How to Get Clients as a Contractor (What Actually Works)
A contractor went from zero to fully booked in 8 months. The 3 things that moved the needle had nothing to do with advertising.
Marcus ran a one-man painting crew in Phoenix. Eight months ago he had zero recurring clients and was spending weekends on Craigslist hoping for callbacks. Today his calendar is booked six weeks out and he turns down two jobs for every one he takes.
He didn't run Facebook ads. He didn't hire a marketing agency. He did three things consistently, and they compounded.
This is what most "get more clients" advice gets wrong. It hands you a 15-item checklist and tells you to do everything at once. That is a recipe for doing nothing well. The contractors who actually grow do fewer things, but they do them relentlessly.
The Only Thing That Matters First: Speed
Before anything else, fix your response time.
The data here is brutal. The first contractor to respond to an inquiry wins the job 35-50% of the time. Not the cheapest. Not the most experienced. The fastest.
Marcus started responding to every lead within four minutes. He set up push notifications on his phone, wrote three text templates he could fire off one-handed, and hired an answering service for $97/month to catch calls while he was on a ladder.
His close rate doubled in the first month. Nothing else changed.
If you take one thing from this article, make it this: treat every incoming lead like a fire alarm. The difference between a five-minute response and a thirty-minute response is the difference between winning the job and never hearing from that person again.
Move 1: Own Your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile is not a listing. It is your storefront.
When a homeowner searches "painter near me," Google shows three local results. Those three slots get 44% of all clicks. If you are not in them, you are invisible to nearly half your potential customers.
Here is what actually moves the needle on GBP ranking:
Reviews volume and velocity. Not a one-time push but a steady drip. Ask every single customer. Marcus texts a direct review link within two hours of finishing a job. His script: "Really appreciate your business. If you have 30 seconds, a Google review helps other homeowners find us." He went from 12 reviews to 87 in five months.
Photo freshness. Upload project photos weekly. Google rewards active profiles. Before-and-afters perform best. Caption them with what you did and where: "Interior repaint, 4BR home in Scottsdale."
Posting. Treat GBP posts like a mini blog. One post per week: a completed project, a seasonal tip, a quick video walkthrough. Most contractors never post. Doing it at all puts you ahead.
Category accuracy. Your primary category matters enormously for ranking. A plumber should be "Plumber," not "Contractor." Add every relevant secondary category.
This is not glamorous work. It is the digital equivalent of keeping your truck clean and your uniform pressed. But it compounds in a way that paid ads never do.
Move 2: Build a Referral Machine
Referrals convert at 2-3x the rate of any other lead source. The client shows up pre-sold. They already trust you because someone they trust vouched for you.
Most contractors know this. Almost none have a system for it.
A system means three things:
Ask at the moment of peak satisfaction. Right when the client is admiring the finished work, say: "I really enjoyed this project. If any neighbors or friends need similar work, I would love an introduction." Not "tell them about me." An introduction. That one word changes the dynamic from passive to active.
Make it easy to refer. Give every client two business cards and say: "One for your fridge, one for a friend." Or text them a link they can forward. Remove friction.
Follow up on referrals immediately. When someone says "my neighbor might need a new deck," get that neighbor's name and reach out within 24 hours. "Hi Sarah, your neighbor Tom mentioned you were thinking about a deck project. I just finished his and would be happy to swing by for a quick look."
Marcus formalized this. He offers a $50 gift card for every referral that turns into a job. But he says the gift card is almost beside the point. What matters is that he asks every single time. Thirty percent of his work now comes from referrals.
Move 3: Stay Visible to Past Customers
Here is a number that should change how you think about your business: the average homeowner spends $3,000-5,000 per year on home maintenance and improvements. A customer you painted for this year might need a deck stained next year and a bathroom refreshed the year after.
But they will not think of you unless you stay in their orbit.
Quarterly check-ins. A simple text or email: "Hey [name], hope the living room is still looking great. Just a heads up, fall is a good time to touch up exterior trim before winter. Let me know if you need anything." Takes 30 seconds. Keeps you top of mind.
Seasonal maintenance reminders. Spring and fall are natural touchpoints. Remind clients of services that are time-sensitive. This is not selling. It is being helpful, which is even more effective.
Year-end thank you. A short note or card to your best clients in December. Almost no contractor does this. It is memorable precisely because it is rare.
Marcus tracks every past client in a simple spreadsheet (name, service, date, notes). Every quarter he spends one morning sending personalized check-ins. He estimates this habit alone generates $40,000 in repeat work per year.
What About Everything Else?
Social media, SEO, paid ads, networking groups, door hangers, yard signs — these all work to varying degrees. But they are force multipliers, not foundations.
If your response time is slow, your GBP is thin, and you are not asking for referrals, pouring money into Facebook ads is like turning up the volume on a broken speaker.
Get the three fundamentals right first. Then layer on additional channels once you have capacity to handle more leads.
The order matters. Speed first. GBP second. Referrals third. Everything else after.
The Compound Effect
What Marcus discovered, and what the best contractors already know, is that these three moves feed each other.
Fast response wins the job. Great work earns a review. The review boosts your GBP. Higher GBP ranking brings more leads. More leads means more jobs. More jobs means more referral opportunities. More referrals means more reviews.
It is a flywheel. Slow to start, hard to stop once it is spinning.
The contractors who stay busy year-round are not doing anything exotic. They are doing simple things with uncommon consistency.
Start this week. Set up your lead notifications. Update your GBP. Ask your last five happy clients for a review and a referral. The first turn of the flywheel is always the hardest.
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