Ideally, a great business is built on being great at marketing, sales, and production. Being too focused on any one of those areas would surely create a top heavy or bottom heavy business. But I would much rather have an over flow of new prospects and customers wanting to do business with me than twiddling my thumbs and wondering where the next job was going to come from. One of the most important marketing strategies you can implement in your business is a well planned and executed referral marketing strategy.
The mistakes I made early on in my remodeling career were that I spent 90% of my time worrying about getting the jobs done and my business would go through big ups and downs. That isn't fun! And we had incredible customers that absolutely loved us with consistent referrals (but I was using the "hope and pray" method at that time), but that does not build a predictable business that grows every year.
I do not agree that there is no "right" way to do this. There are many proven ways to succeed in this industry and if you study most of the top remodelers they made a huge commitment to sales and marketing early on and used that revenue to fuel the perfection of their services. This is pretty standard stuff in most industries.
What most business owners miss is that getting referrals and doing this the right way is marketing!
Understanding and implementing a solid referral marketing strategy in your business is key and 95% of remodeling businesses that I talk to are completely missing this.
What is your process when you finish a job?
I would recommend that everyone does an exit interview which is a perfect opportunity to record a video testimonial or collect a written one.
Explain your warranty/guarantee and what to do if they have any problems.
Ask for a referral (or 3) right there.
Send them a nice gift to show them you appreciate their business.
Send them a referral letter explaining your referral process and if you compensate them when/if you land a new job from that.
In that referral letter, ask for an online testimonial (link out to 3-4 of your review profiles).
Follow up in a month to see how they are doing.
Follow up in a year, or better yet, schedule a once a year review and inspection of your work and fix any issues that are product or workmanship related (make this part of your guarantee! - and if you do, you can charge more).
Canvass the neighborhood and drop off a door hanger or information. Turn that 1 job into 5. Thank all of the neighbors for putting up with you and your crew for however long it took to get that work done. Send them a thank you note and a box of chocolates and when they need the services you provide, who do you think they are going to remember and refer to their friends.
This is marketing. This is work. This takes a lot of time to implement and do correctly. It might even take someone outside of your organization to help you do this or at least hold you accountable. Find a way to get this stuff done now.
If you aren't doing this stuff you are using the "hope and pray" method so hopefully your customers liked you enough to go out of their way to market your business for you. Doubtful if you didn't even say thank you and show some sign of appreciation to them for hiring you.
And if you tie this all back to a great online web presence there is NO competition in your local market. None. Don't give your best prospects a single reason not to do business with you. Make it easy and if your web site stinks and you have no information or reviews out there about your business, you are making it damn hard for even your referral prospects to pull the trigger.
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