In a recent article in the Society for Marketing Profes- sional Services (SMPS) Marketer Magazine, Michael Buell at CCI Mechanical, Inc. in Salt Lake City, Utah, asked staff in his office to share their sentiments on how to earn their clients' trust. The responses tell a lot – and if you can answer affirma- tively to these observations, you are probably on the right track: • We do what we say we are going to do; • We execute what we promise; • We engage in frequent, open and honest communication; • We give our clients clear and detailed schedules and we hold to them; • We don't hide behind emails and texts . . . we get face to face to discuss important issues; • We don't walk into a meeting with a phone stuck in an ear, showing blatant disrespect; • We don't use excuses as an alternative for solutions; and • We are always mindful of the long-term impact of decisions. Buell, obviously, has a much easier challenge as a busi- ness developer for this business than one where employ- ees are concerned more about their immediate personal needs or could care less about their clients. How does your business/practice stack up in answering these questions? Your community spirit and association relationships will carry you far, longer-term, when you handle things with an intelligently selfless attitude. If I had a marketing budget of $10,000, would I spend it on advertising or community/association service? It may seem strange for me to advocate the community/associa- tion service option, since my business earns more than 95 per cent of its revenue by selling advertising. However, if your have limited marketing budgets, you'll achieve much better results by contributing to your com- munity than you will by pouring money into third-party mar- keting services (including advertising). The challenge: You need to be very patient, and have absolute integrity in your community/association participa- tion – and to do this right, you can't spread yourself too thin. (You can assign different key employees to different groups/associations, but I've found through personal expe- rience that the commitment required means that you can't really connect effectively with more than two or three at the same time – and you need to have a three-to-five year payback expectation for this work to be successful.) Can you do this stuff yourself, or do you need consultants? I wish I had a good answer here, because many con- sulting services are extremely expensive and fail to deliver. There are standard processes and systems, both within marketing and consulting practices, and these have advan- tages, but if you have a reasonable amount of self-disci- pline you can really handle many of the key decisions/responsibilities without spending much if any money. Nevertheless, a good consultant will be able to guide you and your staff along the path. Just start with enough knowledge to know what you should expect, and keep a mental check-and-balance on the assertions you hear. The bottom line: Be true to yourself and learn what you need to know. I can't overemphasize the value of learning from suc- cessful non-competitive peers (this is one advantage of getting involved in relevant associations, especially at the provincial or national level), reading worthy books and ar- ticles, and listening to the signals you receive from your current clients and staff. Do they care? Do they have passion, good-will and re- spect? If not, why not? Do you trust yourself – and can you confidently say your clients and employees trust you and each other? If not, you should focus on what you need to do to solve the gaps causing the distrust. If it is there, then you can think about your marketing in the broader perspective – improving, en- hancing and adding to an already good thing to achieve even greater success. Mark Buckshon is president of the Construction News and Report Group of Companies, which publishes the Canadian Design and Construction Report and other publications and websites in Canada and the U.S. He has written two books about construction marketing, and publishes the longest-running blog on the topic at www.constructionmarketingideas.com. He can be reached by email at buckshon@cnrgp.com or by phone at (888) 627-8717 ext 224. The Canadian Design and Construction Report — February - March 2015 – 11