3 Ways Contractors Can Be Small But Smart
If you consider your business to be a smaller company, and prefer to stay that way, why try to copy or conform to the way larger companies do business? Instead, be different! Be small and smart! Look for what the big guys can’t or won’t do or maybe what they can’t do as well as your company. Here are three ways smaller construction and remodeling businesses can beat the big guys.
Provide a more personalized service, and then find the clients that want that kind of service.
Typically in larger firms most employees are specialist. Each employee on the team will do just one part of the process, such as just the design or just the estimating. Because of this, clients working with larger businesses may never really get to know one employee very well. A smaller company has the possible advantage of having the same person sell, design, estimate, and help manage the project. Certain clients will be attracted to this type of relationship. To get in front of prospects who want this kind of service you need to market the advantages that come with it, otherwise prospects will assume you’re the same as the other companies they can work with. Writing about how you do business and sharing stories about how and why your past customer benefited can help point interested prospects your way. Doing so within your blog is a great way to get the message out.
The people who represent your company should be ambassadors.
In many situations, your employees will have much more personal contact with clients than the business owner or manager. Attract and train good employees, then create or maintain an atmosphere that fosters a desirable company culture. People buy from people. A happy team of employees with great people skills, who believe in their company, will demonstrate that message through their actions and attitudes. If your ambassadors are thinking and acting as ambassadors, clients may be motivated to use your firm again and perhaps also refer you to new prospects. Many contractors share that those client types and their referrals will often request a specific employee or lead carpenter as a condition of doing business. Consider whether your clients are buying what you build, or maybe how your team builds it.
Get your prospects to help you identify and sell your difference
When you meet with a prospect, why not ask what they don’t like about working with the larger firms. Better yet, ask them what they think might be advantages of working with a smaller firm. If you are careful not to lead them to a predetermined conclusion, you might just find new ways to service them and attract similar prospects.
Try this next time you interview a prospect: Ask them why they think other prospects chose to work with your company rather than the big guys. Almost every time, their reason will be exactly what they are hoping you will do for them. Rather than give them a reason to say no by discussing other possible reasons, find out why they answered the way they did. Get the “why” behind the “what”, and then work with what you discover.
Something to ponder as you think about the future of your small but smart business
“Just because you’re following a well marked trail, it doesn’t mean whoever made it knew where they were going”
