Annual Big 50 2015 for Remodeling Magazine

While other remodelers are content to subsist on referrals, Mark Benson’s Bencar Building Systems is ingesting a steady diet of Google search leads hitting its website. This boost in traffic is due to the company’s investment in search engine optimization, which has propelled double-digit growth the last three years.

That Internet marketing campaign, and other changes, came about a few years ago when owners Mark and Nancy spent their “bread money” to hire marketing coach Kyle Hunt. “He sat us down,” Mark says, “helped us get our margins right, and our website. He made things workable and showed us the proper way a business should be run.”

One of Bencar’s selling tools is a “4 Point Promise” that assures prospects they’ll experience prompt communications, a clean jobsite, a guarantee to stay on budget, and zero sales pressure.

Takeaways

• While other remodelers are content to subsist on referrals, Bencar is ingesting a steady diet of Google search leads hitting its website, thanks to its investment in SEO, which has propelled the company to double-digit growth the last three years standing. That Internet marketing campaign, and other changes, came about a few years ago when owners Mark and Nancy Benson spent their “bread money” to hire marketing coach Kyle Hunt. “He sat us down,” Mark says, “helped us get our margins right, and our website. He made things workable and showed us the proper way a business should be run.”
• While some remodelers swear by Co-construct, Builder Trend other email based project tracking systems, Benson meets the client in person every day on site before work and tries to meet them every night when they get home. “I am a hoverer,” he says. “If there’s an issue, I want to get on it now and move on.” That on top of a “detailed schedule” lets clients know what they can look forward to when they get home each day.
• At Hunt’s suggestion, Benson has reached out to both clients and networking groups, such as the local Chamber of Commerce, and takes potential clients or influential people such as realtors out to breakfast, or lunch, or for a beer.
• Makes a “4 Point Promise” that prospects will receive prompt communication, a clean jobsite, a guarantee to stay on budget, and zero sales pressure, substituting instead a “patient and respectful approach” to client relations.
• Stresses teamwork. Both Mark and Nancy Benson make the sales call, with Mark listening and taking measurements while Nancy makes a handwritten record of the client conversation.
• Has a referral program that offers clients who refer new business the option of either donating the referral amount to a local charity, or having the company send them a gift card for dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Original Article can be found here.