If They Can Do It So Can You1

A few years ago, I bought some really nice diamond earing for my wife while we are on a cruise. I had heard of the jewelry store before and they had a decent reputation so I was not uncomfortable buying the earing out of the US. Besides they were duty free, right!

I admit that I haggled pretty hard and in my opinion made a phenomenal purchase. This was confirmed during an embarrassing moment at our local jeweler who noticed Sandy’s new ear sparkles. He is a super honest man and confirmed we made a great buy that he could not match.

But the story isn’t about the purchase of the earrings. It is about what happened afterwards. Inadvertently I must of filled out a form that listed our birthdays and anniversary. And yesterday was my birthday and the store owner called to wish me a happy birthday. Just like he does for Sandy on her birthday and our anniversary.

This is a high-volume jewelry store on the island of St. Kit so the call was probably a little pricier than your USA unlimited plan. The call was a sincere, happy birthday. Not trying to sell us anything or even an innuendo of a solicitation. But it was thoughtful! And we would definitely consider another purchase from them. I am even going to write a “trip advisor” post because I am so impressed with the customer service follow-up.

In the world of sales this was a luxury purchase not a necessity. We differentiate this by the term Gold Medals verse German Sheppard’s. I have to ask when is the last time you called a customer just to say happy birthday or happy anniversary. Do you even know when their special day is?

If not, find out and start building more sincere relationships. It will pay off with long term loyalty.

Look in the mirror. Ask the person staring back at you “Am I controlling my profitability or are my clients and competition controlling it?”

Your answer reveals the likelihood of reaching your desired financial and personal goals. If you approach your business with confidence, commitment, and determination to control the profitability of the projects you choose to work on then you will in all likelihood be successful and profitable. If you believe that you have to take what is given to you, that you have to compete against under-priced competition and work for disorganized clients then you’re going to end up scraping out a living…at best.

Unfortunately, we rarely meet a contractor who believes, truly believes, that he controls his destiny.  Most contractors feel that they have to accept the low-price take-it-or-leave-it offers their clients extend. They feel they have to accept the poor sequencing and never-ending hurry up and wait demands placed on their field crews by the onsite project leadership.

You don’t have to be passive. If you step up, stand your ground, push back, learn to sell, and know when to walk away from poor opportunities you can make a lot of money in the construction industry.  If not, your business’ end is just as certain as death and taxes.

I think we were the first consulting company to develop a program of minimizing the impact and even taking advantage of the economic down turn. We can argue when it started, depending on the industry you’re in and your geographic area. Michigan and Florida were two of the first states to feel the dramatic effects of the financial crisis.

“How To Survive and Prosper During The Current Economic Times.” is a unique presentation that identifies the problems for contractors and presented  great solutions to deal with the crunch. One of the first suggestions we gave was to stop watching television and reading the newspapers. They were all filled with bad news.

At first it was meant to be a little sarcastic but soon I began believing and preaching it more. Most of our clients put themselves into a bubble to insulate them from all the negativity that was being broadcast and published. It helped them focus on the important tasks at hand.

Our clients that identified the crisis not only survived but have had some of the most stellar performance in their companies’ history. It’s not too late to put yourself in this group. Call us today and we can share these innovative strategies with you.

Over the last few years trade show attendance has dropped off in some industries. This is no surprise since companies look to “cut budgets” and this is an easy area to justify trimming.

Hold on! Just wait a minute. I have a different viewpoint on trade shows, especially those that have industry educational content included. I speak across the country and I can tell you that in the majority of my classes the level of attention and interest in the materials has increased tremendously.

The attendees are serious about learning the latest techniques, skills and regulations in their industry. Additionally they have a heightened sense of acquiring knowledge to help their businesses remain profitable and grow as some of the competition has gone away.

A huge benefit is the “hall way talk” where contractors from different areas interact and share what is working and what is not for their market. The ideas that are shared are often priceless.

Some of the destinations the shows are located in are considered vacation spots and have been used for fun trips and tax write-off in the past. Don’t let the destination be the determination. If the event has content that includes essential regulatory updates for your industry, excellent business curriculum and networking possibilities you should highly consider attending or sending serious team members who are looking to continually improve. Remember one good idea can pay for the entire trip.

Happy New Year,

Ron and Guy

I want to share a comeback story that many of you have heard about. It has only happened 4 times in professional sports. A professional sports team coming back from a 3 game deficit in a 7 games series and win 4 straight.

I am not writing this because I am a Philadelphia Flyers hockey fan because I am not. Hockey is my favorite sport so I enjoy any good game. The importance in this lesson is to NEVER give up.

Even in game seven Philly was down 3 goals and fought back to score 4 unanswered goals and win the series.

The Flyers coach Peter Laviolette called his one time out after Boston scored their 3^rd goal. I don’t what he said in that huddle during that timeout, but it inspired his team to a rare comeback.

Some of you may have experienced a tough business environment. You don’t need to be one game away from elimination to motivate your team. How you handle leading your company when under pressure will have tremendous impact on your future success.

What is interesting to remember is the hockey coach doesn’t actually play in the game however; he brought the team together through adversity to help them win. You too can motivate your team to victory. If you want some tips on how to coach under pressure to rally your team give Ron or I a call for advice.

While working with a coaching client this morning, I was compelled to remind him  “You are NOT what you build.”

Loud silence followed.

We both realized that my emotional reaction had just uncovered THE mental roadblock that was preventing him from realizing the service he performed.

It was preventing him from breaking the sales spiral that he so often found himself in. It was a self-image that had to be shattered and re-built.

Do you suffer from the same identity problem? Do you define yourself by the work you perform?

It’s okay to tell people that you are, say, a roofer. It’s not okay to think of yourself as a roofer.

When you think of yourself as a roofer, your conversation with prospects will always boil down to price and quality. Since quality is controlled by the design team. You’re left with a buying decision based on price.

As long as you think of yourself as being what you build, you will never compete on any other factor.

You are NOT what you build.

You are a business person who provides a valuable service. Never forget that.

In a future  newsletter we are going to address three phases of business. Every day tasks, crisis management and strategy. You probably spend most of your time on the first two.  Don’t neglect strategy! It is the important road map of where you want your business to be in the future. It is often underrated. Just ask contractors who have plans for good times and not so good times.

We are interested in hearing from all of you contractors out in there in cyber world about how you use strategy to create advantages in your marketplace. What works best for you? How do you monitor and revise your strategic direction? Share some success stories.

For those of you who have not really done much planning we’d like to hear from you too. Why haven’t you created a strategic plan? What would you need help with if you decided to create one? Let us know so we can help you!

Don’t hold back!!! I expect a lot of feed back over the next few weeks. Let’s hear from everyone!

Guy and Ron

While glancing through my bookcase the other day looking for my go-to resource for proposal writing, my eyes came across a book whose message you might find interesting…and useful.  The book is Blink: the Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell.

In Blink, Gladwell  explains that your subconscious mind is far smarter than your conscious mind.

Remember know how you’ve always been told that the first answer that comes to mind on a multiple choice test is usually the right one. That’s your subconscious at work. Here’s another familiar example.

You wake up in the middle of the night, or you’re in the middle of a shower, when a sudden “Ah Ha!” hits you. Something you’ve been trying to figure out for awhile, couldn’t, and the answer just flashed into your mind.

That’s your subconscious at work.

In Blink, Gladwell explains how the process works. We won’t go into that.

What’s valuable about his message is that you can actually put your subconscious to work. Purposefully. Skillfully.

I had read about the process several years ago from an online financial commentator, Jim Sinclair.  This commentator’s father happened to have been the business partner of the most famous Wall Street trader of all time, a man named Jesse Livermore.

Sinclair explained that both his father and Livermore would study and study, cramming their mind full of information. Then they would completely shut off their thoughts about it. They would push all of the information into their subconscious and let it work on it while they were completely unaware of it.  At some point in time, the correct answer would pop back into their thoughts. Somehow, those two men knew to trust the answer although they had no idea how they reached the decision.

Blink explains how the mind does that, and far more importantly, why you should trust your subconscious instinct instead of your conscious logical reasoning.

So the next time you need to make an important decision, cram your head full of as much information about the decision as you can – then forget about it until it reappears to you.

Crazy, right?

Apparently, it works.

Hoping the best for you.

Ron & Guy,

The Contractor’s Business Coach

The ball’s in my court. Time to return serve!

You all are getting a rare opportunity to eavesdrop on the type of conversations that Guy & I frequently have…but never within earshot of others.

We always hold them in private. Either over the telephone or, if we’re lucky, face to face. You see, staying on the same page publicly is something we both feel is of utmost importance. Rarely (ever?) have we disagreed on something once we talked it out.

Trust me. Our take on leadership and its impact on business success is IDENTICAL. We just have different ways of expressing it. Back to the topic at hand.

The point of my original post – which Guy isn’t disagreeing with,  he’s just kind of redirecting it 😉 – is that on a daily, in the trenches type, basis a weak employee distracts and demotivates all those around him (or her) for more forcefully than a leader’s positive efforts do.

We both mentioned that the leader is responsible for the recruitment, development, and possible dismissal of that weak link.  Of course, being responsible and taking action are two completely different things.

My point was to remind our readers who happen to own their company that they really can’t afford to overlook the negative impact bad employees have on their entire staff.

If you own your company, you have final authority over staffing decisions. If you’ve hired someone to run your business, or a part of it, for you, you’re still the one that has to hold that person accountable for removing dead, or diseased, wood.

If you ignore the impact that weak link has on the rest of your staff, you are making a HUGE strategic mistake.

Now it’s back to being your turn, Guy.

Eager to see your reply.

Ron

P.S.

Guy and I really haven’t shared publicly our deep insight into leadership. Our leadership techniques and methods are unique, simple, and HIGHLY effective at transforming people into amazingly successful leaders. It is a competitive advantage for us and we typically only share it with our paying clients (which will include the members of our private club).