Overview of the Situation
A plumbing business with over a twenty-five-year heritage were going through a change of ownership from father to son and looking at modernising their approach to their business operations. The benefit to the business was that they had never really been short of customers, however it was clear that they could handle more customers if they had better processes, and automated ones where possible.
The Problem They Faced
The business needed to find profitable jobs (especially establishing the ones from within those that they quote for), manage the overall workload of the teams, and start to find ways to grow into new areas. There was limited use of technology and no marketing presence that wasn’t based on word-of-mouth.
The Causes of the Problem
The business had been run by the father for such a long time and these processes had worked but weren’t as efficient or as effective as they should have been. There was social media presence and no outbound marketing in place. Typically, there was a reliance on referrals, which meant that more profitable jobs were being missed and there was no control of what work they focused on at any point each year.
The Impact of the Problem
Whilst the business was sustainable as it was, there was a desire from the new owner to make their life simpler, ensuring that they were having more customer inbound leads, were able to quote quickly and efficiently, secure more business with a higher profit margin and future proof their income. Not achieving this would potentially lead to a shrinking of the business and greater challenges in the future.
The Promise / Plan
Our support was designed to:
- Evaluate the marketing process for the business
- Create a method of engaging with potential new customers with minimal outlay
- Connect with key local individuals who could influence and support getting new customers
- Engage with businesses and utilities to offer services into a new sector
- Implement administration processes that would cover invoicing and purchasing
- Reduce payment terms by seven days
The Outcome
From our consulting, the business was able to:
- Start a local marketing programme that generated a minimum of 15 extra leads each week
- Become listed by local groups for bigger tenders, and secure two £25k projects within three months
- Grow to need three more team members, including one apprentice
- Reduce average payment period from 14 to 5 days
- Plan workload three months in advance
- Guarantee six-month financial forecasts
