Is your relationship with your builder a two way street?

I'm about to ask you a one simple question that will change the way you interact with your builder indefinitely.

The answer to this question is the reason that your relationship with your builder can never make you invincible from the risk of doing business with him.

You already know why you think you need to have a relationship with your builder and/or his staff. You guys tell me every single day that you think you need a relationship in order to win work.

Here's the kicker, the fact that you need that relationship, is exactly the reason the builder doesn't need one at all.

Put it this way, if you're relying on relationships to win work, there are so many of your competitors out there that your builder can pick and choose.

So if the builder doesn't need your relationship, why would he want one?

As an ex builder's CA who is guilty of leveraging the R word back in the day, I'll tell you exactly why...

Your builder wants (not needs) an ongoing relationship with you, so that he can use that relationship as leverage to control you.

He uses it to control your price, to control whether or not he pays you for variations, to control whether you chase his overdue payments, and the list goes on and on and on.

He leans on this relationship to get you to start work on site at the drop of the hard hat, with no clear scope, when your price still isn't firmed up and he knows damn well you're over his budget.

He leverages it when he takes your tender price and asks you to resubmit it again at your "project price".

He makes you feel like putting up with resequencing of works and delays is what you need to do to deliver him outstanding customer service.

The long and the short of it is that he doesn't need a relationship with you at all, like you think you need the relationship with him.

Now if you're still reading this, your brain is about to throw you your obligatory "yeah but" objection right on cue. 

"Yeah but what else are we supposed to do? You can't tell me that throwing relationships to the wind is going to win me work."

You're right about that. I'm not proposing you burn your bras.

I've come to realise that if all our Aussie Subbies are going to insist on romancing their builders, what you really need is some good bloke approaches on how to leverage those same relationships to gain a commercial foothold when you need it.

If you want to dive deeper into this topic, swing by my website and check out the Subbies' Toolbox. Alternatively, you can listen to this week's podcast to find out more.

 This blog post was written by Michelle Cirson. Michelle is a construction lawyer and adjudicator, and the Director of Tricks of Your Trade.