Referrals are great because they show you are doing a lot of things right.
But relying on referrals alone can be very risky. It exposes you to the boom and bust cycle that stalks our industry like a great white shark stalking its prey…
It may be out of sight... but it’s always there... lurking, waiting to strike when you least expect it.
And it always strikes when you are at your most vulnerable.
When you’ve just taken on more staff, or invested in a new display home, or maybe taken on a spec home... or two.
And when the leads dry up, it’s like blood in the water.
What happens when the market enters a downturn?
Leads dry up, and every builder goes into a price-cutting frenzy. Desperate to secure the cashflow that will keep their company ticking over until things improve.
And before you know it, no one is making any money.
But every builder is flat out... chasing work.
Yep, referrals are great... they’re cheap and they show you are doing a good job. But when the market tightens and you can no longer survive on referrals alone, you need an alternative strategy...one that allows you to attract clients that have never heard of you... or your previous clients.
Marketing for builders is a constant activity that is never done. But you do get to choose how hard it will be. To the untrained builder, it feels like throwing spaghetti against a wall and seeing what sticks. A few get lucky, however most waste their remaining cash reserves on advertising that simply does not work.
But if you can master just one advertising channel such as Google Ads, Facebook or even YouTube, and combine it with a marketing strategy, then you’ll have a system for generating leads that can be turned up or down at will.
This is also the strategy for scaling up a building company:
Most building companies never get to a point where they have a predictable, repeatable process for generating qualified leads.
Not one that they have control of anyway. Like I said, referrals are great but can you increase them to fill your spare capacity?
No, you are a passive onlooker with that strategy.
To have any control over your delivery, you need to take control of your marketing.
Every building company needs this which is why we produced the Sales & Marketing Blueprint For Builders.
It’s a free download that will get you started on a repeatable, scalable marketing strategy for builders.
Click on the link below to download now.