We have all had this experience. You know that your architectural firm or construction company is perfect for the new client that is on the door. After all, your skills and experience align perfectly with their needs. However, the client gives the job to another firm or another construction company that doesn’t even compare to yours.
Or maybe your client tells you that they referred you to someone, but they never called. When you decide to follow up, you realize that it went to the competition, and you couldn’t even present them with a proposal. Yes, it is frustrating and we know it.
What is going on here?
Why doesn’t the best architectural firm or construction company always win?
These are the main reasons why potential clients do not always select the best architectural firm or construction company to do the job. If your firm or construction company does not cover the full spectrum of project issues, you are likely to continue to lose work that should be yours.
1. The potential client evaluates the project in a very different way than what you think.
Many of the problems faced by potential customers have multiple possible solutions. If sales are falling short, architectural or construction firms could hire a sales consultant, implement new sales management software (CRM), or hire a recruiter to find new sales talent.
Your company probably works with business intelligence services that allow them to discover and exploit their competitive advantage and thus gain more sales.
To solve this, it is necessary to understand the problems that your potential customers usually face, in addition to have a high visibility in the market, through presenting your perspectives and possible solutions to the problems.
Not all the market knows that your company exists.
Once the prospect chooses a possible solution and begins the search for suppliers who can help, are you sure they will find you? If you’re lucky, they’ll ask someone they’ve worked with for a reference. A global survey of more than 1,300 buyers and sellers of professional services conducted by Hinge revealed that if they do, there is a 69% chance that your client will be willing to recommend your company. But what if they don’t ask any of your customers? More than 80% of architectural and construction suppliers have received a recommendation from someone who has never worked with their company.
Recent studies on referral marketing revealed that these “non-customer” referrals are based on the company’s visibility, expertise and reputation.
Many people make referrals even if they are not clients because they have heard someone speak or read a book they wrote. In addition, more than half recommend a company because of its online presence, blog posts, social media interactions, website, positive comments, among others.
Ask yourself, if a potential client asks people you have not worked with for recommendations, how likely are they to discover your company, evidence of your capabilities and experience? If your company is not visible in the marketplace, this is a huge obstacle to winning new business, which you are clearly missing out on.
3. The potential client cannot find your architectural or construction firm.
Someone can refer your company. However, when the potential customer searches for you on the Internet (the most likely method today), he or she cannot find you. Perhaps your company is not active on influential social networks or simply does not rank high in search engine results. Maybe the name of your architectural or construction firm is hard to spell, pronounce, or is just a series of initials.
If the person referring you does so verbally and potential customers do not pick up the name correctly, they may opt for a company that is easier for them to find. And finally, your potential customer is less likely to find you if you have a difficult and unusual web domain. Don’t worry, most of these problems can be fixed.
4. The potential client discarded you before contacting you.
Before contacting you, potential customers research your company and may find a good reason to leave you out of the game. In fact, more than 50% of decision makers have dismissed companies referred to them without first talking to them.
There are a variety of reasons why a potential customer decides not to contact you. They may not understand how you could help them solve their problems, they may feel that you are more focused on sales than helping them, or they are simply not impressed with your online presence.
Most of these problems have to do with a dysfunctional website. A poorly designed website and the wrong voice tones or messages cost you potential business opportunities. And the saddest thing of all is that you will never realize this.
5. Your proposal is not convincing
Some architecture and construction firms, when they have the opportunity to bid, simply cannot close the project when it is time to send the proposal.
Think about your potential customers. You will most likely be asked to submit proposals for three to five offices. And beyond the decisions made as a team, multiple partners who are normally busy are likely to end up reviewing them. They want to understand you through your proposal, they want to be assured of the experience you have and quickly understand why your company can be the best in helping them achieve their goals. From this follows the idea that the easiest to read and digest proposal is usually the one that wins the sale.
Think about the proposals you present. Are they clear, concise and convincing to someone who doesn’t know you? Do they address potential objections and demonstrate how your architectural firm’s or construction firm’s approach can resolve them? Readers always gravitate toward easy-to-read proposals that answer their questions, not those that are dense and complicated.
A winning proposal is the one that clearly differentiates the solution offered by your company and the one that best addresses the problem posed.
6. You are rejected when it comes to going deeper into your company.
Sometimes, your potential client needs to choose among the finalists. To achieve this, I will probably have to study your company in more detail.
Most will check your website (this being the most accessible medium today), and any other source of information they find about your architectural or construction firm in a Google search. They’re going to get on your social networks and talk to references. Make sure your company is on par with or outperforms its competitors in all critical areas of the proposal. You don’t want to give your potential customer reasons to write you off at this stage of the game.
7. You failed to provide the necessary insights or you did not demonstrate your expertise correctly
In a study conducted by the RAIN Group, they found that winners sell themselves very differently from others. The main reason companies fail to win new customers is that they fail to educate prospects and offer them new perspectives on how to solve their problems.
When you are learning about your potential client’s business and developing your proposal, it is necessary to give them a taste of your experience, work processes and what it would be like to work with you. By doing so, you also help them diagnose the problem and devise a solution.
For many people, providing insights and helping with problem solving before winning the business is unacceptable. Normally these companies are concerned about revealing their “secret recipe”.
Today, however, expectations are changing. Experts are educating. Industry leaders recognize that you have to give advice and provide intelligent information if you want to attract new clients and projects.
Keep in mind that no matter how much information you share, potential customers will assume that it is only the tip of the iceberg. Sharing your insights and your experience serve as definitive proof that your company is a better choice than your competitors.
Closing sales requires more than just being the best company. It also consists of being a visible company to potential customers and referral sources, being found, demonstrating your expertise and having a consistent message in the marketplace that is attractive to your ideal prospects.
By Daniel Obregón
