5 Effective Strategies to Increase Your Project Sales in 2021

Last Updated: February 22, 2021

2020 could be one of the worst year for construction material project sales team as we gone through Covid lock down, many projects are stalled and put on hold while construction industry remains passive and developers and contractors tightening their belt. Your sales team aren’t able to go out as usual to conduct their usual sales activities like buying architects drinks and lunch with key contacts. Margins are being cut by more aggressive suppliers that are trying to survive and prices are at rock bottom. What else could you do in 2021 to increase your project sales for your team and company ?

1. LinkedIn Marketing

You may think you’ve tried it all, FB sales aren’t working and online construction directory are hoax. Your marketing team putting banner in professional forums are working well and bill boards certainly burns a big hole in your budget and 2021 there’s no room for it anymore. But ask yourself, is your team advertising at the right channel and are the right people looking at your ads like they’re supposed to? Every few years attention shifts around a few big platforms and this theory never change. It used to be yellow book and advertising booklet until the rise of .com email marketing and webpages kills it, and none of them survived through the rise of google ads and facebook marketing. These channel works well in targeting specific keywords and audience but some of your in the construction building material lines may find it competitive and everyday keywords seems to become more expensive than yesterday.

In 2021, we urge you to try out Linked-in marketing, Linked-in not only allows you to target specific regional and industry that is more relevant to you, it also allows you to have laser focus on the positions of the audience that you can reach, this is a game changer for construction industry to reach out that targets more niche market and specific role in the construction projects, such as EV consultant , or Architects. It makes it even better when Linked-in exposure rate is as high as google 10 years ago and have the power to expose your products to people who really matters.

2. Zoom Meeting

Your project team’s claim decreased drastically but in a bad way, they are just spending way too little time with people who matters now in the condition of restricted movement control and pandemic. From our experience of managing sales team, many of the sales people succumb to just dropping a whatsapp message to keep in touch with their key contacts, which is an extremely convenient but also dangerous way to manage your client, client may remember your existence in the time of absence but the impact may not be achieved.

Gone are the days when people may feel awkward with online video call as the time where “why should we” turned into “why not we” in the sphere of video calling. Your team may come out with meaning agenda, such as education or even games or interactive session with their key contacts to take the opportunity to catch up at the same time, update them the latest offerings and technology that your company has to offer. With the latest technology such as the rise of Zoom video call or skype, you may now make the most complex presentation or communication via online, Literally face to face now! We promise you it will be as good as over a cup of coffee in starbucks.

3. Time bound offer

The situation may be dire for you, but actually it is the same for anyone in the construction industries, architects are putting projects on hold and being trimmed budget, developers are struggling with their project sales and faces cashflow issues, contractors are being tightened up with credit issues and payment delay. We are all in the same boat together. It is wise now to throw out time bound specific period contract with no commitment to lock in some projects on hand, at least when the projects start when things gets better, you're the first in line to be supplying the construction materials needed for the projects. Understand the timeline for each projects and dive deep into the challenges that the other party face can help you to secure your position. Your project team needs to be extra sensitive with this now to be able to craft the most compassionate deal for your project clients, on a win-win basis of course.

4. Showcase your product in stories and art

Prints in black and white, with stale graphics and dull wording are not working anymore in the world where people are fighting for every piece of attention. Take this opportunity to rebrand and reposition your company with more forward thinking and out of the box presentation idea. At times, some of the most ridiculous billboards or punch line gets the most attention and there’s no stranger now in this era.

All the construction industry architectural and construction exhibition are cancelled in 2020m and it seems like the next will not happen at least until end of 2021. With the exposure you get in every platform it will likely be online and presented to intangible customers, in contrary of those days when show girls in skimpy clothes giving out clients will do the job. Catch the attention of your clients with more engaging stories, pictures, artwork or even videos/written content that you may not have done in the past.

5. Get into the projects early

You may still instruct your project sales team to randomly call up architects firms and construction companies and developer just to pry on the latest projects. Some hardworking team member may drive around town (risking being blocked by police) to look for construction sites and billboards, just to followed by endless cold calling and rejections. These are the more traditional methods in finding projects sales and it may not work anymore in the modern days

Get into platform like intender.my to find latest projects, with the information of latest key contact person-in-charge. It is even more helpful as a conversational opener for your projects sales team to reach out to the right people with the right information on their hand. Check out Intender.my and sign up for a free trial account to get the latest project and construction information in Malaysia market.