What Makes YOU So Special?

Why Would Someone Do Business With You Rather than Your Competition?

Your answer better not be lower price. You know better than that! My good friend Alex Walter keeps reminding me to tell you that you need to raise your price anyway!

What makes you better, is a question you need to ask yourself on regular basis. Why? If your answer sounds like a good to you and your friends, than you can expect your customers to believe it too!

At a recent workshop of mine I invited Thomas Jackson, CEO of Jackson systems and Duane Shover of Momentum Business Results to speak about their businesses. Tom Jackson immediately began speaking about how his organization can help the contractor improve his business, increase profitability and add value-added services to their customer base. Duane Shover spent a little bit over an hour discussing how small incremental improvements in your business will turn into momentum results with minimal effort.

Both speakers main topics revolved around the idea that you must offer services and experiences for your customer that your competition does not offer or is not willing to offer. A simple promise like "Satisfaction Guarantee", "Drug-Free Workplace" or "We Promise to Arrive When Promised or Your Service Call is Free" will make all of the difference in the world!

You're not in the business of selling boxes of equipment off of some shelf. Realize that what you offer is a great service experience and you commit to deliver as promised, and that they will be thrilled with what you did, no matter what.

If you have not already done so, take a moment to review my schedule below and sign up for a class that will change the way you do business forever. There is plenty of room to move upward. There are more than enough contractors going broke, Don't be one of them.

How Are Your New Years Resolutions Holding Up?

It's 2012 and I'm sure everyone has already started to follow through on some of our resolutions, ideas and objectives that we had meticulously worked on back in the fall or winter of 2011. By now everyone should be getting used to writing 2012 instead of 2011. Or . . . maybe not.

As professionals, we have every intention of making the appropriate changes and improvements that we've been thinking about for months or maybe years. Then, a repeat of 2011 happens. We get too busy once again to do anything differently than we've been doing. We get so overwhelmed with the day to day challenges that we cannot find time, not even one hour a week to devote to our new ideas. Eventually our excitement and motivations of making these great changes eventually fades away, just like they have every prior year. And nothing is implemented.

I remember watching a program on television a few years ago where the guest speaker was discussing the importance of daily exercise. He mentioned that we have to set aside the time to exercise just as we set aside time to eat and use the bathroom. This comment really hit home for me and got me started on a regular exercise routine. I also realized that the same applies in my business. It is essential that specific time is dedicated to work on projects or resolutions just in the same way that time is set aside to eat lunch or breakfast. It is way too easy to just put off change if we look at the process as an additional task or workload. A determination and priority to make it part of the daily routine must be established and followed through on.

When the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great.

An economics professor made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class "... All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. Could not be any simpler than that. (Please pass this on)
These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work and sit around protesting because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Planning for 2012

It's that time of year when I begin contemplating about how my year turned out and what I need to do, or plan to do for next year. Because of that, I created a checklist of questions for my contractor friends to help you plan for the new year. This is simply a list of things to get you thinking on some possible improvements in your life and business.
What are the obvious issues and challenges that have propped up over and over again that need resolution so that it doesn't repeat in 2012? (make a plan of action for resolution)
What are the training needs of your employees and what could be done to fulfill those needs? Include yourself in this group.
Take time to evaluate new technologies and software that will enhance and improve your business objectives and personal productivity.
What kind of things do you need to stop doing that really add no value to your career or business?
What kind of things do you need to start doing that adds value to your career and business?
Take some time to evaluate all of your financials and determine what part of your business may need some attention, change, updating etc. to reduce overhead, and increase net profit margin.
Make it a point to solicit ideas and recommendations from your team members. Believe me, I've got some of the best ideas from the folks on the front lines. Unfortunately in most cases they are never listened to. So try listening and if it pays off, they should be rewarded accordingly.

Would You Spend $49.99 to Get Some Great Business Tips?

Basically, Frank Besednjak has decided to make segments of his great workshops available for viewing online. He has teamed up with Nordyne University to help create one of the worlds best overall HVAC Business training and support online networks available anywhere! These programs are professionally produced in a professional studio.

The first in a series of online seminars is now available. This program is a compilation of great ideas and methods used by some of the best contractors in the country. The title is "Simple Tools To Increase Profit Margins Now" and that is exactly what it is!

This first program focuses on some basic fundamental ideas that you could use right now to battle the issues of this economy and help move you ahead of your competition.

The $49.99 price is a limited time offer and will not last , so take advantage of this special price and watch the program today!

Here is a description of the program content: Just click anywhere below to view the video:
"A presentation and discussion on new and proven ideas, methods and systems currently practiced by successful contractors to gain a competitive advantage in their market. This program is designed to increase overall business performance by offering participants new methods, ideas and strategies that will enhance employee professionalism, improve profitability and increase customer loyalty."

How To Claim Your Listing on Google

How do I know if my listing is verified and mine?

Type your company name and city in Google. Click on your listing, if it is there. Look in the upper right hand corner. if it says "Edit this place - Business owner?" the listing has not been claimed and you need to claim it. If it says "Owner Verified" it has been claimed and hopefully it was done by you or someone in your company.

So let's say it needs to be claimed and verified, here are the steps to do it:

1. Go to Google.com
2. If you don't have one, create a Google account by clicking on gmail on the top of the page (This will also give you a new, email address)
3. Click on "create an account"
4. Once you have a Gmail / Google account go back to Google.com
5. Bottom of page Click on "Business Solutions"
6. Click on "Google Places" listed under "Reach Local Customers" near the bottom of the page.
7. Sign in with your Gmail account
8. Follow the directions
9. You will be sent by regular mail a verification password that will instruct you how to complete the listing verification.

What is cool now is that you can add graphics, videos, customer quotes and links to your website from this Google listing. You also have the option of putting in key words that you believe customers will type in when looking for your services. This will direct more business to you. All of this is free!

Three Employee Types

Minders, Finders and Grinders
While at sea in the Navy, (which seemed to be forever) they offered college credit courses. During one of the Principles of Management classes the professor mentioned that there are three employee types, Finders, Minders and Grinders. The Finders were the savvy customer oriented, sales type folks who weren't that great technically, but everyone loved them. The Minders were the great coaches, leaders, spokespeople and supervisors. Great Minders were process-oriented and dedicated to making the team work well together. The Grinders were the highly technical yet customer unfriendly types. They did great as long as they were left alone and required little communication with others. Most people are a mixture of all three with certain characteristics that make them stronger in one of the areas. What I have found during my many years of management in Sony, RCA and GE, is that when you have someone who is very strong in one of the categories, they are usually weak in the other two.

It takes a great manager or business owner to identify these specific talents in each individual and know how to best handle them so they meet the objectives of the business. While running a service shop for RCA, I've had to take one of the most technically competent men and move him to a position that requires very little customer interaction. I did this because I wanted to continue to use his talents and could not get him to improve his interpersonal skills sufficiently, no matter what I did. This guy would actually tell customers they were stupid and how they were wasting his valuable time! I wanted to fire him on several occasions and yelling or counseling didn't help. He was one of the most talented guys in the country, technically, I did not want to send him to my competitors. So after some discussion and thought, I just moved him into a role that limited his contact with customers to . . . never. So we locked him in a room away from everyone while he did his thing. Occasionally we would throw some food into the room just to keep him alive. (I'm just kidding) If an employee is extremely valuable technically, yet challenged in interpersonal skills, sometimes you have to be creative and redefine his or her role so it doesn't include customer interaction. For some, a good script, some role play and practice will get these folks over the hump of communicating effectively.

As far as the strong Finders who are technically challenged, technical training should help in most cases, or you can use them a sales professional and/or lead generator only.

Of course you still have the variety of customer personalities to deal with. Some folks love to carry on a conversation and build a relationship with the service professional whereas others just want you to do your job, give them the bill and get out.

I really believe the great service professionals and great managers are those who recognize that there are unique differences in everyone and the method in handling every person is unique also. Having the ability to recognize these differences both in employees and customers and responding to them appropriately is what really makes the service experience you offer a great one.