Where Do Job Shops Leave Money On the Table?
Many job shops are too small to justify a salesperson, so the owner ends up being the one who goes after work–in addition to all the other hats they wear every day.
If they're lucky, they have natural sales instincts and maybe a bit of experience, but even then, it's easy to miss opportunities and leave money on the table. Sales work is hard. You have to be persistent and have tough skin, but the biggest key to elevating your sales is building strong relationships. Because when you have strong relationships with people, they will want you to succeed and do what they can to help.
A team of two brothers that I work with has grown their job shop from nothing into a 5 million dollar business in less than a decade. They've done a bit of cold calling and dabbled in some bid sites over the years, but the majority of their business has resulted from building relationships and delivering high-quality work. That's it.
Sounds easy, right? Well, it's not. Strong relationships require consistent care and attention, as well as clear, honest communication. Think about the long-term relationships you've built in your personal life. If you’re married, you know that you have to nurture that connection with your partner in order to keep it intact and continually cultivate deeper and stronger roots. Or if you have a lifelong best friend or siblings you’re close with, you probably make an effort to reach out to them every so often–and not just when you need something, right?
Relationships take work and there's no way around that. The good news is that anyone can develop their skills for relationship-building with practice. And there are ways to streamline the work to keep it simple and effective. The following steps will help you build stronger communication and relationships with customers and prospects, and help you get the most out of your connections:
Get to know them.
Be creative and persistent.
Dig beneath the surface.
Stay ahead of hurdles.
Let's dive into these steps and get a closer look.
Get to know them.
Taking the time to get to know your customer on a personal level will help you will form a solid bond with them. Remember, customers are people first. They are complex, emotional, fallible human beings just like the rest of us, and the more you can relate to them on that plane, the more they will trust you in return. And when they trust you, they will be more likely to not only continue giving you work, but they might also refer you to another department in their company, or to a friend at another company, or they might even push for you to win a bid over lower-cost competitors.
Sometimes your contacts will move to a different company for bigger and better opportunities. If you can, try to get an introduction to whoever is taking their place before they leave. And be sure to get their contact information so you can keep in touch because they might be in a position to bring you new opportunities from their new job.
Keep a log of your customers and write down the little details they drop during your conversations, then show that you were listening by asking about them later. Listening and being curious shows that you care. Find out why and how they got into the business they’re in. Ask about their job and what they love and loathe about it. Understand what they deem most important, both personally and to their company. Pay attention to their conversation style so you can mirror it, and ask how they prefer to stay in touch, and how often.
In the era of social media, it never hurts to do a little stalking either. Don't be creepy about it, just use it as a way to understand them better. It’s also good practice to connect with them on Linkedin or Alignable if it looks like they're active on those platforms. As I mentioned in a previous video, write recommendations for your customers (the people, not the company). Share what it is about that person that makes them a joy to work with. You might want to find them and connect on other platforms too, but most tend to be more personal, so it's probably smart to hold off until you get to know each other better.
All these little things add up to help you communicate in a way that addresses their needs and pain points. This will help you build an emotional connection, which is what will truly solidify your bond with them.
Be creative and persistent.
Set aside at least a couple of hours a month to check in with your network. You could start calling them on your way home from work every once in a while to say hi or sending a personalized email here and there. You could do what I do and scroll through Linkedin while you're watching TV in the evening and commenting on your customer's posts. Or you do that during lunch. The best system is the one that you will actually use.
Another option is to create an automated system for reaching out. There are a lot of relatively inexpensive tools out there that allow you to create emails or Linkedin messages in bulk and schedule them out. We use SendFox to send automated emails to our customers and prospects and I know people who use SalesHub to send automated Linkedin messages to prospects.
As I'm sure you know, people are busy these days and they're constantly inundated with distractions. If you send someone an email or a message and they don't respond to you right away, that doesn't mean they're not interested or they don't like you. It likely just means that they're buried in other priorities and haven't had the time or headspace. But no one likes to pester someone who isn't responding, so how can you be persistent without being annoying? How do you reach out to someone on a semi-regular basis without feeling awkward about it?
Get creative. Come up with fun ways to get their attention. Share a funny video that you think your customer would like or an article that made you think of them. Tell a story about a recent project that went wrong and what you learned from it. Connect them with someone in your network you think they should know. Tell them about an event coming up or invite them out for a beer. Share an insight or business tool you use that you think they might benefit from. If you've done the work to get to know them, you should be able to come up with some ideas. Do they follow sports? Or play fantasy sports? Are they a hunter? Did they take a vacation recently?
Dig beneath the surface.
I've mentioned this before, but when a new customer submits an RFQ, don’t just slap together a time and materials quote and email it back to them. Pick up the phone and call them to get a better understanding of their big-picture goals for the project. Even if it’s a seemingly simple part. Why? There are a few reasons.
For one, this creates another opportunity to form a connection with them, which makes you more memorable. I can almost guarantee that none of the other suppliers they sent the RFQ to will call to get more information. You might think that they’re probably busy and don’t want to take the time to talk to you, and you might be right, but they'll still appreciate the call nonetheless.
The bigger reason to follow up is that it allows you to show your expertise and raise any red flags before the customer wastes their time and money–and yours! Maybe you know of a better way to make the thing because you have way more hands-on experience. Or maybe they are in the early design and prototyping phases and you can come up with a solution that never would have occurred to them otherwise. Or maybe you learn that their only concern is timing and if you can turn around the work fast, they'll give you the job without much concern for cost.
My husband is a manufacturing engineer who develops new production lines, and his projects are always on a very tight deadline. Whenever he sends something out for quote, one of his vendors always responds immediately to confirm he can meet the date, before even working on the quote because he knows that's my husband's main concern. He's never the cheapest option, but he almost always gets the job, sometimes before the other vendors have even submitted their quotes.
Another reason to call is to poke around for more work by finding out more about the project or asking about other projects they're working on. If you do a really good job for them and you have a bigger picture understanding of what the customer is doing, they might offer you additional pieces of the project down the line without even getting quotes from other suppliers since you're already plugged in. If your customer is a large corporation, you could even ask your contact to refer you to another department that might need your help.
This is how you position yourself as an expert instead of a commodity. You’re no longer competing with other service providers on price because you’re bringing something new and valuable to the table.
Stay ahead of the hurdles.
It goes without saying that delivering a high-quality product and service is necessary if you want a customer to keep coming back and referring you to their colleagues. A big part of that is being proactive in your communications.
Have you ever rushed to the airport to be there for early boarding only to find out your flight was delayed? And just to add to your frustration, none of the airport personnel can tell you what’s going on or when you might be taking off. Don’t put your customer in this situation. Especially if the project is complex with a long lead time, your customer will appreciate getting regular status updates without having to hound you.
If you never reach out to them after receiving the PO, they might worry if you received it and wonder how it’s going. So take the initiative and keep them informed of what's happening. If it's a complex project with a long lead time, schedule regular check-ins throughout. Then every time you meet, give them a status update, be ready to answer their questions, and ask if they have any additional needs you can address.
Anytime you run into issues with a project, be proactive! Let your customer know what’s going on and what you’re doing to correct the situation. It's always better to be open and honest with the customer than to pretend like everything is fine.
I used to do quoting and project management for a small machine shop. I once had a customer order a few hundred parts to be machined out of a material that could only be cast–despite our machinist’s warning that it wouldn’t machine well. Our boss said to do it anyway, so we ordered cast blocks for the job, and when they came in, they looked like swiss cheese. At this point, the foundry had already put us behind schedule, then we had to go back and have them make blocks that were less holy, which set us even further back, and the new blocks weren't much better. We machined them anyway, then used urethane to fill the holes and painted them. What a nightmare. But because I kept our customer in the loop every step of the way, even though we had done some major jerry-rigging and we were far beyond late, he still went out of his way to thank me for my superior management of a project that was doomed from the start.
My point is that getting ahead of problems and being proactive with your communications will show your customer you truly care and make them feel valued.
So how can you make the most of your relationships and make sure you don't leave money on the table? Get to know your customers and contacts on a personal level. Be persistent, but be creative about it. Dig beneath the surface to show that you care and look for more opportunities. Keep your customers happy even when challenges arise by being proactive in your communications.