Why You Should Network With Other Contractors

Over the past six months, my concrete resurfacing company has landed 10 more jobs than during the same six-month period last year. That’s 1.7 jobs per month, which results in a decent chunk of change for a small business.

How did we do it?

We developed relationships with other local contractors, who often encounter clients that need our services. In this article, I’ll share with you what worked for us—and why it worked—and then offer some tips. Note that this article is not about subcontracting; instead, it’s about collaborating with other contractors to grow your business and help your clients find the best expert for their needs.

Our First Collaboration
The first client we got through networking was seven months ago, and it wasn’t something my partner and I had consciously strategized for. We were at a party, and we struck up a conversation with Victor, who, like us, is Bulgarian. He’s a waterproofer who had never heard of decorative microtoppings and overlays, and he hardly knew anything about staining. Since we’re nerds on the subject, we told him all about it, and he got visibly excited. A few days later, he called us and asked if we could make him some samples. We did and he loved them.

He asked if we were willing to work with him exclusively, and not accept work from other waterproofing contractors. He explained that if we agreed, he could have an advantage over his competitors, which would help him land more jobs. And if he landed more jobs because of the designs we offered, that meant more clients for us. So we happily agreed.

He posted the pictures that we had taken of our prior work all over his website and Yelp page. He also included a paragraph describing how our two companies had agreed to work together to offer an exclusive service to his customers.

We got our first client only days later. Since then, we’ve had at least one job per month thanks to that initial relationship with Victor. Microtoppings are a great way to decorate a waterproofing skim coat since the two materials have a lot of properties in common. This creates an opportunity for both waterproofing and decorative concrete contractors.

Why Work with Other Contractors?
Here are three advantages we have seen.

The first is, you can get more leads that convert at higher rates. This is the main reason to consider collaborating with other contractors. Not only will you get more leads, but if you connect with the right ones, they might convert into customers at a rate of more than 50%.

For example, the people who get waterproofing done usually do so because they find a leak, which is a necessary fix. But many of the clients also want a way to decorate their decks, since the waterproofing systems aren’t very appealing. Most people will try to quickly find a solution to both issues so they can get their whole project done in one shot. If their waterproofing contractor recommends your company for the job, the odds of winning that bid are high. This is also true for contractors with other specialties.

The second reason is so you can establish yourself as the local decorative concrete expert. If an expert (another contractor) is recommending you, you’re more likely to be perceived as an expert yourself. That’s not something you should hang your hat on, but it’s definitely true. Recommending other quality contractors to your clients also helps your reputation. This, of course, can be a double-edged sword if the contractor you’re recommending is not up for the challenge, but we’ll talk about that in the follow-up article in the next issue.

The third reason to collaborate is that you can earn extra cash through referral fees. When a contractor refers a client to you, it’s expected they would get a little commission in the form of a referral fee. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it could be a decent opportunity to make a few extra bucks. However, referring your customers to other contractors should be viewed as a way to help those customers out. You wouldn’t recommend a restaurant because you were hoping to make some extra money, you just want to see your friend have a great experience.

What Contractors Should You Network With?
The best answer to that question is your clients. Every time a client calls you and asks for something that’s not your specialty, you should view that as an opportunity. If clients are calling you for something that someone else does, other clients are probably calling someone else for what you do.

Let me give you an example: We regularly get calls to resurface heavily sloped—already painted or sealed—driveways and pool decks. I’m sure you get those requests too. I’m also sure you know that thin, bonded overlays can’t be applied over most coated surfaces. After doing some research, I found what appeared to be the best sandblasting contractor (cleanest, most thorough, and most reliable) in Los Angeles. We checked out his work prior to calling him, and he told me his customers often ask him for someone who stains concrete. He vetted us too, and soon after, we began sending highly targeted leads to one another. Since a lot of our clients need stripping done before we can actually help them, we tend to send him more leads than he sends us. But that’s okay, we’re able to save a lot of time and effort on stripping paint off of awkward surfaces. We also don’t have to turn down those clients anymore. We collect referral fees frequently, but they are small, and not the driving motivator behind our collaboration.

Here are some of the types of contractors we’ve worked with so far:

• Waterproofers
• Sandblasters
• Remodelers
• Pool contractors
• Interior designers
• Concrete placing and finishing contractors

In Part 2 of this article (in the February/March 2020 issue), we will provide some tips on which contractors to avoid working with on a referral basis, how to vet a contractor to see if you want to work with them, and how to approach a contractor you’ve decided you do want to work with.