Service Sales Success School Online - Sneak Peek

I want you to hold yourselves accountable to improving your results. Now, that doesn't mean again that you might not make mistakes, but you've got to realize that just because you're busy doesn't mean that you're effective. I remember when I first started, I was a drain cleaning pop and go specialist, if you will.

I mean, we just ran around like.

Crazy and didn't hardly charge any money. We didn't make any money and we try and run 8, 10, 12 calls a day. I thought I was being very productive. I was taking massive action. I was working a ton of action hours. But I didn't realize I wasn't being effective and I wasn't getting the results that my customers deserved, that I deserved as the technician or that the company deserved for investing in me to take this action. Right. So just be mindful of this as we head our way into accountability and let's begin to look at a few ways that we might be able to help hold ourselves accountable to make sure that our actions are producing desired results.

Okay, so let's get into some strategy of how we can hold ourselves accountable. So I want you to think about this for yourself and I'm going to ask you to add a little bit to this list. But as I mentioned before, we want to be held accountable. We just don't want to be put in a box and we don't want to lose our individualism and who we are as people. But if you're going to get better results, you've got to raise the bar of accountability for yourself. So what are some ways to that we might do that? One of the ways that I don't think gets tapped near enough in our industry is asking your manager for help. If you're watching this video right now, if you're going through this training with me today, your company is a progressive company and wants to help you succeed. So tap into that resource of your manager and ask for maybe additional help. Are there any clips that you could watch going back through this course in the future to help refresh and remind you of some things that you already know but perhaps got out of the habit of using? Right. So tap into your manager, set some goals and let them know what those are and how they might be able to play in helping you accomplish these things?

Okay.

Now we also need to take some personal responsibility for ourselves. I mean, you have an opportunity for what a lot of people call drive time university. Right? You're driving around all the time from call to call, depending on the market you're in A lot of our clients average about a 20 minute drive time. Sometimes it's up to an hour, hour and a half of drive time, a lot of windshield time. What are you doing with that time that could improve your own accountability? Maybe you need to listen to some personal development information. Maybe you need to subscribe to some quality podcasts that will give you the information that keeping you on point, helping build your confidence, cash in between these service calls. Okay, so what are some other ways that we can look at it? Well, one of the ways that I think is very important, I encourage all of our clients to post technician numbers and frontline team members, conversion rates and average tickets. And the numbers that matter, from CSRs and DSRs to technicians to salespeople, to installer callbacks to, whatever the case might be, post our performance. Now, regardless of whether you're working in a company that posts your performance or not, all the top producers that I ride with and coach keep their own sales journals. And a lot of times they'll just write down a quick note, what the ticket was, what the situation was, and they begin to learn from their own experiences when it comes to this. Okay, so what if you could do that? What if you could just jot down, just go down to Barnes and Noble or order one on Amazon and just a simple book that you just jot down this day's sales, this week's experience, whatever that case is. Another area that I don't think gets used quite as well as it should is the concept of accountability partners. In our live schools, we put people in success groups so they can help each other stay accountable during the school and then hopefully trade information and stay in touch after the school. You have this ability within your own shop, maybe with your spouse, with a friend or a relative. When you set this goal and have them, you know, they say it's so important to voice a goal. Why? Because it's not about other people even holding us accountable. It's when we put it out there, we will hold ourselves at a higher level of accountability. Now, accountability partners, you got to be careful here. What do I mean by that? Well, you got to choose carefully, because here's what I know. There's a couple conversations that take place in every shop. Let's say that you and I are at the top of the board at our company. We're producing better than anybody else, the two of us. And one day, one week you're ahead of me for the year, and the next week I get you. And we're just kind of back and forth Back and forth. We enjoy what we do, we're good at what we we do, and we produce a lot of great results because of that. Now what happens? I go out on my first call and I'm an electrician and I end up getting a panel upgrade and a panel change. What do I do? I set up the install crew, or if I'm doing the install myself, I get ready to go. But wait a minute, there's this phone call I need to make and I'm calling you and I'm going, hey, guess what? I just got a panel change. I'm going to get you this week. And you're going to me? The conversation back to me is, oh, really? Well, how did you get it, Kenny? What did your option sheet look like? What types of questions did you ask? Nice job, man. Yeah, is there anything I can learn from that? And you're interested in that? And then what happens? You complete your next call and you're ringing me back going, chapman, not so fast. You might not get me this week because I just got a complete tankless upgrade with a re pipe. And. And then I'm going, no doubt, man. Nice. Was it homeowner male or female? Was it a one legger or were both decision makers home? What were the questions that you asked? How did you find common ground with this client in order to allow them the confidence to invest in you? Like that. And we're having this great conversation back and forth about success. Right. Raising accountability on both of us. Now, there's also a different conversation that takes place in every shop I've ever been in. And that's, let's say that you and I now are. We're kind of at the bottom of the board. We're not producing as well as anybody else in the company, and we're struggling along. And what is that conversation like? Well, that one happens to be a little bit different. Right. So now I'm calling you after my first call. Hey, man. Yeah, it's me. Yep. I just. Unbelievable. I mean, dispatch sent me out here again. Yeah, yeah, Trailer park, no money, can't qualify for financing. Unbelievable. I mean, I don't know what they're trying to do, but I swear they're just. They're trying to stack the odds against us. They're trying to keep us at the bottom of the board. And you're going to me as that other lower producer. If you have victim minus virus, what I call it, or you have a victim mentality of you're going, oh, Kenny, you think that's bad? You wouldn't believe the first call they sent me. And I passed two of our technicians on my way out there. They were going the other way. I don't know what dispatch is thinking. I don't know what's going on here. This is crazy. Guess what? That conversation happens too. I want you talking to each other. I want you having each other help hold each other accountable. But be careful who you choose and how you choose. Now jot a couple more down. I've given you a few. I want you to go to your workbook and jot down. What are some other ways that you think you can raise the bar on yourself in order to have a better level of accountability in order to improve your results?

I was in Philadelphia last year doing a ride along with a guy. He'd never been introduced to an option sheet before. I did the training. In the morning he ran his first call. I was with a different technician. They run maintenance techs, demand techs and comfort advisors. The best way to win as a technician is to set a lead for a comfort advisor, right? So it had been like two weeks since he had set a lead. I taught the option sheet process. He goes out on his first call, works the option sheet, has a good experience, sets a lead, first one in two weeks, second call, I get dropped off and now I go with him. So let's say it's Dustin and I. Dustin's running the call and we go and I get dropped off. He goes through a great process, writes up a quality option sheet, sets another lead. He's two for two now. Been two weeks since he set one. Now we get to ride one last call together. It's about five in the afternoon. My training went till like noon. So it's his third call. It's about 5 o'. Clock. We go in and it's a free inspection call. Now one of the things we're going to talk about is the fact that you've got to run free inspection calls different than you run money demand calls. And there's minor tweaks, but I want to talk about what those tweaks are regardless of plumbing, heating or electrical. And so this was a free tune up call. He goes in, goes through some information, asks some questions, we transition out to the truck. I always want you riding your option sheet in the truck. We'll talk more about why. But he gets out to the truck. Now when you do get to the truck, be efficient with your time and don't waste your time out there. And so we're sitting out there and he's just jawing me up. Oh, which option you think I should put first? This and that. I don't talk when I'm on these calls with you. I just want to see your process so I can coach you after the fact. I said, just go ahead, write it up. He's spending way too much time. Way too much time. And lo and behold, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I don't know how they do this, because I, you know, I don't get the whole, like, when people can transport themselves to, you know, like, all of a sudden. You ever had that customer just right. Right at the side of the truck, like, she didn't walk outside. She just, like, somehow just, like, snapped out here.

Somehow, right?

They just come out of nowhere right on the side of the truck. He rolls the window down. He's like, oh. She's like, what are you guys doing? Well, it's just a couple more minutes. I just need to finish putting my options together and we'll be right in to cover this. Go over it. And here's what she said. It's 4:57. My husband gets home at 5, and.

You guys can't be here.

You gotta go now. And I said, start the truck, right? Because I'm like, you know, I don't know. This is all about customer service and relationship building, but I don't know what they've got going on. But I'm pretty clear we don't want to be here when he gets home, right? And so we abandon. We make an exception. What we're talking about right now, he made an exception to the process. Said, okay, what are you going to do? I mean, she wants us gone. We got to go. So we take off and we're driving back to the shop. And I'm going, jason, so tell me about your day. He's like, well, you know, overall, Kenny, it was fine, but I'm not using that damn option sheet anymore. I said, really? Well, tell me more. And I always appreciate honesty and people sharing what's real and what makes sense to him. And he goes, well, you saw what just happened. That stuff doesn't work now. Think about that, guys. He went two weeks without setting one lead, got introduced to a new tool. When you get introduced to a new tool, would you say that it takes a little bit of getting used to? So during the getting used to process, he won twice in a row. Then he ran into a situation that does come, but it doesn't come often. Ran into that situation, and he abandoned a process that worked. And my heart goes out to you guys because I believe you have the most difficult job in this industry. Which is why I spend time with you to see if I can help you improve it. But here's what I know. We'll do something that works and it works, and it works, and it works. And then we hit a crazy person or situation and it doesn't work. And what do we do? We abandon the whole thing over one situation.