One of the advantages that contractors have over retailers is that they can go out and seek work rather than waiting for it to come to them. Don’t get me wrong, Ron and I are strong advocates of the right kind of marketing for lead generation and proper branding.

Many of you know I am not a huge advocate of the “yellow pages” because the leads that normally come from them are price shoppers. In our consulting practices our most successful clients know how to make marketing and sales compliment each other. I have included an email from one of these bright contractor’s, Brian Gann of Gann Aspahlt in Kansas City who is taking marketing his service line to a new level. www.gannasphalt.com

 Take heed to what he learned:

WOW! As you know, I have committed myself to new marketing, including better utilizing our membership with the Chamber of Commerce. We attended yesterdays Business Fair and I can’t express how successful the day was for us. We are already doing site evaluations and estimates for several companies we met yesterday, and have many more leads to follow up on! I also met a person from a local newspaper who was interested in our Missouri Stream Team efforts, and will be helping us with a press release as well as a possible write up. It was a day very well spent! You may want to remind your readers not to wait like I did, before taking advantage of some of the benefits that come with belonging to Their local Chambers.  I can only imagine the opportunities that I have missed by not participating sooner!

So take this as a reminder… Don’t sit back and wait for the phone to ring… Go out there and make things happen!

Merry Christmas

Well Ron perhaps we can cause some real interaction with this topic. I too will go with the leader! See we are in agreement again. However the question you raised is who has the MOST IMPACT?

In a successful organization I unequivocally believe that leader(s) have the most impact. It is the leaders responsibility to make sure the organization hires the right people. In the event that a poor hiring choice was made the leader is also accountable to determine if the newbie can adapt to their new environment in a reasonably short period of time. If not making a decisive decision to remove this person from the “bus” before cultural damage can take place is a necessity.

Another question is what is the definition of a leader? Is it the owner, an upper manager or any individual in the organization.

I would assert that their are leaders that are appointed by title and others that step up to the plate and take a leadership position. Which is what Ron is pointing out to our readership in his preceding post.

An excellent leader will develop players that will step up to plate on a daily basis. Leaders who may not be empowered to hire and fire can still spread  positive culture and when necessary inform the powers that be that the organization has a problem employee on its hands. This will probably will not come as a surprise but presenting examples along with good documentation makes it easier to remove the problem.

Now it’s time for you to chime in with your thoughts on the subject.

Happy Holidays.

Guy and Ron