No matter how good your product or service is, a strong marketing and sales system is absolutely necessary for an effective and profitable business. Think of sales as the voice of your contracting business, communicating with potential customers about the great things that your business can do for them. As a small business consultant, I work with many contractors who have done a great job in perfecting their craft, whether it is roofing, tile-setting, or landscaping. They may have a solid group of employees, reliable suppliers, and even good list of repeat customers. But many do not have sales experience. It's not the line of work that they are familiar with and unfortunately, their business suffers because of it. Even steady customers may come and go, so effective sales organization is essential to maintain and expand your customer base. Here are some principles that can form the base of a solid contractor sales system.

Keeping At It: The Value of Persistence
Think of your typical business day. Like many contractors, you may be on the road for much of the time. Then you're on the job for hours. If you're overseeing a new installation and your cell phone rings, it may be less than likely that you're going to answer. This is why it is important to be persistent with repeated contacts of a potential customer. When you're in sales work mode, call consistently until you get an actual contact with a person who can make decisions. Don't think that unreturned messages always mean that the person you are trying to talk to doesn't want to hear from you. Expect the best from your efforts and you will often be pleasantly surprised by the results.

These days, there are many ways to contact a potential client. Use them. Switch your contact techniques around. Contact your customers on their land line office phones, cell phones, emails, faxes, and regular letter mail. Many potential customers may prefer a certain type of contact. If you're going for a fax man, your emails may stop at his secretary, but you faxes will get through. Like a baseball pitcher throwing a changeup to certain batter, one type of pitch can be much more effective than another.

However, be careful that you don't overdo the contacts. Don't become a nuisance for a prospective customer. Simply make sure that the prospect knows who you are, what your business is about, and that you have made actual contact in a conversation.

Running a Tight Ship with Your Ducks in a Row: The Value of Organization
Some of the great things about today's work world are the convenient and efficient business organization technologies that are available. The Rolodex went out in the Seventies. Make sure that you have an Internet-ready computer. It's also important to have a cell phone that you feel comfortable with and which has the features you want on it. Many contractors today like having the ability to email while out of the office, so they use an Internet and email ready cell phone. As contractors know too well, being on a job site can potentially mean being out of touch. If potential customers are trying to contact you while you are out, a cell phone with useful email features can mean the difference between getting immediately in touch versus another week of phone tag and perhaps the loss of the sale.

Check out the innovative sales software that is now available. But consider software that has a few particularly useful features.

• Maximum accessibility to your sales information is a big plus, so make sure that your lead management software has Internet access capability. Combined with wireless Internet technology, this feature will greatly increase the amount of information you can get hold of while on the road.
• Document management in the software helps to enhance the changeup strategy discussed earlier.
• Any type of communication from regular mail, email, faxes and other messaging can be easily timed and sent out just like an automated sprinkler setup. Let your system do the busywork.
• A scheduling system will help you to keep track of customer status, what you need to do about it, and when. If a housing developer is in and out of town all the time, the consistent calling strategy will help increase the chances that you will catch him and give him your pitch.

By taking notes of customer discussions, you will remember what their needs, preferences, and even personalities are like. Once again, lead management software can file your notes and thoughts about conversations. This way, next conversation, you can anticipate the concerns of customer instead of going back over ground that has already been covered.

Final Thought
For many contractors, the sort of sales organization described above may seem confusing or just not worth the hassle. And while it's true that setting up a solid follow up system and getting use to its routine can be tough at the start, a good plan will increase quality sales information and keep it from being forgotten or getting lost. Get yourself a follow up system. Your contracting business will be better for it.