Social Media As A Lead Generation Tool

"Marketing and sales support". That's my title. What it really means is that it's my job to keep the sales team busy with designs and quotes and help them get those jobs out the door and back to the customer any way I can. As a sub contractor there are a lot of ways I find out about new projects so I can get my company involved. Just to name a few:

• Online databases like Reed Construction Data or McGraw Hill
• Online tender services such as isqft, Toronto Construction Assocaition, or Merx
• Condominium magazines, newspapers, construction monthlys
• Online forums such as Urban Toronto
• RFQ's being faxed or emailed in

These are not necessarily in any particular order and there are many other methods. However, I don't want to give away all of my secrets. One new method that I have discovered to be incredibly useful for find out about new projects and what there status is, is social media. Let's use Twitter as an example.

Pro-Bel works in all sectors of construction from industrial to residential. For the purpose of discussion I will focus on the residential. Take tweeters such as real estate agents, developers, architects and urban architecture forums. A new construction condominium project in Ontario cannot even go for permit without some or all of these types of tweeters sharing all of the information they have.

As soon as the project has been submitted for zoning or site plan approval, I haven't had to make a single phone call and already I know where the building is to be located, which firm is working on it, what the building looks like, and what the next step in development for this particular project is.

As a sub contractor, getting involved with architect in the design stages is crucial to getting specified and increasing your chances of getting the contract (this is a discussion for another time). The whole trick with getting the work from architects (aside from having established a positive repore with them), is the timing of when you call on them.

By following the same tweeters mentioned above, again without making a single phone call I can get updates on the approval status of the project, the estimated timeline of development, and what percentage sales are at. When the sales hit the appropriate level and working drawings have begun, its time to get on the phone to the architect and bring in the drawings. And this is only one internal value of Twitter. I will save the benefits of Tweeting for another post.

I am relatively new to social media. I have been on Twitter, LinkedIn and writing blogs on Blogger for only a short period of time and am absolutely blown away by the value they offer. I can only imagine where social media will take us who use it creatively over the next few years.


Michael Gray
Sales and Marketing Support
Ontario and Eastern Canada
Pro-Bel Enterprises Ltd
e: mikegray@pro-bel.ca
t: @Pro_Bel