[tintin1101]

Right now I am solely word of mouth with a few mailouts. Too many phonebooks in the area for that to be an option. I have considered mass mailing and running an ad in the local paper promoting a 15% discount on exterior thru October. I am small business with 3 employees. We stay plenty busy but I'm looking to pick up more business, expand, and hire some more employees before winter. I've mainly been working restorations and remodeling and I am interested in custom work and new construction. Any suggestions on generating new construction leads. I find cold calling to be unprofessional and prefer professional letter head and envelopes. We have a lot of surviving low ballers in the area.........look foward to your experience..........

 

[Rich]

Any suggestions on generating new construction leads.....look foward to your experience.......

Get a website if you don't already have one and also get on all the online sites like yellowpages.com, yellowbook.com, google.com, yahoo local, etc, etc, etc. Free advertising is the wave of the future. I have lower advertising costs because of this and there's nothing wrong with that. :no:

 

[welovepainting]

Tin, an excellent way of generating new constuctions leads are by networking. you can do this by joining different orginizations like HBA home builders association, IFMA facilities mangers association, builders exchange, BOMA building owners and managers association, theses different groups are a network of professionals involved in house building, building ownership, management, development and leasing. Features advocacy, education, conferences, and news, ... networking is far less exspensive and more effective than traditional advertising.

 

[tintin1101]

much appreciative

thanks for the networking idea

Tin, an excellent way of generating new constuctions leads are by networking. you can do this by joining different orginizations like HBA home builders association, IFMA facilities mangers association, builders exchange, BOMA building owners and managers association, theses different groups are a network of professionals involved in house building, building ownership, management, development and leasing. Features advocacy, education, conferences, and news, ... networking is far less exspensive and more effective than traditional advertising.

 

[Ethan]

Couldn't agree more with the networking comment - BNI (business networking international) works great for our company and IFDA (international furnishings and design associatoin) as well for other ideas.

Ethan

 

[Orval121980]

Right now I am solely word of mouth with a few mailouts. Too many phonebooks in the area for that to be an option. I have considered mass mailing and running an ad in the local paper promoting a 15% discount on exterior thru October. I am small business with 3 employees. We stay plenty busy but I'm looking to pick up more business, expand, and hire some more employees before winter. I've mainly been working restorations and remodeling and I am interested in custom work and new construction. Any suggestions on generating new construction leads. I find cold calling to be unprofessional and prefer professional letter head and envelopes. We have a lot of surviving low ballers in the area.........look foward to your experience..........

I agree with what you said about cold calling. I have had the best luck with sending a letterhead to the purchasing manager to get results from new constuction. They are the ones who pretty much hire the subs. I am sure you are familiar with what builders require but if your not they require work comp and Gen Liability up to 100,000,000. I was paying almost 1,000 a month for WComp premium .I am actually getting out of the new construction. Unless you get alot of homes it is hard to make any money. Just be prepared and try to work for a good honest builder.

 

[Painter James]

I agree with what you said about cold calling. I have had the best luck with sending a letterhead to the purchasing manager to get results from new constuction. quote]

I appreciate the input from all the above. Seems like the "cold calling" thing isn't the best for commercial purposes...but what if you're just trying to get into the residential sector?

Especially if you're new & don't have a bunch of contacts in the area.

At any rate, I've had a great time with flyers delivered door-to-door. My most consistent customer is a realtor that refers me to his clients, simply because I met with him while cold-calling...well, door-knocking...in his neighborhood.

Another great client is a $12k new construction paint job on a custom house. Met them by dropping off a flyer & calling card.

Thanks for the input about the purchasing manager--never thought of the hierarchy in the big wig corporations.

--James
Painting with Excellence
"Our name is our MISSION."
Charlotte, NC

 

[timhag]

i said it before, church bulletins, network groups are excellent advertising strategies.

 

[Brian]

Marketing has 2 key components-- consistency and tracking.

If you don't track your leads you can never determine your return on investment (ROI). If you don't know your ROI you can't determine if a particular marketing piece is worth doing again. Guessing and gut reactions don't work-- I've had many gut reactions that turned out to be indigestion. The numbers are never wrong (if you track them properly and know what they mean).

Giving up on something after one try is usually a big mistake. There can be many reasons why something doesn't work. Too often we give up after one try and never look deeper.

Brian Phillips

 

[NuView Painting]

My self Im trying to get out of Sub-work from GC they keep you busy and fed thats all most of the time you dont make any profit or very little.. because theres always a cutthroat gonna under bid you..but stick to your ground on what you bid....

 

[Tmrrptr]

If you find cold calling unprofessional, hire a professional salesman.

I don't care what you got,
you won't transfer it to another without a salesman.

Only 3 employees?
Sounds like a mistake to me.

Either work with a partner, and use day labor, or go big.
Comp has got to eat you up with only 3...
r

 

[PressurePros]

Rich, I'll vouch for that. The transition phase from small company is a wicked one.

 

[Tmrrptr]

Thanks, Ken.

Please tell us your opinion of "The E-myth Contractor," by Michael Gerber.

First time reading it, for me. It should be good for Tintin to review.

Me? I'm a technician with a prolonged entrepeneurial seizure.

You have made proper choices and done well.
r

 

[Ethan]

Marketing has 2 key components-- consistency and tracking.

If you don't track your leads you can never determine your return on investment (ROI). If you don't know your ROI you can't determine if a particular marketing piece is worth doing again. Guessing and gut reactions don't work-- I've had many gut reactions that turned out to be indigestion. The numbers are never wrong (if you track them properly and know what they mean).

Brian Phillips

Sorry guys if I'm bring up a dead thread, but I had a question for you Brian.

When you track ROI on your marketing campaign.

Do you track contribution to overhead and profit as your return?

Do you have a way of putting variable costs to jobs like gas, sundries, and "minor" things like that(NOT MINOR, it adds up) ...

Curious exactly how you calculate that and what you consider to be a good ROI for a marketing plan?

 

[Josh.08]

My self Im trying to get out of Sub-work from GC they keep you busy and fed thats all most of the time you dont make any profit or very little.. because theres always a cutthroat gonna under bid you..but stick to your ground on what you bid....

Couldn't Agree More. I don't like the idea of working for a GC. The GC and the Painter both have to make a profit off of the same job. Not my cup of tea.