Profit University - Audio Series

The  big box stores are doing the trades industries a huge disservice with their poor customer service.  100% Customer Satisfaction is achievable. Roger Peugeot shares his advice on how to achieve 100% customer satisfaction and increase your profitability.

You are about to listen in on Jim’s session at the National PHCC Convention with actual contractors in attendance. Jim gives out cash awards to contractors across the nation who present innovative ways to cut costs and/or increase sales and profits. He will be summarizing 101 of those ideas. Hang onto your hat….here we go!

Have you ever looked at other, seemingly profitable, companies and asked yourself; “I wonder what they are doing that we are not?” If so, you are about to find out. This presentation will highlight the fifteen areas that every successful company has totally under control. Apply them to your company and guess what? You can be profitable too!

It is not easy starting a new business.  This program is designed to provide a few foundational “business” tips that you will not find in most books.

Introduction

Seventeen (17) Business Tips

• Positioning the Owner Within the Labor Pricing Model
• Tips on Setting Up A Chart of Accounts
• Utilizing QuickBooks Along with a Few Tips
• Enter Data in QuickBooks – CPA vs. In-House
• Monthly Financial Reviews
• Frequency of Recalculating Hours Rates
• Joining a Mixed Group
• Creating Weekly Saving Mounts Up Quickly
• Funding Dissatisfied Customer Complaints
• Suggestions for Covering Credit Card Fees
• Creating a Totally Separate Checking Account for Payroll
• Creating and Utilizing a Formal Collections Policy
• Getting Deposits on Jobs and How to Handle the Money
• Collecting on the Spot for Service
• Establishing a Line of Credit plus the Benefits and Dangers
• Tips for Keeping Credit Cards Paid Off
• Benefits of Keeping Suppliers Paid Up and the How to Do It!

Short Summary: Having an outstanding sales and service culture will attract better employees, word of mouth will create more customers and your competition will not know how to respond. This presentation includes twenty-one ideas on how to increase the sales and service culture of your company.

Larry Winget will share 31 things that you can do today to improve your companies customer relations.

Like it or not, everyone listening to this presentation is a leader. Well if you are a leader, why not learn to be the best you can be? Larry is about to present 31 principles towards becoming a more effective leader.

This program by Bill Kinnard, President of Grandy & Associates, explores the 5 most critical Key Performance Indicators that business owners should look for in employees who perform demand service. You will learn what the KPI’s are and how to track them to get the most out of your technicians. 

Contractors across the country, in all the trades, are saying the same thing. “We have more work than we can handle. The major factor limiting our growth is our ability to find quality techs.” This presentation may not solve all your problems but it will give you at least fifty (50) more places to find those needed techs.

Short Description of the Presentation:

Some things cannot be learned by the road of hard knocks.  This presentation will deal with six things every contractor needs to know but will seldom be found in a book or presented in a seminar.  Tom Grandy, founder of Grandy & Associates and Bill Kinnard, president of Grandy & Associates will discuss each in detail based on 35+ years of business training.

• Labor Pricing Needs to be Calculated Based on Cash Flow Dollars, NOT Accounting Dollars

• Failure to Build Debt into the Company’s Hourly Rate Is A Formular for Disaster.

• Growth Does Not Necessarily Equal Increased Profit

• Departmentalization Is Critical (each department needs its own unique hourly rate)

• All Residential Service Work Needs to be Priced Based on Flat Rate Pricing

• Fear Factor of Raising a Company’s Hourly Rate Is On the Part of the Company…Not the Customer!

Peer groups are great resource for companies that want to grow, if they have thick skins.  This presentation is a group discussion, between contractors, about how peer groups are organized, what the benefits are and how they function.

• Overview of a peer group
• How to recruit new members
• Normal format of the meeting
• Optional formats
• What happens between meetings
• Value of different trades within the same groups
• The challenge of being vulnerable
• How company employees react about being interviewed during a peer group visit
• Benchmarking financials
• Focusing on the big five
• Non-disclosure agreements from members
• Other Key Performance Indicators to discuss
• Time and financial commitment required

Other possible peer group models

Jim has taught many companies across the country the proper methods of selling, based on relationships. Jim will be sharing with us one of the key elements of the process – how to properly use a presentation manual. In fact, Jim is going to walk the listener through the step-by-step process of how to create a very effective presentation manual for your company.

A professional on hold system instantly tells the customer you are a professional business. And best of all, the on hold message system provides over 5000 opportunities a year to market your specific products and services to people that already know about you…..and have called your company.

Dealing with financial institutions and having to open a line of credit is often a dreaded but necessary aspect of business ownership. Karl Spaay outlines why having a good and established relationship with your banker is important and discusses how to approach borrowing. In this presentation, he talks about what cash flow questions you should expect Lenders to ask and the records they may request.  He touches on how short-term borrowing is a bridge for gaps between receivables and how when used properly these lines of credit can keep your business running smoothly without landing you in a mountain of debt.

Service should be the most profitable department within your Company, but it usually is not. Why? Few company owners and/or service managers set goals for their techs and then measure their productivity against those goals. Bill will be sharing a couple Key Performance Indicators that every owner and /or service manager needs to be tracking to properly evaluate the performance of each technician.

One of the best kept secrets in today’s world of small business is bartering. Yes, bartering has been around for thousands of years, however, only recently has it come to the forefront in terms of business owners. This program covers the how, when, where and why of “business” bartering.

Are you ready for a fresh look at marketing? Russ is known for his unique approach to marketing. His whole direction involves making YOU the brand, not what equipment or product you carry. You are going to enjoy this fresh look at marketing your company.

Short Summary:

Your brand is not what you decide it is….it’s what the consumer “thinks” about your organization.  This program is all about positioning your company as the local brand leader with many practical suggestions on how to accomplish that task.

Joe is a lifelong radio announcer that has interviewed countless company owners over the past 30+ years. One of the most effective ways Joe has found to promote a company is for the owner to do a routine question/answer “Ask the Expert” session each week on the radio. Once you listen to Joe’s presentation on “talk radio” this form of marketing may just move near the top of your marketing priority list.

Bill Blees was born in 1892 and got involved in the automotive industry after college. During the depression he came up with the idea of automobile dealer financing and developed the accounting system for the auto industry that is still in use today. After retirement he provided the first business training for contractors in the industry.

Many of us have heard Zig Zigler’s famous statement “You can get everything you want in life if you are willing to help others get what they want.” This presentation will detail how to reach your goals while being thoroughly entertained as only Zig Ziger can do.

Building relationships with other high quality companies promotes your services and increases your credibility. Networking partners do not need to be resold again and again and your network of partners establishes your company as a “professional” throughout your area. By the way did I mention that the networking process also increases your sales and profits!

Most people start a business to improve their quality of life. To accomplish that goal the business must be able to “run without you”. Debbie is going to share dozens of ideas on how to tweak your business so it truly can run without you being there.

Short Summary: What does a 39-hour, non-stop, bike ride across Florida have to do with running a successful business? Actually, a lot! Gerry Kinnard is going to share his adventure and how it relates to the basics of running a profitable business.

A company can be priced absolutely perfectly….. and still go out of business because of cash flow problems. Improper labor pricing is the number one killer of small businesses in this country but the second biggest problem is cash flow. This presentation will walk you through the step-by-step process of developing a month-by-month, department-by-department cash flow budget. If you want to learn how to create a budget for your company, this presentation will be a huge help.

Dottie is speaking on the topic of “choices”. After listening to Dottie you will fully realize how important every decision you make really is.

Short Description of the Presentation:

Choosing a successor is one the most important decisions a company owner will ever make.  When properly done the process will take 3-5 years.  This presentation covers a number of things to think about during the selection process.

When employees work at peak performance it affects the bottom line in a very positive way. The key is knowing how to properly coach team members who will in turn increase efficiency and reduce turnover. Coaching is helping others to develop insights and actions to understand mutually understood goals. Learn how coaches can help their employees identify development and grow their present and potential strengths.

Think outside the box. We have all heard it but there is a problem, no one ever tells us “how” to do it. Jeff invests a huge amount of his time teaching company owners how to color outside the lines. If you are ready for some fresh thinking you will enjoy listening to Jeff.

There is no better marketer than Matt Michel. Matt is recognized as the “marketing guru of the industry”. His presentation will inspire you to try some new things, perhaps for the first time. Matt is going to share a variety unique marketing ideas that will help your company continuously move towards profitable growth.

Short Summary: Clear, proper and positive communication is critical when it comes to communicating with people through emails, presentations and/or personal interaction. This presentation will review the most common mistakes and how to correct them.

Short Summary: High quality winning organizations have a culture of communication that is intentional and effective. It is literally the map to the party. This presentation is an actual recorded section from Dave Ramsey’s multi-day EntreLeadership program.

Short Summary:

If you’re paying good wages and benefits, but are still having trouble keeping employees, it probably has something to do with your company culture.  This program is about developing team culture in order to retain the people you have.

Information is coming at us from every direction. In the old days it was simply newspapers, TV, radio and a full mailbox. Today it’s coming from everywhere…all the time! If it’s not a text message or cell phone beeping at us, it’s the internet, Facebook, Twitter and dozens of other sources. It’s information overload! This interview with Jeff Davidson may just provide a little more order to your day and peace to your life.

Things have changed in the marketing world. Traditional marketing has lost much of its value and web-based marketing has not lived up to its expectations. The new breed of marketer is utilizing content marketing. Building trust with your current and perspective customers is what it’s all about and content marketing can make that happen!

This is Part 1 of a two part series. Roger Dawson will describe the (4) four types of personalities most contractors possess. During his presentation he will help each of us determine which group we would belong in and how to overcome the weaknesses we find.

During Part 2 of this series Roger will give us some very positive suggestions on how to make our personalities work more effectively when it comes to dealing with both customers and individuals.

Everyone eventually finds themselves in a position of negotiating. Roger is going to share another portion of his nationally acclaimed series on negotiating, this time covering tactics and counter tactics.

Every company invests significant amounts of time and money getting the phone to ring. This program covers the next step which is mastering phone call conversion. Stated another way, how do we turn the call into a sale and/or a new customer. That is what the presentation is all about.

Every owner must become aware of their “Known Financial Position” (KFP) in order to identify strengths and weaknesses and to know if you’re pricing is correct. Ellen will take you through the process of creating a “winning bean team” that will provide accurate information in an understandable way.

Today’s employee is not like those of the past year. In order to get most employees to do their best, at least in today’s world, usually requires some sort of an incentive program. Jim will share about some of the great employee incentive programs he has seen, and has helped to develop.

Jim has drawn from his many files on customer complaints. He will share some valuable information concerning the 4% of unsatisfied customers who take the time to contact your company. Complaints are not bad ….. if you grow from them. It’s time to turn lemons into lemonade!

If you are going to be successful in today’s business world you had better fully understand how your customer sees your company….from their perspective. Mike is going to give you an outline of how to design a very effective customer response card that will provide the information you need to take your company to the next level.

Tom has seen companies come and companies go and he has also watched companies ignore many of the “danger” signs along the road to going out of business. Check out these points of danger to be sure your company is not heading down the wrong path….without your knowing it.

Stress is part of every day life. However when stress becomes chronic it can affect our health, our job, personal relationships, and even the overall productivity of the company we work for. This presentation will help us identify stress and will cover lots of ways to de-stress the workplace leading to happier, and more productive lives.

Short Description of the Presentation: Sometimes it’s good to ask the question “Why are we doing what we are doing?” That is what this presentation is all about. It will challenge age old theories of why we offer service agreement in the way that we do. Prepare to be upset!