🔍 Audit your estimating process

🔎 Review all active projects monthly for budget-to-actual performance

🔍 Debrief every completed project for profitability and work flow

📶 Install a margin-tracking dashboard

🛠️ Tools: BBOS Estimator, Overhead Calculator, Completed Project Profitability Report

🤝 What we do together:

  • Audit your current estimating process.
  • Benchmark your margins against industry and market standards.
  • Optimize estimating margins for maximum profitability.
  • Track true budget-to-actual expenditures.

💲 Investment: $750-$1,250

🪜 Progression logic:

  • Once finances are stable, you can sharpen your pricing to stop leaving money on the table.
  • You’ll know the margin to use to make sure overhead is allocated profitably. 

🎯Outcome: "Now I can bid jobs knowing I'll profit, not just hoping for profit."

💰90-Day Financial Reset

🗄️ Rebuild Chart of Accounts on NAHB Model

🗃️ Rebuild Cost Codes on CSI model

🛠️ Tools: Accounting platform, NAHB Chart of Accounts, CSI Cost Codes, Management Scorecard

🤝 What we do together:

  • Access to your accounting platform is required.
  • Rebuild your Chart of Accounts for project-level profitability.
  • Create and align Cost Codes so estimating, job costing, and reporting all “speak the same language.”
  • One-on-one coaching call every two weeks during the program to interpret your numbers.

💲 Investment: $1,500-$3,000

🪜 Why start here?

  • Without financial clarity, nothing else matters.
  • The reason you are in business is to make a profit. 
  • Do you KNOW if you are doing that?

🎯Outcome: "Now I know if my business is profitable and my business model is sound."

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