Attract the Right Construction Clients, Not Just More Leads

 

Client attraction site briefing

Track Where Your Best Clients Came From

Attract pillar

Most builders can name their biggest client. Very few can say which source produced them, or what has happened to that source since. Without that, you cannot tell whether a quiet month is bad luck or a channel closing.

How do you find out where your best construction clients come from?

Ask every person who enquires how they heard about you, and record the answer. A spreadsheet is enough to start with. A CRM is better once the volume justifies it.

Look at total enquiries each month, then break them down by source. One of Greg's own businesses used to get steady work from the council. Tracking showed leads dropping off across August and September. A conversation revealed budget cuts. Because the trend was spotted early, there was time to diversify rather than react.

Diversify before a source dries up

LinkedIn is where several of Greg's coaching clients have found higher value work. The sequence matters more than the effort.

1. Fix the profile first. A photo of you, not just a logo. An About section naming your expertise, your key services and the value of the jobs you want.
2. Search for the client type you want, filter by area, and filter to people who have posted in the last month so you are reaching active accounts.
3. Build a shortlist of 10 to 30 names rather than messaging everyone.
4. Lead with what the project needs, not with how long you have been established.

Review monthly Enquiries by source, and which sources produced the work worth having. A source that is trending down for two months in a row is a decision, not a blip.

Explore the Attract pillar resources

How can UK builders win higher-value contracts without taking on the wrong work?

A higher-value contract is one that supports profit, cash flow and reliable delivery, not simply a larger contract price. Clear scope and workable payment stages can make a smaller job a better fit than a larger project that stretches the team.

Test four things. Capacity: can the right people and trades do it without harming existing clients? Job contribution: after direct costs, supervision, defects and disruption, does it improve the business? Cash exposure: do payment terms, retention and materials leave the builder funding the work? Ability to deliver: can the builder meet the client's quality, programme and communication needs?

Example: a larger refurbishment with unclear scope and late payment may look attractive, but a smaller job with a clear brief, staged payments and realistic dates can contribute more and protect reputation.

• Go or no-go checklist: confirm the client and decision maker are clear.
• Check scope, drawings, approvals and site information are sufficient to price and build.
• Match start and duration against current and known future workload.
• Review payment terms, retention and materials against cash available.
• Say no or ask for changes when a key risk is unresolved.

What evidence helps an architect or developer shortlist a builder?

Make it easy for an architect or developer to check relevant completed work. Explain your actual role and scope, including work delivered by others, and only share material you have permission to use.

Offer references from people who saw the work. Describe relevant constraints, such as occupied sites or restricted access, and explain how you managed changes, quality checks and aftercare. If project details are confidential, use another approved example.

• Provide a short list of completed jobs relevant to the project type and size.
• State the actual role, scope and subcontractor involvement.
• Confirm permission for every client name, image, drawing or reference.
• Offer references who can speak to delivery, communication and aftercare.
• Name constraints and how they were managed, and show examples of quality control and defect close-out.

1. Track your lead sources 

If you want to win higher-value jobs, you need to look firstly at your lead sources. Every time someone enquires you need to be asking how they heard of you. You need to track and put it into a spreadsheet, or a CRM system so you know exactly where your most profitable leads are coming from. 

 

With many of my Mastermind clients, I have given them a tool called a Lead Source report which can help them to analyse the data. This is a simple spreadsheet that is built to collect all the data you need to look at. You want to be looking at how many leads are coming in every month, and then preferably every month it needs to be going up. After you need to look more granularly at where those leads are coming from.

 

For example in one of my businesses we uses to get a lot of leads from the council, but we could see one year in August and September that the leads started dropping off. We saw that there could be a potential pattern and got in touch with them. It turns out they had massive budget cuts and couldn’t give us as many projects. Fortunately, we immediately spotted the trend and we could then diversify. So you can see how valuable it can be to track this and see exactly where your leads are coming from. 

 

Then you can look further and create an ROI spreadsheet. This is a return on investments. 

On the sheet, you track where the leads are coming from and how much you spend out for marketing per lead. Then you can spend some time looking at how many quotes you are getting and how much you are spending for each lead, and how many you won. We can see through this powerful data where our most profitable work comes from. 

 

CRM systems like InfusionSoft or ActiveCampaign can make it easy to access the data to export to these two spreadsheets and utilise the information to push your construction business forward. 

 

Knowledge is power. If you want to find more profitable construction clients it’s vital that you know exactly what works for you and your company and invest your time and money in that.   

 

 2. Diversify 

 

Rather than rely on checkatrade or a similar source for your leads, try to diversify. I work with construction business owners in my coaching to help them grow their businesses. Many of my clients have had resounding success in using Linkedin to reach out to the type of clients they want. 

 

But what do you do if you have never used LinkedIn before in this way? Here is the strategy that you could use today to start leveraging your LinkedIn profile to get your business the clients you want. 

 

Step 1 – Use your profile page 

 

The first thing to do is take a look at your profile. It’s important to understand the power of the images you choose to highlight on your profile. People buy from people, so make sure you have a picture of yourself on there somewhere, not just your logo or a dodgy pic of a project you have worked on. 

 

Another area you can use to great effect is the About section. Make sure you put plenty about your expertise and what your key services are. Also, put the value of the jobs that you are interested in, this can show your prospective clients that you are capable and invested in the bigger jobs. Another place you can add your key services is in the experience section. No one wants to see your stacking shelves experience in your local supermarket when you were 16, so you can utilise this part instead to promote what you do and are great at. 

 

Step 2 – Find suitable clients/ architects 

 

Now that you have an attractive profile that reflects you and your company in the best way, you can start reaching out to the right kind of clients. LinkedIn has a fantastic search feature that you can filter to identify your key client targets. Search for Architect and you will see a list full of architects. Then you can filter people that are in your area, for example, London. This is really useful to find specific construction clients that are developers or architects, put industry and show results using the filters. 

 

Now you want to see who are active and are using the platform regularly. Again you can use filters to help with this. Under filters check posts – dates posted and check in the last month. Get someone in your admin team to look through and pick 10-30 architects to target and hopefully get put on their tender list. Once you have the list you can start your outreach by picking one and commenting on a recent post. 

 

Now they know who we are, and see your replies on their posts, you are ready to reach out to them and make the connection.  

 

Step 3 – Pattern interrupt 

 

When you are directly messaging a potential client you need to make sure that it doesn’t get lost. You don’t want to be lumped in with spam. So when you do message them directly, go onto their website and screenshot a project that you appreciate. Send a copy of the picture with your message, saying what you like about it and how you have enjoyed working on similar projects.

 

It is rare to see photos posted in a message on LinkedIn and this interruption of the routine, or pattern, is what can get you noticed by potential clients. 

 

So if you do one thing this week, make sure it’s taking a look at your LinkedIn page. Make the profile clear about the projects you can deliver, then track whether it brings suitable enquiries. 

 

For a repeatable qualification and follow-up process, see the construction sales funnel guide. How do those qualified enquiries become sales and ultimately income for your business? 

 

3. Are you selling yourself, or solving their problem?

 

When you’re trying to close a sale with a prospective high-end client, the architects and developers of your world, are you selling yourself or are you solving their needs?  

 

This is an important question to ask yourself because the way answer will more than likely reveal the success rate you have on conversion. A mistake that I see so many companies making is that they go in hard on trying to sell themselves. They’ll talk about:

• How long they’ve been established
• How trustworthy they are
• How many awards they have won
• What trade memberships they belong to

 

While you should be proud of your achievements, is that what your prospective customer wants to hear? Realistically, no it’s not! Your client will be more likely thinking “How will this company benefit me?” 

 

To illustrate, have you ever purchased a new car? If you have, what are you thinking? Has this got a big enough boot to take my shopping? Is it fuel efficient so I know how much it’s going to cost me each month? Will it be comfortable for me to drive? 

Your decision is based on me, me, me, I, I, I. 

 

So if that salesperson started trying to sell you the car and talked about how long the manufacturer had been around, how reliable they were, the latest awards they had won- would that attract your attention? Of course not! Whereas if he addressed the questions you were internally asking yourself and ensured the car was a right fit, you are more than likely going to buy it. 

 

It’s no different when selling your services. Think about what people really want. Now, this is never the same with any two jobs. Imagine you have similar work being carried out for two different clients. Each of them will have specific needs, wants and beliefs that you need to delve into and form part of your sales process.  

 

Can you see how ineffective it is if you pitch to both these clients exactly the same way, talking about how long you’ve been established etc etc? If you do this, it will end up coming down to whose the cheapest which is a race to the bottom that you do not want to be in. 

 

So have a think about how you address your clients’ needs and the best way of putting that across in your sales pitch. Having a clear view of what makes your company unique and how you can solve the clients’ problems will help you communicate this. If you would like some help with identifying your unique selling points, have a look at this article about 5 steps to finding your USP. Focusing on this process will help you be a step ahead of your competitors and you will find your conversion rates on the increase. 

 

So to sum up, if you want to be attracting bigger clients like architects and developers to your construction business, you need to be: 

 

• Tracking your lead sources
• Diversifying 
• Pitching on point

 

Mastering how to nurture and convert clients is one of the core parts of my Mastermind program. With my Mastermind clients, we transform their sales strategy so that price doesn’t become the main factor. This helps them get full order books and they can pick and choose their ideal clients. 

 

If this sounds like something you would be interested in, book a call with me today and let’s have a chat about how we can scale your business successfully.