If you’re even mildly curious about your “business development” you’ve probably at least thought about your break-even point but maybe you never found the time to figure it out or you never had a user friendly calculator to punch your numbers into and get the result, right?
The fact is if you’re in business and you don’t know your break-even point, then how do you know when you’re making a profit?
Before you start feeling frustrated about this often irritating little detail of business the good news is, that’s all about to change. We’ve created a very simple Free, Break Even calculator to help you calculate the break-even point for your business right now. All you need are some accurate financials, then click the link and follow the three easy steps below to calculate your break-even point in two minutes flat;

Start Here >> Breakeven Calculator

Step 1: Get an accurate copy of your Profit & Loss. Note its imperative that your numbers are as accurate as possible otherwise the result won’t mean a thing. So make sure the income and expenses listed in your P & L are up to date and accurate.

Step 2: Also ensure that you’ve separated your “Cost of Sales” from your “Running Costs” or “Fixed Costs”. If you’re unsure about this, make sure you ask your bookkeeper, and if they’re unsure give us a call we’ll walk you through it.

Step 3: Punch your numbers into the Yearly or Quarterly space on the calculator and hit each of the three calculate buttons to get your Gross Margin, Break Even and Net Profit figures.

http://www.builderscoach.com.au/BreakEvenCalculator/break_even_calculator.php

Now here’s the thing, once you’ve calculated your break-even point, you can play around with the numbers and gauge the result to your bottom line when you shave 2% of your Material costs and/or increase your pricing by 4%. Also use the top part of the calculator to work out your Gross Margin on individual jobs and find your most profitable work. Chances are, 80% of your profit is coming from 20% of your work.
Have fun!

Guys, this is so easy to do in the building industry it’s beyond a joke. I’ve been vocal about these three “magical” steps below for years.

1) Return your phone calls. Most builders and contractors don’t return their phone calls at all. The ones that do are often 2 – 3 days later. Phone calls should be returned the same day or by 9 am the next day.
2) Show up for your appointments. On time. Won’t that surprise them! Not showing up for appointments, or showing up late, is one of the major gripes clients have with builders and contractors.
3) Do exactly what you say you will do, and do it when you say you will do it. It’s the little things that count!

So there you have it, just these three actions alone should give you an “unfair advantage” over your competitors. Remember making sales is first and foremost about building trust and confidence in your company and in you. The best way to build trust in any situation is to “demonstrate” it.

Once you’ve established a level of trust you need to set the parameters under which you will work. If you don’t set these parameters, the customer will.

One of the first questions I recommend with any prospective client is, “What is important for you when selecting a builder or contractor?” (In other words what is their selection criteria for choosing a builder or contractor?) Followed immediately by, “When would you be ready to start the job?” These two questions put the prospect on notice that you’re not there to dish out prices.

Let them know you’re serious about doing your work and if they just want a price, you’ll be on your way. Other more detailed qualifying questions coupled with a sprinkle of tact of course are no doubt also required here.

The primary purpose of your questioning is to discover what the owner is thinking. If their primary interest is price, then sorry, It’s time to leave and look for someone willing to pay a fair price for your services.

If you find you’re experiencing too many price sensitive people, it’s important you look at how you’re attracting enquiries. If you are offering “free quotes” or reaching out to people looking for low prices, that’s what you’ll get. And if your competitors are coming in at half your price, and getting the job, you’re aiming for the wrong market.

The short answer is YES, you should be charging for quotes, especially if you do itemized quotes or D&C. Now you’re probably thinking, but Kurt my competitors aren’t charging for quotes so how am I going to get any work, especially when the phone has stopped ringing! If this is you then you’ve got a marketing problem and that’s a whole different conversation, which incidentally needs to be had before you start charging for quotes. (See our article on how to generate a continuous flow of profitable work to sort your marketing out).

Remember your Marketing should position you as the expert, the “go to” person in your chosen “Niche” or specialty. Once you have this positioning securely in place you can plug your sales process into the back end. With sales being the biggest area of “inefficiency” in this industry (i.e. lots of quotes done for too few contacts signed) the number one purpose for your sales process should be to QUALIFY your prospective clients. Handling your inquiries correctly protects your time and let’s your potential client know how you do business. Handling them the wrong way gives them the opportunity to waste your time.

So here’s a scenario where even if you don’t intend to charge for quotes, you definitely should be. Bearing in mind the aim of the game here is to “qualify” the prospective client. So lets say you get a call for a Reno, first floor addition, bathroom whatever. You show up at the appointed time to speak with the nice people about their proposed job. At some point in the conversation, the potential client makes the following statement: “I want a complete itemization of your proposal and when it’s ready you can just send it to me by email or snail mail. “?How do you, or did you, respond? If you’ve been in business a long time, you’ve had this happen. It’s critical to know how to respond to a super-controlling prospective client. Let me share a response that keeps you in charge of the situation but also allows the client’s ego to remain intact.

The sooner you let the potential client know how YOU conduct business, the better. In fact this should happen during the “Pre-Sales “ process when you send them your profile and clearly outline the YOUR process for doing business with them. You start that part of the conversation with, “Mr. and Mrs. Prospect, let me tell you how we work, Itemization of any kind takes a lot of extra work and I’m happy to do it, as long as I’m paid for that service. When I work, I like to be paid for my time just like you do. We charge $65 an hour with a minimum of 4 hours for any itemization we do. I think that is fair, don’t you?” their response will tell you if they are interested in a win-win business relationship or if they are going to be a classic P.I.T.A!

Now, if they start asking about your margins, then you know it’s time to walk. No need to get involved. Do they ask their doctor, attorney or dentist for an itemization? Do they tell their doctor what price they will pay? How about the manager or check out person at the grocery store? So why do they think they are entitled to that information from you? You can try to explain if you wish, but you are dealing with a potential client whose single focus is getting the lowest possible price for their work. Let another builder or contractor do the job, you don’t need it.

As far as sending a quote by email, snail mail or fax, that works for order takers. Order taking requires the lowest price, and that’s not where you want to be, especially as an expert in your field. If you don’t want the work, email your quote.  If you want their business, inform them that when you go to the time and effort of compiling a quote, you want to sit down with them to review the proposal and ask/answer any questions they might have. If they aren’t willing to do that, they don’t want to make a decision and will try everything they can to avoid it. Politely tell them that you have their information and when they are ready to review their job with you and make a decision, you will be glad to come back and go over the job details and your quote for their work. You will unmask the real clients REAL quick with this approach.

Is this ballsy? Is it rude? No, it’s setting the standard under which you are willing to work. Remember if you don’t set it, the prospective client will. The prospect is either at the mercy of your process for selling or you’re at the mercy for their process for buying. It’s your time to do with as you will, but why let some inconsiderate knucklehead waste your time? As a business owner and leader in your community, you must learn to guard your time as you would your life, and insist that others respect your time. That way you can focus on the clients you can do business with, not the clients who want to waste your time.

Woody Allen famously remarked that 50% of success was “showing up.” Too many people stop there, and get 50% of what they could – if they showed up as a real Pro. Alert. Prepared. Practiced. Primed in every way to deliver an extraordinary performance, they’d get extraordinary results. In fact following a well defined sales process and professionalizing yourself and everyone in your business might just be the best way to b

I had a private client who was so overwhelmed with his own impending financial ruin that he couldn’t get out of bed. When I eventually drove down to his office to meet with him we discovered he had enough capital to keep the doors open for another five weeks. He was faced with a major decision; either he closed the doors or he picked himself off the floor and threw everything at turning things around. Fortunately he chose the latter and together we were able to pull things out of the fire.

When things go “pear shaped” it doesn’t pay to sit around for too long wondering what happened and beating yourself up. A wise man once said “Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end.”

The truth is no one has exclusivity on a difficult time. We are all either in a crisis, coming out of a crisis or about to go into a crisis. That’s life, shit happens! I often tell young blokes just starting out in business that the reason many builders and contractors fail is that they don’t make timely decisions. They know when facing a challenge that a decision needs to be made. They know they need to make a change, or they need to do something different, but they just can’t or won’t make the decision to do what needs to be done.

The hallmark of great leadership is the ability to make a decision. This is simply a discipline thing. The well known Personal Development mentor Brian Tracy has an excellent method for dealing with decisions. Make up your mind that you are going to mentally handle a necessary decision. Once. When something tough comes up and you need to determine the course of action you should take, stay with it. Handle it once and force yourself to make a decision. You have at least a 50 – 50 chance of getting the decision right the first go around. 50 – 50 is pretty darned good odds of getting it right.

If your decision doesn’t look like it is working, then make a correcting decision. This time you know more, so it’s more likely to be the right decision.

If you find decision # 2 is still off course, then again make the necessary decision to change your course. Don’t wait, make the change. As the old saying goes, third times the charm. Your third decision will almost always put you on the right path.

Not making any decision is making the wrong decision – especially if change is necessary. You’re probably facing a few important decisions in your business right now. Remember to exercise your free will and be decisive. We are getting many calls from builders and contractors who have business challenges and don’t know how to solve them. Unfortunately a lot of the challenges I see are self-inflicted due to the avoidance of making tough decisions. If you are having problems and would like to bounce a decision off us, give us a call. Doing nothing adds to the dilemma you are in and will not solve the problem. Make a decision, get it straightened out so you and your business can move on.

Find Out More

For more specifics on how we can help your business in this area, contact us direct to book in for your free “Strategy Session” with one of our expert Business Coaches. Lets talk about your business and see how we can take you to the next level.

Case Study:

The Challenge – Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)

Tim’s building company has been through a lot of ups and downs over the past 15 years. Being the proactive guy that he was, Tim constantly looked for ways to improve his business, particularly regarding the performance of his team on-site. 12 months previously Tim decided to change the direction of the business and chose renovations as his niche. He set his sights on becoming the number one renovations company in the state and made it the company goal to exceed customer expectations on every job. This was a lofty ideal, which Tim wanted every member of his team subscribe to, to collectively raise the performance standards of the company. Following the launch of the new vision for Tim’s business there was a significant change in the behaviour and attitude of his team on-site. The efficiency was up, absenteeism was down, and everyone worked together like a close-knit team. The outcome resulted in improved profits for individual jobs and the company as a whole. However, the success was short-lived. In the space of a few months, the newly acquired performance standards started to drop, and his team fell back into their old habits.

This caused Tim untold stress and frustration. He couldn’t for the life of him understand why his team couldn’t apply themselves consistently and maintain the level of performance they’d held for the previous eight weeks. The question running through Tim’s mind was, “How can I measure the performance of my team so that I can hold them accountable to the newly assigned performance standard and keep it there?”  

The Cause:
Tim lacked a measurement system in place to track the performance of his team or the ‘critical distinctions’ in his business. This gave Tim no way to ‘back stop’ the new performance standards his team achieved. Although Tim directed a lot of his frustration at his team, in fairness to them, they were only human and, like all people, they need accountability, focus, guidance and direction.

People are creatures of habit, good habits die quickly and bad habits die-hard. Because of this, Tim recognised his lack of systems for measuring the ‘critical distinctions’ or ‘key performance’ areas of their work performance.  

The Business Pain:
Although most of the jobs Tim’s team completed were of good quality, they struggled to maintain the consistency that he was after. Tim felt intense frustration and often anger when he received complains from clients due to poor workmanship.  Lost profits on jobs due to basic mistakes was another thing that angered Tim. He also noticed that when he was on-site or close to the ‘coalface’, performance automatically improved. This also frustrated Tim because his objective was to spend less time on-site and more time working on strategic areas of his business.

The Personal Pain:
After 15 years in business Tim felt like he was going around in circles. If he wanted efficiency and job quality to improve, he had to roll up his sleeves and do it himself. As soon as he stepped back, things automatically slipped back into their old ways. His relationship with certain team members started to sour and caught himself snapping at people and often felt bad afterwards.

Tim’s bad work relationships spilled over into his personal life and his relationship with his partner Sue was deteriorating as he often took his bad mood home with him.

The Solution:
Tim sat down with his coach and reviewed the critical areas of his business and followed the following steps to identify and measure his KPIs.

1. He started with the bigger areas and narrowed it down to the more specific ‘critical distinctions’ in his business he needed to improve. First he got clear on the KPIs for his business, then each department or area of the business, and finally each individual within the business. Tim found the KPI selector his coach gave him very helpful with this exercise.
2. Once the KPIs were identified, Tim needed to put a system of measurement in place for each KPI.
3. The selected KPIs were then drawn up for each team member.
4. Each team member received their KPIs in a one-on-one, face-to-face session, which also explained what the KPIs were and the benefits of the KPIs to them as team members.
5. KPIs were measured and recorded by each of the relevant managers or team members and the results reviewed each week, month and quarter at the quarterly reviews.
6. Finally, the top 10% of KPIs were identified and team members were given incentives on their performance with these KPIs.

The Outcome:
By putting meaningful KPIs in place, Tim had a new level of control over his business. He now knew exactly which areas of his business were performing well and which weren’t. This allowed him to channel his resources into the areas that needed it most.

Team members were accountable to achieving results with their respective KPIs. Those who did were given incentives and received promotion, while those who didn’t received the relevant training or were moved into more suitable positions.

Finally, Tim was able to step back from his business and had the peace of mind that it was no longer dependent on him. He was able to achieve new performance standards and backstop the performance of his team with stricter adherence to KPIs. Subsequently, Tim’s home life became a lot more tolerable for everyone. Tim was also able to take time away from the business to travel with his family and he was playing golf one afternoon a week again. Tim was back in love with his business and now he understood what people meant when they said business is a game.

For more specifics on how we can help your business in this area, contact us direct to book in for your free “Strategy Session” with one of our expert Business Coaches. Lets talk about your business and see how we can take you to the next level. 

Would you like more purpose, direction, motivation and Confidence for you and your team?
Once you’ve set a clear Strategy and Business Goals you’ll stop spinning your wheels and start moving your business in a specific direction. This will give you and your team Purpose, Direction, Focus, Motivation and Confidence. Your team will see you as a stronger leader because you’ll be taking decisive action. You’ll also feel more purposeful driving to work each day knowing you’re moving your business in a direction that will give you and your family the lifestyle you deserve.

For more specifics on how we can help your business in this area, contact us direct to book in for your free “Strategy Session” with one of our expert Business Coaches. Lets talk about your business and see how we can take you to the next level.

CASE STUDY:

In the beginning: Joe the Plumber makes a plan

Joe was at his local pub enjoying a cold beer at the end of another hard day when Steve shot through the front door with a spring in his step and in an unusually jovial and happy mood. Joe and Steve grew up together and had been friends since pre-school, both chose plumbing as their profession. Joe was starting to resent Steve’s newly adopted carefree attitude. Ever since he went to that seminar held by that famous business coach eight weeks ago, Steve   seemed lighter, more confident and less stressed than ever before.

“How you doing buddy,” said Joe in as uplifting a tone as he could muster. “Fantastic! Thanks mate, life’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it?” replied Steve. “You in love or something?” asked Joe “As a matter of fact I am,” replied Steve; “I’m back in love with my business”.

Steve’s comments didn’t help Joe’s mood. Lately Joe had been feeling tired and frustrated. He was becoming more and more despondent with his plumbing business. He felt like he was on the proverbial ‘hamster wheel’. Each day was a carbon copy of the next. Although the money he made was ok, Joe felt directionless, a slave to his business and clients. Steve knew Joe well and asked, “Why the long face mate?” Then, before Joe could answer in a sarcastic tone and with a wry smirk, he added, “Just remember, no matter how bad things get, they can always get worse!”

Joe felt comfortable opening up to his life long friend, and told him how he really felt about his business. “Mate, I’m not sure what you’re so in love with, but I’m thinking of going back to work for Fat Frank.” Fat Frank was called ‘Fat Frank’ not only because of his physicality, but because he had the biggest plumbing business in Sydney.

“I’m getting tired of this Steve, I feel like I’m chasing my tail. I’m seriously considering returning to employment and walking away from the stress and responsibility of running my own business.” said Joe. “The money is ok but I’m not sure it’s worth all the extra stress and responsibility,” he continued. Steve let him speak to hear him out. Joe told Steve how he had no game plan or strategy for improving his situation. Ultimately, he had bought himself a job, except now he was carrying the added pressure of running a business and it was weighing him down.

“I know exactly how you feel.” said Steve. And he did, because besides being in a similar situation to Joe only two months previously, Steve had  also spent two years working for Fat Frank before going out on his own.

“Think about it Steve” said Joe “If I work for Frank, I’ll be able to leave work in the afternoons and totally divorce myself from all responsibility. No stress, no worries.” Joe felt a sense of relief and calm just thinking about it. But as they spoke and reminisced about the good old days, Joe remembered Fat Frank’s terrible temper and how it bothered him to take instructions from him.  During those early days, Joe and Steve often spoke about how they would do things differently if they owned Frank’s business.

The more they spoke, the more Joe realised there was a reason he was working for himself; he just wasn’t cut out to be an employee. The realisation didn’t help Joe’s mood, it made him feel stuck, as though he was caught between two bad options. He knew something had to change, he just wasn’t sure what? Joe finally put the question to his trusted friend who always seemed to have the answers to trying and difficult situations.

Steve was quick to respond and told Joe about the website the famous business coach had referred him to during the seminar. These business coaches had packaged all the best real life business ideas and strategies from their collective experience and uploaded them onto a website exclusively for plumbers. Plumbers from all over the world were accessing the information online and then applying it to their businesses. Steve continued, “I soon discovered that the information on the website was both relevant and easy to follow. The first realisation I had after watching the short introductory video was that I had no real plan for my business or my personal life.”

Steve then said, “If I don’t know where I’m going, how am I going to get there? Not having a plan was the reason I plodded along with my business, demoralised and directionless for so long. Not only did I need a plan for my business, but also my personal life.”  “After all, I’m in business for personal reasons not the other way round, right?”
Steve went on to explain that once he was clear on his personal goals his business could then serve as a vehicle to achieve those personal goals. It made perfect sense. “Perfect commonsense,” said Joe. “Something that’s not very common these days,” added Steve, and they shared a laugh.

“Once I really thought about it, I realised I have a lot of things on my wish-list, and I’m not getting any younger,” said Steve with a sense disappointment. Then he added, “There are mates I haven’t seen or contacted in ages. The best man at my wedding, Greg, who lives in London, has been bugging me to come out for a holiday and meet the kids I’m Godfather to.”  Steve spoke about plans for surf trips, bike trips and hiking in Machu Picchu, Peru, all of which seemed like fading, out-of-reach dreams due to Steve’s lack of time and money.

Suddenly Joe felt his mind open up as he had a profound moment of clarity. “That’s exactly what’s been missing in his business and my life! I’ve had zero direction for either my personal or business life.” His face became expressionless as the realisation sunk in. Besides new years resolutions, which rarely lasted more than four weeks, Joe hadn’t set goals since he did a goal-setting course back in College.

In that instant, Joe made a decision to do ‘whatever it takes’ to make his business a success and have it give him the lifestyle he deserved. ‘If other people can do it, so can I’, he thought. He just needed the knowledge that they had; an ability to stay open to new ideas and a strong enough desire to change. Joe knew right then he had strong enough reasons to make changes in his business and his life. After all he had very few alternatives. Of one thing Joe was very certain, before his business could change, he knew HE would have to change first.

Joe finished his beer, gave Steve a big hearty slap on the back, and headed straight for his home office. That night, as Joe typed in the URL for plumberscoaching.com on his laptop, he made a commitment to himself to do every exercise on the plumberscoaching.com program until they were completed, understood, and implemented in his business. This gave a Joe a sudden surge of confidence and hope because if there was one thing he was certain of, when he made a promise to himself he always kept it.

After watching the introductory video Joe’s first exercise was to set personal goals using the wheel of life template in the Planning section of the website. He was both nervous and excited. The exercise required that Joe break his life up into eight different areas and set time weighted goals for each area. There were goals for his career, family and friends, money, fun and recreation, physical health and even personal development and spiritual growth. There were so many things he still wanted to achieve and others that he wasn’t sure he wanted to do anymore. At the end of the hour-long exercise Joe had 45 personal goals all laid out in three-month, six-month, 12-month, two-year, and five-year timelines. He was starting to get a picture of what his life could be like. He knew it wouldn’t be easy but he knew he could do it. Any time he’d wanted something bad enough he’d gone out and got it.

Once his personal goals had been set, Joe’s next exercise was to set business goals along the same timelines as the personal goals and then align the business and personal goals to ensure that when he achieved his business goals, his personal goals would automatically fall into place.

Once he’d set his business and personal goals Joe felt a sense of achievement and excitement creep back into his body. It seemed to come from beneath his solar plexus and rise up through his chest cavity, almost lifting him up out of his chair making him feel lighter than he was. This is what being in business is supposed to feel like. He remembered feeling this way when he first went into business eight years ago and how fired up he’d been during those first six to twelve months. He was almost bursting at the seams with energy and enthusiasm. He remembered what his hopes and aspirations were back then and how people seemed to respond more favourably to him when he felt that way. The past eight years were a blur for Joe now and he couldn’t remember exactly when the fire in his belly had started waning and eventually disappeared. It hardly mattered because now the hope was back and he could feel that fire in his belly again, except this time he would make sure he did things properly.

The next morning Joe called Steve on his way to work. “Mate, I feel like a new man!” Steve could hear the purpose and confidence in Joe’s voice. “That’s great Joe, I’m glad you found some value in the program,” said Steve. Joe told Steve about the goals he’d set and the decisions he’d made to improve both his personal and business life. They compared notes and at the end of it they both felt more motivated and purposeful. They decided that they would buddy up and hold each other accountable to achieving the goals they’d set for themselves and agreed to meet at least once a month to discuss their progress.

When Joe finally finished work for that day he decided to skip the pub and head straight back to the plumbers’ website to review the next step in the coaching program. He was eager to do more work so that he could build momentum in the program and start seeing results in his business. Steve had explained the concept of ‘cause and effect’ and Joe knew the more he put into the program, the more he’d get out in terms of results, and results were what he wanted. The next step in the planning section after goal setting was to write a 12-week business plan. Joe learnt that 12 weeks was proven to be the best timeframe in which to do a business plan. Research had tested longer and shorter periods of time in a variety of small businesses around the world and 12 weeks was shown to be the optimum timeframe. Joe had never done a business plan before and wasn’t sure where to start. Fortunately for him, the plumber’s website had a user-friendly business planning template to help guide Joe through putting together a step-by-step business plan specifically tailored to his business to help move him forward in the direction of his goals.

Although most of the strategies that Joe selected off the business planning strategy checklist were commonsense, Joe soon learnt of the importance of the sequence of the strategies. It was like knowing the ingredients to bake a cake but not knowing the sequence in which to mix the ingredients to get the desired result. The business planning exercise took considerably longer than the goal setting exercise, at least three hours in total. Once Joe had completed the exercise he felt a genuine sense of accomplishment. His plan had 15 goals or projects and each goal had at least 10 sequential steps to ensure their completion over a specific timeline. It totalled 150 steps, which all needed to take place in a certain order for all his goals to be achieved within the 12-week period. Joe printed out the one-page business plan template and put it up on his office wall. He felt more motivated than ever because now he not only had goals, but also a plan that gave him direction, guidance, motivation and confidence. Joe had laid the track and all that was left to do now was put rubber to the road!

Joe and Steve spoke again the next day and arranged to meet over a coffee and compare business plans. They both had different personal and business goals and although Steve was eight weeks ahead of Joe in the coaching program, they found that by reviewing each other’s work, they could give each other objective feedback and hold each other accountable to staying on track with the program. They agreed that meeting once a month to discuss their progress, learnings and challenges would be hugely beneficial for both of them.

Three months later…

Joe and Steve were engaged in lively discussion over breakfast at a cosy café in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney. They were both amazed at how much they’d achieved over the past three months. The changes in their businesses had been significant. They were by no means living in a perfect world and they still faced their daily challenges, but they had both laid a solid foundation for growth in their businesses and were excited about the prospects ahead. They spent a good part of the morning reviewing their business and personal goals and each of them mapped out a new 12-week plan for the coming quarter. As they left the café with a renewed sense of purpose and said their good byes, they failed to see the three business coaches and the man with the peculiar hat walk in behind them….

For more specifics on how we can help your business in this area, contact us direct to book in for your free “Strategy Session” with one of our expert Business Coaches. Lets talk about your business and see how we can take you to the next level. 

Would you like to spend less wasted time on dud leads and turn more prospects into actual clients with the use of an efficient Sales Process?
In order to attract more prospects and turn them into customers, you must build a sales process that works, one that identifies your clients’ needs and wants and then fulfills them. You must begin to systemize your sales process and test and measure the success of each step.

For more specifics on how we can help your business in this area, contact us direct to book in for your free “Strategy Session” with one of our expert Business Coaches. Lets talk about your business and see how we can take you to the next level. 

Case Study

The Challenge: Sales Process
The Cause:
A lack of formal sales training and a generally negative attitude towards sales people resulted in Brad having no desire to spend any of his valuable time on developing a sales process.

The Business Pain:
Brad was running around doing a lot of quotes but he was converting very few of them. This caused him a lot of pain and frustration because it was costing him time and money and left him feeling like he was chasing his tail.

The Personal Pain:
The endless running around was wearing Brad out both physically and mentally. He was feeling more and more disillusioned and it was starting to affect his personal life. Besides not having time to play soccer during the week at his local club or join his mates down at the pub, he was also getting pressure from his girlfriend who complained she hardly saw him. To add insult to injury, when Brad did make it down to his local pub he overheard someone talking about the bad experience they had talking to someone at his front desk. This was the straw that broke the camels back for Brad and he decided to seek professional help.

The Solution:
The first thing Brad learnt (much to his surprise) was that sales are 80% process and only 20% selling skills or ability. With the guidance of his business coach Brad set to work making the following 22 changes to his sales process:

1. Sales scripts for himself and his team for phone and face-to-face interaction with prospects and customers
2. Flow-charted his sales process
3. Asks great questions
4. Only deal with decision makers
5. Qualifies prospects with questions checklist
6. Clear Target Market defined
7. Sets budgets & tracks sales
8. Developed a 12-step sales process
9. He started thinking like a problem solver
10. Listened extremely well
11. Has a clear outcome in mind for each meeting or interaction with prospects
12. Understands features and benefits of his product or service and knows how to show the prospect how they will fulfill their need or want
13. Great first impression
14. Handles objections
15. Asks for the sale and asks for commitment
16. Keeps testimonials
17. Always up-sells
18. Developed a sales kit
19. Is consistent and disciplined
20. Asks for referrals
21. Sends thank-you cards
22. A CRM (Client Relationship Management) software system in place

The Outcome:

Within six months of consistent application of his new sales strategies Brad was able to increase his conversion rate by over 30%. This meant his revenues also increased by 30%. The bonus was that because Brad’s conversion rate had improved he was spending less time quoting to get the same amount of work through. This meant more time with his girlfriend, playing soccer and with his mates at the pub. All up, his quality of life improved out of sight and more importantly he started to feel better about himself and his business.

For more specifics on how we can help your business in this area, contact us direct to book in for your free “Strategy Session” with one of our expert Business Coaches. Lets talk about your business and see how we can take you to the next level. 

Most builders and contractors know that in order to generate the most clients, profits and sales, they must come up with their own “Unique Selling Point” (USP) and make their products or services known to their selected market. This section will show you how to come up with the most creative USP and Guarantee for your business.

Would you like to establish your name or brand and set yourself apart from the competition?

Having your own Unique Selling Point (USP) will help you set yourself apart from other businesses in your market, target your market more effectively, and create more effective marketing campaigns.

For more specifics on how we can help your business in this area, contact us direct to book in for your free “Strategy Session” with one of our expert Business Coaches. Lets talk about your business and see how we can take you to the next level.

CaseStudy:

Industry: Plumber

Challenge: Creating uniqueness or a compelling reason for your marketplace to choose you over your competitors

The Cause: 
Stuart always believed the only reason his clients chose a competitor’s quote over his was price. As a result, Stuart spent a lot of his time ensuring his prices were competitive and wouldn’t come in too high. This ensured Stuart’s profits were kept to a minimum.   

The business pain: 
Stuart couldn’t understand why clients who knew him well would still choose to work with a ‘fly by night’ plumbing company over his, just because they came in cheaper on the quote. Stuart was running around quoting everything that came across his desk. He did big jobs, small jobs and medium jobs. Some were private jobs and others were commercial. Stuart was being all things to all people and it was costing him time, money and a lot of frustration. One day Stuart was struck with sobering realisation that the only thing he had to differentiate himself from his competitors was price. This hurt, because he knew he offered so much more, he just wasn’t saying it.

The personal pain:
Stuart had some friends who were also plumbers. One in particular was doing three or four times the revenue that Stuart’s business was doing. This was all very well but there were a few things Stuart couldn’t ignore. Firstly, his mates plumbing company started five years after his. He could remember when Craig first started out and how he had volunteered advice on getting started. That was four years ago. Last year they compared numbers over a couple of beers at the end of the financial year. Stuart was startled to find his mate’s business doing close to double the net profit percentage that he was. On top of all this, Stuart’s mate also enjoyed the privilege of an overseas trip once a year. But the thing that concerned Stuart the most was how much less his mate worked than him.

The solution: 
Stuart realised something needed to change and he quickly got to work developing a compelling reason why his clients should use him as opposed to his competitors. He needed to put together the most promotable and best message possible that truthfully represented the “service” he offered. Stuart wanted to come up with something that was a true reflection of who he was and what he did.

So he set about answering the following questions to find his answer:

1. List your three biggest competitors…
2. What do they do well?
3. What do they do poorly?
4. What would the average person say about each of these competitors?
5. What is ‘unique’ about them?
6. What ‘guarantees’ do they have in place?
7. How are these guarantees promoted?
8. How ‘genuine’ are these guarantees?
9. What can’t each of your competitors guarantee?
10. What can they do that you can’t?
11. In an ideal world, what would you like your customers to see as the main point of difference between you and your competitors?
12. If there were one phrase your customers and prospects used to describe what you do now, it would be…
13. Describe who the average customer is for your industry…
14. Is the current market place growing or diminishing? Please explain.
15. Is your typical customer different from the generic industry customer you have described?
16. Describe your current average customer…
17. Describe your ideal future customer…
18. In what four ways do you perceive that you are genuinely different from your competitors?
19. What can you do that no one else can?
20. What are the five things about your product or service that you take for granted, that your customers don’t know about?
21. What are three things your best customers say about you?
22. What are three things your worst customers say about you?
23. What are the two things that annoy your customers the most when dealing with businesses in our industry?
24. What are three problems or frustrations that buying your product/service solves?
25. What are the three major benefits of buying your product or service?
26. What frustrations do customers experience when trying to find your product or service?
27. If you were a customer, why would you dislike buying from you?
28. Describe the sort of customers who dislike buying from you… and tell us why?
29. Describe the sort of customers who love buying from you… and tell us why?
30. If you could easily overcome any two of your customers’ frustrations, what would they be and how would you overcome them?
31. What is your current written guarantee?
32. How is this different from your guarantees of the past?
33. How do customers react to your current guarantee?
34. What three additional things will you be able to fully guarantee within the next  months?
35. Now take some time to complete in your own words, your own using all of the information above.

After completing the extensive list of questions Stuart eventually settled on a Unique Selling Proposition that he was happy with. He would offer his customers the following guarantee:

“We guarantee to return your call within 24hrs, show up on time and leave your place spotlessly clean or we will pay you.”

The Outcome: 
Stuart’s guarantee put him in a position to compete for higher-margin jobs and gave his customers the compelling reason they needed to use him over his competitors. Stuart soon found himself in a position where he could be more selective with the type of jobs and the customers he worked with. His business finally had an identity and soon developed a solid reputation in his chosen target market.

For more specifics on how we can help your business in this area, contact us direct to book in for your free “Strategy Session” with one of our expert Business Coaches. Lets talk about your business and see how we can take you to the next level. 

Would you like the peace of mind of knowing where every dollar coming in and out of your business is going?
Having accurate and updated financial systems allows you to make more informed decisions. You’ll know your cash position on jobs and which jobs are more profitable and why. This alone could lead to better strategic decision making.

CaseStudy:

The Challenge: Lack of adequate Financial Controls

The Cause:
John has had always been a good electrician. His clients like him and they keep coming back. Finding the work has never been a challenge for John. His real concern is managing the money and having his financial ducks in a row, so to speak. John has been running his business out of his bank account and doesn’t make use of the five cornerstones of any solid financial controls namely:

• Updated Profit & Loss statements
• Balance Sheets
• Break Even Point
• Cash flow Forecast
• Debtors and Creditors System

The Pain:  
John feels the tension in his shoulders every day and the migraine headaches come and go. Most days John feels sleep-deprived from a lack of quality sleep the night before. When he climbs into bed he has “monkey chatter”, those thoughts that keep running through his mind until the early hours of the morning.

John never feels like he gets a true break from his business. On weekends and holidays he spends time on the phone to clients or team members fixing problems. When he’s not on the phone his mind constantly races with what needs to be done or worries of what might go wrong.

So far it’s cost John a marriage and is starting to affect his health as well. It’s as if he can feel himself aging prematurely. What happened to business supposedly being fun he wonders?

The Solution:
John finally got some direction and learnt that getting his financial controls in place would not be as difficult as he thought. He just needed the right guidance and tools. Here’s the simple six-step process John followed:

A System for Managing Finances: The first thing John did was find a financial system that could capture his critical numbers. He quickly discovered the popular options were Quickbooks and MYOB. John chose MYOB for its user-friendly functionality. The program also came with easy to follow tutorials, which taught John how the system worked.

Outsourcing the Bookkeeping:  The next critical step for John was to outsource his bookkeeping to someone who was familiar with using MYOB and who would spend a day a week feeding all the debtors and creditors information into the system.  Having accurate financial information is essential and can only be achieved with accurate input. With this in mind, John made sure he found a bookkeeper with a strong reputation and solid reference checks.

Understanding the numbers: John soon learnt what the important numbers were for him to understand and review in his profit and loss statement. Namely:

• Total Revenue
• Cost of Sales
• Gross Profit
• Fix costs
• Net Profit

Reviewing his Balance Sheet every quarter became a regular event for John. John also set aside time to check his cash position on a weekly basis.

Once John was familiar with his Profit and Loss numbers he felt confident to start setting profit goals for the months ahead.

Break Even Point: By using the Break Even Calculator John soon calculated the Break Even Point for his business. He now knew exactly how much money the business needed to break even each day, week, month and year.

Cash flow Forecast: Next John started using a cash flow forecast. This was possibly the most powerful tool John had ever used to manage his finances. As opposed to just looking back at his numbers in retrospect, John could now look ahead at his cash position over the coming 12 weeks and make more informed decisions.

Debtors and Creditors System: John soon had his bookkeeper working two full days a week using the debtors and creditors system he’d set-up. As soon as any of his debtors went past 14 days, John’s bookkeeper would send an email reminder to them using a pre-written letter giving them a gentle reminder. There was also a letter and phone scripts for 30-dDay, 60-day and 90-day accounts.

The Outcome:
Within 6 months of implementing the new financial controls, John reached a point where looking at his financials became his favourite part of the business. He couldn’t wait to see the latest figures and assess the results his new sales and marketing strategies had generated.

John knew exactly how much money was going in and out of his business to the very last cent. Having that level of control boosted John’s confidence and gave him piece of mind beyond measure. John’s financial information was now being kept neatly and meticulously in solid financials systems, instead of his head.

Tinkering with the numbers and making more informed decisions because of it, allowed John to see his business as a ‘game’. For the first time in years, John was having FUN.

For more specifics on how we can help your business in this area, contact us direct to book in for your free “Strategy Session” with one of our expert Business Coaches. Lets talk about your business and see how we can take you to the next level. 

Would you like the peace of mind that comes from delivering jobs on time and on budget every time?
Proper job planning, materials ordering and scheduling allows you to better eliminate inefficiencies in your business. This will ensure you save money and time and run a more streamlined operation.

For more specifics on how we can help your business in this area, contact us direct to book in for your free “Strategy Session” with one of our expert Business Coaches. Lets talk about your business and see how we can take you to the next level.

CaseStudy

The Challenge: A lack of Operational Systems
The Cause:
No time working ‘ON’ his business left Mark with a business that was totally dependant on him. Mark was always too busy doing the work to find time to develop the structure and organisation of his business.

The Business Pain:
Having a business that ran with no organisation, structure or predictability meant that Mark was the business. If he took himself out of his business there was nothing left. Because of this the business often experienced bottlenecks or hold-ups that inconvenienced clients and damaged Marks reputation as an electrician.

The Personal Pain:
There was always more to do than there were hours in the day. It was the same old story, day in day out, week in week out. Mark’s life was becoming a busyness routine and he was beginning to feel like a hamster on a wheel. His personal life was taking serious strain and his long-term girlfriend had already decided to move on to greener pastures. Mark knew that something had to give; he couldn’t keep working all day and then doing paperwork till 10pm each night. Employment wasn’t looking like such a bad option after all.

The Solution:
After receiving consultation and guidance from his business coach, Mark went to work putting steps in place to improve the operational systems in place and hopefully maintain his sanity at the same time.

Mark followed the following sequential steps:

Document and pictured all tasks in an Operations Manual

Drew up an Organisational Chart for the business

Flow-charted all his business processes and eliminated bottlenecks

Quality assurance checklists

The Outcome:
By completing the above operational processes, Mark was able to put his business in perspective and dramatically improve his level of control. Mark was able to make better business decisions and mapped out a clear path for the growth of the business.
For more specifics on how we can help your business in this area, contact us direct to book in for your free “Strategy Session” with one of our expert Business Coaches. Lets talk about your business and see how we can take you to the next level.