Construction Marketing: 5 tips to doubling your growth — Russ Stephens // The Association of Professional Builders

Quotes

• “I think the problem is these guys in this custom-home building tend to get into it by default. They leave school, they start an apprenticeship, they end up having a carpentry team and then by default they become builders and they don’t have any systems or training before they get involved in multi-million dollar projects.” - Russ “The most important tip that I would give anyone that is looking to systemize their business and get more organized is the system that you’re gonna use to systemize your business have to be accessible and easy to update because there’s a lot of systems that you can use but that can end up as a massive barrier.” - Russ “When you’re integrating a system into your business it needs to be accessible. Everybody needs to be able to understand how to use it so keeping things relatively elementary is important.” - Ben “The number one thing that we see missing and you must get in place first if you intend on growing is you must have a documented, repeatable, self-process and this doesn’t have to be overly complex. Too many businesses are just winging it when it comes to sales. They’re getting an inbound inquiry and they’re reacting to that. And what happens is  you end up following your buyer’s process for buying rather than your process of selling.”  - Russ“The buyer’s process and the seller’s process are going down completely different paths especially when it comes to custom home builders.  A lot of people just don’t understand what’s involved in the process before construction can start.” - Russ“This is particularly important for builders. It’s what builders need to be doing and in order to take the client through a process that will enable them to start a multi-million dollar project and even if lesser than that, it can still be a complex project. In order for that project to go smoothly, it’s all about preparation and that is, in effect the sales process.” - Russ“Once you have your repeatable sales process all documented, you need a repeatable system for requiring marketing qualified leads through paid advertising. You hear a lot of businesses say, “I don’t advertise,” and they say it like it’s a badge of honor. But that business isn’t a business, it's a job and not scalable.” - Russ“So if you’re looking for growth, you’ve got to have a system where you can acquire marketing qualified leads through paid advertising at a cost per marketing qualified lead that works for your particular business model.” - Russ“Because when a business is looking to grow, they’re already selling their products or their service. They already got a good idea at this point who their clients are and even what the ideal product or service that they’re providing. From that they can formulate their sales process reasonably easy.” - Russ“Once you have that in place, then you can scale up the business by just filling up your funnel at the top end. A lot of businesses do fill up their funnel without having the sales process and that just leads to an incredible amount of waste.” - Russ“You start at the bottom of the funnel, that’s an important tip. Whenever you’re starting your marketing practice, focus on the people that are closer to conversion. Don’t worry about filling the top of the funnel, you don’t need volume if you don’t know how to close a sale.” - Ben “The next tip is you need to look at your initial offer because that has got to self-liquidate within 30 days if you’re looking for some exponential growth. Otherwise, you need to be in a position to actually cash flow your growth if it’s going to be longer than 30 days.” - Russ“Keep a close eye on your net margin because before you start scaling up the business, and we see this mistake commonly, business owners attempt to scale up a business that’s operating on little or no net profit in the mistaken belief that they can scale into bigger profits.” - Russ“You must get your margins right before you attempt to grow because you’re not gonna be able to scale into bigger profits.” - Russ “We call it the owner’s influence. As the owner, you give your heart and soul and not only do your work longer hours but you also work harder and faster. As you systemize your business and delegate roles, you can get some really good people in place but no one will work to the level that you do. So it’s the reason that the cost of operation has gonna rock as the owner has lesser and lesser influence over the whole operation.” - Russ“You need a three-year plan, a one-year plan, and a 90-day plan along with key initiatives for each time frame. Once you have that, it’s time to delegate your tasks to your team and to be working on your business. After that, you want to monitor your KPIs.” - Russ“When you do that, ultimately, this well-oiled machine comes down to just one number and that is how much you spend on advertising. Because when your KPIs are in place and you're monitoring them and they are holding up, as the business grows everything will flow on from how much you spend on advertising and it’s an absolutely beautiful thing to watch in motion.” - Russ