Masonry Magazine February 2001 Page. 19
When you (the owner/contractor) consider marketing options for your company, the first thing that generally springs to mind are the more conventional advertising and promotional vehicles such as advertising, direct mail, company brochures, and trade shows, and these are all fine options, but perhaps you're overlooking the most important method of marketing that any contractor (or any business for that matter) can possess: you and your employees.
It's true. In our haste to purchase the latest, greatest brochure-publishing software or build the biggest trade-show display, we often run around (or run over) the very quarry we're attempting to corner our client. We miss out on the opportunity for social interaction - the necessary human networking - that has proven time and time again to be far superior to any newspaper ad. Remember, construction contracting is - and always has been - a service industry. Our customer is our product. Yes, we do create physical, touchable structures from sticks and stones, but it's our client that remains the focus of our endeavors - and the one thing that we should always aim to please.
The Greatest Marketing Tool of All
The Contractor's Secret Weapon for Success
by Steve Saucerman
The Repeat Customer & the Contractor
But there's a side-benefit to customer attention: more work; work in the form of repeat business. As a matter of fact, it's arguable that there is no industry that relies more on repeat customers than construction contracting. I know it's true for me. I have single clients with whom I've performed dozens of separate construction projects (many of them major) over the years.
These repeat customers are the heart and soul of the success we enjoy. You probably even know fellow contractors who have molded entire careers from only a handful of patrons. These firms get involved with giants like GM, AT&T, or IBM early on in their business lives and never do leave. They go for years in the same plant or facility. Instead of focusing their energies on going out to find new customers, they discovered that all they needed... they already had.
The Forest for the Trees
Many times, your next sale is standing right in front of you in the form of a an existing client. All you have to do is treat them right (again).
But it shouldn't just be the prospect of securing another job that propels your effort. There's also the matter of profit. "How so?" Well, it has to do with efficiency. There's little argument that a lack of efficiency in both the field and office will almost always translate into a loss of profit for a contracting company. By eliminating new and unknown working environments, you avoid the need to start learning curves entirely anew and the loss in production that often accompanies it.
It's really very simple. You already know your customer. You know their needs, moods, patterns, and idiosyncrasies (did I say eccentricities?). There are fewer surprises and - remember - surprises are a bad thing in construction. The more familiar the client and the scope of work, the better your chances will be to control both costs and operations and the greater your prospect will be for controlled, sustained, and solid profit.
A Case in Point
Such is the case with a hospital client of mine. We've been with this customer continuously for over three years now. Most of the work involves renovating patient rooms (which are quite similar in size and scope), doctor's/staff offices, special areas (such as the pharmacy or chapel), and occasionally, they'll throw an entire wing at us! We have an open-book policy with the hospital representatives and have grown quite familiar with what the hospital expects in construction and the ways of the hospital staff.
With this level of familiarity, we very seldom (actually never) take a hit on our profit line item. Granted, there are no major windfalls either (familiarity can work both ways), but it's steady, predictable income for our company. And to think that what started out as a simple handicap ramp (really) three years ago has now turned into over a million dollars per year in sales volume. Now that's marketing!
Everybody's in Sales
But it didn't just happen by itself. We had to sell ourselves. I had to sell myself (as an estimator and project manager) to hospital administration, the workers in the field had to sell themselves through the quality of their work and their professionalism, and our office staff had to sell themselves by offering prompt, courteous, and efficient accounting and administration. We were all in marketing.
Were there problems? Of course. Nothing ever goes perfectly all the time especially in something as technically and socially diverse as construction. Rather, the positive promotion for our company came in the way we handled
MASONRY FEBRUARY, 2001 19