As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, “Change is the only constant.”
If you’re interested in growing your remodeling business in 2023, you need to do things differently than you did just a few years ago.
The latest report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis points to a current climate of modest economic growth. There are plenty of opportunities to grow your business this year – if that is, you know what to do.
This article provides best practices for growing your remodeling business in 2023 and beyond.
Understanding Your Market
The first step in taking your business to the next level is clearly defining your target market. What types of customers do you want to work with?
Gone are the days when you have to take every job that lands on your lap. You can pick and choose who you work with and adjust your marketing strategy to increase the odds that only the most qualified clients are asking for your services.
As you think about your target market, it helps identify your target market that includes the following:
- Age
- Location
- Family status and size
- Home Value
- Style aesthetic
For example, your ideal customer might be a couple in their mid-fifties with no children at home interested in modernizing their home and equipping it with features that will allow them to age in place. Find your niche and be sure to communicate this offering.
You can also have more than one target market or customer persona. It’s not uncommon for a remodeling business to work with several niches. The key is understanding who you’re serving and identifying ways that you can be unique.
We recommend staying on top of remodeling industry trends and seizing opportunities for growth based on advancements that have legs. Be mindful of new materials, design aesthetics, and the incorporation of technology into the home. Is there an area where you can be a frontrunner and grow your business that way?
Finally, check out your competition and be aware of what they’re doing, but resist the temptation to copy them or let their actions overly influence your plan. You are unique, and people want what you have to offer.
Developing Your Sales Strategy
Once you’ve defined your customer personas, you can begin to establish sales goals and objectives. There are several ways to do this, including some back-of-the-envelope calculations.
For example, if you want to earn $10 million this year, how many jobs do you need to win, and at what budget? How will you acquire these customers? Do you need more salespeople? Do you have the right tools?
Having a roadmap and a process is vital to creating a winning sales strategy. You might be the point person who closes the deals, or you might decide to hire representatives to assist you (or take over) in this area.
Above all, make sure you have the right tools and technology to follow up with remodeling leads and instill confidence in potential customers. This could include upgrading your phone system, website, and communication tools.
Building Your Sales Team
No matter who your ideal customer is, we are all human beings. When a potential client decides to work with you, they’re interested in more than just your before and after pictures. They want to feel confident that you’ll do the job well, stick to a budget, and keep them in the loop with communication.
A call with a salesperson might be the first step in the communication process, so make it count. Be diligent about hiring the right people to be the face of your company.
No matter how well someone nails a first interview, resist hiring them on the spot. We recommend multiple interviews where the prospective new hire can meet the team. It’s also vital that you check the person’s background and references.
Once you’ve hired your sales team, there is still more work to be done. An organized onboarding process ensures that everyone is on the same page. You can also refresh your team’s skills through ongoing training and support, including sales workshops and certifications.
Nurturing Customer Relationships
You already know how important it is to retain the right customers, and you’ve undoubtedly heard the statistic that it’s 25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than keep an existing one happy.
Nurturing customer relationships is an essential part of your business, and the relationship starts from the moment someone visits your website or picks up the phone to call you. Making a favorable impression can lead to new business as well as an avalanche of repeat and referral business.
A lot of keeping a customer happy is good, old-fashioned customer service, but there are also modern tools that can enhance this process, including:
- CRM software: Short for Customer Relationship Management, CRM software organizes all of your customer activity under a single umbrella. This includes contact information, billing details, activities, metrics, notes, and even customer drawings.
Centralizing this information keeps everyone on the same page and in the loop, improving your ability to service a client.
- Customer loyalty program: Rewarding customers can be done in any industry, including the remodeling industry. A loyalty program could be giving a discount on a second room in the house or referring a new customer to your business.
There are several loyalty programs you can use, or you can track everything in your CRM.
- Other communication tools and software: The key to fostering positive relationships with your customers is providing excellent service and communication. Clients should be able to get a hold of you when they have a question, and they also expect proactive communication.
Whether you communicate by phone, text, email, or all the above, ensure you have a system that keeps clients up to date on their projects.
Leveraging Digital Marketing
Perhaps one of the most significant changes to remodeling business growth methodologies during the past decade is the evolution of digital marketing tools and strategies. By embracing what’s working now and keeping an eye on future tech trends, you can truly differentiate your business from the competition.
Traditionally, the remodeling industry was reluctant to embrace digital marketing, but that has changed, and you must keep up if you have any hope of surviving, let alone thriving.
A discussion of digital marketing can be a whole other series of blog posts, but here’s the gist:
- Develop a digital marketing strategy to support your sales efforts. In marketing terms, this is often referred to as a funnel. How do you take a potential customer from a stranger to a raving fan?
The short answer is to have a system in place that includes a professional website, a social media presence, and content (through blogging, video, or both) that drives awareness. From there, you need a lead generation and follow-up system to move prospects through your funnel.
- Build a social media presence. Choose a few relevant channels where your customers hang out and post consistently. This could be Instagram, Pinterest, Houzz, YouTube, Facebook, or others.
Your posts should establish your authority and provide value. Remodeling and DIY tips, customer testimonials, positive reviews, and before and after pictures are great places to start.
- Create compelling content. You can grow your business by showcasing your expertise. Blogs and videos about how you approach different projects, identify trends, and successfully complete challenging projects are great places to start. Relevant content can also boost your visibility on Google and the other search engines, an essential component of SEO (search engine optimization).
Tracking and Measuring Success
Business growth and productivity experts, including Peter Drucker, are known for saying things like, “What gets measured gets improved.”
There are several ways to express this sentiment, but the overarching meaning is that if you want to be successful and improve on that success, you must know both your starting point and how you’re progressing.
Measuring and tracking KPIs (key performance indicators) gives you a roadmap of progress and holds everyone accountable for a common goal. You can see where you started and whether you’re moving closer to or farther away from where you want to be.
The trick is identifying the KPIs that are indicative of your success. Each remodeling business is likely to have a unique set of KPIs, but the most common KPIs to track include the following:
- Revenue, expenses, and profit
- Number of bathroom and kitchen remodel leads generated
- Percentage of leads that become clients
- Number of jobs completed
- Website traffic volume
- Number of email subscribers
- Number of social media followers
Identifying the right KPIs is the first step. Next, you need to be consistent about monitoring them and having a way to communicate your progress to key stakeholders in your business.
There’s no “right number” of KPIs to track. We recommend focusing on what’s most important to your business and tracking these figures relentlessly.
Conclusion
The digital marketing industry has presented more opportunities than ever to grow your remodeling business. By developing a thoughtful strategy that combines proven methods and the latest and greatest digital marketing tactics, you can position your company for massive growth this year and in the future. If you’re ready to take your business to the next step, ApexKRM can help you get started.
