by Fred Brewer | Sep 15, 2018 | Client Tips
So you thought you were hiring someone with the grit and confidence to tackle it all head on, but now the hire that seemed so promising is caving under the stress. Here are three questions to ask yourself so you know what changes you need to make to prevent a repeat:
#1 Do you know the personality types of each person you hire?
You may not give much weight to personality assessments and tests, but they’re oftentimes spot on and can provide some value to you as the leader in your business. The DiSC behavior assessment tool is a very popular option and it essentially breaks people down into four personality types using a number system. With the DiSC assessment, you’re left with a snapshot that shows where your employees score high and where they score low, which can help you identify what they like and don’t like in regards to, not just the tasks they’re performing, but the environment in which they’re performing those tasks, and the way they’re being told to carry those tasks out.
The four personality styles that make up the DiSC assessment are Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. Why would knowing which traits are highest in your employees help you prevent overwhelm and burnout? Because when you know which personality types you’re leading, you’ll know how to adapt your management and communication style to better fit each employee. You’ll be able to craft your interactions to each individual in a way that speaks to and supports their needs and preferences.
For example, an employee with a high C score likes to have all of the details before getting started and has a fear of being wrong. Knowing this, you could ask that employee if they have all the details they need or if there’s anything else they need from you before they can confidently move forward with the job or project they’re working on. Someone with a high D, on the other hand, may become bored by all the details and just want to jump right in. How you present a job to each would and should differ so you can be a more effective leader of each individual.
#2 What expectations have you created?
No one wants to screw up, but for some personality types (like high C’s, for example), the fear of failure can be paralyzing and prevent them from taking any steps or actions. On top of considering the innate traits and levels of pressure that are self-induced by each personality type, you need to consider the type and level of pressure that you’re consciously and subconsciously placing on your employees.
Ask yourself what your attitude towards failure is and what you’ve expressed to your team regarding failure. Have you presented failure as something that’s undesirable at all costs and apocalyptic in nature or as something you can learn from? Failure often leads to innovation and improvement and teaches us more than our successes. But no one wants to be the one to fail or take risks that could lead to failure if management portrays failure as something to be avoided if you want to keep your job.
Yes, put systems in place to prevent mishaps, but don’t make mistakes the unforgivable sin in your business. How you approach failure will largely determine how your employees do, and without that big lurking F hanging over their heads, they’ll be freed up to focus on the task at hand.
#3 Do you encourage open communication?
When an employee is overwhelmed, you have to consider whether or not it could have been avoided if you had a culture in place that encouraged open and honest communication and mutual support. If your employees can come to you when they first start to feel overwhelmed, the escalation that leads to breakdown and burnout can likely be avoided and you can get your employees the support they need to do the job with confidence.
Is transparency a word or a practice in your business? Do you encourage teamwork and support? Can your employees come to you or another person in management when they’re feeling overwhelmed, burnt out, or in need of more support? Even if it’s not you, make sure your employees have someone they can go to to talk it out and get the support they need.
Better leadership is within your control
Look, HR stuff can be frustrating and time-consuming, but knowing your employees and creating a culture that encourages transparency can help you better lead your team, provide a better work environment, get more value and productivity from every employee you manage, and prevent burnout, overwhelm, and other common workplace problems. Take the time to understand your employees and adapt your leadership style and culture, and you’ll find it saves you a lot of time and a lot of frustration in the end, which is what we all want, isn’t it?
by Fred Brewer | Aug 30, 2018 | Client Tips
When you think of pop, do you immediately think of whatever off-brand your grocery store sells? No, you think of Coca-Cola, Pepsi, or their products, like Sprite. That’s market domination, and it didn’t happen overnight. It happened as a result of consistent efforts to get the Pepsi and Coca-Cola brands out in front of people and into their homes.
You may think that a product is very different from a service business, but in this respect, it’s not. You need to become the Coca-Cola or Pepsi of your industry for your local market, and it starts with simple brand awareness. So how do you dominate your market and become the local Pepsi or Coca-Cola of your community?
Local Radio & TV
While more and more people are getting their news and music from places other than TV and the radio (like Facebook and Spotify), TV and radio aren’t dead and they can be great places for you to meet your potential customers. These media outlets have demographics of their listeners and viewers and you can use that information to figure out which stations, channels, and even times, your target customers favor.
Maybe the majority of your target audience watches the local news segment in the evening or the weather first thing in the morning. Maybe they listen to a morning show or traffic report on their way into work. Use that knowledge and get radio ad and TV commercial slots around the same times and on those same channels and stations.
But it goes beyond advertising. Keep your eyes and ears opened for opportunities to provide value and establish yourself as a local, trusted expert through these mediums. Journalists are always looking for a story, so tie your business in. Are chimney fires happening a lot in your community? As a chimney sweep, that’s a great opportunity for you to educate your community on how to prevent fires, what to look for in a chimney sweep, and the importance of chimney inspections and sweepings. Offer to share your expertise on air and get your local community familiar with your company.
Magazines, Forums & HARO
Magazines and forums are great outlets for establishing your authority, educating your community, and building brand awareness. With trade magazines, local magazines, consumer-focused magazines, and forums like Quora, the opportunity to answer the questions your customers and potential customers have, find out what they want to know and what’s important to them, and get your name out in front of consumers has never been easier. Spend a little time each week writing and looking for opportunities to answer questions, educate, and inform. Once you identify which publications you can add value to, reach out to the editor-in-chief or a particular journalist who seems to cover related topics, and pitch a story or article. HARO (Help A Reporter Out) is another great option for getting your name and knowledge out there. Sign up for emails and respond to opportunities that are a good match for your company and area of expertise.
Blog Posts
Like magazines, forums, HARO, local radio, and TV, blog posts are a great way to get your name out there and provide value to customers and potential customers. The more you blog and the more value you provide with your blog, the more opportunities you have to show up in search results when customers and potential customers are looking for expertise and answers to questions related to your industry. Think of questions you’re commonly asked on the job and use your blog to answer those questions. Talk about industry trends and products. If it’s something you think your customers would find interesting and helpful, blog about it!
Social Media
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube offer more avenues for expanding brand reach and establishing trust and expertise. Within Facebook, you can join local neighborhood groups and keep an eye out for anyone who is in need of your services or dealing with a problem that you can solve. Don’t get pushy or sales-y or you could be removed from the group, but look for opportunities to help those in your community and build familiarity. Of course, Facebook Ads are another great option because they allow you to target and retarget a highly defined group of people, so they get familiar with your business and offerings.
Instagram and YouTube are great for sharing quick videos that educate consumers and show what you do. How-To videos are sought out by everyone from Baby Boomers to Gen Z, so if you can provide instructional videos that solve problems for your customers or educate them, do it! Explain problems, when and why they require professional resolution, and when and why they’re an easy fix. You may think that these types of videos will cause you to lose business, but they actually establish you as an authority and give your customers a glimpse into the knowledge and expertise that goes into troubleshooting and solving the issues you solve for them.
Last but not least in the social media realm: Pinterest. A lot of people leave Pinterest out of the conversation, but it’s still a powerful and popular social platform, so if your work is very visual (if you’re a house painter or a fireplace installer, for example), Pinterest is worth spending some time on. Post before/after pictures of your work, share trends, and make sure you use the right tagging and description info so your images have a chance of showing up in search results.
Print Ads & Traditional Advertising
We can’t discount the effectiveness of print ads and other traditional advertising, but some traditional print advertising opportunities will provide more value than others. Circulars aren’t always the best route when you’re still building brand awareness, because they primarily engage price shoppers, and price shoppers, in our humble opinion, aren’t all that loyal. They usually go where the best price is and they’ll only use your services when you’re running a special.
Another reason circulars are probably not the best route when you’re working on brand awareness and getting your business name out there is that we’re all used to getting so much junk mail that many of us don’t even look at circulars anymore — they immediately go into the recycle bin. So spend some time thinking about the types of customers you want, what they’re reading and paying attention to, and which types of traditional advertising might provide you the most value and get you out there in front of your potential customers.
And don’t discredit traditional advertising that isn’t direct mail related! Is there a great local diner that’s slammed with business every weekend? Consider paying for a spot on their laminated placemats or coffee cups. When people are sitting there sipping their coffee and waiting for their breakfast, they’ll see your business name, and the more frequently they’re exposed to your business name and logo, the better. Local event and sports team sponsorships can be great advertising options as well. Be creative and think about what type of print and traditional advertising makes sense for your business!
Networking & Local Chambers & Associations
Even with the Internet, networking and involvement with local chambers of commerce and associations are still among the most lucrative forms of advertising, in terms of building brand awareness and dominating the market. So join your local chambers and community groups, introduce yourself to others in related service verticals, and pass out your business cards. The more you introduce yourself to those in your community, the more opportunity there is for others to share your business card or recommend and refer you to others in the community. Groups like BNI and industry group events are perfect opportunities to network.
When you take the time to network and establish yourself as a trusted expert with others who are plugged into your community and out and about meeting your potential customers, you create a network of people who act as an extension of you, and do a lot of your brand awareness marketing for you.
Get Started!
There are countless ways to spread brand awareness and dominate your market, but you have to implement them to really see the benefit. So choose a few of the suggestions here and get out there and be the Pepsi or Coca-Cola of your industry and market!
by Fred Brewer | Aug 15, 2018 | Client Tips
Have you ever walked into one of your kids’ rooms and thought (or said aloud) “It’s a wonder you can find anything in here?” Teenagers are notorious for having rooms that look more like war zones than habitable places. But aside from the anxiety it causes you to see a room in such disarray, your teenager’s messy room probably isn’t going to do much harm. Sure, he or she may waste a lot of time looking for matching socks, but it’s not the end of the world.
The same can’t be said for business — in business, disorganization can lead to a loss of time, money, and productivity and an increase in stress.
The Warehouse
Imagine you’re the owner of a service area business and you’re trying to get all of your service technicians in their trucks and out on the road. Time is money, and whether your team is on their way to their first appointments of the day or still running around back at the warehouse, you’re paying them for their time. Is everything in your warehouse organized so your team can get off to a stress-free and productive start or will they waste time trying to find what they need to start the day? 
As business owners, we brainstorm ways to cut costs and raise profit, but many of us forget just how important organization is to that cause. When your technicians have to hunt down a part or tool or weave through a messy and disorganized warehouse before hopping in the truck and heading to an appointment, time is wasted and stress is heightened.
All it takes to ruin the attitude and day of a service professional (or anyone for that matter) is a late start and a frustrating morning. Why not take the time upfront to make the start of every day easier, less stressful, and more productive for your team by organizing your warehouse in a streamlined, logical, and easy-to-maneuver way?
How do you do that? Analyze and observe a typical morning, ask your employees for input, and determine how things could be better organized. Even a few extra steps add up, so consider layout and figure out the smartest setup.
Of course, if you’ve ever organized your closet, you know all it takes is one day when you’re too lazy to hang that sweater or fold that shirt to undo all your hard work. To prevent this from happening with your warehouse, take a few minutes at the end of each day to make sure everything is neatly put back in its right place and ready for the following day. You can make this the responsibility of one of your team members or all of your team members — it’s up to you.
The Service Trucks
Time waste and frustration don’t just happen in a messy warehouse — it can happen in a messy truck as well. Our friend Chuck Roydhouse, a former firefighter and the recently-retired owner of a chimney service company in Anne Arundel County, knows just how important a clean and organized truck is. His service trucks had a place for everything and he put in the effort and time to build shelving and organizational compartments to reduce time waste and frustration for his techs and his customers. Not only will an organized truck allow your techs to easily find the tools they need and get the work done faster for your customers, but it also communicates something to your customers. If you think I’m crazy, listen to this quote from a review of an actual service business:
“His work truck was neater than our family vehicle — and that is saying a lot.”
We often forget what mess communicates: it communicates that you don’t care. Your customers will start to wonder what else you don’t care about. So make organization a priority in your company. Everyone — from you to your employees and customers — will benefit.
by Fred Brewer | Jul 30, 2018 | Client Tips
The thought of your #1 competitor may make you tense up, but if you can see past the red, there’s a lot you can learn about running a business and attracting more customers. Take some time to look over the competition and see what you can glean from them. What exactly can they teach you?
#1 What Your Target Customers Like & Don’t Like in a Company
We hope you’re already reading your own online reviews and responding to all of them (positive & negative), but there’s a lot to be learned from your competitors’ reviews as well.
What are their customers saying about them? What are the good things that come up again and again? The bad things? Use that information to identify what you could implement or focus more on to entice those customers to consider your business.
If your competitors’ customers always rave about how good their cleanup is, make your cleanup process and the lengths you go to to keep your customers’ homes clean a focal point on your website and in your marketing. If your competitors’ customers give low ratings because of poor scheduling experiences, make sure your scheduling process is easy and pleasant for each and every customer.
Listening to your competitors’ customers will give you insight into what to do more of and what not to do. And because very few business owners take the time to really reflect on what their customers are saying and implement change, you can count on your competitors to keep making the same mistakes in their business.
Well, let them make those mistakes while you learn from them! You’ll end up with a better business and happier, more loyal customers.
#2 How to Differentiate Yourself
Take a look at your top three competitors and make a list of their similarities and differences. Is there something they all do right? Something they all do wrong?
Spend some time thinking about how they look from the outside, how you compare, and what you could do to differentiate yourself from the pack. Use that in your marketing and on your website to make yourself stand out!
Note: You never want your customers to choose you solely because of price, so make sure that what you choose to focus on is not price-related. As a generalization, price-driven customers are not loyal, and what you want is loyal customers with high customer lifetime values.
#3 Just How Good You Need to Be
Many entrepreneurial minded people have a desire for things to be perfect. We want every little detail to be just right before launching a business, service, or product. But guess what? Your competitors can show you just how good you need to be, and spoiler alert, you don’t have to be perfect.
Look at your best competitors and make a list of things that are important in business — things like customer service, timeliness, cleanliness, and quality. Give each competitor a grade for each factor and figure out how they rate. Do they get a C for timeliness? Then you can start by making sure your timeliness score is a B or higher. Do they get a B for customer service? Then you’ve got to get your customer service up to an A.
Always strive to be your best and offer your best, but start by being better than your competition. Three in five Americans would try a new brand or company for a better service experience, so make sure you’re delivering a better customer experience than anyone else, and keep working to make it better and better.
Go Forth & Conquer
Some of the greatest secrets in life are learned through our successes and failures — but why not learn from those around us? Spend some time reflecting on and learning from the mistakes and successes of your competitors and you’ll reach your goals faster and with less hiccups. It’s a win-win for you and your company!
by Fred Brewer | Jun 30, 2018 | Best Reads
Want to know a secret? Sales is not a position within your company — it’s every position within your company. The person answering the phones and serving as the initial contact point for your customers and the techs out in the field doing the work are just as responsible for selling the company as your designated sales person is. The question is: have you empowered and equipped your entire team to effectively sell?
Many business owners send their designated sales person to training and invest in their selling skills, but they leave the rest of the team high and dry. Here’s why that’s a big mistake:
#1 The sell coming from your techs and office staff feels more organic and authentic. I’m sure your designated sales person can talk all day long about how great your company is and why your customers would be stupid to choose anyone else for the job, but they have a disadvantage that your office staff and techs in the field don’t: it feels like a sale. The interaction your office staff and field staff have with customers feels more organic and authentic, and gives your customers a better idea of what your company is really all about and how they can expect to be treated when they work with you.
#2 Your sales person is not the one who will leave a lasting impression. Most of the interactions and experiences your customers will have will be with the women and men doing the work, scheduling appointments, and answering any questions the customer has. These are the touch points your customers will remember and the touch points that will determine what kind of lasting impression they have of your business. Two bad experiences here and they’ve already forgotten about how friendly and convincing your sales person was.
#3 Your office staff and techs have more opportunities to sell. Being in front of the customer more also means more opportunities to sell. After all, the employees most frequently interacting with your customers have a direct pipeline to your customers; they likely hear the customers’ wants, needs, and complaints first and have the opportunity to swoop in and meet those wants and needs and solve problems for your customers. But if your team is unsure of how to do that or feels insecure in their selling abilities, they won’t have the confidence to take advantage of each opportunity. Instead, opportunities to upsell, identify needs, and solve customer problems will likely be wasted.
#4 Seeing the direct correlation between one’s efforts and company revenue can be a boost to morale. Here’s the thing, everyone in every company wants to feel important and see the fruit of their labor. But when you completely disconnect your office staff and techs from the selling process, you minimize their importance, limit their power, and obscure the direct impact they have on company success and customer satisfaction. By making it clear that everyone on your team has an equal responsibility and role in the selling process, you’re emphasizing the importance of each individual to the success of the whole.
So how can you make sure everyone on your team is equipped and empowered to sell?
- Start by letting them know that it’s everyone’s responsibility and privilege to sell the company and to be that point person who conveys the mission, values, purpose, and culture of the company to the customer being served. If you don’t verbalize this, your employees may not think it’s their place to sell, because they’ll likely falsely think of sales as a position within the company.
- Next, provide your employees with scripts and practice scenarios, and ask them to identify a couple of missed opportunities in the last month or so. Give them examples to run through and practice this often so they begin to see sales opportunities when on the job.
- Emphasize that selling is not just beneficial to the company, but to the customer. Many people are uncomfortable with selling because they associate it with being pushy or deceptive. Clear the discomfort your team has by assuring them you only want them to sell when they feel it provides value to the customer or meets a customer need, and by showing them how selling can directly benefit the customer. For example, if a team member goes to provide an estimate for a carpet install and, while the estimate is being performed, the employee notices that the customer’s dog is aging and there are a great deal of pet urine stains on the existing carpet, he or she could use this opportunity to educate the customer on a pet-stain resistant carpet. Sure, it’s an upsell, but it’s something that will very clearly benefit the customer and her enjoyment of her home. There’s nothing sleazy or deceptive about that!
Sales training and webinars are also worth thinking about. But no matter how you choose to empower your employees to sell, encourage them through any discomfort and insecurity as they learn new skills. Selling is not something that comes naturally to everyone, so be patient and supportive. It will be well worth it for you, your customers, and your employees!
