The Twelve Secrets to Successful Marketing (part 4)
By Kevin Lister

In my three previous articles, I shared with you nine of my top twelve secrets to successful marketing "Profitable Target Market; Strong Competitive Advantage; Simple Marketing Plan; Proper Pricing; Balanced Promotional Effort; Attracting Referrals vs. Leads; A Dedicated Marketing Person; Good Website; and Tracking your Leads. In this article, I will share with you my final three secrets" numbers ten through twelve.

As you all know, the bidding process can be very time consuming, involving the initial prospect phone conversation, meeting with the client, putting together the bid, follow-up calls, etc. This process can easily overwhelm and thus distract you from other important areas of your business. One way to resolve this is through better qualifying. You can easily gain up to eight hours of time per week (to do other things) if you do a much better job of qualifying your prospects. This is accomplished over the phone during your first contact with the prospect.
 

When qualifying, be sure to determine:
- Their project time frame
It does not make sense to meet with a prospect if you can not meet their project deadline.
- Their budget
Like project time frame, if the prospect has an unrealistic budget (too low), then this is not the prospective client for you. Many prospects feel uncomfortable giving a budget number. To get at this figure, I suggest providing them with a project price range ? from X to Y. This will allow you to easily determine if meeting with them makes sense.
- What they are looking for in a contractor
This allows you to determine fit and to see if your company aligns with their needs. This will also permit you to determine if an in-person meeting with them makes sense.
- Who else they are talking to
This will open the door to sharing the benefits of working with your firm, thus setting you apart from your competition ? a real sales opportunity for you.
- How they heard of you
This allows you to track your marketing efforts.

11. Consistent Sales Follow-up

Consumers are very, very busy these days. Work and life can easily sideline a project. Consistent follow-up on all outstanding quotes is essential if you want to grow your business. One way to refocus a prospect on your proposal is through a simple follow-up phone call and/or an email.

Through effective follow-up, you will gain one to two key projects each year. To make this process easy and enjoyable, be sure to create a simple system that is organized and allows you to manage and track all outstanding quotes in a timely manner.

12. Great Customer Service

To thrive in the trades, you need to have fantastic customer relations. Always keep in mind that customer service begins with the initial new customer contact and continues throughout the life of the customer relationship. Great customer service, coupled with outstanding workmanship, will lead to a continuous stream of quality referrals. This is very important to your marketing effort, because referrals have a higher close ratio and are much less costly to attain.

One secret to great service is good communication. You must be in regular communication with your people in the field as well as with your customer. Most problems that arise can be averted with good communication. One way to assure good communication with both your people and your customer is through the use of a lead carpenter system. There are plenty of books as well as seminars on this topic if you would like to learn more about it.

Another secret is dependable follow-through. When an issue arises, be sure to resolve it in a timely manner. During the project, this may include any construction problems, project changes, employee issues, punch list items, etc. After the project is completed, be sure to address warrantee items in a timely fashion as well.

I write for the Contractor Power newsletter on a regular basis and am always looking for interesting and relevant topics. If anyone has a business-related question that you would like me to answer in one of my upcoming articles, please feel free to contact me at info@paradigmstrategies.com. Also, if you would like to read any of my previously written Contractor Power newsletter articles you can view them on our Web site www.paradigmstrategies.com.

About the Author

Kevin Lister, founder and president of Paradigm Strategies, the business advising firm to the trades, is a leader in the field of business performance improvement. He possesses nearly 20 years experience in business management and consulting, effectively operating his own ventures and assisting others with realizing business success.

With an entrepreneurial spirit and CEO?s point of view, Kevin brings hands-on expertise to helping building contractors, sub-contractors, and suppliers. Kevin has deep knowledge and understanding of the trades, based on fifteen years in the construction industry, a family history of owning trades businesses, and a genuine interest and enjoyment in helping blue collar enterprises.

Kevin possesses a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College and a Bachelor of Science in marketing from Bentley College. He teaches management and marketing for the University of Phoenix Online.

Kevin is a member of several professional and business organizations, including the Institute of Management Consultants (IMC), the Associated Subcontractors of Massachusetts (ASM), the Builders? Association of Greater Boston (BAGB) and the Eastern MA Chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI).