19. Why Your Lead Generation Isn’t the Problem (And What to Fix Instead)

Our business slowed down.

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Not because we needed more leads, not because the market had changed, but because we

stopped doing the things that built our business in the first place.

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Let's talk about it.

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Hey, I'm Shay Toya.

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I've spent more than 10 years in construction, working behind the scenes in marketing,

hiring, and I've seen how overwhelming it can be to grow a business.

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That's how we've learned to build a sustainable business using clear systems, strong

communication, and intentional recruiting.

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If you're ready for better hiring, smarter remarketing, and a business that doesn't fall

apart when you step away, welcome to Building Better Contractor Businesses.

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So before we jump into this episode, if you are not already part of our Facebook group,

Building Better Contractor Businesses, I love for you to join us.

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It's a place where contractors can ask more questions, share what's working.

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But it's not working, learn from other business owners who are also trying to build a

better, predictable, profitable business.

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You will find the link in the show notes.

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Let's get into this.

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So I'm going to be completely honest with you.

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The last few months have been super stressful.

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To be completely honest with you guys, I could just throw the entire year away, but I'm

not giving up as of yet.

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So the business, business slowdown projects have been taking a lot longer to close.

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And it just felt like we were working a lot harder, but not seeing the same results.

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So, like most contractors, you know, you start asking yourself more questions as of do you

need more leads?

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Do I need more marketing?

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What am I missing?

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See, interesting part of all of this.

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Is that Kevin and I felt like we solved all these problems.

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You know, we thought we've we're past this, and I think that's where it started.

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You know, we were trying to delegate more.

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We had weekly meetings, you know, we thought that poor so much of a delegation.

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We put people in place, but we really looked at things.

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We realized some of our standards had slipped.

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And the crazy thing is, is right before all of this happened, I had just did an episode on

standards.

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And I thought we had high standards, but because we were so focused on delegation, so

focused on, you know, having pride into things were starting to slip.

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This happened over time.

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And I think that a lot of businesses, this happens too.

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You know, a lot of us they we read these books and I talk a lot about the books, emith,

and and they all talk about working in your business or working on your business instead

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of in it.

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And so we were so focused on delegation, so focused on making sure that Kevin and I were

delegating and we only focused on one thing.

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But the problem with that is that we didn't create the right systems into place before we

were able to walk away.

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And so sometimes things that helped you build the businesses, those are the things that

stop happening.

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And once we realized what was going on, we decided to go back to the basics.

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Kevin went back to estimating.

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And I would say this is not forever.

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I went back to a lot of different things.

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But we needed to make sure that every lead that comes through that door, every opportunity

is at

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is handled in a way that we wanted.

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We also hired a project coordinator, Amasty, which was her job is to help us manage our

current projects with follow-ups on past projects.

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You know, she may manage current projects by making sure that our technicians are

submitting their dailies each day.

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You know, if our technicians or project managers post up so-and-so habit, you know, Amisty

that gives Amsty a plenty of time to make sure things are fixed.

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She also focuses on following up on past projects.

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And then also we have her run something called the Dream 100.

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And then if you've never heard of the Dream 100, it's a list of companies, of companies

that we want to build relationships with.

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That includes general contractors, IT professionals, electricians, property management

companies.

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So instead of waiting for the phone to ring, we're reaching out to our what I would call a

power partner, physic electricians.

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IT professionals, IT companies, property management companies, general contractors,

they're going to use us on a consistent basis.

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And so it's just instead of just waiting for the phone to ring.

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This is a lot of times who hires us.

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So my first lesson for you guys is to go back to the basics.

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Before you start spending money on marketing, you need to ask yourself a few questions.

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How fast are estimates going out?

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Are leads being followed up with?

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Gonna be very honest with you guys.

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Before Amnesty came through the door.

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I would probably say that I followed up with people here and there when I remember to

follow up with people, but did it happen on a consistent basis?

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No.

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Have your standards slipped.

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Guys, we were so focused on buy back your time and making sure that we were delegating and

making sure that our team was doing what they were supposed to do that our standards

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started to slip.

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And so for us that was a yes.

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Down very quickly.

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You know, at first it was finding out our our senior estimator wasn't doing the things

that he was supposed to be doing.

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And then a few weeks later, it was finding out our admin wasn't doing the things that she

was supposed to be doing.

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But as leaders, it's our fault because our standards had slipped.

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And sometimes it had nothing to do with leads coming in.

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There was a situation that occurred after, unfortunately, we had to let go our estimator,

and I'm reviewing his emails.

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The customer literally said so and so.

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I don't do this, reach out to so and so.

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So instead of saying, Okay, thank you, I will reach out to so and so, of course, say it

differently.

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He said he just copied and pasted a message to that customer of things he needed.

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And I'm like, person, why why did you do that?

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And and then their response was I don't do that.

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I was like, person, you're not listening.

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So that being said, to me, that was a training issue.

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To me, that was a standard issue.

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So the next lesson I will share with you of the way that we got our business back on track

was the Dream 100.

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You know, focusing on the Dream 100, which is the Dream 100 is companies you want to work

with, 100.

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So a hundred companies that you want to work with.

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And so in a 12 week period, week one is a phone call, week two is an email, and week three

is a gift drop-off.

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So the outcome

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Of your first reach out might be different.

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So with the general contractors, our goal is to get on the vendors list.

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And I'll be very honest with you, it's not really a 12-week period.

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It becomes more of phases.

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So 12 phases.

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Because each, if we're focused on four of those reach outs, each system, each general

contractors, you know, their goal is for us to become on their vendors list.

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There's nothing we can do or nothing that they can do for us until we get on their vendors

list.

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So making sure that we fill out the documents that they're asking for, making sure that

things that when we fill it out, everything is right.

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And so we just continue as we get onto their contractors list, we just continue building

that relationship.

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And so one thing that I really did start recognizing with Amnesty was how fast three

weeks, guys, three weeks, how fast she built relationships.

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You know, walking into the door with her for week three.

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You know, I did the gift drop offs with Amnesty.

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And Amnesty, it was like,

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Like we would walk into the door, they'd be like, Hey Amisty, good to see you.

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And some of the people that we walked into the door, and also I would say that week three,

when you do the gift drop off, we are not having it where it's we're not letting them know

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that we're showing up, we're just showing up.

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But because, you know, we've already constantly reached out to them for at least three

weeks period, they feel like they know us.

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So when we walk through the door, they're like, Hey Amisty, how are you doing?

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You know, and then a lot of times people were busy.

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You know, some invited us in to sit down.

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Some only had a minute and they were like, hey, I wouldn't say as I said that it's not

perfect.

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And some people maybe they weren't.

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But the majority of people that we walked into were happy to see us, were happy that we

were there, invited us to sit down.

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They're like, come over here and sit down.

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Do you want some water?

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But that wouldn't have been capable.

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That would have been available if we just cold called them or stopped by.

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But because

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We did the things that were necessary to get to that point for the first three weeks.

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Some of did come with opportunities, the first contacts, which is awesome.

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And as I said, the end goal is not to sell them, it's to build that relationship.

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Because you build that relationship.

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One sell is awesome, but if you have a power partner, that can be when the partner

relationship is going back and forth, you both are able to help each other.

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It's even better.

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So I just think that it just shows you like when we walked in through the door, they knew

who we were.

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And then also the power of consistency.

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A lot of times contractors quit before they even remember their name.

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So the next step is to stay consistent.

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A lot of contractors only market, only do personal reach out when they are slow.

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And this is a huge mistake that a lot of contractors make.

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And guess what, guys?

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I've been there.

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Kevin's been there.

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If you've been in the contracting world, if you've been in sales,

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You've been there.

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When you when you do that, it's like you're starting over.

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You're what the biggest thing that I could also say is that people leave organizations and

when they leave organizations, what happens is that when you reconnect with them, that the

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the organization no longer knows who you are.

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So it's like you're starting to have to, by the way, I'm Sha Toya with K B communications.

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And so it's like the connection that I had in the past is no longer there.

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And so it's a restart and that sucks.

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It sucks a lot.

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But I've been there.

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So many times I've had a a a relationship with someone else, they leave, and now I have to

start the the relationship over.

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So it it can be a really you know, it's like a startover.

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It was a startover.

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Even after doing this for twelve years.

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So the number one thing right now is our focus is no matter what.

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That's why it was so important that we pulled in our project coordinator.

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She is gonna continue doing the dream one hundred.

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We're not stopping.

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We're actually just adding to it.

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We're gonna continue those relationships.

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This just happened last couple weeks ago.

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We met I met this this lady, Henderson Chamber.

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And you know, she was really great.

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She was in business development.

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She was working at this general contractor.

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We were working on a relationship with her.

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We did a stop by.

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Guess what?

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She quit within weeks.

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So it's like people leave.

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So for that reason, it's just very important that you continue developing that

relationship with that organization.

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Not that you just got that relationship with that one person.

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Because as I said, that person that I had that relationship I met at the chamber, she was

gone within three weeks.

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So it's just important that we stay consistent.

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Because lead generation is something you do no matter what.

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Even when you're slow and and when you're busy.

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And the most important thing is for you to understand, even when you are busy, you are

marketing yourself.

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You're getting more work.

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Because that project, we were talking to a contractor.

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So we've been, you know, we've been talking up to a lot of contractors lately.

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They were telling us

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That they have so much work and maybe you're also feeling it right now with everything

going around on and around the world.

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But they have so much work.

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They're years got their work is scheduled years, years in advance.

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So they're not currently filling with the market that we're currently feeling.

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And I was like, that's such a blessing.

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I would say, you know, that was us two years ago.

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You know, we got work and we were we were great.

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We had we had work two years ago that lasted us for two years.

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That project ended.

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We were on that project for two years.

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And that would that project helped feed everything else.

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But just the importance to understand that that one project, yes, it could feed the rest

of 'em.

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But if you're not consistently growing, consistently networking, once that project is over

with, now you're screwed.

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So if you are slow right now, I personally want to have you make a list of twenty-five

companies that you would like to work with.

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Create a a simple

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Game plan.

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It does not have to be the dream 100.

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But figure out the most important thing, guys.

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Like anything that you do should be long.

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It should be consistent.

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It should be that you're in you're in it for the long game.

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You're not just going to do it for a month, two months.

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You're going to do it for five years, 10 years.

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You're going to do it for a very long time.

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And then when you're not able to do it anymore, now you got someone else to do it.

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So create a game plan.

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If it's calling them, if it's emailing them, you know, stopping by, introducing yourself.

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There's nothing like shaking someone's hand.

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Introduce yourself.

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Build that relationship.

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You know, your business is going to be different than my business.

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But the goal isn't to get work tomorrow.

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The goal is to make sure they know exactly who you are.

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So when they need you, they will call you.

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Or maybe even better, what's happened to us in the past because we're constantly following

up, you reach out and they're like I was just thinking about you.

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Or they're like, I forgot what your name is.

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But luckily you called me.

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So just to understand, guys, that right there isn't luck.

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We're doing our follow-up and doing a constant follow up with old clients, and they're

like, oh, I was just thinking about you guys, but I don't remember your number or I don't

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remember what your company was name.

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I was just thinking about calling someone else.

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But because we followed up with them, they're now not reaching out to someone else.

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And that's not luck.

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But I want to invite you guys to join our Facebook group, Building Better Contractor

Businesses.

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This Facebook group is where you can share you with the struggles, get real, y'all.

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Being a contractor, being a business owner, being in sales, whatever you do, that isn't

easy.

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So I'd love to, you know, once you join the Facebook group, I'd love to for you to go in

there and comment, who are you currently going to target and what are you going to do

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consistently?

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It's not about doing it once, but it's about doing it forever.

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So if your business has slowed down, don't panic.

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Take a hard look at your standards.

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Look at your follow-ups, look at your relationships.

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For us, it was just getting back on track, not us wanting to get back into a new marketing

strategy, but us going back to our basics.

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And then honestly, that was probably the most important lesson I could have ever learned

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Until next time, let's continue building a better contractor business.

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If you believe that this episode

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Brought you real clarity, be sure to share it with another contractor who also needs it.

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And if you want to keep this conversation going, be sure to join our community of

contractors inside Building Better Contractor Businesses.

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Facebook group.

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This is a community where we talk through the real problems.

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That you are having in your business.

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The link will be found in our show notes.

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And remember, we are not just completing projects, we are building better contractor

businesses.

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I will see you next time.