Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

Wow! What a day! Nonstop from early morning til now: 6 PM.

OK, let me recap the day.  Every day, they publish a new, color coded, double sided page of  the day's goings-on.  Just this morning, from 8:30 to 10:00, there were 17 different courses to choose from.  After winnowing it down to 3, I checked each one out, asking the presenter for a synopsis of what they'd be talking about, to get a feel not only for the information but also for the quality of their presence.

So this morning, for the first session, "Eight Simple Things to Enhance Your Business" won, with Michael Rogers.  My take-aways:
1) find out what business I'm in.  What do I want to focus on/what are my strengths? For me, it's residences rather than commercial, existing rather than new, and low hanging fruit rather than only whole house retrofits (thought I wouldn't turn those down).
2) Make it easy for my customers.  Show up.  Call.  Follow up. Look professional.  Help with their paperwork. Have answers ready for their financing/money questions.  Listen and be concerned for their family.  You know: all the stuff I already know but sometimes don't actually do as well as I should.  I know it's basic, but I still like to be reminded.
3) Get good help.  The guys I have working for me make a huge impression on my clients.  Dirty clothes, muddy boots, smoking; there's a lot more ways to lose a job than keep one.
4) Reward what I want to see.  Compliment good work.  Create a mindset of quality and customer satisfaction.  We all work towards the same goal: helping the customer fix the problems with their home.
5) Marketing.  People want to know "What will you do for me? What will I get?"  Be bold in my marketing.  Upsell; offer customers more than they ask for: If they call with mold problems, perhaps they need floor air sealing and insulation.  Remember 'building as a system"

Oops, didn't make it to the afternoon sessions.  Gotta go to the evening Soiree (loveya, Hon) with Efficiency First.  Then with Home Performance with Energy Star contractors.

More later.