In psychology, there’s this thing called the mere exposure effect.
What is a Touchpoint?
In marketing, they say you must have eight to 12 touchpoints before closing a sale. A touchpoint is essentially a phone call, an email, or any sort of contact with you and your brand.
So let’s say a phone call. That’s one touchpoint. An email, a text, a visit, another visit, an ad… Those are all touchpoints, get it?
What most marketers say is an average of eight to 12 touchpoints will get you a client. So what do we do? We just have to get them to that 12 touchpoints as fast as possible so that we can activate something called the mere exposure effect.
The mere exposure effect is when someone gets exposed to you multiple times over the course of weeks, months, years. Even if they don’t know anything about you, they become familiar with you. And then familiarity breeds liking. It’s something in our DNA and in our psychology that says, “Hey, this guy is cool. I see him at parties. I see him at events.”
The Mere Exposure Effect in Your Life
Have you ever met a colleague at an event? Or maybe it’s a friend that you met at a house party. And then you don’t see them for six months. Maybe you keep in touch here and there through an email or a phone call, but then when you see each other six months later and you instantly connect?
“Hey, how’s the family. How’s this? How have you been?” This is because of the mere exposure effect.
You don’t know anything about the guy. You spent five minutes talking about work and this and that. Very superficial, but you feel like you know the guy because you’ve had a couple of contacts with him.
So here’s another example:
When you go to the same store or the same cafeteria or the same place, you see the cashiers and the usual customers almost every time.
Over time, you get so comfortable that you say, “Hey, good morning. How are you? How you’ve been?” every time.
That’s called the mere exposure effect. We can apply that exact same thing in construction.
How to Apply the Mere Exposure Effect in Construction
Before bidding on a project, meet with the potential client. Get in contact with him multiple times so they know exactly who you are and what you can do for them.
If you only submit your bid to their email and cross your fingers, it’s going to be very difficult for you to land new projects because you become “just another bidder.”
Some projects will have 3-5 other bidders for the exact same trades as you, so in order to stand out from the rest of the pack, it’s a good idea to start making touchpoints with your potential client and use the mere exposure effect to make them familiar with you. Give them a call, visit them, send an email, etc.
There’s an art to this since you don’t want to bother anyone. But when you can balance consistent follow-up with bringing value to your GC or the owner, you’re going to find yourself with a ton of new projects.
In psychology, there’s this thing called the mere exposure effect.
What is a Touchpoint?
In marketing, they say you must have eight to 12 touchpoints before closing a sale. A touchpoint is essentially a phone call, an email, or any sort of contact with you and your brand.
So let’s say a phone call. That’s one touchpoint. An email, a text, a visit, another visit, an ad… Those are all touchpoints, get it?
What most marketers say is an average of eight to 12 touchpoints will get you a client. So what do we do? We just have to get them to that 12 touchpoints as fast as possible so that we can activate something called the mere exposure effect.
The mere exposure effect is when someone gets exposed to you multiple times over the course of weeks, months, years. Even if they don’t know anything about you, they become familiar with you. And then familiarity breeds liking. It’s something in our DNA and in our psychology that says, “Hey, this guy is cool. I see him at parties. I see him at events.”
The Mere Exposure Effect in Your Life
Have you ever met a colleague at an event? Or maybe it’s a friend that you met at a house party. And then you don’t see them for six months. Maybe you keep in touch here and there through an email or a phone call, but then when you see each other six months later and you instantly connect?
“Hey, how’s the family. How’s this? How have you been?” This is because of the mere exposure effect.
You don’t know anything about the guy. You spent five minutes talking about work and this and that. Very superficial, but you feel like you know the guy because you’ve had a couple of contacts with him.
So here’s another example:
When you go to the same store or the same cafeteria or the same place, you see the cashiers and the usual customers almost every time.
Over time, you get so comfortable that you say, “Hey, good morning. How are you? How you’ve been?” every time.
That’s called the mere exposure effect. We can apply that exact same thing in construction.
How to Apply the Mere Exposure Effect in Construction
Before bidding on a project, meet with the potential client. Get in contact with him multiple times so they know exactly who you are and what you can do for them.
If you only submit your bid to their email and cross your fingers, it’s going to be very difficult for you to land new projects because you become “just another bidder.”
Some projects will have 3-5 other bidders for the exact same trades as you, so in order to stand out from the rest of the pack, it’s a good idea to start making touchpoints with your potential client and use the mere exposure effect to make them familiar with you. Give them a call, visit them, send an email, etc.
There’s an art to this since you don’t want to bother anyone. But when you can balance consistent follow-up with bringing value to your GC or the owner, you’re going to find yourself with a ton of new projects.
