Debunking the Desktop Myth
Stop trying to be clever with your website. Your customers don't care about your mission statement or company history. They care about three things: Can you solve their problem? Can they trust you? How quickly can they talk to you?
The Mobile-First Reality
Construction and manufacturing businesses. Your potential clients aren't sitting at desks, sipping coffee, and leisurely browsing your website.
They're in laybys, on-site, or knee-deep in a workshop crisis.
They need solutions, and they need them now.
The "layby moment" is real. Your customer has 30 seconds, a mobile phone, and a problem to solve. You've lost them if they can't find your number and hit 'call' in that half-minute window. It's that simple.
Forget your fancy animations and slick desktop designs. They're useless if your site takes ages to load on a patchy 4G connection. Every second of load time is another potential client slipping through your fingers.
The Power of Immediate Voice Contact
Why Phone Calls Trump Web Forms
Let's be honest. When did you last win a £100k contract through a "Request a Quote" form? Never, that's when. Big deals happen through conversations, not keyboards.
Think about it. When someone's about to commit serious money, they want to hear confidence in your voice. They need to know you understand their problem. They're looking for expertise, not an automated reply.
A five-minute phone call accomplishes more than a week of email ping-pong. You can understand their real needs, address concerns quickly, and start building a relationship. That's how you win business, not through endless form-filling.
Friction is the Enemy
“It's not rocket science, but so many get it wrong….”
How Digital Transformation Often Backfires
Everyone's banging on about "digital transformation," but they're missing the point. While you're faffing about with chatbots and automated sequences, your competitors are doing the basics brilliantly.
What really wins business? Being there when your customer needs you. Having a number they can actually click. Showing up where they're looking. It's not rocket science, but so many get it wrong.
Sure, modernise your business. But don't get so caught up in the digital hype that you forget what matters. Trust isn't built through algorithms. It's built through conversations, through showing up, through solving problems.
The One-Thumb Test
A Simple Metric for Website Effectiveness
Here's a brutal truth: If it takes more than one thumb swipe to understand your service, trust you, and tap your phone number, you're already losing business. Your contact details should be front and centre, clickable, and impossible to miss. Everything else is secondary.
Stop trying to be clever with your website. Your customers don't care about your mission statement or company history. They care about three things: Can you solve their problem? Can they trust you? How quickly can they talk to you?
Your website has one job: getting that phone ringing. Prioritise information based on how your customers actually behave on their phones. Top of the screen should be your phone number, location, and main service offering. That's your money zone. Everything else can wait.
Building Trust Through Human Interaction
In construction and manufacturing, you're not selling trainers online. These are complex, high-value transactions where human interaction isn't just important - it's vital. Every job has its quirks - specific site conditions, unique technical requirements, custom specifications. You can't capture that in a web form.
When someone's about to commit thousands of pounds, they need to hear confidence in your voice. They want to know you understand their concerns. They're looking for expertise, not automated replies.
A ten-minute conversation does more than a hundred emails. You can spot the unsaid concerns, demonstrate your expertise naturally, and build rapport that leads to long-term relationships. In these industries, real business happens through real conversations.
The Reality Check
Adapting to How Business Really Happens
Everyone keeps saying "digital has changed everything" in construction and manufacturing. But here's the truth: the fundamentals haven't changed at all. The best working relationships still start with a phone call. Why? Because you can hear the urgency in someone's voice, understand their real needs, and build trust in minutes, not days.
Sure, once you've got that relationship, you might WhatsApp project updates or email quotes. But that initial connection? It still comes down to a conversation.
Your phone is still your most powerful sales tool. It's just that now, people find your number on their mobile, expect to reach you instantly, and want immediate answers. The technology's changed. Human nature hasn't.
Avoiding Common Mistakes
Let's talk about the biggest mistakes I see every day. Businesses spend thousands on fancy websites that look great on desktop (which nobody uses), are impossible to navigate on mobile (which everybody uses), and hide their phone number (which is what people actually want).
Then there's the Google My Business mess. It's free advertising, but most businesses haven't claimed their listing, never update their hours or services, and ignore reviews. Twenty good reviews and an updated listing beats an expensive website every time.
Remember the one-thumb rule. If someone can't find and contact you within one thumb swipe, you're losing business, your competitors are winning it, and your fancy website is costing you money.
Stop the website bloat. No potential customer is prioritising reading your company history since 1983, fifteen pages about your processes, or a blog that hasn't been updated since 2019.
Customers need three things: Can you help? Are you trustworthy? How do they reach you? That's it. Everything else is just getting in the way of the phone ringing.
It's time to get back to basics. Make it easy for your customers to reach you. Be there when they call. Solve their problems. That's how you win in construction and manufacturing. Everything else is just noise.
For more about this, check out my book: Talk More, Type Less: Master the Phone-First Business Model
