Open the websites of ten main contractors and read the first line of each. You will find the same four promises: quality, safety, on time, on budget. They are all true, and that is exactly the problem. When everybody says it, it stops meaning anything.
Start with the jobs you won
The best clue is not in your mission statement. It is in the projects you won against the odds. Ask the client why they chose you. The answer is rarely “quality”. It is usually something small and specific: you answered the phone at 7 am, your site manager knew the neighbours by name, your drawings were the only ones they could understand.
A position is not what you say about yourself. It is what your best client says about you when you are not in the room.
Three questions to ask this week
- Which project are we most proud of, and why did we win it?
- What do clients thank us for when the job is done?
- What would we refuse to do, even for a big fee?
Write the answers down in plain words. The sentence that makes you slightly nervous to say out loud is usually the one worth building a brand on.