Construction Business

The tactics below are geared mainly towards contractors that doing project work marketing service work is different and is covered very well by a fellow consultant, Adams Hudson who has a regular column in both Contractor and Contracting Business magazines. Each column is a wealth of knowledge about service marketing.
There are two things we need to do 1 is to reinforce with our existing customers why they use us and 2 introduce ourselves to new potential customers.
In this post we are going to focus on getting 1 dialed in creating a foundation to build on for 2.
The only way I have ever seen projects get sold is with basic, old fashioned personal sales tactics. What I’m going to describe below is truly stating the obvious but the problem we see is that few contractors engage in these activities on a regular basis.
Start with your existing customers because that is the easiest way to get additional work.
Do you have one centralized list of all your customers setup in a place where you can add in notes about them and keep track of details such as birthdays, spouse names, etc
If not then you need to set one up Outlook is a great tool for this.
You should be in regular contact with all your current customers at least quarterly just checking in to make sure they are happy with your company’s performance. This typically isn’t a problem in a small company because the owner is heavily involved in the management but once the company grows this little detail can slip through the cracks on the assumption that other people in the organization are taking care of the relationship.

For past customers you should communicate with them regularly. These should be prioritized ranging from ‘1 would like to do more work with them’ to ‘3 don’t bother’ or some other system that suits your business. Often times if you start making calls or visits you will find that there are some reasons why they aren’t doing business with you currently and that can be an opportunity to fix some of your internal problems and win back some work.
Having new marketing collateral can be a great excuse to drop by and see a current or past customer. They may not be aware of new people within your organization, new capabilities such as an added service team or of new project experiences.
Don’t get too caught up in thinking that just because they have or are currently doing business with you that they know the full scope of everything you do. We have a client who is primarily a glazing contractor but also does doors and hardware. They have the word ‘Glass’ in their company name and because of that they were overlooked by an existing customer for a large scope of work on the doors and hardware because the customer didn’t know they provided that service.
Don’t leave anything to chance. Make sure that all your current and past customers know the full scope of everything you do.
Also make sure that this information gets to all levels it doesn’t do much good if the owner of the company has your information but the estimator does not.
Your goal should be building tighter relationships at all levels within the customer’s organization. Everyone from the field foreman to the project manager to the accounting team should know and love your organization.
Work heavily on building those relationships and getting your new marketing package out.
While you are there meeting with them ask for referrals.
Look at this exercise with existing customers as a way to hone your skills in presenting your company and its capabilities. It will set you up for phase 2 where you will work on introducing your company to new potential customers.
The data from an interactive can be used to help focus a marketing campaign and to more clearly define where the nuts and bolts of building are intersecting with the customers’ desires. No information is perfect, and many of the clients poking around on your site may be tradesmen, dreamers or competitors simply e surfing. In some cases, the data may even be skewed somewhat. But there is nothing like getting quality information and feedback from potential, current and past clients that are not answering a ho hum survey, but actually choosing to spend time the way they wish to in the comfort of their own homes or offices. The strength of this possibility cannot be understated.
Luckily this story ended well the customer had enough respect to call the owner of the company and tell him what happened. The owner went out to meet with the customer and in looking at the panel found some additional problems and was able to sell a service upgrade as well as landing some future remodel work