From Vision to Execution: 8 Critical Business Questions for Service Contractors

"Vision without Execution is Hallucination." I wish I could take credit for the great quote above, but I cannot.  Walt Brown, a friend of mine who helps companies implement Gino Wickman's Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), used that…
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The Tesla Lesson: 4 Takeaways for Service Contractors

I am a big believer in market signals. I think Tesla is one of those signals. As a breakthrough company with a skyrocketing stock value, Tesla is clearly doing many, many things correctly and making very few mistakes. I believe there are some…
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4 Ways Service Contractors Can Grow Sales Without Selling

Services businesses are "the gift that keeps on giving" in the revenue department...if managed effectively. Unfortunately, many are not very well managed and somehow lose their connection and relevance with customers. The success of Angie's…
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It Pays to Know: How Service Contractors Get Paid For Expertise, Not Just Labor

The best service contracting business model is based upon customers paying a premium for expertise instead of simply paying a markup on parts and labor.  When true expertise is offered, the customer perceives that in the long term they will…

5 Tips for Spotting "Good Software"

As ServiceTrade grows, I am reflecting on the responses we get from customers on their purchasing criteria for service management software.  As it turns out, buying software is not much different than buying anything else you might consider…

If Communism Failed, Why do Software Vendors Continue to Embrace It?

With the winter games taking place in the former Soviet Union this month, it got me thinking about “Software Communism” - the practice of central planning by a single vendor that prevents the users from ever leaving. At the AHR Expo in NYC,…
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Talk is Cheap, and a Picture is Worth 1600 Words

I get lots of comments from prospective customers about “going paperless” using tablets and smartphones.  In many cases, however, they are talking about simply making the technicians in the field type character information into digital…

New Year’s Resolution – No More PC Apps!

Software as a Service (SaaS) is the only architecture for business applications that small and medium-sized companies should consider purchasing in 2014.  Period.  In my mind this battle had already been fought and won by SaaS, but I continue…