The Top Threat to a Concrete Contractor in Croydon
It’s probably not what you’re thinking it is. It’s not about having a poor work ethic, it’s not the market conditions, it’s not having poor ads, it’s not anything like that. I know this will be a bold statement, but just hear me out—it’s WORD-OF-MOUTH marketing.
The Good and the Bad of Word of Mouth Marketing
Alright, before we dive into all the things that I absolutely hate about word-of-mouth marketing for a concrete contractor in Croydon. Let me just go over a quick summary of what I think are some good things about word of mouth.
The Value of Free Word of Mouth Marketing
My favourite thing about it is that it’s free. I mean, don’t get me wrong, guys, I’m not saying that if you get Word of Mouth marketing, that’s a bad thing. I mean, trust me, I will take all of the free leads that I can possibly get. So, I’m not going to cry if my customer refers me to people, and I still promote trying to get better at word-of-mouth marketing because I think it can be useful given the right circumstances.
Authenticity and Limitations of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
The second thing I like about word-of-mouth marketing is that it is real. If you provide an exceptional service, then you are likely to get recommended. It’s just not as powerful as you think, and I’m going to get into that here shortly.
Benefits of Word of Mouth in Long-Term Business
The third thing I like about it is that it compounds over time. The longer you’ve been in the business of concrete contractor in Croydon matters. So if you’ve been in business for five years, 10 years, or 20 years, and people know you in a local area, Word of Mouth can actually be super powerful.
The Downside of Relying Solely on Word of Mouth
One of the things that I absolutely hate about word-of-mouth marketing is that it is uncontrollable. I don’t know about you guys, but I really don’t like sitting there and hoping. Like literally just sitting there and praying that my phone will ring. And if you rely on word-of-mouth marketing, that’s what you’re doing.
Challenges and Misconceptions of Word of Mouth for New Contractors
You, being a concrete contractor in Croydon, don’t actually have a full system in place. Unless you’ve been in business for 20 years, and it’s been super stable, you develop many relationships. At that point, I get it. But for most people reading this article, you’re probably a new concrete contractor in Croydon. And I don’t want you to believe what most older or more experienced contractors will tell you.
They literally tell you it’s basically like an MLM. Imagine you sell one customer here at the top, that one customer supposedly, right, if Word of Mouth was so powerful, then tells three. Those three then tell each of their friends, and now you have nine, and that nine turns into nine. 27. Except here’s the problem: it doesn’t actually happen that way, and it’s totally uncontrollable.
Impact of the Internet on Traditional Word-of-Mouth Referrals
We live in an age of the internet. Hence, people go to the internet all the time to develop their own information. A lot of times, they don’t even like asking friends and family for recommendations. The reason is that everyone likes working with different kinds of concrete contractor in Croydon. I’m not saying that referrals and recommendations don’t happen, but all I’m saying is that they are on a downward trajectory, not upward.
Pressure and Expectations in Word-of-Mouth Referrals
The third thing I don’t like about Word of Mouth is that it makes you desperate. And let me explain. See, you know what’s weird? I actually personally hate working for friends and family. I really hope none of them see this because I don’t want them to take offence to that.
At the same time, I really don’t like working for people that know me. And here’s the reason: I feel like if you work for a friend or for family, if something goes wrong on the project, normally that becomes a change order for a customer because the business is expected to make money.
But if you work for friends and family or work for work recommendations or referrals, they’re kind of like friends and family. Because you’re working for someone else that you know, like they’re in your network, right? So when you do that, people suddenly have higher expectations. They want potential favours and all that. And for me, it just puts a lot of pressure on the situation to basically do favours for people. And it’s not that I don’t want to be in person and do favours, but I’m in business for one reason only, and that’s to make money.
I like doing home projects, and I like being active, but I don’t want to be spending my Monday like seven to five or whatever you’re working on and doing that for fun or for favours.
Conclusion
Remember, being a concrete contractor in Croydon, if you’re not growing, you’re dying because. Guess what, if you’re staying stable in a pretty good economy, which it’s been for the last 10+ years, give or take. Guess what? When the economy is bad, who do you think is going to survive?
The people who have just sat there and have been comfortable have basically floated by. Or the people who know how to generate leads and customers out of thin air and have a reliable process to do so. I mean, let me ask you, who do you think is going to survive? So my point is that you want to put in the time now to develop a certain system for leads and sales because it’s reliable. And even if you’re not comfortable doing it. That’s okay. Be uncomfortable now before times are bad, and you’re scrambling, and there’s not enough work to go around because right now…..
Times are still good.
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