Sound like every other rental company and you’re the first one crossed off.
Hi y’all,
Krista Chapman markets rental and event companies for a living, and at the User Summit she described a buyer I recognize from our own inbox. She researches until she’s overwhelmed, goes quiet, then comes back ready to eliminate options. Krista calls it subtractive shopping. Your buyer has twenty tabs open and wants reasons to close yours.
And so the generic companies go first. “We do everything.” “We’ve got you covered.” After twenty websites, you can’t tell companies like that apart.
Here’s Krista on who gets cut first:
And here are 3 concrete takeaways:
Write 25 reasons someone books you, then cross off every one a competitor could also claim. Krista borrowed the exercise from a venue owner, and she says it’s hard to find 25 that survive. What’s left is your people, the way you operate, and what only your shop has built. Her test for each one is: could a competitor copy it tomorrow? If so, then cross it off your list. In the past I’ve written about knowing your brand, and Krista’s session is a great primer on what that looks like in 2026.
Lead your website with the events you serve, and put the catalog second. The mistake Krista sees most is the inventory catalog as the first tab. Your vendor partners might know what to do with it. Someone planning a wedding, or the office party, doesn’t. Give weddings, corporate, and graduations their own pages, each with your policies, pricing approach, a testimonial, and one clear next step.
Get specific, because AI is quoting you now. Ask an AI tool for a tent company in your town and it cites whoever gave it something specific to cite. That means FAQs on every page, your process, what things cost, and real event stories with a problem and how you solved it.
So open your homepage and read it the way a potential customer does, with twenty tabs open. What’s on your website that the company down the street couldn’t also say?
See you next Monday,
Mallory Mullen
Goodshuffle
