The biggest problem in the construction rental business

Rental Equipment Inventory

In today’s ultra-competitive construction rental business, it becomes very important to provide the best service to customers given the myriad of choices available.  Contractors expect quality rental equipment to be delivered on time in addition to on-site support.  When a rental contract is executed, it just doesn’t end there – there has to be a complete follow through to retain the loyalty of the customer.

There commonly exists a big headache during the rental process – the damaged and unreturned equipment charges at the end of the project when the equipment is returned.  Many business relationships are damaged at the end of the project due to this issue that always turns into a “he said, she said” argument over how much equipment was lost or damaged and the costs charged to the contractor.

Some ways to avoid this are to take accurate inventories at the beginning and end of the project and document with photos.  In order to provide added support to my customers while working in the form rental business, I have offered to assist the superintendent on site with inventory during the return process.  This will help because the lost or damaged equipment can be determined early and the costs can be assigned to the project right away.  If  the discrepancies are caught early, there is a greater chance that the equipment can be found or the lost and damaged costs can be negotiated early to help arrive at a mutually beneficial monetary scenario.

I have experienced companies losing large key accounts due to a squabbling at the end of the job for a few missing bolts.  Do you think it makes good business sense to argue over collecting $2,000 in lost equipment and potentially lose an account that provides $1,000,000 in annual revenue?  Well, the accounting department might see things another way from the sales department, but, taking the long-term approach, it would be best to compromise on the lost equipment early and take a proactive approach instead of losing a customer.

Joe Fisher

Amazon’s Piranhas are Eating Borders Alive

During a recent visit to a Border’s book store, I began to understand why Border’s recently filed Chapter 11  bankruptcy as a direct result of increased competition from on-line retailer Amazon.  Now, I may have a bit of a bias towards Amazon.  I purchase almost all of my books, electronics, magazines and toys from them.  I like Amazon because their prices are fair, it is convenient and they have a vast selection.  When I search for books, I can read reviews and watch videos from the author.

The irony is that brick and mortar bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Borders shrugged off the competitive threat Amazon posed during their early beginning in the late 90′s.  In fact, Amazon did not generate a profit for 4 years.  Jeff Bezos took a long-term view when it came to the success of his company.  Barnes & Noble and Borders, like other big Corporations sometimes concentrate on the short-term and focus too much of their time on P&L spreadsheets and quarterly forecasts.  These financial statements are important, but satisfying customers, not Wall Street is the most important function of a successful business.   If you satisfy your customers, the P&L and quarterly profits will correlate directly with the quantity of customers you satisfy in a cost-effective manner.

Borders thought that Amazon was going to be another dot-com disaster, but they underestimated Jeff Bezos’s unwavering dedication to customer service and his long-term vision of a successful business.  The world’s largest river, the Amazon, has unleashed the deadly piranhas to eat up Border’s and other brick and mortar bookstores that are not willing to be flexible and adapt to the technological cultural shift being fueled by on-line retailers.

The Evolution of a Salesman

As we develop into true sales professionals, we progress through a hierarchy of relationships with our clients. They are based on how we are viewed by our clients as well as how we conduct ourselves in the selling arena. The levels can best be described as the order-taker, consultant and the strategic partner.

Order Taker

The order taker is typically reactive to their customers’ immediate needs. They usually sell a commodity that is readily available in the marketplace with numerous competitors. At this level, the customer views the salesperson as a conduit to obtain the product as quickly as possible, and of course, at the lowest price. Relationships between the salesperson and the customer aren’t as important at this stage.

Consultant

The consultant typically sells a product that is a bit more advanced and requires that the salesperson have some technical knowledge to explain the “value-added” features to the client. At this stage, the salesperson has to develop a stronger relationship with the client since they need to carefully assess their needs during the early stages to ensure that they can recommend the correct solution. Making equal comparisons between competing solutions can prove more difficult as the salesperson needs to understand the total cost implications since the product with the lowest initial cost could actually bear the highest life-cycle cost. These sales cycles take a little longer and require higher degrees of trust between the client and salesperson.

Strategic Partner

A Strategic Partner is the Holy Grail in Sales-Client relationship matrix. At this stage, you are not only trusted – you are positioned as a PARTNER . When you are perceived as a partner, you don’t necessarily have to be the lowest price. At this stage in the game, you are typically asked to meet with higher level people discussing how your product or service will fit into their strategic, or long-term business plan. It is typical that you might be involved in executing confidentiality agreements as these types of projects are discussed at their very early stages.

Whether you are an order-taker, consultant or a strategic partner, you have an important role to listen to your clients and deliver them a product or service based on their needs. Advancing through the stages requires higher levels of trust and integrity.

Happy Selling!

Your Bullet Points are Killing Me!

When I was first introduced to PowerPoint back in College, we were taught that you were supposed to use the template slides with bullet points.  Everybody loves bullet points, right?  They are supposed to lead your audience through your presentation in a sequential manner, right? They are supposed to keep your audience focused on the important key points, right?

WRONG!

After completing the book “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs – How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience”, I discovered that everything (almost everything) I learned about PowerPoint presentations was wrong.

Steve Job’s presentations are visually engaging and simple.  Using a picture and a few words is the best way for your audience to recall what you presented.  Cognitive research studies have proven that bullet points are the least effective way to deliver information.

The average PowerPoint slide contains 40 words.  During Steve Job’s keynote presentation at Macworld 2008, his first 4 slides had seven words, three numbers, one date and NO bullet points.

So the next time you have a presentation, make “Steve Jobs-like” slides to stand out from the rest of the bullet point and Bill O’Reilly “slide-reading” type of presentations.

Steve Jobs and The Power of Three

 

While reading “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs – How to be Insanely Great in front of Any Audience”, I came across an interesting concept that Steve Jobs utilizes called ”The Rule of Three“.  He typically uses 3 main points to support his presentation topic.

It is well established that we can only hold small amounts of information in our short-term memory, so many great speakers utilize only 3 main points since it is much easier for their audience to grasp the content.  Three is a magic number and every great movie, book, play or presentation has a three-act structure. 

The U.S. Declaration of Independence states that Americans have a right to “life”, “liberty” and “the pursuit of happiness”, not just “life” and “liberty”. 

The U.S. Marine Corps have found that three is more effective than two or four.  For example, Divisions within the Marines are divided into three: a corporal commands a team of three; a sergeant commands three rifle teams in a squad; and a captain has three platoons. 

Other effective presenters like President Obama and John F. Kennedy have implemented the rule in their speeches as well.

“The Rule of Three” works for the Marines, our Founding Fathers and Steve Jobs, so let it work for you on your next presentation.  You will differentiate yourself from other presenters by concentrating on three key points because so many other presenters do not follow this rule.

Video Post – “Story in a Bottle” (Wine 101)

CLOSE and take me out of my misery!

Recently, I went mattress shopping for my 5-year-old son.  I did a lot of online research and visited a local furniture shop.  We tried a lot of beds and I found a few I liked.  After the salesman gave me the prices, I continued my research and shopping.  I finally came back to the same store ready to buy, but something was holding me back.  I was ready to purchase a bed but my reservation was due to the fact that the salesman didn’t close the deal!  All he had to do was ask for the order and I would have purchased.  Being a professional salesman myself, deep down inside I wanted to be SOLD.

This experience reminds me of an excerpt from Chet Holme’s top-selling book “The Ultimate Sales Machine”.   Chet describes one of his early sales teachers that happened to be a furniture salesman.  Here is how his mentor described the psychology of closing:

You see, these people come in here who’ve been looking for a living room set for, like four months.  They’ve been to a dozen stores.  Know what that is?  That’s weak salespeople who don’t do their job.  Your job is to take those folks out of their misery…….Your job, Chet is to help people make that decision to buy.  That is the greatest weakness in folks – they’re not good at making decisions. If you truly believe that your prospect should benefit from your product or service, it’s your moral obligation to help them make a decision and get on with their lives.

 

 

Blue Angels and Teamwork

I have always loved air shows and am continuously amazed at both the power and technological innovations with our military aircraft.  The Blue Angels are typically the grand finale of the airshow because of their tight coordination and animated aerial acrobatics.  There are similarities between the Blue Angels and winning teams in business.

Clarity

Every member of the Blue Angels has a clear mission during their performance.  The clarity of this objective is critical to the success of the entire team.  In business teams, everyone needs to understand what is expected of them and how they will contribute to the overall success of their team.  Failure in an organization and frustration in the workplace stems from the individual team members being unclear about what is expected of them.

Planning

The Blue Angels constantly practice to perfect their act.  There is no room for error when you are flying over 500 miles an hour within 3 feet of another jet.  One wrong move or one misstep in timing can be disastrous.  If a company wants to grow revenues by concentrating on a new market segment, every minute detail must be strategized in order for the launch to be successful.  This includes the Marketing Plan, Sales Plan, Operations Plan, Distribution Plan and Financial Plan.

Execution

The Blue Angels can assemble the best team and design the best plans, but without proper execution, everything else is worthless.  The right moves have to be made in order for the show to be a success.  In business, sometimes we have to make bold moves with no guarantee of success.  The future always goes to the businesses that can balance bold and calculated strategies to propel their organizations towards success and growth.

Do you work for a Sales Driven Organization?

How do you know when you work for a sales-driven organization?  Some companies are driven by Operations, Engineering, Manufacturing or Finances.  From my experiences, here are some of the tell-tale signs of a “Sales-Driven” organization:

FOCUS ON WHAT THE CUSTOMER WANTS

Too many companies spend a lot of time touting their features and benefits and company history to their prospective customers.  Sales-Driven organizations identify their target markets and customers then relentlessly pursue them by analyzing their needs.  They identify their specific challenges, obstacles, and key issues and then demonstrate the “value-added” features of their product or service.  The entire sales staff collectively understand their competitive differentiators and know how to present this to their prospects based on their individual needs.

DEVELOP A PERFORMANCE-BASED COMMISSION STRUCTURE

A truly Sales-Driven organization rewards their sales force handsomely when they perform.  The sales force is rewarded for growing existing business as well as developing new business.  The commission structure needs to be simple enough for the sales force to understand how much income they can earn based on their level of sales.  This type of simplicity encourages goal setting and this ultimately relates to sales success among the team.

INSIDE SALES-SUPPORT SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN IMPLEMENTED

There is a direct correlation between sales success and the quantity of “face time” spent with customers that are ready to buy.  All too often, the sales force is bogged down with tactical issues like shipment delays, account payment, engineering issues, etc.  These are important issues that need to be resolved in order to ensure customer satisfaction, however, these activities deduct from a salesman’s strategic focus on developing new business and venturing into new markets.  I have worked for companies that had a CSR (Customer Service Representative) system that handled some of the tactical issues described above.  This Alleviated the sales force from some of these issues and allowed them to concentrate on more strategic sales initiatives.

Mexican Restaurants + Sandboxes = A Winning Combination

My wife and I love Mexican restaurants.  We love the smell of fresh lime juice in our margaritas and fresh cilantro in our salsa.  We recently visited Lupe Tortilla’s Mexican restaurant in The Woodlands this past Friday night.  We were really excited because they have a sandbox play area for the kids.  There are a lot of Mexican restaurants in our neighborhood and most of them serve the same food.  But Lupe Tortilla has a sandbox play area where our kids can enjoy themselves while we sip on a margarita.  Well, it’s not a bowl of cherries – you still have to make sure they aren’t throwing sand in each other’s eyes.  Anyways, that little difference draws tons of families and ensures that the restaurant is always packed. 

Now it is time to relate this to sales.  DIFFERENTIATION is a big factor that plays into whether or not you win the sale in the heat of the battle.  Your difference doesn’t have to be big.  It could be something small like 24/7 availability, after sales support, software training, etc.  Some business coaching experts have said that a 10% differentiation in your product or service can open up an entirely new market.

Tom Monaghan, founder of Dominos Pizza differentiated his pizza from all the others by guaranteeing delivery in 15 minutes.  This differentiation created one of the greatest pizza empires of all time.