Highly Recommended Holiday Reading
This might not be for you, but most of us in sales need help knowing what to say and when. Take a look at this two-minute clip of Phil M. Jones from the 2019 Digital Wrap Conference. This exercise demonstrates how the right words can change how we think. At DWC19, Phil revealed some of […]
254,484 Quotes: Fast, Rich, and Easy
Commercial service contractors, do delays in sending repair quotes to your customers impact your approval rate? How much? Are quotes more likely to be approved if they are paper or digital? Do pictures and videos help? These are easy questions to answer! Simply connect a business intelligence (BI) tool, like Amazon QuickSight, to the application […]
Tellin’ ain’t Sellin’ – Every Customer is From Missouri, So Show Them Something!
When your salespeople call on customers, what are they pitching? What do they present when they get that rare opportunity to show a high-profile prospect the benefit of working with your company? While I have not been in the room often when a commercial service contractor is pitching a customer, I have seen hundreds of […]
That Awkward Moment
I love asking business owners and managers “Who do you think you are?” I’m not trying to pick a fight. What I’m really asking is “What makes you different and better than your competition?” But that’s a pretty boring question. Generally, those who give me a concise, thoughtful answer run growing and profitable companies. Those […]
Money for Nothing
When you deliver great service, equipment and systems don’t fail, nothing happens, and your customer is left wondering if you’re worth the money. When you deliver poor service, systems fail and the customer gets frustrated. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Billy Marshall’s keynote presentation at the 2017 Digital Wrap Conference, Money for Nothing: How […]
An Easy Differentiator for Service Contractors
Want to charge 146% more than your competition and still have customers beating down the doors? The secret to easy money for service contractors is simple: Convenience is more valuable than low prices. Modern buyers are willing to pay a premium for convenience. In a world flooded with One Truck Chucks and low-cost competitors, differentiating […]
How to Make Billions Selling Nothing – The Story of Red Hat
The following story is a preview from an upcoming book about how commercial service contractors can earn “money for nothing” by rethinking the way that they present and deliver the services that they provide their customers. I left IBM to join Red Hat in late November of 1998. Red Hat would record five million in […]
Get Busy Growing
“It comes down to a simple choice, really . . . Get busy living or get busy dying.” — Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption Growing your business is a simple choice. And if you are not growing, the business is in decline, whether you […]
Are your services significant?
Significant objects are worth more than regular objects. At least that is the conclusion arrived upon by the significant objects project and its team of researchers. Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker, a writer and a journalist respectively, set out to prove that stories can increase the value of objects. While it is tempting to view […]
Amazon Prime Lessons for Service Contractors
Everyone knows Amazon has been on a tear lately. Here is their stock performance over the last 5 years as compared to the broader S&P 500. Wow! A big part of that success has been the Prime subscription program. Amazon customers who subscribe to Prime to receive the following benefits: Priority shipping. It varies […]