| The Business Owner Toolbox Part 8: 8 "Marketing Musts" to Make More Money!! |
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| Written by George Hedley | |
| Friday, 20 July 2007 | |
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Page 1 of 2 Construction Business Owner, August 2007 Editor's Note: This is the eighth in our 2007 series of The Business Owner Toolbox written by our regular columnist George Hedley. Each article is written to provide you with practical, immediately applicable business management tools to assist you on your path to building a successful, growing business. What is the No. 1 business priority you must have every day to guarantee you'll make more money in good times and bad? Is it:
What was your answer? Did you realize I left the most important priority off the list? The No.1 business priority required to make a profit is to find and keep customers. Without customers, everything else is irrelevant. So, is your customer No. 1 in everything you do? Suppose you're stranded on a deserted island for thirty days with your best customer. You only have enough food for one of you. Who is No. 1, you or your customer? Of course, you are! But, your job is to make the customer feel like they are No.1 while you eat all of their food! (Just kidding...or am I?) What is the common thread for these businesses or ventures?
None of these businesses or ventures can exist without customers. Last year, I participated in a major national charity golf tournament. The golf was fine, but the player experience, prizes, food, gifts and quality was not up to par. Several other players and I told the organizers we wouldn't be back without major improvements. There is too much competition even for charity dollars today. Guess what? They listened and upgraded every aspect about the tournament. I attended this year, and it was first-class. Even charities with great causes must put their customers first in order to be successful. Construction companies, general contractors, subcontractors and suppliers who are the "best in class" continually take care of their customers in everything they do. They proactively market their services, sell what they have to offer, nurture new customer targets, create loyal customer relationships, get involved in industry and community organizations, offer different services to customers and work hard to put their customers first. And guess what? They also make more money than their competitors. Marketing is:
Marketing is not:
Construction general contractors and subcontractors have gotten accustomed to providing mediocre service, using poor business practices and not marketing to their customers. If a restaurant or hotel operated like contractors, they wouldn't stay in business more than a few weeks. Customers just simply wouldn't show up or come back. But for 95 percent of all contractors, not doing proactive marketing has become the norm and standard operating procedure. It seems like everyone's motto is: "No Worse Than Our Competition!" or, "If our competitors don't do it, why should we have to?" But there is hope. You can make a difference in your bottom line by being just a little bit better than your competition. It won't take much to set your company apart. And you'll make lots of money with little expense or effort. All it takes is your commitment to put customers first, let them eat a little bit of your food, tell them why they ought to use your company and make them feel good about the experience. Answer these twelve questions:
The Marketing Musts The "marketing musts" that follow are simple to implement. They'll make you lots of money and allow you to build a better business with better customers. But if you don't do some or all of them, your company will stay at the same level and continue fighting for the cheap work and leftovers that most contractors scrape to find. 1. Relationship Marketing The easiest and most important "marketing must" to do is create trusting relationships with your top customers who make you most of your money and pay your bills. Start by making a list of your top 20 to 100 customers. Look at every job you have completed or bid in the last five years. Who was the customer, architect, engineer, real estate broker, project manager, purchasing manager or any other person who might have influenced the decision to hire your company? Also, list out any potential or customer targets you want to go after in the next few years. List all of these customers, potential customers and referring parties on a spreadsheet ready to sort.
Next rank, and sort them by these important factors:
Now you have a customer target list to begin your marketing program. Where should you invest the most time and money? In the construction business, the biggest marketing bang for your buck is creating customer relationships with your top customers, most desired potential customers and quality referring parties who refer your company lots of work. For most small construction companies, focusing on ten to twenty customers is all it takes to make the most money. Pick the top ten to twenty customers you want to create a deep relationship with. Now, plan your marketing strategy to convert customers from potential to repeat to loyal customers. How often will you need to see them to remain close? Think about your best friends. To maintain close loyal trusting relationships, you must spend quality time with them at least once every two to three months. Quality time includes face-to-face time at dinner, lunch, breakfast, ballgames, community events, golf, hunting, fishing or industry events. It doesn't include job meetings, bids, phone calls, e-mails or negotiating change orders! If you see two customers every week, every ten weeks you'll see all of twenty on your list, and maintain quality customer relationships with them. If you never take them out, you can only hope to stay on their bid list by doing good work for them.
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