Entering A Slow Time...need Some Thoughts

digger00

I'm sure this has happened to all of you. We are a small contracting business in the Milwaukee area. We are in our first year of exsistance and we have done very well getting work, all of the sudden boom we have no more jobs lined up. We have the web site that gets lots of hits, we are listed on google, and have the yard signs at the job sites. We figured once we got jobs we would stay busy with word of mouth and our great customer service,and quality of work. I'm not sure if it's the time of the year(families getting in vacations before kids go back to school?), or if people procrastinate and then want work done?
Need ideas of ways to get that work coming back in, what works for these slow times??? Thanks for your help!!!

joasis

I have never experienced your problem first hand, since I started with a specialty that took off for me. However, I know from experience and others, it takes about 3 years of plugging along to really get recognition...yard signs don't do as much as visibility and referrals over the long term. You leave satisfied customers behind you, you will have work in front of you.

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Double-A

Two possibilities come to mind. You're not selling far enough out and you're not following up on your proposals.

• If you've turned away work or didn't pursue with when the phone was ringing because you thought you were too busy to get to it, then perhaps you should reconsider. Scheduling 6-8 weeks out is not uncommon and is one of the secrets to staying steady. I think Joasis is seeing this and possibly not recognising it, because folks approach him, say they're gonna build late this year and will wait to get on his schedule. He has a great reputation in a small community and people just know who the 'go-to guy' is in that area, so he might not see he is already using this technique. He also said it took him about 3 years to start having this wonderful problem. So keep plugging.

• The other thing you might consider is calling back every single person you have given a proposal to, and discuss that project with them. If they didn't award the job to you, now is a great time to find out why and possibly be given a chance to shine. Especially if the person awarded that job didn't give them good service. In fact, call everyone you've done work for in the last year and talk to them. They know your work, and if they have more, you're ready and willing to do it.

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"My clients’ wishes are the center of my attention." -- David Guido, a contractor in Woodstock, N.Y.
New York Times, July 20, 2006

realpurty2

I second Double A's suggestions and to add a bit more...

We all hit slower times and one key aspect of survival is to plan for them before they happen. If you have employees, make sure there is advance payroll waiting in an account for slower times to prevent losing your guys to lack of work. There is always "honey-do" list that can be done at the office or your home, and if it meant keeping the employees busy, use them during slow times.

Also, your previous marketing is very effective..nothing beats word of mouth in my book because it's free and spreads in all directions. Job site signs compliment your work site because they identify who is doing the work, but they are not always given a full look when driving by either so you need to supplement them with visits to neighboring houses, or doorknob hangers, mailers to the area your currently working in etc. Never rely on one method alone, vary them up.

Change your newspaper advertising frequently, well, really, all print material, or else it becomes common and people overlook it. Our newspaper ad only runs every other month and looks different each time so that people take notice.

Depending on your area, competion, and such, you might consider a lead service. Some feel they are horrible, but if your in the right neck of the woods, they can bring in leads with little or no competition.

Consider subcontracting your skills out as a package during slow times. Of course we would all prefer to work under our own terms and conditions but when times are slow, it will pay the employees and put meat on the table to work with other area contractors to accomplish a mutual project completion.

Main thing.. don't panic when things slow down. Use the time to gather new leads and set up a consistent plan to keep them coming in.

We've all been guilty of walking right by something and never noticing it... so remember that when putting out your advertising and get in their sight.

Best of Luck.

__________________
Woman in a Man's World.

Grumpy

Are you an owner operator type setup? The problem with alot of these setups is they get real busy, then real slow, then real busy and the cycle continues. The root of the problem is usually that the owner is also the salesman and the crew foreman. He can't be in 2-3 places at once. So while working with the crew, he can't sell. Then when the current jobs are done, there is nothing left to do and the owners goes out and sells, then the work comes in and again the cycle continues.

I'm not sure if that pertains to you, but I wanted to throw it out there for everyone. Obviously not all slow downs are related to your company. Sometimes there are regional/local weather and/or economic reasons.

If it's an economic reason you may have to restructure your company, perhaps go after a different market segment, perhaps do add on complimentary services similiair to the services you currently offer.

If it's the up and down cycle of the owner operator model than you should either hire a sales man or a foreman which would allow you to dedicate your time to the other tasks at hand.

For overall long term visibility you have to do many things. First yard signs do help, but not that much in the immediate. You may get a few leads, but the yard signs create name branding more than anything IMO. Door hangers around the jobs you are working on will probably help more than yard signs in the immediate, but also create that name branding.

Making sure your customers remember who you are is about the best thing you can do over the long run to increase referrals and especially repeat business. How can you do this? Thank you cards at job completion, periodic satisfaction surveys, cards at obscure holidays... there are numbers of ways.

If actually getting leads in the immediate moment is a problem, have you considered joining any of the lead services? http://www.contractortalk.com/advert...o.com%2F%3FRON is an advertiser to this site and has provided me with quality customer leads. I'm not sure if they service your specific market segment.

Good Luck!

Mike Finley

You should have experienced a slow time during the later summer months - families go on vacation, the heat stops people from wanting to mess with stuff, the gas issues and other issues in the news got people antsy.

If you think back you might have noticed a drop off in inquiries the couple of months? Probably what screwed your pooch since your pipeline got empty.

Just remember one thing - advertise when you are busy not slow and you will never be slow.

Or even easier - the best time to find more work is when you are busy.

Mike Finley

Advertising. Spend money to make money, there are no gimicks associated with slower times or faster times, just consistant advertising so you don't get slow. If you want a list of things you can do to get the phone ringing you could easily search the marketing forum, we've gone over them a bunch there.

ruskent

From what i hear everyone gets less leads during the summer. The thrid week on June i mailed out 2500 letters and got 7 calls.....

marc

The one thing that I would recomend to you is put together (and work) a marketing plan.
Start with the end in mind..........

How much business do you want to do?
How will you get this business?
How much as a percentage are you going to spend to get this work?

Example.........
You want to do $1,000,000 in gross business
You will spend 10% on marketing or $100,000
(Don't forget that you don't pay for this.....your customers do so your prices need to reflect this)
Trust me........if your price was $7,000.....adding 10% or the new price being $7,700 won't kill the deal.
Now where will you advertise? There are a lot of avenues.
We put the bulk of our money into face to face marketing. (Home shows, fairs, craft fairs, flower shows, Sea food festivals, etc.) Anywhere that a crowd will be is where I want to be. Our second choose would be Internet lead sources. (ServiceMagic, Quinnstreet, WindowBuyer, SunroomTree, MoveorImprove, Renovationexperts, Homeimprovementleads, Reliableremodeler, Unitedmarketing, etc.) We do a lot of direct mail. (Shared and solo) Shared would be (Val-Pak, Community Values. Super Coups, Spectrum Monthly, Effective Mailers, The coupon book, Globe specialties, etc.) We will also do some newspaper advertising. (we stay away from the contractors section and do our own pieces) we don't want to be with all of our competiters if we can help it. We will also set up in malls and Sam's club and we also use lettered trucks, site signs and we will canvass around our job sites.
My point here is that you need to put together a plan and work it on a consistant basis. Calenderize it weekly and monthly.
The WORST time to advertise is when you don't have work. If you throw money at marketing when you need work and it doesn't work you just put yourself deeper in the hole. That being said.........If your going to mail out 10,000 pieces you may not want to do it all at once. If you mail them out all at once they may hit at a bad time and you've waisted that money......Remember 9/11 (how many mail pieces do you think worked around that date) Also if it works well lets say 2% call you..........(could you handle 200 calls all at once.) but if you spread them out (lets say 5 mailers of 2000 pieces each) If it's a bad time or date you will only waist 20% of your money and if it works well you can handle the calls.

Remember the old saying......If you fail to plan, You plan to fail.
And do not forget the most important thing............................ANSWER THE PHONE and RETURN CALLS

maj

It must really be a regional thing again, but...........

Robin........ Maybe speak for yourself! I just reviewed & updated my list of upcoming jobs, and I'm booked solid through February. This is for sure work (locked, signed , & dated), I have a few other projects offered to me IF I want them (a duplex & a new spec house for another builder).

This is the absolute BUSIEST time of the year (and every year) for us.

We do that quite often around here. We, meaning all the contractors in the area. Although we all seem to have all the work we need at the moment, sometimes scheduling gets jumbled and someone will have a week or two free'd up, so they will give a call to other contractors and sub out for that time period. Nothing wrong with that.




For sure..... Around here, if there is a contractor advertising for work, well................
That contractor prolly doesn't have a good reputation. He'll prolly get a few phone calls, but most likely will not get much work. The busy ones get most of our work directly by word of mouth & repeat customers.

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dougchips

Marc, good info! Could you share how many leads you generate from Home Shows and smaller events? I have never heard of doing non industry related shows/events. I have been thinking of doing some home shows but it seems by watching others that you would have to re staff every 4-6 hours to keep upbeat and attentive staff for your potential clients to see. This past year I would ask people at booths when they looked as if they were falling asleep how long they worked and if they were from out of town. Everyone worked a full day everyday or the event and most of the out of towner's partied to much at night. I do not want my potential clients to see my staff falling asleep!

Gordo

Good idea but, a waste of time on that second bullet point.

HO more likely than not will not give you their true reasons, thus sending you into a waste of time tail spin. Dodgey.

I would focus on calling my existing client base to see why it is that they like about my co. They result will be truer answers and usually a "Oh yeah, while we are talking I have this project I've been thinking about."

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Looks like some pros were here.

marc

I will post the lead numbers tomorrow when I get into the office. You are correct..........4 hours is the longest I will allow anyone to work a booth........especially a fair.

digger00

Great input from all, we are going to have to use all of these suggestions. Thanks all of you!!!