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A Positive Sense of Community

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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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Preventative Maintenance and the Service Agreement, Part 1

Preventative Maintenance and the Service Agreement, Part 1

In Part 1 of a two-part blog, guest blogger Ross Atkinson talks to us about preventative maintenance and the service agreement.

 

There is a phrase you may have heard of before: it’s called preventative maintenance. If you are in the rental business, you are fully aware of the importance of keeping your equipment up and running as much as possible, generating revenue for your business. To ensure that this happens and to avoid those costly breakdowns, you need to spend time doing scheduled maintenance.  

 

Just about every manufacturer has a recommended maintenance schedule. They offer defined job codes with the time necessary to perform preventative maintenance steps at scheduled intervals. These codes not only tell you the time required to perform the maintenance, they can also include detailed descriptions of the repair task and sometimes a list of the required parts. These schedules not only cover the primary equipment but also sub-components like an undercarriage. Many of the schedules are based on hours of usage whereas others are time based.

 

For rental equipment, it’s pretty easy to keep track of and know the timing of the maintenance needed because you are always in physical contact with the equipment when it comes back in off rent. Even if the equipment is out on long-term rentals or leases, factory installed GPS transponders are pretty common nowadays or can be installed by your dealership. Knowing the current hour meter or mileage reading is the key to estimating the timing of the next service interval and allows you to plan your service workload accordingly.

 

But let’s look beyond rentals. What about your customer’s equipment? As Ron has mentioned in his classes, it is your goal to give the customer the best service possible and to reduce the repair costs for the equipment they own. Why not use these same principals of maintaining a rental fleet to upsell and offer your customers the same service? 

 

You see, I’m pretty passionate about this subject. I believe that dealers are leaving money on the table and missing an opportunity to offer exceptional service. Too many dealers have not even considered going down the customer preventative maintenance path. I was introduced to the concept of service agreements many years ago by a gentleman by the name of Mark Caldwell. The knowledge he had and how he went about selling service agreements to customers was truly amazing.

 

Mark created his own manual on the entire process, a good 3 inches thick. It covered everything from what was being offered to the customer cost savings formula to how it was to be implemented and managed. He used to say how so many service managers would convince management to buy a service truck and then try to figure out how they were going to utilize it. Mark managed to correlate the number of service contracts to a truck. Boy, did that make for an easy conversation with management to justify the purchase of a new service truck after signing the required number of contracts!

 

We will continue next week.

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Why Things Always Go Wrong

Why Things Always Go Wrong

Why Things Always Go Wrong

This week, Ryszard Chciuk gives us a recipe for success in his blog post on why things always go wrong.

Do you want to have a successful year? Do you want to become a better person? Listen to what Ron Slee is saying to you in his first vlog in 2021 and do it, because The Time Is Now. The time for reading books.

If you are able to read only one book during your whole life, and you want to achieve true satisfaction, both in business and life, read The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong by Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull (both of them born in Canada of course).

The Peter Principle:

In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence

What is incompetence? Perhaps you have heard of the nurse who says to the patient: Wake up! It’s time to take your sleeping pill.

First time I read The Peter Principle was in 1977. It was really funny to observe my superiors and colleagues through the Laurence Peter glasses. The book is written in the Mark Twain style so it’s OK to laugh, but you’d better take the content seriously. At that time nobody told me it would be the most important book in my life. Later on, I read it again and again, usually every few years. Also, I read it each time I had an opportunity to get a new job. Why? Nobody likes to make a fool of oneself. I also never wished to be an incompetent person. And believe me, it is not easy to recognize whether you are already only one step below your level of incompetence or perhaps not yet.

Each of us spends his life in a hierarchy and everybody is subject to the Peter Principle. As Peter Laurence claims, in time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties.

You are not allowed to hurt your employee. So, be careful promoting him to another post, even he is very eager to. Imagine your best technician is getting a chance to manage a team of field technicians. For many years he was solving the most difficult problems with customers’ machines and he was proud of it. Are you sure he will also be happy and competent as a supervisor for another people? Maybe he is destined to become the Chief Diagnostics Specialist? I know, this is obviously about a career path and your HR department should be able to support you in this matter. Are you sure the HR specialist is still below his/her incompetence level?

Let’s jump out for a while from business. In democracy we have rights to vote. Why there are so many totally incompetent politicians occupying posts which are so important for the safety and well-being of the nation? Do you think you are still one step below your level of incompetence as a citizen of your country?

Are there any exceptions from the Peter Principle? The third chapter in the book has a title Apparent Exceptions.

What about super-competence? Standard incompetence is only a bar to promotion to higher post. If you are super-competent and your superior reached already his/her level of incompetence you will probably soon be fired due to the violation of the first commandment of hierarchal life i.e., the hierarchy must be preserved.

The people who have reached their level of incompetence are everywhere, so who turns the wheels? Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.

The final question: is there any way to protect your own organization from reaching the total level of incompetence? Yes, two things could prevent this happening: that there should not be enough time available, or not enough ranks in the hierarchy.

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Do not decide lightly to read The Peter Principle. This is just a book, but I have to warn you using words of Raymond Hull:  The decision to read on is irrevocable. If you read, you can never regain your present state of blissful ignorance; you will never again unthinkingly venerate your superiors or dominate your subordinates. Never!

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Pre-Call Planning Is an Absolute Must!

Pre-call Planning is an Absolute Must!

Pre-Call Planning is an Absolute Must

Don Buttrey is the president of Sales Professional Training Inc., a company that offers in-depth skill development for sales professionals and sales support. He has trained thousands of salespeople over 25 years and clearly understands the selling environment of equipment dealers. His curriculum is comprehensive and proven. All courses are now available as web-based Elearning. E-learning is ideal for training individuals and smaller sales teams! Don can be reached at (937) 427-1717or email donbuttrey@salesprofessionaltraining.com. Check out this website link salesprofessionaltraining.com  for more information – or to purchase online sales training. This week he is sharing all of the reasons why pre-call planning is an absolute must for our salespeople.

What preparation should I expect my salespeople to do before picking up the phone or meeting with a customer?

Most of the time salespeople do the ‘typical’ prep such as considering the situation, doing some research, or reviewing notes on the customer such as past sales, problems, internal politics, personal facts, previous calls etc. That is important – but it is not enough. Often, at that point they just charge in or pick up the phone and “see how it goes”. I call this, “showing up and throwing up”. There is another part of pre-call planning that is an absolute must!

One of the most important disciplines and skills I teach is, tactical pre-call planning. This involves consideration of the customer contact person, situation, competitors, etc. and then designing and perfecting the expected interaction. I love that word – “interaction”. The last part of that word is action. And if you want to get action – you must be a master of the interaction! When salespeople make proactive calls, they are on the “offense” and they should prepare their offense!

First, what is the objective for the call? If a salesperson does not know why they are there – the customer doesn’t know why they are there! Sales Professionals must have a purpose or defined reason for every call. If our veterans get in the habit of calling on buddies and just stopping in to say; “got anything for me” or “I just happened to be in the area and thought I would stop by” you will end up with a team of professional visitors. We need professional salespeople!

What will salespeople say to start? What questions will they ask and how will they word them for maximum effectiveness? What benefits of product or distributor value will they leverage? What is their action-oriented objective and how will they ask for commitment or action?

The SELL Process Tool

For the last two decades my mission has been to help salespeople pre-call plan using the SELL Process tool. SELL stands for Start, Evaluate, Leverage, Lock: and each of these steps should be prepared in order to maximize every precious customer interaction. My training curriculum teaches this powerful process in great detail and provides a simple, but profound tool as a framework for effective pre-call tactical planning. It’s like learning a proven offense, that with time, empowers sales professionals to execute each uniquely different call brilliantly! Preparation and ongoing practice are essential. You play like you practice—and salespeople just don’t practice enough. I am a firm believer that we should even be doing dry runs and scrimmages before critical calls!

Using the SELL Process framework, my training teaches sales professionals to write out their tactical plan. Yes, write it. Writing makes the message exact. If you don’t write it, you can’t fix it. Tooling out what you will say to Start will keep you from getting “diarrhea of the mouth” and overwhelming the customer with jabber. Writing out the questions you need to ask and perfecting the wording of those open-ended questions helps you be a consultant and increases the chance that you will find out the real needs and situation –and listen! Plus, writing provides some notes for you to follow and indicates to the customer that you cared enough to get ready for this important investment of their time. Writing helps you remember, helps you prioritize, and keeps the meeting on track and in control. Your confidence and improved non-verbals will show!

And this is not just for big calls. It is an essential daily discipline to prepare appropriately for every precious customer interaction prior to making a call. When a sales professional is prepared, it shows respect to the customer. It presents a professional, consultative image. Buyers are sick of cocky salespeople who wing-it and don’t even listen. Plus, the deal at hand may come down to this do-or-die call – and if the salesperson is not prepared, the opportunity is lost. Careful preparation assures that the message is focused on the customer and not the salesperson. It keeps the call focused, concise, and clear without veering off on useless rabbit trails!

I accept the reality that selling is very dynamic and that anything could happen in each unique call. Pre-call tactical planning with the SELL Process is not a silver bullet. However, it empowers sales professionals with skill and brilliant execution of their offense and defense to maximize every opportunity. The market for a small, independent construction equipment dealer is extremely competitive. Every call counts. The days of winging it are over. Pre-call tactical planning is a must!

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