Empowering the Technician

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Empowering The Technician

In his guest post for this week, Ross Atkinson brings us into the loop of empowering the technician in your business.

Your technicians are valuable, skilled workers and many of them use highly sophisticated equipment beyond the traditional toolbox wrenches. Many manufacturers have mandated diagnostic monitoring systems plugged directly into the engine from a laptop to check the machine for issues. There is no doubt that the technical requirements of the service technician have changed dramatically in the last 20 years! Yes, they still need to take the machine apart and put it back together, however, considering the sophistication of today’s equipment, any assistance diagnosing the problems is welcomed – most certainly a process improvement!

Now let’s talk about another opportunity to save your technician time – business system integration. This multifaceted topic begins with how your technicians record the time they work on equipment. Are they still using punch cards, writing the time manually, or even barcode scanning at a central scanning station? Or do they have access to the business system through a computer to clock in/out of repair orders? It should be obvious that having the technician clock directly into the business system saves time. No need to have a service writer spending hours the next morning keypunching every technician’s time into the respective repair orders.

Beyond the improvement in recording technician time, have you ever taken a moment to analyze your technicians’ footsteps in a day? Everyone knows how important it is to keep the technician in the work bay, otherwise, the time away negatively affects the technician’s efficiency and reduces the amount of throughput you can handle in your shop.

This analysis can help you identify why they left their bay and shed some light on where gains could possibly be recognized by eliminating the footsteps and replacing them with some form of system integration. You can do a similar analysis of the post-repair tasks and determine if it can be done by the technician at the time of repair using the same system integration being offered. Let’s look at some ideas:

  1. Clocking time at their bay eliminates the need to walk to a central punch clock system.
  2. Access to machine history eliminates the need to stand at the shop foreman’s door to ask questions about the service or rental history of the machine.
  3. Visibility to the dealership parts inventory to know whether parts are in stock or need to be ordered eliminates the need to walk to the requisition counter.
  4. Seeing the machine’s configuration including serial numbers with a direct tie into manufacturer systems to check for outstanding product improvements/recalls and parts availability.  Again, eliminates the need to go and ask someone else to do the research.
  5. Allow the technician to update the machine hours immediately so that it doesn’t get forgotten about. As we know from my previous blog on Service Agreements, hours are such a critical component so why chance having someone else do it many days later.
  6. Ability to upload before and after images directly to the repair order for historical and warranty purposes. The payback on this could be huge if the customer questions the repair or you get into a warranty audit.
  7. Visibility to job code hours so the technician knows what the expectation is for job completion and the repair time remaining. An updated benchmark helps the technician stay focused so that the job gets done on time.
  8. Having a tracking system for technician breaks whether the company or the customer is paying for it. Keeping your technician honest and eliminating the “water cooler effect” is important in time management.
  9. Ability to key technician stories and comments for the customer or for historical purposes and eliminate the need for another dealership employee to decipher and rekey what has been written by hand.
  10. The ability to electronically request parts from the parts department eliminates the need to walk to the requisition counter.  The parts can be delivered directly to the bay.

These are just some ideas on where gains could be obtained by empowering your technicians via business system integration. Maybe you already have some or all of these in place or maybe you can add to this list.

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We All Engage in Social Media

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We All Engage in Social Media

In this week’s post, guest blogger Mets Kramer shares that we all engage in social media and this blog is just one example. Other platforms include Facebook, LinkedIn, and of course, the large number of websites we all visit for information.  

As the digital world grows, we understand it is necessary to have a social media presence for our dealerships. We want people to see us and whatever online presence we create, we want it to have a positive impact on our business.  In my last article, we looked at how to use metrics for your website, with a specific focus on using the information collected to understand your customers’ and visitors’ engagement with your digital dealership.  Our goal for investing time and money into our online presence is to increase the engagement we have with our audience.

I’d like to look more closely at social media strategies. Each platform has its strengths and can contribute to your website traffic and engagement.  There are 3 main things to consider when building your strategy: who is your Intended Audience, what kind of Content do you want to post, and lastly, a call to Action, or in other words, how do you want them to respond?

Your audience consists of both active and prospective customers, in addition to a large number of people who many have no need for your services.  When developing your strategy, it’s important to consider who will see your social media posts on each platform and understand the demographics of these audiences. For example, joining small contractor groups on Facebook may get you a large audience of owner/operators who love equipment and are busy each day on site.  LinkedIn has a more professional and corporate audience, with larger business decision-makers or influencers.  It’s important to understand who the audience is when determining what kind of content, you want to show them. We all can appreciate the effort in personalized messages, on a card or in an email greeting; this is no different for social media, be personal.

The second aspect to consider is content, which can include product images (equipment for sale), application content (showing the product at work), general information to educate your audience or pure branding content so the audience becomes familiar with your company’s “face”.  Remember social media is social. This means that all the content you post, needs to also focus on you or celebrating people in your business. When you can associate a person with your online content, it helps your audience build a social connection with your business. In your digital marketing strategy, the goal is to build a virtual experience between your dealership, you and your audience; both active and prospective customers. All this to say, if you’re only posting images of your inventory with no links to your website, you are not successfully building a social connection within your online presence.

This brings us to the final aspect of engaging in social media: the call to action. What is the action you want your audience member to take after seeing your content? This is where the strategizing comes in. It is imperative to create content that motivates potential clients to move away from “doomscrolling” and drive them to your website. Doomscrolling can be defined as mindlessly scrolling through news articles, social media posts, or other content on sharing platforms.

So, what is your call to action?

Decide if you want your viewer to click on the content and be redirected to your website so you can further engage with them, or do you want a direct response? An example of a direct response is posting an image of a machine you have for sale, with pricing details and contact information. Here, the call to action is “Call me to buy this machine”. This type of strategy has been shown to be very effective on platforms like Facebook where you have groups of contractors, but it’s generally frowned upon on LinkedIn. A more strategic approach on a platform like LinkedIn, would be to have the viewer click on your post, directing them to your website. Now, you have the opportunity to present your dealership fully, presenting all the aspects of your business and focusing the user to think about how your dealership can meet their needs.

In conclusion, the main objective for any strategy should be a call to action. We invest time and money in social media platforms to redirect our audience members to the right place: generally, your website. If you can construct each post with the knowledge of the kind of audience you are marketing and a clear expectation of what you want their response to be, it will help you determine the kind of content you should post.  If your audience is full of buyers, show them something to buy. If your audience is full of influencers, build a connection, build your brand and drive traffic to your website so they get the full picture.

One last note.  Find a social media management app to execute your strategy.  Check out Hootesuite, Social Pilot, Buffer, Sendible and others.

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Principia for Business

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Principia for Business

In this week’s guest blog, Ryszard Chciuk shares his Principia for business.

In my post The Future is Now I presented you why and how my after-sales team worked out its long-term plans, which most of business teachers call a vision. Today I am writing about the way we were going to bring us closer to our goals.

I am repeating myself: without the long-term plans, you are like a sailor who missed all his maps. You can use your compass, but you do not know where you will finally land on. Maybe it will be a deserted island. If you are a very lucky man, maybe you will land in a paradise. I am daring to give you one piece of advice: please, do not fool yourself, most probably you will break up the boat on the rocks. You and your crew have a little chance to survive the crash, it will be just pure chance.

Worse things happen if your team members do not follow the binding rules. I prefer to name them the main principles. Coming back to the metaphor. Before you abandon a port, you must equip your boat with precise maps and a compass. In 1492 Christopher Columbus had an astrolabe, compass, quadrant, and, instead of maps, his assumptions which directions to go. Finally, he was convinced he landed in “the Indies”, but fortunately for him (not for the original inhabitants), the ships made landfall on one of the Bahamian islands.

In real-life our maps are always uncertain, so before you start the journey, you should agree with your co-sailors a small number of basic rules to be strictly followed. For example, the captain is always right, you will keep watch till you are replaced by another sailor on duty, everybody is authorized to ask questions and make mistakes, the person in charge is not always right, and so on. Otherwise, all of you will fight against each other, instead of collaboration in the face of a turbulent market.

Those basic rules I name the main principles. Certainly, you are accustomed to calling them values, so I will explain myself. Most of the dictionaries, including The Cambridge Dictionary, define the first meaning of the word “value” as the amount of money that can be received for something. The second meaning of that word is the beliefs people have, especially about what is right and wrong, but it is only for the plural form. The three laws of Motion Sir Isaac Newton presented in the masterpiece called Principia (in Latin) and it is translated into Principles (in English). That’s why I ask my friends to follow the main principles instead of the values. Values and vision belong to the most overused – and least understood – words in the language of business. I want to avoid any ambiguities while talking about things of so high importance.

The most important for every organization is that all level managers and all employees subscribe to the main principles. It means, you as a manager, should employ only candidates who learnt the company values and agreed to follow those principles during the whole journey with the company. Later on, you have to observe potential breakers of the values and eliminate them. Otherwise, some employees may sabotage the whole organization. However, it’s not easy to discover the true personal values of a candidate during an interview. My advice is not to rely only on the information gathered by the human resources department. Use also your own intuition.

The most severe troubles for every kind of organization can be caused by people occupying more important posts. The company owner should keep it in mind when hiring top management. Do you remember the famous Enron case? In its annual report to shareholders, Enron listed its core values as follows:

  1. Communication – We have an obligation to communicate.
  2. Respect – We treat others as we would like to be treated.
  3. Integrity – We work with customers and prospects openly, honestly, and sincerely.
  4. Excellence– We are satisfied with nothing less than the very best in everything we do.

The actions of Enron’s senior leaders stood opposed to these core values. They quickly established a culture with values of greed and desire to maximize personal gain. It also appeared that Enron managers were supported by the renowned auditing company Arthur Andersen LLP. What was the result? Thousands of people lost jobs, their money collected on retirement plans disappeared…

I am writing this article because I want all of my friends to be aware of a potential threat. I have read about many leaders driving organizations into bankruptcy due to breaking their values. In the last decades of my life, it concerns mainly political leaders all over the world. It is unfair that dishonest leaders never pay the highest cost. Perhaps Enron’s CEO Jeffrey Skilling was one of few exceptions. He was sentenced to 24 years in prison (finally was freed after 14 years). Have you heard about reimbursing the victims of the Enron scandal?

As I explained in the post The Future is Now, my plan to build the best after-sales organization could not be executed if we employed people having bad habits. In other words, we would fail if new employees were accustomed to the principles which were opposite to ours.

Next time I will explain, what it meant in our daily work.

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A Positive Sense of Community

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A Positive Sense of Community

This week, Don Shilling shares the importance of building a positive sense of community.

I know all of us have watched reports in the media or thumbed through articles in periodicals about the wonderful employee benefits some of High-Tech companies provide their workforce. Perks that are used to attract talented people and keep them occupied while at work. The lavish gourmet cafeteria’s, coffee kiosks or fully equipped gyms within the walls of their facilities. Under our breath as read view these perks, we probably exclaim . . .. “How in the world do we compete with that?”

Your organization may be like our company; our environment is such that we just do not have the physical space to offer those kind of amenities as it seems all our facilities are limited to providing services for customers or work environments to efficiently produce and administer the delivery of our goods and services.

Our employees however are just as important to our success as the High-Tech companies’ employees are to their operation. So, the burning question is, what are we doing to attract and retain our employees given the limitations both physically and environmentally of our industry?

We must be employee focused! This focus can be done without adding square footage to our facilities.

Do each of your employees feel they are appreciated? Are they given opportunities for training, job recognition, offered consistent and timely delivery of benefits and real opportunities for advancement? Have you created a culture of shared knowledge of the business and demonstrated caring and compassion during times of personal crisis?

These are all valid questions that require your own personal reflection. Appreciation can start by simply sharing information with employees. Some companies use a Balanced Scorecard approach while others are deep in other management tools like EOS Traction where all personnel regularly hear the company focus, goals and implementation steps required. During the sharing of this information these are golden opportunities to recognize departments and individuals who have contributed to the success. These meetings should be positive events with plenty of sharing of knowledge and open discussion.

We must focus on the individuals. Ways of doing that may include sharing company logo’ d apparel so all can identify with the business, company newsletters distributed weekly used to recognize special things like weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and especially examples individual accomplishment of outstanding company values. (Not just the “big deal” you were awarded, but the small extra efforts made by individuals furthering the company’s efforts)

Our company has also found positive success if we get personally involved in employees after work activities such as helping to sponsor the employee in things ranging from sporting events or teams, charity events, hobbies or personal interest activity and other activities that may include the employee or other family members like their children or spouse. By sponsoring an employee, we ask for photos or shared results of those activities so that activity can be shared in the company newsletter for all to see.

Recognizing milestones of each employee, breaking bread in picnic’s, grill outs or appreciation dinners. Stopping all work for an Ice Cream Break or treating all employees to an entertainment venue can contribute to the relationship we have with one another and bring participants closer together.

Creating this sense of Community is the key element we as smaller business entities need to do to attract and maintain the family values. This becomes the glue that holds us all together. When your employees make a point of bragging about the company, they work for . . . it is generally the customer and a potential future employee that are listening!!

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Transformation: Becoming a Selling Organization 2

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Transformation: Becoming a Selling Organization – Part 2

Tonight, Don Buttrey brings us Part 2 of his two-part series on Transformation: Becoming a Selling Organization.

2) Sell ‘the house’

We don’t just sell product anymore.  Product and brand will not sell itself. We have to ‘sell the house’.  That is one thing the competition does not have-your differentiator!

Why should customers choose you and do business with you?  Every person in your organization should know that answer.  This awareness should season everything you do and be on the tip of every tongue. If you do not know that answer…who does?

When you consider the question “what do we sell?” you can help define that answer by documenting Company Factors and Value-Added Services of your company.  Company Factors are advantages, minute distinctions and attractive characteristics that you offer.  Don’t get hung up on the word, unique.  Some competitors may claim the same or similar factors.  Company factors are simply what you look like as a company.  How many branches you have, expertise in certain markets, years in business, key people, inventory, size, location, stability, certified mechanics, customer base, and lines represented are all examples of company factors.  Value-Added Services are what you do for your customers before, during and after the sale.  These services support your offerings and enhance the perceived value.  Examples might be inventory management, part usage reports, financing services, safety training seminars, etc.  I suggest you workshop these two lists as a team and publish the results internally.  Make sure everyone knows and believes in ‘who you are’ and ‘what you do’.  You may even want to prioritize this list and document the top things that clearly set you apart from the rest of the pack of competitors.

3) Standardize your selling process

So how do we take this corporate, ‘selling mindset’ to the street?  This has to be more than a “value” campaign or hype.  We must make sure that all contacts and experiences that our customers have with us result in a perceived value for which they are willing to pay a premium price.  This will not happen by accident.  Banners, literature and websites will only create visual consistency in your marketing and image.  Each and every person, in every customer interaction, must sell that value and communicate it effectively.

The best way to facilitate this is with a standardized selling process.  This is a framework to help each person who interacts with the customer to prepare and execute effective selling of your value.  We recommend a standard tool that we call the SELL process.  The dynamic interaction with a customer is not step-by-step.  However, having a structure for how to prepare and execute the interaction is powerful.

 

 

The SELL Process:  Start        Evaluate        Leverage         Lock

Outside sales professionals can use this outline to pre-call plan for each call – SELL offense!  Sales support can use this same outline to react better in spontaneous selling situations and opportunities that occur everyday.  The same SELL process can also be used a framework to prepare for objections and respond to them properly – SELL defense!

When we train sales professionals and sales support, we use this simple, yet profound process to prepare, practice and perfect selling skill.  Each step is studied, understood and practiced.  For example, every person who deals with complaints or objections from customers can benefit from intense learning on how to answer objections.  The team can even document proven answers and practice delivery and methodology of responding.  By standardizing the tool and terminology used for selling your value everyday, you can fulfill the first challenge we discussed—teach everyone to sell.

Summary

Becoming a selling organization is not really complicated.  It is decisive, however.  The pieces are all there; your people, your products, your operations.  It is really a matter if reconnecting those pieces to transform into a selling machine.  Teach everyone to sell.  Sell the house.  Standardize your selling process.  Remember the line of children’s toys called Transformers?  A robot, with its existing parts could, by a few decisive moves, become a racecar or some other machine.  Make the three decisive moves we just discussed and turn from just a dealer into a SELLING MACHINE!

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Transformation: Becoming a Selling Organization 1

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Transformation: Becoming a Selling Organization – Part 1

Don Buttrey introduces us to the transformation involved in becoming a selling organization in Part 1 of his blog on this topic.

 

“Nothing happens until somebody sells something.”  With that simple statement, Red Motley made clear the importance of the sales function to any organization.  As a distributor in the supply channel, the importance is even more acute.  Selling is your lifeblood.  The selling function is a significant part of your activities.  Oh yes, operations, service and technical support are essential, but today’s Construction Equipment Distributor or manufacturer must be a “selling machine” where everyone who serves the customer directly or indirectly delivers and communicates (sells) value.  When this thinking permeates your culture, it assures growth and profitability.  What I have just described is a true “selling organization.”

 

Leaders; transforming into a team where everyone sells and has a selling mindset will not happen by accident.  You must do it on purpose.  If you tell people to do the right things and your system tells them otherwise…the system will win every time.  This article will highlight three things you can start immediately to indoctrinate this culture into your system:  1) Teach everyone to sell; 2) Sell the house; 3) Standardize your selling process.

 

1) Teach everyone to sell

 

This part of the transformation starts at the top, as you might have expected.  First and foremost, the dealer principle and top management must be selling experts.  Not that they are out on the field closing deals (although they may have key involvement in some accounts.)  Yet they must possess sharpened selling skills in order to sell ideas, expectations, tools, systems etc. to the entire team.  Sell, not tell!  They must also have a clear understanding of value and benefit selling in order to present, market and perpetuate the required factors that differentiate you from the rest of the competition.  Only leaders that understand the strategic and tactical requirements of successful selling can direct, inspire, coach and motivate a true selling organization.  Visible, enthusiastic support of any selling skills training is a must.

 

Sales managers must also sell.  They must become brilliant in their contribution to joint calls–not to “take over” but to be a model of professional selling skill.  As a coach they reinforce the disciplines of professional selling and raise the bar of expectations.  It is strongly suggested that sales managers participate in any selling skills training.  The purpose of this is not to just monitor and observe, but to be an active part as each salesperson practices and refines their execution.

 

Of course, front-line salespeople must be masters of selling.  Selling is their profession.  Each one should strive to become a Sales Professional!  Product knowledge, application expertise, people skills, benefit selling, communication skill, strategic account planning, and pre-call planning are just a few of the many skills and tools they must execute skillfully to get consistent results.  Intensive selling skill training for these professionals is a given.  These are the “highly trained field agents” of a successful selling organization that take proactive action and start the engine.

 

And please don’t forget that service technicians, customer service, installation, and all sales support must also be trained in selling skills.  Granted, selling is not their primary job duty.  Yet they are interacting daily with customers and dealing with the tough issues. They encounter an astounding number of opportunities to reinforce value, secure jeopardized business, penetrate and expand accounts, discover hidden opportunities, pass leads, add-on sell and build relationships.  Great selling organizations provide these key players with more than just technical know-how or specific job skills.  They leverage their integral involvement with customers by adding core selling skills to their regimen of training.  With proper sales training they can learn to sell spontaneously and appropriately.

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Compassion is like a Marathon!

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Compassion is like a Marathon!

Cultivating compassion is like running a marathon it requires daily practice over a period of time, like running your first marathon with training you can build the skills!

 Now more than ever, it’s imperative for leaders to demonstrate compassion. Compassion is the quality of having positive intentions and real concern for others. Compassion in leadership creates stronger connections between people.  It improves collaboration, creativity which leads to innovation, raises levels of trust, and enhances loyalty in employees.

Jacinda Ardern New Zealand’s Prime Minister, leadership style is characterised by kindness and compassion for her response to the Christchurch shootings in 2019.  Her compassionate leadership style united a country in mourning for their fellow New Zealanders.  Whom lost their lives while at prayer in a place of worship in a country they chose as their home because it was safe.  In the days following Jacinda Ardern took action to correct laws to protect its people and embrace those mourning loved ones at the scene of the terrorist attack.

Leading German social neuroscientist, psychologist and author of Caring Economics Tania Singer – conversations on altruism and compassion, between scientists, economists and the Dalai Lama.  Delivers some key research into compassion based on studies with over 300 participants who participated in gratitude based, attention based study into the affect on wellbeing of people.

Below are my personal insights from this study.

#1 Compassion is trainable:

Compassion is trainable with daily practice according to Tania Singer,  after a study on the impact of mental training involving a combination of mindfulness, perspective-taking and compassion exercises.

#2 Empathy and Compassion go hand in hand:

Different brain circulatory – Empathy activates the pain network and negative affect; and transforms into compassion when the affiliative part of the brain is activated which has a positive affect.

Empathy feeling with others, empathy is connecting with the other person in how they feel.

Compassion feeling for someone at the heart level – you start feeling concern, for the welfare of the other.

Most resilient is compassion, a feeling of care and love.  You feel this warmth, altruistic strong motivation. I want to help you.  Altruism is a higher order need in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Motivational Theory.

#3 Compassion is a positive feeling towards the other:

Sometimes we judge others without awareness. Compassion is a positive feeling towards the other.   Compassion is when we are present and listen without judgment it brings down social stress (fear of being judged) for the other person, which makes them feel safe to open up and share their problems.

# 4 Compassion and perspective:

Cognitively when we identify that the person, we are listening to has different beliefs to our own, understanding the other person is not always easy for us to grasp – particularly in cross cultural contexts. An understanding and appreciation of different perspectives, diversity has the power to facilitate kindness and compassion in our workplaces, communities and strengthen global co-operation.

# 5 Compassion and Gratitude:

A daily Gratitude practice can build compassion at the heart level.  Appreciating and accepting that many leaders are at different stage of the compassion continuum is important, it’s a journey, having conversations about compassion takes courage, takes vulnerability.

I attended an inspirational Podcast this week with Rebecca Jarvis who eloquently interviewed the very inspiring Steve Farrugia CEO of the Share Tree – which is a good place for leaders to start in exploring how to implement daily practice of gratitude and compassion in organisations using an App!

# 6 Compassion is a key change management skill:

Compassion is passion, the direction of positive energy used to advocate for a cause, purpose, passion.  Having a compassionate leadership style can help advocate and facilitate a positive change management process within an organisation.

Top 3 actions to cultivate a culture of compassion within an organisation:

  1. Hire leaders who want to take care of others:
    Hiring leaders who want to take care of others. There is a great tool called the VIA – strengths survey which identifies 24-character strengths of leaders, for example those that display gratitude and love.

 

Hiring managers with an affiliative leadership style – are managers who know the importance of building social capital and will take time to listen to their people and will implement change seamlessly.

  1. Get the support of your CEO:

When CEO’s and Human Resources work together to build a culture of compassion it builds bonds, social connectedness, affiliation, sense of mutual appreciation, collaboration, innovation and a culture of high performance.

  1. Adopt a holistic approach:

A holistic approach, considers people’s physical, mental and emotional health.  A compassionate leadership style and holistic approach can transform toxic cultures that are faced with ethical dilemmas, bullying and harassment into healthy workplaces where people feel safe and thrive. Putting people first and placing importance on people’s physical, mental and emotional health, will have a triple bottom line impact towards wellbeing, higher performance and improved shareholder value.

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Preventative Maintenance and the Service Agreement, Part 2

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Preventative Maintenance and the Service Agreement, Part 2

 

In this Part 2 of the series on Preventative Maintenance and the Service Agreement, guest blogger Ross Atkinson walks us through the benefits and homework necessary before offering preventative maintenance.

As with rentals, the idea is to perform regular maintenance on your customer’s equipment so that they reduce the risk of a major breakdown. The costs of this scheduled maintenance will be cheaper than the breakdown in the long run. Your reputation and your manufacturer’s reputation can avoid taking a beating because you took a proactive approach to offer them a way to avoid that costly, major breakdown.

 

Before you get too excited and all revved up, you need to do your homework. What services are you going to offer and on which equipment? How much will these agreements cost and how is the customer going to pay for them? Who is going to manage the agreements and schedule the technicians/trucks accordingly? Can all the services be done in the field or will it require the equipment to come into your shop? Do you have the necessary resources to get this off the ground and running? Do you have the software to support this entire effort? I’ve always told people, “95% of service agreements is in the planning”.

 

So, how exactly does a customer pay for the service agreement? There are a number of ways you can go about doing it. The services can be offered as a set fee, whether that is billed up front or on a predefined schedule. It could also be included with the sale of the equipment. There is always the option for the customer to pay per repair order as the work is performed. With this in mind, you could simply use the scheduling system as a marketing tool to enhance your service department workload by drumming up business and increasing your repairs orders.

 

You should also think about the possibility of servicing your customer’s other off-brand equipment. You’re making the trip to the customer’s site, so why not take advantage of the travel time. Why can’t you be the Jiffy Lube of the equipment industry in your area? Anyone can do an oil change, even the customer. So why not perform at least the simple oil changes for the rest of the equipment your customer owns? Even if you can’t get the repair business, you can offer to supply the parts required to do it themselves. There’s an opportunity waiting, you just need to make a point of going after it. Remember, your service technicians are trained professionals; you adhere to OSHA standards and the environmental requirements of performing work in the field.

 

When setting up a schedule of intervals, there are a number of considerations. In the heavy equipment market space, common manufacturer service intervals include a 250, 500, 750 and 1000 hour service. However, intervals can be set up for as long as you like. You need to analyze what services need to be performed and when. In some cases, the service interval step may simply be a visual check of a component, not requiring a lot of time or even a repair order; just a notation that it was checked for historical purposes.

 

When your technician performs the maintenance, take advantage of the time with the equipment and do an inspection (a topic for another blog). This is an easy way to make the customer aware of any suggested repairs which can be done the next time a scheduled service is performed. What an excellent opportunity to increase your service revenues and show the customer you care about their equipment. Think outside the box…. maybe even offer a small commission to your technician for any revenue generating work that comes out of their inspection.

 

Some final words of advice…

 

Once you set up contracts, the system should be smart enough to project the date when the next service is to be performed. This allows you to plan your workload accordingly. You can also then ensure that parts inventory levels are sufficient to perform the maintenance and that the service truck is stocked accordingly.

 

If the customer trades in the equipment, take advantage of any outstanding, pre-paid intervals as a way to upsell the used equipment on your lot. What a great incentive for someone to purchase it knowing that some services are already included!

 

The service agreement concept can work for all types of equipment, depending on your business. You could even apply it to other assets you own like service trucks and company vehicles.

 

Lastly, although the service agreement process may seem to be a daunting task, don’t forget that you can always start small and grow over time. There’s no need to offer everyone everything right out of the gates!

 

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The Relational Ladder

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The Relational Ladder

The Relational Ladder

Tonight’s post on the relational ladder is taken from conversations and readings with Ed Wallace.

The world is changing and the noise around us at times is overwhelming. Network News, Round the Clock Cable Stations and then all the social media pounding on us. Cell Phones dinging in the middle of the night. How can we continue to create and maintain the personal relationships that are so important to life in general and your feeling of worth and well-being?

Ed, in his book, provides us a detailed path to follow, or perhaps I should call it a ladder to climb. Most of us driven by quotas and business goals and we are so focused on our objectives that we typically don’t spend enough time on our strategies and approaches for all the people and relationships that we have to have in place. But we have relational capital that we can spend which allows us to succeed.

Let’s quickly review some of Ed’s key points:

 

  • The Principle of Worthy Intent – keeping the client’s wishes at your core
  • The essential qualities of credibility, integrity and authenticity
  • Understand that exhibiting these essential qualities we perform well
  • Paying Attention to our GPS – Goals, Passions and Struggles

 

Through all that we have learned in Building Relationships that Last, we have built a Relational Ladder. A Path that we can follow to ensure we stay on the right track.

At the floor we start with our acquaintances which allows us to establish common ground. This allows us to show our integrity and establish trust with those with whom we are building a relationship. Then from the previous blog we are purposeful with time. We are both helpful and seeking help from everyone with whom we have a relationship.

It is from this approach to relationships that we must consider two important personal characteristics; Humility and Gratitude. It is important to understand and accept that there are people who will know far more than we know and be able to do far more than we can do. This is a good thing as we have many examples of people from whom we can take guidance and create models of activity or behavior ourselves. Humility is a good attribute to have. This allows us to develop the knowledge, self-control and discipline to continue on the path aimed at reaching our potential.

Understanding and accepting your individual sense of purpose is a difficult task. Asking for help as in the Relational Ladder is critical in this process. Understanding our GPS – Goals, Passions and Obstacles is an important piece of the puzzle in building relationships. Then we can move effectively to the next step POP – Purpose, Outcomes and Process. The totality of Building Relationships that Last.

In what I call our Passion to Perform we all have similar traits. We strive for those things that Max was able to exhibit in how he conducted his business.

 

  • Increases in Customer Loyalty
  • Increases in Revenue per Transaction
  • Increased Recurring Business
  • More Competitor-proof
  • Becoming a Respected Advisor

 

Everyone wants to do a good job in anything that they do. Similarly, we can all do more than we think we can. The problem is that most people are fundamentally lazy. That latter point is not necessarily a bad thing it just means that they are trying to be effective, not efficient, in what they do. My purpose in life is as a teacher. It is helping people find and then understand their potential in life and then assisting them in the process of achieving it.

Life is a journey and there are many challenges and opportunities along the way. Learning to manage our professional and private relationships is an important part of our lives. Passionate People Perform. I have learned a lot from Ed and value our relationship. Reading his book and knowing the man has made me a better person.

I am sure that the same will be true for you. Thanks, Ed.

 

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Learning from Old Lessons

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Learning from Old Lessons

In today’s guest blog post, we introduce Bruce Baker on the topic of learning from old lessons.

Bruce holds a Masters in Industrial Psychology and is a behavioural business strategist, coach, and change agent. He brings you a wide-ranging skillset in business operational design, planning, and execution, with significant success in leveraging the only growing capital asset a business has– its people.

With over 23 years of experience working with Fortune 50 and Fortune 500 companies in a wide variety of industries, Bruce focuses on working closely with anyone from new entrepreneurs, business owners, CEOs and their leadership teams.

Your time with Bruce will give you new and fresh insights as he rejects traditional methods of business coaching and consulting while providing you with a very unique and enlightening perspective on how to view and build your business. Bruce will work with you to see what your business is made of and then recognize and address its strengths and vulnerabilities, allowing it to grow with minimal or no risk at all.

Learning from Old Lessons

I would like to welcome those of you following the Learning Without Scars blogs. Welcome to my musings on what is called the Chronicles of Business Leader. My name is Bruce, and I work with Business Leaders and their leadership teams to help them scale-up, start-up, or fix-up their respective companies.

In my blogs, I will focus on discussions I’ve had with business leaders about their challenges and how they have and are becoming successful.

Previously I discussed the reason for ongoing business failure. This is due to a single focus on the non-human aspects of a business (systems, tools, programs etc.). The focus must start with the human element first (i.e., Business leader/C.E.O.) and then the non-human factors. When the business leader understands and identifies with a solution, success is inevitable!

The experience I had this week highlights the usefulness of a powerful tool and technique. Using this tool positions a business leader for massive success.

Many call it “being discipline,” “maintaining focus,” or “not being distracted.” These terms apply to business success but have not aided the business leader.

This week, I want to share an experience I had with a business leader named Robert. Rob owns and operates a mid-sized heavy equipment dealership business he started up almost 10-year ago. I’ve been working with Rob to help him scale his company for over four months now.

When Rob and I started talking, he struck me as an intelligent and well-read man. He could rattle off all the latest and greatest business and leadership books and related tools and systems. Business leaders I had and continue to work with referred Rob to me as I was “the guy who helped business leaders achieve instrumental success.” I asked Rob why he had not used any of these great ideas and best practices he learned about in the books. His response to me was simple but not surprising. He said, and I quote, “I can’t seem to find the time, and when I have some time, I get distracted by other things. I may have a challenge with Attention Deficit Disorder…not sure.”

Regardless, Rob’s business was about to tank if he could not take what he knew and make it a reality in his company. I gave Rob a concept and tool a few weeks ago that made all the difference in him gaining traction.

The concept and tool are not new but initially came from a person named Dwight D. Eisenhower. As many of you know, Dwight was the 34th President of the United States. Before becoming President, he served as a general in the US Army and Supreme Commander during World War II. He had to make tough decisions about which of the many tasks he should focus on each day. This led him to the Eisenhower principle, which prioritizes urgency and importance. Go to www.Eisenhower.me/Eisenhower-matrix for further information.

So, how did Rob benefit and continue to benefit? Simply put, most of us are told to work on our time management skills. Frankly, the term “time management” is not aligned with how our human brains work. I said this to Rob, and he was taken back by my comments asking what the solution was if not for managing one’s time. I asked Rob how many people he knew that attended a time management course and were great “time managers”? Rob smiled and said, “true enough, but what then is the solution?” I responded and said, “task/action management.”

Actions and the commitment we make to take these actions are tangibles that our minds are designed to handle well. The brain can take hold of and then work through what and why something needs to be executed.

Asking “why” a task/action needs to be executed uses the powerhouse combination of the logic and emotion that makes action happen. Without the rational and emotional elements working together, failure to execute continues.

So how did Rob make this successful? Well, like most humans, once suggesting this to Rob, it was the last time we spoke about it after a few weeks. Yes, this was by design, but for a good reason. I followed up with Rob in one of our sessions a few weeks later and asked how his “Action Management” was coming along. He responded by saying, “it’s not.” I told him that this was normal and not to give himself a hard time about it. I then worked with him to show how he could make execution happen. This is how I explained it to him:

  1. Actions in any business are almost all important/relevant in some or another way. Trying to make a specific task less or more important is challenging for Spending time figuring out the amount of “importance” takes up a lot of energy. This makes people abandon their commitment to making something happen. Why? Because all these “important” tasks accumulate in our heads and stay there. This creates an emotional lens when making decisions increasing stress and feeling overwhelmed. The next thing we know is that we have done nothing to achieve traction in the business. So how do we distinguish all these important actions and avoid inaction?

 

  1. This is where the level of “urgency” falls into the The word “urgency” doesn’t always engender a feeling of “calm” for many. The term “urgency” means the time to execute an action/task(s). Start by asking yourself if the task/action is important/relevant. Then, ask how “urgent” the task is (i.e., when the task must be completed). Splitting this in your mind separates the emotional from the logical. This is where the “magic” starts to happen!

The sheer number of items Rob had on his to-do list was staggering! No wonder the poor guy was paralyzed! Rob’s list (and I kid you not) had over 130 items, and to no surprise, each item was “important.” So, I commented, “If everything is important, nothing is…”

We worked through the to-do list for about two hours. In a matter of days, Rob managed to achieve traction on what needed to get done. He has started to make profound impacts in the business and has begun to see significant results. Rob’s interpretation of himself shifted from being disorganized and distracted to someone entirely different. He now has his weekends to himself and finally started to increase his business volume in a matter of two weeks! This success is and continues to be due to Rob connecting the positive impacts a tool and system have on himself and his business. This impact has also created a snowball effect that has enhanced his team’s performance and other areas of his business.

Last week, Rob mentioned that the number of sales leads that week increased by almost 45%. He said this was due to him “finding time” to work on a lead magnet that finally produced results.

For more information on the tool and process, please email info@4workplaces.com

I hope you found this information helpful and look forward to seeing you again soon.

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