Marketing To Commercial Clients

4 minute read

Marketing to commercial clients is probably the number one interest of the typical residential restoration contractor. I get asked at least once a week by a contractor “how does our company go about marketing to commercial clients?” and the answer is straightforward but quite involved. The opportunities are massive!

It would be impossible to answer the “how” in this article, but I am going to hit a few of the highlights. First, let’s talk about why a commercial property needs a relationship with you, remembering that they probably don’t have a disaster right now and may not have one for a year or two!

So, a commercial property manager (or owner) needs a relationship with you for that time when a calamity strikes their building. The problem arises when a marketer is trying to connect with them – to build the relationship – and they are just not interested because they don’t have a building calamity at that time.

For this very reason, providing them a pre-disaster plan (our nationally popular plan is called PREP™) enables the marketer to be able to offer a much more “tangible” service… A complete PREP™ program.

We all recognize that a “pre-disaster program” does not prevent building events from happening, but it affords the marketer a way to get the door open by providing a preparedness plan. A preparedness plan (PREP™) is an actual “book” with valuable information, resources, and prevention ideas. Additionally, most PREP contractors are now including a simple Matterport® or DocuSketch© to provide another level of uniqueness and differentiation. This provides the client with something extremely valuable to their operation and is quite willing to establish a stronger, long-term relationship with the marketer.

It’s no secret that the “big boys” nationally have been offering varying versions of their own pre-disaster plan, the fact remains that they primarily target large national commercial property groups and usually leave the one-offs alone. That is YOUR opportunity!

Hundreds of contractors have embraced the PREP™ program over the past 12+ years, and these same contractors have attended extensive training programs and engaged in ongoing coaching to learn the best and quickest way to build a portfolio of commercial property clients. They know exactly what works, what doesn’t work, and how to develop long-lasting client relationships for that time when they need the contractor.

Fact: According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), there are more than 4.5 million commercial buildings with more than 93 billion square feet.

That means for every 100,000 population there are about 1665 commercial buildings – that equals about 6650 commercial properties in the typical restoration contractor territory.

Also, more than 6% of commercial buildings have a reported water loss each year, or 399 buildings a year. And that’s only those that were reported!

If you want to learn more about developing and offering a PREP™ commercial program for your independent restoration company, call me today! There are literally millions of properties today (2020) without any kind of pre-disaster plan. Regardless of how you go after this commercial opportunity, be sure you are doing it the most efficient and fastest way, developing relationships that consider you their ‘go-to’ company! We teach you how to do that! Call me today: 419-202-6745

Author: Dick Wagner Nationally recognized Coach, Consultant, Trainer, and Speaker

Creator of the PREP™ Pre-Disaster Program

Co-Founder of The CREST Network, LLC