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You Have to Advertise

January 28, 2008  |  from Markup and Profit Blog

In Minnesota last week, over a two-day period, I had a total of 663 people in 5 classes. Granted, some of the attendees were in more than one class, but that is a large group of businesspeople in Minnesota who understand that education is the key to survival, both in today’s economy and long-term. The Central Minnesota Builders Association sponsored the 2008 Builders Expo and they did an outstanding job of organizing and running the event.

Most interesting to me were the people I talked with one-on-one about how they were weathering this market adjustment. Those that were doing a good job of advertising were as busy as they wanted to be. Their biggest problem is where to find enough good people to get the jobs built.

Those that were not advertising were struggling just to find leads. Their phones were not ringing and their prospects for new work were bleak.

Advertising is a 52-week-a-year process, no breaks, no rationalizing, no excuses. When the housing market tightens up, there are fewer people looking to buy your services or your work. Therefore you must advertise more, not less, to reach the people that want work done.

Don’t expect immediate results when you start advertising. It takes time, investment, and multiple exposures to make your company the one they call when they need help. If you want a quick fix, you need to go out and start knocking on doors. I mean that literally - start knocking on doors, or at least leaving door hangers. I talk about this in our book, “Profitable Sales, A Contractor’s Guide” (pages 30 and 145). All other types of advertising take time. The sooner you get started, the sooner the leads will appear.

Filed: Sales-Marketing