Are You Only Saying “Yes!” to Certain Types of Painting Leads? You Might Be Hurting Your Business…

Posted by David Chism | Thu, Jul 11, 2024

marketing tips for painters Are You Only Saying “Yes!” to Certain Types of Painting Leads? You Might Be Hurting Your Business…

First, a quick dis­claimer… I’m all for hav­ing areas of exper­tise and stay­ing in your wheel­house as a paint­ing con­trac­tor. Should a large-scale com­mer­cial painter take on a tiny res­i­den­tial paint­ing project? Prob­a­bly not. Or should a res­i­den­tial painter say YES!” to every­thing, just to stay busy? Nope.

But I’m also not a fan of exclud­ing cer­tain types of work that ARE in your wheel­house just because they’re not your favorite. Espe­cial­ly with the trou­bling lead counts painters are expe­ri­enc­ing around the coun­try, now’s not the time to be picky.

For exam­ple, I’ve spo­ken with a num­ber of res­i­den­tial paint­ing con­trac­tors who pre­fer to focus exclu­sive­ly on inte­ri­or paint­ing. They believe it sim­pli­fies their busi­ness and mar­ket­ing. Or, they say their painters are more skilled and trained on paint­ing inte­ri­ors. While that’s under­stand­able, I’ve found that reject­ing exte­ri­or paint­ing leads could be a missed oppor­tu­ni­ty for growth.

Let’s take a clos­er look togeth­er. And, as a sort of case study, we’ll con­tin­ue with the inte­ri­or vs. exte­ri­or” lead exam­ple. Feel free to fill in those blanks with your own ser­vices, and keep an open mind.

Being Too Selec­tive Makes Dig­i­tal Mar­ket­ing a Chal­lenge for Painters

Even if you specif­i­cal­ly tar­get key­words relat­ed to inte­ri­or paint­ing for SEO or in your Paid Search cam­paigns, you’ll like­ly still receive inquiries for exte­ri­or jobs. This is because home­own­ers often bun­dle paint­ing projects, or they sim­ply might not be aware of your spe­cial­iza­tion when they first reach out. They’ll like­ly search for Painter near me” instead of Inte­ri­or painter near me.” 

That means it can get actu­al­ly a bit expen­sive to focus just on one key ser­vice — it’s very lim­it­ed, dri­ving up the cost of a qual­i­ty lead.

Think of it this way: if you’re look­ing for a mechan­ic to fix your car, you prob­a­bly won’t Google mechan­ics that spe­cial­ize in muf­fler replace­ment near me.” You’ll search for a mechan­ic, then refine your search based on the results. 

As a paint­ing con­trac­tor, cast­ing a wider net is a smart (and more cost-effi­cient) play in this spe­cif­ic case.

Don’t Miss the Chance To Turn Exte­ri­or Leads Into Inte­ri­or Clients

Instead of turn­ing down those exte­ri­or leads, try and view them as poten­tial long-term cus­tomers. Here’s how:

  1. Embrace the Oppor­tu­ni­ty: Respond to the lead and sched­ule a bid just as you would for an inte­ri­or project.

  2. Show­case Your Inte­ri­or Exper­tise: Dur­ing the bid, empha­size your skills and expe­ri­ence with inte­ri­or paint­ing. High­light your atten­tion to detail, clean­li­ness, and the high-qual­i­ty fin­ish­es you provide.

  3. Plan for the Future: Dis­cuss your avail­abil­i­ty for inte­ri­or projects dur­ing the off-sea­son or when­ev­er the home­own­er might be ready. Offer a dis­count or incen­tive to book their future project with you.

Wow Them Now, Win­ning the Future” Project You Real­ly Want

Crush this job with your eye on the next one.

For exam­ple, inte­ri­or painters often have a rep­u­ta­tion for being metic­u­lous and respect­ful of home­own­ers’ spaces. This is a valu­able asset! Home­own­ers are more like­ly to trust you with their pre­cious inte­ri­ors if they’ve seen your pro­fes­sion­al­ism first­hand, even on an exte­ri­or project.

This advice applies to com­mer­cial painters as well. While most com­mer­cial projects involve both inte­ri­or and exte­ri­or work, the same prin­ci­ples of build­ing rela­tion­ships and show­cas­ing exper­tise hold true.

So, What’s Your Takeaway?

While focus­ing on a niche like inte­ri­or paint­ing can be a great strat­e­gy, don’t be too quick to reject exte­ri­or leads. They may just be the key to build­ing last­ing rela­tion­ships and a thriv­ing busi­ness. Remem­ber, the goal is to cre­ate cus­tomers for life.

About David Chism

David Chism started his business out of a passion for helping small contracting businesses grow, be more profitable and become better known to their target clients. One lifelong hobby of David is using techie gadgets. So this blog is a place where he writes about technology, marketing ideas, just for fun (humor), personal thoughts on small business and more.

     
   
       

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