Your Qualifications Land you the Job

Dec 10, 2009     Topics: commercial construction industry

Craig Noble

You already know to focus significant marketing efforts on maintaining awareness for your construction company. And you do a good job of keeping your company top-of-mind in your market area by networking and advertising in the right places.  So now that you are accomplishing AWARENESS for your company, what’s next?  Reminder: awareness is really only Step 1 toward your goal of getting more work.  The next step is to get your company on the short list for a project.  To accomplish this, you need to make your prior performance, experience and overall industry credentials (aka:  your current qualifications) readily accessible to your relationships.

Think about it.  If you are a contractor, supplier, accountant, etc. in the commercial construction industry, unless your company can SHOW that it walks the talk (the words from your networking and advertising), you will not likely be considered for the job.  The time, quality and expense associated with a buyer going to contract with a company that turns out to be the wrong fit is devastating to the project and all of the companies involved.  This is why buyers in our industry go through (or should go through) painstaking investigations before awarding work – detailed qualifications differentiate competitors.

OK, so now that you see the value of ALSO getting your current qualifications in front of your clients and prospects, how do you accomplish this?

You could fill out prequalification forms. Many of your clients require their prequalification form to be filled-out and submitted in order to remain on their active bid list.  If you take this route to get your company qualifications into their hands, keep in mind that although these forms are largely the same from buyer to buyer, each is slightly different and will require your focused attention and unique response.  Be prepared to commit resources to completing this form for the first time, and each year thereafter to keep your clients updated with your current qualifications.

You could have a website built for your company. A website that contained all of your company’s current qualifications would be ideal, because you could just send your clients a link for them to access what they need.  First, you will have to do the research among buyers in your market area to learn exactly what types of qualifying information they are looking for – and how they would like it organized and displayed.  Then, you will have to pay a programmer to design and build your website to include all of the information buyers need when considering your company for a project.  This strategy would save you and your clients a ton of time and paper – provided your initial research was right-on, and you pay your programmer to keep your web content current.  Keep in mind that in order for your website to be useful in reaching new clients, you will also have to pay another programming consultant to drive online traffic to it.

JobSite123.com is the better way. Good news…Change is upon us.  There is a completely free way for buyers to easily find and prequalify resources, and a more efficient way for sellers to showcase their unique qualifications.  JobSite123.com was designed by commercial construction industry buyers to help streamline the entire buy/sell/recommend equation.  It’s a free tool that allows companies related to the commercial construction industry to both display and access comprehensive qualifications information in a standardized format that we have trademarked as a Qual-Port – which is short for Qualifications Portal.  All Qual-Ports are self-built and maintained by the companies they represent, and indexed by JobSite123 according their geographic service area and their CSI Codes.  JobSite123’s goal is to be the utility by which the companies themselves revolutionize the efficiency of their entire industry.  A complete Qual-Port will answer 90% of the questions a client or prospective client may have for you – and propel them to contact you when they have a need for your services.  Most importantly, a complete Qual-Port will show your construction clients that you respect their time, by making your information readily accessible.  And, yes, JobSite123.com also drives traffic to your Qual-Port for free.

Build your free Qual-Port today – and send a direct link to all of your clients and prospects.

Tags: commercial construction industry, CSI Codes, qualifications