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 […]
Service repair funnel
As a commercial/industrial service contractor, what is your ratio of repair to recurring service revenue? 1 to 1? 2 to 1? 5 to 1? If you don’t know, you could be missing out on a gold mine of high-margin work. If you do, you probably know that there’s room for improvement. And, when skilled labor […]
Your best sales rep: Data
When you’re selling to a new customer, can you predict their future? You probably try and you don’t even realize it. Like a palm reader, you survey their equipment and try to divine what failures are likely to occur, how much ongoing maintenance will cost, and how much money you are going to make. And, […]
Money for nothing
In 1985, Marc Knopfler, the front man for the band Dire Straits, overheard a guy in an appliance store grudgingly admiring the MTV rockers performing on the store display TVs. Knopfler memorialized the reflections he overheard in the grammy winning, number one hit song “Money for Nothing” later that year. The song opens with the […]
Say “yes” to the quote
Are you worried that customers are going to “shop” your repair or upgrade quote around to other service contractors? If so, you failed earlier than you may realize. Getting customers to a “yes” on quoted work starts well before you ever find a problem and send a quote. It starts with trust. I’m not talking […]
Write your vows to your premium program customers
We’ve mentioned (here and here) how much more profitable it is to sell a premium program that gives the customer better outcomes than it is to negotiate on labor rates. You’ll need a few things to sell a premium program: Technology-enabled differentiators A proactive maintenance and/or inspection plan A defined service level agreement (SLA) The […]