It’s no secret our clients love to help homeowners update and improve their houses and we encourage and support them every step of the way. Yet corporate clients can mean some serious profit for your business and can help you raise the profile of your company as their buildings are often in public places or attract press attention.
So how can you get more corporate companies to notice you?
Interact on LinkedIn
If you don’t already know, LinkedIn is the Facebook of professional services. While it was originally set up to enable people to find jobs and hire people it’s become much more than that – it’s a virtual place to network. It’s especially popular with those working in corporate companies so it’s a great place to gain direct access to decision makers. A great way to make the right connections is to look at planning applications on Council websites (you may want to target cities in the first instance). See if there are any big companies requesting planning permission and then make a connection with the person named on the planning request via LinkedIn.
To use LinkedIn effectively make sure you:
Always add a personal note when requesting a connection. Post updates yourself about your work or company. Comment on other people’s posts and engage in conversations related to your industry.
Make contacting you easy
Busy people working in corporate companies will quickly move on to another organisation if they are not sure who to contact. If you’ve made contact via email, always include your phone number and email address in your signature (your email might be forwarded on internally making the original sender unclear). You should also make sure your contact details are on the homepage of your website, not just on a separate contact page or in the footer.
Our integrateCRM system ensures that enquiries are organised and stored safely. So if one member of the team receives an enquiry but hasn’t been able to respond, is suddenly off sick or has a question they need answering before responding, managers and business owners will be able to see this is the case and follow up directly themselves, confident they or you are contacting the right person. You can also manage enquiries from any device so team members can respond to enquiries in between site visits.
Research who you are targeting
If obtaining more corporate clients is one of your goals in 2021, make sure you do your research! Start local or regional by looking at the list of top 100 employers in your area – this will give you a great idea of the types of companies you could be targeting. Look at the business pages of your local newspaper to keep up to date with corporate news and see who is starting new projects in your area too.
Sign up to procurement portals
Procurement portals provide you access to local authorities across the UK – many of whom often have building projects planned or in motion. Local authorities have to ‘tender’ for contracts, meaning they have to obtain at least three quotes whenever they intend to spend more than £10,000 (this may vary in some areas) and make their decision based on the information provided during that process, rather than simply giving the contract to a company they have worked with before. This means you have a great opportunity to obtain new work with a large organisation. You can sign up to procurement portals for free to receive email notifications of when contracts are being tendered for.
Provide detailed quotes quickly
When it comes to windows and doors, you are the expert. For those outside of the industry, some of the terminology may be totally baffling. Providing a quote which includes details of designs, measurements and styles can really set you apart from the competition.
Equally, you don’t want to spend too much time on work which isn’t guaranteed – and that’s where our integrateCORE system comes in. It includes a cloud-based parametric window designer – so you simply put in the measurements required by the client to provide a design that matches the brief. The prices are automatically calculated for you and include calculations for U Values for CE marking – vital for manufacturers of windows and doors in the UK and ensuring a professional image. All quotes are also branded with your company logo and colours.
So what are you waiting for? Make 2021 your best year yet by making the most of the boom in home improvement while also finding leads in the corporate world.
If you’d like to speak to us about a free demo of our software simply book a session here.
