Success Story
Marketing
CLIENT: The Jon Smith Group (JSG) Commercial Specialty Contractor
OWNER: Jonathan Ford & David Smith
ANNUAL SALES: $5-10 Million
LOCATION: Atlanta, Ga
FOUNDED: 2007
BACKGROUND
The Jon Smith Group (JSG) is a specialty contractor based in Atlanta, GA. Their work is varied, including carpentry, interior framing, drywall and ceilings. They perform entire small projects and also handle specific project work for large general contractors in Metro Atlanta. In addition, they offer logistics services, perform selective demolition and interior construction, and provide roll-off dumpster service for themselves and other contractors.
They’ve successfully completed projects for Atlanta Hartsfield – Jackson Airport, Delta Airlines, SunTrust Bank, Philips Arena, and the NFL in conjunction with Super Bowl LIII in 2019.
SITUATION
Like many organizations, The Jon Smith Group was looking to get to the next level of sales and growth. They had plenty of business from existing clientele, which was sustaining them. But it wasn’t increasing sales volume. To expand market share, they needed to generate new business by reaching out to other companies.
We knew how to sell but wanted sales collateral that represented the brand we had built. Ascent Consulting gave us the marketing material expertise and backup that we needed.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Like many organizations, The Jon Smith Group was looking to get to the next level of sales and growth. They had plenty of business from existing clientele, which was sustaining them. But it wasn’t increasing sales volume. To expand market share, they needed to generate new business by reaching out to other companies.
DEVELOPMENT
Although the company was increasing their business development efforts, they felt they had very little to present that spoke to the quality of their work and professionalism. Their website was outdated, and their minimal sales collateral did not adequately showcase the company’s talents, their work experience, or their skill set.
In general, large contractors are used to meeting with companies that feature first-class materials. For this reason, the JSG founders felt ill-equipped to meet with the other large general contractors in town, for fear of appearing unprofessional and ‘not up to standards’.
They needed to stand out from their competition, but more importantly show that they were capable of meeting and exceeding the standards that $1B+ general contractors expect from their subcontractors.
REACHING OUT
Not pleased with the current situation, JSG Founder Jonathan Ford contacted Ascent Consulting. JSG and Ascent agreed that there was a definite “gap” between how JSG felt about themselves (all positive) and what their materials reflected (outdated & unprofessional). Ascent put together a plan to upgrade the image of JSG and build a comprehensive catalog of materials they could use to represent their image to the public. Over the next several weeks:
- Ascent met several times with JSG’s leaders, plus a few key team members and project managers
- Ascent came to understand the company, their values, and the services they offer
- Ascent learned JSG’s value proposition and their desired outcomes in business development and marketing
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CHANGING THE LOOK AND FEEL
With the “getting to know you” phase complete, Ascent, in full accord with JSG, tackled the company’s marketing materials and upgraded their image. Over the next few months, Ascent:
- Designed an upgraded logo
- Created new business card designs
- Selected a design theme and color palette for all digital and print materials
- Designed a full color, 4-page brochure about the company
- Designed and built a completely new WordPress website
- Wrote JSG-specific content that was Search Engine Optimized (SEO)
- Designed three variants of print/digital Capabilities Statements
- Designed trade show booth banners
In addition, Ascent developed a PowerPoint slide deck that the owners could take to general contractors and use to educate them about The Jon Smith Group – what they do, their value proposition, and why the General Contractor should use them on their construction jobs.
RESULTS
Across the board, JSG’s new image and marketing materials have earned rave reviews. At trade shows, company managers said the materials were a “wild success” with everyone commenting on the newness and freshness of the pieces that were created. Better yet, the materials have helped generate new work for JSG.
