Recently I watched the movie Under the Tuscan Sun, in which they tell one of my favorite stories. Here it is…
“Between Austria and Italy, there is a section of the Alps where it is an impossibly steep, very high part of the mountains. They built a train track over these Alps to connect Vienna and Venice. They built these tracks even before there was a train in existence that could make the trip. They built it because they knew some day, the train would come.”
When I first heard this story, I thought it was part of Hollywood fiction. After a little “googling” and a lot of reading, I came to find out how this amazing achievement was accomplished.
I want to start by saying that I am against government interference in the contracting industry as much as anyone. It is certainly hard enough to profitably operate an hvac service contracting business without another partner who is guaranteed their profit before the contractor owner has to pay all of the bills associated with each job to reveal if there even IS a profit.
However, one of the places where local government and some dishonest people in the trades makes a mockery of the statutes and laws, is in the area of licensing and permits. The reason for licensing and permits is to protect the public against unsafe work being performed. There is also an element of consumer protection. Local government has registered and tested licensed professionals to protect against unsavory characters that are posing as legitimate service contractors.
The state of sales management today is getting worse than I have ever seen it. I believe this is because sales managers have been trained so inadequately that they have basically given up on the coaching aspect of their profession. They have turned into glorified paper pushers and have gotten away completely from the essence of managing which is to change strategy and behavior that is not working and replace them with functional ones that do.
Watch this video of one of my all-time favorites Michael Gerber who wrote wrote the book “The E-Myth.” If you run a contracting business, I would highly recommend the book.
“The problems of today cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created those problems.”
Albert Einstein
How many times in the service contracting business have you ever had a challenge that just went away by waiting? One of the secrets to being successful in the contracting industry no matter what job you do is to muster the courage to take action.
For instance, think about an installation crew walking around in circles thinking about the job instead of just doing some of the basics that need to be done regardless of the difficulty. Things like protecting the home with floor mats or drop clothes, unloading materials or even removing the old materials and equipment. Sometimes we think too much or try to be an “Einstein” and those thoughts can impair our ability to act.
In this interview, ContractorSelling.com CEO, Joe Crisara shares his thoughts about the state of the service contracting industry and their importance to society. He also talks about his commitment to helping those who need help.
This e-book which was first released in 2006, shatters the myths that has been perpetrated on contractors and their employees for decades.
If you are an average Technician or salesperson then I’m sure you know all the myths and excuses that there are to know.
But with these myths and excuses you will only achieve average or below average results.
If you want OUTSTANDING results then then you must read the special report called the “Lost Contractor.” Although the book was first released in 2006, the principles and fundamentals are more true today than they ever were.
This free report is a must read for all service contractors!
Ah my first day at a new job. You breathe in and inhale all of the possibilities. Everyone in your family is excited about your prospects at your new place of employment. Even your Mom said how proud she was about you landing work so you could provide as everyone should for your spouse and kids. You think to yourself, “I wonder what the company is like? Will they go over the company system of paperwork? Maybe show me how they want me to sell their services. Who knows? Maybe they’ll even throw a “Welcome to the Company” party for me. The excitement is so great you can hardly sleep the night before your first day…
Just heard today from a contractor who had the dubious experience of hiring a new service tech. The above was probably what the newly hired person was dreaming BEFORE he came to work. After all, do we ever start a new job thinking, “This place will probably suck!” Not at all. Every company is envisioned as a great place to work be fore we begin to work there and then REALITY happens… OUCH!
I received a desperate sounding phone call last week from a sales manager at a service company in the mid-west. He informed me that he thought our material was great and that he wanted to send several techs to one of our upcoming Total Immersion Summits and 5-Week after coaching experience.
There Was One Problem
When he tried to raise the prospect of investing in sales training for the techs, sales people and himself the CFO of the company gave a host of reasons why they could NOT possibly invest in such a program at this time.
He called me to ask if their was a “business case” for sales training that he could present to the owner of the company to convince him that the “Bean Counter” was a bit off in his thinking. I then thought about it for a few hours and came up with this e-book below. Enjoy it and use it by all means to sell your company’s bean counter on this important message.
I know I may be dating myself but I remember an old Randy Newman song called “My Life” in which Randy in the song, speaking in the voice of Bruce Springsteen utters these words that still ring in my ears. He sang, “Randy, I’m tired of being the boss. Can you be the boss for awhile?”
Being the boss is difficult and especially so regarding managing sales people or front-line employees who have been given the chore of listening to customer problems that clients have and then selling the solutions. Of course in the service world, problems are just opportunities to serve.
Over the years I have observed a few characteristics of the mediocre sales manager. These people are definitely “tired” of being the boss and it shows through their ineffective styles of management which leads to poor results by their people. Here we begin to explore why these managers are so tired.
Building Your Vision
