Waiting For The Recovery
Found this over at http://www.markupandprofit.com/blog/ Interesting read…
Devon recently read a comment made in the Construction Marketing Ideas LinkedIn group. The discussion concerned phrases we are tired of hearing – the comment was:
“‘Recover’ or any form of that word. To recover means you had something temporary and the old way of doing something is still valid - you can recover from a cold, a broken leg, etc. In a new normal, there’s nothing to recover to - you change the standard to become profitable again or find something else.”
Nailed it. You cannot expect to go back to the “old ways of doing business.” The sooner you accept that and move forward, the better. We all want the economy to “get back to normal”. But the old normal won’t be back.
Look at your own business. You are doing things differently now than you did one year ago and certainly different than you did two and three years ago. We have all had to make adjustments. Advertising methods are changing, we must deal differently with employees and the supply houses have made adjustments that force us to change.
Contractors who’ve built new homes for the last umpteen years have switched to remodeling to stay alive. Many lament the fact that the new home market is coming back too slowly. They want to start building homes now, but the reality is that the new home market might not ever be what it was. Remodeling contractors are unhappy that the large jobs, the major remodels, are harder to come by and they are building smaller projects. But our world has changed and now you must change your approach to business as well if you wish to survive.
Now, if you read that and thought, “Come on, Stone, you usually say something positive”, read it again. I am saying something positive. Change is inevitable – it’s only negative if you hold on to the past and spend your days waiting for it to return.
Let’s look at some of the things that are different. We are communicating far more by computer today than we did one, two and certainly three years ago.
In our recent survey, some of the comments we had on blogs and website marketing made it clear that some of you (a minority, thankfully) consider internet marketing and social media a fad. So what if it is? It’s the fad that draws clients today – and clients today are what you want. Will it go away? I doubt it, but it will change, and you will have to change with it. You can fight it all you want but that fight is going to cost you money.
If you don’t get a good web site up and running, within two years, the only calls you will get will be the leftovers that the companies with good websites don’t want. Customers today go to your website and study you from top to bottom long before they will call to talk about their job. If you don’t have a website, you won’t get that call.
How about the rest of your marketing? Does your company name and/or logo need to be updated to reflect your new way of doing business? Does your company name tell your customer exactly what you do?
This will take some thought on your part. You will have to really think about your potential customer(s), the ones you want to get calls from. Update your customer profile. If you are going to present a new look to your customers, you should know for sure who they are and what they expect so you will know how to market to them.
Jobs have changed. This article in the Wall Street Journal from May outlines how the changes in the economy have changed the way homeowners look at their homes. If you’re smart, you’ll start marketing toward these changes, rather than trying to market to jobs that don’t exist anymore. (Read the article here.)
Our new job is to convey this new “normal” to our potential clients. When they tell you they want to wait until things get back to “normal” before they spend their money on remodeling or build a new home or fix or repair their existing home, you need to respond. The savvy professional will start to redefine for them what the new normal is. That might mean building a smaller, more affordable job rather than the expansive remodel they were dreaming of.
Clients have also changed. They are no longer content to sit back and wait until you get around to preparing a quote for the work they want done. They want their quotes yesterday and if you don’t or won’t provide one in a timely manner, someone else will. Estimates need to be complete and back to your customers in 3 to 5 days max. This two and three week stuff just doesn’t get the job done in the customer’s eyes.
We have said here before that you always need to look for ways to gain your customers trust. Offering financing for their job is a key issue today. Many successful contractors have found sources of financing for their potential clients. It has become a must item if you want to keep jobs coming in the door.
As I have said many times before to those who resist change: be as stubborn as you can afford to be in fighting the changes that are needed to stay in business and make a profit.
