“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to building construction, the most archaic industry in the world.” My father, a graduate of the Purdue school of Building Construction Management, heard this phrase on one of his first days in class, and it has stuck in his mind ever since. Do you think this statement holds true today?
In this three-part blog, we are going to investigate a handful of startling realizations within construction sales and marketing departments and how Right On Interactive understands your needs and knows that we can help. I welcome any feedback regarding this content, and I hope you identify with most of the sentiments I am about to share.
Construction is not archaic in the sense that we are building structures out of mud and sticks still (thankfully). That being said, think about what may (or may not) need some modernization in your firm. “You don’t know what you don’t know,” is a simple, yet profound statement I have embraced in my professional career, and it can be applied to the sales and marketing divisions of most construction companies today. Do you find yourself taking any of the below actions?
- Sending the same email to everyone in your address book
- Submitting a project bid as your form of “sales and marketing”
- Having an attractive (or unattractive) website yet not doing anything with it
- Competing solely on price and losing bids because of it
- Struggling to manage leads
Does any of this sound familiar? Some may even be painfully all too familiar for a good number of firms. Let’s take a deeper look into each of these issues, how they are hurting business, and what construction firms need to do to get ahead and stay ahead. I will cover the first topic in this post with two more installments still to come.
The Death of “Batch and Blast” Email
Everyone wants to receive content that is relevant to their interests and lifestyle. A prospective client on a budget of $500,000 has radically different ideas and plans than a prospect with a budget exceeding $10 million, and both will require different messaging. Think about the different types of work your firm has completed: repurposing, additions, renovations, and entirely new buildings. Why are you sending everyone the same message? In the Right On Interactive software, users can easily segment different groups in order to disperse more targeted communication. Possible segmented groups include industry, budget, geographical location, or how engaged a prospect is with your sales representative.
Coming in the second post of this series, we’ll dive into “sales and marketing” processes and websites. Specifically, we’ll focus on engaging prospects, and how your website should be one of your most valuable sales weapons.
