Owning your identity

RCS Influencer Randy Chaffee says that, for smaller companies to compete, they need to embrace what they uniquely have to offer: community presence and genuine relationships.

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Randy Chaffee of Source One Marketing. You can read the interview below, listen to the podcast or watch the recording.

Alex Tolle: Hello, I'm Alex Tolle with MetalCoffeeShop.com, and I'm back for another influencer response here with Randy. So our September 2025 question is: how can contractors remain competitive and differentiate themselves in markets experiencing significant mergers and acquisitions?

Randy Chaffee: Man, that's a timely one, Alex. I think it's vitally important because we know, whether it's at the contractor level or the distributor level, the manufacturer level, the mergers and the buyouts are happening all the time. And I think the key is: be aware that that's out there, be aware it exists and really spend some time with yourself. Spend some time with your team. I use the term spitballing, but throw stuff up against the whiteboard and see what sticks, right? Throw some ideas. What is the difference between them?

Alex Tolle: Yeah.

Randy Chaffee: You're not going to beat some of these gigantic operations on price. They're going to have more advertising dollars. They're going to have better buying power. They're going to have the ability to maybe offer better benefits. They're going have all that stuff just because of pure size, right? But the key that you have — and you got to understand and you got to sell it unabashedly and be confident of it and proud of it is — I'm me. This is my group. We're good at what we do. We care about what we do. We've been here forever. We're the people that you see at the ice cream social, we're the people that sponsor the kids' softball games, we're the people that put the sign up for the band, you know, at the band outing at the high school. We're the people that do those, but you gotta do them, right? You can't just say you do them, but you gotta do those things.

But there's a lot of things at the local smaller operation and, again, whether it's contracting or supplying, that you bring to the table that you don't get from the large, gigantic operations. And the biggest thing is, I think, everybody in your organization needs to remember something: they get you. If you're the owner, you're the salesman, you're the foreman of the crewman, the truck driver. Just remember: the reasons they're buying from your business versus the big guy is because they get to know Johnny, right? They get to know who you are. They get to know that you care about them because you're more than just a number to them people, right? And let them know that. Let them know that I'm in the community. I get up every day and go to church, the same church. I go to the same restaurants and coffee shops.

And I think it's important that we let people know that you're not dealing with somebody that's a parent company 3000 miles away that could care less other than a screenshot of what did somebody do? What did customer 1897 do? No, I know who 1897 is. And I just did a roof for him last week and his boy plays baseball, right? That's the difference. But we got to talk about it, and we got to live it every day.

Alex Tolle: Yeah, absolutely. I love it. You nailed it. Thank you so much, Randy.

Randy Chaffee: Good! Always!