The Biggest Construction Marketing Mistake You Can Make
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Most marketing mistakes aren’t as obvious as this construction mistake.
I want to tell you a story about one of the most common fatal mistakes I see contractors making in their marketing efforts. If you read this story carefully, you will find a few laser-targeted weapons inside that you can use to close more sales for your construction business.
So, to get on with the story…
Every day I talk to contractors, builders, and remodelers about construction marketing. Usually a contractor calls me because he wants to ask me some questions about marketing.
He or she usually wants to know whether I have anything that could specifically help his or her business. They don’t care about anything else…they just want to ask me some questions.
So far, that’s very reasonable…that’s what I’m here for, right? Besides, I love to answer questions, and talk about marketing.
So, they call me to ask questions. But here’s the catch:
That’s not what happens.
What does happen?
Almost always, I’m the one who asks most of the questions.
Why does this matter to you? Because that’s the single most effective method I can offer you to start turning more prospects into clients.
How does it work? I’ll get to that in a minute.
You see, every time I talk to a construction business owner, I ask a series of questions. The questions I ask are specifically designed so that I can learn more about their business.
Let’s walk through it for a moment.
For example, let’s imagine I am talking to a seasoned, experienced business owner named Jim.
Jim is the proud owner of a successful remodeling business in Springfield, a mid-size city of 250,000 people.
Jim has called me because, although his business is successful, he wants to know if I know anything that can help him take his business to the next level. He has called to find out more about me and my resources. And he specifically wants to know whether I can do anything for him.
That’s all he really cares about:
“What can I do for Jim?“
He probably has a list of questions he wants to ask me, loosely floating around in his head. There are a few specific things he wants to know about my business. That’s why he called.
So, here’s what always happens next:
After we engage in some small talk, I begin to ask Jim questions.
Specifically, I’m asking him a whole bunch of in-depth questions about his business.
Now this is always the turning point in the phone call.
You see, the only real way I can help someone is if I can learn about their business, and present a customized solution to their problem. And I’ll never get there talking about my own business.
If someone calls me and really wants to know specific details about me or my business, I am happy to provide that information. All the information they are usually wondering about is available on my website, or in various other forms of information I have available. That’s never the problem.
Jim wants some references? Great, I have excellent references for him to peruse at any time. He wants to see past successes? Awesome, I love it when people ask that. The proof is in the pudding, and I’ve got a whole bowl of pudding right here for him.
The problem is this: if I allow us to spend a ton of time on the phone talking about me, I will fail to help Jim. The only way I’m going to help Jim is by learning more about his business.
So, I have extremely quick and effective ways to answer the inevitable questions quickly, so I can get back to asking about Jim’s business.
And that’s exactly how I recommend you should talk to your clients and prospects.
This stuff works for contractors. How do I know?
I know because that’s where I learned how to do it - in the construction industry. Use this method, and you’ll close more sales. You’ll help more customers meet there goals and fulfill their wants and desires. Your marketing will become much more effective, because this same principal applies to all other marketing activities too.
But don’t forget, there’s another wonderful side effect of this method.
Here’s the side effect:
When you ask your prospect specific, targeted questions about his situation, you instantly and automatically build the trust he was seeking out in the first place.
Jim called me to find out if he could trust me. His idea was that by asking me questions, he would be able to figure out if he could trust me.
But my questions, and the constructive, relevant answers my questions uncovered, built more trust with Jim than any questions he could ask me.
By answering my questions, Jim can see:
- This guy cares about his business (we begin a relationship)
- This guy knows the right questions to ask (competence)
- Past results are evident (proof)
- We are headed in the right direction (leadership)
- It’s clear what to do next (clear course of action)
- The expected results are concrete and measurable (practical)
So, what does all this mean to you as a contractor?
First off, you now know the biggest mistake contractors make in their marketing.
They talk about themselves, and their businesses. Avoid this in your business, and learn to ask questions.
Look, all that information about your business matters. It’s important. It’s even relevant sometimes.
But spending your time talking about it with your prospects will get you nowhere fast.
So that’s the huge construction marketing mistake. It’s forgetting to ask questions, and not focusing 100% on the client.
That’s the secret marketing tip of the day:
Focus on your prospect. Ask your prospect questions. Whenever the focus shifts to you, be clear that you’d be happy to answer any questions about yourself, but then go right back into asking more questions about your prospect.
That’s all marketing really is. It’s closing a gap between someone else’s need, and your solution.
Pass it along: If you know someone who could use help with website promotion and online marketing, feel free to send them a link to this page, or link to it on your own website.
