Toolbox October 2020

TOOLBOX

THE #1 COMMUNITY OF SUCCESSFUL CONTRACTORS

CCN

OCTOBER 2020

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Is Perception Reality?

SCOTT SIEGAL

A

s we approach election season, I can’t help but marvel at the division in our country. You only need to go on Facebook and read your “friends” posts about President Trump. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a political statement or anything like that. This month’s column is about your beliefs and how it affects your everyday life with your customers, employees, or your co-workers. I get calls almost every week about some sort of blow-up with an owner and his customer or an owner and his employee. These calls always start out the same way… “you’re not going to believe what this salesman did today… or can you believe this customer said this about us?”

Usually after asking a bunch of questions, the owner who I’m speaking with starts to realize that it was their own fault the situation existed. It was something they didn’t do or something they didn’t say or something they mis-read in the other’s actions that caused the problem. Then, they made things worse by reacting in a way that compounded the problem.

A new book by University of Virginia psychologists Dennis Proffitt and Drake Baer, Perception: How Our Bodies Shape Our Minds, can provide a lot of insight to help all of us. The premise of this book is that what we perceive in any given moment is not only determined by sensory input, but by our personal physical abilities, energy levels, and social identities. And the last one (social identities) is being reinforced on a daily basis by the social media we consume. Watch the Social Dilemma on Netflix.

It made me delete my Facebook account on my cell phone).

The authors of this book say,

“Its common sense to believe we experience the world as it objectively is, even though our naïve intuitions are we see the world as it is, we do not.”

This book has research findings that not only challenge the things we perceive, but the judgments and decisions we make based on what we perceive. Most of the time the things we think are true and universal are often just our own experiences of the world. This is important to realize so when we are faced with irrelevant factors, we can start to understand that they are manipulating what we see and think. Proffitt and Baer write, “If we are going to have a better understanding of ourselves and our fellow human beings, we need to appreciate the startling individuality of everyone’s experience.”

One of the most beneficial programs I learned from my time in CCN (and from Richard Kaller) was how to settle disputes.

Settling disputes requires you to understand that other’s continued on page 2

CO N T R AC T O R S . N E T

TOOLBOX THE #1 COMMUNIT Y OF SUCCESSFUL CONTRACTORS

MISSION STATEMENT To enhance the professionalism, performance and perception of the construction industry. We promote ethics, education, leadership and innovation, so that the construction industry and the community achieve mutual benefit.

CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS 6476 Sligo Mill Road Takoma Park, MD 20912 301.891.0999 800.396.1510 866.250.3270 fax www.contractors.net STAFF Scott Siegal, President scott@contractors.net John Martindale, Principal johnm@contractors.net Catherine Honigsberg, GM catherine@contractors.net Matthew Winslow, Director of Operations matthew@contractors.net Anthoy Brooks, Director of Sales anthony@contractors.net Sindy Wohl, Director of VIP sindy@contractors.net Denise Metheny, Accounting denise@contractors.net

FROM THE PRESIDENT

continued from page 1

perceptions are their reality. No matter how hard you try, you can’t solve a dispute successfully until you understand this concept and how your own actions fit into this.

The book by Proffitt and Baer will help you understand all of this and much much more. Here are just a few things I learned while researching this topic:

Energy and ability impact us The authors of the book performed several studies that show our physical bodies and our ability to get around, influence how we view our surroundings. “Put another way: Our walking ability shapes the apparent walkability of the hill, which determines how we see it. You do not see the hill as it is but rather as it is seen by you,” write Proffitt and Baer. An example of this is people who wear heavy backpacks see steeper hills in front of them than others who don’t have the backpacks. How many of your employees show up to work out of shape, unrested, and lead generally unhealthy lives? That’s probably going to affect how they see the project they have to get done that day!

Self awareness of our bodies affects our decisions In one study, stock traders who could accurately count their own heartbeats without touching their bodies were more successful traders than those who could not. Interestingly, those who were more confident in their accuracy were not more successful and the bigger the gap between their confidence and accuracy, the higher their anxiety was. The conclusion is that actual awareness of your body can be useful in high-stress work situations. Do you know any production managers that could use this information?

Hunger changes our choices The authors conducted an experiment where participants who drank a sugary drink made better decisions and delayed immediate gratification longer than those who gulped down a sweet tasting drink without glucose. In a similar experiment, judges who made decisions on parole, usually denied parole when these decisions were made before their lunch or at the end of the day. The conclusion is these important decisions require more thought and consideration; things that require energy.

“The way you think is endlessly tied to how you physically feel”.

Troy Timmer, CCN Business Consultant troy@contractors.net

So, it’s important to make sure we’ve eaten correctly, gotten enough rest, and are physically fit before we make those difficult decisions on a daily basis.

Dave Harrison, CCN Business Consultant dharrison@contractors.net

Feeling bad makes things seem more difficult

Daniel Murgo, Events Manager danny@contractors.net Brian Wohl, Membership Consultant brian@contractors.net Carla Sarabia, IT Manager carla@contractors.net Toolbox is a publication of the Certified Contractors Network.

Toolbox is a member benefit.

Non-members may subscribe for $75 annually. design: Stacy Claywell www.thatdesigngirl.net thank you to our: contributing writers

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This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Many who have experienced sadness or depression know it’s almost impossible to face the world when you’re feeling like this.

But it’s important to realize these same feelings also change our perceptions. For example, when you listen to sad music, you tend to think that hill looks steeper than when you listen to happy music. Remember that when you’re consuming negative news programs or getting all hyped up on social media before going on your next sales call!

Proffitt and Baer write. “emotions have the job of giving a red or green light toward approaching or avoiding objects, people, and situations, and shape perception accordingly.” This means that keeping positive thoughts and emotions can help us to approach difficult things more easily.

Whether you believe in this research or not doesn’t matter. What does matter is you should be aware of what’s going on around you and the people you interact with – customers, employees, and co-workers. Being aware of these things could help you from making costly mistakes and creating conflicts with others who see things differently. We could all use this information during the election season!

Cross Train Your Employees for A Competitive Edge CATHERINE HONIGSBERG MAGGIO ROOFING

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ow would you like to increase your production and make your job scheduling more flexible, without hiring additional employees? You can achieve both by cross training the employees you already have.

Our goal at Maggio Roofing is to be Washington DC’s best roofing company. To achieve this goal, we found out we would have to sell all types of specialty roofing. This work was not being performed by any of our best competitors. The problem was no one was selling this work because no one had the manpower to install it. Other roofing companies tried to use subcontractors. This is an easy way to lose control over quality and customer satisfaction.

Now that we had the key strategy to set our company apart, the question remained “how do we get this specialty work installed”? We already take an aggressive approach to training any new hires.

New employees and current employees are trained continuously in our standards for roofing, and they’re trained in our operating procedures and company beliefs as well. Once we’ve invested in our employees, it is easier to train new roofing skills than hiring new employees and starting the whole training process. We use our current talent to increase our production.

At Maggio Roofing we provide carpentry, soldering, metal roofing, slate, copper work, flat roofing, and solar. Providing all these roofing services sets our company apart as roofing experts. We can upgrade contracts. We can provide multiple services to make customers for life.

The next step in our cross training was to move from having a few larger roofing crews to having specialty crews. We broke up the larger flat crews and we trained the new smaller crews to each have a new skill set. We could still combine two smaller crews to make a larger flat roofing crew. Once the specialty crews were ready to work on their own with new skills, we scheduled, jobs with these crews coming in different stages on the jobs. Once the crews were comfortable with the new roofing skills, we started overlapping the crews so they could teach each other.

Cross Training was life changing for me.

By learning how to cross train our production crews to install multiple specialty and high-quality roofing services, we not only made it easy to set our company apart, our scheduling became much easier and productive. We have maintained outproducing sales with whatever they think of to sell.

We can assure our employees we will be able to keep them busy because we can successfully manage our backlog, and make sure our customers don’t have to wait too long for a particular crew to provide a particular service.

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Ask for the Sale!

BY TROY TIMMER

When you walk in the house, your prospect is like an iceberg: little of it is visible.

People new to sales often have a problem asking for the business. Put another way, they can’t or won’t close.

They may have done a reasonably good job convincing homeowners of the value of the project and the company, but they’re so afraid of hearing the word “No” they steer clear of asking a closing question.

Instead, they leave it to homeowners to volunteer they want to sign the contract. Or, homeowners say “we have to think about it,” and the salesperson, instead of challenging that, scrambles to set up some future time to talk. Often that time never arrives.

Be Confident The fear of asking is rooted in lack of confidence. If you feel you haven’t convinced your prospect the value you’ve shown in your presentation and your offer is greater than the value of their money, you have reason to fear.

Most homeowners want to know two things: how much does it cost and when can you start? Most salespeople from other companies can provide them with at least that information.

In addition, homeowners often fear they’re going to end up paying too much for a job they don’t really need. To them, a salesperson is a threat.

So, when you arrive, they’re going to be stand-offish. To get past that you need to create a relationship. Start by focusing on them, their project, their problem, how long they’ve had it,

and what have they tried to do about it.

Now a mental process kicks in. Instead of being on guard—the human brain is programed to scan for danger every 5 to 7 seconds—they drop their guard and begin to pay attention to what you’re saying. They think, “he’s actually concerned about me. Maybe he can help me?” That will separate you from everybody else they’ve dealt with.

Be a Pain Reliever A close at the end of the sales process can fall flat when it seems to come out of nowhere. It works when it feels like the natural conclusion of the conversation you’ve just been having.

Let’s work on your closing strategy.

When you walk in the house, your prospect is like an iceberg: little of it is visible.

Below that surface is pain. That’s what they want to talk about and that’s how they make a decision.

It stops being free-floating ideas, notions, and concerns.

Instead, it solidifies as logical agreement. Your prospect may agree with what you’re saying subconsciously, but when you ask for their agreement that information moves into their consciousness.

It could be something wrong with their roof, or their deck is shot and they want to replace it. Maybe they need a bathroom remodeled. They assume it’s going to cost a lot and be disruptive. But that’s why you’re here.

Every salesperson who comes in the door will tell them why his product and his company are the best. Me, me, me, me is what everybody talks about. But the homeowner is concerned about themselves and their problem. They don’t particularly care all that much about the contracting company. So, if you go in with the same message, you create no difference between yourself and competitors. Find their pain, and they’re talking.

Moving Toward the Close

Get Below the Surface A “measure call” is really about going below the surface to see what’s there. What kind of prior experience have they had with contractors that might have shaped the way they see this situation? What kind of outcome do they foresee? If they really don’t know, how can you help them envision a solution that will mean peace of mind, and solve their problem without a difficult experience and a price that was too high?

You also want to know so when you come back with your proposal you can show them what peace of mind looks like. On your first visit, the “measure call”, you need to educate them on how to buy the right job from the right contractor. They probably have no idea how to do that. Take them through the process. Explain the things they need to consider in order to have a successful project.

Agreeing to Agree You build toward a close throughout your presentation. In the “measure call”, you not only educate them, you let them tell you how they want to buy.

Say, for instance, they talk about a bad experience with a previous project. The contractor didn’t keep them up to date and the job dragged on because of scheduling issues. You’ve uncovered potential obstacles and objections, now bring that information into your presentation as a way of neutralizing objections both voiced and unspoken. So, when you come back to present your proposal, you address that issue.

To address their communication and scheduling concerns, you might say, “this is our process: our office will call the day before the job begins.

Our project manager will introduce himself on Tuesday morning when he arrives with the crew to get started. Our sales-to-production manager will give you scheduled updates on a daily basis. Does that sound like it would make you comfortable? Or: you mentioned having people in your house to install windows would disrupt your life and lifestyle, so this is what we can do to minimize that disruption. Do you think that will work for you and your family?

You also want to clarify they understand what you’re saying by asking small agreement questions like the ones above, throughout your conversation.

Every time your prospect agrees, information is transferred from the unconscious part of their brain into the conscious part of their brain.

Once you’ve addressed all their hot buttons, peace of mind concerns, obtained numerous small agreements, and conveyed an actual picture they can visualize, you’ve reduced the chance they’ll want to “think about it.”

The old school method of closing was to present a price and override opposition with various statements designed to pressure a decision.

But, with the CCN method, closing should be a natural outcome of your conversation.

The price might surprise them if they haven’t done any online research about what projects cost. But their concerns will already be addressed, and a clear idea of just what will happen and how that will change things for them will be established.

At that point, you provide them with a price or three prices for good/better/best project costs and sit back and wait. You don’t know what they’re thinking. They may say they want to “think about it”.

In that case, using CCN WordTracks™ will enable you to pin down their objection and resolve it instead of “yielding” and becoming a partner in procrastination.

Bottom Line Nothing is worse than having a client who’s ready to buy but doesn’t because your salesperson never asked for their business.

The more time and effort you put into educating your prospects, and helping them make a decision, the more likely they’ll sign your contract.

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More Control and Peace of Mind Using “Firewalls” CATHERINE HONIGSBERG MAGGIO ROOFING

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ou can increase customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and improve production by implementing a “firewall” process to review contracts before your production department accepts them.

At Maggio Roofing, we use “firewalls” in many areas of our business including contract acceptance, collections, and leads development.

Contract Review and Acceptance We use a three-step “firewall” process to make sure every contract is legal, profitable, and something we can do well to maintain our reputation. We use a checklist to make sure the procedure is followed every time.

Sometimes a contract review and acceptance may only require an initial from the reviewer on a folder. Other times reviewing the contract is easier by gathering more information in a meeting.

The first step of the process is Sales hands the contract package to Administration.

Admin then attaches our checklist to the job folder and checks off each item that should be in the contract package.

Our checklist for contents includes a signed contract, deposit, material list, pricing, pictures, map, scope of work, and lead information.

If Admin finds missing items, they hand the package back to Sales to provide the missing items.

Once Admin is satisfied the contents are complete, they sign off on that section of the checklist and send the contract package to our General Manger. The General Manager reviews the legal and contractual obligations. Once this step is approved, it goes to Production.

The Production Department begins their review by looking for a complete scope of work to include: n Do the materials match the work to be done? n What are the special orders or special needs of the customer? n What is our access to the project? n Do the photos back up work to be done? nA re there any special concerns such as HVAC units, access, or low areas?

Once our production department verifies the project’s scope of work is clear, the pricing is reviewed, and they determine if it can be completed within the quoted price. If accepted it goes on the schedule. If Production has concerns, they send the contract package to our Sales Manager for correction.

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Collections We also use “firewalls” for collections. We developed several ways to ensure we’re asking for our progress and final payments.

Our sales department starts by informing customers of our payment policies when they’re at the follow-up meeting. The payment schedule is part of the contract the customer signs.

We tell customers we would like them home at job completion to walk through the job and to pay the final payment.

The next step in our process is when the job is scheduled. Our production manager lets the homeowner know how long the job should take to complete and when they should expect to be available for progress payments and the final walk through.

Once we start the job, our foremen also keep homeowners informed of job progress and when the payments are expected.

If the homeowner has not been available as requested, our estimator can call to see if they can stop by at the end of the day to go over the job and pick up the check.

Admin can call homeowners for progress payments if homeowners aren’t home and they can call for the final payment once the job is completed.

In reality, not every job gets all of these steps. Some projects are shorter. Sometimes homeowners won’t be available, but we try to make everyone responsible to get payments in and work as a team to ensure positive cash flow.

Lead Development We use “firewalls” in Leads Development to ensure we’re not wasting valuable relationships.

When a lead comes in, Admin enters the information into our lead management system and assigns an estimator and an appointment with the homeowner.

Our sales manager reviews leads and “measure calls” on a weekly basis (at minimum) to make sure no leads are lost.

Admin contacts Production when our estimators need assistance with larger ladders or “measure calls” with access problems.

Admin also calls to confirm appointments and makes calls to reschedule appointments. Involving all departments makes sure no leads are “fall through the cracks.”

Developing “firewalls” empowers us to make sure important items get a formalized review. Best of all, we have more control and peace of mind knowing nothing get missed.

The New CCN 5P App

BY CARLA SARABIA

Our powerful sales presentation app has been upgraded and optimized to fit the new 5P Sales Process that was introduced recently as part of the New CCN 3.0 To ensure your company is delivering the best sales presentations to potential customers and answering any questions or objections effectively, we highly encourage you to get started with the new 5P App If you were previously running the 4P App, then you know the power of the Answer Book and the Sales Presentation and what it can do for your sales goals. The 5P App takes all the power and clarity of the old app and adds new features and improvements while also addressing the new P: Processes

How to Get Started on the 5P App To get started, we need to set your company up with a login for the new 5P App Backend. This is the website that will be your portal to upload your Answer Book materials and do any administrative steps such as adding additional users.

Please reach out to Carla Sarabia carla@contractors.net and let her know who your 5P App administrator or main point of contact will be.

Once you receive login credentials, visit contractors.net/5P to login to the 5P App Backend Detailed instructional videos and step-by-step instructions on how to build out your Answer Book, add users, edit and manage questions and assets, download the app onto your iPad, and run the presentation can be found at contractors.net/5PHelp As you start building out your Answer Book you may run into some technical issues or questions that haven’t been included on the help site. Please reach out to us so we can get you up and running as soon as possible and add information that may help other members onto the help site. We appreciate any feedback as we continue to improve the experience of the app. We hope the New 5P App will help you and your company reach and exceed your sales goals and look forward to hearing your feedback!

The 5P App takes all the power and clarity of the old app and adds new features and improvements while also addressing the new P: Processes

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Turning Roadblocks into Freeways

BY TONY BROOKS

Have you ever noticed most problems we have in business repeat? Just like Groundhog Day. It could have a different name, but the issue is still the same.

This is why owners and managers have become great at being firefighters.

Is there a better way?

Theory of Constraints The theory of constraints is the process of identifying and removing the biggest roadblock stopping your team from achieving your goals. You start by finding a roadblock, then systematically improve your process until the limiting factor is no longer a roadblock. Next, you look for the next roadblock and repeat. The key component of Theory of Constraints is focusing on continuous improvement.

It’s all about fire prevention instead of constant firefighting. Fire prevention is much more profitable and way less stressful than constantly putting out fires!

Continuous Improvement If you’re ready to go from putting out fires to preventing fires before they happen, then this system is for you. When you practice the Theory of Constraints you eliminate the need for

everyday firemen and use those resources for the continuous improvement of your company.

By systematically eliminating roadblocks, your company will eliminate wasted efforts and work more efficiently. You’ll be able to make real strides improving your productivity. You’ll also be able to grow your company without sacrificing quality and still enjoy free-time and peace of mind.

Will Theory of Constraints Work in My Company?

The best way to answer this question is by asking a few more questions: nD o you have things issues that slow or stop your forward progress? nD o you have repeating problems that require your time and efforts? n Do you ever feel like you are a fireman or babysitter at work? n Do you want to improve?

If you answer yes to any of these questions and you want things to change, then the Theory of Constraints will work for you!

When you follow the Theory of Constraints, you’ll systematically eliminate roadblocks. You’ll build processes and systems to cause growth and limit repeated failures.

Why, because the whole system is designed to eventually revisit the starting constraint and start again; continuous focused improvement!

What are the benefits?

When you embrace the Theory of Constraints, you bring a change of philosophy to your organization. Some benefits include: 8

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nA comprehensive view of your systems, nA company culture that continually looks for constraints, naturally n Increased effectiveness, less stress, and more free time by focusing your energy on the most limiting roadblock in your system, instead of the frustration of trying to fix everything at once. nB etter processes and efficiency. nM ore opportunities for your business, without exploding your costs. nB uilding your blueprint for long-term improvement and growth.

Getting Started with the Theory of Constraints To get started you need to start with 5 basic principles of the Theory of Constraints.

They have a cyclical process.

1. Find the current roadblock in the system. This can be anything from the simplest to the most complex thing.

2. Use your current resources to try to remove the roadblock.

3. Use additional resources on just the roadblock, if necessary.

4. Elevate the constraint. If you haven’t removed the roadblock using steps 2 and 3, it’s time to focus all your attention on removing the roadblock, spending additional money if necessary.

5. Repeat the process. Once you’ve removed the initial roadblock, you find the next roadblock and repeat all of the steps again. This is true continuous improvement.

BUSINESS PLANNING 201 BOOT CAMP NOV 5-6 HANOVER, MD

BUSINESS PLANNING BOOT CAMP NOV 9-11 HANOVER, MD

Toolbox Wants To Hear From You

When you implement the Theory of Constraints you eliminate everyday problems and get more time to work on projects that grow your business and drive profits to your bottom line.

Watch for more articles about Theory of Constraints in CCN’s monthly Toolbox and look for all new classes including “Mastering the Theory of Constraints on our training schedule.

Have something different, unique or particularly successful you’re doing with your marketing? Is there a method or process you or your staff has developed that solved a problem? Is there a sales or production superstar on your staff?

Toolbox aims to bring news, views and above all the best practices of CCN members and member companies to the attention of the overall membership of CCN. If you have a story to tell, we're eager to share your news to all CCN members!

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