4 Tips to Help You Grow Your Electrical Contracting Business
As an electrician, your business success depends upon growth. Growth can come from cultivating new clients through a referral from an existing client and networking with businesses or homeowners in your community. Your business may be seeing a decrease in customer inquiries and bid acceptance. There are many factors that can affect the growth of your company. Likewise, there are many efforts your business can make to counter the decline of growth.
Here are 4 tips your electrical business should consider implementing to cause potential growth.
Tip #1 - Focus on Your Current Client Base
Managing all accounts, clients, and current jobs individually can create confusion and neglect. If your managers aren’t working from a cohesive system, your business cannot accurately track your accounts. Haphazard systems drain your business of time and money.
If your company doesn’t have a single system in place to organize your on-going projects and accounts, it is time to take control. Begin by consolidating all business contacts into one database, accessible by all staff. Utilizing a CRM or Customer Relationship Management system will allow you to streamline your account processes.
A CRM system can be tailored and customized to suit your business needs. Using a CRM daily can help you to track accounts, contract dates, job progress, last contact date, and new contacts. Consolidating data may be a tedious project, but it can save your company time and money in the long run.
Tip #2 – Use Meetings to Your Advantage
It’s common for electrical contractors and clients to have meet-and-greets. It allows you and your client to discuss projects in person. It puts a face to a name, which is important when creating a business relationship.
Having the client come to your office can be either advantageous or disastrous. If your facility is still in the middle of being set-up or remodeled, it is best to either meet the client on their grounds or at a business luncheon. Your client needs to sum you up in a good environment. They may not think well of your business if it is out of sorts and in disarray. Likewise, if your facility is in working order you may want to show off your building, fleet, and staff to your advantage as it establishes you, in your customer’s eyes, as a key player and legitimate contractor.
When it comes time to arrange the meeting, consider scheduling it for mid-morning. This time of day is optimal because most people have had time to get organized and have coffee. It can give you the opportunity to take your client out for lunch. Nothing pleases a client more than being taken to lunch post meeting. It allows you to further discuss meeting points in further detail in a relaxed setting.
This type of meeting is meant to grow your relationship with your client. It’s ideal for new and potential clients. It is just as important to remember current clients. Continue to nurture your business relationships. They can lead to referrals and word of mouth can either have a positive or negative impact on your business.
Tip #3 – Service Offerings
The job is never done. Many issues can arise after a job is completed. Be proactive. There may be a breaker that trips or defective led lighting. Providing warranty services on the work your team has completed builds trust. Your client will come to you for more work if they can trust that the quality of the work is backed up.
By offering, service calls as a part of what your business offers separates your business from your competitors. Even though revenues from service calls may not be as great as revenues from contracts, it generates a positive reputation and can attract future contracts from new and existing clients.
Tip #4 – Accounts Receivable
Having one system in place for managing your accounts receivable can help your company to track open and closed accounts. You can keep track of which accounts are due or overdue without having to hunt them down from each site manager. If your business is losing money, consider outsourcing to a trusted service like Clients ARM.
Finding the right resources to effectively run each area can be overwhelming and stressful. At Clients ARM we understand that marketing is only one aspect of running a successful electrical contracting business. If you need to keep your time focused on your business and you want to provide first class customer service, you need Clients ARM.
Clients ARM wants to help you succeed in business. We are a full service accounts receivable management firm and offer a variety of services tailored to meet all of your company’s needs. We are here to provide you with these services at a fraction of the cost. We have more than 30 years of experience in accounts receivable management and we have a 90% success rate in collecting on past due accounts. You focus on your clients and their needs while we handle your back-end office duties.
Call us today for your free, no obligation quote at 206-596-3000! Clients ARM prides itself in providing individualized service to all of its clients.
