I am packing to leave for North Carolina in a couple of hours. I write these blogs approximately one week ahead. Today hurricane Matthew is supposed to make landfall on Florida. My flight leaves tonight at 6:00 PM. It’s already been delayed to 6:30 PM, but that is typical of the Philadelphia Airport. Later flights are always delayed.
I’m scheduled to return tomorrow afternoon around 5:00 pm. Hopefully I will miss all of the activity from the hurricane. If you read my previous blog you know that’s the reason I’m going to North Carolina is for a job interview.
Wish me luck!
Before I head out, I wanted to share with you some information about my target audience.
If you have been with me from the beginning, you now know I’m at a crossroads. Notwithstanding, the decisions that I need to make in the next few days, I still think about my business development plans all the time. So I’m going to share with you today who my target clients will be if I continue to develop procurpro.
Construction categories
Construction procurement is one of those services that benefit any project.
Residential owners as well as commercial owners can equally benefit from the value of procurement. That said, convincing residential homeowners that yet another consultant is needed on their project team will be a more difficult task. As such, while I maintain that a residential projects can benefit from procurement, I plan to focus my marketing efforts on commercial projects.
In addition, since commercial projects tend to be a little bit larger, the benefits of procurement is likely to produce far more dramatic benefits than it will in smaller residential work.
Business sectors
I really don’t see any reason to differentiate between business sectors. Just about all business sectors can benefit from a properly procured project. The only exception to that is Oil, Gas, and mining. Those are very nuanced and specific business sectors that require a great deal of specific experience and knowledge. This is knowledge I do not have. But all other business sectors such as corporate office, technology, manufacturing, retail, restaurants, etc are all good candidates for construction procurement consulting services.
Marketing Targets
Architects
In order to reach my clients in these business sectors, my plan is to network through Architects. This has the duel benefit of connecting me with local talent (which I may call a upon for future solicitations) and build a network that can recommend my services. Being an architect myself, I also feel that I can more readily communicate with these folks and potentially develop strong relationships that will help me grow.
Another potential target are facilities managers and procurement directors at smaller companies. This group may be a little harder to break in with. Nonetheless a direct relationship with either one of these folks would be very beneficial.
Facilities Managers
Facilities managers who work for smaller companies typically have such an abundance of work and responsibilities (which usually also includes procurement) that they may welcome hearing from a consultant they can hire to take over those duties.
Procurement Directors
Procurement managers at smaller companies would also benefit because they tend to have smaller procurement groups made up of generalists with little to no construction experience. Having a third party resource they can call for construction procurement would serve to augment their team and bring tremendous value to their organization without adding overhead.
Marketing approach
For architects facilities managers and procurement directors my plan for connecting with them will simply be old-fashioned telemarketing and networking.
I do hope some will be attracted to my blog and potentially approach me on their own, but I don’t plan to rely on that as the only means for networking with those folks.
You can click here to read my marketing plan which I published a few days ago.
So what are your thoughts? Am I missing any targets? Do you think a telemarketing approach will work on my target audience? Are their business sectors I have not considered or do you think Oil Gas and mining are not as nuanced as I believe they are? Let me know what your thoughts.