Identify Profitable Targets to Win More Work!

Ten years ago, you didn’t have to sell very hard to keep profitable construction work and revenue flowing into your company. If your price was competitive enough, you put an average team in the field, called the usual plays and used a simple business strategy to keep your customers coming back for more. Since business was plentiful, margins were higher and competition was lower than it is now, you didn’t have to win over many new customers to make a nice profit. Because there was enough work, you also didn’t have to try different or new types of projects, services, customers or contract delivery methods.

Fast-forward to today, it’s harder to fill seats with high-paying construction customers who don’t demand more services for less money. Doing quality work with an experienced team doesn’t matter much as your competition basically provides the same services at low prices. During the slowdown, you cut your overhead and reduced expenses as much as possible. This now causes stress as your workload increases; customers require more services and prices are too cheap to increase your markup. The outdated strategy of waiting for calls from your same old customers to bid their same type of work now doesn’t give you enough business at the same profit margin. So what must you now do to win the new game of contracting?

You’ve got to win more work at higher margins. Continuing to do business like you did in the past won’t achieve your goals. For example, to keep revenue and jobs flowing in, many focused on only building housing tracts or shopping centers, industrial parks, custom homes or office building interiors. Some focused on building for general contractors, developers or homebuilders. Some expanded and did more than one type of project. But, most didn’t crossover into totally different or diverse types of projects. And offering an ongoing service component to their revenue stream wasn’t even considered, as they were too busy to mess with little jobs.

Multiple Streams of Income Sells More Seats!

A diverse business plan includes at least two types of revenue streams with multiple types of projects and customers. Here is a partial list of the unlimited revenue and business opportunities contractors have to choose from:

Multiple Revenue Streams of Opportunities

1. Contracts and Bids

• Private Construction
• Retail shopping centers
• National chain stores
• Industrial buildings
• Manufacturing and factories
• Metal buildings
• Office buildings
• Banks
• Medical buildings
• Hospitals
• Self storage
• Renovations
• Housing tracts
• Custom homes
• Residential remodeling
• Residential home upgrades
• Residential replacement work
• Site improvements

• Public Works Construction
• Schools
• Offices
• Hospitals
• Facilities
• Transportation projects
• Sewer and water projects
• Plants

2. Service Work and Ongoing Accounts

• Ongoing Monthly or Annual Accounts
• Property management
• HVAC/electrical/plumbing maintenance
• Site service and management
• Spring and winterization
• Roof service
• Road and drainage repair work
• Generator service
• Energy management and controls

• Repairs and Service to Fix Broken Components
• Plumbing and mechanical repairs and upgrades
• Window replacement
• Tenant improvements/relocation
• Carpet and flooring service
• Building damage repair
• Clean-up and debris removal

Who do You Want to Sell Tickets To?

For a professional football team to sell tickets, they start with a list of targeted customers they want to go after. By determining exact targets to aim at, you can develop an attack plan to win more work. Creating an effective sales program starts with determining what you want to accomplish.

Start with a focused multiple approach. You already have a list of past customers and project types you have completed. In a tighter economy, those same targets are not enough. You must decide to diversify, attack and seek business in multiple revenue streams. From each revenue stream, select at least one or two new customer and project types you want to attack. From the list above, choose new project and customer types you will attack over the next year to grow your business with diverse types of higher margin and steady paying customers.

Create a Target Customer List

Create and complete a customer target list you will attack. Start by identifying your existing, repeat and past customers. Sort them by revenue stream and customer type. For each customer type, you need a minimum of at least six existing and six new customer targets to go after per customer and project type. Use this sample chart to develop your project and customer target list.

Contracts and Bids

Current Customer Targets New Customer Targets

Current Project Types New Project Types

Service Work and Ongoing Accounts

Current Customer Targets New Customer Targets

Current Service Work New Service Work

After determining what type of projects and customers you want to attack, develop specific goals for each customer and project type:

New customer targets are not hard to find. For example, if you want to target hospital and medical construction, search on Google for hospitals and medical complexes in your market area. Call each one and ask for the manager in charge of facility construction, maintenance, improvements or remodeling. Get started on your new and improved revenue and profit enhancement program by identifying the new projects and customers you can attack and build a more profitable business with.

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George Hedley is a professional construction BIZCOACH and popular industry speaker who helps contractors increase profits, grow and get their companies to work. To get your copy of “Winning Ways To Win More Work!,” email gh@hardhatpresentations.com. To learn more, visit www.hardhatpresentations.com.