Bug ‘Em ‘Til They Buy or Die!

by Marcy Marro | 1 October 2021 12:00 am

By George Hedley

In the new normal of low margins and more competition, you are now required to make a focused effort of proactive sales and marketing to keep your pipeline full of potential high-margin projects to propose on and win. The following is my simple customer action sales and marketing system that works without cold calls. Instead, it’s more like a form of Chinese water torture you saw in the old movies—Drip! Drip! Drip! I call it: ‘Bug ‘Em Til They Buy or Die!’

Marketing and Sales Steps to Attract High Margin Customers

IDENTIFY the best markets, project types and customers to attack
Create AWARENESS of your company—perception of value
PIQUE potential customer’s interest
Stay at TOP of customer’s mind
Generate INQUIRY—lead or potential opportunity
QUALIFY customers and opportunities
Get BELLY To BELLY and face-to-face
Prepare and PRESENT proposals in person
FOLLOW-UP proposals aggressively—in person
GET WET INK—ask for order, close and convert bid/proposal into contract
Build and reinforce trusted customer RELATIONSHIPS
Ask for REFERRALS and next opportunities

Most Important Step is to Get Customers to CALL You!

This 12-step system is designed to move the prospective customer through all estimating, sales and marketing steps without a single cold call. The goal of this system is to get potential customers to call you versus you calling them. This ‘Bug ‘Em’ system builds an awareness of your company and what you can do for customers over a period of time. Drip! Awareness is based upon the ‘Rule of 7’—You must have at least seven contacts with a potential customer before they remember you, feel they know and trust you, and will take any action towards you.

To grow both our construction businesses, we primarily use the mail to make potential customers aware of who we are and what we do. Drip! We mail something to everyone on our mailing list at least four times per year. Drip! Drip! Once is not enough, and we don’t just mail any old boring piece of mail. We send creative, different, unique, fun, factual, caring and informative articles, photos, postcards, whitepapers, mini-brochures, checklists and guides.

Everything you send out must do one of three things:

Pique customer INTEREST
Create a perception of VALUE
Reinforce customer RELATIONSHIPS

In the new normal of low margins and more competition, you are now required to make a focused effort of proactive sales and marketing to keep your pipeline full of potential high-margin projects to propose on and win.

Pique Customer Interest!

Send out something different, crazy, funny, eye catching, bold or unique. You want to stand out from the crowd and make a statement. Try to be clever, creative and fun enough to create the WOW! factor. Send professionally created materials that consistently reflect your image. Quality counts.

The best things to mail are items that pack flat, play big, and will not be thrown away. Don’t forget to put your name and logo on all of your ‘Bug ‘Em ‘Til They Buy or Die’ promotional items. Only send what your customer will read or look at, needs or wants to know, finds interesting or will help them, or will keep for future reference. Remember your goal is not only to create interest, but to create the right kind of interest in you.

Create a Perception of Value!

Be sure that your mail creates the right perception of VALUE about your company and how it does business. You have to tell your potential customers what you want them to remember about you. Don’t assume customers know what you know about you. Decide what perception of VALUE you want to present to your customers and tell them about it—OVER AND OVER AND OVER!

Reinforce Customer Relationships!

To create INTEREST, potential customers must know that you DELIVER RESULTS. Tell them what you’ll do for them and save the reference lists, resumes of your employees, and photos of your greatest accomplishments for your corporate brochure and face-to-face meetings. That stuff is all about what you’ve done. Future customers want to know what you’ll DO for THEM. This puts you at the TOP of their MIND.

Show customers your care about them, their business and their lives. To reinforce customer relationships, use the personal approach. Send them article are directed at improving their company on topics like leadership, management, staff retention, customer loyalty and how to make more profit. Also send announcements of projects, people and accomplishments to show working relationships between loyal customers and your talented team. Send photos of your people working with customers on-site solving problems together. This shows you care about them and want to help improve their business.

Making Customers Aware is Easy!

Building awareness, creating interest and putting your company at the top of mind of future customers is a long Drip! slow Drip! process Drip! which requires constant Drip! action Drip! over Drip! time. To get started, the Drip system takes a minimum of a one- or two-year commitment to become fully effective. Marketing and sales are Drip! Drip! Drip! processes.

We use a database contact software program to keep track of our targeted customers and our marketing activity plan. With the software, we sort by address, industry, customer type, project or any other criteria we want to use. You can also create personalized form letters to mail. It only takes a few minutes to print 1,000 mailing labels! Easy.

Any Plan Is Better Than a Perfect Plan Never Executed!

The key to ‘Bug ‘Em ‘Til They Buy or Die’ system is to do it! Every three months—rain or shine! Build awareness. Create interest. Put you and your business at the top of mind of your future customers. You will get the inquiry. Your proposal will get you a contract and then a loyal customer. This will result in a lifetime of referrals and future customers will call you.

George Hedley, CSP, CPBC, helps contractors grow and profit as a professional business coach, popular speaker and peer group leader. He is the author of “Get Your Construction Business to Always Make a Profit!” and “Hardhat BIZSCHOOL Online University,” available on his website. Visit www.hardhatbizschool.com[1] for more information.

Endnotes:

www.hardhatbizschool.com: http://www.hardhatbizschool.com

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