Hi, I’m David Hawke... I’m a construction marketing specialist, used to be residential contractor and an Entrepreneur of 13 years.
I jumped into the contracting business in 2002. I made good money but had a difficult time growing to the level I had originally envisioned. I kept trying new things and spending money on marketing that I may has well have just flushed down the toilet. It felt like I was on a roller coaster ride that I just couldn’t seem to get off of.
And then, I discovered a method of breaking my business into three parts that I like to call profit centers and realized a real formula for viewing my construction business clearly and exactly what is being done good, and what could use some attention.
By breaking my business down into three parts, I actually found that there was one profit center that I was completely missing.
And, this realization along with a little bit of action to make it work for me, increased my sales by over 21% for the year in just over 30 days.
I’ve since used this 3 part formula to diagnose other businesses and help owners see things more clearly. In fact the last last person I shared this with, just in the span of a five minute conversation said: You just made me realize I’m missing a huge opportunity to make more money.
So what are the three parts? To help you better understand this, make believe each one of these parts is it’s own business entity with it’s own goals of success.
Part 1 - Before the sale - Basically this is everything you are doing to get more new customers. Radio, newspaper, TV the media doesn’t matter, what does matter is that there are initiatives happening in your business that have the single goal of getting new customers in the door, period.
Remember, part 1’s only goal is to get new customers, if you rated your company from 1 - 10 on how well you’re new customer getting efforts are going, what would your score be?
Part 2 - During the sale - This consists of everything you do during the project to make customers happy and provide a positive experience for them. What kind of experience would you say your customers have when the buy something from you?
Are they:
a. Thinking you went above and beyond to give an incredible experience?
b. Just satisfied?
c. Wanting for more or generally unsatisfied?
Part 3 - After the sale - This is where most contractors are severely missing out on easily increasing sales and profits. What do you do after the sale to make sure customers are happy?
Most businesses don’t do anything here and it’s at the cost of a huge loss in profits. 68% of customers never do business with a company again because of perceived indifference.
This is an excellent time to stand out from your competitors. And, is the perfect time to ask for testimonials and referrals. Just think if each customer referred just one more customer, you’d double your business this year.
As I said, after viewing my business like this I realized I was completely missing a profit center, you may have guessed it was step 3. I fixed it with a simple letter to my customers that wound up generating the 21% increase in sales.
If you’d like to get the exact method I used to increase my sales 21% in just 30 days, you can go to AffluentContractor.com/increase just let me know your name and best email address and I’ll send it to you immediately.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Editor’s Note: I have only known David Hawke a short time and I trust him and find him to be very knowledgeable and capable on the subject operating and growing remodeling companies.
I Highly Recommend all contractors spend some time on his website and get to know him. He is a valuable resource to all contractors, not just remodel contractors. Get to know him and tell him that Randal DeHart, The Contractors Accountant, recommended you.