Marketing For Construction Firms

This book is aimed at anyone working in the construction industry wishing to obtain new work. It draws upon the reader's own experiences as a consumer to introduce the key principles of marketing and relates how these principles can be used to advantage in the construction industry. The book explains marketing strategy as the means of assessing where customers are likely to be, deciding what to offer them and what to say to them to persuade them to work with the reader's firm rather than with a competitor. Emphasis is placed on the development of personal relationships as a route to developing new business. Practical guidelines are offered for obtaining competitive advantage, for securing an initial meeting with potential clients, for the design and use of brochures and other publicity material, and for many other marketing and sales related activities.

This book appreciates that not all the options it presents are appropriate and/or affordable to everybody, but it focuses the organisation to identify market sectors and provides, in a short and accessible form, the most important concepts of marketing, and offers suggestions as to how they can be used to benefit you and your company

Buckshon addresses the architectural, engineering, and construction industry's marketing challenges with a positive and practical approach especially for business owners who don't want to be bogged down in clichs and who have been encouraged to try a variety of marketing ideas which simply don't work.

Construction Business Development is the first book to provide an insight into business development strategies, tools and techniques in construction. This edited text combines academic research with the broad industrial experience of construction business development professionals and marketing consultants. It uses illustrations and case studies in addressing current and future challenges and opportunities in a highly competitive business environment. This practical book will help construction managers learn how to turn clients into loyal customers.

With a jolt you pull your car to the side of the road, and read the job sign that can't be over one day old: New Home of ABC Inc.; General Contractor, XYZ Construction Co. You think out loud, "I knew the property had been sold," and your eyes roam over the real estate sign with the angled "sold" sticker pro claiming to all that the agent has been successful. "Thought the job would have come out on the bid list by now," you mutter as you move back onto the road and head for your office. Later in the day you get the agent on the phone: "Jim, how did XYZ get the ABC job? I saw nothing on the builders' exchange about it." "John, XYZ has been negotiating with ABC for the past six weeks. They did one fine job of selling on old McDuff. Understand they just called on him out of the blue asking for a chance. They put the whole package together, plans and all." "Didn't that tightwad McDuff get another price, Jim?" "Sure did; two, as a matter of fact. He asked me to get two other contractors capable of doing design-build projects. He liked XYZ better. I don't know the prices, but I really feel those boys impressed McDuff by going to him. Were you planning to bid the job?" "Thinking about it," you answer, trying to sound very casual.

At the global and local level contractors and consultants have had to take a more professional approach to marketing and sales. Some construction firms are being restructured into client-oriented organizations. However, in all organizations there is considerable room to develop marketing and sales to enhance opportunities to grow and to protect markets during times of recession. This book demonstrates how marketing and sales can be developed. Specifically it: introduces selling techniques tailored to the needs of construction evaluates competing approaches to marketing and related sales theory demonstrates the effect of these on organizational structures and processes, and examines how the top down and bottom up management approaches can be integrated through sales practice. The book aims to achieve a balance between a strategic overview and the practicalities of sales and marketing. It does not offer a single blueprint, but rather a range of distinctive options from which the reader can make informed choices.

With a jolt you pull your car to the side of the road and read the job sign that can't be more than one day old: New Home of ABC Inc.; General Contractor, XYZ Construction Co. You think out loud, "I knew the property had been sold," and your eyes roam over the real estate sign with the angled "sold" sticker proclaiming that the agent has been successful. "Thought the job would have come out on the bid list by now," you mutter as you move back onto the road and head for your office. Later in the day you get the agent on the phone: "Jim, how did XYZ get the ABC job? I saw nothing on the builders' exchange about it." "John, XYZ has been negotiating with ABC for the past six weeks. They did one fine job of selling the owner. Under stand they just called on him out of the blue asking for a chance. They put the whole package together, plans and all." "Didn't he get another price, Jim?" "Sure did; two, as a matter of fact. He asked me to get two other contractors capable of doing design-build projects. He liked XYZ better. I don't know the prices, but I really feel those ix x Preface boys impressed him by going to him. Were you planning to bid the job?" "Thinking about it," you answer, trying to sound very casual.