Some construction companies missed a window of opportunity during the past 15 years to create business development and marketing plans while the industry was flush with profits, vision, personnel and untapped customer potential.
If a company developed a work acquisition system before this serious economic downturn, it would have positioned itself for a continuous flow of projects while competitors scoured the country for opportunities.
Now, with firms fiercely competing for work, businesses need a solution that yields signed contracts immediately.
Key Building Blocks The following steps can help contractors establish a strategic business development and marketing plan.
- Analyze past jobs. Weed out the bad projects and focus on the good projects. Decide which market segments to improve on and eliminate poorly performing market segments. Determine which project sizes deliver the highest profits and which play to the company’s personnel strengths. Also, go beyond the market segments to analyze the best project types to build (i.e., hospitals versus medical office buildings or standalone big-box stores versus strip malls).
- Determine future project opportunities by market segment. Examine market trends and determine which segments the company has not yet penetrated. Combine new market segments with existing market segments to complete a full-picture plan. Then, chooose the mix of project types and sizes the company should target. Determine the adjustments the company is willing to make to pursue these jobs.
- Establish resource needs. What resources does the company have to be successful? Does in-house talent and experience fit with the new target markets? Is it necessary to hire new personnel or purchase additional equipment?
- Research and develop customer databases for all targeted market segments. Include key influencers, such as inspectors, suppliers, architects and engineers. Focus on end users as the main contacts.
- Differentiate the company by creating unique selling points (USPs). Find out which USPs appeal to potential customers, and only sell the company strengths that are backed up by tangible documentation.
- Research how to best reach target markets. Join the same associations as potential customers, advertise in the magazines and publications they read and set up a booth at the tradeshows they attend. Be informed about target customers’ industry and business trends (e.g., facility needs or building programs and budgets).
Finally, put together a business development and marketing budget that includes the personnel to handle the tasks in each of these steps.