Hey contractors these marketing systems will create a flood of great leads

Hey Contractors, These Marketing Systems Will Create A Flood Of Great Leads

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In a previous article, I introduced you to the six systems that control the fate of your construction business. To refresh your memory, they were:

1. Marketing


2. Sales


3. Staffing


4. Planning


5. Tracking


6. Financial Control

In this article, I am going to expand on the seven components that should come together to form your marketing system. Do you remember that the sole purpose of your marketing system is to generate a flood of qualified sales leads?

Whether y...

Construction, contractor, business, advice

In a previous article, I introduced you to the six systems that control the fate of your construction business. To refresh your memory, they were:

1. Marketing


2. Sales


3. Staffing


4. Planning


5. Tracking


6. Financial Control

In this article, I am going to expand on the seven components that should come together to form your marketing system. Do you remember that the sole purpose of your marketing system is to generate a flood of qualified sales leads?

Whether you cash in on those leads is a sales issue. Do not expect your marketing system to close sales and ring the cash register. Do not expect your estimator to do that either, that's not his job nor is he well suited for selling.

To generate the volume of quality leads your business needs to achieve your sales goals, you need marketing systems for:

1. Generating leads from new customers


2. Generating leads from existing customers


3. Prodding referrals from existing customers.


4. Collecting testimonials.


5. Building relationship with your customers


6. Publicizing your business


7. Developing new advertising pieces.

Lets dive into the seven marketing systems, discuss their purpose, and highlight a few tricks that will make them productive for you.

1. Generating Leads From New Customers.

Here is the mountain all businesses must climb - generating opportunities with new customers. Getting them is really not the problem. Getting them without breaking the bank is the problem.

You cant afford unlimited advertising. You cant afford to hire a large staff of sales personnel to cold call everyone. You need an efficient and effective system for generating new leads.

Here a couple of tips for that.

Get your website up and ready for prime time. It is your most cost effective method for capturing quality leads. You may not be computer oriented, but your customers most assuredly are.

Second tip, copy the successful advertising practices of a best-in-class peer. You will need to contact contractors outside of your city to pull this one off.

Track down the best in the business. Get the owners name. Call them. Youll be amazed how generous non-competitive peers will be if you approach them humbly and with genuine respect of their incredible success.

Every time you put a new lead generating system in place, monitor its effectiveness. Tweak it and monitor the improvement or lack there of. Keep tweaking until you learn the most efficient method for generating the quantity of new customer leads you need to fulfill your sales goals.

2. Generating Leads From Existing Customers.

You need a system for stimulating repeat business. Sam Walton used to say that the first time someone bought, he had a sale. The second time someone bought, he had a customer.

Your easiest sell is to your existing customer.

You need to prompt those repeat sales. If your service is cycles (landscaping, pavement maintenance, painting, roofing, air conditioning) send out reminders when they should be approaching on the date they would need new service.

As a job finishes, ask your client what future projects they are considering. Put the information into your scheduling calendar and start calling them or mailing them prior to that time.

If you have multiple services, send advertisements and coupons that invite them to try the services they havent used yet. If you offer a maintenance service, send educational materials that explain what maintenance should be done...and offer to do it for them.

If you already have a large customer base, expand your services to tap into all the goodwill youve already created. Your existing customer base is the most valuable resource your business has. Learn how to mine new sales from it.

3. Prodding Referrals From Existing Customers.

Word of mouth advertising is the most effective means of generating leads from new customers. What carries more weight with you when deciding whether to buy something or hire someone to perform a service for you?

Advertising?
Exhaustive research?
The recommendation of someone you trust who has previously bought the product or used the service?

Its human nature to take the word of a trusted advisor over all other information. The one thing we all hate is spending money on something that disappoints us. So we take the word of someone who already purchased and wasnt disappointed to avoid regretting our purchase.

Now flip that around. Your customers can be your most effective sales people if you encourage them to.

To stimulate referrals, you need to:

(a) Ask for the referrals.
(b) Make it easy for them - create the referral letter.
(c) Reward them for the referral.

Referrals always work best when your customer contacts their friend on your behalf. Getting the friends name and mentioning that you were referred works nowhere near as well, but it does work better than having no referral.

4. Collecting Testimonials.

Testimonials should be the fuel of your advertising efforts. Testimonials overcome buyer resistance. They have greater influence on buying behavior than almost everything else short of a direct referral.

A process for collecting testimonials should be built into your customer close-out. Typically, if you ask for one it will be granted. Most satisfied customers are happy to provide testimonials, assuming you give them some guidelines.

Store your testimonials in accordance with the benefits they speak to. That way, you will have them ready at hand to prove you will meet your prospects needs when making a sales call or submitting a proposal.

5. Building Relationship With Your Customers.

People buy from, and keep buying from, people they like.

You need a system for maintaining your relationship with your customers. Typically, that means tracking and celebrating their birthday, their spouses birthday, their childrens birthdays, etc.

Send handwritten greeting cards on their special occasions. Send handwritten Thank You cards upon completion of the work. Track their hobbies and send them interesting information as you come across it. Make them think they are never far from your mind and you will have a customer for life.

6. Publicizing Your Business.

Since advertising is so expensive, you need to be set up to take advantage of every opportunity for free publicity.

Local newspapers are often looking for content. Any time something of substance happens in your business you should send it to them as a press release. That would include landing large or high profile contracts and receiving industry awards.

Get to know the business columnists in your area and become a source for quotes. Give interviews to magazine editors and feature writers.

Give presentations to Rotary, Lions, and other clubs. They are always looking for presenters. The subject doesnt matter. They will remember someone representing your firm spreading goodwill among business leaders.

Strike up joint ventures with other businesses that serve your clientele.

All of these efforts need to be organized, scheduled, and assigned to someone. They need to be part of system.

7. Developing New Advertising Pieces.

The development of a new advertising piece should be the result of a well executed design process.

Start off by identifying the market segment you wish to target. Choose the problem(s) you are going to solve. Come up with a killer offer. Round up the appropriate testimonial or three. Then find a graphic artist and copy writer to pull it all together for you.

Do not outsource your advertising decisions to an advertising agency or consultant. They do not know your customers as well as you do. You or a trusted employee should make all final artistic decisions.

To make sure the advertisement is going to pay off, set a budget for the advertising and the expected income. Share the budget with your designer. Set a deadline for when the advertisement will be ready for delivery or distribution.

Before releasing the money to print the new piece in quantity, it should be tested for effectiveness in a test run of a small set of prospects. Track your results and modify the headline and offer until you arrive at a combo that produces a significant increase in buyer response. Then roll out the full advertising and start raking in the new sales.

 

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Hey contractors 5 questions your sales letters must answer

Hey Contractors, 5 Questions Your Sales Letters Must Answer

You already know something that, if you pay attention to it, will help make your marketing far more effective.

Ready to learn what you already know?

Grab three or four advertising, direct mail sales letters from your junk mail pile and read them. As you are reading them, see whether the following questions pop into your mind?

1. Who are you?

2. What do you want?

3. Why should I care?

4. What's in it for me?

5. What do I do now?

They did, didnt they? I...

Construction, contractor, business, advice

You already know something that, if you pay attention to it, will help make your marketing far more effective.

Ready to learn what you already know?

Grab three or four advertising, direct mail sales letters from your junk mail pile and read them. As you are reading them, see whether the following questions pop into your mind?

1. Who are you?

2. What do you want?

3. Why should I care?

4. What's in it for me?

5. What do I do now?

They did, didnt they? I hadnt noticed it until it was pointed out to me by a copy writing expert.

If you rely on direct mail or email to promote your construction business, you MUST craft your piece to answer those questions in the order shown.

Those five questions go through every prospects mind whenever you telemarket, direct mail or cold call them.

That is because your prospects defense system is on high alert as soon as they come across your message. They are thinking...

"Im busy. Do you realize how important my time is? If you can solve a problem, I might give you a few more seconds to explain yourself."

When you try to get their attention, you are interrupting their day. Youve got to get their attention quickly and hold on to it.

If you dont address these questions in the right order, you will lose their attention. You will frustrate them. They will throw your letter away, hang up on you, delete your email, erase your voicemail, or have their receptionist send you packing.

Getting them to stay with you until you answer the fourth question is the trick. You cant jump the gun by answering question number four first. It will not work.

Most advertisers makes that mistake. They go right to question #4.

Naturally, your answers to each question must be worded properly. Dont say something like:

"Im Carl the Painter. I paint anything and everything." (Who are you?)

"I want you to hire me for your painting needs." (What do you want?)

Yeah. Thats going to work well.

Listing services is a mistake commonly made by contractors. Look at their web sites. Look at their advertising. Its simply amazing how frequently contractors answer the first three questions by listing their services without ever mentioning a
benefit to the prospect.

Get to the point and get there fast. Tell them why your offer should matter to them. Give them a reason to care and some of the benefits theyll gain and they will keep reading.

"Hey Paul, Carl Friendly here, and I have a quick question for you.

"Do you enjoy painting your house? You know what I mean - repairing the walls, covering the floors, climbing ladders, and cleaning up afterwards? I dont know about you, but I just hate the long hours it takes to keep my house looking good. I know Ive got better things to do with my time. Dont you?

"Wouldnt it be great if you could snap your fingers and make your house look great again? Well, Ive got the next best thing for you. Hire me to do the work for you.

"Ill get the work done quicker, it will look better, and you will be free to spend your time on more enjoyable and valuable activities.

"Call me (866-555-1212) to get your house looking great again while you are out golfing, fishing, or doing whatever you like to do with your free time."

Sounds better, right?

Something else to keep in mind - people buy what they want, not what they need.

People buy things to solve the problems they want solved, not the problems they need solved. Don't try to pitch to a problem they don't care about.

Last but not least, you must understand your prospects frustrations and problems before trying to write copy. Make sure your copy commiserates with them (shares their pain). You know, misery loves company. Its an emotional thing.

 

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Hey contractors you d better pick the right market for your business

Hey Contractors, Youd Better Pick The Right Market For Your Business

I hear two complaints CONSTANTLY from contractors.

1. I cant find enough good work.

2. I cant find enough good workers.

What most contractors fail to realize is that the two problems are closely related. The first causes the second. And both are a function of the market you operate in.

Finding an adequate supply of good workers can always be solved with money. If you can afford to pay the wages workers want and give them the hours they need, they will flock to y...

Construction, contractor, business, advice, coaching

I hear two complaints CONSTANTLY from contractors.

1. I cant find enough good work.

2. I cant find enough good workers.

What most contractors fail to realize is that the two problems are closely related. The first causes the second. And both are a function of the market you operate in.

Finding an adequate supply of good workers can always be solved with money. If you can afford to pay the wages workers want and give them the hours they need, they will flock to your company.

A lack of high margins is what complicates staffing.

The market you sell to greatly affects your ability to make money and your ability to hire good workers.

You need to choose your market wisely, very wisely.

Before permanently committing your destiny to a market (including the one you are currently focused on) you must research the following issues.

1. Can you track down enough prospects?

2. Can you market to the prospects cost effectively?

3. Do clients value anything beyond lowest price?

4. Does the work require expensive equipment?

5. Can you find enough sufficiently skilled people to do the work at the wages you can pay?

6. Is competition weak?

7. Are margins high?

8. Do you have the cash reserves to survive the markets pay cycle?

The greater your number of "nos", the more you will struggle. Here are the facts of business life:

Fact #1: You may be the best at what you do but no one is going to pay you for it if they dont value it.

Fact #2: Heavy competition leads to price competition.

Fact #3: If you cant market your business cost-effectively, youll waste all of your income chasing leads.

Fact #4: If you cant hire workers, you cant grow a business.

Business boils down to solving problems of value more efficiently than your competition. Choosing the right market essentially means picking one from which you can generate good leads; for which you afford to hire the right workers; and for which you can afford to buy the right equipment.

Choosing the right market is essential to realizing your financial goals. You cannot overcome a bad market.

Bad markets translate into low profit margins.

Low profit margins mean that you cant afford to pay above market wages. So you will struggle to find reliable, hard working, skilled workers.

Low profit margins mean that you cant afford to take a bath on ANY job. So you sit tight on your foreman, which makes him sit tight on his crews.

That drives good workers away.

When you compare your market to your capabilities, you may discover that the current fit isnt good. Don't fret, you may have several attractive options.

You may find that your current capabilities and services fit a different client than you have traditionally pursued. I see this often. A contractor builds a company perfectly suited for commercial work yet is chasing residential work.

You may find that you need to narrow your focus to a specific size and type of project and become the best, most efficient in that niche. Dont try to be a "full service" shop for every possible client. Thats recipe for certain failure.

If you find yourself in need of a new market, prepare for a tough transition.

You may need to overhaul your marketing system, your selling approach, and possibly your equipment fleet. You may need to let go of some workers and find new ones. Your job costing data may be rendered completely useless.

Your decision will be governed by many factors, not the least of which is the strength of your relationship with your present clients and your companys reputation on the street. If your relationships are strong, you should be able to raise your prices sufficiently to recruit and retain skilled workers. If not, you need to throw those relationships overboard and start anew.

If your street reputation is strongly identified for a given market, rebuild your company around that market or shut it down and open up under a new name. Changing your brand image is almost impossible. Either work within it or flush it.

Nine times out of ten, a haphazard approach to market selection seals the contractor's fate: failure. Great advertising campaigns, superior operations management, and a tight money control will not overcome a poorly selected market.

Did you fail to research the eight basic strategic marketing questions? No time like the present to run through them. It's the first step to building a really successful business.

 

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Hey contractors these selling systems land great paying work

Hey Contractors, These Selling Systems Land Great Paying Work

1061

Do you realize that the sole purpose of your selling system is to land negotiated work? In other words, to close deals and ring the cash register.

Getting to participate in a lowest-price-wins bid does not require salesmanship nor does it amount to selling.

In the construction industry, selling is defined by being hired, or in other words, landing negotiated work. You need 10 systems for landing enough negotiated work to grow your company profitably.

1. Assigning and...

Construction, contractor, business, advice

Do you realize that the sole purpose of your selling system is to land negotiated work? In other words, to close deals and ring the cash register.

Getting to participate in a lowest-price-wins bid does not require salesmanship nor does it amount to selling.

In the construction industry, selling is defined by being hired, or in other words, landing negotiated work. You need 10 systems for landing enough negotiated work to grow your company profitably.

1. Assigning and Prioritizing Leads

If your marketing system is doing its job, you should be receiving a flood of leads. You need to create criteria for sorting and prioritizing those leads.

The best way to do that is to identify and communicate the profile of youre "A", "B", and "C" level prospects. Know the characteristics that your best customers share.

Your "A" prospects are the ones who are looking for the benefits that you excel at and can prove it with case histories and testimonials.

Your "B" prospects are the ones you often are a good fit for, but not always.

Your "C" prospects are the ones your competition is a better fit for.

Whoever is assigned the responsibility of sorting through the leads must be given clear criteria for assigning "A", "B", and "C" grades.

2. Qualifying Leads.

You dont have time to waste on "C" prospects, "B" prospects who arent a good fit, nor "A" prospects who are married to your competition.

When you call on your prospect, get right to the heart of the matter. Tell them that as valuable as their time is to them, your time is to you. If they are willing to answer a couple of questions honestly, it may save both of you considerable time. Test their fit to the quality and style of the service you provide.

If they arent going to value your services sufficiently, politely inform then you are not interested in their work and be on your way.

3. Following Up With Prospects.

Marketing research shows that vast majority of customers buy after the seventh contact. Whats that mean to you? You had better plan on following up several times with your prospects.

Heres another piece of relevant selling information:

You will slip from your prospects awareness after 21 days. If they dont hear from you for 21 days, your chances for a sale diminish greatly. Because buying is an impulsive act, timing is everything.

You need a follow-up system that lets you get back to your prospects quickly and stay in close contact with them until their decision is made.

4. Creating Proposals and Presentations.

You need standard templates for your proposals and presentations. The templates will allow you or someone who works for you to quickly pull together a professional, persuasive proposal and presentation.

If some combination of text, financial figures, and pictures are needed, make sure everyone who is involved understands their role.

Test your proposal design until you find one that consistently moves the client to the decision you seek.

5. Processing Orders.

Your staff needs to understand exactly how orders are to be processed. Information must reach the scheduler, the operations person who arranges for material purchases, and the accounting staff. The paper trail must be well defined and adhered to.

The filing system should be well organized and centralized. Once the sale is closed, the order processing must go smoothly to ensure a successful project and a happy customer.

6. Following Up With Customers After Their Project is Finished.

Follow up with every customer within two days of finishing. Make sure the customer is satisfied with the work and will not hesitate to pay the bill.

If the customer is displeased,address the situation head on and try to rectify the problem quickly.

Send a thank you card. If the project was high value, include a gift certificate to dinner or a donation to their favorite charity in their name.

7. Motivating the Pursuit and Procurement of Profitable Sales.

Implement a sales compensation plan that rewards salesmen for selling profitable work. Make sure the system rewards all salesmen equally for identical performance. Keep the sales team focused on high profit work.

Any competent estimator can land low profit work. If salesmen are going to earn their keep, they must close on a bundle of highly profitable work.

8. Improving the Salesmens Selling Skills.

Virtually nobody in the construction arena can afford to hire a proven rainmaker. You must learn how to grow your own.

That means you need to coach your salesmen. If they develop beyond YOUR ability to help them, hire a sales coach.

Few things will bring money into your company faster than a highly skilled and motivated salesman.

9. Networking.

Its not who you know but who knows you.

Your network is your early warning system for new opportunities. The better your team is networked, the greater the likelihood your company will be the first to learn about a lead.

Networks take time to build and nurture. You must stay in constant contact with your network to keep yourself at the forefront of their minds. You need to send business their way.

Networks work best when each member is helping the others succeed.

10. Strengthening Customer Relationships.

You need a system for strengthening your relationship with your newer customers. Your goal is to become an invaluable resource to their personal success.

You can do this by helping them solve problems you have expertise in. You can do this by providing budget information for work they should or may undertake. You can do this by passing along contact information of individuals who will help them get ahead.

The assistance you provide need not be limited to their professional interests. If you discover they are passionate about a hobby, forward hard-to-find information that might be of interest to them.

Of course, the tried and true method is to take them out to lunch or dinner or take them to some type of event. The value of the customer determines the amount of time and money you should invest in the relationship.

Regardless of how you do it, you must stay close to your most valuable customers.

Final Note

You probably noticed that closing the sale is not listed as among the 10 selling systems. Closing is a skill, a very valuable skill. You that someone in your company must have.

 

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Hey contractors here s a sales commission plan that ll supercharge your profits

Hey Contractors, Here's A Sales Commission Plan That'll Supercharge Your Profits

What Im going to share with you today is the single most powerful trick I know for supercharging your bottom line.

At some point in time, if you are going to grow your construction business beyond $2 million, you are going to need someone working on sales full time. Now, maybe sales is your thing and you want to do that full time. Fantastic.

Its almost always best when a business owner is committed to selling. But even if you sell successfully, you may still end up wa...

Construction, contractor, business, advice

What Im going to share with you today is the single most powerful trick I know for supercharging your bottom line.

At some point in time, if you are going to grow your construction business beyond $2 million, you are going to need someone working on sales full time. Now, maybe sales is your thing and you want to do that full time. Fantastic.

Its almost always best when a business owner is committed to selling. But even if you sell successfully, you may still end up wanting to add another salesman.

If sales isnt your thing, then you will definitely need to hire a salesman. Either way, you are going to be faced with a critical decision.

How should you pay your new salesman?

Draw (salary) plus commission? Bonuses for sales generated? Increased commission with increased sales volume? A higher commission for new customers? Straight salary?

All of these are commonly used approaches. Not one of them is likely to produce the profit results you seek.

If you let your salesman have his way, he will want a draw plus commission. Most will ask for a pretty stout draw and a relatively modest commission based on revenue sold. Dont agree to that!

Draw plus commission lines the pockets of your salesman regardless of whether he is making you any money. The purpose of draw plus commission is to drive sales volume. Dont fall into the trap of thinking sales volume is important.

You need your salesman to focus on PROFITABLE work. Let your competition sell the unprofitable work. Thats work you dont want and you certainly dont want your own salesman bringing it to you.

How do you get your salesman to chase profitable work? You align his pay to profit.

Put in place a pay plan that rewards him for profitable work and punishes him for unprofitable work. Basically, make him a pseudo-partner. It is surprisingly easy to do and Im going to show you how.

1. His entire compensation should be based on commissions on gross profit (a commission rate often in the 20% range).

2. He should be guaranteed a minimum income, whether his earned commissions surpass it or not.

3. His commission rate should stay the same regardless of sales volume or profit generated.

4. If he doesnt earn his guaranteed minimum income within a reasonable time period, say 18 months, you replace him.

With this approach your salesman will be highly motivated to ask for the highest price possible. He will not leave $100 on the table, because with a 20% commission, he would be leaving $20 behind. An example will drive the point home quite clearly.

Lets say your salesman has estimated a jobs direct costs will run $10,000. Lets look at how the usual approach, draw plus commission, compares against my recommended approach for driving desired sales behavior.

The salesman being compensated with the standard salary plus 2% of sales has little incentive to risk losing a sale by raising price. If he sold the job at cost, he would earn a $200 commission. If he sold the job for $15,000, he would earn a $300 commission. He only makes an extra $100for substantially increasing the likelihood of losing the job.

He will not raise the price to $15,000 just to earn the extra $100. Of course, you lose money if he sells the job at $10,000 but he doesnt care. Its all about volume, right?

Now, lets look at my recommended approach.

Your salesman earns nothing if he sells the job at $10,000. He earns $1,000 if he sells the job for $15,000 and he earns $2,000 if he sells it for $20,000. How motivated will he be to pursue the highest price possible? Very, very motivated.

Do to the potential windfall he can earn, he will become a master at qualifying customers. He will not spend time on price sensitive customers. He will aggressively pursue the customers who value your companys superior services and are willing to pay for them.

These are exactly the customers you want him to pursue because not only are they profitable, they tend to be far more loyal, and tend to be far more willing to refer you to their friends, family, and professional associates.

Look at what you get when you are paying a 20% commission on gross profit. You pocket $4,000 for every $5,000 of gross profit your salesman generates. Sure, a great salesman will make a killing with this type of pay plan, but youre going to make an even greater killing.

You want your salesman earning $200,000 because that means he contributing $800,000 to your OH&P. Imagine having four such salesmen in your company. How well off would you be?

This is the type of pay plan that will draw top salesmen like flies. Where else in the construction industry, or any industry, are they going to have a chance to make that kind of money?

You know the difference between a $50,000 salesman and a $200,000 salesman? You go broke with the first and get rich with the second!

In summary, the best way to supercharge your bottom line is to implement a sales commission plan that rewards your sales force for generating gross profit. In doing so, you will make sure that they have your best interest in mind.

 

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