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The Contractor Coaching Partnership Blog

Contractor loses $80K kitchen/bath job; customer forgot what he does

Posted by Mark Paskell on Sun, Jan 09, 2011 @ 10:04 PM

  • Have your customers gone to your contractor competition because they forgot what you do?                                          
  • Are you marketing your contracting business to your client base?
  • Does your customer base even know if you are still in business?
  • When is the last time you spoke with all your customers?

Many contractors are contacting us to see if we can help them generate leads right away. Their phone is not ringing like it used to. You may have noticed that referrals are not enough to keep lead flow where it needs to be. Marketing approaches that used work are not working in the current climate.

Contractor loses $80,000 kitchen and bath projects because client forgot what type of work he did.

One contractor called and said he was ticked off at himself because a long time customer did a kitchen renovation and bathroom project with someone else. The contractor was called for a small repair project and discovered that he had lost out on these projects in the past year. When the contractor asked the customer why he wasn't called the customer said "I didn't know you did kitchens and baths." The contractor said "but I did an addition for you 10 years ago and told you we did remodeling" The homeowner replied "oh I thought you only did windows and siding jobs"

Ouch!! The value of the lost projects was over $80,000. This contractor surely could have used that work last year. Do not assume your past customers will remember you after you clean up and move on to the next job. Take action and stay in touch with them as much as possible without becoming a pest. 

Here are some of the questions we ask when someone wants help with marketing and lead generation.

  • Do you have a marketing plan?
  • Do you have a marketing budget?
  • Do you know who your target client is?
  • Do you know where your target client resides?
  • Do you have a data base on computer with phone and email contact information?
  • Do you use a lead or client intake form?
  • Do your customers know what you do?
  • Do your customers know how to refer you?
  • When is the last time you connected with your customer base? Do they know if you are still in business?
  • Do you send out newsletters by mail or email? How often?
  • Do you have a Neighborhood Notification Program?
  • Do you have a website? Does it produce the leads you are looking for?

These are some of the questions to consider to develop marketing for your business to generate leads. The most important thing is to have a marketing plan and system in place that will produce leads consistently. If you wait until you have no leads you are 4 to 6 months too late.

No marketing=no leads=no sales=no work=no money to pay the bills and feed the kids! Don't wait for the phone to ring because it probably wont. Take action today.

Need help, let us know and we will see what we can do to get you back on track.

mark the coach 

Tags: Lead generation, contractors, marketing