Scenario 03 · Construction & building services
Order gap and skills shortage at the same time.
A building services contractor with too few suitable projects, and not enough staff to take on the suitable ones. Two problems usually handled separately, although they share the same cause.
In short
Winning orders and winning staff are usually run as two projects with two budgets. In reality, clients and applicants judge the same signals: documented projects and visible ways of working. The way forward is a sharper project profile, systematically documented references and one presence with two entry points.
Note: This scenario is a model case. It describes a typical starting point and the strategic response to it. It is explicitly not a documented engagement and contains no client names and no results from ongoing projects. Timeframes and orders of magnitude are based on experience from comparable market situations and are not commitments.
01 · Starting point
The company in this model case.
The firm has worked in the region for more than thirty years and has a good reputation with the planning offices it works with regularly. Utilisation, however, fluctuates strongly: a quarter of overload is followed by one with gaps.
Incoming enquiries are mostly small and price-driven: bathroom renovations, heating replacements, small jobs via portals. The commercially interesting projects, such as ventilation in commercial new builds or heat pump systems in existing buildings, only come through the two or three planning offices it already has a relationship with.
At the same time, four positions have been open for more than six months. Job ads attract hardly any applications, and the few that come in do not fit.
Management has therefore started two things in parallel: an advertising agency for new customers and a recruitment marketing agency for the vacancies. Two budgets, two visual languages, two websites. Externally, the firm speaks in two voices.
Key facts of the model case
- Segment
- Building services, focus on heating, ventilation and plumbing
- Size
- around 70 employees, 45 of them tradespeople
- Project volume
- €80,000 to €1.2 million per project
- Catchment area
- radius of about 120 km
- Open positions
- 4 (fitters, site management, project management)
- Symptom
- Many small enquiries, few suitable projects
02 · Diagnosis
Both shortages share one cause: the firm is invisible, not unattractive.
Over the last five years, the firm has completed a number of technically demanding projects: a ventilation system in a cleanroom area, several heat pump systems in listed buildings, building automation across three sites.
None of these projects is documented anywhere. Not on the website, not in a brochure, not on LinkedIn. There are phone photos from the sites in a folder on the site manager's server.
This means the decisive signal is missing for both target groups. A planner looking for a contractor for a demanding ventilation system finds nothing that proves this competence. Neither does a fitter who wants to know whether interesting work awaits them there.
Instead, like almost every website in this market, it lists every conceivable service from heating to plumbing to bathroom renovation. That is exactly what attracts the small enquiries that block the firm.
The actual bottleneck
- References exist but are nowhere visible
- The most important raw material for both target groups sits unused on a server drive.
- The list of services attracts the wrong enquiries
- Whoever offers everything mostly gets what is searched for most often. And that is the small stuff.
- Two separate budgets for the same signal
- Order and staff acquisition pay twice for visibility they could share.
- Dependence on two planning offices
- Access to attractive projects depends on a few relationships.
03 · Approach
Which phases, in which order.
The sequence is the real substance of this scenario. The individual measures are not unusual.
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01
Sharpen the project profile
Analysis of the last three years by contribution margin, project type and friction. The result is a clear statement of which projects are sought and which are no longer actively promoted.
Specifically: focus on commercial ventilation and heat pump technology above a defined volume. Small jobs are still accepted but no longer promoted.
- Project profile with minimum volume
- List of services no longer promoted
- Target group definition for planners and clients
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02
Document references
Working up eight completed projects: starting point, technical challenge, solution, special features. Plus a photo shoot on two active sites that also shows the fitters.
This step provides the raw material for both target groups at once.
- Eight documented reference projects
- Photos of sites and team
- Template for future project documentation
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03
One presence, two entry points
A new website with two equal routes: projects and capabilities for clients, working life and team for applicants. Shared visual language, shared references, different messaging.
The careers page shows the same projects from the perspective of the people who built them.
- Website with project and careers sections
- References usable in both sections
- Application form without a cover letter requirement
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04
Regional visibility
Local SEO for the catchment area, business profile, reviews, regional search campaigns for the focus services.
In parallel, LinkedIn aimed at planning offices and developers in the region, because the route to attractive projects runs through the planners.
- Local SEO and business profile
- Regional search campaign on focus services
- LinkedIn outreach to regional planning offices
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05
Pre-qualify enquiries
A form asking about project type, volume and timeframe. Small enquiries get a friendly referral rather than a rejection.
The aim is to route the right enquiries to the right place.
- Pre-qualifying enquiry form
- Automatic reply explaining the process
- Referral for small enquiries
04 · Expected impact
What becomes visible when.
| Period | What becomes visible | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|
| Months 1 to 2 | Internal clarity about the target project profile | Qualitative: proposal decisions get faster |
| Months 2 to 3 | First documented references online | Indexed project pages |
| Months 3 to 4 | Applications referring to specific projects | Number and professional fit of applications |
| Months 4 to 6 | Enquiries from planning offices without a prior relationship | Share of new planning partners among enquiries |
| Months 6 to 9 | Shift in the enquiry mix towards larger projects | Average enquiry volume |
| From month 9 | Less fluctuation in utilisation | Utilisation rate across quarters |
Based on experience from comparable market situations; not a commitment. Investment cycles, competitive density and the responsiveness of your own sales team shift these timeframes considerably.
05 · Deliberately not done
What was not done in this case.
- No second website for recruiting. Two presences cost twice as much and weaken both. One presence with two entry points achieves more.
- No supra-regional campaign. With a 120 km radius, reach outside the region is pure cost.
- No image campaign with models. Tradespeople recognise staged photos immediately. Real site photos work better.
- No additional tender portal. Portals deliver exactly the price-driven enquiries that were supposed to be reduced.
- No broadening of services. The bottleneck was capacity, not the range of services.
Frequently asked
Frequently asked questions about this scenario.
Will we lose revenue if we stop promoting small jobs?
We don't have time to document projects.
Do site photos really bring in applications?
How do we reach new planning offices?
What about reviews?
Further reading
Relevant next steps.
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