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Oct 25, 2012 | 0 comments
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Watch Out for the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
I once heard that the two most important ingredients to a successful business are urgency and accountability. I agree. In fact, if your business lacks urgency, it probably makes up for it in desperation.
Before you dismiss this topic as something that does not pertain to you, you should first make sure your company’s urgency is not desperation in disguise.
- If your business is always in panic mode trying to fill the schedule to cover payroll, you’re not being urgent; you are being desperate. You should be urgent to market for more clients or train your people to serve them better, or cut cost to stay profitable no matter what size you are.
- If your call-takers are rushing through the calls to answer the next ringing line, you are not being urgent to gain business; you are being desperate to stop the ringing phone. Your urgency should be to find out why the call-takers are not able to spend the time needed to correctly use their scripts.
- If your techs and/or salespeople are running as many calls as dispatch can squeeze in each day, you are being desperate to get the calls done. The focus is on pacifying clients, not serving them. Your urgency should be to find a way to allow your field people the time necessary to serve your clients.
- If dispatch is grabbing whatever calls they can to fill the schedule, they are not being urgent about profits; they are desperate to make the schedule look full. This is a sure way to run up labor costs. The urgency should be to run a profitable schedule by marketing for more clients or giving a tech or two a day off.
- You have installers cleaning the shop when there is no work that day. Keeping people busy when there is no work is desperation to get caught up and keep your people happy. This runs up labor costs. I promise they will take their time cleaning when they have it. If you have urgency to keep the shop and yard clean at all times, they will move much quicker after a day on a job as they will want to get home.
A company with true urgency bred into its culture will have a different attitude about things.
- When you are so excited about a decision to make change in your business that you begin implementing it right away, you have urgency.
- When you are faced with a customer complaint and your team moves fast and is eager to resolve it, you have urgency.
- When the phone rings and you rush out to serve the client—even when you are ahead of budget, and you have fun doing it—you have urgency.
- When you move the repair call on the five-year old system a couple of days out and waive their diagnostic fee for the inconvenience so you can fit the repair call on the 18-year-old system without over working your techs, you have urgency.
To have urgency, you must have an “urge” to do something. The urge of most people is to sweep problems under the rug as soon as possible and go home as early as they can. These people are easy to spot. They are the same ones who complain about the same things over and over.
So how do you create a company with urgency? The easiest way to do so is to make sure your company has that other thing I mentioned earlier… accountability. You can use accountability to create that urge needed in your people. But before you do that, you need to set an expectation. Set high expectations, and hold your people accountable to them. This will give them urgency to achieve. If it doesn’t, you have the wrong people. Lack of urgency and accountability will stifle sales and lead to the entitlement mentality in the workplace. In other words, it’s a knife to the wrist of your business.
If you have disguised urgency in your business, you should address it now. The best time to start something is the time you decide to do it. Don’t wait. I’m not saying you should not take a moment and plan it out a bit; you should. But don’t halt progress looking for reasons something can’t be done. Look for reason it can.
Sometimes you are too deep in your business to see it objectively. This is a good reason to have an outsider and help you see your business as you should. Coming to a Success Day can do just that. Call 1-866-412-8093 to join us at a Success Day and let us help you.
Oct 25, 2012 | 0 comments
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Escape the Land of the Way Things Ought to Be
If you find yourself feeling angry with your customers and employees because they aren’t behaving the way you think they should, you need to take a long hard look at why. And if you need help finding the problem, I’ll give you a clue. You’ll find it in the mirror.
As a business owner, you likely have a vision of a great company. You know what you want. That‘s a good thing. The troubling part is when you have an opinion of how other people should view things. What am I talking about? Well, here is an example: It’s okay to expect your call taker to use the script you trained them on. That’s their job, and it is clearly defined for them.
However, it is fruitless to be upset with call takers when they answer the phone differently than you would have. They might think that they are respecting the client’s time by rushing them off the phone, and you think it’s best to keep them on the phone by asking a lot of questions so you can serve them better. The reality is that while one way is more profitable, they are both right, from their own perspectives.
Business owners often confuse, “How I want my business to run” with “the way things ought to be.” This leads to much frustration because we hire people to work in our businesses, and we train them on how the systems run the business. That is the road to the “Land of How I Want My Business to Run.” Stay on this road.
The road I recommend you stay off is a dark path through dying woods to a miserable place. The people in the “Land of the Way Things Ought to Be” believe everyone should think and behave as they do. This is a far different mindset then those living in the “Land of How I Want My Business to Run.”
In the “Land of How I Want My Business to Run,” you can implement systems to run the business. By training your people on how to run those systems, you will eventually become the beloved King of a new and grander land, a land of inner peace. It is called the “Land of the Way Things Really Are.” If you continue to live in the “Land of the Way Things Ought to Be,” you will find that your subjects have either moved away or they have taken over the land and left you with just a swamp to tend.
I see it all around me. I have family members and close friends that get sideways over things over which they have no control. They think there is only one right way, and they happen to be the only ones who get it. They sit in disbelief that their dinner order came out wrong or that a stranger accidently bumped into them. After making a big issue over something that was not intentional or is reversible, they say to the people around them, “Can you believe that?”
Allowing these things to frustrate you makes you snappy, rude, and no fun to be around. I used to live in the “Land of Way Things Ought to Be” with them but through a journey of many motivational and leadership books and tapes, I stopped the train and hopped off in the “Land of the Way it Really Is.”
In my new land, we smile a lot and pity the poor souls from the “Land of the Way it Ought to Be.” We find joy taking vacations to the “Land of the Way it Used to Be,” and we are careful to avoid the “Land of the Way it Might Have Been.” For we know that the greatest days in our life is when we are on our journey through the “Land of the Way it Used to Be.” And our most miserable days are always spent in the “Land of What Might Have Been.”
I know I am sounding philosophical, and I hope my message is not diluted by it. So, let me emphasize my point as bluntly, as I can. If you get upset at things you cannot control, learn to get over it. There is nothing you can do about it so don’t focus on it. What is done is done. Set your mental energies and physical efforts on things you can influence. This is the road to inner peace as a successful business owner.
Oct 25, 2012 | 0 comments
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Plumbers’ Success International® is the Most Forward-Thinking Organization of independent Plumbing Contractors in the Industry Today!
Plumbers’ Success International® offers decades of experience and success in the Plumbing industry to independent contractors looking to take their companies to the next level. We help them to do so by providing revolutionary and proprietary business-enhancing to
ols, training, strategies, and systems. In addition, members have the ability to network with other cutting-edge contractors eager to help you succeed.Whether you need answers just to make payroll or you’re looking for guidance on how to expand into multiple locations. Plumbers’ Success International® can help you reach your biggest goals–and motivate you to achieve even more!
Sep 12, 2012 | 0 comments
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