GETTING YOUR PHONE TO RING, PART 2 OF 4

 

Michael Stone of Construction Programs & Results (www.markupandprofit.com) is a popular speaker, business coach and consultant dedicated to helping construction-related contractors survive and thrive. He is the author of "Markup & Profit; A Contractor's Guide" and his newest book, "Profitable Sales, A Contractor's Guide", and can be reached by email michael@markupandprofit.com by phone (1-888-944-0044), or visit his website (www.markupandprofit.com).

 

We have been reprinting from his newsletter his latest series on "Getting Your Phone to Ring".

 

If you missed it, click here to view Getting Your Phone To Ring, Part 1 of 4

 

Let's start with a note from Morris DeShong who lives just outside Indianapolis. 

 

"Just finished reading your article on 'Making the phone ring'. For years we worked and worked to make the phone ring but regardless of the amount of money we spent on advertising, and we normally spend 11 percent of gross, nothing seemed to provide consistent results. We finally talked to another local small businessperson and he gave us the key. Consistency!!! Many business people run an ad on radio and, when they get no phone calls, say 'well that was a waste of money'. Take a good ad and run it once, twice or 10 times a week for a year, whatever you can afford, and see what happens. If the ad is good and it's placed where your potential customers will hear it you can almost guarantee success."

 

"The second key we learned is a derivative of the first. Choose your service area wisely. We have a large metropolitan (Indianapolis) area 15 mile away from us. For years we spent money trying to be heard in a large market. Our reasoning was, more people equals more work. The only problem was it takes 10 times the amount of money we have available to be consistent in the large market. We dropped out of the large market and focused all our promotion in the much smaller (60,000 population) town 5 miles away. This town has lost 30,000 jobs in the last 25 years so it really cannot be considered a great place to have a construction business. Even with our relatively small budget we can make a big splash in this market. If you want to be consistent with the advertising, pick a market that you can afford to saturate with your message. Even though the economy in the community is poor, our sales are consistent, we do virtually no discounting, which means we make our margin on every job and profits are up because we don't have to travel."

 

"As you commented don't try to do it yourself unless you are qualified. We had a professional record a jingle and everyone knows us by the jingle. They may not know the name of the company but they do know to 'Call the tub lady' if they want anything done in their bathroom."

 

"Thanks for helping us stay focused on the things that are important to our business."

 

Advertising doesn't have to be expensive, but it does have to be consistent. Below is a quick rundown of what I would consider the top 4 or 5 methods of advertising available today.

 

1. Hand one business card each day to someone you have not met before. Don't try to hand out more than one - some days it's hard to give one card away, and it will create knots in your stomach if your goal is 4-5 cards. Make a reasonable goal to consistently hand one card each day to someone new. 

 

Make sure your staff has their own cards. Don't be penny wise and pound-foolish by printing a card for everyone to use. Each employee needs their own business card with their own name on it, and ask them to give out one a day. 

 

Include a business card with all correspondence, every bill you pay, every brochure you hand out. Business cards provide the highest rate of return for the dollar invested. Start today.

 

2. Create a website. This is rapidly becoming the best advertising tool available to you. The web is where folks go first. By actual hand counts in our seminars, electrical contractors shop on the Internet at the rate of 20 to 1 over the yellow pages. Your customers are doing the exact same thing. 

 

Please read the following note we received from Mark Ashton in Canada. Mark does residential renovations, but the principle would be the same for electrical work.

 

"Regarding our leads, we obtain 100 percent of them by way of the Internet. www.ashtonrenovations.com reaches our prospects through Google and by us advertising on a construction portal www.gopro.ca We do not advertise in Yellow Pages, telemarketing, door-to-door, print in magazines, or newspapers. They are much too expensive per lead. And by the way, when prospects see a nice ad regarding services they need, what do our prospects look for: a web address for more information. Our advertising budget is $100 per month plus cost of site We pay on average $2 per lead, some for jobs $100,000 to $150,000."

 

"Our site, which is a year old, is now being updated to reflect newer technologies. Our project gallery page will have over 1000 photos. It will also have video testimonials and a blog."

 

"Advice regarding site:

1. Copy-writing is important and done ONLY by someone who can write

2. Fill site with valuable info i.e products used, detail of services, process, extremely

    detailed info regarding your management and crew

3. Photos during and after, with info about products and installation methods

4. Crisp clean design. If your site looks bad, what does that say about your work?

5. Logo should have .com beside it

6. Form page to fill out leads short and sweet

 

Great advice from Mark. Get a website. 

 

3. Yard and vehicle signs are a must. They let folks know who you are and where you are working. Get your signs up on every job, even if you are only going to be on that job site for a few hours. Keep your signage clean, up to date and simple.

 

4. Direct mail has always worked. It is, however, a long-term process. You are not going to get a ton of leads from a direct mailing. If you get .25 to .5 of 1 percent return, that is good. Don't try to develop your own direct mail pieces as this will seldom work. Hire a professional to create your mailing piece and you do what you do best.

 

Here are some more good ideas that have come our way.

 

Make sure that if you have an "Angie's List" on the web in your area, get at least eight and preferably ten to twelve of your clients to post a positive review of you and your company. I would do this even if I had to pay for the posting. Angie's List can be a very powerful ally or a real troublemaker for you and your company. We have been told by contractors that a couple of bad posts against them on Angie's List literally put them out of business. Be pro-active. Get your customers to post positive comments about you and the way you do business. And, just as important, be aggressive in getting negative posts either removed or file a counterclaim with your side of the story.

 

Post your services on Craig’s List (www.craigslist.org). You may need to experiment by changing your ad until you find what works, but keep after it until you start getting leads in. If you are consistent, as Morris said above, you will eventually start getting calls from your postings.

 

If you are an electrical contractor looking for referrals from either general contractors or suppliers, take doughnuts or cookies to your supplier or GC's sales or production meetings. Let them know who you are, what you do and that you want their business. Don't be bashful or shy. Get out there and let these folks know you want the jobs. Schmooze!

 

A friend of mine who does HVAC duct cleaning gets 3 to 5 new leads each week by simply dropping off a dozen doughnuts every Friday between 7 and 8 am. He normally works for between sixteen and eighteen different HVAC contractors, and he visits two each week. He buys Krispy Kreme doughnuts using a discount card that provides a buy 1 dozen, get 1 dozen free. Use your imagination and deliver the goods.

 

OK, gang, this is a start. Next week we will discuss some more ideas on how to get the phone to ring, but for now, please keep this in mind. If you keep doing what you have been doing, you will continue to get the same results. If you want new business, you must explore and implement new ideas.

 

No one told you this business was going to be easy. As the old saying goes, when things get tough, the tough get going. Get out there and make stuff happen, Get-R-Done.