#160 - Zigging While Others Zag

[00:00:00] If you are an irrigation professional, old or new who designs, installs or maintains high

[00:00:11] end residential commercial or municipal properties and you want to use technology to improve

[00:00:16] your business to get a leg up on your competition even if you're an old school irrigator from

[00:00:22] the days of hydraulic systems this show is for you.

[00:00:29] Hello my friends welcome back to The Sprinkler Nerd Show I'm your host Andy Humphrey.

[00:00:35] Today is Friday and I just have kind of a short thought to share with you and it has

[00:00:44] to do with being unconventional.

[00:00:47] Now, can I ask myself why would I want to share a thought about being unconventional?

[00:00:53] And I think I've talked about this before about being the orange in the apple bin or

[00:01:00] the apple in the orange bin and being unconventional, I think is kind of similar.

[00:01:07] It's standing out from the crowd.

[00:01:09] You could call it being different but I kind of like to think of it as being unconventional

[00:01:17] and why, why does, well a couple of things, why does being unconventional matter and how do you

[00:01:25] become unconventional or be unconventional or think unconventional.

[00:01:31] And I'm going to try to relate this to just the general purpose so the general business

[00:01:37] of acquiring a new customer in the irrigation or landscape business.

[00:01:42] And I would have to believe that if a client, whether it's residential or commercial or municipal

[00:01:50] for that matter, requests that they get a couple bids and let's just say for instance they talk

[00:01:58] to five irrigation contractors.

[00:02:02] It could be maintenance contractor really doesn't matter.

[00:02:04] Five companies that all come out and they're all asked the same question.

[00:02:10] I want to irrigate this landscape.

[00:02:13] Likely, it could be that all five look pretty much the same.

[00:02:19] The personnel could show up in the same kind of truck.

[00:02:22] They could be dressed the same way.

[00:02:24] They could put together their bids in the same way.

[00:02:28] The actual prices could be different but the perception would likely be very similar.

[00:02:36] And so my question for you or the thought that I'd like to inspire for you is to think about how

[00:02:43] you could be a little unconventional.

[00:02:46] What question could you ask your client that you know no one else is going to ask?

[00:02:53] What else could you include in the details of your proposal

[00:02:56] that you know your competition is not going to ask?

[00:03:01] What question can you ask your client that you want them to ask your competition

[00:03:10] because you know it's going to frame them in a way where they potentially can't answer the question

[00:03:16] or can't answer the question correctly.

[00:03:20] And what's fun about this is it's not really a game but kind of.

[00:03:24] If you know either who your direct competition is by name or you just know the nature

[00:03:32] in your particular market of how people bid jobs and the information that they portray to their

[00:03:40] clients and the steps that they go through again.

[00:03:42] They're going to talk about we're going to have head-to-head coverage.

[00:03:46] We want to make sure you have decent pressure.

[00:03:48] You know all these basic things every company does this

[00:03:53] and so how do you stand out?

[00:03:56] I don't have any answers for you.

[00:03:57] I just want you to think what could be unconventional that you could propose to your client

[00:04:06] speak about your business?

[00:04:07] How could your business be unconventional in a way that separates you from the norm

[00:04:13] but in a positive way where it showcases your knowledge, your expertise

[00:04:20] I might say your time in the business but that doesn't really matter.

[00:04:25] I'm not particularly fond of someone that tries to sell on the fact that they've been in

[00:04:31] business for 20 years. I don't think that's very relevant.

[00:04:37] It's actually easy to sell against so I won't get into that on this episode.

[00:04:42] But just being unconventional one other way to think of this is to

[00:04:47] you to zig while others zag.

[00:04:52] How can you go left when you see everyone else going right?

[00:04:58] Ironically I haven't fact-checked this but good friend of Ionese and ophthalmologist

[00:05:05] surgeon said he read this at some point and he told me this a couple years ago and he said

[00:05:10] that if you're in line somewhere let's say you're walking into the airport,

[00:05:14] this may not be relevant but you're somewhere in a crowded area and lines are beginning to form.

[00:05:20] He said that most people go right, it's nature to go right so likely if you go left

[00:05:27] you will end up in the shorter line. I have not fact-checked that but just a kind of a

[00:05:33] I guess a random example of zinging while others zag, you know to kind of go against

[00:05:41] go against group thinking and sometimes if you go against group thinking people are- they

[00:05:49] might tell you no, you're not allowed to do that. You can't do that because

[00:05:56] that's not done that way and I think sometimes those the opportunities where

[00:06:04] where you're unconventional and you get the response of no you're not allowed to do that

[00:06:09] you can't do that because that's not done that way then then you get to ask the question why?

[00:06:17] And if everybody thinks it can't be done that way, first of all they might be right so you

[00:06:22] got to be careful about how you approach this because if they're right and you actually can't

[00:06:28] then it may not end up good for you so don't bet your entire business on something like that.

[00:06:34] But oftentimes that is if if everyone thinks no then they're not going to do it

[00:06:39] and so if you can figure out how or why to do it the way that everybody else says no

[00:06:44] that will put you into a that'll separate you from from everyone else and I guess that's

[00:06:52] that's zinging while other people zag and it probably puts you my guess would be in the top 20%

[00:07:00] right if if uh if you can figure that out so um let me see I'm just looking at a couple notes

[00:07:08] I made here before I started to jabber um you know being unconventional going against the green

[00:07:16] uh changing the rules so I think that again if if you can do what other people say that you

[00:07:24] can't do and you can figure out how to do it that means you get to change the rules a bit

[00:07:32] and if you're changing the rules then you get to change the definition of the game

[00:07:39] which means you get to change the game itself so now your competition will have to play by your

[00:07:48] rules you get to tell the market how to do it and the competition has to now come to you

[00:07:57] and so if you can think of an unconventional way to um proposing the irrigation system which

[00:08:03] also means install the irrigation system which likely means maintain the irrigation system whatever

[00:08:08] might be unconventional that is currently not being done today uh i.e. like a soil moisture sensor

[00:08:14] since we know that they're not being used widely then that then you get to change the game

[00:08:21] and you get to tell the market how it's done and if you're telling the market how it's done

[00:08:25] now your competition regardless of how big they are this is the best part regardless of how

[00:08:31] big they are they now have to play by your rules because you are the one that separated and you

[00:08:38] changed the game and I think that sometimes we hear that expression oh this is a game changer

[00:08:43] and we use it all the time that expression for something new but it's not always a game changer

[00:08:49] but I think this might be i have in fact checked this either could be where the expression comes from

[00:08:56] because how awesome is it if you can change the game let's say you've got a large competitor in your

[00:09:03] market and perhaps their prices are low and it just means you can't play by that set of rules so

[00:09:11] you have to be unconventional and you have to change the game and those are questions you can ask

[00:09:16] yourself what can you do? What is missing here? What is the missing piece on this system that we

[00:09:23] want to add that no one has thought of yet that's fairly unconventional that no one's going to see

[00:09:28] coming but may change the future of the game so anyway hope that was a little was helpful you can

[00:09:36] you can think of it in your own business whatever part of the business that might be what would

[00:09:42] 10 people say can't be done but still makes sense to you go out and figure that out figure out

[00:09:49] how to do it go against the grain zig while others zag that's what i have for you today guys thanks

[00:09:56] so much and i'm actually headed out to a spring break trip this next week in Jamaica my my

[00:10:05] middle daughter Phoebe who is a senior this year it's her spring break and there's probably

[00:10:11] i don't know a couple dozen other families from my hometown that they will all be in Montego Bay

[00:10:18] Jamaica so if i have a podcast next week it is going to be me just sitting by the pool letting

[00:10:25] my mind wander thinking of unconventional thoughts uh so i can help you guys zig while others

[00:10:32] zag and you know what perhaps even just by listening to this podcast and other podcasts you already

[00:10:38] are zgging because most irrigation and landscape contractors are not listening to podcasts so

[00:10:45] thank you for listening thank you for zgging while others zag have a great weekend we'll catch you

[00:10:51] on another episode of the sprinkler nerd show