March 14, 2025 • 43 mins
Leadership failures cost trades businesses hundreds of thousands of dollars every year through invisible expenses that never appear on balance sheets. When your leadership team lacks clear vision, transparent communication, and consistent accountability, the ripple effects damage everything from customer satisfaction to employee retention.
Corey Berrier draws from years of industry experience to expose the 15 critical reasons leadership teams fail in HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and other skilled trades companies. He reveals how seemingly minor leadership shortcomings create major business problems—like how failing to enforce standards equally among high and low performers creates harmful inconsistency throughout your organization.
The financial implications are staggering. A bad hire costs approximately 50% of their annual salary when factoring in training resources, lost customer opportunities, and replacement expenses. For a company with 50 technicians cycling through just 10 poor hires annually, that represents a hidden $500,000 drain on profitability.
Beyond hiring practices, modern leadership requires embracing technological advancements that improve efficiency. Companies resistant to implementing effective CRM systems, digital tools, or service management software find themselves steadily losing market share to competitors whose teams can handle more service calls with greater ease and accuracy.
Perhaps most importantly, leadership directly shapes company culture. The best trades businesses have created environments so positive that they have potential employees lining up to join them, eliminating recruitment struggles entirely. Meanwhile, companies with toxic cultures perpetually struggle with turnover, underperformance, and customer complaints.
Ready to transform your leadership approach and unlock your business's true potential? This episode provides actionable strategies that drive profitability while creating a healthier workplace. When you serve your employees effectively, they'll naturally serve your customers exceptionally—creating sustainable growth and success.
https://coreyberrier.gumroad.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Corey Berrier (00:00):
Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast.
I'm your host, Corey Berrier.
Today, folks, I am rolling solo, and so today we are going to
talk about leadership, 15reasons why leadership teams
fail in a trades business.
(00:28):
So running a successful tradebusiness, whether it's HVAC,
plumbing, electrical, or anyother skilled trade for that
matter, requires strongleadership.
Unfortunately, many leadershipteams struggle, and when they
fail, it affects everything frommorale, profitability, and when
they fail, it affectseverything from morale,
profitability, customersatisfaction, even employee
retention, and so here are the15 things that I've drilled down
(00:53):
as what makes leadership teamsfail in trades companies.
So the first thing is the lackof a clear vision and goals.
Now, when I say a lack of clearvision and goals, I don't mean
(01:14):
do you have your core valuesposted on the wall?
That is not what I'm talkingabout.
You need to as a leader.
Look, everybody looks at you asthe person who's steering the
ship, and the leadership teamwithout a clear vision for the
(01:35):
company creates confusion.
Employees need direction, andif leadership is not setting and
communicating short-term andlong-term goals, the business
will stagnate.
And you think about when you're,think about you've got.
If you were ever, whenever youwere in school, if the teacher
(01:58):
didn't know what the hell theywere talking about, then you
lose confidence in that teacher.
And if they do that two orthree times you're going to
think that teacher's a totalidiot and so you're not going to
follow that guy or that womanvery long.
It's no different in yourbusiness If you're all over the
place and you've got ADHD, whichGod knows.
(02:20):
Look, I have ADHD, so I'm notknocking you.
If you do, and most of the guysin the industry do have ADHD,
you got to figure out a way torein that stuff in and figure
out systems and processes towhere you can keep the vision
and goals moving forward.
From the leadership team.
(02:42):
It just trickles down and youremployees then see that you're
discombobulated or that you'renot organized.
And so what do they do?
You walk out to their van andit's discombobulated and not
organized, as well as ourpaperwork and everything else.
And so the second one is poorcommunication.
(03:06):
How many leadership teamsassume keyword here is assume
that employees know what to do?
But without clear, consistentcommunication whether that be
through meetings or SOPs orone-on-one check-ins, which
everybody should have Againthere's confusion and
(03:29):
inefficiencies that get spreadthroughout the organizations,
which leads to mistakes andfrustration, poor communication.
I would almost argue thatshould be almost number one.
Argue that should be almostnumber one because poor
(03:50):
communication is if you thinkabout the game of telephone, if
I tell john something, johntells jim something, jim tells
john b something, john b tellssally something jesus by the
time it gets to the end of thatcommunication or the end of the
line, you've got somethingentirely different than what it
(04:10):
started out as, and so you'vegot to have good communication
in order to have good leadershipand to have good employees.
So the third one is not holdingyour team members accountable.
Leadership teams fail when theyallow poor performance, bad
(04:33):
attitudes or inconsistent workhabits to go unchecked.
If employees see thatunderperformers aren't being
held accountable, it createsresentment and it lowers overall
standards.
Well, if Jim doesn't have toclean his van, by God, I don't
either and that goes for notjust the underperformers, that
(04:56):
goes for your overachievers too.
If you've got people that arecrushing it in the business,
this is where it gets reallyhard.
It's really simple to focus onthe guy that's underperforming.
His van looks like crap.
You can crawl up his buttbecause you got multiple reasons
, but when you got a highachiever, that's not keeping his
van clean, it gets a little bitmore dicey because you don't
(05:18):
want to upset the apple cartbecause he's bringing in all the
sales, because he's bringing inall the sales.
But if you don't hold that guyaccountable, just like the
underperformer, then there'sincongruency within the
organization, and incongruencymeans that what goes for this
guy doesn't go for that guy.
(05:39):
You can't have that.
You can't have favorites, youcan't have people that you
always pick on, so to speak,because you got to hold people
accountable.
People come in with their shirttail.
Highest performing guy comes inwith his shirt tail untucked.
You, as the leader, may bethinking well, he's still going
(06:00):
to go out there and sell foursystems today.
But the underperforming guythat's got his shirt tail in
sees that the overperforming guydoesn't.
And what does he do?
Well, he assumes that wordagain that the overachiever
always looks like that.
(06:21):
So what does he do?
He eventually starts coming inthe same way, or, at best case,
he comes in with his shirt tailundone, shirt tail tucked in.
And then, as soon as he gets inthat van, what does he do?
Untucks it, because, hey, hewants to be like the
overachiever.
So if the overachiever iscrushing it without a shirt tail
in.
There might be something tothat and it's pretty convenient.
(06:42):
So might be something to thatand it's pretty convenient.
So you got to hold team membersaccountable at all of them.
So weak hiring and trainingpractices.
Many trade companies hire outof desperation instead of a
strategy, and a weak hiringprocess leads to bad fits and
(07:06):
poor training leads to employeesthat struggle to meet the
company expectations.
Great leadership ensures thathiring and training is a
priority.
Coming from the company that Iwas just with, whohire, I saw
this the numbers of bad hires,the amount of money that it
(07:30):
costs you in turnover every yearwhen you hire somebody bad it
is absolutely staggering whatthat is.
So I'll just give you a quickexample.
If you've got a guy let's justkeep it a simple math he makes
(07:54):
$100,000 a year.
It takes almost 50% of thatguy's salary to replace him.
Here are the factors that youneed to think about.
When you bring somebody in andthey're a bad fit one, you're
going to hang on to them longerbecause you probably hired them
and you want to see them succeed, because you just have faith
that they are going to get itand they don't.
So while they're not getting it.
They're burning customers.
(08:15):
They're underperforming.
You're spending your timetraining.
You've got somebody spendingtime training.
All these are resources, not tomention you're paying the guy
an hourly rate, probably, andgas and insurance, a truck Dude.
The numbers stack up to anunreasonable amount of money.
(08:35):
So let's just figure you've got10 guys like that per year,
which guaranteed you probablyhave more than that Any size
company is.
If you say you got 50technicians which is a good size
company, 50 technicians you arefor sure going to cycle that
through 10 of those a year.
That's a half a million dollars.
A half a million dollars a year.
(08:58):
Because you hired the wrongperson, or you hired a guy that
you thought was going to be ableto do it or better.
Yet you were desperate.
You just put a butt in a truckand now you said, well, at least
we got the truck on the road.
Well, I don't know about that.
The truck was costing you$2,000, $3,000 a day, I don't
(09:18):
know.
It depends on the size of yourbusiness.
Whatever that number is, yousay, well, at least we have the
truck on the road.
But how many customers is thatguy costing you?
You don't know because thatnumber is not on the balance
sheet right.
The the cost of a hire is notat the end of the year.
It's a blank spot on thebalance sheet because there's no
way to track it, so we'll gooff on that too much more.
(09:42):
The second part of that'straining practices.
How much do you train youremployees?
This is vitally important formultiple reasons.
One you want to constantly betraining your technicians, your
sales guys, role-playing,because that's what gets them
better in the field.
On your customers, becausethose customers cost you money
(10:05):
for them to go out and practice.
On practice in the shop.
Role play in the shop, like.
I know it's uncomfortable and Iknow everybody doesn't like it.
It doesn't really matter, aslong as you set it up that way
right from the jump.
This is how we do things.
Every new employee goes throughthe same thing and you have a
(10:26):
system and a process.
Every week you have two orthree training sessions.
Every week you role play.
Every week you go throughcertain elements of the sales
process.
It becomes a part of the joband I know that seems for a lot
of folks that may seem like areal pain, but guess what?
(10:46):
It is literally costing youprobably hundreds of thousands
of dollars by not having atraining practice in place.
And I don't mean here's what Idon't mean by a training
practice that you have a meetingand you scream at all the
people that are not doing welland you're telling them how
their numbers are down.
They need to get their numbersup.
(11:06):
That's not a training session.
That's not what I'm talkingabout.
In fact, you shouldn't behaving those meetings anyway.
If you're going to have ameeting like this, it should
really be a one-on-one meetingwith the people that are
underperforming and one-on-onemeetings with the people that
are your overachievers, becauseyou want to understand how you,
as the leader, can be a betterleader to lead these
(11:30):
underperformers to a better spot, because guess what they're
going to leave you if you don'tdo that.
You've got to invest time.
You've got to invest your ownresources into building these
guys up.
And look, the truth of thematter is, lots of times it has
nothing to do with their work.
It has something to do withtheir personal life.
(11:51):
But if you don't take time toask those questions, if you
don't take the time to find outwhat could be on their mind,
you're never going to know.
And guess what?
Then they don't know.
You care about them and maybeyou come across like you don't
care to know.
And guess what?
Then they don't know you careabout them and maybe you come
across like you don't care aboutthem, and if that's the case,
then we got even bigger problems.
(12:11):
Who wants to work for somebodyif you think they don't care
about you?
This day and age, when you'vegot younger technicians, man,
you got to have empathy, you gotto have patience, you got to go
give them attaboys when, evenwhen you don't think they
deserve an attaboy.
So the next one is lack ofadaptability to market changes.
(12:36):
A lot of trade businesses don'tadapt to changes, whether it's
technology regulations, customerexpectations.
Whether it's technologyregulations, customer
expectations those things fallbehind.
And then leaders who resistchange instead of embracing new
(13:01):
tools AI tools as an exampletechniques or business
strategies, put their company atrisk.
And I see this a lot in theindustry.
Because if my dad didn't do itthat way and he made $40 million
, then why should I do it thatway?
Or my grandpa didn't do it thatway, my dad didn't do it that
way, I'm not going to do it thatway and I'm not suggesting
everybody's like that, but thefolks that embrace technology
(13:23):
that get behind especially.
Obviously that I'm a littlebiased with that, but I
understand also how important itis to implement.
That would make your businessmove so much faster, more
(13:44):
efficient, which leads to higherprofitability and a happier
workplace.
Think about your newertechnicians.
They're used to technology.
Now, your 60-year-oldtechnician maybe not right.
He's probably not going tocatch on to this because he
doesn't want to catch on to it.
And if you figured out a way toteach an old dog new tricks, by
(14:08):
all means I'm open ears.
But it's one of the hardestthings to do, and especially
with a guy that's got 20, 25years in the industry.
What are you going to tell thatguy?
And that's how he sees it, andit's going to be a challenge.
That's why I know that guy andthat's how he sees it, and it's
going to be a challenge.
That's why I know my buddy,andy Hobica, out in Phoenix.
(14:29):
They don't hire seasonedtechnicians.
They absolutely unequivocally,without a doubt, do not hire
experienced technicians, becauseit is proven that it's harder
to train a technician withexperience than it is somebody
that's fresh off the boat, so tospeak, fresh out of a new
(14:49):
industry.
They know nothing, they have nobad habits.
Look, it's the key to buildinggood talent because, listen, if
you can bring a charismaticserver from the bar down the
street or a bartender in that'smaybe making $50,000 or $60,000,
(15:10):
you can show him, you can paintthe picture of him now making
$100,000 a year.
I'm just using those simplenumbers.
Dude like it's a greatopportunity to capture talent
that are not even looking for ajob in your industry because
(15:31):
they don't know.
They don't know that it's outthere and unless you've got
somebody out there going torestaurants and talking to
people and giving people cards,it really should be part of the
process for hiring new talent.
And it works.
It absolutely works.
(15:52):
So micromanagement is the nextone Lack of trust.
Micromanaging kills morale Ifyour leadership team does not
trust their team to do theirjobs and employees feel
disrespected and disengaged.
(16:14):
Strong leaders empower theirteams instead of controlling
every single detail.
If you've ever worked forsomebody that micromanages you,
it is a nightmare.
It's the most uncomfortablething in the world because you
feel like you can't do anythingright.
And if somebody's got the timeto micromanage you, then that
(16:38):
means they probably nobodyshould have the time to
micromanage anybody.
You've got to believe and trustthat your team is going to make
the right decision.
And also you've got to givethem the ability to make bad
decisions.
You've got to give them theability to fail, because that's
(16:59):
a learning lesson.
I only learn when I make amistake and I have to correct it
.
I only learn by messing up.
You don't learn if you do itright every single time or
somebody swoops in and saves youevery single time.
You might be thinking, well,corey, I couldn't let that deal
go down, go sideways.
(17:20):
Sometimes you need to let it gosideways.
Sometimes you need to let thatdeal go belly up and then you
can explain and teach and coachon why it went belly up and what
they could have done a littlebit better, but also highlight
what they did right, providedthey did do something right, and
(17:41):
I'm sure they did.
You've got to figure out whatthey did, but it's pretty
important, and I'm sure they did.
You've got to figure out whatthey did, but it's pretty
important.
So the next one is ignoringcompany culture and morale.
A toxic work environment oh mygosh, or a consistently negative
work environment will sink abusiness faster than you can
(18:02):
imagine faster than you canimagine.
And leaders that cultivate aculture of respect, recognition
(18:22):
and teamwork.
Look, you're not going tostruggle with high turnover if
you can lead with respect andwith recognition and with
teamwork, but the ones thatdon't are going to struggle and
they're going to struggle with.
You're going to struggle withhigh turnover and
underperformers, and nobodywants that.
It's so, so, so important and,as a leader, you've got to live
(18:47):
out that culture.
You got to go over and above,because you're the person
they're looking at.
You're the example, and I don'tmean just the owner, the
managers, the service managers,the sales managers, the CSR
managers.
Company culture is so importantthat if you ignore it, the
(19:09):
company's going to seek so poorfinancial management.
You got to track your numbers,dude.
You got to track your numbers.
You got a budget.
You got to make sure yourpricing is correct.
You got a plan.
You got to have cash flow.
If you don't do those things,what's going to happen?
Well, you're going to misspayroll.
(19:29):
People are going to quit.
Eventually, the business isgoing to fail.
So you got to make sure thatyou're financially healthy, not
just that there's money in thebank, but that there's
consistent money in the bank.
These things are.
If you've ever been at a companythat couldn't make a payroll
check.
I've been at companies thatcouldn't make a payroll.
You had to.
(19:50):
As soon as those checks hit the, as soon as you could pick them
up, you had to be the first oneto the bank or you wasn't going
to get paid, and that does notbreed trust in your employees.
I can tell you that 100%.
So not investing.
Next one is not investing inemployee growth.
When leadership sees employeesas replaceable instead of
(20:16):
investing in their development,workers feel undervalued and
they leave.
A strong leadership team offerstraining, certifications, some
sort of career growthopportunities that helps you to
retain top talent.
(20:37):
People want to know thatthey're not going to be
necessarily stuck in this sameposition every year, and if they
are and that's what they wantthey still want to have
something to look forward to,whether that be that you send
them to an event or you havesomebody come in and teach them
something new, or sometimes it'sreally just.
(21:00):
It goes back to that culturething.
Maybe it's that you treat themout to a night with pizza and
beer, whatever that thing is.
But leadership but it's theleadership that is there is your
responsibility.
You can't look at people likethey're replaceable.
In this current economy, it'shard to find people.
(21:22):
It's hard to find peoplebecause there's a massive
shortage.
This is no surprise.
There's a massive shortage ofservice technicians.
What's interesting, though,you've got companies like Tommy
Mello, who is literally cyclingthrough 50 brand-new technicians
a month.
Now why do you think that is?
(21:44):
Well, I can tell you.
You go back to the two examplesbefore this company culture.
That's why People want to gowork there because it's fun.
He makes it fun, he feeds hisemployees, he makes it an
experience where people want tocome to work.
And then guess what happens?
They recommend their friends tocome to work, and then they
(22:06):
recommend their friends to cometo work, and now you've got a
pipeline of people lining up atyour door wanting to work for
you.
Can you imagine that?
Probably not.
You probably can't imagine that, but that's the compound effect
of having good leadership, thecompound effect of having a good
culture, investing in youremployees and all the other
(22:34):
things that I've listed here.
So next one is failing toprioritize customer service.
Your customers are what keepsthat company moving right, keeps
the company making money.
It trades.
Business survives on itsreputation, and if leadership
(23:04):
doesn't emphasize great customerservice, guess what happens?
Bad reviews pile up, repeatbusiness disappears and leads
become harder to convert.
Everybody's got a phone.
All they have to do is look upand see where Jim just got a
one-star review.
Well, I can tell you I'm nodifferent than you are.
We're no different than thecustomer.
(23:24):
We see a bunch of one-starreviews.
What are you going to do?
Keep on scrolling right andthey only have to see one.
So that's why every single callcounts, every customer counts,
every customer interactioncounts, because they're all
important, every single one ofthem.
(23:47):
You can't think, well, it'sjust one bad review, because
that one bad review, guaranteed,is going to lead to another bad
review.
Somebody goes on to leave areview and they go well, yeah,
they could have a 50-50experience with you 50% good,
50% bad.
And they go on and they see Jimjust got left a one-star review
(24:09):
.
Psychologically they're goingto lean towards the lower half
of those stars because they justsaw Jim do it right.
They just saw that Jim left acrappy review.
So I want to be like Jim, soI'm going to leave a crappy
review too.
That of that 50% that went welljust went to 20% that went well
, just because the psychologicalshift that happened when that
(24:34):
customer saw that review fromJim.
So resistance to technology andefficiency improvement.
So a lot of trade companiesdon't invest in adopting new
tools I mentioned, like CRMs, asan example.
I won't harp on AI too muchhere.
I'll try not to Dispatchsoftware, digital invoicing,
(24:56):
service type, things like thatright, things that help the
technician be more efficient.
And how do you think atechnician feels when they go
from, let's just say, they go tothe shop down the street.
They've been using serviceTitan as an example at your shop
(25:17):
and they go to the shop downthe street and they're using
some other crappy softwarethat's cumbersome, it's hard to
understand, it's hard to put thestuff in works.
Sometimes it doesn't.
They wish they had never left,because now their job, who they
left?
For a dollar more an hour,because you had a shitty leader.
Now you've lost probably adecent employee and now they've
(25:38):
regretted leaving you.
You might be thinking, well,they shouldn't have ever left to
begin with.
Well, the grass is alwaysgreener on the other side until
you get there.
So as a leader in this industry, you can't resist change
because it keeps the businessstuck in the past, and I see
(25:59):
this a ton Now.
I said I wasn't going to try togo into AI too much here, but
this is the only example I cangive you too much here, but this
is the only example I can giveyou Businesses that are not
using AI.
They're stuck in the past andguess what's going to happen?
Mark my words and believe me,I'm correct on this.
Believe me the companies thatare not embracing this
technology and they're stuck inthe past.
(26:22):
They're going to get gobbled upbecause you're going to slowly
and surely lose market share tothe guys that can do it faster,
easier, quicker.
Their employees are happierbecause guess what?
A technician that can get tofour jobs or five jobs a day
(26:42):
with ease is going to be wayhappier than one that's
struggling to barely get tothree because the systems and
processes with the technologyaren't dialed in.
So next one is overlookingsafety and compliance.
Ignoring OSHA standards,cutting corners on safety or
failing to enforce workplaceprotocols can lead to injuries,
(27:06):
fines and lawsuits.
Smart leadership teams makesafety a core company value.
I talked to a guy Ben Brown DidI say that right?
Bill Brown, not Ben, sorry.
He was a few episodes ago andhe told us a story about how he
(27:27):
knew this lady was working alittle bit of overtime.
Maybe it was 42 hours.
She would take off the nextweek and only work 38 hours.
So it evened out.
Here is the issue with that thejudicial system does not care
if you let her slide on that 38hours, but they damn sure care.
(27:50):
If you've worked her 42 hoursand didn't pay her overtime,
they could care less about that38 hours in their mind.
It doesn't even out in theirmind you were a negligent
employer.
And I cannot remember how muchhe said it cost him.
I want to say $300,000,$300,000.
(28:12):
And it.
I can't remember and I don'tremember the minimal amount he
could have if he had just paidthis lady.
It was by far nowhere near that, not even 1% of that.
So you can't cut corners onsafety.
(28:32):
You can't cut corners on youknow.
Look, you don't want to have alawsuit, dude, you're going to
have a lawsuit eventually.
Everybody gets them.
But you got to be able to winthose and the leaders that
enforce this stuff like.
Here's a silly example.
It drives me up the wall.
When a company comes, goes intoa house, they don't put on
(28:56):
their booties.
I don't care if the customersays, john, it's totally fine, I
got a sweep anyway.
Don't worry about that.
You're good.
Don't fall for that trap, dude,because you best believe
something goes sideways.
Well, johnny didn't have hisboots on, I didn't have his
booties on.
He scratched my floor, dude,I'm telling you, I went one of
(29:20):
them.
So I went to this lady's house,such a pain in my butt.
So one of the technicians wentout.
No installation team, sorry,the install team went out, put a
system in and this lady livedout in the middle of nowhere.
It took me an hour to get toher house.
(29:40):
The scratch on her floor was sosmall that she had to shine a
flashlight on it and make thefloor wet in order for me to see
it.
It was all I could do, not tosay you got to be effing,
kidding me.
But of course I did not saythat because I'm not an idiot.
(30:02):
I tried to smooth it over.
I dealt with that lady for threemonths.
I went out to that house threedifferent times.
So you figure, an hour outthere, an hour there, an hour
back.
That's three times three,that's nine hours of time that I
spent on that lady.
And guess what happened?
Guess what happened?
(30:23):
We wound up making less moneyon the job than what it cost us
because we had to also discountit and pay for her stupid floors
.
So she would pay the billbecause the sales guy didn't go
out when he was supposed to andcollect the money.
He was like, oh it's Fridayafternoon, I'll go out there on
(30:44):
Monday.
He screws around and doesn'tget out there till Wednesday.
Well, now the system's alreadyin and now there's scratches on
the floor.
Well, we can't.
Who knows who got thosescratches, who knows where those
scratches came from?
But it doesn't really matter,because if the sales guy would
(31:04):
have went out when he wassupposed to go out, then that
wouldn't have happened.
But he didn't.
He waited five days Friday,saturday, sunday, monday,
tuesday, wednesday.
Five days, right, threebusiness days, whatever Point is
.
That's laziness.
I don't care if it's Fridayafternoon.
If you need to go pick up thatpayment, you need to go pick it
(31:26):
up exactly when you're supposedto pick it up if you haven't
already run their credit cardafter you got their permission.
So there's ways to mitigatethese things that look.
It costs the company a fortunewhen these things happen.
Not to mention we had to sendyeah, I won't go on, I won't
drive that into the depths ofwhatever.
So lack of strategic marketingand lead generation.
(31:48):
Many trade companies rely onword of mouth alone, which is
wonderful if you've got a greatname and that works, but
leadership teams that don'tinvest in marketing, owners that
don't invest in whether it'sonline or social media or all of
them community outreach, you'regoing to struggle to keep a
(32:08):
steady pipeline of new business.
That's just a fact, and soyou've got to invest in all of
those things.
Now, which one works?
Well, it's hard to say, but oneof the things that for sure
works is getting a five-starreview, because that's a word of
mouth right.
Then that whoever gets thefive-star review, if they got a
(32:30):
list of those, all they got todo is show that to the customer
that they're trying to sell, andit sells it right.
So there's one example You'vegot to do.
You've got to obviously got todo Google, you've got to do some
sort of social media and thecommunity outreach is.
Here's how you win at communityoutreach Host a community event
, feed people, do a charity.
(32:52):
I've got a buddy up in York,pennsylvania.
He owns a great roofing companycalled TC Backer.
His name is Ty Backer, one ofmy buddies, and he didn't do
this for this reason, just to beclear he's a good-hearted guy,
he's got just a heart of goldand just a good human being, and
(33:13):
so he started every year, theday before Thanksgiving, frying
turkeys.
Now, part of this is he wantedto win.
He wanted to get the GuinnessBook of World Records for the
most fried turkeys at one time,or something like that, and he
got it and he got it and he gotit.
But here is the direct resultof that it has become so big
(33:38):
that when he does that event tofeed people who don't normally
have food which is an amazingreason in itself to do it Every
TV station's coming on there andthey're filming, they're
talking to them, they've ropedoff all downtown for him.
He didn't do it for that reason.
He did it because he wanted tohelp the community.
(33:59):
But doing stuff like that, youget instant credibility in the
market, instant credibility, andit's work.
It's just, it's amazing whathe's done.
So next, not listening tofrontline employees.
Technicians and field workersare the ones interacting with
customers every day.
Leadership teams that ignoretheir feedback miss valuable
(34:23):
insights on pricing, customerconcerns, job efficiency.
So you got to talk to your guysand see what happened, and I
don't mean you got to yell atthem why didn't you close this
sale?
That is not what I mean, like,talk to me about what the
customer said.
Help me understand.
What was their pushback, whatwas their?
Why did they not move forward?
(34:44):
Let's just talk about what theprocess was, but just have a
general conversation with them.
This is not an opportunity foryou to pounce on this employee.
Hear me when I say that's thelast way you want to do this.
They're already feelingdefeated.
The last thing they want to dois come in and talk to their
manager and him hand them theirass because they didn't close
(35:08):
the sale.
Well then, what does he do?
He dips out, he avoids themanager and then you don't get
that feedback.
So it's really important thatthe emotional intelligence
portion of your job as a leader,that you rein that in and you
really pay attention to how youspeak to people, your tonality,
(35:32):
your body language, how do youinteract with your employees,
because that stuff is dude, likeit'll go so far if you just
take it back a notch.
If you're heated, maybe don'thave a conversation right then
and there, but you got to beable to have emotional
intelligence in order to evenrecognize that you're doing that
(35:54):
, and that takes work and ittakes practice and it takes you
pumping the excuse me, pumpingthe brakes when you want to rip
somebody's head off.
And look, we've all been there.
We all want to rip somebody'shead off at some point, but it's
just not a really good qualityof a good, solid leader to rip
your guy's heads off.
(36:14):
It just it costs you a fortunein the end.
Internal conflict and egoclashes is the next one.
So when leadership teams arefilled with power struggles or
conflicting visions, it tricklesdown to the entire company, and
if the leadership isn't unified, the company suffers.
(36:37):
If the service manager issaying one thing and then the
supervisor under him is sayingsomething different Goes back to
that incongruency.
It's confusing.
People don't like to beconfused.
They like that very clearcommunication and it needs to be
(37:00):
uniform across the entirecompany, and so that's where
it's important that all yourleaders have meetings together.
It's even more important tohave leadership in the
technicians and the sales guysall in the same meeting, because
then they hear it all the sameway and ask for feedback, ask
(37:24):
for questions.
Make sure that it's flushed out,because if there's confusion,
what does a confused mind do?
Doesn't make a decision.
That's what it does, just likeyour customers.
If they're confused about whatyou're selling, they don't want
to make a decision.
Especially if you're askingthem for $15,000 or $20,000, you
(37:45):
got to make sure it's clear.
For $15,000 or $20,000, you gotto make sure it's clear.
You got to dumb the languagedown Not that your customer is
dumb but you got to put it tothem in non-jargon ways, not
jargon Jargon.
I think jargon is a lotionAnyhow.
So.
And when you get egos involvedand look, we're a male-dominated
(38:06):
industry, so there's going tobe some ego clashes.
But as the leader, how do youhandle that?
Do you allow two of youremployees to cuss each other out
in front of other team members?
I hope not, because if thathappens it doesn't look like
you're the leader, it looks likethe two people cussing each
(38:27):
other out or running the show.
And if you can't handleseparating those two people or
calming them down or gettingthat thing solved and the other
team members see it, man, nowyou've got other team members
that think they can talk toother team members that way and
it trickles down, just likethese other things I've talked
(38:47):
about.
And so your company is only asstrong as its leadership team In
avoiding these common pitfallswill create a business that runs
smoothly, keeps employeesengaged and delivers top-notch
(39:09):
service to the customers.
So this is so important, butit's also one of the areas that
I see lacking the most.
All of these things that I'velisted today even though there's
one to 15, they're allimportant.
(39:31):
If one of these things is notworking, then you're going to
have things fall through thecracks, and if a couple of them
are not working right, thenyou're going to have problems.
Heaven forbid you have four orfive of these not working right.
Your company's going to belosing money and if you're
wondering why it's hard to keepcustomers coming back, look at
(39:53):
some of these things becauseit's important and it all
matters.
Like I said before, everycustomer matters, every customer
interaction matters and itshould matter.
The goal is to serve people andmake money and provide a
(40:17):
healthy environment for youremployees.
If you're the leader, that'syour job.
The customers are yourtechnicians and your comfort
advisors.
That's their people, right?
Your people are your employees.
If you're serving youremployees, we'll serve your
customers.
So I appreciate you guyslistening today and we'll see
(40:37):
you next week.
Thanks for listening.
Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast.
I'm your host, Corey Berrier.
Today, folks, I am rolling solo, and so today we are going to
talk about leadership, 15reasons why leadership teams
fail in a trades business.
(00:28):
So running a successful tradebusiness, whether it's HVAC,
plumbing, electrical, or anyother skilled trade for that
matter, requires strongleadership.
Unfortunately, many leadershipteams struggle, and when they
fail, it affects everything frommorale, profitability, and when
they fail, it affectseverything from morale,
profitability, customersatisfaction, even employee
retention, and so here are the15 things that I've drilled down
(00:53):
as what makes leadership teamsfail in trades companies.
So the first thing is the lackof a clear vision and goals.
Now, when I say a lack of clearvision and goals, I don't mean
(01:14):
do you have your core valuesposted on the wall?
That is not what I'm talkingabout.
You need to as a leader.
Look, everybody looks at you asthe person who's steering the
ship, and the leadership teamwithout a clear vision for the
(01:35):
company creates confusion.
Employees need direction, andif leadership is not setting and
communicating short-term andlong-term goals, the business
will stagnate.
And you think about when you're,think about you've got.
If you were ever, whenever youwere in school, if the teacher
(01:58):
didn't know what the hell theywere talking about, then you
lose confidence in that teacher.
And if they do that two orthree times you're going to
think that teacher's a totalidiot and so you're not going to
follow that guy or that womanvery long.
It's no different in yourbusiness If you're all over the
place and you've got ADHD, whichGod knows.
(02:20):
Look, I have ADHD, so I'm notknocking you.
If you do, and most of the guysin the industry do have ADHD,
you got to figure out a way torein that stuff in and figure
out systems and processes towhere you can keep the vision
and goals moving forward.
From the leadership team.
(02:42):
It just trickles down and youremployees then see that you're
discombobulated or that you'renot organized.
And so what do they do?
You walk out to their van andit's discombobulated and not
organized, as well as ourpaperwork and everything else.
And so the second one is poorcommunication.
(03:06):
How many leadership teamsassume keyword here is assume
that employees know what to do?
But without clear, consistentcommunication whether that be
through meetings or SOPs orone-on-one check-ins, which
everybody should have Againthere's confusion and
(03:29):
inefficiencies that get spreadthroughout the organizations,
which leads to mistakes andfrustration, poor communication.
I would almost argue thatshould be almost number one.
Argue that should be almostnumber one because poor
(03:50):
communication is if you thinkabout the game of telephone, if
I tell john something, johntells jim something, jim tells
john b something, john b tellssally something jesus by the
time it gets to the end of thatcommunication or the end of the
line, you've got somethingentirely different than what it
(04:10):
started out as, and so you'vegot to have good communication
in order to have good leadershipand to have good employees.
So the third one is not holdingyour team members accountable.
Leadership teams fail when theyallow poor performance, bad
(04:33):
attitudes or inconsistent workhabits to go unchecked.
If employees see thatunderperformers aren't being
held accountable, it createsresentment and it lowers overall
standards.
Well, if Jim doesn't have toclean his van, by God, I don't
either and that goes for notjust the underperformers, that
(04:56):
goes for your overachievers too.
If you've got people that arecrushing it in the business,
this is where it gets reallyhard.
It's really simple to focus onthe guy that's underperforming.
His van looks like crap.
You can crawl up his buttbecause you got multiple reasons
, but when you got a highachiever, that's not keeping his
van clean, it gets a little bitmore dicey because you don't
(05:18):
want to upset the apple cartbecause he's bringing in all the
sales, because he's bringing inall the sales.
But if you don't hold that guyaccountable, just like the
underperformer, then there'sincongruency within the
organization, and incongruencymeans that what goes for this
guy doesn't go for that guy.
(05:39):
You can't have that.
You can't have favorites, youcan't have people that you
always pick on, so to speak,because you got to hold people
accountable.
People come in with their shirttail.
Highest performing guy comes inwith his shirt tail untucked.
You, as the leader, may bethinking well, he's still going
(06:00):
to go out there and sell foursystems today.
But the underperforming guythat's got his shirt tail in
sees that the overperforming guydoesn't.
And what does he do?
Well, he assumes that wordagain that the overachiever
always looks like that.
(06:21):
So what does he do?
He eventually starts coming inthe same way, or, at best case,
he comes in with his shirt tailundone, shirt tail tucked in.
And then, as soon as he gets inthat van, what does he do?
Untucks it, because, hey, hewants to be like the
overachiever.
So if the overachiever iscrushing it without a shirt tail
in.
There might be something tothat and it's pretty convenient.
(06:42):
So might be something to thatand it's pretty convenient.
So you got to hold team membersaccountable at all of them.
So weak hiring and trainingpractices.
Many trade companies hire outof desperation instead of a
strategy, and a weak hiringprocess leads to bad fits and
(07:06):
poor training leads to employeesthat struggle to meet the
company expectations.
Great leadership ensures thathiring and training is a
priority.
Coming from the company that Iwas just with, whohire, I saw
this the numbers of bad hires,the amount of money that it
(07:30):
costs you in turnover every yearwhen you hire somebody bad it
is absolutely staggering whatthat is.
So I'll just give you a quickexample.
If you've got a guy let's justkeep it a simple math he makes
(07:54):
$100,000 a year.
It takes almost 50% of thatguy's salary to replace him.
Here are the factors that youneed to think about.
When you bring somebody in andthey're a bad fit one, you're
going to hang on to them longerbecause you probably hired them
and you want to see them succeed, because you just have faith
that they are going to get itand they don't.
So while they're not getting it.
They're burning customers.
(08:15):
They're underperforming.
You're spending your timetraining.
You've got somebody spendingtime training.
All these are resources, not tomention you're paying the guy
an hourly rate, probably, andgas and insurance, a truck Dude.
The numbers stack up to anunreasonable amount of money.
(08:35):
So let's just figure you've got10 guys like that per year,
which guaranteed you probablyhave more than that Any size
company is.
If you say you got 50technicians which is a good size
company, 50 technicians you arefor sure going to cycle that
through 10 of those a year.
That's a half a million dollars.
A half a million dollars a year.
(08:58):
Because you hired the wrongperson, or you hired a guy that
you thought was going to be ableto do it or better.
Yet you were desperate.
You just put a butt in a truckand now you said, well, at least
we got the truck on the road.
Well, I don't know about that.
The truck was costing you$2,000, $3,000 a day, I don't
(09:18):
know.
It depends on the size of yourbusiness.
Whatever that number is, yousay, well, at least we have the
truck on the road.
But how many customers is thatguy costing you?
You don't know because thatnumber is not on the balance
sheet right.
The the cost of a hire is notat the end of the year.
It's a blank spot on thebalance sheet because there's no
way to track it, so we'll gooff on that too much more.
(09:42):
The second part of that'straining practices.
How much do you train youremployees?
This is vitally important formultiple reasons.
One you want to constantly betraining your technicians, your
sales guys, role-playing,because that's what gets them
better in the field.
On your customers, becausethose customers cost you money
(10:05):
for them to go out and practice.
On practice in the shop.
Role play in the shop, like.
I know it's uncomfortable and Iknow everybody doesn't like it.
It doesn't really matter, aslong as you set it up that way
right from the jump.
This is how we do things.
Every new employee goes throughthe same thing and you have a
(10:26):
system and a process.
Every week you have two orthree training sessions.
Every week you role play.
Every week you go throughcertain elements of the sales
process.
It becomes a part of the joband I know that seems for a lot
of folks that may seem like areal pain, but guess what?
(10:46):
It is literally costing youprobably hundreds of thousands
of dollars by not having atraining practice in place.
And I don't mean here's what Idon't mean by a training
practice that you have a meetingand you scream at all the
people that are not doing welland you're telling them how
their numbers are down.
They need to get their numbersup.
(11:06):
That's not a training session.
That's not what I'm talkingabout.
In fact, you shouldn't behaving those meetings anyway.
If you're going to have ameeting like this, it should
really be a one-on-one meetingwith the people that are
underperforming and one-on-onemeetings with the people that
are your overachievers, becauseyou want to understand how you,
as the leader, can be a betterleader to lead these
(11:30):
underperformers to a better spot, because guess what they're
going to leave you if you don'tdo that.
You've got to invest time.
You've got to invest your ownresources into building these
guys up.
And look, the truth of thematter is, lots of times it has
nothing to do with their work.
It has something to do withtheir personal life.
(11:51):
But if you don't take time toask those questions, if you
don't take the time to find outwhat could be on their mind,
you're never going to know.
And guess what?
Then they don't know.
You care about them and maybeyou come across like you don't
care to know.
And guess what?
Then they don't know you careabout them and maybe you come
across like you don't care aboutthem, and if that's the case,
then we got even bigger problems.
(12:11):
Who wants to work for somebodyif you think they don't care
about you?
This day and age, when you'vegot younger technicians, man,
you got to have empathy, you gotto have patience, you got to go
give them attaboys when, evenwhen you don't think they
deserve an attaboy.
So the next one is lack ofadaptability to market changes.
(12:36):
A lot of trade businesses don'tadapt to changes, whether it's
technology regulations, customerexpectations.
Whether it's technologyregulations, customer
expectations those things fallbehind.
And then leaders who resistchange instead of embracing new
(13:01):
tools AI tools as an exampletechniques or business
strategies, put their company atrisk.
And I see this a lot in theindustry.
Because if my dad didn't do itthat way and he made $40 million
, then why should I do it thatway?
Or my grandpa didn't do it thatway, my dad didn't do it that
way, I'm not going to do it thatway and I'm not suggesting
everybody's like that, but thefolks that embrace technology
(13:23):
that get behind especially.
Obviously that I'm a littlebiased with that, but I
understand also how important itis to implement.
That would make your businessmove so much faster, more
(13:44):
efficient, which leads to higherprofitability and a happier
workplace.
Think about your newertechnicians.
They're used to technology.
Now, your 60-year-oldtechnician maybe not right.
He's probably not going tocatch on to this because he
doesn't want to catch on to it.
And if you figured out a way toteach an old dog new tricks, by
(14:08):
all means I'm open ears.
But it's one of the hardestthings to do, and especially
with a guy that's got 20, 25years in the industry.
What are you going to tell thatguy?
And that's how he sees it, andit's going to be a challenge.
That's why I know that guy andthat's how he sees it, and it's
going to be a challenge.
That's why I know my buddy,andy Hobica, out in Phoenix.
(14:29):
They don't hire seasonedtechnicians.
They absolutely unequivocally,without a doubt, do not hire
experienced technicians, becauseit is proven that it's harder
to train a technician withexperience than it is somebody
that's fresh off the boat, so tospeak, fresh out of a new
(14:49):
industry.
They know nothing, they have nobad habits.
Look, it's the key to buildinggood talent because, listen, if
you can bring a charismaticserver from the bar down the
street or a bartender in that'smaybe making $50,000 or $60,000,
(15:10):
you can show him, you can paintthe picture of him now making
$100,000 a year.
I'm just using those simplenumbers.
Dude like it's a greatopportunity to capture talent
that are not even looking for ajob in your industry because
(15:31):
they don't know.
They don't know that it's outthere and unless you've got
somebody out there going torestaurants and talking to
people and giving people cards,it really should be part of the
process for hiring new talent.
And it works.
It absolutely works.
(15:52):
So micromanagement is the nextone Lack of trust.
Micromanaging kills morale Ifyour leadership team does not
trust their team to do theirjobs and employees feel
disrespected and disengaged.
(16:14):
Strong leaders empower theirteams instead of controlling
every single detail.
If you've ever worked forsomebody that micromanages you,
it is a nightmare.
It's the most uncomfortablething in the world because you
feel like you can't do anythingright.
And if somebody's got the timeto micromanage you, then that
(16:38):
means they probably nobodyshould have the time to
micromanage anybody.
You've got to believe and trustthat your team is going to make
the right decision.
And also you've got to givethem the ability to make bad
decisions.
You've got to give them theability to fail, because that's
(16:59):
a learning lesson.
I only learn when I make amistake and I have to correct it
.
I only learn by messing up.
You don't learn if you do itright every single time or
somebody swoops in and saves youevery single time.
You might be thinking, well,corey, I couldn't let that deal
go down, go sideways.
(17:20):
Sometimes you need to let it gosideways.
Sometimes you need to let thatdeal go belly up and then you
can explain and teach and coachon why it went belly up and what
they could have done a littlebit better, but also highlight
what they did right, providedthey did do something right, and
(17:41):
I'm sure they did.
You've got to figure out whatthey did, but it's pretty
important, and I'm sure they did.
You've got to figure out whatthey did, but it's pretty
important.
So the next one is ignoringcompany culture and morale.
A toxic work environment oh mygosh, or a consistently negative
work environment will sink abusiness faster than you can
(18:02):
imagine faster than you canimagine.
And leaders that cultivate aculture of respect, recognition
(18:22):
and teamwork.
Look, you're not going tostruggle with high turnover if
you can lead with respect andwith recognition and with
teamwork, but the ones thatdon't are going to struggle and
they're going to struggle with.
You're going to struggle withhigh turnover and
underperformers, and nobodywants that.
It's so, so, so important and,as a leader, you've got to live
(18:47):
out that culture.
You got to go over and above,because you're the person
they're looking at.
You're the example, and I don'tmean just the owner, the
managers, the service managers,the sales managers, the CSR
managers.
Company culture is so importantthat if you ignore it, the
(19:09):
company's going to seek so poorfinancial management.
You got to track your numbers,dude.
You got to track your numbers.
You got a budget.
You got to make sure yourpricing is correct.
You got a plan.
You got to have cash flow.
If you don't do those things,what's going to happen?
Well, you're going to misspayroll.
(19:29):
People are going to quit.
Eventually, the business isgoing to fail.
So you got to make sure thatyou're financially healthy, not
just that there's money in thebank, but that there's
consistent money in the bank.
These things are.
If you've ever been at a companythat couldn't make a payroll
check.
I've been at companies thatcouldn't make a payroll.
You had to.
(19:50):
As soon as those checks hit the, as soon as you could pick them
up, you had to be the first oneto the bank or you wasn't going
to get paid, and that does notbreed trust in your employees.
I can tell you that 100%.
So not investing.
Next one is not investing inemployee growth.
When leadership sees employeesas replaceable instead of
(20:16):
investing in their development,workers feel undervalued and
they leave.
A strong leadership team offerstraining, certifications, some
sort of career growthopportunities that helps you to
retain top talent.
(20:37):
People want to know thatthey're not going to be
necessarily stuck in this sameposition every year, and if they
are and that's what they wantthey still want to have
something to look forward to,whether that be that you send
them to an event or you havesomebody come in and teach them
something new, or sometimes it'sreally just.
(21:00):
It goes back to that culturething.
Maybe it's that you treat themout to a night with pizza and
beer, whatever that thing is.
But leadership but it's theleadership that is there is your
responsibility.
You can't look at people likethey're replaceable.
In this current economy, it'shard to find people.
(21:22):
It's hard to find peoplebecause there's a massive
shortage.
This is no surprise.
There's a massive shortage ofservice technicians.
What's interesting, though,you've got companies like Tommy
Mello, who is literally cyclingthrough 50 brand-new technicians
a month.
Now why do you think that is?
(21:44):
Well, I can tell you.
You go back to the two examplesbefore this company culture.
That's why People want to gowork there because it's fun.
He makes it fun, he feeds hisemployees, he makes it an
experience where people want tocome to work.
And then guess what happens?
They recommend their friends tocome to work, and then they
(22:06):
recommend their friends to cometo work, and now you've got a
pipeline of people lining up atyour door wanting to work for
you.
Can you imagine that?
Probably not.
You probably can't imagine that, but that's the compound effect
of having good leadership, thecompound effect of having a good
culture, investing in youremployees and all the other
(22:34):
things that I've listed here.
So next one is failing toprioritize customer service.
Your customers are what keepsthat company moving right, keeps
the company making money.
It trades.
Business survives on itsreputation, and if leadership
(23:04):
doesn't emphasize great customerservice, guess what happens?
Bad reviews pile up, repeatbusiness disappears and leads
become harder to convert.
Everybody's got a phone.
All they have to do is look upand see where Jim just got a
one-star review.
Well, I can tell you I'm nodifferent than you are.
We're no different than thecustomer.
(23:24):
We see a bunch of one-starreviews.
What are you going to do?
Keep on scrolling right andthey only have to see one.
So that's why every single callcounts, every customer counts,
every customer interactioncounts, because they're all
important, every single one ofthem.
(23:47):
You can't think, well, it'sjust one bad review, because
that one bad review, guaranteed,is going to lead to another bad
review.
Somebody goes on to leave areview and they go well, yeah,
they could have a 50-50experience with you 50% good,
50% bad.
And they go on and they see Jimjust got left a one-star review
(24:09):
.
Psychologically they're goingto lean towards the lower half
of those stars because they justsaw Jim do it right.
They just saw that Jim left acrappy review.
So I want to be like Jim, soI'm going to leave a crappy
review too.
That of that 50% that went welljust went to 20% that went well
, just because the psychologicalshift that happened when that
(24:34):
customer saw that review fromJim.
So resistance to technology andefficiency improvement.
So a lot of trade companiesdon't invest in adopting new
tools I mentioned, like CRMs, asan example.
I won't harp on AI too muchhere.
I'll try not to Dispatchsoftware, digital invoicing,
(24:56):
service type, things like thatright, things that help the
technician be more efficient.
And how do you think atechnician feels when they go
from, let's just say, they go tothe shop down the street.
They've been using serviceTitan as an example at your shop
(25:17):
and they go to the shop downthe street and they're using
some other crappy softwarethat's cumbersome, it's hard to
understand, it's hard to put thestuff in works.
Sometimes it doesn't.
They wish they had never left,because now their job, who they
left?
For a dollar more an hour,because you had a shitty leader.
Now you've lost probably adecent employee and now they've
(25:38):
regretted leaving you.
You might be thinking, well,they shouldn't have ever left to
begin with.
Well, the grass is alwaysgreener on the other side until
you get there.
So as a leader in this industry, you can't resist change
because it keeps the businessstuck in the past, and I see
(25:59):
this a ton Now.
I said I wasn't going to try togo into AI too much here, but
this is the only example I cangive you too much here, but this
is the only example I can giveyou Businesses that are not
using AI.
They're stuck in the past andguess what's going to happen?
Mark my words and believe me,I'm correct on this.
Believe me the companies thatare not embracing this
technology and they're stuck inthe past.
(26:22):
They're going to get gobbled upbecause you're going to slowly
and surely lose market share tothe guys that can do it faster,
easier, quicker.
Their employees are happierbecause guess what?
A technician that can get tofour jobs or five jobs a day
(26:42):
with ease is going to be wayhappier than one that's
struggling to barely get tothree because the systems and
processes with the technologyaren't dialed in.
So next one is overlookingsafety and compliance.
Ignoring OSHA standards,cutting corners on safety or
failing to enforce workplaceprotocols can lead to injuries,
(27:06):
fines and lawsuits.
Smart leadership teams makesafety a core company value.
I talked to a guy Ben Brown DidI say that right?
Bill Brown, not Ben, sorry.
He was a few episodes ago andhe told us a story about how he
(27:27):
knew this lady was working alittle bit of overtime.
Maybe it was 42 hours.
She would take off the nextweek and only work 38 hours.
So it evened out.
Here is the issue with that thejudicial system does not care
if you let her slide on that 38hours, but they damn sure care.
(27:50):
If you've worked her 42 hoursand didn't pay her overtime,
they could care less about that38 hours in their mind.
It doesn't even out in theirmind you were a negligent
employer.
And I cannot remember how muchhe said it cost him.
I want to say $300,000,$300,000.
(28:12):
And it.
I can't remember and I don'tremember the minimal amount he
could have if he had just paidthis lady.
It was by far nowhere near that, not even 1% of that.
So you can't cut corners onsafety.
(28:32):
You can't cut corners on youknow.
Look, you don't want to have alawsuit, dude, you're going to
have a lawsuit eventually.
Everybody gets them.
But you got to be able to winthose and the leaders that
enforce this stuff like.
Here's a silly example.
It drives me up the wall.
When a company comes, goes intoa house, they don't put on
(28:56):
their booties.
I don't care if the customersays, john, it's totally fine, I
got a sweep anyway.
Don't worry about that.
You're good.
Don't fall for that trap, dude,because you best believe
something goes sideways.
Well, johnny didn't have hisboots on, I didn't have his
booties on.
He scratched my floor, dude,I'm telling you, I went one of
(29:20):
them.
So I went to this lady's house,such a pain in my butt.
So one of the technicians wentout.
No installation team, sorry,the install team went out, put a
system in and this lady livedout in the middle of nowhere.
It took me an hour to get toher house.
(29:40):
The scratch on her floor was sosmall that she had to shine a
flashlight on it and make thefloor wet in order for me to see
it.
It was all I could do, not tosay you got to be effing,
kidding me.
But of course I did not saythat because I'm not an idiot.
(30:02):
I tried to smooth it over.
I dealt with that lady for threemonths.
I went out to that house threedifferent times.
So you figure, an hour outthere, an hour there, an hour
back.
That's three times three,that's nine hours of time that I
spent on that lady.
And guess what happened?
Guess what happened?
(30:23):
We wound up making less moneyon the job than what it cost us
because we had to also discountit and pay for her stupid floors
.
So she would pay the billbecause the sales guy didn't go
out when he was supposed to andcollect the money.
He was like, oh it's Fridayafternoon, I'll go out there on
(30:44):
Monday.
He screws around and doesn'tget out there till Wednesday.
Well, now the system's alreadyin and now there's scratches on
the floor.
Well, we can't.
Who knows who got thosescratches, who knows where those
scratches came from?
But it doesn't really matter,because if the sales guy would
(31:04):
have went out when he wassupposed to go out, then that
wouldn't have happened.
But he didn't.
He waited five days Friday,saturday, sunday, monday,
tuesday, wednesday.
Five days, right, threebusiness days, whatever Point is
.
That's laziness.
I don't care if it's Fridayafternoon.
If you need to go pick up thatpayment, you need to go pick it
(31:26):
up exactly when you're supposedto pick it up if you haven't
already run their credit cardafter you got their permission.
So there's ways to mitigatethese things that look.
It costs the company a fortunewhen these things happen.
Not to mention we had to sendyeah, I won't go on, I won't
drive that into the depths ofwhatever.
So lack of strategic marketingand lead generation.
(31:48):
Many trade companies rely onword of mouth alone, which is
wonderful if you've got a greatname and that works, but
leadership teams that don'tinvest in marketing, owners that
don't invest in whether it'sonline or social media or all of
them community outreach, you'regoing to struggle to keep a
(32:08):
steady pipeline of new business.
That's just a fact, and soyou've got to invest in all of
those things.
Now, which one works?
Well, it's hard to say, but oneof the things that for sure
works is getting a five-starreview, because that's a word of
mouth right.
Then that whoever gets thefive-star review, if they got a
(32:30):
list of those, all they got todo is show that to the customer
that they're trying to sell, andit sells it right.
So there's one example You'vegot to do.
You've got to obviously got todo Google, you've got to do some
sort of social media and thecommunity outreach is.
Here's how you win at communityoutreach Host a community event
, feed people, do a charity.
(32:52):
I've got a buddy up in York,pennsylvania.
He owns a great roofing companycalled TC Backer.
His name is Ty Backer, one ofmy buddies, and he didn't do
this for this reason, just to beclear he's a good-hearted guy,
he's got just a heart of goldand just a good human being, and
(33:13):
so he started every year, theday before Thanksgiving, frying
turkeys.
Now, part of this is he wantedto win.
He wanted to get the GuinnessBook of World Records for the
most fried turkeys at one time,or something like that, and he
got it and he got it and he gotit.
But here is the direct resultof that it has become so big
(33:38):
that when he does that event tofeed people who don't normally
have food which is an amazingreason in itself to do it Every
TV station's coming on there andthey're filming, they're
talking to them, they've ropedoff all downtown for him.
He didn't do it for that reason.
He did it because he wanted tohelp the community.
(33:59):
But doing stuff like that, youget instant credibility in the
market, instant credibility, andit's work.
It's just, it's amazing whathe's done.
So next, not listening tofrontline employees.
Technicians and field workersare the ones interacting with
customers every day.
Leadership teams that ignoretheir feedback miss valuable
(34:23):
insights on pricing, customerconcerns, job efficiency.
So you got to talk to your guysand see what happened, and I
don't mean you got to yell atthem why didn't you close this
sale?
That is not what I mean, like,talk to me about what the
customer said.
Help me understand.
What was their pushback, whatwas their?
Why did they not move forward?
(34:44):
Let's just talk about what theprocess was, but just have a
general conversation with them.
This is not an opportunity foryou to pounce on this employee.
Hear me when I say that's thelast way you want to do this.
They're already feelingdefeated.
The last thing they want to dois come in and talk to their
manager and him hand them theirass because they didn't close
(35:08):
the sale.
Well then, what does he do?
He dips out, he avoids themanager and then you don't get
that feedback.
So it's really important thatthe emotional intelligence
portion of your job as a leader,that you rein that in and you
really pay attention to how youspeak to people, your tonality,
(35:32):
your body language, how do youinteract with your employees,
because that stuff is dude, likeit'll go so far if you just
take it back a notch.
If you're heated, maybe don'thave a conversation right then
and there, but you got to beable to have emotional
intelligence in order to evenrecognize that you're doing that
(35:54):
, and that takes work and ittakes practice and it takes you
pumping the excuse me, pumpingthe brakes when you want to rip
somebody's head off.
And look, we've all been there.
We all want to rip somebody'shead off at some point, but it's
just not a really good qualityof a good, solid leader to rip
your guy's heads off.
(36:14):
It just it costs you a fortunein the end.
Internal conflict and egoclashes is the next one.
So when leadership teams arefilled with power struggles or
conflicting visions, it tricklesdown to the entire company, and
if the leadership isn't unified, the company suffers.
(36:37):
If the service manager issaying one thing and then the
supervisor under him is sayingsomething different Goes back to
that incongruency.
It's confusing.
People don't like to beconfused.
They like that very clearcommunication and it needs to be
(37:00):
uniform across the entirecompany, and so that's where
it's important that all yourleaders have meetings together.
It's even more important tohave leadership in the
technicians and the sales guysall in the same meeting, because
then they hear it all the sameway and ask for feedback, ask
(37:24):
for questions.
Make sure that it's flushed out,because if there's confusion,
what does a confused mind do?
Doesn't make a decision.
That's what it does, just likeyour customers.
If they're confused about whatyou're selling, they don't want
to make a decision.
Especially if you're askingthem for $15,000 or $20,000, you
(37:45):
got to make sure it's clear.
For $15,000 or $20,000, you gotto make sure it's clear.
You got to dumb the languagedown Not that your customer is
dumb but you got to put it tothem in non-jargon ways, not
jargon Jargon.
I think jargon is a lotionAnyhow.
So.
And when you get egos involvedand look, we're a male-dominated
(38:06):
industry, so there's going tobe some ego clashes.
But as the leader, how do youhandle that?
Do you allow two of youremployees to cuss each other out
in front of other team members?
I hope not, because if thathappens it doesn't look like
you're the leader, it looks likethe two people cussing each
(38:27):
other out or running the show.
And if you can't handleseparating those two people or
calming them down or gettingthat thing solved and the other
team members see it, man, nowyou've got other team members
that think they can talk toother team members that way and
it trickles down, just likethese other things I've talked
(38:47):
about.
And so your company is only asstrong as its leadership team In
avoiding these common pitfallswill create a business that runs
smoothly, keeps employeesengaged and delivers top-notch
(39:09):
service to the customers.
So this is so important, butit's also one of the areas that
I see lacking the most.
All of these things that I'velisted today even though there's
one to 15, they're allimportant.
(39:31):
If one of these things is notworking, then you're going to
have things fall through thecracks, and if a couple of them
are not working right, thenyou're going to have problems.
Heaven forbid you have four orfive of these not working right.
Your company's going to belosing money and if you're
wondering why it's hard to keepcustomers coming back, look at
(39:53):
some of these things becauseit's important and it all
matters.
Like I said before, everycustomer matters, every customer
interaction matters and itshould matter.
The goal is to serve people andmake money and provide a
(40:17):
healthy environment for youremployees.
If you're the leader, that'syour job.
The customers are yourtechnicians and your comfort
advisors.
That's their people, right?
Your people are your employees.
If you're serving youremployees, we'll serve your
customers.
So I appreciate you guyslistening today and we'll see
(40:37):
you next week.
Thanks for listening.
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