• Brand awareness is the first step—customers need to know who you are before they buy.
• Marketing is about the right message, right place, right time—learn how to connect with your audience effectively.
• Digital and traditional marketing work together—billboards, social media, video ads, and retargeting all play a role.
• Consistency matters more than perfection—frequent, relatable content beats over-polished, rare posts.
• Emotion drives purchasing decisions—great storytelling helps customers choose your brand over competitors.

• The importance of training and development for employees.
• Soliciting feedback from customers and using it to improve the customer experience.
• Creating consistency in service to build trust and loyalty with customers.

• Paid advertising is a complex and ever-evolving field.
• It's important to have a strategy in place before you start advertising.
• Your strategy should include your target audience, budget, and goals.
• It's important to track your results so that you can see what's working and what's not.

Set Goals and Identify High-Value Leads:

• It's never too late! Partner with your marketing team to define 2024 goals and explore available options.
• Not all leads are equal. Analyze your lead sources to identify those with the highest potential to achieve your goals.

Align Marketing with Customer Journey & Leverage Location Data:

• Dominate your known territory. Use paid ads strategically to solidify your presence in areas with strong brand recognition.
• Expand strategically. Analyze your service capabilities and target areas where you can offer the best value. Don't just serve new areas for the sake of it.
• Leverage existing customers. Utilize your retained client list for lower cost-per-lead (CPL) and higher return on investment (ROI).
•  

Remember: Customer insights are the key to cracking the code of digital marketing success! By understanding your audience, setting clear goals, and aligning your strategy with their journey, you can unlock new levels of engagement and growth.

1. Set objectives and KPIs:

• It's crucial to define your goals for social media before tracking any metrics. Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or drive website traffic?
• Once you have your objectives, establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure progress towards them. For example, if your goal is brand awareness, track metrics like reach, impressions, and engagement.

2. Focus on engagement:

• Social media is a two-way street. Look beyond vanity metrics like follower count and focus on how users interact with your content. Likes, comments, shares, and mentions are all indicators of engagement.
• Encourage interaction by asking questions, responding to comments, and hosting live Q&A sessions.

3. Track conversions:

• Ultimately, social media success is measured by its impact on your business goals. If you're aiming for lead generation, track how many leads come from your social media channels. Similarly, if you want website traffic, monitor clicks from social media to your website.

4. Use analytics tools:

• Most social media platforms offer built-in analytics dashboards that provide valuable insights into your performance. You can also use third-party tools for more comprehensive data and reporting.

5. Experiment and adapt:

• Social media is constantly evolving, so don't be afraid to experiment with different strategies and track the results. What works for one brand might not work for another, so find what resonates with your audience and adjust your approach accordingly.

Remember, measuring social media success is not a one-size-fits-all approach. It's about understanding your unique goals, selecting the right metrics, and continuously adapting your strategy based on data insights.

The hosts discuss a study that found that videos are shared 12 times more often than text and images on social media.

They also talk about a study that found that 85% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase after watching a video about a product or service.

The hosts provide examples of businesses that have successfully used video marketing to grow their businesses.

Key Points:

• Video is a powerful tool that can be used to connect with potential customers and build relationships.
• Video is more engaging than text and images, and it can help to capture attention and hold viewers' interest.
• Video can be used to demonstrate products and services, showcase customer testimonials, and share behind-the-scenes content.
• There are a variety of tools and resources available to help businesses create high-quality video content, even on a budget.

Tips for Businesses:

• Create a video marketing plan that outlines your goals and objectives.
• Identify your target audience and create videos that are relevant to their interests.
• Use high-quality video equipment and editing software.
• Promote your videos on social media and other channels.

Overall, the hosts of The Sharpest Tool make a strong case for the importance of video in social media marketing. They provide valuable insights and tips that can help businesses of all sizes get started with video marketing and achieve their business goals.

Key Takeaways

• Social media can be used to generate leads by reminding people of problems they have been putting off.
• When people see an ad for a solution to a problem they are aware of, they are more likely to take action.
• Social media can be used to target specific demographics with relevant ads.

The hosts also discuss the value of visual content and providing helpful insights to your audience. While influencer marketing is valuable, it should not be the primary focus, and the hosts suggest that businesses focus on connecting with their target audience authentically. 

The episode ends with a discussion on how social media integrates with other marketing channels and plays a crucial role in the customer journey. The upcoming episodes will cover topics like lead generation, video marketing, and measuring social media marketing success.

Visit our website to learn more about our home services marketing: http://www.Scorpion.co

• Convert leads
• Get more calls and estimates
• Showcase your customer service
• Retain and engage previous and current customers

Visit our website to learn more about our home services marketing: http://www.Scorpion.co

Learn about Bonjoro here: https://www.bonjoro.com/

#TheSharpestTool #Marketing #EmailMarketing #VideoMarketing #PersonalizedVideo

We talk about:

• Best email marketing strategies
• How to automate your email marketing
• Where content marketing and email marketing meet
• How to grow your home services business
• How to provide value and gain trust
• Setting goals for your marketing campaigns

Visit our website to learn more about our home services marketing: http://www.Scorpion.co

Learn about Ruby here: https://www.ruby.com/

#TheSharpestTool #Marketing #EmailMarketing #ContentMarketing

But what does that look like exactly and how strong of a personality does one need to have in order to pull it off effectively? Listen as Holly Hoenshell-Nelson, Lead Content & Social Manager at Scorpion, Content Marketing Expert & Strategist, discusses her own experience about how to build the best social media presence you can.

Join us as we discuss:

•  What staying consistent looks like
•  Where to focus your social media content strategy
•  How to switch into social media marathon thinking

There are a few things any successful marketer needs to do in order to get people to look your way: teach people, build trust, and make them an offer they can’t refuse. According to Dan Bedell, EVP of Innovation at Scorpion, these are some of the best tools you can use today to take your social media marketing to the next level. 

Join us as we discuss:

• YouTube integration into your existing social media
• Capturing the one thing more valuable than your customer’s money - their attention
• How to stand out in a sea of content on social media

That’s exactly what Susan Kadilak and Paul Kadilak, Owners of Kadilak Homes and Hosts of Renovation Rekindle are doing. 

The wife and husband duo have grown a dedicated pool of engaged customers and clients by simply making content their audience wants to see. 

Join us as we discuss:

• Creating content that entertains and educates your audience 
• Making real content by being real
• Transforming your company and have fun doing it 

Check out the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• Company mission
• Benefits of product or service
• Customer opinion of your current business
• Qualities you want associated with your company 

Join us on this introductory episode as we discuss why a great leader leads to better business results, the impact your business has on people, and a key takeaway for the audience.

What we discussed:

• Developing your brand
• Your business impact
• Key takeaway for the audience 

Find every episode of The Sharpest Tool on Apple, Spotify, and more. Find us on our website and join the conversation on LinkedIn.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Sharpest Tool in your favorite podcast player.

Building From Scratch

Everyone oversells themselves in interviews. It is what we are taught to do from the moment we start applying for jobs. So when you are recruiting, it is essential that you are aware of this. Al says the best way to ensure that your new hires can do everything they alluded to, is to put them through hands-on tests. Some won’t pass these tests or will be unsure of where to begin but you will have a clear idea of who is ready and willing to learn.

>“With manuals and with training, I can fix the holes in the existing staff because I make it safe for them… [When training new hires] Whatever you don’t know, is now my problem. We’re going to go through it together and you’re going to demonstrate that you can do it. Once you demonstrate it, then you’re now responsible.”

You will never find someone who knows everything on the first day, but it’s up to you to understand their blindspots and teach them what they do need to know.

Create a Safe Space

Help your hires build a career not a job. Employees aren’t overly concerned with the goals of the business unless it in some way helps them reach their goals. Show them that you are there to help them on their journey, and lay out an obvious talent pathway for them to follow.

Your employees should not have to reach management positions to feel valued. Don’t think about only the top of the pyramid when the bottom blocks are what holds the pyramid up. Al emphasizes that your entire team should have clear answers to these questions:

1. Where am I today?
2. Where can I go with the business tomorrow?
3. Who truly is my boss and can I rely on them?
4. If I need help, who can I go to?

If they’re feeling uncertain about anything listed above then it is up to you, as the leader, to secure their confidence again. Help them see the potential and become excited about the journey. Continue to support their development by providing team building exercises and opportunities for growth.

While hiring the right employees can help you delegate and work less in the field, it’s important to maintain a certain level of presence to spot any areas that are lacking. Al is a strong proponent of doing consistent ride alongs so you can spot problems immediately. He also recommends setting up mystery shoppers. This holds everyone accountable to good business ethics.

>"You have to help people stay right. We're not looking to try and find you doing something wrong. We're looking to capture you doing something right and make a big deal about it. Because if you do something wrong and it ends up in one of these sting operations, we all go down."

Pay Raises, Salaries and Bonuses

Giving your hardworking employees a bonus or raise can decrease turnover and boost staff morale. Al recommends implementing these monetary rewards because they incentivize your employees to go above and beyond, which ultimately benefits your business.

For more information on Al’s business and services, visit 7-Power Contractor.

Hire Willing People

Instead of hiring people for their experience, Al’s philosophy on hiring is to find willing people and provide them with the right skills. That way, you are helping people build a career instead of just offering a job. 

This strategy helps you identify hires that truly want to join your team and are excited about their future with your company.

>“The power of getting willing people to work for you and helping them build a career is life changing not just for your customers, not just for your company, not just for your staff but it’s actually life changing for you. I’ve experienced that myself, so I know that it’s true.”

Train your employees to fit your company’s needs and they will be better at filling that open position than any “magical hire” or experienced veteran.

Always Be Training

Employee training is critical to long-term success. To implement an effective training program, you want to make sure it equips employees with the proper communication skills (with both customers and team members), as well as the technical skills they need to progress. Keep the training clear and objective. This will allow you to see where your new apprentices are thriving and what makes them tick.

Creating an excellent employee training program is the first step, the next is setting yourself apart from the competition. 

Al highlights two things you need to do to own your market and be the best choice out of local contractors:

1. Make more techs.
2. Make more calls.

>“You’ve got to make more techs that can be in more trucks that are great at communication which leads to more sales. Neat and clean operationally. Their trucks are neat and clean, they’re neat and clean, their jobs are neat and clean. They can do the right job and make it work with a minimal amount of callbacks running back to it.”

Your training can be the greatest in the world but if you’re not a good teacher, your training is worthless. If you take your training and teaching seriously, you can create a career not a job and you will have people lining up for a spot in your company.

Make the Investment

Al is also passionate about creating a space for your apprentices to practice. Creating a training center where your apprentices can practice the trade instead of practicing on your paying customers is a valuable way to build experience without jeopardizing business. 

If you don’t have the finances to support the building of a training center, reach out to family, friends and local organizations that may have something to offer your team in terms of material or equipment.

>“[Creating a training centre] is an investment. It’s time, energy and money. Money is not the biggest problem, and even time you can find people to leverage. Most of the training centers I have worked at were built by volunteer labor… The trick is committing the energy to it.”

Putting the right training in place will be a win for your team, for your customers and for your company.

For more information on Al’s business and services, visit 7-Power Contractor.

Learn From Your Mistakes

No one is immune to making mistakes – we are all human, after all! But if we simply acknowledge the problem and carry on as before, we're in danger of repeating the same errors. 

Al says it is essential to learn from your mistakes and consciously think about how to do better in the future.

>“I’m not brilliant. I fell in every single hole as a business person, climbed out of the hole, dusted myself off. And the only one thing I will give myself credit for is, I said ‘That really hurt, let’s not fall back in that same hole.’ But you know, having been a consultant now for 19 years, I’ve watched others do what I did for so long, which is just continually fall back in the same hole... To solve today’s problem with no thought about tomorrow. And that’s what really robs your progress and kills your growth.”

Learning from your mistakes is one thing. Putting what you've learned into practice is another. Look ahead and change your ways. Or else, you may never reach your goals.

Run Your Business Systematically

Al learned the hard way how lacking formal systems and documented processes can lead to a lack of progress. He shares how important it is to have everyone in your business on the same page, following clear, established processes. 

He lays out seven simple business powers that hundreds of owners have applied to run their businesses successfully:

1. Planning
2. Operating
3. Staffing
4. Sales
5. Sales Coaching
6. Marketing
7. Financial

>“Until you have systems, you can’t leverage. Until you bring people in that are trained right, you can’t leverage.”

Staffing Power

When it comes to staffing, Al encourages business owners to flip the script. 

Instead of finding skilled people and retraining them, find willing people and teach them skills. When you train service techs the way you want them to be trained, you have less rewiring to do later.

>“Let’s start building techs from scratch, from young, willing apprentices, and move them up the ladder. And let’s build them our way, instead of trying to rewire these guys, trying to steal them.”

By putting time and work into finding the right people, you will improve your chances of hiring the best performers and avoid costly, painful mistakes. To increase employee satisfaction and strengthen your staffing system, Al recommends implementing these five staffing actions: 

1. Always be recruiting.
2. Always be hiring.
3. Always be orienting.
4. Always be training.
5. Always be retaining. 

When you build a company of willing people equipped with strong training and clear systems, you will achieve success.

For more information on his business and services, visit 7-Power Contractor.

Overcoming Plateaus In Business

Don’t fear the dreaded business plateau. As an entrepreneur, seeing your business grow and reach milestones is incredibly exciting. Everything looks like you’re on the right track until you hit a plateau.

The first plateau that many businesses hit is at a million to a million and a half dollars in sales, says John. This often happens because the owner is not prepared to hire an operations manager to take care of what is happening in the field. Instead, they spread themselves too thin trying to do it all.

You have to hire help in order to grow. You cannot do everything by yourself.

Play To Your Strengths

Know what you are good at and stick to that. John explains that although he knew he was better on the business side of things rather than being in the field, this isn’t the case for everyone. 

>“If you’re not good at the business side or you don’t want to do it, then you probably shouldn’t and you should hire someone else to do it. Or just stay super small and that’s okay too… You don’t need to get big.”

Understanding your strengths and your weaknesses is half the battle.

Leveraging Social Media

One of the biggest barriers to talent is whether the individual wants to work for your company. John says one way to avoid this is to have people apply to work for you through other mediums. For example, social media and/or podcasts are helpful platforms that can help potential employees understand:

• Who you are
• Who your company is
• What your values are

Showcase what you do on your platforms and put your ideas forward. John has found success building future customer and employee relationships on social media by providing value. He shares his own experiences and failures on Twitter and then interacts with people whenever they ask questions.

>“Audience is king… even with just a few thousand people, you can make an impact, in your business or wherever your goals are. That would be consistently driving traffic towards it (social media), posting on it frequently and making somebody own it so that way you are driving towards the results you want.”

Enhancing Your Team

A solid onboarding process is a major component of employee engagement and retention. It impacts the productivity and success of your new hires. Focusing on developing a strong connection is vital for earning their loyalty and commitment to your home services business.

Creating a hiring process is one of the most important tactics John’s team has implemented.

>“Every company needs the same two people. You have the visionary and you have the integrator… you need someone to figure out the vision and someone to run the company. So figuring out which one you’re best at is important and then hiring your exact opposite who plays the opposite role is important.”

For more information on John’s business and services, visit Wilson Plumbing & Heating.

Recognize Potential

One opportunity can change your life dramatically. John was unsure about getting into the family business when the idea first surfaced. As the grandson of the founders of the company, he had his mind set on founding his own business in a different industry. However, he saw a chance for growth and expansion in the business and decided it was the right time to buy in — a decision he’s grateful for today.

In order to help the business grow, John shares that he and his team implemented these upgrades:

• Updated website for user experience and improved accessibility to service offers and testimonials.
• Moved from paper-based filings to computer based filings.
• Switched to a flat-rate model. 
• Improved marketing efforts. 

Recognizing the potential in the family business and optimizing the strategies already in place helped John scale the business by 5 times since he first bought in.

Understand Your Strengths (And Your Weaknesses)

John says he has a good understanding of who he is and what he isn’t good at. This allows him to delegate to the right team members.

“Over the past four years it’s really been about getting me only doing what I am good at and getting rid of everything that I am not good at. People seem to make that harder than it is but it’s really not. One, I am not good at operating a company and two, I don’t like doing it. That said, there are plenty of people out there who would love nothing more than to do all of the things that I don’t like doing.”

Take Calculated Risks

John has learned firsthand how investing in the right areas of your business instead of just slashing budgets pays off.

“When there is blood in the streets, you go. That’s the rule. What’s the real damage? What is actually going to happen? The stock market is not going to go to zero. That’s not going to happen. If it does, then I have bigger problems than the money I just lost.”

He believes that businesses operate far too much on fear and this will not lead to growth. You have to make investments and take risks. This mindset allowed John to triple their business during one of the toughest market years in history.

Buy Businesses Strategically

When looking to buy or sell a company, there are several factors to keep in mind. John has engaged in many conversations around buying other businesses and shares how he identifies a company worth pursuing:

1. The company understands their true value and they don’t believe they are worth more (or less) than they are.
2. They keep clean financial records.
3. There is a clear upside to purchasing.
4. The seller is understanding and communicates well.
5. The business is reasonably priced.

If a business checks all of these boxes, it may be worth investing your time and money.

Market Effectively

Take a balanced approach to your marketing efforts, says John. Don’t only invest in digital, and on the flip side, avoid investing only in the traditional. 

“The traditional media has gotten severely underpriced because everyone has gone digital, so for the moment, traditional media is bargain basement. So we have been investing a lot more money into that because other people aren’t looking at it.”

When it comes to marketing, focus on who you want to target and keep your options open. 

For more information on his business and services, visit Wilson Plumbing & Heating.

The Onboarding Process

Embracing a new approach to driving leads in your business can be intimidating. But if you’re willing to invest the time and attention to detail it requires, the results are well worth it.

Tatiana explains that in order to take advantage of Local Services Ads (LSAs), businesses must pass Google screening and qualification processes for their business. The screening process is free for businesses that want to participate and it varies by category. This process may include reviews of licenses, insurance, employee background checks, and advanced verification.

The onboarding process is 2-4 weeks minimum, but this is mostly due to rigorous background checks.

“Businesses that advertise directly with Google will undergo background checks with a third party that Google has vetted themselves, to make sure they’re legitimate… The background check involves identity and criminal history checks… and then the company goes through a background check and that process includes civil litigation history.” - Tatiana

If you’re feeling unsure, Vanessa encourages business owners to contact their local background check companies with any questions.

How LSA Bidding Works

In November 2020, Google began offering bidding on LSAs for home services companies and law firms nationwide. Tatiana says this gives businesses more leverage in their marketing efforts. The higher you bid, the higher your chances are of having your ads viewed by more customers.

Google offers two types of bidding. 

1. Maximize leads: this gives Google the ability to choose your bid based on the competition in the market.
2. Set max per lead: this allows business owners to set the amount of money that they’re willing to spend on a lead.

“Scorpion also has some more customizable sort of approaches to LSAs for our clients to take it to the next level. If a business wants to maximize the performance and the ROI of their LSAs, Scorpion’s bidding strategy and marketing technology can make that happen for them. Our system automatically bills and employs a strategy that maximizes your budget on the platform bringing those business owners into a new kind of intelligent growth for their business.” - Vanessa

Vanessa and Tatiana highlight how Google LSAs utilize technology that allows you to create a picture of what your ideal customer looks like. You will be able to see how they move on and offline and where they hang out. This will help you understand where to invest your marketing budget so that you can get your product in front of your customers and build connections. 

Improve Lead Generation

LSAs also simplify the booking process. This minimizes lead drop off and increases engagement with your customers. However, in order for this to be effective, you must have the Google Guarantee badge, says Tatiana.

 “Radius. Reviews. Responsiveness. Add in all of the relevant zip codes you serve, ask for reviews on every job that you do and answer as many calls or requests as you can. Add all of the relevant job types and verticals so that you’re showing up in the ways that matter to you. Highlight your differentiators… Upload photos of your team… Base your budget on the amount of new calls that you want to receive and always stay in the know and try new features.”

Implement Tatiana's advice, and see how LSAs can help your home services business grow.

How Google Partners Can Help Your Business

Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to understanding how your marketing is helping or hindering your home services business. And while there are lots of tools available online for learning the how and why behind the numbers, time is a precious commodity. Working with a Google Partner can help you maximize your time and most importantly, your marketing.

Google Partners are leading companies recognized for having advanced Google Ad skills and the expertise to optimize campaigns. 

“It’s great to have a partnership that helps us ensure that everyone is working together diligently and helping businesses grow with those trends and changes.” - Vanessa 

New Requirements Help You Choose the Right Partners

Tatiana explains that new requirements for Google Partners are being put in place to help small businesses choose the ideal partner for their unique needs. 

Come February 2022, Google will be selecting the top 3% of partners to receive the new Premier Partner badge. There will be a constant evaluation moving forward to ensure the partners are meeting these set expectations.

“One thing about Google, and technology overall, is that change is the only constant we have.” - Tatiana

Build Trust With Local Services Ads

Working with a Google Partner can help your business build trust online through Local Services Ads (LSAs).

Tatiana summarizes how search has evolved from organic search to paid search, and how LSAs fit into today’s marketing landscape.

“LSAs make it easy for you as a local provider to connect with people who search on Google for the services that you offer. It is a lead generation-based product charged on cost per lead (CPL for short). You can advertise your services, get leads in the area that you choose, all while tracking performance and staying in control.” - Tatiana

It’s important to consider that LSAs are not a replacement for your Google Ads, but rather a complimentary product that works synergistically with your pay-per-click (PPC) strategy. Working with a Google Partner to understand these nuances can be key for helping your business secure the right leads. 

LSAs and home services businesses are a match made in heaven. LSAs attract local leads, show up above regular Google search results, and only require you to pay for the results you get (since pricing is cost per lead).

To optimize your LSA performance, Tatiana recommends focusing on these factors:

1. Your verification status and whether you obtained a Google badge of trust.
2. Your review score and the reviews that you currently have.
3. Your responsiveness to customer inquiries online.
4. Your business hours and information.

For more information on LSAs, listen to Part 2.

Rising Up

After noticing a lot of male entrepreneurs and business owners playing below their potential, Skylar saw an opportunity to help them show up for themselves and get more consistent with their routines. Through Rise Up Kings’ three-day event, he helps men (specifically men who are married with children) expose the areas that are preventing them from getting to the next level.

Skylar shares that there are four pillars that every man needs to focus on to become balanced in their life:

1. Faith
2. Family
3. Fitness
4. Finance

When you have a better grasp on these four pillars, you will grow in your business and personal life.

“Life happens, but we don’t realize that all those crazy things throw up walls, and they create insecurities and they prevent us from creating million dollar businesses.”

Care for Your People

Put your employees' needs first. Skylar explains that in order to achieve his desired level of freedom within his business, he had to dig deep and reassess personal areas where growth was necessary. One of those was to care more about his employees. If you care more about your employees than you do your income, it allows you to operate better as a leader.

“People can tell if you actually care about them or if you don’t. They will read you and even if they know in the back of their mind that you don’t really care, they’ll still follow you. But you build such a stronger tribe, and loyalty, and a team of committed people if you actually, at your core, do care about your people.”

Self-Reflection Leads to Growth

Don’t blame others for your business failures. Although it is easy to fault others for things not going right, Skylar encourages you to look at yourself first. Realization is generally the first step to overcoming these issues. Focus on what you have control over and where you have potential deficiencies. That is where the real change starts to happen - in your sphere of influence.

Evaluate your inconsistencies. Inconsistent behavior is a silent killer in the workplace that can lead to confusion, distrust, and error. Furthermore, you may not realize how damaging your unintentional inconsistencies may be. When you’re not showing up for your employees the way they need, there is room left for uncertainty. This can lead to a lack of direction.

“First, get clear on what you want. That’s the most important thing. Most people don’t know. They may be like ‘I want to grow but I don’t know how.’ Just get clear on what you want and who you want to be.” 

Start a to-do list. Hire a coach. Take a risk. You’re the only one blocking yourself from success. 

For more information on his business and services, visit Rise Up Kings.

.

Hiring For Growth

Hiring the right people is crucial for the success of your business. After starting his company over 10 years ago, Skylar learned quickly that in order to leverage his company, he would have to hire people to do the work he was currently doing.

Have a formal hiring process in place when looking for new staff. By putting time and work into finding the right people, you will improve your chance of hiring the best performers and avoiding costly mistakes.

Despite having a good initial gut instinct about someone, Skylar says it is important to have a multi-step process in place before making any solid recruitment decisions. In his company’s unique process, potential candidates are assessed according to these standards: 

1. Skills. Do they have the skills that are required to be able to do the job and do it well?
2. Core Values. Does the candidate show that they can embody the company's core values?
3. Reliability. Are they going to be consistently a high performer in their role?

Make sure you document each step of the process and have solid, objective, evidenced-based reasons for deciding to hire someone or not.

“The whole goal is to get it out of your head and make it a duplicatable process. Simplify the process, make it duplicatable. So, what I started doing is writing down specific questions that would give me the answer as to whether the candidate is a good fit.”

Creating An Employee-Driven Company

Skylar emphasizes that it’s important to hire people with an ownership mentality. An inability to perceive and admit mistakes is not at all a strength, but a weakness – and in a business, it’s dangerous. If you hire people with an ownership and leadership mentality, your company will be able to run itself, says Skylar, because each employee has something that they are solely responsible for.

Trust Your Instincts

Time is of the essence when you first start your business. Everyday that you aren’t propelling forward can be an opportunity for your competition to get stronger. This often leaves entrepreneurs feeling pressured to make fast decisions, or decisions they aren’t confident about.

The downside to moving fast is that you make a lot of mistakes. You may hire the wrong people, trust employees with too much or make bad business decisions. Look at this as an opportunity to learn from those mistakes quickly and then move on.

“We know when we trust somebody and when we don’t. You can tell when you’re looking at somebody… there is something there. You have to dig into that, instead of just ignoring it, because it will cost you a lot of money down the road.”

Training “A” Players

Creating consistency within an organization is difficult but training helps reduce disparities. Training should help employees understand:

1. Their individual goals and the company’s goals
2. Their role and responsibilities on the team.

Skylar says the best way to ensure all employees have effective training is consistency. 

“So we first teach them, we show them, we let them do it and then we let them do it on their own. There is a process to properly train people. People skip essential steps… but those steps are critical. You have to tell them how, show them, let them do it while you’re watching and then let them do it on their own and then follow up.”

Through following these steps and creating long-term training systems, you will be on your way to creating an amazing team with strong ownership. 

For more information on his business and services, visit Superior Restoration

Take Time To Learn

Reading is one of the best forms of self-education for adults and should always be made a priority. Allan attributes part of his success in business to his dedication to reading business books from a young age. When you take the time to learn, you’re opening up the possibility to expand your world view of what you can actually achieve.

“As I started to read, I started to realize what was possible. It was weird because I don’t have any direct mentors per se, there were a couple of people who have helped but reading is what really allowed me to see what was possible. I always say my best mentors are the authors of books and people I have never met before.”

Take one thing that you have learned from a recent book and apply it to your life today. Use the knowledge that you receive from reading (or a mentor) and put it to use. Allan emphasizes that knowledge is power.

Visualize Your Goals

Having a vision ensures you have a clear sense of purpose and a mental picture of the future you desire. It is a practical guide for planning, goal-setting, and decision making. Allan believes that creating a trajectory for your company has more to do with finding your “why” than it does projecting your numbers.

“So there are the SMART Goals. It has to be specific, measurable and attainable and all of those things, but I think it has to be consistent with the company… The goals that you set are just a reflection of the company. Creating goals, it gives you a little bit of a road map.”

Visualize what you want, make sure your team is on the same page and keep track of your progress.

Find Your Why

Entrepreneurship is about so much more than simply starting a business. Find your purpose and acknowledge what makes you do what you do. The more successful you are the less money means, Allan says. Find what pushes you to keep going once you reach your goals.

“People ask me what my definition of success is and I always say it’s being able to control your time in a way that you see fit. You can do whatever you want… But when you visualize that before you have it, not only does it help put things in context but it gives you this motivation.”

For more information on Allan’s business and services, visit proof. Pest Control.

Embrace Learning New Things

Think outside the box. If you embrace data from other industries and focus on constantly learning new things, you increase the opportunity for unique insights and potentially new services. You will learn how to be more analytical and your thought process will change.

“I think when you expand your horizons, as people say, and you learn new things, you acquire an ability to be able to solve problems. Business owners, I look at it as two things, they create something and they solve problems, and usually those two things go hand-in-hand.”

Prepare For Growth

Plan for the possibility of scaling your home services business from the beginning. Allan states that his company was prepared for growth from the moment they opened their doors. As Allan himself was not on the ground working as a technician, he was able to hire the right people for the right positions. This ensured that the foundations of the company were working and stable.

Look at the goals of your business. If you are searching for a way to grow, be willing to put in the work required to do so.

“You get to a crossroads where you are like “Am I doing this, or am I not?” because growing a company is very painful in many ways… To get to a point where you want to really scale a company, you have to get comfortable with those growing pains and embrace the unknown.”

Build The Right Foundations

When bringing on new talent, using hiring strategies might help make it more efficient. For example, Allan explains that for his company, it is more important to hire a person for their personality than their skillset. If you have the right processes in place, your team will be able to train your new hire to do the job.

“That first 30, 60, 90 days is really important. And you can get people that initially weren't there for the right reason, but you can coach them and train them and help them, if you don’t give up on them too early.”

For more information on Allan’s business and services, visit 

proof. Pest Control.

Don’t Fear Niching Down

Customers want expertise. They want to know the broker knows about their needs and knows about serving them. Many business owners in the broker world fear losing out on opportunities if they create a more specific selling point. However, niching down gives you the ability to make more money, become more valuable, and enjoy your work more.

“The biggest thing is educating yourself because you know the more value you deliver to the customer, and that’s whether you own a heating and air company or a plumbing company or an electrical company or you’re selling them… the more people seek you out.”

The more you learn about your specific niche, the more information you will then be able to provide your client with. Immerse yourself in whatever area of expertise you are wanting to go in. Patrick says that success leaves clues—find those people and listen as much as you can.

Successfully Selling Your Business

Laying the groundwork for a successful transition when selling your business can help you receive the full value that your company is worth, without any hiccups. Selling requires careful planning. 

Patrick says that by following these four simple steps, you will remain on the offensive:

1. Keep clean books and records. Stop treating your business like your personal bank account. Pay your taxes, receive the correct income and you will benefit later down the track.

“The least amount of personal expenses you have in there [books], the better off you’re going to be.”

2. Take yourself out of the truck. Don’t be the only person doing the hard work and “turning the wrenches.” People do not want to purchase that kind of business and your exit strategy will be far more complicated.

3. Focus on service. Service should be placed above new construction. Buyers are fearful of new construction. The more service you focus on, the better your business is going to be.

4. Deepen those customer relationships. Get into customer homes more often, deliver a better maintenance agreement and this will lead to long-term profitability.

How To Find a Suitable Business To Purchase

If you have a problem in your business, having more leads come in is not going to fix your issues. Patrick’s advice for anyone searching for a business to acquire is to first look at what is happening within your own company. Once you have the right systems in place in your own company then you are better prepared to purchase someone else’s.

“Don’t buy anything until your ducks are in a row in your own business. Many people think, and I’m sure you see it on the marketing side, they’ve got all these other problems, and they think that if we have more leads coming in that will fix the problems. That’s not the fix… Make sure your house is in order first, and that you’ve got systems in place in your own business before you go taking on somebody else’s. That’s the first step.”

Determine how and where you want to grow. Look at the location of the companies you are thinking about purchasing and decide whether these fit within your expansion. Patrick also explains the importance of checking in on the size and affordability of the business you are considering.

Understand what your business and clients need and go from there. 

For more information on his business and services, visit Business Modification Group.

Selling Versus Running A Business

If you don’t enjoy your work, make a change. Find a career that you can take pleasure in, like selling products that you are knowledgeable and passionate about. Patrick shares that although he started out in the finance industry, he knew it was not the space for him. He decided to pivot, pursuing a career as an HVAC business broker instead.

Patrick emphasizes that success leaves clues. Finding your way in a new career path is not always easy. His advice is to: 

1. Try new things.
2. Learn from successful business owners.
3. Improve on what you learn.

“I get to steal a lot of ideas from successful companies that I see every day. I love successful businesses. So, for me it’s kind of neat to kind of peel back the layers and see what works… seeing what’s successful and what’s not successful and there is a fine line that separates the two, that’s extremely exciting to me.”

Making A Business Sellable

Buyers love simplicity and ease. When selling a business, it is important that you have clean records and great relationships with your clients. Patrick says these are the first things that buyers look for when considering a purchase.

“Separation of service, clean books and records, repetitive income and a business built on service. Those four things if they build their heating and air company, and plumbing company and electrical company that way, they’ll be able to cash a bigger check.”

Be aware of what the general rate for a business of your size is going for and try not to oversell or undersell yourself. People will not always be truthful with what they can truly afford, so you have to have to make a judgement call and understand how to communicate your desires.

Becoming A Buyer

Great customer service is an essential quality you should look for when buying a business. Patrick knows a lot about what is needed when acquiring a new company. Aside from assessing the right pricing and the paperwork, you have to ensure you have a good understanding of how the business was run previously. If the company you are considering purchasing has a bad reputation for inconsistency or bad customer service, those issues will now fall on you.

The Opportunities Of The Trade

You can be incredibly successful in the trades. These jobs are always going to be needed, and Patrick believes this industry will continue to grow.

“I can tell you I know more people in the heating and air business that make more money than the people I knew in the financial planning business... It’s not all about income and I am not trying to make it like it is, but the opportunities that the trades offer that I didn’t realize existed, I get to see that on a daily basis and that’s incredible to me.”

For more information on Patrick’s business and services, visit Business Modification Group.

Define Your Purpose

Businesses that define their purpose and values are better positioned for long-term success in an ever-changing climate. Idan believes that in order to align your business and your vision, you must first ensure you have found alignment within yourself.

“As a leader if your vision is not really connected to who you are… I think we need to embody our vision… First of all, you need to spend time with yourself and really connect with where you want to be, who you want to become, and why it’s important to you.”

Once you become clear on your mission, bring your team in and ask them for their thoughts and opinions. Idan shares that your vision should have a life of itself. Make sure everyone on your team feels as passionately about it as you do, because you want your organization to work as a whole - not as a bunch of individuals.

A Fresh Start Attitude

911 Restoration and its team are dedicated to living a ‘fresh start’ attitude. Idan describes this mindset as being the positive in every negative situation as well as providing support for every member of the team. You are there to be of service to your client. Once you adopt this mentality everything else will fall into place.

“We’re going back to empowering every person in the company and we know that once you’re empowered, everybody around you will kind of get that sense, get that feeling as well. So, it’s really, are you fit for service? When you go out there to work with somebody who is going through a disaster - water damage or fire - are you really present to be there for them and support them?” 

You want to be the calm in your client's traumatic storm. When you are worried about how your team members are, how your business is running or anything else that is happening in the background, you are not giving your client your full attention. You are adding to the chaos they are already experiencing.

Be The Person Who Listens

Most people want to be heard and listened to. If you are actively listening to your clients and helping them through their tough times, you will gain their trust. Plus, when you really listen, Idan says, you don’t need to sell anything because people will tell you exactly what they want.

Personal Development in Business

It is not about what you want to have in life, it is about who you want to become. You will find a greater sense of fulfillment from the level of contributions you make to your work, your family and your community. Find alignment with who you want to be and success will follow.

“When you put a light on a limited belief, it dissolves, it gets transformed. Suddenly I am seeing I am not working hard but I am making more money. I am putting meaningful relationships and adding value at the core of what I do. So it’s not about how much money can I make, it’s about can I build a meaningful business with that person. Can you really be aligned on the business and mission… Once my focus was on that, the growth was unbelievable. So when you chase something, you’re just really pushing it further away from you.”

Idan closes with the advice to start nurturing yourself, learn new information, and do things that bring you closer to who you want to become.

Idan’s LinkedIn
911 Restoration Franchise

Small Business to Leading Franchise

Originally from Israel, Idan moved to the USA after leaving the military in search of lucrative business opportunities. Through perseverance and great business sense, he has flourished as an entrepreneur and found his footing among some of the top business leaders.

Idan says the customer experience is what drives him to work harder. Once Idan discovered the restoration world (including water, mold and fire) and he saw how elated his customers were to have their property back, he realized that was the type of business he wanted to be in. He is now the founder and CEO of 911 Restorations, which is ranked among the top restoration franchises in the nation by Entrepreneur.

Striving for Success Through Digital Marketing

Idan attributes much of his company’s initial growth to digital marketing. After hearing about Google and online marketing, Idan was ready to put in the time required to learn everything he could about scaling his business and reaching more people through Google AdWords.

“We grew our business from $250,000 a year to $3 million a year in about two years. So this was our first crazy growth experience… that growth was one thousand percent from digital advertising.”

Nurture Your Customers and Your Team

Idan believes you must put your customers first. Every customer you are helping in restoration is going through an emotional journey, and you must be there to support them through that. If you are able to provide fair and excellent service to your clients, they will refer you to more people and help you grow your business. 

“We’re very conscious of the emotional journey of the client, right. So if you work with the manager of a building we didn’t think about what we need, we always thought about how we can help do better. How can I help him get to where he wants to get. And what we saw was that the more we can help more people, everything just comes back to you. So that was always in the back of our mind. The idea of us as a company, we want to build a culture where we are really nurturing our team, our franchises and our clients and really helping them go through this journey. That’s at the core of everything we do.”

Generating Consistent Leads

911 Restoration continues to grow steadily, accepting new clients every day. In order to achieve this level of growth, Idan shares the three areas that his company has always focused on:

1. Online lead generation: Be available whenever a customer needs you.
2. Work your local market: Get out in the field and build relationships.
3. Create an account with a national list: If you work with a retailer that has many stores across the USA, you want to try and get on their list.

Personal Development Drives Company Development

Idan firmly believes personal development holds an important role in business success. Idan explains that every one of his team members is responsible for their development but is there to support their colleagues as well. A company only thrives when its employees do.

“When you get everyone aligned, when everyone knows your expectations, everybody knows what they need to do and what success looks like. That way you celebrate as a team. You know when you guys are winning.”

He prioritizes people before profit. When you are clear about what is important, it is a lot easier to make decisions and you will have a far more obvious direction for the business. 

Idan’s LinkedIn
911 Restoration Franchise

Why Your Online Reputation Matters

Your online reputation really matters, especially for home services businesses. Remember, your marketing funnel begins with the consumer looking in many different places for someone to fix their problem. So you want to make sure that you give a good first impression and show up where they are looking.

Marika highlights that according to the current data, the consumer typically has five touchpoints with your business before they take action. These touchpoints should be searchable, educational, and valuable. 

Apps home services businesses should consider creating a profile on (in addition to Google, service ads, and paper ads):

• Nextdoor
• HomeAdvisor
• Angie’s List
• Yelp 
• Porch

The final touch? Make sure your information is consistent across all platforms.

Consumers Have Options

In today’s market, consumers have a lot of options and places they can search for information. 

“Some studies show that the online reviews are basically 90% of what matters in somebody making a decision. So, in the past, somebody used to just call their neighbor or friends, family, whoever to recommend someone. But now, if you don’t have a good set of reviews, and it’s okay to have some not so good reviews too, but you have to show that you’re interacting with your client, so that online reputation really matters much more so than before.” 

Marika’s advice is to treat your Google My Business page as a little microsite. If your website is your house entryway, then consider Google My Business your front porch. Populate it with:

• Photos
• Coupons
• Website
• Hours
• Phone

Local service ads are also a helpful tool for promoting your business, and it is critical that your team on the other end of that phone number is responsive. You have to pick up the phone. With the high level of competition and low loyalty today, consumers will move right along to a competitor if you don’t answer immediately.

Responding to Reviews

Marika acknowledges that being a business owner and trying to keep track of all of your responsibilities and respond to reviews can be overwhelming. She recommends thinking of your online reputation like building your credit history. Do what you can to improve it and monitor it closely. 

Responding to both good and bad reviews as soon as you see them is important. What other people want to see is that you are willing to make things right and resolve any issues that the poster addresses. Be charitable, consistent, and follow up. If you need support, Marika recommends taking action:

1. Choose someone in-house to help you manage your online reputation.
2. Find a trusted, expert partner outside your company to help you. 

Marika’s Tip for Capturing Reviews

“I think people are happy to leave reviews but it has to be in that moment. So, the best way to handle it is to have the technician ask for a review before they leave the house and then follow up from there. But you have a very, very short window to even get that review and you have to ask for it. Some companies, they do friendly competition between the technicians, a little incentive program there to motivate the technicians to get more.”

Elevating Individuals to Elevate the Industry

Chad knows the importance of putting in the time required to elevate the trades industry as a whole. Building a company made up of over 180 employees does not happen if you do not have a solid process and vision in place for developing your people.

Through Peterman Top Tech Academy, Chad’s team brings in people who have no background in the trades and gives them the opportunity to learn from Peterman HVAC technicians. After a three-and-a-half-month period of spending three days in the classroom and two days on the field, the students are ready to start their careers in an entirely new industry.

Finding and Hiring Great Techs

In an environment where good techs are difficult to come by, Chad believes it is important to open up the opportunity to all individuals and then narrow the applicants down from there.

“Hungry, humble, smart. We took those three qualities and basically created a rubric for which we would grade people.”

Knowing the applicants they were taking in did not have a technical background, provided them with the advantage of being in the driver's seat. Instead of feeling rushed to hire someone new simply to fill a spot, they were able to assess individuals for who they are and decide if they would be a good fit for the team. They narrowed 600 applicants down to 30-40 through their rigorous process, but ended up with students who were willing to learn the skills without any preconceived ideas.

“I would say the non-negotiables were really the values for us. We kind of went into this process saying we are going to be very, very stringent on, ‘you need to answer these questions and really show us that your values align with the company.’ And that is really what we were looking for.”

Always Be Serving Others

Chad shares that as his team has made it through this year, they have uncovered where their training program will continue to help them, moving forward. As you continue to grow, your rate of customer acquisition and membership acquisition will naturally begin to pick up velocity. The more technicians you have on the field, the more memberships you will acquire.

“When you add more people, you can run more calls which equates to more opportunity. What we have found is if we were sitting in this exact same spot and we didn’t have the school in the works, we would be in a very peculiar place because I don’t know that we could hire enough people to satisfy the demand.”

Through the school, they are able to bring more people in and impact more lives. Allowing people who would normally not have a chance to work in the trades the opportunity to thrive is something Chad is most proud of.

Chad encourages all home services owners to stay focused on serving others. Through this process, you will see exponential results and find authentic success. 

Resources: 

Peterman Top Tech Academy

The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni

Be A Trailblazer

Chad has always been a visionary. He explains that you can’t be afraid of taking risks and using your imagination. You must be willing to learn new things and be open to new technology or ideas that may help your company along the way. Don’t be afraid to take someone’s idea and put your own spin on it!

“Rather than think up ten reasons why it can’t be done, say well they’re doing it, we just really have to dive in to figure out how they’re doing it or put our own spin on it to make it successful.” 

Attracting Great People To A Great Company

Finding applicants for your company can be tough, and ensuring you are attracting the right people for your team can be even tougher. Chad recognized that most people are not regularly introduced to the trades as a viable career option. So his company decided to create a place where they could attract people, introduce them to the trades, and provide them with opportunities for success.

“Maybe it’s not that there aren’t a lot of good people, maybe it is more so that they don’t want to work for my company. And so we kind of went and took that perspective and understood that we’ve got to make this a place that people want to come. And I think after kind of getting through those two phases, what we figured out is there may not be good people and we may have a great place to work so how can we build those people? Because there’s a lot of great people out there, they just may have never been introduced to the trades.”

Chad highlights that the quality of people entering his company now, is far higher than before they changed their mindset around who they take on. Introducing people from different walks of life into the trades, allows for the industry to grow as a whole. 

The Art Of The Trades

Chad wants future generations to see the potential in having a trade career. There is so much honor to be had in becoming someone who can fix something. Take pride in the industry you work in. 

“The one thing that has allowed us to grow is to understand that the quality and the integrity with which you treat your people, ultimately results in your growth. I always explain it to people. If I can take whoever in whatever position and they can be better next year than they were this year, then we’re going to grow. And then when you multiply that by 180 people you start to grow exponentially which is really what you’re looking for.”

Don’t get ahead of yourself and try to do too many things too quickly. If you provide the correct platform for your team, allowing the room for them to be successful, you will have a group of people who are intent on getting better. 

Build Leaders

“Reading has no value unless you share what you’re learning. You can read all the books in the world, but if you refuse to tell anybody or share with anybody what you’re learning… that’s not really beneficial to what you’re trying to do.”

Chad recommends giving your team the chance to learn from you but explains that not everyone will take the opportunity. Set the foundation for the culture and provide a roadmap for people who do want to advance or take on a leadership role and you will see organic and sustainable growth.

Scaling Requires Systems and Strong Leadership

Howard emphasizes that in order to scale, you need to have the right systems and processes in place that you can duplicate. You can’t grow if you are trying to do everything yourself. Over the years, he has been able to grow his service company into a multi-million dollar turnkey business by prioritizing:

1. Systems that will move you off of the organization chart so that you can work on the business instead of in it.
2. People who will do the work the way it needs to be done. 
3. A leadership team that will help these people and systems work together synergistically.

Build Your Framework

For Howard, his dream to spend as much time on his favorite beach and build a house there while helping other people build a phenomenal business. This vision is what kept him committed to building a turnkey business. He identifies defining your vision as the first step to building your business framework.

“My definition of leadership is leadership effectively communicating the vision. You have to have a vision. People who are on your team want to know ‘Where are we going, and why are we going there?’… So that’s the first piece of the framework.”

1. Define your vision.
2. Fill in the organization chart to see how all of the levels and departments should fit together.
3. Develop your Performance Results Description (PRD): how your employees need to perform in order to reach your business goals. 
4. Create policies and procedures for every role in the company. These need to be updated consistently as your business evolves. 

Howard also emphasizes the importance of meeting with your leadership team weekly and monthly to review the numbers, address any issues, and adapt any processes to make your workflow more effective. 

Get Off the Truck

Howard says that in order to get yourself off of the truck, you need to want it and know why you want it. This is why having a vision is so important.

“You’re so in love with the technical, you know you feel like you can do it better than anybody and that’s probably true, but you’re going to be stuck there forever as long as you have that mentality. You have to want to. You have to have a vision - a life off the truck. You have to fall out of love with the technical part and understand that if someone else can do it 85% as good as you can, you’re able to scale.”

Howard outlines this process to systematically replace yourself in every role at every level of your business in a few steps.

1. Train your technicians in the classroom and do ride-alongs. Once they can do the job to your satisfaction with your supervision, you’re ready to get off the truck. 
2. Next, encourage them to utilize the manual instead of calling you with every question. 
3. Now that you’re off the truck, use this time to develop the rest of your organization and remove yourself from the administration work to become the manager. 
4. Finally, help develop your employees into great managers and leaders so that you can move from the manager role into the director role. Now, you’re ready to work on your business instead of in it. 

Howard’s Advice

Howard recommends investing in a coach, someone who has scaled before, in order to do this because building systems and seeing this process through will be one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. Finally, stay focused on your vision and let that drive you to build a phenomenal business and a phenomenal life.

Howard likens KPIs to a scoreboard for your business. It helps you understand how you are performing in the game of business, when you are winning and losing, and where you can improve. 

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Howard says that there are several important data points and numbers to track, but the priority should be: “The Critical Number.”

He learned about “The Critical Number through the Great Game of Business” program by Jack Stack. This is the number that is most important for you to focus on during the specific chapter of growth your business is in. 

He shares the example of when his business was bringing in an income of 2 million dollars but had a very small profit. Ellen Rohr, business makeover expert, helped him build on his understanding of “The Critical Number” by identifying his Known Financial Position (KFP). Identifying your KFP requires going through line by line of your income statement and balance sheet and knowing exactly what each number means and where it goes. 

Establish Your Known Financial Position (KFP)

Howard recommends tracking on a weekly basis so that you can pivot and take action based on real numbers. Questions to consider to improve your business success:

1. What are your weekly and monthly profits and losses? What is your profit margin? Set up a 12-month budget to guide you.
2. Look at your labor cost and what percentage of it is of your income. How can you improve in this area?
3. Are you pricing profitably?
4. What are your daily sales?
5. Look at your marketing: How much does it cost to acquire a client? Market to your past and existing clients and work on generating referrals.

Howard recommends Ellen’s book “Where Did the Money Go” for a more in-depth understanding of how to implement these strategies.

Track Your Return on Investment (ROI)

Howard makes sure he includes his team is in the game by tracking their company sales and updating them on the numbers each day. This keeps everyone invested and working toward hitting their monthly sales goal. If they hit it, rewards like bonus checks are passed out. 

The important numbers Howard recommends focusing on in order to track your ROIs begin with a financial forecast or annual projection for your year. 

1. Consider the busy and slower seasons to identify trends during the 12 months that you should be prepared for.
2. How much profit do you want to make?
3. Create a budget and stick to it.
4. Decide in advance what you want to invest in marketing.
5. Track how your marketing is performing in key areas:
   • Repeat business.
   • Referral business
   • Direct advertising

This helps you understand your client acquisition cost. 

“I know how hard you work. One of these days, it’s all going to be over. And my question to you is: ‘Do you want to do all of this work and not have anything to show for it? Do you know what the score is?’ I mean some people are working seven days a week, 24 hours a day to lose money! If you’re like me and you hate the numbers, do yourself a favor, get some help, get somebody to help you understand those numbers. Because the way to win the game is through profit. And if you don’t know your numbers, you don’t know whether you’re profitable or not.”

Lenny started Rove Pest Control in 2003 after working in door-to-door sales for another pest control company and also serving as Vice President of training for door-to-door sales for Orkin. 

Busting Door-to-Door Sales Myths

Lenny is straightforward when he says that door-to-door sales is not for everybody. Most people will find out within two weeks of trying it out if it is the right role for them. For him, it was about a month into his first door-to-door sales job that he realized he could be successful. 

He had just finished selling in Homewood, AL, a blue-collar neighborhood. He decided he would go to Mountainbrook, a well-off neighborhood nearby, although most of his fellow salesmen said it was too hard to sell there. 

On his first knock in Mountainbrook, he was able to sell to a doctor and his wife. In that moment, he says he realized he could sell anything to anyone, anywhere. 

He shares that he learned everything about selling by doing, as his company had a very short training manual. It wasn’t until after he wrote his own sales book that he read other books. He felt he had his own selling style that he didn’t want confused with other styles. 

The Most Important Skill a Salesman Needs to Master

Make each door think you’ve sold to everyone else in the neighborhood. 

“In our company, we call it mental toughness. But at the end of the day, it’s being able to go to one door and have that person at that one door be incredibly rude, condescending, you know, they call your mom a name. I don’t care, whatever it is, and then you bounce back to that very next door and you act like that never happened. You can just erase it from your memory.”

Weathering the Highs and Lows

On July 4, 2000, in Jacksonville, FL, Lenny remembers selling 23 accounts. It was his best day ever. Two or three weeks later, he had a day where he didn’t sell anything. His advice is to stay balanced during these times of highs and lows. Don’t carry your negative momentum with you, only the positive. 

He captured these stories of success and failure in his book “Door-to-Door Millionaire” and eventually started his consulting company that goes by the same name. During his time working in pest control and consulting other home services businesses, he has identified the traits that make or break a salesman.

Successful salesmen are:

• Good communicators:
  • Eye contact
  • Smile
  • Creative 
  • Think on their toes
  • Know a little about a lot
  • Relatable
• Hardworking
• Mentally tough
• Ask open-ended questions instead of yes or no questions
• Never forget to close the sale

D2D Selling In the Trades

“I’m convinced that you can sell anything door to door, any type of trade industry you have, any type of home service industry, you can craft a way to have people go out, knock doors, and generate interest. Because you’re actually kind of at that place where those things are needed, so it’s pretty easy.”

Lenny highlights that he has even seen his plan work for a no credit check finance company. If you have the right processes and system, you will be successful, no matter what industry you are in. 

Lenny has just finished the rough draft of his new book that covers next level door-to-door sales tactics. You can learn more at LennyGray.com.

Entering the Door-to-Door Sales Industry

Lenny says that his door-to-door experience all began when a buddy encouraged him to take a door-to-door sales job to pay for tuition and books in college. In the summer of 1998, he drove across the country to Birmingham, AL with his wife. That summer, he became the top sales representative for a pest control company and never looked back. 

After graduation, he was hired to run Orkin’s marketing team and developed their sales training for them. He set out to start his own business Rove Pest Control once his first child was born, with a partner who knew how to do the fieldwork. With his expertise in knocking on doors, and his partner working in the field, they did half a million in sales in the first year and hit the million-dollar mark in two years. 

The Road to Scaling Success

“We put it all on the line. It wasn’t just me, it was my business partner as well. We needed each other to make this thing work from the get-go. And I mean It was 6 days a week, 10 hours a day, whether I was busting out knocking doors, or he was spraying, from sun up to sundown. And I mean you hear that all the time, but that’s the first core value, we call the value of victory in our company, is it’s hard work.” 

Lenny highlights that scaling with door-to-door sales is a numbers game. How many doors you knock on and how many customers you are able to interact with each day, will determine how many opportunities you have to sell. 

In order to maximize these opportunities, Lenny prioritized growing smart, not crazy. He also says that they focused on growing with the right people, which is key. These steps led to them hiring new salesmen, and opening new locations across states in the Midwest. By year five, they became the largest pest control company in Alabama, and an acquirer bought them out in that state. Lenny shares that they continued to grow in their other locations by:

• Delegating.
• Letting go and trying to get to know people and their fears.
• Helping employees overcome those fears so that they can do their best.

Personalized Training Process

“There’s not a single rep that’s not from my company that hasn’t been on the doors with me. And that’s crazy to think because I’ve been doing this for a long time. But I still go knock doors with my guys. I kind of feel like if I can’t see them, hear them, kind of interact and read kind of those nonverbals, that’s a big part of the communication and sales game is just reading some of those nuances that you’re not going to pick up any other way than just being there. And for me, actually spending the time to be on the doors with my guys, I mean that holds a lot of values in other ways too, right. They see you’re willing to go to bat for them, they see you’re willing to be there side by side with them.”

He credits this training system as an important part of being able to replicate himself, build a positive company culture, boost employee retention, and cultivate strong personal relationships. 

Company Principles

The company principles that define Rove Pest Control are: 

1. Hard work
2. Mental toughness
3. Commitment

Lenny says that whether you’re a tech or a CSR or middle management or a door-to-door sales representative, if you can stick to these values, you will be successful in any area. He also emphasizes that you will only have success in business if you have success at home. 

“If you want to be the type of person that other people want to work for, I hope you’re a good husband, I hope you’re a good father, I hope you’re a good person not just those 8 to 10 to 12 hours you’re at work but those five or six to eight hours you have to be home with the people you should care about the most. So I think it all goes together and those that are the most successful aren’t just successful in business.”

As a busy leader, Lenny’s tips for success are simple: 

1. Pray and maintain an organized, detailed calendar filled with your personal and professional commitments. 
2. Be willing to do anything in your company that is necessary for success. Just get the work done.

Defining Business Leadership

As CEO of S & D Plumbing, grandma, and mother, Rhonda has a lot on her plate. After starting S & D Plumbing 40 years ago, it has now grown into two locations with 35 employees. While she now has a General Manager that handles the day-to-day processes, she shares that it took hard work to find and develop the right business leadership. Rhonda credits this training to creating a culture of teamwork that they have worked hard to foster. 

“It’s a continual journey. Because as long as you’re wanting to grow, as long as you’re wanting to stay in business, much less grow your business, you’ve got to have that leadership capability. I could tell you some of the things we’ve implemented. We believe in training. We train at every level of the company, all the way to me. I have a leadership coach, my General Manager has a leadership coach. We train our technicians, we train our CSRs, and we’ve got the best of the best.” - Rhonda 

Amanda Lawson recently moved from California to Texas after spending nearly a decade as a professional beach volleyball player. During this time, she shares that she had to create her own path and personal brand. Now, as the Director of Business Development, these skills are playing an important role as she builds the S & D brand and networks in the community. 

Taking Pride in Both Legacy and Innovation

Rhonda says that while their legacy is important to them, they also value innovation and understand how important it is to evolve with the times. Her tips for staying on the cutting edge of the industry include:

1. Join best practice groups. These will encourage you to invest in your business and yourself, and equip you with valuable tools, connections, and resources.
2. Hire young people.
3. Prioritize work ethic and value hard work.

From the beginning, Rhonda emphasizes that S & D Plumbing has been about establishing a business that can be passed onto the next generation. She says that they named their business after their two sons, Sam and Dan, and that this generational value is instilled in the very foundation of the company. 

Their mission is to help people hone their skills, grow into management positions, and learn leadership skills. With this approach and mission, S & D Plumbing has been able to cultivate and build a business legacy that can stand the test of time.

Leadership: Nature vs. Nurture

Both Rhonda and Amanda share the view that leaders are learners, and have leadership written into their character. Rhonda also believes that true leaders often lead before they even command a leadership position or role. To inspire leadership and personal growth in their business, Rhonda says that they all share resources and learn from each other as a team. Most importantly, they implement what they learn. 

Podcasts: 

Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast

Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast

Books: 

What the Heck Is EOS? A Complete Guide for Employees in Companies Running on EOS by Gino Wickman and Tom Bouwer

Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business by Gino Wickman

The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues by Patrick Lencioni

“Life is a series of decisions. And you make one decision at a time. And depending on where you are in your business, because I remember where we were 20 years ago, and where we are today, it’s just a huge difference. And I remember when we first got started in the best practices groups and we’d go and we’d learn all this stuff and it would just blow our minds and we would go ‘Oh my gosh, we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this,’ and we had to say ‘What’s the most important thing we can take away from this conference? We’ll go back. Let’s implement it.’ And then you build on that. You can’t do it all at one time.” - Rhonda

Advice From Rhonda and Amanda

Rhonda:

1. There will always be challenges in life and business. It’s a journey.
2. Let go of things and delegate. Hire the right people so that you can focus on what you need to do.
3. Take it one day at a time and one step at a time.
4. Value and exemplify servant leadership.

Amanda: 

1. Take chances.
2. Look for opportunities.
3. Be present and show up with your best self every day.
4. Stay humble and open-minded.

Building From the Ground Up

Rhonda shares that the business began when her husband Sam Dowdy decided to build his own business after working in the industry as a tech for several years. When they founded S & D Plumbing 40 years ago, she had a background as an accountant, but no experience running a business. The first 20-25 years were filled with many lessons and challenges, but in the last 15 years or so they have really perfected best practices and found their niche. 

Although Amanda grew up in the family business, it is only in the last month that she has become an official employee. In her role as Director of Business Development, she is focused on building relationships with vendors and employees, branding and social media, and shaping her position as she learns how she can best serve the business. Her first project was the successful grand opening of their second location. 

Navigating Seasons of Growth 

About 28 years ago, Rhonda shares that Sam was able to make the move from working in the truck to working on building the company.

“It’s scary to do, you know, it’s a big step, but it’s what it took to be able to build his team and his technicians as well as go out and meet customers and kind of be the PR of the company in that way. And then you know, really what happened over time is we realized the need for processes, it’s a big step, and so we have processes now and that’s critical for starting that second location.”

The way you do business builds your brand and reputation. Rhonda emphasizes that preparing your techs with training and processes to represent your company well is essential. 

S & D Plumbing’s second location is a managed repair location. Over the years, Rhonda has seen how many of their best techs go on to build their own company. The creation of this second location was born out of their desire to provide a platform for these techs who want to grow in leadership and ownership without having to worry about where their leads are coming from or the customer service side of the business. 

Establishing Your Home Services Niche

S & D Plumbing has built its business on a reputation of excellence. Rhonda shares that even in the early years when they were learning the ropes, Sam was confident that they were going to find their niche. They did, and leak detection became an innovative path to consistent leads and business growth. 

Amanda also emphasizes that her parents were both willing to adapt to current trends and new approaches in order to grow. 

• Went paperless
• Provided menu pricing
• Offered commission pay
• Created opportunities for techs and employees
• Showed up every day and made sacrifices 

When they first went into business, Rhonda says they took any lead that came in. Experience taught them to focus on their strengths in repairing residential and they eventually moved away from commercial jobs.

Family-centered Business

Although S & D Plumbing moved away from commercial jobs, their son Sam Dowdy Jr. decided to pursue it and he founded Coppera Co., of which Rhonda is also an owner. Their son Dan Dowdy was instrumental in leading S & D Plumbing to its successful position today, and has now begun to focus more on building a coaching business. Amanda shares that unlike her brothers, she didn’t want to work in the plumbing industry or family business initially. But now she sees that there is room for growth and opportunity.

“The pandemic is actually what shifted my mindset into coming into the family business, realizing how essential it is and I love being on a team and it’s even better when that team is your family. And so it’s been extremely positive to see all of the hard work they have put in and really those seeds starting to grow now, and I get to step and learn on fast forward and be a part of this amazing team and just see it grow even more.” 

Rhonda and Amanda both have a vision for building S & D Plumbing into a generational business not just for their own family, but also for their employees and techs. In the future, they look forward to building a school for tech training, leadership, and business ownership.

Business Acquisition 

Ellen shares the reminder from Michael Gerber that you want to build your business so you can sell it. The people who are buying companies are looking for valuable businesses. What makes a valuable business? Profits that are:

• Predictable
• Consistent
• Turnkey

At the same time, if a business presents the potential to reach profits that check these boxes, it is worth considering. Howard echoes Ellen’s advice, adding that considering a business’s current client base and potential client base is also a good indicator of whether they might bring in a strong, predictable income. 

When Is the Right Time?

“The idea of acquiring companies is really so that you don’t have to spend marketing elsewhere. So when is the time right? Always… our recommendation is that you get a list together, you make up that list, you get it from a list service, or you go through and search your market area for your competitors, and you assemble a list, and then you’re going to reach out and try to make a friend.” - Ellen

Once you create your list, Ellen recommends beginning to fish and connect. You are reaching out to see how you could be of service to their company. You will face rejection, but eventually, you might find someone who will say, “Why don’t you just buy my company?”

Howard points out that even if you don’t get the acquisition of a company right away, you might acquire a great employee through that relationship or plant a seed that will blossom down the road. 

Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, some home services businesses are struggling right now. If you are looking to acquire, Howard recommends looking at three areas of that business:

1. Quality of their service experience.
2. How they are currently marketing or using referral strategies. 
3. Potential to increase revenue and profits. 

Ellen emphasizes that no matter where you are as a buyer in your financial place, you can offer creative arrangements for compensation, like an owner finance arrangement to take an income stream instead of a lump sum.

To Merge or Not to Merge?

Howard shares that his first acquisition was one of his suppliers. When he acquired his second business, he quickly was able to take his business from $360,000 to over 4 million, and today they are a turnkey business. These first mergers helped him build his staff internally and scale. 

“If you want to grow, this is like one of the best ways you can do it. It’s instantaneous. You just got to make the right financial deal and so you need to understand the numbers and you need to understand the marketing and sales. Like, you’ll look at some companies, and the reason I know this is not because I’ve acquired a bunch of companies but because I coach small businesses in-home services every single day. And what I know is that some businesses, some service companies, they have this humongo account, if they lose that one account, they’re sunk. So, you want to look for predictable revenue that comes in day in and day out. And because they aren’t doing some of the things they need to be doing, they’re not going as deep into that well as they could be.” - Howard

Ellen also highlights the benefits of bringing your acquisitions under one brand. However, she emphasizes that it’s important to be sensitive to the fact that this may mean a business is retiring a family name that means a lot to them. Be prepared for emotional conversations. 

Approaching the Negotiating Table 

Whether you’re buying or selling, Howard and Ellen underline that it’s important to ask: what is it that is needed and what is it that is wanted?

• When it comes to money, it’s important that buyers respect what the seller says they want, even if you can’t meet it. Put what you can on the table with respect for the hard work they put into their business, and see what happens. 
• At the same time,  if you’re selling, don’t settle for something that doesn’t meet your expectations. 
• Take the ego off the table.
• Remember that the agreement should benefit both parties. 
• Clearly define your goals and your whys for selling and buying.

Your Business Runs on People

Charlene makes it clear that her focus in the business is the people she serves and the people she employs. At Ierna’s Heating, Cooling and Plumbing, she strives to create a work-family culture, recognizing that most employees spend a significant time in the workplace. Some key features of her approach to cultivating this work-family culture include:
Let your team know you support them and have their back.
Discipline and hold each other accountable as a family would.
Teach and help each other grow with purpose.

They’ve also invested in creating valuable rewards programs that recognize employees who hit their goals. From company cruises to renting yachts and hosting lake days with fun activities, Charlene emphasizes that this relationship and team-building time is what keeps them rooted, humble, real, and human.

On the customer service side, attention to detail and intentionality are hallmarks of the Ierna white-glove experience.

“I think that white-glove treatment today is similar to kind of what we would consider old school treatment. Back in the day when you would call your A/C company, you had his home phone number and you’d call him up and he’d come over next door and fix your A/C. They do those little extra things. They know you by name, they know a little bit about your history, just give a little extra something that perhaps they wouldn’t have received from a prior contractor… just setting us apart and really making sure that we’re going the extra mile for every customer.”

Employee Training and Onboarding

Charlene prioritizes teaching, training, coaching, communication, and lots of touchpoints during the employee training and onboarding processes. She believes that this is key to helping techs be successful in the field and equipping employees with the tools and knowledge they need to do their job well. This translates to strong retention and your staff knowing their purpose.

She also emphasizes that your onboarding process can never be too lengthy or too much. There’s a skill set, industry lingo, and processes to learn, and now COVID-19 measures to maintain. It’s important to stay current, adapt, and check in to see what is working and what’s not working.

While retention in the trades can be challenging, Charlene shares that creating a positive, empowering environment with your team is the best way to create ambassadors. When your team is happy and fulfilled, they become the best marketers for your company.

Managing Costs During the Pandemic

Operating costs and solvency are always a priority, but during the pandemic Charlene shares that she didn’t want to cut employees. Instead, she focused on reallocating her resources and being creative.

“What I did in terms of cost-cutting was being creative and looking at some areas that were not effective... schools are closed, we sponsor a lot of schools. Restaurants are closed… we didn’t do anything in terms of cutting back employment or cutting back our roster. So I think that trying to stay consistent and again signaling safety to your team is important… I think it’s important to stay calm, stay the course, and just keep moving forward.”

She highlights that people still need heating, cooling and plumbing right now, and their appliances and plumbing are being taxed more now than ever since everyone is home. So, don’t cut your marketing budget. Instead, figure out where your people are in their new environment and connect with them there. Shift your budget from advertising at schools and restaurants and on billboards, and reach people online where they are spending the majority of their time.

Charlene’s Advice

Through all of these changes and challenges, it’s important to stay focused and make sure your team sees your passion. This will help retention and help your home services business weather anything that comes your way.

Building a Home Services Business

Charlene shares that she was inspired to enter the home services industry when she saw the huge market for the trades, specifically air conditioning services, in her hometown. Seventeen years ago, they had to call into Tampa for A/C service, and she saw this gap as an opportunity for a business.

From two employees to 90, Ierna’s Heating, Cooling and Plumbing has grown steadily with hard work. Today, Charlene embraces the multi-faceted role of visionary, innovator, leader, and brand ambassador. She emphasizes that she thrives in this position because she enjoys being involved and engaged in her local community, but getting to this place where she could do what she loves took intentional business and team building.

“I love what I do, and I think that I am better suited for that, like I said I like to be a visionary for the company and I think that as any wise leader would do… my time is better spent managing employees that can do things that maybe I’m not necessarily great at or do things that I maybe don’t necessarily enjoy doing, so I’ve put people in place that have built that team, so I that I can do the things that I’m really good at or things that I’m good at doing.”

Adapting and Overcoming Challenges

In the home services industry, Charlene has found that most of the challenges her business faces are rooted in relationships: employees, colleagues, competitors, and customers. These challenges are constantly changing and evolving as people are unique and relationships are dynamic. Social media and people’s desire for instant gratification have also added a layer to this challenge, by making the industry more fast-paced.

While Charlene acknowledges that women do not make up the majority of people in the trades, she has never found her gender to be a barrier to success. She is also excited to see more females joining the field and taking advantage of the many opportunities that exist within the industry.

Thriving in the Pandemic

“I think you know, it’s like everything in life really that’s unexpected. You can’t control the challenges that are happening in your life, but you can try really hard to control the way you respond to those challenges. And I think that’s been super important to over-communicate with your team, collaborate with your team on all levels. I think it’s been important to signal safety out there… and one way we’ve done that is to not do a single layoff since. We’ve not pulled back in any way, shape, or form.”

Charlene highlights that protecting your human resources, especially during a crisis, needs to be your priority. She made sure her business’s actions reflected how they valued their relationships by:

1. Over communicating with her team.
2. Making it clear that their jobs are not in jeopardy.
3. Being totally transparent.
4. Supporting them as her work family.
5. Staying calm.
6. Providing her team with the necessary safety measures.

Charlene’s Advice

Have tenacity. Have a plan but make sure it’s flexible. Be ready to pivot, and know that changes and challenges are part of what make your job so important.

Texas Green Plumbing is a full service, residential plumbing company that specializes in slab leaks and leak detection, just Northeast of Dallas, TX. With only three trucks, they’re not a big company, but they are a very busy company that does well in their area. 

Social Local Growth

Leveraging social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok is often an undervalued and tough to tackle part of running a home services business. But Roger argues it doesn’t have to be. 

A few of his tips for simplifying and making your marketing strategy effective include:

1. Utilize keywords that pertain to your home services industry and geographic location.
2. Define who your customer is and figure out which platforms they like to hang out on. That’s where you should be publishing your content. 
3. Focus on creating a synergy between all of the platforms you are using by repurposing content in creative ways. 
4. Network on social media like you would in real life by telling your story, sharing why you do what you, and answering questions.

Networking 

You only get one chance to make a first impression. Roger shares how when his wife encouraged him to attend a local networking event, he was hesitant. However, once he was there, he was in his element. 

“And I kid you not, that first night networking, we got three lead calls the next week… and I was like wow, that was really really easy. I think all tradespeople should be out networking. All you do is talk about the business that you do. People will love you for that.”

He emphasizes that this kind of organic sharing is exactly how you should approach your social media content. For example, we all love to buy but we all hate to be sold to. When you’re meeting people at a networking event, anyone who tries to hard sell or cold sell to you is not going to be someone you want to keep in touch with. 

After this first successful networking event, Roger and his wife eventually got involved in the group called Master Networks which teaches you how to bond, find common interests, and build relationships.

He started applying these concepts he was learning about networking in real life to his networking on LinkedIn.

“How could I use LinkedIn to get in front of not just people, but the people that can introduce me to people. So I started looking at real estate agents. And I thought, ‘I want to be the most informative plumber that there could ever be for real estate agents. I want to teach them about plumbing… I want them to understand the value of it…’ and I started using LinkedIn to grow locally. I started reaching out to local real estate agents. And I would just tell them ‘Hey, I’m Roger Wakefield -  I put out valuable content that can help you help your customers.’ And I started building connections.”

Roger highlights that by telling your story in this way, by adding value, you become a trusted advisor to your audience. You position yourself as the first person they think of when they need help. 

Websites

Websites are crucial, but they don’t need to be complicated. They also don’t need a lot of pages in order to be effective. Instead, make it easy for your customer to find what they are looking for. 

A website should: 

• Tell your story and tell the customer why you do what you do. 
• Tell your customer how to get in touch with you. 
• Add value to the customer’s life with helpful information about questions they need answered. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will make your website easy for Google to find and retrieve when your customer is searching for an answer. By positioning your blog around topics and keywords your customers are asking about, you will help Google direct your customers to your site. 

YouTube

On YouTube, SEO is equally important, since it is owned by Google and functions as a search engine. 

Roger shares that he likes to utilize long-tail keywords to attract his target audience. These are people searching for specific plumbing and trade content. Long-tail keywords are more specific and have a lower search volume, but often yield higher conversion rates because they attract a very niche audience. 

Roger’s tips for creating content for your social media platforms and blog are simple:

1. Ask your receptionist what questions they are receiving on the phone from customers. Create content that answers those specific questions. 
2. Never stop learning. And never stop sharing what you are learning, whether it’s a new tool or new technique in your industry. 
3. Start! You don’t have to have everything perfect to begin. You just need to start, and improve a little bit everyday.  

YouTube: Roger Wakefield 

LinkedIn: Roger Wakefield 

Website: Texas Green Plumbing

Podcast: The Trade Talks (coming soon!)

After quitting high school his junior year, he went on to manage a burger joint. When his coworker told him about his family’s successful career in plumbing, Roger was interested. He applied to work for them, and started his first project at $4.75 an hour. 

Plumbing Journey

He went on to work with Green Plumbers USA, becoming an Elite AP and Director of Operations. These roles and responsibilities ignited his passion for green plumbing and water conservation. He also saw how community concern for conservation varied based on geographic location to bodies of water and access. He believes that water conservation and management should be a priority no matter what, and has continued to advocate for this in his own business. 

Building a Business

Five years ago, he founded Texas Green Plumbing, a nod to his Texan pride and formative years with Green Plumbers USA. Today, he spends his days split evenly between running the business and running his social media platforms, which includes a YouTube channel with over 50,000 subscribers. 

When he started out, growth happened organically through networking and talking to people in his community. As his business grew, his staff grew, and he realized how important it is to be selective in the hiring process. 

“You want to make sure you’re getting people in who believe in your culture and want to do things the way you want it done.”

Operating Processes

Over the years, Roger shares how he saw what made the businesses he worked for fail and what made them succeed. Something that stood out to him, was how often they lack a real plan for achieving their goals and creating the culture they want. In his business, he wanted to have real tangible processes. 

He hired a company that equipped them with the processes and education necessary to track daily Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), stick to their budgets, set their pricing, and create a strong workflow. He says this was a phenomenal investment that set them up to thrive.

Thriving in Chaos

Before founding Texas Green Plumbers, Roger went on to become a cosmetologist. He helped his sister manage her hair salon, went to cosmetology school to learn how he could better support her, and then ended up also opening up his own hair salon. Soon after, he went to school to become a massage therapist. Eventually, he realized he really missed plumbing, and he returned to the industry to start his company.

While this may sound crazy to some, for Roger, this is his secret recipe. When things get crazy, he finds clarity. 

“If I’m starting one business, it’s just as easy to start two. As long as they’re close or similar or something like that, I know what I need to focus on. Sometimes that chaos is just enough to make you look at it sharper than you ever have, and say okay, this is where I need to focus. And when we focus, we win.” 

Navigating the Marketing Industry

For Roger, finding the right marketing agency took a lot of trial and error. He highlights the red flags to look out for when searching for a trustworthy marketing partner:

1. They tell you what you want to hear, but you aren’t seeing results. 
2. You’re paying the marketing company more money than you are paying for Google ads. 
3. They don’t tell you the full story: like encouraging you to get a new website without informing you that it won’t include SEO and you’ll need to invest in that crucial part after the fact.
4. They are poor communicators.
5. They can’t give you a good idea of what kind of ROI you should expect. 

“I believe in marketing. It doesn’t matter how great of a company you have, if nobody outside your door knows about it, they’re never going to find you… a great marketing company, they can change your life. Think about somebody that walks out, they’re a good plumber, a good HVAC tech, or something like that, they walk out on the street with the right marketing company - life is amazing. But when you get a bad one, that can put a company out of business.”

Social Leads to Local Leads

Roger says that all of the marketing conferences he went to always told him that social media was a tool for global connection. However, he has since figured out a formula to make it work locally, which he calls “Social Local Growth.” Learning how to do this has changed everything for Texas Green Plumbing, and he’ll be sharing how they make it happen in Part 2 of his interview.

Educating Beyond the Team

Chad and Amy are passionate about training and educating their own team, and paying it forward to other business owners, including their competitors. Their open-door policy allows other business owners to come observe how Continental Plumbing runs their business from the inside out. Chad believes that giving back in this way also pushes them to stay one step ahead of the competition. And Amy has seen how empowering their team with strong educational resources makes for happy employees, which results in happy customers. 

“I think customers know… if our people are happy, the customers will be happy.” - Amy

The Importance of Setting Expectations

At Continental Plumbing, Chad and Amy have seen how important it is to set expectations. When the team understands the expectations and follows through on the values of the company, everyone wins. For example, Amy highlights the importance of having the front desk prepare customers for what to expect, and then it is up for the techs to provide exceptional service.

Chad credits working with a business coach as the driver behind setting these expectations for his team.

“For me personally, what made me get in front of it was a business coach ‘cause they see things from the outside. They don’t see it from the inside like I do so if someone else can sit back and have a thousand-foot view of your company, and they look down and say ‘You know what, this can help you, I’ve seen this work, try this’ a business coach to me is priceless to be honest with you.” - Chad

They will push you, and if you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not growing. 

Amy also emphasizes how important consistent meetings are. These check-ins help everyone stay educated, connected, and focused on meeting expectations.

Lifelong Learning

Chad and Amy both prioritize learning as part of their business success. A few of their methods of learning include:

1. Reading
2. Online webinars 
3. Attending Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association (PPHC) and Quality Service Contractors (QSC) events
4. Audiobooks
5. Conventions
6. Listening to older contractors’ advice

Opportunity in the Trades

“I would like to see some of the stigma removed from the trades… you don’t have to go the path of college to have success in life and I think the trades right now really need more people coming into the trades especially because the older ones are getting ready to exit.” - Amy

Chad also hopes to see high schools bring back shop classes on welding, AC, and more. He believes that giving kids a taste of the trades in this way, even just for a semester, could inspire future careers. There is so much opportunity to learn, build wealth, and master skills in the trades that people do not realize. Amy also shares that there is a great need for women in the trades, and that they can bring unique value to the industry.

Advice

Chad and Amy’s advice to fellow home services business owners is:

1. Never sacrifice time with your family for business. You will never get that time back, Your business will always be there.
2. Learn how to say no.
3. People first. Business second. This is how you will find success. 

Learn more about Chad and Amy’s company at Continental Plumbing.

Up for the Challenge

Chad, a master plumber with 25 years of experience, got started in plumbing by helping out a friend’s family plumbing business. He relished the challenge and expertise it required, and soon set off to build Continental Plumbing. In the early years, Chad was a one man show. But after he developed epilepsy, Amy left her job as an elementary school teacher to drive his truck for him while he continued servicing homes. Today, she jokes that running a small business and running a classroom are not too different. 

Working Together

Chad and Amy share how working with your significant other is both a strength and a struggle. Setting boundaries is key to finding a healthy work/life balance.

“It came to the point where we realized that all we were doing was talking about work and we weren’t working on our family or ourselves… so we had to make that decision where we said ‘Okay, we’re stopping at a certain time and if we need to talk about something let’s write it down, email it to one another, and we’ll deal with it later.” - Chad

Chad also emphasizes the importance of hiring employees who you trust will do their job. This gives you freedom outside of the office to focus on your other priorities, like family.

Hiring Intentionally

At Continental Plumbing, they use DiSC, a personality assessment tool, for hiring. This helps them gain a better understanding of their applicants’ personalities when they are reviewing their resume. If they seem like they would be a good fit, they are then invited into the office for a few face-to-face interviews. Amy looks for individuals with these traits:

• Altruism
• Work ethic
• Respect for property
• Desire to learn/preferred methods of learning
• Communication

Chad highlights that over time, they have learned that it’s more about finding the right person, than the right set of skills.

Total Business Reset

A few years ago, Chad and Amy had an employee theft inside the business. Looking back, they see how this experience gave them a wake up call and a chance to reset their business. They fired nearly everyone on their team, and started rebuilding with more intentional hires. Bringing in a business coach to guide them during this time was a big turning point, and helped them define their company values. Today, these values help them navigate every decision and hiring choice:

• Family
• Trust
• Reliability
• Consistency
• Happiness

Holistic Training 

At Continental Plumbing, all employees spend time understanding both sides of the job: from the office where they take client phone calls to the field, where they provide their expert plumbing services. Pairing different age ranges together has also proved fruitful. Chad has older techs teach young techs the ropes, and young techs teach older techs how to navigate the more technological side of the job. Most importantly, Chad and Amy focus on letting their team know they really care about them and their families. 

“As a teacher, you know, you get this fresh batch of kids going into the school year and they’re basically yours. It’s like your own little family during the day. You have to have house rules, classroom rules, you know, there’s procedures, and you have to care about them... I guess I kind of look at it the same way. We have people in our care. We have people that depend on us for their livelihoods and their families, just like those kids in my classroom were dependent on me to take care of them and teach them.” - Amy

You can learn more about Chad and Amy’s business at Continental Plumbing. Tune in for Part 2 with Chad and Amy next week.

Great Customer Relationships

Kristin and Elizabeth highlight how the customer relationship is prioritized and given intentional focus. This is a value that is ingrained in their sales team from the moment a new employee begins their job. They understand that creating great relationships and return customers is a key part of their role in the company. 

From working hard to meet concerns, budget restraints, and schedule changes, Southwest is willing to do what it takes to continue the relationship. 

“The big thing that Southwest really focuses on is that we kind of operate like we are part of the customer’s team... Even though we’re a totally different company and different entity, we operate like we are a branch of your company. If you need something done, we’re going to make it happen... And that’s kind of the philosophy we’ve always taken. So, with these customers that we’ve had for forever, they all know that they can call us at any time and we’re going to from our scheduling, to our electricians, to our invoices, to everything, we’re going to make sure that we can service them with what they need.” - Elizabeth

Kristin and Elizabeth both credit clear communication as a core principle in creating great relationships, from big jobs to little residential jobs. 

• Receptionists are always on call and ready to connect the customer with the right person, answer questions, and solve problems.
• Schedulers call customers the day before the job to let them know what the schedule looks like and what to expect. 
• Electricians are trained to clearly communicate what they are working on, keep their space clean, and let the customer know when the job is finished and any necessary updates. 

Longevity Is a Choice

Kristin and Elizabeth both share that this mindset of longevity has always been what drives the business, ever since the company was founded 40 years ago. This mindset guides all of their business decisions and is reflected in how they treat their employees and customers. Being a part of something that is continuing to thrive and grow makes everyone feel important, valued, and recognized, which results in return customers and happy employees. 

Identifying Your Ideal Customer

Southwest works in both the residential and commercial and industrial space. 

Identifying the ideal customer for their business model has been a formative piece of their success. However, even if a business doesn’t check all of the boxes of their ideal customer, they still treat them with the same care and expertise with the hopes that the relationship will be fruitful and long-lasting. This approach has helped them balance their customer base and tackle the challenge of quality vs. quantity while working toward growth. 

In-House Approach to Public Relations

The electrical contracting world often isn’t regarded as highly in social circles as many other roles like being an actor or a fashion designer. 

“I just sort of always felt like there was this idea of it that was just not necessarily good. It wasn’t like ‘Oh wow, cool, you do that?’ …so we also really want to spread the word and get good PR out there for the electrical contracting industry as well as contractors in general, sort of set the example, and get more people doing the same thing because we love what we do, we think it’s super interesting to be able to provide a service that so many people can’t operate without this service. We’re working for people in the aerospace industry where they’re building rocket ships... we’re doing projects to expand distribution companies that service the world. That’s really fun!” - Kristin

Kristin and Elizabeth are passionate about increasing awareness and respect around the trades and their essential expertise. At Southwest, they treat their installations and their work as art, they get involved in community events to help others and increase their visibility, and use their social media and YouTube accounts to share their work and showcase who they are. Through these intentional connections with their community, they hope other contractors will be inspired by their example and join them in highlighting the amazing opportunities in this field of work.

Customer testimonials are another important part of Southwest’s PR strategy. Kristin makes it a priority to share their testimonials in their monthly newsletters to customers, on social media, and with their staff to keep everyone encouraged. 

Advice

1. Focus on helping people. If that’s what’s driving your actions, that will come through to the people you’re working with and they will appreciate that. 
2. When your employees are happy and feel invested in, that will show in their work, impact your customers, and help your business grow.

Family Business

Kristin and Elizabeth are cousins. The company is a family business that Kristin’s father (Elizabeth’s uncle) started 30 years ago in 1998. He kept it pretty small, just him and a few other electricians. When Kristin was hired about 15 years ago on the administrative side, they started creating streamlined procedures and protocols so they could grow. As CEO, Kristin oversees the entire business, with a special focus on the financial health of the company. 

Elizabeth joined 10 years ago, and mainly oversees the production division. She makes sure Southwest has everything they need to do to be out in the field completing jobs, from hiring new staff to stocking supplies, updating training courses, and scheduling electricians.

The Evolution of Training

At Southwest Industrial Electric, Kristin and Elizabeth have created a robust training program for their staff. Their approach is unique in several ways, including:

• Individuals move through the training program at their own pace. There are several courses within each program, and a checklist to accompany each course. 
• The focus is on understanding each course thoroughly, not just completing it. 
• It involves reading documents, watching videos, and then actually practicing those skills in real-time, like working on wiring a dummy light fixture, or answering a customer call. 
• Every time a course’s checklist is completed, staff must take a test and score 100% to move on. If they don’t score 100%, they go back to studying and reviewing the course, asking for clarification, and take the test again.

“It is constantly evolving. A few reasons, one, the technology is always changing. You know, there are certain things that stay the same in our industry, but there are things that change. We are constantly moving toward better lighting, more energy-efficient lighting… And we look out for if there are any areas where… the same question keeps coming up, or the same thing is hard to understand, and we’ll go how do we add something, or make it a little more clear? And then of course with technology, we’re now trying to put our whole program into a lot more videos, when for years, we had it all written down in a book.” - Kristin

The training program is also constantly evolving as they add new positions, adapt to new challenges like COVID-19, and shift responsibilities around to make each role work synergistically. When they see gaps in their employee training, they create new courses called “pilot” courses to ensure that that gap of knowledge is filled and their employees are set up for success. 

Finding Their Stride

Elizabeth first started seeing significant improvement in the team when they began implementing their initial training, which helped employees hit the ground running much quicker and more efficiently. She continued to see improvement as they added courses and more details.

About 10 years ago they started running the training program that has evolved to what it is today, and five years ago, they were able to identify some themes in hiring that changed how they selected their team. 

“Maybe about 5 years ago, we sort of came to the conclusion after some trial and error, that when we just looked for people that had like 10 years plus experience, they had a really big background in whatever we were hiring for, they would sometimes come with procedures or protocols that were ingrained in them which didn’t really match what we were going for and what our protocols were. And we would sort of run into butting of heads… it just didn’t work as well as it could… We started to see more and more that people with not as much experience, but the basic skill level and basic experience we needed, could go through our training and would take to our procedures and protocols faster and easier because we weren’t sort of trying to undo whatever had already been ingrained.” - Kristin

Kristin and Elizabeth also saw that these individuals often moved up the ranks quicker than their more experienced counterparts. While some positions they hire for do require more experience, this revelation has shifted their perspective when they are considering new hires. 

Field versus Office

Having such a high-level training program has also made it easier to identify and solve problems in real-time. 

For example, Kristin and Elizabeth share how they saw their office staff struggling with some of the higher level electric terms and topics when scheduling consultations and projects. They not only updated training courses to address this, they also added meetings during the week to tackle any new questions their staff was facing. When they saw that their field staff was struggling with understanding some internal office topics like invoicing and scheduling, they went back to the training drawing board to update the information and make it really clear in these areas. 

During COVID-19, they have also been doing a lot of Zoom calls with their electricians out on the job. This allows the office staff to see what the field staff is doing, ask questions, and be immersed in the projects.

Having an evolving system in place to address these questions and challenges is key to helping their team and business flourish. 

Employee Retention

Kristin estimates that their current employee retention sits at a whopping 90-95%. She and Elizabeth credit this to their employees fully understanding their roles and responsibilities, which leads to success. And when you’re successful and good at what you do, this leads to satisfaction. 

Advice:

Set aside time and start. Make a list, or a roadmap of what you want to do, and then start tackling it one step at a time.

Learn more about Southwest Industrial Electric and stay tuned for Part 2 with Kristin and Elizabeth next week!

Growing Up in the Trades

Steven grew up working in the company as a kid. At 10 years old, he asked his dad for an interview. He began as a tech, became a journeyman, and worked his way up into a leadership position. In addition to twisting wires as a profession, he is also a guitarist and songwriter. These aspirations coupled with the budding opportunity in our increasingly electricity-powered society inspired him to expand the family business to Los Angeles. 

“I came out here and became a California-licensed electrical contractor… knowing there’s a lot of technology coming with solar, and electric cars, and their future, I definitely thought it would be a good idea to have my contracting license out here and continue the business in TX, so we are able to develop in both cities, in LA and Houston.”

Identifying Opportunities

Steven was only a one-year-old when his parents won the bid to wire George W. Bush Senior and Barbara Bush’s home in 1991. Since then, they have had a storied roster of high-end customers. 

However, because of these high-profile homes, their reputation grew and demand across neighborhoods began to rise. This catapulted them to pivot their business in order to focus on residential. They saw this as an opportunity for long-term relationships with their customers, troubleshooting common problems, ensuring important safety upgrades, and providing precise, careful service within each unique home. 

Of course, there were tensions and growing pains that come with every transition, but Steven credits their success to his family’s work ethic. He emphasizes the lessons that going out and doing these jobs with his father taught him, and how this leadership from the top down helped them establish clear processes that would help their team and serve their clients best. 

“I definitely learned about gathering a team and partnering with the right people to make it happen. It’s a lot of processes that are going into getting new customers and developing our market. So, over time learning from the companies that we work with that help us to make it happen, doing podcasts, also listening to podcasts like this one, this let me gather a lot of content and learn from industry experts... I try to attend trade conventions, expos where I can learn, I’m part of coaching groups where they teach us this material, Blue Collar Success Group is one that I’m having success with.”

Building a Culture 

Building a culture begins with hiring the right people. Steven acknowledges that it is tough and challenging, but these key pillars help make it happen:

1. Know what you’re looking for in an employee.
2. Follow up with people.
3. Always be recruiting and looking.
4. Maintain an organic presence on digital and online platforms.
5. Provide incentive-based pay for technicians and team.

Your company values also have a profound impact on your culture. Steven credits hard work, integrity, communication, and serving each customer as if they were the only customer for shaping the customer and employee experience at West Houston Electric. 

Expansion Driven by Technological Boom

Steven shares that the expansion to Los Angeles is a different, separate entity from West Houston Electric, but will share the same processes and values that make their original location successful. 

Some of the trends that inspired them to expand and capitalize on consistent developments in their industry were:

1. The increasing adoption of the Internet of Things and smart homes.
2. Older homes in need of electrical renovations and code compliance.
3. LED lighting.
4. Security systems.
5. Electric cars.
6. Energy conservation and sustainability: generators, solar systems.

Steven’s advice to those pursuing growth and expansion during this time is to surround yourself with people who will hold you accountable. 

“Be clear on your goals and partner with people that can help you be accountable to those goals and check on them regularly.”

Why Election Years Impact Home Services

During election years, Tim highlights how there is a natural dip in demand.

“Always work as if you’re in a deficit. Always work as if you’re in a recession. Call by call.” - Tim

While this slower season may seem daunting at first, Dan recommends taking it as an opportunity to be proactive rather than reactive. Work on your maintenance contracts, tighten up your inside sales, and work with your staff to really hone the customer experience so that every call makes money. 

Dan surmises that the reason these election years impact sales is due in part to people being tighter with their money because they’re not sure what the economy is going to do. 

How to Be Proactive

If you are complacent, then when the economy slows down, you’re stuck. Three tangible ways you can be proactive are:

1. Start with your training. Your front line needs a good checklist and questions that will set your tech up for success. Work on improving your customer experience from start to finish.
2. Check your phone lines for dead numbers. This sounds simple, but you should never blindly trust. Verify and do quality checks often to ensure you’re receiving calls.
3. Stay optimistic and communicate clearly with your staff. When things get slow, it can be tempting to jump over your managers to get things done, thereby undermining the systems you have established.

“As a business owner, when things slow down and you start seeing all the flaws in your business, you just want to jump back in and start directing your customer service rep and your technician and going around your management team that you built. You really have to make sure that you stick with your chain of command and you’re empowering your leaders and managers in your company.” - Dan

Marketing for Seasonality

Another piece of being proactive is checking in with your marketing company or department for quality and verification. Keeping up consistent communication ensures that you aren’t spending unnecessary money, and your marketing tactics are helping you meet your goals. For a bonus point, do it with a smile!

“You’re the reflection of your people.” - Tim

Tips for maximizing your marketing:

• Focus on the demographics, geographics, and psychographics of your audience and how you are connecting with them.
• Diversify your marketing with various touch points (choose strategically) from door hangers to yard signs.
• Serve, educate, and sell on social media.

Think Strategically

Both Dan and Tim emphasize the importance of solving current problems with your long-term vision and goals in mind. Think strategically, take action, and plan for what you want the future to look like. 

Joining a mastermind group is a great way to connect with other owners and leaders in the home services community who can help you shoot holes in your ideas, improve your plan, and offer support along your journey. 

Dan: Dan@Builtforthetrades.com BuiltfortheTrades.com

Tim: Tim.Flynn@wintershomeservices.com Winters Home Services

Transform Your Relationship and Your Business Will Follow

When they started their careers in the home services trades years ago, they were working longer hours than ever and felt like they could never take a break. It took them several lessons and failures to learn that it was less of the business’s fault, and more of how they were approaching it that was causing these struggles.

When a friend gave Justin the book “EMyth,” his world began to expand and he realized that there were people out there who could help them overcome their challenges.

Today, they have successfully reached a point where their home services businesses can run without them, and they have time to work on the business rather than in them. They have published a book “When Your Business Partner Is Your Spouse,” started a coaching program, and are about to launch their second podcast on July 15, 2020.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Marriage in Business

Strengths:

1. Justin and Kristen highlight that they are very complementary in nature so their strengths and weaknesses balance each other out.
2. There is a level of trust between spouses that goes deeper than a typical business partner.
3. Finding your lane, what you are good at and what you are responsible for, and staying in it is a game-changer.

Weaknesses:

1. Drawing a line between business and home life is a challenge and something you need to intentionally fight for.
2. If you are not setting time aside to focus on hobbies, interests, and quality time outside of business with your spouse, you will revert to talking about business.
3. Without a strong understanding of your partner’s personality and social tendencies, you will struggle. Take time to learn whether they are an introvert or extrovert, and utilize personality tests to understand how you can meet their needs and help each other thrive.

Why Having a Vision Matters

Kristen admits that their lack of vision was a big stumbling block during their first years. They were solely focused on paying the bills which left them feeling pulled in too many directions.

“Every time an opportunity came along that looked like money coming in, we would say yes because that was our vision. And so we added several lines into our services that we probably shouldn’t have or that were a little too far from our main service. But then once we got clear and said ‘okay, we’re going to be the very best at this... it got a lot easier when other opportunities came along’, we said ‘okay, is that going to help us be the very best at this or is that going to distract us?’ And that makes it a lot easier to say yes or no to the opportunity.”

Justin emphasizes that a vision is the best accountability tool to use that will help you narrow down your focus and find success. He used to think that if he was so busy that he was running around with his hair on fire, he was successful. But now he knows that the opposite is true: a clear focus brings a calm, measured approach to growing a healthy business.

What Doesn’t Get Measured Doesn’t Get Managed

One of Justin’s favorite sayings is “Measure, Motivate, and Manage.” It is critical to know what numbers are dictating your business’s success and measure those. Otherwise, you’ll be operating off of feelings instead of facts. Setting these clear goals and expectations for every member of your team helps everyone show up and perform their best.

“Your team needs to know exactly what to do, so especially when there’s uncertainty going on in the world the more they can come to work and kind of feel that ease of ‘Okay, I know what to expect at work, or what needs to be done, or what expectations I need to meet,’ I think it kind of helps them a little bit.”

Justin and Kristen have seen that the businesses who succeed are the ones who refused to be indecisive and instead took intentional action.

Justin and Kristen’s Advice

Ask your spouse what they want!

Learn more about Justin and Kristen Deese at Business Spouse, like their page on Facebook, and follow along on Instagram.

Growing up, his parents Ellen Rohr and Bob Rohr were leading Zoom Drain, so he learned the ropes of the trades early on. When he learned about radiant heating and cooling systems, and how it is made possible with hydronics, he was amazed. This concept circulates water through pipes in the ceiling embedded in concrete. A combination of forced air and radiant heating creates the perfect environment where you have warm feet and a cool head, mimicking humans’ natural state.

Radiant heating and cooling solutions can achieve net-zero energy project goals and it is largely underutilized in the United States, as opposed to Europe, where it is more common. 

“The Energy Information Agency in a 2012 study said that radiant heating saves about 32% energy especially on commercial projects so it’s a great way to maintain comfort and have energy efficiency both in the same package, which is one of the reasons I love to talk about it.”

Buildings Use More Energy Than Vehicles

If you could take your automobile to the mechanic and have him flip a switch and make it 30% more efficient, wouldn’t you do it? This is possible with our buildings too. 

Even in homes or businesses with standard forced air, there are options and solutions that can utilize radiant heating and cooling. 

Max highlights that he believes the reason this option is less recognized in the United States is it is 5-10 years ahead of the curve so not that many HVAC companies offer it yet. And if they do, it is a premium product. But don’t be intimidated! Don’t be afraid to sell your premium product and services!

Remember, your trade and your skills as a trades professional are essential and your services deserve to be valued as such. 

Explain Invisible Value

“I think one of the things is that our history has quietly done such an incredible job of making thermal comfort and plumbing disappear. The average homeowner doesn’t even think about it. We’ve done our job so well that we don’t think, ‘What happens when I flush the toilet?’ ‘What happens when I push up on a thermostat?’ We’ve made all of that hide behind a wall because we’ve done our job well and if you install the system well, your homeowner doesn’t even know what the equipment is, they may not even know where it is in a big house, you have just made it invisible.” 

When you’re interacting with your customers, paint a picture for them of how your products and services benefit them. Find a way to make a complex topic easier, and explain why upgrading to an energy-efficient solution like radiant heating and cooling increases sustainability and comfort. 

Get Involved in Code Committees

Max shares how important it is to get involved in IAPMO, your local community, and understand the current codes and ones coming down the pipeline. You can provide expertise and have an impact on the future. If you’re in traditional HVAC, now is a great time to make the leap and help your customers save energy with radiant heating and cooling. 

Business Tips

For Max, finding his own interests and being inspired by his family legacy is what drives him.

1. If you’re in the same field as your parents, it doesn’t mean you have to do things the same way. Learn from them, and then find your own personal passion.
2. Identify what you want and what your goals are. Then, find the path of least resistance and how you will make it happen.
3. Communicate with your team.
4. Listen to your customers in order to understand the root cause of their problems.

Max’s Advice

Learn. Take advantage of everyone sharing their knowledge right now with all of the online webinars and courses. Soak it up. Find your place in the industry and know you are essential. 

Learn more about Max at REHAU Academy and REHAU Academy on Air

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Built for the Trades

After learning the ropes from his father, Dan ran his own service truck for a decade before stepping into a leadership role for another decade at S & D Plumbing. During this time, he learned what true leadership looks like and how the right network of relationships can help you create a healthy, profitable work-life balance. 

This inspired him to create Built for the Trades, a network of business coaches and vendors specializing in various niches of the home services industry. 

Lessons Learned

Dan highlights the fact that as a business owner, it can be lonely and overwhelming in the weeds, making it difficult to accomplish your goals. 

“When you hire a great business coach, you have that relationship, somebody who can come in and look at your business, give you an outside perspective, and hold you accountable to your vision, accountable your goals, and really just encourage you along the way.” 

From his own personal experience working with coaches, Dan was inspired to become one himself and signed up for John Maxwell’s training program.

“It’s really just taking action. And so I’ve made a lot of big life changes in my life, I’ve taken a lot of risks to build Built for the Trades. But I truly believe in it.”

Dan shares that working with others who have built trade-specific businesses is important to him because of the unique set of values that comes with this industry and he looks forward to serving others.

Transformation and Creating a Vision

Dan didn’t always have a servant’s heart. He says it took him a while to realize he had created a toxic culture in his company and needed to change. He traded his pride for humility, took real interest in his employees, and saw his business transform. 

“Really having a vision as a business owner is looking out five or ten years and being able to write that into one or two sentences to where when your team sees that, they see kind of the destination of where the company is going.” 

Vision is where you and your team are going. Mission is why you show up to work. Values are a reflection of you and your company’s character. As a coach, Dan helps owners define these core pillars within their own companies, follow through on them, and learn how to communicate them to their team effectively. Having these foundational principles clearly defined is crucial for success.

Shaping Future Leaders

Dan emphasizes that leadership is about relationships. Owners need to balance a giving heart with a backbone, meaning: hold your employees accountable to the job they are doing with scorecards and clear responsibilities. 

It’s also important to remember that just because someone is a top performer does not mean they will make a great leader. 

“Who is willing to go above and beyond selflessly to help with some training on younger technicians or to help stop by a job late in the evening and help finish a job for another technician and not even asking for pay in return, just doing it out of a servant’s heart, I think that’s where you start to see your leaders grow in your company.”

Dan’s Advice

1. Lead where you are. No matter what position or role you are in, leading is about serving and building relationships. 
2. Ditch the shallow relationships and spend time getting to know your team. Understand who their family is and what their goals and dreams are. It’s important to listen and let them know they are appreciated. 
3. Keep your vision at the forefront of every day. Speak it loud and clear and act it out. 

Learn more about Dan’s new venture at Built for the Trades.

Branding During a Crisis

First, Tommy emphasizes the importance of zeroing in on your message. What sets your business apart? Focus all of your mailers, websites, social platforms, ads, and vehicle wraps on having the same cohesive messaging. Now is the time to double down on your marketing, like increasing reviews on your Google My Business page and pay per click ads. 

“You know, I’m a big fan of direct response so I say do everything in your power. Get on Groupon, get on Living Social. Google My Business page is awesome, invest in link building (white hat preferably), and max out your digital footprint.”

Checks and Balances

Tommy says “inspect what you expect” meaning: you have to create checks and balances that keep you and your team accountable to the details that matter. You have to decide to be the best quality and that requires paying attention to detail. It’s not going to just happen. 

Recruiting and Retaining

Tommy is adamant that recruiting and hiring needs to be a constant priority, not just an emergency measure to fill a need. His process has several important steps that he highlights: 

1. He actually prefers no experience.
2. Post on Facebook and job forums.
3. Provide an eligibility form.
4. Have candidates take a Predictive Index Test (personality profile).
5. Complete a background and drug test.
6. Go on ride-alongs.
7. Pass four interviews.

Only one out of every five candidates will make it through this interview process, but that’s why Tommy is passionate about consistently looking for excellent talent. 

But just hiring the right people isn’t enough. You need to provide them with training and a game plan to win. For Tommy’s team, this includes detailed training manuals that are utilized daily, health insurance, vehicles, tablets, and financial incentives. He also talks with them regularly about the goals that are important to them and how they can stay motivated to make them happen, the big wins, and what’s working well. 

Teaching Great Customer Experience

1. Ask questions. Get to know the customer and do the job you came to do.
2. Have a strong follow-up process. This can be made very easy with the right technology. Take advantage of it!

When you train your team to make the customer experience great, your revenue will increase. Going the extra mile always pays off.

Looking to the Future

Tommy’s advice is to set your goals and then reverse engineer them to figure out how to get there. Act like who you want to be, bring in great talent to bring your goals to life, and never stop learning. 

“I found companies that I want to be like, and I flew out and I literally asked them a million questions. And I fly out all the time. I find these hundred and fifty million, two hundred million dollar companies and I go ask the owner a million questions and tell them how much I appreciate them. I send them gifts through Amazon. And then I listen to books, I listen to podcasts, and I’m always learning. Find out the company you want to be like and ask them questions and trust me, successful people will answer all of the questions you have.”

For more resources from Tommy, visit:

1. Book: “Home Service Millionaire”
2. Podcast: The Home Service Expert
3. Email: A1LeadManager@gmail.com

Be Honest

Kathy highlights that now is the time to really sit down and evaluate your business. Be honest with how you’re doing and what direction you’re going in. Own those key financial indicators, and where you might have blind spots. For technicians turned owners, identifying these gaps in your business knowledge and experience can help you solve big picture problems. 

Marketing During a Crisis

Similar to your seasonal marketing, Kathy emphasizes the importance of making sure your ads are relevant to what is going on. 

Some businesses might be thriving right now, others may be slower. Look at where you can do some spring cleaning in your downtime or how you can make your business more efficient. Her recommendations include:

• Clean Your Email List: Go through your database and make sure your list is full of people who are viable customers in your area of service.
• Organize Your Financials: Go through your spreadsheets and identify any errors that you may be repeating in a normal workflow and fix them.
• Connect With Customers: Reach out to your customers during this time to see how they are doing and how you can help them. They will be grateful for the thoughtful call. Most importantly, this is a chance to build trust and let your people know you are there for them, even if it’s just to drop off complimentary hand sanitizer or notify them about a service discount.
• Highlight Your Services: While your company may be well-known for your larger services, make sure you give your smaller services some time in the spotlight. People are spending more time at home which is putting more wear and tear on basic home appliances and units that your customers may be unaware you can service for them.

“A lot of people have never spent this much time in their home, so their dishwasher is getting used - ours gets used almost every day now, we never did that before - your disposal, all those things. So let people know ‘Hey, we can do maintenance on things, we can do repairs.’ Again, customers don’t realize you do a lot of things. You think they know, but just really they are unaware until it’s needed.”

How Is Your Team Wired?

In order to be successful, you need to do what you are wired to do. By spending time understanding how everyone on your team is wired and how their talents can align with a specific job, your business will be more efficient.  

Now is also a great opportunity to zero in on the processes and workflow that your business runs on. Will it be able to run smoothly if someone is out sick? 

Kathy shares that it’s important to realize that in order to manage well, you need to know how you can delegate and put people in the “right seat on the bus” as Jim Collins, renowned business consultant and author says. 

“A lot of people don’t like to let everybody know how they do something, it’s human nature, because then they think they’ll be out a job or not be needed, but the truth is that then they can do something that they’re amazing at instead of going to do this other stuff that maybe they’re just not wired for.” 

Advice

1. Now is the time to allow people to fail in order to learn and grow.
2. Be really clear on your language and intent when communicating with your team and customers since so much is being relayed over phone and email.

Learn more about Kathy’s consulting expertise at Kathy Neilsen.

Holly has been working in the SEO realm at Scorpion for eight years. Her expertise lies in helping home services clients maximize their online presence to create the ultimate experience for their customers.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization

Holly argues that in many ways, SEO is the last free form of marketing. If you take the right steps and optimize your website, your content will work together with Google to give your customer exactly what they are looking for.

However, it’s key to stay on top of the trends because the landscape is always changing. Amidst the current COVID-19 crisis, she names three key areas of information to prioritize:

1. People are looking for D.I.Y. tutorials, and guides on how to fix things. They are trying to save money and limit the amount of people coming in and out of their home. How can your business meet these needs with valuable content?
2. People are looking for updated information on any changes to your business hours and services. They want to know how you are adapting to the pandemic, if you can still help them, and when your company is available to provide services.
3. People are looking for peace of mind. They want to know what sanitation measures you are taking to keep your employees and customers healthy and safe.

Google My Business

While the crisis has certainly changed the face of everyday life, Holly shares that offering valuable information for your customers can help build trust. It shows you care and that you want to help them during this uncertain time.

Using your Google My Business account to manage changes to hours, services, and COVID-19 safety measures is a smart way to keep your information clear and easy to access for customers.

“I think just knowing that… people are maybe more at the top of the funnel… people are in that informational stage. They are doing a lot more research now. So it’s important for us to get in front of people with blogs, again, with helpful videos. If you have a YouTube account or even if you just have videos that you’re filming on your iPhone, you can send those to the marketing people that you’re working with to get those posted somewhere… A lot of people are searching for air quality improvements, maybe water filtration systems, because you know it’s harder to go out and buy a water bottle or they are sold out.”

What Matters to Your Customers

Holly emphasizes the importance of remembering that for many people, this crisis has put them out of work. The future is uncertain, money is tight, your customers are interested in discounts. Consider offering content that guides them through solving a problem, offering virtual consults, and coupons. In the long run, people will remember how you offered them a helping hand and lessened their burden during this time.

Another great way to give back is to see what measures you can take to support your local community or other small businesses.

“I think overall, SEO has always been about the customer. And Google very much has always wanted to create content and create websites that are easy for customers to use, provide valuable information, are authoritative, and again it’s the whole picture, you know who you are as a business and a brand, rather than just trying to get rankings. So, that hasn’t changed, it’s still all about the customer, I think it’s just a season of how do we provide even more information to customers, how do we let them know that we’re open and operating, how do we let them the measurements we’re taking to protect them, it’s because again, it’s up to the customer if they want to click and call you. There’s plenty of options out there, so what are you doing you know to kind of stand out.”

Failure To Implement

In his latest book, Failure to Implement, Howard highlights how important it is for leaders to take action and make decisions, even if you do not have all of the information. Instead of “reacting” which is a fear-based response, try “responding”, which is a faith-based reaction. 

Howard created a blueprint to help guide home services business owners during these uncertain times called PIVOT. The acronym stands for position, imagination, voice, opportunity, and training.

POSITION: In this moment, we are all approaching the challenge from a different place. For example, if you were responsible with finances before, you will respond differently than someone who is hanging by a thread. However, there is no time for regret. Understand where you are, then take advantage of that position. 

IMAGINATION: Get creative and see how you can maximize this time with new ideas and tackle your problems with innovative solutions.

VOICE: What kind of messages are you putting in your head? Be intentional about who you listen to. On the flip side, make sure your voice is being heard by your customers and team with strong communication. 

OPPORTUNITY: If you are not an essential business right now, take this time to partner with someone who is an essential business. There will be opportunities even in these hard times and it’s up to you to spot them.

TRAINING: Take this time to work on your business, learn something new, learn something you can do right now or in the future for your team and clients. 

Finding Inspiration in Crisis

You need to have a vision that inspires you from within, and positive motivation from outside sources. This means you should stop listening to news and gossip that may be impacting you negatively. 

Organization, Priorities, and Training

“What a beautiful opportunity to get your infrastructure together so that when things get back to normal, you have transformed.”

Howard highlights a few areas you should focus on organizing and implementing systems in your business that will support your priorities. 

1. Financial: If you have high-end clients, you could roll out a “pay now, play later” business.
2. Communication: Utilize your newsletter/email list to offer value to your clients with content.
3. Training: Consider how you can support your team whether it is by not penalizing them if they do not want to work due to the virus or offering part-time opportunities and further education and training via online resources. 
4. Personal Growth: Invest time in your own training to learn the marketing strategies, leadership concepts, and how you can build or improve systems you have been putting off giving your time and attention to.
5. Future Planning: Consider how you can prepare for the future. What is your plan for after this passes over? How can you be better prepared in the case of future emergencies and unforeseen circumstances?

Positive Mindset

Howard emphasizes the power of shutting down the negative mindset and focusing on the positive. When you have gratitude, you have less time to let fear in. It could be a lot worse for many of us. 

“Keep your head up and your eyes open and look for those opportunities. Look for the silver lining.”

You can learn more about Howard’s endeavors and resources at his site, HowardPartridge.com.

Prioritize Your Efforts

Al shares how today’s COVID-19 pandemic and hardships like 9/11, the 2008 recession, and Hurricane Katrina all serve as reminders that sometimes there is no playbook. It’s times like these where his father’s advice to “Act like you’re going to be in business for a while” rings true and you just have to take everything one day at a time.

Ellen adds that this is also when accountability and consequences become high priority.

“What is different about this time now is that there is no luxury of time. You are going to survive and thrive only if you apply business basics with no excuses, if you take extreme ownership for this situation that you find yourself in. And I think my goal as a leader is to up my standards and the immediate consequences if people are going to do things if they put themselves or the team at risk… If you get them the PPE… and they don’t use it, that puts the entire team at risk.” - Ellen

Execute With Urgency

Systems matter. Both Al and Ellen emphasize how whether you already had systems in place or you are wishing you did right now, they will be what carry you through. Start creating them, leaning on them, and improving them. Don’t wait. Take action. 

Ellen outlines the numbers that matter in their Financial Quick Check system that Zoom Drain monitors weekly in dollars and percentages to see where they can improve:

1. Sales
2. Cost of goods sold
3. Gross margin
4. Overhead
5. Profit
6. Cash flow position (What do you have in cash in accounts receivable and what do you have in bills to pay right now. More cash helps you weather the storm better.)

Communicate!

Let your employees and customers know what you are doing to protect them and the steps you are taking for safety and health. Lead from the front. By communicating exactly what the experience will be like you can establish expectations with your customers and build trust.

“I know it sounds weird because we are talking about sewage, but we are the originators of how it stopped the Black Plague from happening all of these years. And if we fall out of our habits in sewage or any plumbing, you guys have all seen the signs about ‘The plumber protects the health of the nation,’ that’s not just some words written on a page, that is a calling to all of us.” - Al

Ellen and Al highlight a few tips to keep top of mind while communicating:

• Call and FaceTime in order to communicate.
• Remember that the nuances with the added Personal Protective Equipment need explanation.
• Give people the benefit of the doubt.
• Be kind.
• Relationships are everything.
• Share the why behind your standards.

Create Lifetime Customers

Al says you have to pull the curtain back. Proactively communicate how the magic happens, how your business does things, and how you are going above and beyond during the pandemic. Ellen emphasizes the importance of leveraging this moment to share the why behind your business, and make your interactions human by really listening to them. 

What You Can Do Right now

Financially:

1. Find responses and guidance on steps you can take for your business from credible resources: U.S. Small Business Administration 
2. Within the Care Act, it looks like there is relief for payroll if you keep paying your employees, so this is an important step to take.
3. Contact your CPA and financial planner to help you sort through this.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE):

1. Be resourceful.
2. Share information and how you are solving problems with fellow business owners.
3. Tweak your Customer Service Representative (CSR) script to let customers know what you’re doing to keep them safe.

Your customers will remember how you treated them during this time of crisis. These employees are part of your family. If you can, think long term during this time. Most importantly, remember that everyone has a role to play and you have to work together and lean on each other. Nobody can carry this burden alone. 

“There are many heroes in our life… There’s a reason we are essential workers. It’s because we are essential. And when this passes, I want you to remember that we need to charge the right price… there’s a reason you have to be in business right now. This is why you have to have all the money to buy this stuff, the PPE. This is why you have to get the systems in place. You don’t owe it to just yourself, or even your staff, you owe it to the community you serve.” - Al

Steps You Can Take Right Now

During this unprecedented time, Tim and Dan offer some straightforward steps you can take right now to protect the safety and health of your employees and customers.

1. Create a clear plan for how you are going to continue serving your employees and customers.
2. Try to have at least three months' worth of expenses in your savings as a cushion if you have not already done so.
3. Separate inside staff and outside staff. See if some of your Customer Service Representatives may be able to work from home. Maximize technology for communication. Cancel in-person training sessions or meetings with more than 10 people.
4. Screen customers and employees for their health to minimize exposure.
5. Sanitize! Everything from tools and trucks to payment technology and uniforms.
6. Step up your communication with your team and customers and use this as an opportunity to educate on the precautions you are taking to help ensure health, safety, and sanitation.
7. Don’t slow down on your advertising and marketing. Social media is where your audience is right now. Connect with them!
8. Increase your outbound calls. Even just calling to check in on the health of your customers’ families is a great way to build authentic relationships.

While challenging financial times like this are pushing business owners everywhere to see where they can cut down costs, Tim and Dan emphasize the importance of prioritizing your marketing and advertising. 

“I would add more money to my marketing and really ramp that up to ensure my team has some work because customers are still going to need us. And the second thing I would do is get on social media… think of all your homeowners sitting at home on their phone looking at social media. You could actually be communicating with them pretty easily through video or posts, letting them know that you’re open, the precautions you’re taking to serve them.”

Handling Cancellations

During this time when most people are spending more time at home, you may be experiencing an increase in calls. However, you also may be receiving cancellations. When communicating with customers, be prepared to share the precautions you are taking to put them at ease. For example, you can offer to enter the basement through the backdoor to work on the unit and only communicate by phone while in the house to stay compliant with social distancing. Let them know you’ll wear protective gloves, use booties, and sanitize.  

“We need to rewrite the playbook on how to handle customers’ needs as we go forward in the next three weeks.”

However, if they still want to cancel, make sure you have a script prepared to let them know that you will check in with them to reschedule in the future when things calm down.

Take This Opportunity to Educate

Now is not the time to sell. Now is the time to educate. For example, online searches for air filters and how to keep your home healthy are skyrocketing. Offer your audience an informational video on how having clean air filters can support your customers’ health in their home. These are the kind of opportunities home services businesses should be taking advantage of to educate and provide value. Be human. Be honest.

Retain Employees

The home services industry is considered essential, but decreases in demand as other non-essential businesses close may still be hurting your business. Tim and Dan recommend taking a strategic approach to retaining your employees.

• Consider splitting the week with your staff instead of having all hands on deck all of the time. This also decreases interactions to slow the spread of the virus.
• Take this opportunity to cross-train employees and be creative with positions and responsibilities.
• Lean on your company values, vision, and mission.
• Communication is key. If changes and reductions in work need to be made, being transparent and honest with your employees will show you care and support them.

Your business has an opportunity in these challenging times to serve, protect, and support customers and employees in an ethical way. Stay positive. Stay healthy. This too will pass.

Inspiration Behind New Book

Howard’s new book “F.T.I.: Failure to Implement” is based on the idea that this is the single thing keeping you from accomplishing your goals. In the book, he highlights the 10 principles for life and business that lead to phenomenal performance.

1. Potential: understanding your potential is key. If you have a bad self-image, you won’t perform well. YOU are the phenomenal product.
2. Picture: you need a compelling vision to move you and compel you to perform. This is how you create your vision.
3. Purpose: understand why you are in business. What would your customers miss out on if your company didn’t exist?
4. People: having the right people around you influences and inspires your outcomes, from family and coaches to team members and clients.
5. Planning: a proper focused plan will help you get where you want to go. Give this process time. Dream and think about what steps you need to take to reach your goals, then build a plan.
6. Priority: living by priority means focusing on what is important right now. This requires discipline and focus.
7. Process: implementing simple processes, checklists, and systems will help your team stay on track and know what their job is.
8. Productivity: take action. Once you have your priorities straight, take the time each day to kick the ball down the field. It’s not easy, but it is simple.
9. Progress: keeping track of your progress is important for staying motivated.
10. Patience: exercising great patience will increase your performance. You can’t be in a hurry. Let things develop, let processes start working, and let people start growing.

Howard shares how instrumental Zig Ziglar, one of his mentors, has been in his life and business. He was thrilled to be invited to join Ziglar’s coaching team, and is passionate about sharing what he has learned to help guide other small business owners.

One of his favorite stories of Zig’s is the water pump anecdote. It illustrates how implementing the right systems and processes in your organization will build the momentum that leads to success.

“And that’s what getting your business systemized is really all about… if you will practice these and give them time to work, pump like crazy… and keep on pumping at the right pump and get that flow… keep it in play so that you just have a constant steady growth of clients, play growth, profit, production.”

Components for Establishing a System

Howard’s advice for establishing systems in your business is focused on two important layers.

1. MVP: define your mission, vision, values, and purpose.
2. Organization Chart: build systems and processes to make these five parts of your business run smoothly:
   • Leadership
   • Marketing
   • Sales
   • Operations/Service
   • Administration/Tracking Results

Howard shares the success story of John Torres, President and CEO of Entrusted, a water, mold, and fire restoration company serving South Florida and Texas. John implemented these processes, and watched his company take off.

“John Torres, because he simply learned the systems and implemented the systems, went from zero to $20 million a year. That guy makes so much money it’s incredible… His leaders are… young people who are hungry and want to make their mark.”

Howard shares how his rebellious teenage years got him kicked out of his house and sent off to live with his dad in Texas. There, he waited tables and met his wife Denise, an Italian from New Jersey. When they got married, a friend of the family who was about the same age as Howard gave them $3,000 as a wedding gift. Inspired by the generous gift, Howard decided to try his luck in the home services industry.

“As soon as I got back to Houston from our honeymoon, I spent that entire amount of money starting my service business out of the trunk of my car. Fast forward 35 years later and it’s a multi-million dollar business…I have a great staff, great systems in place.”

After achieving his own success, Howard is now passionate about helping other small business owners stop being a slave to their work and create a predictable, profitable organization.

“F.T.I.: Failure to Implement”

His new book is called “F.T.I.: Failure to Implement.” He shares that this is the number one factor that stops you from reaching your goals.

Howard emphasizes that there is often one obstacle that is stopping you from gaining traction. A coach or mentor can be instrumental in helping you identify what that obstacle is. He shares the example of how Ellen Rohr’s plan and structure helped him overcome his obstacle of debt and start building profit.

You Need to Do It

After identifying the obstacle, the next step is the realization that you have to make the solution happen. You have to replace yourself, step by step. It’s time to stop saying:

1. I know I should market.
2. I wish someone would do this for me.
3. I know I should be a better leader.
4. I know I should track my numbers.

The Turning Point

It wasn’t until Howard was 13 years into running his company that he started going to seminars, learned about systems, and read “E-Myth” by Michael E. Gerber. This was the turning point when he realized he could have his business run without him. With this new inspiration, he started rewriting his vision and plan with Michael Gerber’s principles as a guide:

1. The reason your business exists is to be a vehicle to reach your goals.
2. You need systems to help you get where you need to go.

Another mentor of his, Zig Ziglar, also shaped his new trajectory and taught him the importance of identifying the inspiration and desire behind your vision.

“The inspired person is the one that performs at a phenomenal level.”

Take Action

Howard has written books on everything from dreams and leadership to systems. However, “F.T.I.: Failure to Implement” really underscores the fact that none of it will happen without action. You have to wake up everyday with desire, inspiration, and a vision. His four keys to implementation are:

1. Inspiration: Evaluate your life and realize you can do this. Wake up with a vision.
2. Organization: Take time everyday to think about priority projects that will take your business to the next level.
3. Training: If you’re not a good leader, you won’t train well. Listen to podcasts and learn from people who have already been there.
4. Community: Surround yourself with people who will support, encourage, and hold you accountable.

“That’s my greatest life lesson, I think that I’ve learned...get around people who not only have already done what you want to do, but that know how to help you get there.”

Stay tuned for Part 2 with Howard on The Sharpest Tool™ and visit Howard Partridge to learn more about his coaching services and books.

Ellen shares that her expertise comes from her own journey as a plumber’s wife and entrepreneur, which you can hear more about in Part 1 of her interview.

What Do You Want?

After working with some great mentors, Ellen and her husband got their business out of debt and started making a profit. Since they weren’t worried about making payroll anymore, the conversation shifted to what was next for their company.

Her husband said he wanted to work on his own. The business growth and expansion Ellen was envisioning was not what he wanted. This realization was a crucial part of their planning as they moved forward.

“Business planning is the process by which you clarify your intention and move to aligned action…another way to think of it is to dream, act, and test.”

They soon sold their company, started ZOOM DRAIN, and Ellen began her consulting journey. In this process, she shares how she also stopped trying to change her husband: a lesson that can apply to any business partner relationship.

Take Action With a Business Plan

Ellen emphasizes the importance of “auditioning” various experts to see if their approach to planning and structuring an organization resonates with you. Al Levi, Howard Partridge, and John Maxwell were some of the names who were instrumental in helping Ellen create her own business planning process that she outlines in her book “The Bare Bones Biz Plan.”

Ellen’s guide to building a flexible and dynamic business plan is broken into 6 steps: 

1. Setting sight: your vision/vision board, mission statement, value proposition, and financial goals.
2. Building the team: who do you need to make this vision happen? This includes business partners, employees, vendors, etc.
3. Making money: your Known Financial Position, weekly scorecard, and monthly checklist.
4. Getting it sold: when you reach this step, you’ve probably realized that you need to charge more for your services. Learn from experts how to create strong marketing and sales processes to make this happen.
5. Getting it done: make good on your promise to your customers by implementing systems and procedures.
6. Making sure: are you on the right track? Do the numbers look good? Is your life improved?

Qualities of Success

Ellen’s number one piece of advice for reaching success is: write things down.

Both of Ellen’s books, “The Bare Bones Biz Plan” and “The Weekend Biz Plan,” will help you build and implement a successful business plan. Start with “The Weekend Biz Plan” for an introduction to her processes. Then, dive into “The Bare Bones Biz Plan” and start achieving your goals.

For more information, visit ZOOM DRAIN and Ellen Rohr.

Ellen is passionate about giving small business owners a clear structure and plan to reach their goals. With these tools, their dreams of long-term success and making more money are much more attainable.

Learning From Experience

Ellen shares how her experience in many job industries and positions shaped her perspective and approach to business. Eventually, she joined forces with her husband, a plumber, to build ZOOM DRAIN. But they soon found themselves in debt.

That’s when she read an article about profit by businessman Frank Blount that struck a chord with her. She wrote him to tell him why his ideas were wrong, using her failing company as an example. He followed up to her letter with a phone call and some straightforward advice, and from that moment, the trajectory of her business changed.

Shattering Home Services Business Myths

Ellen’s journey to building a successful home services business required dismantling several myths she had been led to believe.

Myth #1: If you do what you love, the money will follow.
Ellen says that while it is great to do what you love, the money is never guaranteed. You need a budget and a plan.

Myth #2: Principles and profit don’t mesh.
Ellen says that money actually reveals your character. Use your profit to help others and do good.

Myth #3: Business is hard.
Ellen says that business is a matter of small, doable steps.

Often, the process of dismantling these myths and building a business that is profitable happens in three stages:

1. Complete denial: falling for those myths (listed above).
2. Avoidance: thinking that someone else should do it and figure out the financial problems you are facing.
3. The brick hits you: you get audited by the IRS or get ripped off by someone. This is when you are forced to take responsibility.

Shift Your Mindset and Focus On Value

One of the huge shifts that Ellen had to make was letting go of comparison. She had been basing her pricing off of her competitors’ pricing, instead of based off of ZOOM DRAIN’s unique costs. Frank’s advice and approach helped her shift her mindset from comparison to value.

Ellen shares what a value-focused business plan looks like:

1. When she is training her team members, she teaches them how valuable the service is that they are giving the customer.
2. Ellen worried that raising her prices might upset customers and employees. So, she adopted the practice of open book management, a concept coined by Jack Stack, author of “The Great Game of Business”, where she shows her team the numbers. This keeps all of the costs and profit transparent.
3. Think about it like this: you’re selling an inventory of time. When you look at how many hours you have in your fiscal year, spread out over your team, the math breaks through denial. This will help you see how to charge fairly and make a profit.

“A budget helps you set goals and a justifiable selling price.”

Assemble the Bean Team

Ellen emphasizes the importance of understanding your business’s numbers. Do not outsource that responsibility until you have a good grasp on it yourself. She shares that at a recent panel discussion, she heard the advice that your business should always “be audit ready.” To start cleaning up your books, Ellen recommends:

• Meet with your person entering data and your accountant/bookkeeper. Have print outs of your reports and your QuickBooks available on your computer. Discuss each of the numbers on the books and ask questions about them. Mark whether they match, do not match, or you need more information on each line item.
• Use a checklist and make procedures for everything.
• Look at your finances once a week, and again at the end of the month. Think of it like a game, and make adjustments to your strategy as you go. This will help you determine your Known Financial Position (KFP).
• Share your score (business goals and plan) with your team - make sure your employees understand your goal and are invested in getting there.

“They’ll play if you let them play. They’re going to help solve all your problems if you bring them into the game.”

More Money More Freedom

Ellen emphasizes that turning a profit, even if it’s just 20% more, will help your business in important ways, like: giving your employees healthcare, providing money back for your customers if you make a mistake, and reaching a KFP.

Most importantly, she emphasizes that it’s easier than you think.

For more information, visit ZOOM DRAIN and Ellen Rohr.

In Part 1 of his interview, he talked about his journey and the investment in personal development that transformed his life and his business. Another key element to his success however, was learning about the power of cultivating financial health.

Kelly’s Five Principles for Financial Success

Kelly shares how when he started investing in personal development and training resources for his business employees, a friend recommended he look into Dave Ramsey. Dave’s processes and values aligned very much with how Kelly had already been living and managing his life, so he decided to become a Facilitator through Dave’s Core Financial Wellness training. He then brought these teachings back to his business, and saw his employees start overcoming their debt and becoming financially healthy.

He went on to get trained to become a Master Financial Coach under the Dave Ramsey Program. Dave Ramsey teaches seven steps for financial success. However, Kelly wanted to distill these steps into a more straightforward process, which includes:

1. Learn the habits of money.
2. Learn the difference between wants and needs.
3. Save an emergency fund and how to do that.
4. Get rid of debt and become debt-free.
5. Create a budget.

Transform Your Habits

“Learn how to control money so money doesn’t control you… Most people get a paycheck and it’s gone. Learn the habits of how to tell your money where your money should go instead of your money telling you where it’s going to go.”

Kelly tells his story of going from a dead broke alcoholic to industry leader. If he hadn’t changed his habits, he would not be where he is today: an author, a business consultant, a father, and a millionaire. Making these habits a priority and being able to distinguish between your wants and needs is key. If you can learn the difference, you will be successful. He also emphasizes the value of establishing an emergency fund, and how borrowing and credit cards do not provide the same stability.

Kelly’s method for becoming debt-free is called “Debtstruction.” He says that while it does take intensity, once you change your habits, you can reach financial freedom.

Protecting Your Assets

One of the most important takeaways Kelly shares is how to protect your assets. As he emphasized in Part 1, about four to five times a week around the dinner table, his family talked about the life and business they were all building together. These are the hard conversations: life, death, debt, medical directives, living wills, and more.

However, as exemplified by Kelly’s life, when his wife passed away unexpectedly, these conversations became more than just treasured memories. They had a plan. A few months later when he had to go into open-heart surgery, he was at peace because he knew everyone he cared about would be taken care of. Protecting your assets requires a plan.

“I was at peace… at this point it was in God’s hands and the doctors’ hands. Since Heather’s death I learned don’t worry about things that you can’t control.”

Why This Matters

Who will care for your family, your business, and your assets if something happens to you? Kelly recognizes these are tough topics, but the benefit of having a plan far outweighs the challenges that come without one.

So, his advice is: have that family dinner conversation. Be honest, open, and share your hopes, dreams, and plans. Kelly also highlights that encouraging your employees to be serious about their financial health, and helping them achieve their goals, is a great way to cultivate and identify loyalty within your company.

For more about Kelly and his future projects, you can connect with him at kellyschols@gmail.com.

The Journey

Kelly grew up on a farm, and started working in plumbing at age 16. He confesses to acting like he had it all figured out, which led to wrecking a company truck in the first month on the job.

“So they gave me a job that was probably one of the worst jobs you can imagine. A sewer line had broke under a local hospital and they had been dumping sewer underneath it for a year. So they gave me a hazmat suit, and 50-pound bags of lyme, and said get to it, kid.”

One of the co-owners of the plumbing business, Steve, appreciated his tenacity in taking on this challenge, and kept in touch with him even after he left the business.

Kelly shares how after he was 21, he moved out to southern California and started working odd jobs to support his drinking habit. During this time, Steve called him every month for two years, encouraging Kelly to come home and work for Steve’s new company. In January of 1990, Kelly moved back up to Washington state, broke and an alcoholic.

But with Steve’s encouragement and mentorship, he got sober, bought Steve out in 2002, went through many transitions, and then sold the company in 2018. At this point, he didn’t believe in himself. But Steve did. He became a mentor to Kelly and still is to this day.

The Value of a Challenge

Kelly says he took on the initial plumbing job and the project in the hazmat suit because he saw it as a challenge. He credits his values growing up on a farm and his strict mom’s phrase “Can’t never did anything” to shaping his work ethic.

Steve’s mentorship was also instrumental in both his personal and professional journey.

Thanks to Steve’s recommendation, he read “The Millionaire Next Door.” What he learned from the book was:

1. The people with nice things are not always the people who make a lot of money.
2. Save more than you earn.
3. Don’t worry about how much you make, worry about net worth.

Today, he is 29.5 years sober.

Buying the Business

When Kelly bought the business from Steve in 2002, it was right after September 11, and during the recession. To overcome this challenge, he turned to his brother for advice.

“He referred me to Brian Tracy, and I bought what was called ‘Universal Laws of Success and Achievement’ the CD series…so I turned my truck into a university on wheels... and it completely changed my mindset of focusing on building myself as a better person but to help the people around me.”

By investing in personal development for himself, Kelly saw the benefits and encouraged his team to improve and develop too. He soon made time for personal development and training a priority for his company culture.

The Impact of Mentors

“When I quit alcoholism…I had a couple of friends who just stood behind me 100%. I just saw how…if you surround yourself with good people and help other people get what they want, you’ll get more in return.”

He shares how he wanted to help people get better just as they had helped him.

The 10 Simple Laws of Success

1. Work hard.
2. Set goals.
3. Seize opportunities.
4. Be adaptable and change.
5. Watch your money.
6. Learn all that you can.
7. Believe in yourself.
8. Get out of your comfort zone.
9. Focus on your family and give back to your community.
10. Blow through the naysayers.

Kelly emphasizes that writing down your goals is key if you ever want to achieve them.

When he met and married his wife, he shares that they talked about what they wanted to build together. They discussed their goals and dreams together often as they sat around the dinner table with their two daughters.

Their family goals included:

1. Pay for kids to go to a private college.
2. Pay off business.
3. Build a dream home.
4. Buy real estate.
5. Go camping
6. Buy a vacation home.

By talking about these hopes and dreams, Kelly says they were able to figure out how to achieve them. He remembers that as a kid he always knew he wanted to become a millionaire. However, when he finally realized he was a millionaire, it didn’t matter. What mattered was that the journey he took to get there was fulfilling.

Change Is Critical for Growth

Kelly recognizes how many people are afraid to look in the mirror and confront their faults and weaknesses. But he points to this difficult yet rewarding practice as critical for changing and growing into a better version of yourself.

The pivotal moments in his life where change was a difficult yet important piece of his personal development were when he became sober and moved back to Washington State, bought the business from Steve in 2002, and navigated the stress of the 2008 recession on the business.

He also shares how when his wife passed away unexpectedly in 2012, he had to dive back into personal development and counseling to overcome that challenging life change. However, her passing also gave him a new perspective and gratitude for how much they had accomplished together.

Push Yourself

Kelly acknowledges that it’s scary to step out of your comfort zone, but that it’s part of change and growth. When he joined the Blue Collar Success Group and started coaching it was scary, but rewarding. Now, as he is pursuing his own personal consulting business, it’s still scary, but necessary to growth.

Kelly is currently working on his personal website, but you can connect with him for the time being at kellyschols@gmail.com.

Stay tuned for part 2 with Kelly Schols about financial success and protecting your assets.

Growing up in the business, they saw the value in treating employees like an extension of the family, and this continues to be a distinctive part of their culture today.

The Most Important Thing

“That’s the best review we get - when the client writes that our employee was out there raving about A-Temp and that they love working there.”

At A-Temp, employees are treated like family and that’s what makes the culture so strong and dynamic. Although they are growing at a steady pace, Tyson and Erika emphasize that they aren’t in a rush to hire. In fact, they have to turn down work right now because they only want to hire the right people.

Culture

Tyson and Erika highlight the standards by which they strive to keep their technicians, which include:

1. Hire people whose values align with yours.
2. Prioritize families.
3. Be reasonable.
4. Listen.

Asking for feedback and advice consistently from your employees and techs is important. Being open to all ideas, in fact, even silly ideas, can turn out to be valuable. Erika shares how their dad had the idea of yard signs. They thought it was silly, but the signs turned out to be incredibly efficient in helping them establish themselves as the neighborhood business they wanted to be.

Be Intentional about Incentives

Their technicians are out working long, unconventional hours, so Tyson and Erika emphasize the importance of giving their techs flexibility to accommodate their lifestyles and family time.

Tyson and Erika share that they also like to surprise employees with intentional, thoughtful things like a giftcard to an employee’s favorite place, bringing an employee their favorite drink or ice cream, or surprising staff with lunch.

Building a Strong Reputation and Preventing Turnover

1. When interviewing and hiring, focus on attitude, vibe, and finding the right culture fit. Go with your gut.
2. Be reasonable and do what you think is right.
3. Don’t let numbers cloud your judgement. Don’t let the few who might take advantage of a benefit you are giving stop you from giving it to the ones who won’t.

Retaining Customers

Follow up with your customers and ask them about why they keep coming back or why they don’t return.

Advice

Tyson and Erika’s advice for business owners include:

• Don’t compromise your integrity.
• Do what’s right for the customer always. This allows your employees to stand behind your company.
• Align yourself with the right people and make sure you can trust your staff like family.

This requires a strong foundation and plan, which he outlines as the 7-Power Contractor system.

1. Planning Power: you have to have a plan for accomplishing your goals.
2. Operating Power: you need to have policies and procedures of how you will accomplish your plan.
3. Staffing Power: you need to be always recruiting, hiring, orienting, training, and retaining.
4. Sales Power: sales needs to be asking great questions, listening, and affirming to your customer that you can hear their wants and needs.
5. Sales Coaching: you need to coach customers on good, bad, or indifferent results.
6. Marketing: you need the right amount of calls from the right customer at the right time.
7. Financial: you can’t ignore this. You need real-world accounting to make good financial decisions today.

Planning Power

There is no shortage of great ideas, so you have to create a master project list. Using the filter of “biggest problem, biggest challenge, greatest chance of becoming profitable,” to prioritize and create a list of the top 30 things you need to work on. Then, narrow those 30 down to the top five.

Then, work on those top 5 every week.

Spend your time, energy, and money wisely by focusing on your plan instead of multitasking.

“To me, it’s akin to driving your car without GPS. What is leadership? What is planning? Setting a destination and trusting your GPS to get you where you need to go.”

Operating Power

The operating power requires you to create a model system that keeps everything from how you answer the phone, dispatch, pay taxes and payroll, clean your trucks, organize your tools, etc. in one place. It’s systematizing and creating manuals for every job description so that your employees are prepared to do exceptionally well in their position.

Advice: get over being the rescuer, fireman, and guru. This will undermine your ability to reach your goals.

Financial Power

The stuff your bookkeeper, accountant, and adviser do impact your business immensely, so they should be operating off of reality rather than prediction. Real-world accounting is not driving based off of your rearview mirror - it’s looking out your front window while you’re driving.

Operating with “Known Financial Position” will determine how much you’re charging and paying employees and which jobs you take.

Sales Power

”Customers will take you to what they see as the problem, but good contractors know that the problem that they’re showing you isn’t necessarily where the problem exists. It’s somewhere else.”

Al’s five-step sales process:

1. Ask good questions.
2. Listen.
3. Affirm that you’re doing it.
4. Provide the best solutions for them.
5. Move forward.

The essence: great communication.

Al’s Sales secret: “If you’re talking, you’re selling. If they’re talking, they’re buying.”

Marketing Power

Having the right amount of calls at the right time from the right customer is the result of good marketing. Not everyone should be your customer. Focus on exactly who you should talk to.

Good marketing should include:

1. Unique Selling Position.
2. Specific Target Audience(s).
3. Progress Measuring.
4. Marketing Plan.
5. Marketing Allocation.
6. Marketing Calendar - year-round and proactively driven.

Your service should back up exactly what your marketing promises. Your customers value being able to trust that your services are guaranteed and consistent.

Staffing Power

Al says that he doesn’t just like Millennials, he loves them. He encourages other business owners to take the time to understand them and how to work with them so they can elevate your business.

Here’s what you need to understand about Millennials, according to Al:

1. They have great energy.
2. They want to know the why.
3. They want to have clear directions.
4. They are well-prepared for interviews.

As a contractor you should focus on:

1. Making more calls than you can usually do.
2. Staffing more techs. The more techs in the field, the more profitable your company will be.

If you can provide willing employees with skills, then that will create a good culture and empowered employees. Let them know that you have a career for them, not just a job.

The Future of Home Services

Leadership is important to your business’s future and it requires reflection and sacrifice.

“I created 10 golden rules for my personal life and 10 golden rules for my business life, and if they don’t mesh, there’s always friction.”

Al emphasizes the importance of writing these goals down so you can hold yourself accountable. You also need to give yourself a deadline for achieving these goals, otherwise, they’ll never happen.

In addition, make sure your techs and your company are staying ahead of the competition with technology. Leverage technology in every way you can, including for your own growth and education.

“I only got smarter by listening and hearing to other people along the way. Well, that’s what podcasting is… Turn off the radio and plug into podcasts.”

Visit the 7-Power Contractor for more information.

Once he took on more of a leadership role in the businesses, he also saw how challenging it is to both deliver services and work on the business. He found himself in this position, doing well financially, but stressed out and unhealthy. Al shares how he finally “shut up and listened” to advice, and this reshaped his success, his health, and lead to the 7-Power Contractor.

The 7-Power Contractor

Al outlines these seven powers as the foundation of a successful business.

1. Planning Power: you have to have a plan for accomplishing your goals.
2. Operating Power: you need to have policies and procedures of how you will accomplish your plan.
3. Staffing Power: you need to be always recruiting, hiring, orienting, training, and retaining.
4. Sales Power: sales needs to be asking great questions, listening, and affirming to your customer that you can hear their wants and needs.
5. Sales Coaching: you need to coach customers on good, bad, or indifferent results.
6. Marketing: you need the right amount of calls from the right customer at the right time.
7. Financial: you can’t ignore this. You need real world accounting to make good financial decisions today.

These are the things that make the difference. Al highlights that while you don’t have to be a 10 at all seven of them, you can’t be a zero.

“I was always getting run over by the business, not ever ahead of it. So planning power is working on the right thing at the right time in the right way.”

Challenges to Retaining Staff

Al says you have to put yourself in your employees’ seats. The way you orient people dictates their success for the rest of their time in your business. By creating a clear path for your employees to follow, you set them up for success.

His approach to recruiting techs is to find willing people and teaching skills instead of hiring skilled people and trying to rewire and retrain them.

His Journey

“I share all the time that my dad’s advice is why you paid me to come to your place today.”

Al explains that his dad was both his life coach and business coach. From a young age, he remembers going along with his dad to jobs, sometimes in the middle of the night, and how special that experience was.

Lessons his dad taught him include:

• He didn’t enjoy going to wakes, funerals, or hospitals. But his dad taught him that those were non-negotiables.
• When you feel overrun, remember that your customers woke up today and chose you out of 2,000 choices. Instead of thinking of your to-dos as a burden, think of them as an honor.
• Think of all the things you’ve accomplished. If you don’t congratulate yourself for what you have in your rearview mirror, you can’t move forward.

Al feels he was given a gift when he shifted from working on the business to consulting. Once he got systems and processes and the right people on board, he realized there was a whole country out there that he wanted to help.

Pivotal Moments of Growth

Al says he is constantly learning, but can pinpoint a few moments and decisions that resulted in pivotal growth.

1. They stopped hiring experienced technicians in the HVAC/plumbing business, and instead hired people eager and willing to work.
2. They created detailed manuals for each job.
3. They integrated all of the manuals across departments so that they were able to serve their customers in a uniform way.
4. They wrote down the 30 projects that must be completed for success, and then prioritized them to find the top five projects. Then, at least once a week, worked on completing the top five.

As a contractor and business owner, Al confesses to being competitive. However, he had to learn to let go and delegate so that his team could learn, grow, and improve.

“We’re competitive. We want to win every battle. But here’s what I’m going to say today: ‘You can’t! And if you did, you’d lose the war,’ which is what I finally got attached to.”

Where Do You Start?

• Build an organization chart with the various boxes it takes to run your company. Then, expand those boxes to create a depth chart and create cross-trained positions.
• Write manuals that will help guide those charts and that you can build systems around.
• Make sure your goals are objective and measurable.
• Cultivate leadership that is balanced between having a plan and a vision.

Stay tuned for more home services business fundamentals and lessons for success in Part 2 with Al.

In today’s market, there’s a shortage of people who want to be in the trades, but a steady demand for work. Because of this, home services businesses have to not only compete for new hires, but also retain their current employees.

Recruiting: Be Different

Tim is quick to dispel the myth that great healthcare, two weeks paid vacation time, or a company car and paid gas are enough. Today, your business needs to do something very different.

First, the benefits of working for your business should be crystal clear. It should be easy for a potential employee to take a package home and explain it to their significant other. From the salary and commission guidelines to the health, dental and life insurance coverage, keep it simple.

“Very similar to marketing to new customers, you have to do multiple things to market to new employees… Newspaper ads, Indeed advertising, hiring fairs, basically getting referrals from your current employees and paying those employees a commission or check for somebody who works out. If you’re not coming to hiring with 5-7 different disciplines, you’re not doing enough.”

Hiring and Training:

When hiring and training new techs, Tim highlights several areas of consideration. Do they:

1. Show up on time.
2. Carry themselves confidently.
3. Make a presentation to a customer clearly and correctly.
4. Have confidence in the company.
5. Work hard to become better.

When he brings in a new tech or employee, they go on ride-alongs, takes notes, and observe the more experienced techs. It doesn’t matter if they’ll be working in the field or in the office, they go on ride-alongs to understand how the whole business fits together. If they are a tech, they are then sent to the Ultimate Tech Academy in Arkansas in order to learn or improve on a certain trade.

While poaching is certainly a reality in the competitive home services space, remember that people leave a business most often because the culture is not a good fit. Don’t take it personally.

Tim relies on the “Slow to hire, quick to fire,” motto, in order to make sure that potential employees are truly interested and invested. On the flip side, he strives to paint a vision for the future for his employees and show them how they can excel and grow within the company. This is crucial for retention.

Creating a Culture:

Two of Tim’s favorite ingredients for creating an engaging culture are:

1. Play offense: this means you don’t let your day get the better of you. Take good care of yourself in order to intentionally get better and stay positive.
2. Express your gratitude: intentionally give thanks in meaningful ways. Let people know you are grateful for them and the work they do every day.

Preparing for the Future:

Tim emphasizes that there aren’t enough people who want to work in the trades today, so it’s important to be active in recruiting and retaining now.

“I think, for the next 10 years, in all markets, hire as many people as you possibly can... Train them and make them great. Because… anybody that answers a phone and goes to a phone, you’re going to be in demand. Because if you look around, we’re building more houses than you can even imagine. Those are houses are going to need to be repaired, that need to be fixed, that need to be maintained, and we don’t have enough people going into the trades.”

Looking to the future, you’re going to be working your people harder. This means you’ll need to provide time off, show appreciation, and give a lot of gratitude.

Most importantly, he says you really need to be there for your employees. Tim shares how he works hard to get to know his employees and be there for them as they navigate life. As a leader, don’t be afraid to get personal and be available to them.

“The first thing you do to retain a technician is work on yourself and be in a better place to give.”

Successful home services businesses are spending their money wisely by relying on machine learning. However, it takes going above and beyond the numbers to have a healthy company in the long-term. While machine learning and SAM® are part of that, it’s the intangibles like answering the phone and going above and beyond for customers that sets companies apart.

For example, Rustin and Daylen share how at the end of the day, your customers don’t know that your home services company is analyzing data about them in order to make decisions. They just know they’re receiving a great customer experience from you.

Beyond the Lead

Scorpion’s Advertising Machine, SAM, uses the data collected from various marketing platforms to take your leads to the next level. Rustin and Daylen emphasize that it’s not about the number of leads, but rather the quality and if they are actually converting to sales and impacting your ROI.

“Don’t focus on the leads, focus on what drives revenue, because that’s going to grow your business.”

Predicting With Data

With SAM, Scorpion is able to predict what the average close rate is for any plumber or home services business across the country. From these predictive analytics, you can look at your home services business performance and compare and contrast. Looking at your unique numbers against those of your competition allows you to see where you might be able to improve or step it up from a customer experience standpoint or services offered perspective.

Rustin and Daylen also highlight how important it is to make sure your advertising is evolving and changing to stay ahead of your competition.

“When you actually compare digital media buys, like actual digital advertising against traditional media, digital media is up by about 20 percent over the last year.”

Social media platforms and digital entertainment services like Hulu and Sling TV are the new frontiers. Where phone book ads and TV and radio commercials used to connect you with your customer, today it’s important to stay relevant on these new platforms. If you can establish yourself early on a new platform where your customers spend time, you can build brand trust and recognition.

Follow the Customer

Rustin and Daylen explain how SAM makes it easier for your home services business to show up where your customers are.

“We own our own website platform. Most people outsource their websites… so not only do we have analytics around what do they search for, when do they search for, what were they using, what was the device, how long do they spend on the site, we know what they click on what they scroll on, what interested them, did they watch a video, etc.”

Having all of this data to build predictive analytics about your marketing performance and customer behavior in one, streamlined, integrated system, helps you make informed business decisions. There are so many options for where you can be spending your marketing budget, and it’s important to put your dollars where it will actually pay off.

In today’s world, technology and the data it commands and collects has made on-demand television and movies, driverless cars, Alexa, and Uber, commonplace. However, many home services business owners are not leveraging it for their marketing.

Data and Marketing

Rustin and Daylen highlight how using predictive analytics can help you make better decisions for your business. Predictive analytics allow you to see where the market is going.

“We’re looking at all of these different things because we want to make sure that when we have a budget and we’re trying to go after customers in a certain place, that we’re putting them in front of the best opportunity.”

Predictive analytics is a lot like studying history. By studying the clicks associated with your business and target market to analyze where they came from and if they became a sale or not, you are able to predict how to advertise at a more efficient rate.

Predictive Analytics and Purpose

Home services businesses that utilize predictive analytics are able to reach their goals and fulfill their purpose.

“Predictive is what we use today to say ‘What is the market going to look like or generate based on what we know? And what’s the best way to spend your money based on what we know?’ And then the after part is once we run it, ‘What are we doing to constantly optimize it to what works for you?’”

Because the home services industry is constantly changing and evolving, the data you’re using to make decisions should be too. Having a streamlined system that tracks trends in your market and helps you stay ahead of your competition is key for making informed decisions about your advertising.

Solving Problems

Rustin and Daylen share how they see businesses wasting money marketing to customers who are not interested in their product because they don’t have the tools or a system to help them make smarter decisions.

“Every plumber, every HVAC guy, they’ve got different priorities… and you can’t just come out with a cookie-cutter template and expect that to work for everybody, because it doesn’t.”

In order to help shape and mold strategies around your home services business’s goals, Scorpion creates a unique plan supported by predictive analytics. This plan allows you to look back and find trends in your market to capitalize on or learn from, and areas where you can take advantage of more opportunities.

SAM®: Scorpion Advertising Machine

“This is basically the system that powers all the intelligence behind our advertising… it’s dedicated to basically looking at modeling data so we can have the best results possible.”

Rustin and Daylen explain how Scorpion’s SAM helps home services businesses stop losing money and spend it effectively by using data to make good decisions. For example, when it comes to leads, it’s important to know:

• When they connected.
• Where/what platform they searched on.
• Who they are/what their demographic is.
• How to reach them.

As the market and ads only become more competitive in the home services industry, it’s important to make sure you’re spending your marketing budget efficiently. Local Services Ads (LSAs) are taking up valuable real estate at the top of Google search, and your home services business might be missing leads if you’re trying for a top spot with only SEO.

Stay tuned for more marketing wisdom next week on part 2 with Rustin and Daylen!

A better sales process increases sales and growth.

Kenny likens the relationship between sales and marketing to marriage. It takes a certain degree of communication and teamwork in order for it to be successful.

“The sales team and the marketing team can have a really good marriage where everything is communicating really well and reporting is going back and forth or sales and marketing can end up... in divorce or a turmoil-based relationship.”

Kenny emphasizes that it’s important to ask what each team can bring to the table to solve issues in sales. With combined efforts, marketing and sales teams can create a productive system that will bring in leads.

What should you be doing before the sales process starts?

Take the time to consider what your service or product is worth and what customers are willing to pay for that service or product.

“You’ve got to figure out cost to goods and labor estimates and all these things. And if you don’t do it effectively, which most don’t, then you go to market underpriced and underpriced selling kills everything.”

The Blue Collar Success Group provides a “12 Step Ultimate Client Experience” that focuses on the relationship between the company and the customer. In the customer/company relationship, you are the hero, you are providing an invaluable service.

Marketing and Sales
Marketing and sales transactions can be broken down into a system of three steps:

1. Primary marketing and attracting the customer. This is where Scorpion comes in.
2. The sale and the follow through.
3. The review, follow-up, and “happy call.”

These steps demonstrate the attentiveness required for success. The process is not over after the sale is through. You still must ensure your product or services are adequate, and also cultivate a continued relationship with your client that may prompt their return and possible promotion of your business.

How do you determine where you’re starting to make sales?

Kenny highlights a few steps to help you determine when and where your business is making sales.

1. Meet with a business coach.
2. Have clarity in what you’re doing and why.
3. Check revenue numbers and key performance indicators.

In the home services industry, many of the services and products offered were at one point considered a commodity and wants. However, over time these wants have become necessities—giving your service an invaluable edge.

If you are confident in the value of the products and services you provide, your customers will be confident in you.

Business Sales Process Investment To-Do List

Business owners need to be thinking more, Kenny says. Step back and brainstorm, plan, assess current problems and successes, and predict future outcomes.

The problem is, in the home services industry, boards of directors don’t really exist. The Blue Collar Success Group’s Mastermind Groups enable business owners to reach a board of directors mentality without ever establishing an actual board.

1. Align margins correctly with pricing.
2. Find clarity in what you want to accomplish.
3. Make sure your sales team has a strong script and is trained effectively. Build the system for the person having the communication step-by-step.

Why are podcasts important for home services business success?

“Our frontline is kicked in the teeth all day... we have challenges day after day, call after call… as owners, as leaders of these organizations, we have got to get some good information, we have got to listen to people who are going through the same thing.”

Listening to peers in the industry via podcasts can relieve stress for home services business owners. You can discover invaluable tips on business priorities, improving management and sales skills, maximizing leads, and advancing overall business growth.

The coaching, training, and development company gives home services businesses the tools to improve employee consistency, retention, communication, and management, as well as to maximize leads.

“The home services industry is changing faster than we’ve ever seen it and we want to be a guiding light to that. So, we’re going to touch more lives and help people understand where to go.”

What is the current state of sales?

“Sales does not matter… all that matters is what goes to the bottom line… meaning that we watch three, four, five, ten million dollar companies generate a lot of sales, but there’s nothing at the bottom, which creates stress, which creates anxiety, which creates fear, which doesn’t allow owners to make good decisions.”

Kenny highlights that while the state of sales in the current economy is very good, there is no guarantee that it will stay that way forever. If your company is not making decisions with the bottom line in mind, it can lead to serious issues in the long run.

What are a business owner’s biggest mistakes?

“The challenge is really, entrepreneurs are optimists by nature, we can’t not be. When business owners get up in the morning, you have got to go ‘Today is gonna be better’... the challenge is, we don’t have our own blindspots.”

At The Blue Collar Success Group, they create “mastermind groups” to support business owners and help you predict future issues and find those blindspots.

The key, Kenny says, is preparing for a recession prior to it actually happening. With this in mind, business owners will have a plan set in place so that in the event of a flood, you won’t sink, but swim.

What is relational selling?

Kenny states that you have to build trust in order to earn the authority to ask a customer for their business.

A strong relationship with the customer, begins inside the company. It is the culture within the company that will ultimately affect the client relationship.

“When things get busy, sometimes owners have the tendency to forget the importance of team, and the importance of how we treat them. If you treat an internal client, meaning a team member, like a commodity, then they will treat your end user like a commodity.”

How to tackle the recruiting challenge.

“If recruiting isn’t as equally important as generating leads, then you’re not serious about recruiting.”

Kenny encourages business owners who want all the benefits of a good team, to invest as much in recruiting as you are in securing leads. And, when it comes to recruiting today’s generation of Millennials, there are certain facets of the home services industry that it is important to highlight.

1. Millenials like the idea of a path without debt, which is exactly what the home services industry offers. However, Millennials are looking for a work environment beyond the bare minimum that the Baby Boomers may be used to.
2. Family values are much more common in today’s industries, which offers Millennial techs the opportunity to find accountability, purpose, and passion in their work.
3. Many millennials find “side hustles” they are passionate about and enjoy outside of the more often mundane work they do to earn their main source of income. If you give your employees the opportunity to capitalize on their strengths and passion within your organization, you’ll find that they won’t need to seek out a side hustle, as all of the validation they are searching for can be found within your company environment.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this interview with Kenny Chapman.

“I started going to the next level, started doing bigger projects, got into new construction at that time and then evolved from that, and ultimately into home service plumbing—that spoke to me, that really gave me purpose, helping people in their homes, solving problems, and the opportunity to make good money.”

Within the home services environment, Eric was able to make real connections with clients and build meaningful relationships. This area, he felt, gave him purpose as a problem solver and helped him realize that plumbing is one of the most important practices in the trade industry.

Business Ownership

Eric never really had a job prior to Dutton Plumbing; rather, he always worked for family without a solid paycheck. This laid back and close-knit family environment allowed for free thinking and gave him the opportunity to go his own way.

“I wasn’t caught up in that box, on that treadmill chasing that hourly bill or that hourly paycheck and getting caught up in that. It allowed me to be a freethinker and forge my own path.”

With this open mind and ability to prioritize relationships over money, the very foundations of what Dutton Plumbing would stand for were formed.

The Dutton Plumbing Brand

“I’m very proud to be a plumber, I feel plumbers are the most genuine best people on the planet. We do more for society than any other trade—we save people, we create civilizations.”

Dutton Plumbing prides itself on its personable staff, focus on high quality service, and relationship building. Unlike some other plumbers in the industry, Dutton hopes to not only get the job done, but to ensure the happiness and comfort of the client along the way. Dutton Plumbers are kind and helpful, and as their slogan goes, they’re “the plumber you’d send to your Mom’s house.”

Building a Good Team

As the company grew, the brand which once revolved around solely Eric himself, started to revolve around the people who worked for him. More than anything, Eric wants the people who work for him—who ultimately represent him and his business—to truly care.

“Dealing with people, the relationships. You go into people’s homes get to know who they are, their kids, their pets, it’s more than just screwing pipes together, it’s more than just fixing things…you’re dealing with people.”

To keep your brand healthy and growing, you have to bring people in that embody everything you do. Each of his workers are well versed in how to deal with customers and handle customer service issues. Through and through, Eric says, personality is key; his plumbers must have the personable disposition which he grew his company name on.

Staying Ahead of the Competition

Eric is a perfectionist; he likes clean, exact, and professional service from his team. Because of this, and the fact that the landscape of the home services industry is always changing, Eric is always looking for ways to take himself and his business to the next level.

While this is the case, he has never found “competition” to be a true issue in his industry. Rather, he has a deep respect for all plumbers at every level—from mom and pop plumbers to big name corporations—and finds that in the end, they all have the common goal of being fixers.

The Biggest Challenges

One of the biggest challenges many business owners face is the inability to let go. That is, being able to trust the people around you; to empower people, delegate, enable people to work freely; and to stop micromanaging.

Once you hire the right people and give them the room they need to grow and thrive, you’ll find yourself surrounded by a very talented team and you’ll be more than satisfied. From there you won’t have to worry about day-to-day problems and you’ll be able to focus on larger challenges, like business growth—you’ll be able to “let go.”

Eric’s Advice:

• Listen to any advice that people are willing to share with you. You don’t have to take it, you just have to listen.
• Just do it and don’t be afraid to be who you want to be—it’s a matter of decision. Decide it and do it.

He works with Scorpion clients across several industries, including home services, and is especially passionate about connecting local businesses with customers.

Consumer Journey

Media consumption as a whole has increased, especially with mobile devices. In the past, people used to have to use a desktop computer to find an answer to their question or a business’s contact information. But now, all the information you are looking for is in your back pocket, so we are consuming content at every moment on phones.

Today, when customers are at a point of need, they are able to type in the service or use voice command to search for what they need and discover a high-quality solution quickly. Jamie shares the example of when he needed an HVAC technician ASAP, and immediately searched for one near him on his phone.

“I’m thinking about proximity, I’m thinking about what’s their schedule like, and I’m thinking about can I find validation quickly that these guys are good at what they do.”

How to Take Advantage of Micro-Moments

A micro-moment is the exact moment in time when a consumer realizes they have a need for a specific product or service.

Jamie sees that businesses who are maximizing these micro-moments are present in their consumers’ media channels instead of relying on a memory of seeing a billboard or through word of mouth. These are the businesses who are growing successfully.

Jamie highlights that many businesses only focus on this one moment, but in order to maximize your results, you need to focus on several moments leading up to this one.

The traditional, broad overview of the marketing funnel illustrates the framework for how your brand can get in front of your consumer early on to maximize the micro-moment:

1. Awareness: making people aware of your business and your brand.
2. Consideration: staying in front of the customer when they are thinking about a product or service.
3. Purchasing: being highly searchable when they are thinking about pulling the trigger and choosing a business to work with in their moment of need.

By marketing to these customers and exposing them to your brand and services through various social media platforms prior to this moment of need, you build trust and awareness. You have an opportunity to influence the customer to not just search for a service in their moment of need, but to search for your specific company. Today, this is happening on mobile devices through websites and ads, but also with voice technology, which underlines the importance of having an easy-to-navigate website and clear copy.

For home services businesses, identifying these moments before a moment of need is challenging because customers aren’t necessarily considering a purchase unless they need it immediately. Jamie says that having a presence on social media is an important tool for building this awareness of your business. It will help change your consumer’s moment of need from one of panic to one of certainty. They know who they are going to call to fix their problem.

Think Creatively

Jamie shares the approach of one of his clients, S & D Plumbing, as a good example of how home services businesses can take advantage of micro-moments by building awareness on social media. Through content that tells their story and showcases the staff that powers their brand and services, they help their audience relate to and trust their brand.

For example, they ran a Valentine’s Day parody video advertising a free massage to anyone who shared their video. The video featured one of their technicians giving a massage to a co-worker on a workman’s table. They weren’t directly marketing their plumbing services, but they were making a feel-good, memorable impression on potential customers.

“Doing content like that and exposing your brand to people before they need you is going to give you an advantage when that need happens.”

It was his brother who initially introduced him to plumbing. When they parted ways, Howie was inspired to start his own business built on a foundation of trust and integrity.

“It’s not just about money, it’s about solving their problem, not selling them things they don’t necessarily need, giving them options, but looking out for their best interests first, instead of my own. And that really set us apart.”

Quality, Howie says, is the most important aspect of what they do. And, it lasts.

Maintaining Quality and Staying Ahead of Competition

• They make a call to see how every job went.
• He makes sure that all of their techs perform their job as good as he would have.
• They strive for consistency by triple checking everything they do.
• They keep their customers informed.
• They take time to make sure every job is done well.

“We completely embrace technology. We take pictures before, during, and after so there’s no question. If a customer may have forgotten something they said on the phone when they were booking the call, they have the capability of listening to that call on the job site... using technology to everyone’s advantage makes us do a better job, a longer lasting job, and there’s complete accountability.”

Building a Quality Team

Howie says he looks for three things when hiring: be on time, be sober, and give 100% of your best self.

Quality First’s family-centered approach to culture has also drawn loyal, invested employees into the fold. Howie values his employees’ ideas and feedback, which he says often informs and shapes the trajectory of the company.

However, it is often challenging to find and recruit techs for the trades because today’s generation is groomed to go to college. The trades are suffering because the pool of experienced people is dwindling.

“I go to high schools and I talk to kids and if you’re good with your hands, this may be a viable alternative for you, whether it be a plumber, a heating guy, or an electrician.”

Advice

1. Shift from a “trust” mindset to a “trust AND verify” mindset.
2. Have a mission.
3. Know your why.

For Howie, his mission is giving back and his why is his family.

Creating a Motivational Culture

Howie begins every company meeting with high energy music and a motivational video. This keeps his team engaged, positive, and connected. He also shares how utilizing technology in their company workflow is crucial for keeping Millennials motivated and excited about doing their jobs well.

Thanks to Scorpion, Quality First has gone from having clients mainly in the commercial space to expanding into the residential space. Howie credits the trustworthy experts at Scorpion for helping his team achieve their goals and deliver high-quality home services.

Reputation

John explains that when your potential customers are looking for a home services provider like a plumber, electrician, or HVAC contractor, their decision is heavily influenced by the reputation of your business.

“Having an online reputation that is positive, responsive, is really important to the end user in the long run.”

Today, people are less likely to be searching based on loyalty to specific brands and businesses. They care about who will provide the best service, the amount and quality of your reviews, your prices, and the presentation of information about your services.

Why Good and Bad Reviews Matter

Your online reputation and reviews are crucial to shaping how your customers view your business. In addition, they can inform the success of your ads.

Local Services Ads (LSAs) are a new type of Google ad where you pay per lead, instead of pay per click. LSAs pull from your online presence, so the quality and amount of reviews you have can impact how often you show up in local searches. You can target your LSAs specifically to show up with keywords specific to your industry.

“How Google perceives where you show up in the organic search results and now impacts your Local Service Ads and where you show up in those is significant. It’s based on over 300 different factors… reviews, your online reputation, how many visits come to your website, how responsive you are to those reviews coming across. It plays a really large role in their reception of you.”

It’s important to know that sometimes your business will get a negative review.

John encourages all of his clients to respond quickly and professionally to negative reviews and also reach out personally to the upset customer. This not only resolves things with the person who left the negative review (and they may even remove it!) but also shows potential customers who you are as a business.

Growing Your Reviews

So how do you gather more reviews? The sincerity of a technician asking a client for their honest feedback is the most impactful, successful strategy.

1. Technicians should take every precaution while in the customer’s home. For example: wear booties in the home to show that you care about their property and home, be friendly, respectful, look professional, and communicate in a service-oriented way.
2. Have your technicians ask your clients for a review in person while they are on the job. The personal connection and immediacy create a sense of obligation in the customer.
3. Equip your technician not only with the knowledge and skills to do their job exceptionally well but also with clear, straightforward directions on how customers can easily leave a review.
4. Make sure you are sincere, empathetic, respectful, and communicative with your customers every step of the way.

Attribution and Key Performance Indicators

In marketing, attribution is all about looking at cause and effect. What drove a phone call? What drove a paid job? Kate says that identifying your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is the first step to identifying attribution and achieving your goals.

“KPIs are Key Performance Indicators and essentially… what that means for a business owner is they would set up an objective that they want to hit for the entire company and also for individuals and then they would plan out what exactly that would look like.”

For example, Kate outlines what identifying KPIs might look like for your home services business.

1. Decide how many HVAC calls and plumbing calls you need for a week, and from there, how many of those need to turn into sales and service agreements to reach your goal revenue.
2. Track your team’s performance and what the average ticket value and ROI was on those booked sales.

Setting these incremental goals will help you achieve your big goals.

Deciding on a Goal

Your goals and KPIs don’t always have to be about ROI. Sometimes your KPIs might be measuring frequency, reach, and traffic, or SEO, if your goals are branding or online presence focused.

“Honestly, anytime you’re building your brand or you’re improving your organic presence, you will see that positively reflect in the number of calls...and correlate with an increase in revenue.”

Kate shares that this is why it’s so important to have a well-rounded, holistic marketing plan because all of the pieces work together. This also ensures that your target audience is familiar with you before they need you.

“By the time they’re looking for the service that they need, they should already have been exposed to you in some way, shape, or form because that’s going to build a lot of credibility and value.”

The Big Picture

While revenue is important, there are so many things that go into closing a sale. The beauty of digital marketing is that it is possible to go back and look at a campaign that is getting a lot of calls and interaction but isn’t getting the closing numbers desired, and see where improvement can happen.

Kate highlights that tools like Google Analytics and Scorpion’s Dashboard can help identify attribution of where your sales are coming from:

1. Google Analytics: tracks the traffic to your website and where it came from.
2. Scorpion’s Dashboard: tracks calls, campaigns, and conversations with your customers.

Advice

Kate says that if you really want to know where your revenue is coming from in terms of calls, ditch the vanity number for call tracking numbers.

Google Partner Program

Bob explains that Scorpion is part of the Premier Google Partner Program which allows Scorpion to bring their clients:

• Beta testing
• Insights from the Google team directly
• Access to events like Google Marketing Live
  Training
• Custom acquisition and marketing events

To become a Google Premier Partner, Scorpion had to meet a high standard of performance across the following categories:

1. Product expertise
2. Certification within Google Ads Products
3. High customer retention rate
4. Good customer satisfaction

Every year, Google surveys its partners and their partners’ customers to gauge performance and satisfaction. Scorpion has won the customer satisfaction award for the past two years!

Bob emphasizes that the value of working with one of Google’s Premier Partners like Scorpion is that your home services business gets access to top insights, trends, and experience. From website development to local ads and lead management, Google Premier Partners help your business get better results.

Google’s Mission

Google’s mission statement is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

“Within channel sales… we empower partners to deliver the benefits of Google marketing solutions at scale and with that it’s helping businesses worldwide grow.”

Bob highlights that these solutions help today’s businesses cut through the noise. Today, your home services business has so many ways to reach your customers: from social media, to email, to print materials, and more. Google Partners can help your business decide which tactics will help you reach your customers at the right time in the right place.

How Google’s Solutions Work

With Google’s solutions, from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Webmaster Tools, Search Console, and Local Services Ads, you can make your business more discoverable and trustworthy.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important strategy for driving your audience to your website. It validates your business and is important to showing potential customers that you are the answer to their problems. In addition, Bob shares how Google Partners utilize Google’s Webmaster Tools and the Search Console to help make your business’s website presence stronger.

“I direct people to Webmaster Tools to actually gain access to the things that will help them develop a better website, where the Search Console is going to give them insight into how to make or where they should be making those changes.”

Google Partners can also help connect your home services business to your service area with Local Services Ads.

In order to have your home services business show up with a Local Services Ad, your business must become verified by Google. This is necessary because Google backs their Local Services Ads with a guarantee to customers that your home services business will complete your job or service to the highest standard.

To get started and reach your customers efficiently, Bob recommends:

1. Learn more about Local Services Ads and check out the requirements.
2. Find a Google Partner to help you see how Local Services Ads can benefit your business.

In the past, he says that Human Relations departments were focused on compliance and making sure that employees followed the rules. Today, they are much more people focused and want to create an environment where their teams are inspired.

Hiring Impacts Culture

“First off the bat, when you’re talking about culture, hiring is the most important thing you can do. This is just a guess on my part, but 90% of the problems you run into are bad culture fit hires.”

Take the time to get the best talent. Not only will this benefit your company, it will also save you money: it costs 1.5 in annual salary for every bad hire you make.

Best Practices for Hiring

In the home services industry, Raphael says he often sees businesses hiring with only knowledge, skills, and abilities as the priorities. However, he says you should actually be focused on:

1. Are they are a good culture fit? Do they get along with the team? Do they inspire those around them? Are they smart?
2. If the answer to number one is yes, then you can focus on do they know how to do the job and will they do it well?

Raphael’s advice is to hire slow and fire fast.

A part of having a good culture is you have to care enough about the high performance and low performance. If you have someone who is not performing, you have to let them know.”

You want people who have the intrinsic desire to do the best job. That defines your culture.

How to Avoid Emergency Hires and Maintain Retention

Avoiding emergency hires is all about preparation.

1. Build a Pool: Interview and keep track of people even when you are not hiring immediately. That way, when you do need to hire, you have a pool of people you know have potential, and you don’t cut corners.
2. Utilize Your Employees: They are a great referral source!
3. Leverage Platforms: Social Media, Monster, LinkedIn.
4. Compete: Don’t be afraid to hire from competitors.

• Expect a lot from your team, but also empower them.
• Compensation is secondary to intrinsic motivation: your employees have to love their job.
• Correct in private, recognize in public.
• Micromanagement is mismanagement. Let your employees do their job with their own flavor!
• Do happiness surveys, team outings, and staff meetings where people are recognized for great performance.
• Be transparent and get your team behind your why.
• Give them a vision and a voice by including them in decisions and the direction of the company.

The Millennial Generation

Raphael has a wealth of experience and knowledge when it comes to managing Millennials. He believes it requires a unique approach, supported by a strong culture.

1. You have to give your employees opportunities to grow rather than just telling them to grow.
2. You have to show that you care about them. Show them how you see them growing in their role and in the company, and how you will help them get there. If your employees know that their leadership cares about them, they will care about their work.

When she met her husband, a plumber, they merged their talents and founded Sunshine Plumbing, Heating & Air based in Denver, CO.

Women in Trade

While Susan says there have been times where she has seen a bit of resistance to her leading role in the trades as a woman, it has mostly been an advantage.

“Eighty percent of our clients are women, because women spend the most amount of money in the home in the United States. So they love doing business with a woman-owned company!”

She would also love to employ women technicians, but she currently does not have any. She even did a TED talk last year about why there are no women in the trades, part of the larger problem of a shrinking workforce.

The Solution

Susan says that because college has been the priority for parents and children in the last 20 years, trade school has fallen to the wayside. In fact, within the next 3-5 years, estimates say we will be one million people short of necessary people in the trade industry because baby boomers are retiring, and nobody is coming in to fill their shoes.

Susan’s solution: talk to kids in 7th and 8th grade about the opportunities in the trades and encourage parents to be open-minded about the opportunities that trade school presents.

• It could be a better fit for your child’s skills.
• It may be the best way for them to gain real-world experience and pay for college without loans.

“Going into the trades is not about brawn and might, it’s about being super smart and having great customer service.”

Growth and Retention

While Sunshine Plumbing, Heating & Air has won the best place to work award, Susan says these factors have been even more instrumental in bringing in the right team and creating a positive culture.

1. Being selective about who they hire in the office so that they can create a culture that integrates with and has compassion for those working in the field.
2. Looking at their demographic area to move their Internet traffic and leads more up north where there is less traffic.
3. This creates a more positive work commute and environment for their techs.
4. Focusing on gratitude. This means whenever there is a moment for venting, it is balanced out with two points of gratitude.

The Pufferfish Effect

The Pufferfish Effect is the title of Susan’s new book, which you can order now! She shares how this idea of the “Pufferfish Effect” was inspired by Seth Godin’s “Purple Cow” concept.

With 950 competitors in their market, Sunshine Plumbing, Heating & Air had to set themselves apart. They created a super high-touch customer experience that won them a lot of recognition and a reputation that their business is much larger than it really is, similar to a pufferfish! Susan emphasizes that this idea hinges on the importance of finding your uniqueness and using that to your advantage. What can you say about your business that nobody else can say?

Innovation

“That’s the way we’ve always done it,” is something that is never said at Sunshine Plumbing, Heating & Air.

Susan shares how their Video Plumber service, where they observe the client’s problem and provide a solution and estimate over video, is a perfect example of innovation. Not only does it cater to the immediate gratification and timeliness of today’s culture, it also provides a great working opportunity for disabled or veteran techs. She also foresees them utilizing drones in the future to make Video Plumber even more effective.

Her secret to finding inspiration for innovation is by staying up to date on cutting edge practices across industries, not only plumbing.

Customer Experience

Susan’s favorite tools for creating an outstanding customer experience include:

• Review Capture, which lets her see what is going on in the field.
• Completing “Happy Calls” with every customer in order to hear about their experience.
• Making sure techs are on time—people hate when you’re late!
• Finding ways to take the stress out of the conversation with clients from the very beginning, by letting clients know that Sunshine Plumbing, Heating & Air can help.

Advice for Marketing

1. Track it. Measure it. Approve it.
2. Know your average cost per lead, average closing ratio per technician on that particular lead, and average dollar per sale.
3. Run your business off of your actual numbers, not a guessing game.

Contact
Business: www.SunshinePHA.com
Book and Speaking Engagements: www.susanrobertsfrew.com

What is local search?

“The best way to think about the online local ecosystem is all of the major platforms and channels you need to be listed on to be found by search engines.”

Dasch says that while your website is important, it’s not the only way Google connects searchers with your business. From Google My Business to Yelp to Angie’s List, these third-party directories verify how credible you are, building trust with Google and your customers when they conduct a local search.

Make sure your business has consistent information on every platform for each of these points:

• Name
• Address
• Phone Number
• Website

This includes making sure that your data is maintained correctly and that platforms aren’t giving misinformation on your business.

How does local search work with data aggregators?

Data aggregators are directories like Google My Business and Yelp and they act as phone books and data hubs that house the records for businesses. Verification of information and having physical addresses have become increasingly important as local searches like “plumbing near me” become the norm.

Google does not rank businesses that operate from a home or a virtual office, only have a P.O. box, or share a location with a business in the same industry. Your business must have a legitimate business address in order to rank. While this can be challenging, it is part of Google’s effort to provide better results and is an important detail to take into consideration when building your business.

How does this impact businesses with multiple locations or wide service areas?

It’s important to indicate where you are physically located and list areas that you are familiar with and serve within a certain radius, or specific towns. By including these details on your directories and site, you give Google the information it needs.

If you have multiple physical locations, consistency across all platforms is important.

“If I’ve got 3 locations, A, B, and C, I’ve got three records on all platforms of A, B, and C, and none of the information on A, B, or C is the same except for the name.”

Dasch also emphasizes that it’s best to have one website that has all of the information about each of your locations rather than separate sites for each location.

Point being: stay simple and consistent to perform the best in search results.

The Importance of Your Customer Experience

The customer experience is made up of every interaction that takes place between a business and a customer. It’s the job of the business owner or business to have every customer walk away with a positive feeling.

“Something that I like to do when I think of a client experience, is I think of it as a series of touch points. And every touch point has the possibility, you know, of being a green grade, green dot, which means they had a good touch point, or maybe a red one, so that’s a bad touch point… If your string of colored dots at the end of the experience is almost all green, then your customer should be happy, and looking back on their experience in a positive light.”

Sami emphasizes how important it is for business owners and businesses to intentionally take every chance to make every touch point green.

Customer Service Vs. Customer Experience

The customer experience is separate from the product or service your customer receives. Even if your customer is satisfied with your product or service, if they hated the process of buying it or had an unpleasant series of interactions, they will be upset and unsatisfied.

Sami offers the illustrative example of when a customer calls a plumber to fix their overflowing sink. Even if the sink is ultimately fixed, the customer will not associate that fact with your business if details like these are part of their experience:

• Hidden costs
• Bad communication
• Late techs
• Unfriendly techs
• Poor clean up job after service is completed

“The customer experience is what brings people back to your business. The customer experience is what makes your customers tell their friends about your business… Your customer experience is everything when it comes to growing your business and winning against your competition.”

Financial Value of Customer Experience

An exceptional, memorable customer experience impacts your business financially by increasing your repeat business, referrals, and bottom line.

How to Improve Your Customer Experience

Sami recommends utilizing surveys, talking to your customers about their needs, and experiencing the customer experience yourself in order to truly understand what your business’s customer experience is like and where to improve. By listening to them and engaging with them, you will gain insight into the little touches and details you can implement that will make your business stand out. If you are only focused on efficiency, your customer experience will not improve.

1. What do your customers expect from you?
2. What do you personally look for in a positive customer experience?
3. Where can you improve your business?
4. Think about what your core business values are and make sure that all of your choices are in line with your values.
5. Before you make any changes, capture your metrics of retention, repeat business, referral business, and your reputation. Then, test and measure how they change as you work on improving your customer experience to see what works and what doesn’t.

The Customer Journey

The ideal customer journey begins with introducing your audience to your brand in a way that ultimately leads them to become a champion for your business.

Between building awareness and lifetime advocacy, there are many important details and stages of the customer experience. This is where a strategic marketing partner can advise you on where and when to show up for those customers and retain them.

At the end of the day, if your branding is great and captures attention, but your customer experience is not full of value and great service, you’ll end up losing leads or having one-time interactions instead of creating lifetime advocates.

Who Is Your Customer?

You have two types of customers. Your intentional customers who are proactively researching and looking for your specific service or product, and those who need you in an emergency.

Be open and ready to work with different marketing strategies in order to meet those customers where they are at in their buying journey, and invest in an expert who will guide you to those places and help you cultivate trust.

A Marketing Mix

A marketing mix is your set of chosen avenues where you’re meeting the customer, from print to digital content and relationship development.

“You have to look at it from where you’re investing money effectively. If you’ve got an avenue that’s not producing any results and you’re wasting money, you have to be honest with yourself.”

In this area, Travis emphasizes the importance of thinking on your feet and thinking strategically to pivot your focus to where your resources are paying off. There’s never a one-size-fits-all answer in marketing because people and technology are changing constantly.

For example, a strong marketing mix for one business might include social and video content to help drive traffic to their website, and another company may invest more in social and blog content to drive SEO and Google rankings. One marketing truth that does apply to every business, is the importance of gathering reviews. This builds brand reputation and shows potential customers that you are trustworthy.

Your business will quickly and more effectively when you work with a marketing partner who has expertise in planning and strategizing to track trends and data.

“Understanding how to report back on that (technology) and how to produce the actual product to fit those platforms is... incredibly vital to the success of a marketing plan.”

Advice:

Look at your processes right now and see where you are losing money. Ask yourself: “Where can we grow as a business? How could marketing help?”

In the home services industry, he shares how he often sees owners afraid to let go of the sales part of the business that they have been primarily responsible for. It seems easier to just continue doing it yourself, than training someone. However, investing in and training a strong team to fill that role is one of the best things you can do for your company.

When and How

Steve says that if you are spending too much time working in the field, rather than on the business, it’s time to focus on getting a new plan for sales.

First, determine your goals, strengths, and the unique differentiators that set you apart from the competition.

1. How many jobs sold or revenue booked do I need in order to be successful?
2. What are the right types of customers we should be working with?
3. What solutions are we providing to our clients? What are we saying to them and how are we communicating our services to them?
4. Who should I have on my team?
5. Who is responsible for executing this sales strategy?
6. What do I want them to do daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually?
7. How do I make sure they are doing it?

Steve emphasizes that finding someone who is responsible for this whole plan is crucial. Invest in that person. They should understand what you do, have clear goals, be able to ask the right questions, and take full responsibility.

Thriving Sales Culture

“To me, the most important thing that salespeople really want to feel is that they are playing a game they can win, period.”

Stretch goals, goals that are challenging but not impossible, are ideal for cultivating an exciting, engaging sales culture. When the sales team has goals that are attainable and measurable, they will be able to focus and feel supported.

Early on in your business, one person can be responsible for sales in order to understand the whole picture holistically. However, as you scale, you will need to build a team that specializes in each part of the sales strategy, from communicating with customers about services and scheduling to closing the deal.

Finding the Right People

In home services businesses, techs are often in the role of both determining the problem, closing the sale, and then fixing the problem. Steve says that hiring the right people is hard, and you have to put in the work to find them. Good techs are:

1. Great listeners when the customer explains the issue they are facing.
2. Deeply empathetic to what the customer is experiencing.
3. Confident that they will solve the customer’s problem.

These qualities build trust and comfort with the client. As you identify techs who are good at determining the problem and closing the sale, it may be time to have them make that their sole focus and send a different tech in to actually fix the problem. This all depends on how you want to run your business, but don’t underestimate playing to your team’s strengths.

Marketing and Sales

“Consumers are showing up to all sorts of buying cycles with far more information, with far more research and competitive analysis done, even for things as simple as finding an electrician...They are more educated.”

Your sales team backs up your marketing strategy and business goals. Make sure your sales and marketing are aligned and consistent to create a positive customer experience.

Steve’s Advice

Set a goal for being where you want to be in a certain time frame. Start with the end in mind and work your way back into how you will achieve this from a sales and marketing perspective.

Omnichannel refers to the multiple ways for businesses to get in front of their ideal customers. In the past, it was a race to see who could gain the highest organic SEO reach to be found first when searched. But now that everyone is doing this, it’s important to have a more well-rounded approach to marketing.

This includes:

• Organic
• Paid
• Video
• Display
• Content Management
• Social

Dan explains that each of these pieces work together to reach your audience in the right place and at the right time in a way that resonates.

Changing Buying Cycle

Part of this shift to omnichannel marketing is occurring because of the changing buying cycle. People are spending less time searching because they are discovering what they need before they need it, thanks to platforms like Google and Facebook understanding user preferences, past activities, and interests.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

While PPC can be valuable for businesses and is known for producing high conversion rates, it is most effective at the bottom of the funnel. This moment is called the “Zero Moment of Truth.” It is when customers know what they want to buy and who they want to buy from.

If you only focus on PPC, you could miss out on the rest of your audience who are just at an earlier point in the buying funnel.

To take advantage of this evolving buying cycle, it’s important to have a pre-conversion plan, made possible through omnichannel marketing.

Creating a Pre-Conversion Plan

To illustrate what a pre-conversion plan is, Dan uses the example of Christmas shopping.

If he is targeted with ads in August for various products, like a robe for his wife, even if he doesn’t buy it that early, when he is scrambling at the last minute on Christmas Eve he will be more likely to go back and buy it.

“Get me to buy the robe prior to me doing the PPC search, and you’ll have me as a customer.”

This pre-conversion plan not only sets you up for success by reaching your audience before they need you, it also decreases the chance of your competitors booking your potential customers.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Although there is no cost per click associated with SEO, it is actually often more expensive than PPC because it is a very technical, time-intensive speciality. Dan says that while it is always valuable to have your business show up organically through SEO, it does take a serious investment of time and money.

Facebook

Dan highlights how Facebook is now being treated like a portal to the internet. Customers are able to find product recommendations and do searches before they even go to the internet. This makes Facebook a very valuable pre-conversion point of connection for your business to meet potential customers.

Facebook and Google are anticipating the “Zero Moment of Truth” and are getting brands in front of an audience before they are ready to buy.

Local Service Ads (LSAs)

Unlike a cost per click model, LSAs operate on a cost per lead model. LSAs appear at the top of Google search above the PPC ads, which is prime real estate on Google. If you’re a local business, you can’t decide how often you show up, but you can optimize your business information and practices to boost your profile. For example, when choosing which businesses to show a customer after they do a local search, Google takes your business’s location, ratings, and how often you answer your phone into account.

The Solution: Omnichannel Marketing

After taking all of these different avenues of marketing into account, Dan emphasizes why it is so important to have a marketing strategy that combines each of these tactics in a way that fits your home services business goals.

“The purchasing decisions are being pushed further and further up the funnel by the way technology is working... There is too much opportunity to get in front of the ideal customer sooner in the buying cycle. We tell our advertisers is we need them to be doing an omnichannel approach so they capture business so that business is not being poached by their competitors, prior to their PPC search.”

Growing S & D Plumbing

Growing up in the business, Dan says plumbing was practically in his blood. His father always encouraged him to go to trade school or college, with the reminder that if he did go into the trade business, he would have a job for life. After attending college for a while, Dan returned to work for the family business. He ran a service truck for several years before his father gave him a push to take on a leadership position.

While Dan shares that transitioning from a service role to leadership was challenging at times, his key to success was cultivating a mindset that was focused and committed. He knew he didn’t have much experience in leadership, so he set out to learn and find guidance from mentors and best practice groups.

Dan’s Tools for Gaining a Competitive Edge

Learn From Others

“If I can bring somebody in smarter than me in business to teach me how to run a business, then that’s what I did. So I got plugged in, got some coaching, and I’ve never looked back.”

With his focus and commitment to learning and leadership, Dan has seen the company grow. He shares how he learned from his competition and larger companies about the importance of presenting a strong, confident brand impression, from the cleanliness of your service trucks and the quality of your customer service, to the rates you charge.

Lead with Innovation

“Really what leads my innovation, what leads my vision... is really my quiet time I spend in the mornings reading my Bible or praying. I give God all the credit for my ideas.”

Dan says that this perspective sets the tone for the culture he creates in the business. While it can be tempting to focus on money when you are chasing success, he emphasizes the importance of staying rooted in your values. When this happens, innovation and quality thrive.

**Create an Accountable Culture **

At S & D Plumbing, Dan has invested seriously in the culture and training of his employees. They work hard, have fun, and hold one another accountable to the core values of the company.

However, at one point he saw that as much as he was investing in his employees, they were never satisfied and there was a growing sense of entitlement. To quell this, he successfully refocused his team by increasing accountability and appreciation for the opportunity to provide high-quality service.

While some may point to Millennials as the reason for this entitlement challenge that Dan faced, he offers a different perspective. He thinks that in many ways, Millennials are focused on the right things. They care less about the money, and more about the family atmosphere, how much you invest in them, the fulfillment they experience in the work they are doing, and the overall experience. When recruiting the right team, Dan says he looks for people who fit the values of their company, and then invests in them.

Invest in Yourself and Your Team

Dan’s faith, competitiveness, and books/audio books have been important drivers in his leadership journey, giving him the courage to step out of his comfort zone and shake up the industry.

“What I’ve found my secret weapon is, is effort. Is stepping out in faith and saying, ‘Hmm, maybe today I’m going to get out of my comfort zone and come shoot a podcast or go turn on my iPhone and shoot a live Facebook video.’ I’ve been doing it for years and I get nervous every time. And that nervousness is what drives me, and excites me. It’s what keeps me ticking.”

Dan also credits his good friend who passed away three years ago, for teaching him how to perfect his craft outside of work, like listening to audiobooks and always putting in the effort to be your best self in order to serve your team.

“Great leadership comes from servant leadership.”

This concept of servant leadership informs how Dan trains his team to be strong and successful. To Dan, this training is not an expense, but rather an investment that you will see a huge return on. A team that works well together, shows empathy in each interaction, and truly listens and communicates with customers, is S & D’s recipe for creating a service experience that is truly life changing for customers.

Leadership Advice

1. Have a servant’s heart.
2. Keep your values in line.
3. Don’t let money solely drive you.

“The biggest takeaway is just that competitive edge in your team. It is your team. You got to stop saying it’s too expensive to train. You’ve got to stop saying I can’t hire people. You have to build a company with great core values, with a great service system, and really just start investing the time in your team, knowing that it’s not going to be instant gratification for you. It’s going to be a long-term investment.”

Example of the funnel:

A stranger enters the funnel and is a visitor on your website.
When they’ve found value and engaged with your material, they become a lead.
At this point, you want to keep them engaged and work with them to turn them into a customer.

“And that’s really what top funnel marketing is: providing educational resources to establish your brand and your company as the authority, the know-it-all, the expert in that field. You’re really establishing your credibility as a brand getting in front of that consumer when they’re searching for education.”

When you’re providing the answers to the consumer early in their research, you are putting yourself ahead of your competitors when it comes time for the consumer to make a purchasing decision.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Someone who is ready for purchase today has a high intent to make a purchase immediately. They are at the bottom of the funnel. Search engines know that those consumers are the most valuable to you, so they will charge you the most to get in front of those consumers.

So when you go back to the top of the funnel, your cost per acquisition is smaller. Meaning that your investment in reaching viable customers goes farther when you are working at the top of the funnel. He shares the example of how this ROI pays off when your consumer watches your how-to video on how to fix a drain but is not able to fix it. When he needs to call a plumber the next day, you’re top of mind thanks to your valuable content!

Do Top Funnels Produce Leads Quickly?

“Employing these strategies not only benefit you now, but it’s really laying the foundation for you to develop your brand and grow your brand and continue to provide business for months and years to come, because again, you’ve created the path for a stranger to become your customer.”

Mobile Responsiveness

Eric explains that you don’t want to deliver the same information on mobile as on desktop because customers are in different stages of the buying cycle. Typically, if they are visiting on mobile, their need is more urgent and your call to action needs to be tailored to that need.

“We have to make sure that the user intent is taken into account so that someone on the mobile device isn’t necessarily taken through the same funnel than someone who is just kind of looking for information about plumbers or plumbing…”

User Experience

You want to give customers the information they need right away. Matching user intent as closely as possible will help your users find what they are looking for on your site quickly.

There are two major ways that having a mobile responsive site impacts your business success:
If someone has a strong website set up for mobile, a user will have a positive experience and is more likely to engage as a lead or customer. On the flip side, if your site is not responsive and a customer has a bad experience, they will likely be lost to a competitor.
Google also understands the value of mobile responsiveness and often favors sites with mobile responsiveness over those without.

A high percentage of people using mobile want to contact you so it’s crucial to have your phone number readily available and ensure that scheduling a consultation is easy. Information about your services and company history is often of secondary importance on mobile.

Mobile Layout

His advice: You will increase your jobs and revenue when you reduce confusion and clutter.

For example, if you’re a plumber, you want to create and share content that answers how to fix a specific plumbing problem that your audience might be searching for. Utilizing tools like Google Trends to see what people are searching for in your industry or area, and talking to your customers to understand what their needs are, are great ways to inform the content you create.

Building Brand Awareness

Facebook allows you to target people based on a robust set of attributes, including:

• Interests
• Location
• Demographics

Content Marketing vs. Paid Advertising

“It really matters… because you’re building your audience at the top of the marketing funnel.”

Marisa highlights that while doing paid advertising is valuable because you can target people who are looking for you at that specific moment, content marketing allows you to build awareness for the future. Content marketing connects you with the audience who might not need you now but will in the future.

What Does a Strong Content Marketing Strategy Look Like?

The type of content you create should be informed by the topic it explains or explores and the medium you want to share it on.

“Facebook is where people are. As much as people say they don’t go on it anymore, stats say otherwise... Facebook also owns Instagram, so with that, your ads can go on Instagram as well.”

Marisa’s advice for home service business owners is to create content that will get your audience to believe in you.

Storytelling With Marketing Technology

Travis highlights how online platforms allow you to show your brand in action and tell your story with a very low barrier to entry. By using marketing technology to grow your business, you’re making a smart decision, financially and from a marketing standpoint.

When used well, marketing technology:

“Technology has allowed the small guy, the mid-sized guy, to do exactly what the big guy is doing and see a major return without having to go broke.”

Online Presence Benefits You and Customers

“You make your life easier… you make your transactions easier by leveraging and being online at the right time.”

Tracking Consumer Habits

For example, with a smart marketing team’s help, you can cut through the noise with powerful messaging specific to your audience at the perfect time. This is called the micro moment: the moment your customer is ready to buy.

Leveraging Technology

When he began his company, he had only one truck. But as he learned more about the industry, he saw an opportunity to grow his business by creating an exit strategy for retiring plumbers. From there, he built up his fleet from one truck to 21 trucks.

Hiring and Retaining Talent

Tim sees a lot of poaching happen in his industry. His solution to this problem has been taking the time to train, teach, engage, educate, and invest in his employees.

“What’s the lifetime value of an employee? I was taught a long time ago if you train people they could leave and go work for somebody else. But what if you train them and they stay? The lifetime value of an employee is worth way more than the lifetime value of a customer.”

If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers, and it will come full circle.

Online Presence

Top 3 things that are important about online marketing and that he has learned over the years:

1. How many times does the phone ring, where did those calls come from, and did you convert them?
2. Page rank, speed, and conversion are important. Make sure your marketing team is transparent with you and able to share these numbers with you.
3. Never spend more than the previous month’s sales on marketing.

What matters is how many leads you’re getting from your online strategy. If you want to increase your staff and grow your business, increase your calls and improve your conversion process and rates.

Quality Leads and Reviews

Tim defines a good lead as someone who finds them online and clicks to call. He credits the quality of their leads increasing due to the quality and amount of their reviews.

He calls reviews “the new word of mouth.” Incentivizing his staff to ask for reviews has worked well to improve their online presence.

Discovering What Marketing Support You Need

Tim’s advice is to invest in a good website and good people. He had worked with many marketing companies before he hired Scorpion. He was constantly changing his marketing tactics and spending more and more money. Now, with Scorpion, he spends less, doesn’t have to change his tactics, and doesn’t have to worry about hitting his budget.

“I finally got what I wanted from my marketing company… get specific about what you want.”

While the marketing support has been crucial to gaining quality leads, Tim has made sure his staff is well-trained in how to close those leads.

“I think that how to deal with people is the biggest piece of training you can get… because it’s all about the person, it’s all about the customer.”

His Advice

Seasonality: An Opportunity

In his role, he often sees seasonality as a big challenge for home services business owners.

“It’s really about showing up at the right time with the right messaging for the type of season they (your consumers) are in….”

Whether you’re in plumbing, HVAC, roofing, or pest control, it’s important to adjust your marketing strategy to take advantage of the off-season in a smart way. Matt emphasizes that often, business owners might not realize that providing preventative messaging and information to your audience during this season is good for both you and the consumer.

Seasonality Marketing Strategy

“This is where we kind of come in and say ‘Hey look, traditionally this is your slow period: it doesn’t have to be’.”

Seasonality needs to be part of your overall marketing strategy.

Matt shares that he usually sees business owners making at least 70% of their revenue during the busy season. However, relying on this income stream can cause you to lose revenue if variables like weather get in your way. Intentionally planning for the slow, off-seasons can provide security and diversification of your revenue.

Everyone Benefits

Shifting and adapting your marketing during the off-season to where people are spending their time may mean investing more of your marketing budget in social media platforms, in addition to your more traditional marketing. Sharing preventative messaging to your consumers on these platforms consistently makes your brand more memorable and builds consumer trust.

In addition, with the right seasonality marketing, you can keep your service technicians busy year round and maximize your efficiency in the busy season.

Matt says that providing these preventative measures really does bring a lot of value to people and smart consumers will notice this.

Matt’s Advice

Don’t stop what you’re doing during the off season. Don’t shut off and give up. To succeed and win business, come up with a strategy to stay in front of the people who need you.

Brand Experience

“In a nutshell, branding is what people are saying about you or your business when you leave the room. It’s that thing that lasts… or shows up before you do.” 

As the business, you are in charge of creating the experience and shaping what customers think about you, but every customer will respond a little bit differently. The experience also has to do with how you respond to their response.

Branding isn’t just your logo or colors. It’s every aspect of your interaction with the customer, from their call in need, to whether your technician shows up on time. All of these aspects are equally important. 

First Impressions and Brand Psychology

Peter emphasizes the power of first impressions and how they set the tone for a brand experience. You want to be in people’s brains ahead of time. You should be thinking of how you can remove stereotypes they may have about your industry and replacing them with positive impressions of your brand. 

At Scorpion, part of their process when working with their clients is helping them create a uniquely striking impression for their customers. They send these USI’s to new customers and people they need to rebuild trust with if a mistake has been made.

A certain part of your customer’s brain becomes dedicated to your brand, so it’s hard to shake first impressions. 

“So that’s the goal, is to have your brand… to control that spot in someone else’s brain so that it’s harder for your competition to take that out of their mind.”

Storytelling

Storytelling has been the largest form of communication throughout human history, and it’s an effective way of teaching. We like hearing stories. As a business, when you tell a story, you are engaging with your customers and prospects by creating a powerful emotional and educational tie.  

Shape your storytelling around the needs of your brand audience, and the pains and roadblocks they are encountering. 

Purpose

Create trust by providing a positive experience. The companies that do it right truly succeed and their brands stand out in people’s minds as a result.

Peter highlights the importance of having a clear purpose to define your company’s USI. You want to cut through the noise and differentiate yourself. It can be something small, but knowing who your customer is will make it effective. 

Giving your customer the peace of mind that you will take care of their problem, putting them at ease that they can trust you in their home, and then following up goes a long, long way. 

Challenges

Brendan emphasizes how real the challenge is to just be on the same page. When you’re not, this is where tensions start to flare up during the workday. 

“It’s really sitting down and seeing where your strengths and weaknesses are, and creating a business plan around that.”

Each person is going to be passionate about what they value. It’s important to understand what that passion is, respect it, and find the right fit for your passion within the business.

Families can split up if they don’t take the time to understand each other and how they best fit into the plan.

Prepare and Plan

Brendan’s tips for planning include:

• Overplan. The more the better.
• Write your goals down and stick to them. 
• Speak your mind and don’t be afraid.
• Focus on supporting everyone in their strengths and values. 

Apprenticeship and Mentoring

Whether a young technician is family or coming from the outside, Brendan says it’s important to start them young. This allows you to shape their skills and help them develop good habits. 

However, the craftsmanship industry is struggling right now because fewer people are interested in the trades.

“As far as appealing to potential technicians in the future, I think it’s really just involving the trades more in school. When I was in school we had wood, metal, automotive, and now we don’t have that.” 

He points to the fact that our society often looks down on the trades as a line of work. As a nation, he emphasizes the need to showcase the trades as not only something that is necessary, but something you can make a great living at. 

It’s not a bad thing to get your hands dirty. 

Retaining

To appeal to younger technicians, Brendan highlights the following:

• You need to be a tech first, customer-driven company. 
• Provide a good work-life balance.
• Benefits.
• Time off.
• Company competitions or events to build culture. 

He shares the example of one of his clients who holds a competition among her techs every month to see who can get the most reviews. It breeds competition and camaraderie, benefits the company, and the employees win things like Amazon gift cards and days off.

Succession Planning

Who is going to keep the name alive? Make sure you have a clear path of where you want the business to go. The moment you open your doors is when you need to start planning for who will run the business or continue the family legacy when you’re gone.

With B2C marketing you think of companies that sell soda, mobile apps, and cars.

B2B marketing is not something you typically see on TV or on the radio and is often promoting products or services like software, consulting, or home services like landscaping or plumbing. Another major difference is that it often involves a longer buying and selling cycle than B2C.

The Cycle of Buying

This cycle has different stages that the consumer or business goes through before buying a product or service: researching, analyzing, and then making the purchase decision.

Corey shares how Scorpion works to understand the process that their target customer or business goes through so that they can market well and be discoverable in their buyer’s journey.

Customer Research

"In order to cut through the noise, you need to do the extra research on who you’re selling to so that when they hear your message they will feel like you understand them."

Once they do the customer research to understand who the customer is, they are able move onto persona development. Corey shares that this is where they create an idealized version of their buyer, including their pain points, background, education level, information sources, and communication habits. From there, Scorpion orients their clients marketing to that ideal customer or business.

At Scorpion, they understand their buyer by doing interviews and asking questions like:
What were you doing before you started marketing with Scorpion?
What made you know that you needed to make a shift?

Other ways you can compile that customer research include online research and surveys, but Corey emphasizes the value of interviewing the people you want to sell to.

Targeting Leads

Now that you have your customer research and know what messages they need to hear and when, it’s time to create content marketing that is problem and solution focused.

Corey shares how connecting to the challenges and pain points that your ideal customer or business is experiencing allows your business to grow in authority, trust, and revenue.

"If you want to drive the performance of your business, if you’re dedicated to growing your business, doing the persona research will translate into more leads and a better economy of leads, a better cost per lead, which will lead to ultimately a better bottom line for your business."

This unscripted show follows Jill and her co-host across the country as they visit their clients and do their job for the day.

Their most recent trip to Austin, TX for Episode 4 involved investigative plumbing. She shares how experiencing and filming a day in the life of their clients gives her team a better understanding of their clients. It also allows them to create new video content for their clients to use in their marketing mix which is incredibly valuable.

The Value of Video Content

Jill shares that everything gaining traction and attention online right now is video. The focus is really highlighting video content.

“It’s a nice, organic way of getting your voice out there and letting your potential customers know who you are, what you’re about, and that they can know, like, and trust you.”

• It catches attention.
• It allows your customer to know, like, and trust you which is so important for home services providers when customers are letting you into their home.
• Creating this trust creates customers for life.

Lead Generation and Retention

Everyone does their research now, whether it’s for their next meal or their next roofer. Videos allow the customer who is researching your services to connect with you faster and build trust faster.

Because video is able to capture your brand and the people behind it so well, this differentiates you from competitors and also helps increase the quality of your leads.

Tips for Creating Video Content

If you’re intimidated by video, don’t worry. Remember, you can control what goes in the final cut, and the editors are there to make you look good. That being said, Jill shares some tips for you to take with you in front of the camera.

• Be caffeinated.
• Write down and practice what you are going to say.
• Create consistency with the locations and the people you feature.
• Take advantage of social media trends and hashtags like #mediamondays and #transformationtuesdays for traction.
• No fancy camera equipment? That’s okay. Utilize your iPhone X.
• Audio is something that is worth investing in, but if you can’t, film in a quiet atmosphere.

“Because everything is transparent on social media, they’re buying you, they’re not buying blankety-blank business name. They’re buying who you are and what you represent.”

Why is branding important?

Many businesses don’t understand the importance of brand, and therefore bypass it in order to invest in other strategies. However, Nicholas is quick to emphasize how crucial branding is to establish the foundation of who your business is. Branding tells your story and connects you with the audience that needs to hear what you have to say.

“Your brand identity isn’t what you think of your business, it’s what your consumers think of your business.”

Nicholas shares the example of Harley Davidson as a brand that was told they would go extinct. And look at them now. They were able to build a lifestyle brand and set themselves apart from the competition by selling not only a motorcycle but an experience. That’s the power of brand identity.

You want to create a client experience for your demographic that aligns with your business goals and mission and perform consistently to cultivate brand loyalty. If you think of Coca-Cola, you aren’t just thinking of a brand, you’re thinking of a memory or an experience associated with the product. Sharing your story through brand identity makes you more than just a plumber… you are a safe place that your customer knows they can rely on for their needs.

Reputation feeds brand identity.

You’re not only attracting consumers with your brand. You’re also attracting employees. The quality of your brand determines the quality of the employees, whose performance influences customer loyalty.

Brand identity:

1. What is your company’s mission? What are you about? Who are you?
2. What are the benefits and futures of your product and service for employees and consumers?
3. What do customers and prospects think of your business right now?

She also works closely with Google to help Scorpion clients set up Local Services ads. Previously called home service ads, Local Services ads are a new paid service Google is rolling out.

What are Local Services ads?
Local Services ads are different than Google Ads. They have a different platform and a different view. Local Services ads only include the business’s phone number and reviews. Google has taken a close look at what helps someone make a decision about a business and is dedicated to helping the consumer find the business that will provide a solution for them.

In fact, Google background checks the business, business owner, and employees of the business that is applying to place a Local Services ad. Not only that but if the job isn’t done right, Google guarantees to give the consumer up to $2000 toward the project to get it done right.

Why your home services business should get involved now.

> “The number one reason in my book is that the lead cost is super low -
> anywhere from $20-$30 for a given lead. And if you’re a plumber or an
> HVAC guy, you’ve been used to paying considerably more in Google
> Adwords. So those $30 leads are incredibly cost effective and they’re
> really good leads.”

The process has several requirements and can take around 4 weeks to be completed.

Tips for making the process efficient:

1. Make sure your employees submit all of their background checks in a timely fashion. They cannot begin the process of approval until they have all of the background checks.
2. Make sure all of the background checks are submitted with the exact company name. Varying company names or acronyms can hold up the process.
3. Work with a Google Premier Partner like Scorpion to streamline the process and take the paperwork off of your hands. We work directly with our Google representative on your behalf and allow you to focus on your work.

Google right now is focused heavily on local businesses right now. People are searching “near me,” 34 more times than they were two years ago. This is why Local Services ads are so timely and will help your business gain more quality leads.

How do you get in the top 3 spots for Local Services ads?

1. Proximity to the searcher.
2. Responsiveness.
3. Reviews and what people are saying about you.

Stand Out Leadership
Rustin emphasizes that a true leader makes sure their employees know they matter. Employees need to feel like they are a part of a family, a thriving, supportive culture.

It’s always about the person, and this is not easy. You have to work on it every day.

4:32 “You may be the greatest plumber or the greatest roofer or the greatest HVAC (worker), however, how do you inspire others? How do you inspire people to come work for you? Do you work with them well? Do they want to work with you? And that’s a different challenge.”

People stay when you create a culture that they’re fired up about.

Leadership vs. Management
As a manager, it’s important to not only lead but also listen. Then, you also have to keep your team on that path, and checking in with that one person who isn’t on the same path. Taking the time to say you care about that person and the challenges they face really matters.

Mission Statement and Vision Statement
Good leaders make sure their team knows the mission and vision of their company. A mission statement captures what you are trying to accomplish and why your business exists. A vision statement looks forward to what you want to look like in 2-3 years. And that future success is largely dependent on the quality of the customer experience you provide.

If you have a mission and a vision, but your team isn’t on board, it will be tough to achieve. You need to make sure your team understands the “why” behind those statements.

Challenges

1. Reinforcing the vision has to happen more often than you think. Take the time to get everyone on board and help them understand the why.
2. Striving to improve, get better, and push the boundaries of what’s possible every day is key.
3. Finding time is tough. Time blocking and setting aside a couple of hours to work on personal growth is important.
4. Make sure that each employee is in the right seat and in the right position where they are being challenged. This is vital for employee satisfaction and retention.
5. You need to set really clear expectations. This is simple, but often it gets missed.
6. Don’t hide from the difficult conversations. Keep pushing forward and don’t be stagnant.

Final Takeaway
16:58 “Yes, money plays a factor, obviously and benefits will play a factor… but… a great leader, someone you’re really passionate about working around, working for, who values your contribution, that has a lot of weight.”

Talk to your employees. Talk about your vision. Talk about how they fit into that and then listen.

Why Business Owners Should Invest in Marketing
You’re not going to grow without marketing. Julia emphasizes that while word of mouth is good, that’s only a small fraction of the people who need your help. Remember: you are the best answer to the question that many people are asking.

It’s easy to confuse marketing and sales. Think of marketing as the driving force behind your sales. Marketing is for your past clients, existing client base, and future clients.

The beauty of today’s digital and internet marketing is that it allows you to position your business so that you’re right where the customer finds you when they need you.

Traditional Marketing vs. Digital Marketing
Julia explains that while print ads, billboards, and TV and radio ads have their place and are widely used, they are no longer the most effective strategy for marketing.

Where are your customers? Look at your surroundings. Where is everyone’s focus? Their digital devices: phones, laptops, and tablets.

9:28 “This is where advertising is operating at the most efficient level… at the digital level.”

Digital marketing allows you to place your ads where people are actually looking when they’re in their time of need.

SEO and PPC
SEO: Search engine optimization. SEO helps your website show up organically when someone makes a particular search. This is a long-game strategy that has serious rewards but takes time and consistency.

PPC: Pay per click. PPC is when you pay for space at the top of the search engine results page. This is not organic, but can help your business appear more often to your target customer, and assist your business while SEO builds momentum.

These are two very different terms; however, they work together to achieve a goal: making your business and services discoverable to your customer.

When your customer sees your business popping up again and again in their search for a service or product, there’s a psychological reinforcement of trust. This helps your customer remember you and understand that you are there to help them solve their problem.

Part Science, Part Art
Marketing is truly part science, part art: from strategy and data to the human psychology behind colors, shapes, and language, each piece works in tandem with the other. This is why it’s vital to invest in an innovative marketing strategy for your business.

The quality of your marketing is reflected by the quality of your leads.

22:00 “There are so many different ways to make sure that your marketing is as good as it possibly can be and you absolutely should spend time doing that because your return will be better… The better you know yourself as a business and the better you’re able to put that out there, the better you’re going to get back from your advertising.”

As technology evolves, the ball is pushed forward in marketing, and it’s important to constantly develop new strategies to get results and stay on track. Voice and Artificial Intelligence are specifically creating huge change today and transforming how we interact with the Internet. Will predicts that voice is the future.

Time
Will quotes Gary Vaynerchuk, a savvy and well-known entrepreneur, saying “Uber is not selling transportation. Uber is selling time.”

This is exactly what these smart devices and home speakers are doing and why they are taking off.

5:26 “It’s a huge invasion of privacy and humans are just going out and buying these things and putting them in their house to save time. It’s proving how valuable that is to us.”

Privacy
Will says that while Amazon, Apple, and Google are creating these devices like Alexa, Google Home, and Siri for consumers, they don’t stop there. They are also monitoring our interactions with these devices incredibly closely to make them more customized and keep our attention.

Soon, they won’t just be devices in our homes, but they will become an integral part of our home that connects all of our devices and technology, from voice search and phone calls to heating and cooling.

11:20 “The evolution of search is artificial intelligence predicting what it is that we’re going to need and anticipating our need before we need it.”

While this brings up the obvious privacy debate, Will says that the more we limit the information we give, the less time we will save. However, he is quick to emphasize that on one side, this data is incredibly valuable for marketing, but on the other we still need protection.

Create Marketing Connections Today
Home services business owners should be taking advantage of this data so they can create meaningful connections in strategic, impactful ways with current and future clients. While these technologies of voice and AI are still really new, there are ways you can get started today.

1. Sign up for Google Local Services Ads.
2. Experiment with AdWords and learn about longtail keywords. This is important because this is how voice searches are formatted with “how/where/when.”
3. Start producing FAQ-style content.

Will encourages business owners to be everywhere and engage in all of these new apps and technology if that’s reasonable. It’s important to be adaptable and test things out, and that’s where an agency like Scorpion can offer invaluable guidance, strategy, and results.

Voice is the future. Start utilizing this technology now so you can help consumers discover your business and save time.