News and ideas for architectural, engineering and construction marketing

Three (almost) free construction marketing ideas

Here are three ideas you can implement within the next week.

Invite your three best clients for lunch (or coffee) to “pick brain” (and share ideas)

This can be highly informal.  You can learn about their interests, trends, anything you can do to improve your service and which associations/groups they value the most.  Also, you can find out what media they follow — all vital to thinking about your forward marketing strategies.  If they are truly enthusiastic (as they may well be),consider asking for their co-operation in a testimonial — even better a testimonial video.  As a bonus you may pick up some extra work right away.

If possible, join at least one of “their” associations (which you would enjoy as well)

If your clients are business people, they probably belong to one or more specialized trade groups.  See if the group has an associate member category for suppliers/supporters.  Then join, perhaps with an introduction from your client  If you are in the consumer space, if they belong to community, fraternal, sports or other associations and your interests match, join as well.  (For business associations worth joining, the dues may be significant but not much more than a small advertisement.)  Note that, unlike the first idea, you should not expect any immediate results here.  You may have a three-year pay-in period before you receive pay-back.  But for the big jobs and for longer range marketing you won’t find much better value for money.

Think the client experience and improve it (every day)

Try this test.  Think about your business from your client’s perspective and for a week, think of one thing you can do to make the experience a little more pleasant and a little less irritating — then either implement or plan to implement these ideas in an orderly manner.  Ideally, create a “wow” great experience; but at least avoid the dreaded problems of unreturned phone calls (or email messages) or messy job sites.

(Bonus fourth idea)

Have fun.  Do what you love doing and either dump or delegate the stuff you don’t (and ideally delegate to individuals who love what they do, as well.)

Life is much better if you work because you enjoy your work not because you “have to make some money”.  If you can’t get 100 per cent perfection here — I realize that you can’t always say “take this job and shove it” — do your best to create at least 20 per cent fun-time every day.  You can do that.

Joint ventures and co-operation in the selling process

Glen Kohlenberg from Florida (http://www.contractorblabblog.com) responded to Tuesday’s newsletter advocating joint ventures and co-operative marketing strategies with this email, which he has given me permission to publish.

Hello Mark and a great article on JV partnerships. This is a must and let me give you some insights on how I have made this work in our business.

I do a ton of condominium work. Impact windows-Carports-Hand Railing. Now our company does all 3. But we own a separate company that does the impact windows. The company is in a different location is run totally separate from our main company. They have there own sales staff also.

None of our 12 sales staff will sell windows or refer them to our sister company. It’s a money thing. Not me I have picked the top salesmen and have done my own JV partnership with him. We both go in and do the presentations together as both companies and we both came up with a joint PowerPoint presentation that we give.

Now, call me crazy but here is my deal with my JV partner. I get no commission on the windows sales. I do get my shot at them with my carports and hand railing presentation. Guess who the top salesmen are in both companies? You guess it me and him.

Now I take it one step further because when I do carports I always need a paver company and a electrician  So I went and found 3 paver companies and 3 electricians and interviewed them and I had 1 that really stood out for each. They now go with me when I do my carport presentations and we all win. I make know commissions from them but because we work as a team and all believe in 100 % client satisfaction this is how we get most of the work in my area.

We are not the cheapest by know means but because we can package the deal and it makes less hassle for the condo association and I make myself the ring leader and so they only deal with me on the project. Makes for a great marriage for all of us.

So Mark there are a ton of ways to put deals together but if the all mighty dollar is number one to you up front you may miss out on some great opportunity’s. So keep an open mind and look at every deal that comes your way and remember for this to work it needs to be a win win for all involved.

Thanks for the great article Mark.

Glen is correct, of course.  Joint venture-co-operation principals apply to front-line selling and business development as much as to marketing and longer-term relationship-building.  These concepts apply for simple residential projects but are especially valid for larger scale AEC design and construction initiatives, especially when you combine specialized technical knowledge and relationships with local political and economic connections.

If you specialize in serving a highly localized market, for example, you can diversify your capacity to more technically demanding specialties by linking with a partner who has this sort of knowledge and if you work within a focused specialty niche, you will find your chances of success in project implementation much higher if you can relate to local partners.

How do you make these connections?  Referrals help, of course, but I think your most valuable resource here are your relevant trade associations.  If you get to know your colleagues and peers in other communities through attending national conventions you’ll be well placed to pick up the phone and ask the “who knows who” question. In some cases, just checking the association’s directory will be helpful (but your credibility will be highest if you’ve actively contributed and are recognized within the association.)

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action

A  Remodelcrazy.com posting led me to this intriguing and inspiring video.  What do you think?  More accurately, “why” do you think?

Be first

One of the most fundamental marketing rules is “be first”.  If your direct competition already has the ideal, it is probably too late.  Regardless of whether your product, service or marketing concept is better or more inspired, you have an uphill battle to dislodge a competitor who has already occupied the marketing space.

This suggests that you should find your marketing inspiration and ideas not from your competitors but from other places.  Here, even thinking about marketing principals, you have a real advantage.  The architectural, engineering and construction communities have never been leaders in the marketing space.  When we try out a “new idea” it has often been proven and validated countless times over in other industries.  So all we need to do is copy the concepts which work elsewhere and they are likely to be successful here (especially if you serve a distinctive local community or market segment.)

Why is it important to be first?  Consider that, in 2006-2007, I decided to start the first regular blog focusing on Construction Marketing.  I certainly cannot claim to be the first blogger, or first marketing blogger, but within the construction community, I arrived before anyone else.  Others have followed — some with truly great blogs, services and products (you can see some of these on the blog roll.)  But what happens when you Google “construction marketing” (with or without quotes)?

To be “first” your focus should not be on your direct competitors advertising and marketing — but you can gain insights from your trade associations and from similar businesses in other communities demographically similar to yours.  (You can also legitimately write off some ‘vacation’ time as well.)  Look at Internet forums and resources like this blog.  Find ideas which match your values and then give them a try.  Just be first within your community.

Forums and groups: Powerful marketing information resources

Successful, established forums including contractortalk.com and remodelcrazy.com are key sources of inspiration for this blog and my business.  Forum moderators are generally pretty good at weeding out the marketers from the practitioners, who offer real-life stories, ask practical questions and often offer insightful peer-oriented solutions.

The challenge in making a forum work is that you need a critical mass of leading and active participants, which a good flow of newcomers who add to the diversity and interest.  As well, moderation needs to be carefully managed.  Some marketers believe that forums are the greatest place to sell their products and services to forum participants and, in some respects, they are correct.  If you can convince the leaders within your target market’s community to use and positively review your products and services, you win an instant “in” in credibility (not to say some great search engine marketing points.)

But if the selling effort overtakes the forum, it loses its power and value.  This sadly happens too often in sales and marketing forums, where participants are sellers and marketers — and so do their thing!  Sometimes, in reading through these places, you feel like you are looking at a crappy collection of pin-up notices and advertisements.  Who needs it?

Linkedin.com groups offer an intriguing and relatively “quick” way to set up business-to-business forums.  Our Construction Marketing Ideas group now has about 800 members and has included some worthy discussions and ideas.  I think however it will need about 2,000 members before enough core participants are in place to give it real communication power.  Intriguingly, about that stage we probably will need to put in strict moderating rules to prevent promotional and sales-focused posts from dominating the space.

If you wish to “sell into” a forum, you should proceed very cautiously.  In this space, I advocate giving rather than pushing — and surely you should respect the forum rules regarding any form of self-promotion especially if you are an outsider pitching your services to the trade group.

Reading in new (and old) directions

Recently, I’ve resumed visits to the public library to gather knowledge in two areas of inquiry.  In the first, I’m reading stories of entrepreneurial brilliance — the biographies and autobiographies of Warren Buffet and Ted Turner, for example.  In the second, I’m exploring successful aging:  that is, books written by really old writers telling others how they managed to maintain energy, creativity and success through their seventies and eighties.

These inquiries (with old, printed books as my inspiration source) coincide with my curiosity and interest in new technology.  The Ipad and its counterparts may ultimately “doom” the printed book to a peripheral role — removing the barriers to electronic media from the few places where you really couldn’t conveniently use even a simple laptop computer.

Both the entrepreneurial success stories and retrospective views of success from individuals who have successfully lived fulfilling and highly accomplished lives as “senior citizens” inspire me.  I don’t plan to stop working anytime soon and I know the “old media” — especially the conventional printed newspaper and book — may be reaching the stage where they must either transform radically or become peripheral.  Of course the information in “old books” and newspapers can still be truly useful, whether in print or electronic format.

I’m writing this blog entry from the darkened patio of a 200-year-old bed and breakfast in Seneca Falls, NY (the only place around the television-less building where you can find a reasonably reliable wireless Internet connection).  Looking back, you see the industrial inspiration of early entrepreneurs who devised and built the Erie Canal system; and the challenges to local economies around here when technology, commerce and business leadership moved to other places.

Some of the best and brightest local people picked up and moved on; others adapted to their local settings — building on the heritage and history and perhaps some of the old-time pioneering spirit to develop new economies while retaining their sense of community.  Seneca Falls may have never been Bedford Falls in It’s a Wonderful Life but the real-town linkage to the fictional community certainly makes for a worthy tourist tale.

As you read these paragraphs, you may wonder:  “What does this sort of thinking have to do with Construction Marketing and how can it help my business/practice grow (or survive)?”  The simple answer is that the really good ideas you are likely to achieve for your business — the unique, ground-breaking and truly brilliant inspirations — are most likely to occur when you combine perceptions of your day-to-day operations and your own industry’s general “standard practices” with insights and ideas from other places.  Reading with depth into areas of inquiry away from home base can provide insights and be helpful in understanding the right course to take.

So can travel and real-life experience, sometimes to places which don’t show up on too many big tourist maps.  That is why I read and write on a patio in Seneca Falls, NY now and why, 30 years ago, I sat on the patio reading books from the Bulawayo (Rhodesia/Zimbabwe) Public Library.  I can’t wait to experience the next 30 years.

The hardest post

Sometimes things don’t go as planned, and this weekend I never anticipated the challenges of keeping up the daily blog that I’m now experiencing.

We’re at a bed and breakfast in Seneca Falls, NY.  The owner had promised high speed Internet, and it is here — to  some degree.  My usually reliable Mac cannot find the feed, while my wife’s tiny Netbook appears to be able to get enough of a signal that (with frequent cut-outs) she can access the system.

So I’ve borrowed her computer for a few minutes to post this rather meaningless note.  I’m not sure if we’ll be able to get a better signal tomorrow (Sunday) and, if not, Ill defer my posting to another brief entry on returning home Sunday night.

“Why bother?” you may ask.  Well, since starting this blog in 2006-7,  I haven’t missed a single day.  Sometimes, when I know we will be out of range, I write postings ahead of time and then release them through deferred publishing dates.

There is method in this process, of course.  Sometimes surprise is effective for marketing, but sometimes consistency works even better.  The disciplined publishing cycle, even on “slow” weekends, allows the blog to maintain its relevance and effectiveness.

Regardless of this glitch — and the discovery that technology doesn’t always match with Bed and Breakfasts in Seneca Falls, NY, it truly is A Wonderful Life.

(Ed. Note:  This morning, I figured out the system — take the computer out to the patio, and the signal is strong enough to post — so we’ll be back to ‘regular’ schedule tomorrow morning.  Phew.)

Your own copy of the Construction Marketing Ideas Book

This month, sales of  Construction Marketing Ideas: Practical strategies and resources to attract and retain clients for your architectural, engineering or construction business have reached 120 copies, bringing total sales to close to 250 so far.

These results (and readers’ reviews) are gratifying. While this book won’t make the New York Times bestsellers list or cause me to be a guest on Oprah, undoubtedly the book has proven successful within this market niche.  And that, of course, is what great marketing is all about.

You can preview sections of the book — and if you wish to purchase it, select the retailer with the best price — at Google Books.  (If you order directly from my office, I’ll autograph it for you.)

Competitive intelligence: How to uncover future ‘what if’ possibilities

The SMPS Marketer recently published my article on Competitive Intelligence for the Architectural, Engineering and Construction industries.  The focus of the topic:  How marketers can discern business opportunities by drilling down into the marketplace, especially by looking at the competitive landscape.  I quickly learned that Competitive Intelligence is much different from Industrial Espionage.  Some readers might regard it as “Market Research” but real competitive intelligence takes the conventional market research approach a step further and focuses on developing “what if” models based on analyzing the external business environment and your own business strengths.

You can download a copy of this article here.

“‘Free’ With Strings Attached” — Reactions and response

My posting on the the challenges of providing your expertise  and skills for free (“Free” . . . with strings attached) last week resulted in some interesting responses.

First, Devon Stone rightfully called me on the carpet for the rather extensive use of Michael Stone‘s material in the story.  I didn’t just use a portion of one of his  newsletter’s postings — I published the whole thing — and really should have requested permission in advance.  Although I provided source credit, spoke positively about Stone’s services and provided hyperlinks to his site, I agree that I overstepped the boundaries of “fair comment” and should have obtained clearance in advance.

Perhaps these copyright violation issues were compounded by the fact that Mike Jeffries‘ partner Patrick Walsh emailed me after the original posting appeared and gave me a heads up (in effect requesting permission) that he wanted to reference the blog entry in Jeffries’ Closing Success Tips weekly newsletter.

“Mike’s out of town with his family next week so what we’re going to do with our Quick Tips on Monday Aug 23rd, is reference and link to your recent post on “FREE”… if that’s okay with you.  It’s a nice piece.”

While of course I am flattered to have received this response — and the surge in traffic from Jeffries’ readers — I can see how Michael Stone might want to have some say in how his original material has been used in this context.

Fortunately, perhaps, my copyright violations here have a silver lining.   Yesterday, I received the following email from John Liptak of OakWood Builders, one of Ottawa’s most successful renovators and probably this community’s most assertive marketer.

Hi Mark,

Great newsletter. I have dealt with Stone for many years and we are on a contract for a year with Jeffries. Both are the best in their segment of the industry. Good to see you have the same ideas and concept about the industry. The only thing we offer for free is to visit their home once if they pre-qualify. Patricia (my daughter) and I have been instrumental in advancing the “charge for your work” philosophy in the Renovators Council and have had a few companies come by to instruct on Estimating and Contracts.

The whole FREE thing bewilders me as no other professional would spend so much money on a prospect without have an ROI. OakWood has grown between 26 and 30% each year for the last three years and we give nothing away for free and are typically the highest price to the client. We have no client complaints at the BBB – ever – and have never been sued by any client. I am not suggesting that we are perfect but we have a really solid management system and we are now tightening up our processes with Mike Jeffries, Michel Stone, Remodelers University and others.

Would you be interested in giving a seminar to advance the Renovators education on the Renovators Council and also it will allow you to promote your business? If yes then we can suggest to the council.

Keep up the good work.

Somewhat flattered by this response, in requesting permission from John to reprint his email, I offered to send him a free copy of my Construction Marketing Ideas book.  His answer:  “I will be happy to purchase two signed copies from you (one for my daughter and one for me), I don’t like anything for free and from what I have heard, your book is great. I am really happy to hear you are doing well with it. Let me know how to get the money to you.”

My internal tracking from the recent newsletter shows that several readers have clicked through to both Jeffries’ and Stone’s sites.

The Fall 2010 issue of Ottawa Renovates! is nearing publication.

Next Page »