In today’s episode, Chris Crew of Blue Collar Success Group offers strategies for maintaining a successful contracting business in a shifting market. Chris emphasizes the importance of having a plan and being resilient in the face of economic challenges. Tune in to learn how to keep your business on top, even in a down market.

For the full show notes, head on over to https://reflectivemarketing.com/podcast/Chris-Crew-How-To-Keep-Your-Contracting-Business-On-Top-Even-When-The-Economy-Is-Down

Krystal Hobbs 0:04

Welcome to Beyond The Tools, the podcast that helps contractors attract more leads, grow their business, and finally get off the tools. In each episode, you'll discover marketing tactics that work. You'll get actionable insights from other successful contractors, and connect with experts to help you grow. I'm your host, Krystal Hobbs, owner of a social media agency that helps contractors attract and convert more leads. Get ready to take your business to the next level so you can finally enjoy the fruits of your hard labor. Ready, let's go!

Krystal Hobbs 0:46

Krystal Hobbs 3:27

Chris, welcome to the show. I am super excited to have you here.

Chris Crew 3:31

Awesome. So fantastic to be here, Krystal. Thanks for the invite.

Krystal Hobbs 3:34

Chris Crew 4:14

Krystal Hobbs 5:38

Chris Crew 6:19

So two things when I think about when the economy shifts when there's an insane amount of demand and not enough supply, it creates shortages for the contractor. So the contractor is experiencing whether it's labor, material, sourcing of vehicles, and it puts a lot of pressure that contractors aren't used to experiencing, where in the old days, you would put an ad out, and you'd have a line out your door of people wanting to come to work for you because supply and demand were out of balance. And what I would say is that when it gets really out of balance is typically when the contractor feels the most pain. And many of us have felt the pain around too much work and not enough resources. And because of that, they got very selective about what jobs will they take, and what will they say yes to. And the challenge with that is because of that, they said yes to a lot of things that they normally wouldn't have said yes to, which is around the standards of team members. So, what will they allow and what they will not allow specifically around your level of tolerance? Contractors have the highest level of tolerance for the pain I've ever met, and anybody in the world, like some business people, we just don't tolerate that. And it's becoming a norm in our industry. And I say that as an operator myself, we have really high tolerances for pain of what we will accept. So when I think about the flip side of that of, oh my gosh, we don't have enough work. And then all of a sudden, there's a different level of tolerance of pain there of what will we tolerate there, what we not tolerate. But I think the savvier that we become as operators, we learn how to emotionally balance the imbalance.

Krystal Hobbs 8:12

So when you talk about balancing that imbalance, what are you seeing some of the best contractors doing right now?

Chris Crew 8:20

As silly as it sounds, there are people that experienced labor, material, vehicle, and fuel shortages, but not as not on the bigger scale that others experienced it. Growth has exacerbated some of those imbalances. So, some of the things that we're seeing with contractors that do keep that balance are not really much has changed for them. It's a little, it's a smaller bump in the road for them. They know that their plan has to be adjusted but not thrown out the window and start again where I feel like a lot of contractors even some of our clients, threw their hands up. Many people are selling right now. For whatever reason, private equity is coming into our space. And they think this is a great place to spend money, right? And yet, we have some owners and operators that are taking advantage of an opportunity of a lifetime and selling their businesses right now. But always ask the question, what's the next chapter of your life? So those that are super savvy and that can balance really well, know that this is just a moment in time and they continue to push through on their goals and their plans.

Krystal Hobbs 9:33

So let's say a contractor listening is in this position where they did have a busy few years, things were doing great. Now they're starting to see some challenges and shifts in the industry in terms of labor shortage challenges and private equity firms buying up mom-and-pop shops and suddenly competition a little bit more difficult. And maybe they're going into this year with a little bit of a bad gut feeling or feeling that stress of what the future might hold. What are some of the practical things that you think they can be doing to be proactive and to set themselves up for a great year?

That's a great question, Krystal. I think it goes back to once again, I said not a lot has changed. So a good economy and a good part of this industry right now will end up exposing the company's weaknesses. So, when the economy starts to downshift, the companies that are like, “Hey, we've been really good. We've been busy. We don't need work.” And I hear this a lot. People are like, “We just turned marketing off.” Some of them are like, “We had to turn it way back.” And what I would say is, is there a moment where you pivot and you shifted your marketing dollars onto recruiting? And if you are good at acquiring customers, how do we go acquire talent? Many have shifted towards manufacturing their own talent, meaning I go find somebody that has little to no experience, and then I scaled them up. And that becomes the new business model, instead of being at the mercy of not enough talent. I've talked about this. It's because as an industry as a whole, there have been some really good contractors that have done a great job of cranking out very talented people that had little to no industry. And now they're owners and operators on their own. This industry is really good at that, in a small quantity. If you look at the overall, a lot of us haven't really been focused on “how do I continue to replenish our bench”. And the really savvy ones didn't really feel that much. So number one is, you got to be good at recruiting, you got to be good at marketing, and many people stopped marketing. And I've always said it's the kiss of death for a business when you just turn it off. Dial it back and start reorganizing and shifting so that you don't create more demand than you can handle. It’s an important thing I would say. So really, really big on sharpening your skills as an operator specifically around marketing. Second thing, because there's a supply and demand imbalance, consumers just because you answer the phone, roll a technician to the home and they're able to do the work right then a lot of people are saying yes. But when the economy shifts again, that's going to become more difficult for contractors to find that people are saying yes more often to more stuff because they're going to tighten their purse strings.

Right. So when we're looking at a consumer that is a little more conscious and thinking about these decisions more deeply, what are some of the things that contractors need to be prepared for? How can they deal with those types of situations?

Sure. I think it starts, Krystal, for me, that number one, you got to have a selling system. And I want to use the word selling system for a moment. And so for everybody that's like, Hey, we're not a sales organization, pump the brakes. I don't want to turn the podcast off, don't listen, this guy's a sales guy. The reality is, if we look at the definition of sales, sales is the process of getting someone emotionally or intellectually involved in a product or service, or idea. Like that's just sales, right? So we have a product, we have a service, we've got to get people emotionally and intellectually involved in our offering, and not make the assumption that just because we offer it, people will buy it. So the selling system should start with the phone, the first human interaction. How do I answer the phone? First. Number two, do I have good systems in place of rolling a technician to the home or a salesperson to the home through dispatching? A lot of people might refer to that as a service coordinator. How do I take the service call that was placed in my business and get someone there? And that is a part of the system. When that part of the system is broken, it starts to affect everything down the service episode chain. So then I go to the service call. How do I make sure all of that support of a selling system? The second question is, how do I then transfer the belief of my selling system to my team members so they really believe in what I'm saying on how we should function as an organization? And then number three, ensure that what you've been training them is actually taking place. And I say this a lot of times, two things go into business - what you think's going on and what's really going on. And so you got to inspect what you expect.

I love that and I'd like to dig into those things a little bit deeper. So maybe we can start with what happens on the phone. How do I track my booking percentage and make sure that's where it should be?

I think that's such an important mindset shift. And I guess if you are properly tracking what your bookings are from calls, then that data really reinforces that too, because you can see it.

And so, Krystal. What if I don't have the software Chris, how can I handle this? You have to inspect what you expect. But there's nothing wrong with a piece of paper. The business has operated on paper long before they operate. It is more complex. Is there more room for error? Yes, there's more room for error. But when I look at tracking, what is important to identify is, if you have software, this is for everybody listening, if you've got software that tracks your call-taking, I'd encourage you to do this. And this is a good little nugget we teach all of our clients. I did this in my business, and it's something that is just the heartbeat of my call center, which is once a week, I listen to a total of nine calls, random calls but they're bucketed into three different buckets. Number one, booked appointments, the customer said yes, go listen to three of those randomly, not the same day, not back to back, three random booked appointments, three random non-booked appointments, and then three non-opportunity calls where it's a customer calling and looking for an invoice or it's a vendor or it's a what. Here's the logic number one guarantee if you have a selling system and it's being used, you want to ensure that it's actually being used correctly. So listening to three booked calls insures that. And I'm telling you from a personal account, just because he’s booked doesn't mean they follow the process. Three non-books you'll see where you can get better. Did we follow the process or is that the reason why they weren't booked? And then three non-opportunities for the simple reason, Krystal, I want to know what my level of customer service is and how my company treats people that have either already done business with me or their vendors, and they're looking to work with me. How do we treat those people on the phone? Because your reputation follows you everywhere.

That's a great point. And not to follow this rabbit down the trail. But I know you've talked before at the Service World Expo, for example, about having more performance base pay. So if you're looking at your CSRs and rewarding bookings, but then you dig into calls that don't lead to that direct result, there may be a difference there.

So let's say we've got things figured out then in terms of the phone, that next piece when you actually get someone in a customer's home, what are some of the things that we can focus on there to get better at service?

We teach this in our classes. This is what I'll say and people will maybe disagree a little bit with this and that's alright. I'm not looking for someone to be agreeable. My job in the world in this universe, especially in this industry, is to cause people to start thinking. I want you to start thinking about things. But I believe that the most technical technicians have the biggest advantage in the home because they will be able to see, know, and understand what work needs to be done, whereas a lesser skilled technician does not. So when we think about that, what are some key things doing a full evaluation in the home not going in and just looking to put band-aids on things? So now when I go in, and I'll put a bandaid on, most technicians think they've done a great job for the customer. Because they're trying to focus on the dollar of the repair, the cheaper I keep it, the more of a nice guy or nice person that I am. And what I'm going to say is, I'm not a financial advisor, that's not what I am to the customer. I'm here to serve them as a service tech. My job is to go through the home. Now keep in mind not training a technician to go through and find things to sell, that's not the goal. The goal is to fully understand why you called me and figure out why that happened. So as a professional technician, I can offer you real solutions to fix it so it doesn't happen again. And that's a key. So then it goes from really understanding what needs to be done most technical technician has the advantage there because they're not going to put a bandaid on it. I'll give you an example.

When we're talking about this, if I'm a plumber and water quality is the challenging reason why the toilet flapper is leaking and I don't address the water quality issue in their home, you haven't really provided them a solution. If I'm an electrician and I go into a home for an outlet not working and I realized that it's because, all my electrician homies will understand this, but it's due to an installation where they backstabbed the outlet. Well, that outlet getting replaced will establish power but isn't fixed the problem because the problem is you have an installation problem. So you've got to address the whole home even though they didn't call you for that. That's your responsibility. You got to own that. As an HVAC technician, if I go out and a system is not operating properly, an example would be well they say it's an impacted coil so we need to do a pull and claim. Well, doing a pulling claim doesn't really solve the problem - it’s a lack of maintenance and it doesn't have the proper system set up, it could be a UV light or an oxidizer that goes in there along with an electronic air cleaner or filtration in general. This is what I would say, technicians got to understand solution-based not bandaid-based.

So how do you get your technicians and your whole team to see this bigger picture and why it's important?

So the ones that have done it successfully, their training program is not all focused on sales. So let me just say this. As I said earlier, people call me a sales guy. I'm a really technical guy. So I've been in the industry since I was 16 years old. And I continue to evolve and learn technical stuff. I actually have a master's license in the state in which I live today. I still have it. I still have that license. So I'm still a trades guy. I'm still a technician. I'm just going to a different role today. So super technical, to answer the question, technical training has to be a part of what your organization does. And we see that a lot of organizations shifted more toward being only sales and communication, and little to no technical. So the challenge is, I can sell it all day long but I'm going to miss a lot of opportunities because I don't technically understand what needs to be done. So I think it's just a good balance of technical training and soft skill training.

So Chris, how would a contractor then connect the technical to the soft skills, when it comes to the training that they're providing?

It is actually easy, but yet, complex. And so for those I want to give you the easy version of this, which is your technicians. Most technical technicians are so techie they just educate at a high level for the customer and the customer doesn't understand anything. And this is the reason why I explain it like this all the time. I've been in this industry now for over 26 years. And because I've been in this industry for 26 years, I'll speak in language and lingo that I assume everybody understands. Because even though I didn't get super technical, I still talked in terms. So when I use things like UV bold, and I use things like GFI, and I use things that we go, Oh, our customers know what that is. No. So the important part is to make sure that your technicians understand but they can communicate at a level that the average person can do. And here's a good litmus test.

This is the way I've always explained it. And I believe it. Don't talk to your customer like they're a fifth grader but educate them with terminology and words as though you were talking to a fifth grader. And what could a fifth grader understand and make a buying decision or arrive at a solution on their own based on their level of education?

So now, I take the technical skill set that I've been training, and I have to transfer that now into a conversation with an uneducated consumer. So I practice that. I've got to translate that into a conversation because I go back to the definition of sales - getting someone emotionally or intellectually involved in a product service or idea. So when I'm connecting the dots for them, I want to hear how my technicians and the answer is skill practice. We also call that roleplay. So I would say the old saying you probably remember this from the movie, right? Sell me this pen. It's like, okay, great. I don't want you to be a salesperson, but I want you to communicate the repairs that need to be done. And this is not something you do once. This becomes a part of your culture. And that's how you win. So step number two is to get people to talk in the training room in a training environment with another to see what they're saying at the home.

I love that. And that is so practical and easy. But I feel like a lot of companies aren't doing that.

If you would allow me for a moment. Most companies don't do it because nobody's trained them how to do it. And so what if you're listening to this podcast, I'm going to give you some really easy simple steps. Most technicians don't want to roleplay. They don't. And the reason why is that nobody wants to get in front of the class and give the book report presentation. So roleplay is most effective in small groups. So big fan of these three people in a group. One person is the homeowner, one person is the technician, and one person is the coach or observer. My job as the homeowner is to be super agreeable and give you all the answers. I know you really want a technician to make it easy for them. That's how we learn the conversation.

The technician's job is to stay on track with conversation. And the coach or observer's job is to make sure that both people are doing their job. My job as the trainer, facilitator, or manager is to walk around the room and make sure he's doing their job. And that is where the most learning happens when we teach our classes. This is a part of what we do. And here's what's really funny. People are like, “Hey, I don't do this.” And I'm like, “Do me a favor. Can you let us do it once? If you're uncomfortable after that, I want to ask you to do it again.” I've had zero people push back after that, because then they realized, “Well, this is just like a small peer group. I'm good with that.” Because in their mind, they think, “I gotta get in front of everybody and do it.” And that wrecks technicians. They're not presentation people. It's not what they do. Some of them are. Every now and then you'll find one, but at large, they're not. And so, repetition is the mother of all learning. So how do I do it over, and over so that when I'm at the home, it's just natural? So skill practice late laid out correctly, making sure that people are doing that. We found that when people do this, it starts to elevate everything that they're doing in their training.

Amazing, that makes so much sense. So I know we've covered a lot here in terms of how you can be more proactive and how you can make sure your company stays on top, even when the economy shifts. Any last thoughts or words of advice to any contractors who are listening right now?

I've always said that this industry is such a giving industry. People are always so willing to help and do and be and go in there trying to help a fellow contractor. Earlier in my career, it was always about stiff competition and not sharing anything. You don't want anybody to have a leg up on you. And what I would say today for anybody listening, is there's nothing new in this industry. It's just framed a different way. So what I would say is the best advice is understanding this, if we were playing football, you can have the fanciest offense, you can have the fanciest defense. But at the end of the day, it's just about the basics. It's the blocking, the tackling, and the running of the play. So that being said, I always teach this. It's a football analogy because I love football. But you just have to take what the defense gives you. That's a one-yard run, a one-yard run is better than no yards. It's the same concept of Moneyball, if we can just get people to first base when they are at bat, we win the day. And so the best kind of piece bow I could put on this is how to win no matter what the economy is, is just focusing on the basics, quit trying to be fancy.

I think that is a beautiful place to end. And I know our listeners are going to want to learn more about you and connect with you further. So what's the best way for them to do that?

The best way to learn more about us is through our website. So that would be at The Blue Collar Success Group. You can find us there tons of information there if anybody would like to connect with us personally, info@thebluecollarcoach.com is the best email address to get a hold of us and our team will make sure that they get whatever questions that someone may have over to the correct person. So we'd be glad to connect with anybody listening.

Okay, great. And I know you guys offer a strategy session too.

That is correct. So if you're listening to the podcast doesn't matter how far out this won't change. This industry has been so good to me and my family that it's always one of the things that we give back. This is not a high-pressure sales pitch. But if somebody wants more information about us and how we can help or maybe you got a challenge in your business that need to be solved, let us help you. Let the Blue Collar Success Group help you. And just email that info@thebluecollarcoach.com. Let them know exactly what's going on, or as few details as you want. And then they'll get you connected with me so that we can hop on a call. And I can help work through a strategy session with you. No money, no obligation. If you like what you hear and you want to know more. I'll tell you how you get more of that. But outside of that, it's not an obligation to buy anything.

Amazing. And I hope everyone listening checks that out. I think that's a great opportunity. This has been an awesome conversation, Chris. And I've learned a lot here. So I really appreciate you being on the show and sharing all this insight with us.

Thank you, Krystal. It's been a pleasure. And thank you for the invite. It's been fantastic.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Beyond The Tools. If you liked what you heard, please subscribe, rate, and review wherever you get your podcast. I'd love it if you could also share this episode with a fellow contractor who is ready to get off the tools and grow their business. And if you want more leads, sign up for our email list at [reflectivemarketing.com](http://reflectivemarketing.com/) where we share weekly marketing insights that you can't get anywhere else. I'm Krystal Hobbs and I hope you'll join me on the next episode of Beyond The Tools. See you next time!