The many hats of a marketeer will be familiar to those who have worked as a trades person in the domestic market. In the fullness of time, some trades people decide that they need to move their business on and decide that contracting is the way forward — but they do not know how to break into that market.
As you are providing a service, the same principles apply as in the domestic market. People buy from people and the first step is to get someone to agree to put you on a tender list or give you the opportunity to work for them. But the commercial market is the reverse of the domestic market. In the domestic market, in normal economic times, there are lots of customers seeking a limited number of trades people. In the commercial market there are few clients — as the value of projects is large — and the clients do not have to find people to do the work; they get found by those seeking the work.
Business Development in the Commercial Market
Identifying who should be approached to seek a place on a tender list is usually done by a business development person. They develop strategies for identifying people who are working in the segment of the market you are targeting, make contact with them, and gradually build relationships to gain their trust.
The first step in identifying the individuals to contact is by identifying the organisations they work for. Commercial lead generation lists are available from companies such as Barbour ABI, Glenigan, Planning Pipe or Builders Conference, and these will help propel your business development programme.
Your Digital Footprint Matters
At each step of the business development process, contacts will seek confirmation of what is said and communicated to them. Your marketing collateral and digital footprint should consistently support your message. The need to provide quality evidence which can be found easily when someone is looking for confirmation is another step in the process of building trust — so they begin to trust you ahead of putting you on the tender list.
If you would like help transitioning from marketing to the domestic market to developing a business development strategy for the commercial market, please get in contact.
