Transcription
Hey, how's it going? It's Tim Brown and this is the Plumbing and HVAC Hustle podcast and today I've got Kent B from Bowlco on. How you doing, sir?
I'm doing well. We're going to talk about how you're doing call by call management wrong because not all call by call management is the same and that's what I understand from you. But give me a few minutes on your background and how you got into this whole crazy sales training game.
Yeah. Yeah. So, um I've been an electrician since I was 9 years old with my dad. Uh so a tradesman myself, ran many, many thousands of calls myself. Uh I joined a best practice group back in 2009. um realized that I had a good knack for sales. Never thought I would consider myself a sales trainer anything. I was just an electrician. Um and working with that organization, you know, I I started taking some of their sales training and always trying to make it better. And I realized that it would work really well. And then I got to the point where um that organization actually asked me to help build an electrical training sales model which I did and I taught and then I left that organization and people would reach out to me and they would say hey you know I want to do like at the time TV advertising advertising was getting very big and popular at the time and they would say hey I want to do TV advertisement and I'd be like well what's your average ticket and they would tell me and I'd be like you can't afford TV advertising your your average ticket's too low. They're like, "Well, what do I got to do?" You got to get your average ticketing up. And they're like, "Well, how do I do that?" And I'm like, "Well, you got to go get trained." And they like, "Well, where do I get it?" And I'm like, "I don't know because nobody teaches it at unfortunately like I do." And so like, "Well, will you do it?" So they started basically asking me to train their teams. And so I started doing that and of course the word got out and then more and more people wanted me to do it. And so that's kind of how I started this. I didn't really ever think I would be doing this, but this is where I'm at.
Yeah. Okay. Well, that's always a good direction where it's like people are asking you to do it. I feel like that's kind of like how we came up with this agency, too. Originally, it's just like people were asking for it more and more and I just kind of like created it at what they're asking. You're essentially being asked to create something and then you know there's an audience to purchase it when it's time. When people do purchase and work with you, like how much are they working with you? Like how much is it like a day a week?
Yeah, usually. So, um, most of my customers choose to work with me virtually because it's more cost-effective that way. Um, so I'm usually training their teams over Zoom, one day a week, usually 7 a.m., whatever time zone they're in, and I'm training their teams over Zoom. And then if they're hiring me also to do the business, is the training per day? 1 hour. Okay. 1 hour. Yeah. Usually an hour, sometimes 40 minutes, but usually about an hour. Um, and then I'm if if I'm business coaching them or we're implementing call by call management, then I'm working with their management team or owners, you know, later on in the day over, you know, Zoom or virtually um other parts of the day when things calm down around the office.
Okay. So then an an additional hour for the leadership.
Yeah. Sometimes it's more than an hour. It just depends on what we're working on. Um, we want to get the call by call and the the processes and the the team members in the office trained in as quick as possible. Like they have to be just as trained as the people in the field. And we want to make sure that when both of them are trained, we can launch at the same time. And the engagement usually lasts about 6 months with you.
Four to 6 months it usually takes to implement the whole the whole thing properly. The launch the initial launch is like after a couple months or how long does that usually take?
Yeah. So, usually four to six months we're we're presenting our what I call our diagnostic packages and then our five-star, you know, large repair replacement packages and then the call by call knows what they're doing to get the right person sent to the right job to present those things. Mhm. And so, it does take that long to launch at all like really launch. What about an initial like is
Yeah. If if they choose the package of doing it virtually, it takes longer. But I have packages where I will fly out there. We'll do a 3-day onsite and we'll launch this thing much much quicker.
Oh, great. That's an awesome option. So, what's the difference between the way you do call by call management and what you've seen be less effective?
Yeah. So, call by call management can be anything from like the owner or a manager just having a pregame call with their technician before they go into the house. Some people call that call by call management which it could be called that. But if you have a very mature version like my version, we are not just doing that. Um we are we are using something like either WhatsApp or Slack or even text messaging and we're giving the technician steps in there. So it's usually let's say 1 through 15 steps. We call it rules of the road. We cut that. We paste that into the channel that we're speaking to the technician with. and they have to complete level one, you know, step one and then they'll post step one and then post step two. And so all of it's not only um tracked and logged, it's saved. So we can always go back and look at it later. And the owner can now make sure that he's holding his sales manager or call by call manager um accountable that they're doing their job, right? Because they may all blame the technicians. You know, the manager might be like, "Ah, you know, the technicians aren't selling anything this week or they're not listening or whatever the case may be, but is the manager doing what they're supposed to be doing? And can he he or she prove that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing?" And if it's all logged and and and archived in Slack, we all know it's happening or not happening. And if sales are down, we can actually go into those channels and we can look at, okay, which part of the process are we missing here? Why? Why is this not working? Why are our customers not buying or why aren't they buying as much as they used to? And we can actually get visibility into that on every single call if it's done right.
Okay. You work with a lot of companies around the country. Mhm. Give us an economic update from your point of view on on HVAC and plumbing sales.
HVAC plumbing electrical. Yep. HVAC plumbing electrical. Where are we at in the zeitgeist? It feels like there's a little bit of like tightening of the pocketbooks maybe on average.
Get like Yeah. I I've heard somebody put it this way recently. It's like if the market is down significantly like let's say if like shipped boxes is down 10 or 20% across the country and you're only down 7%. You're actually up. Yeah. You would be. Yeah. At that point. It's like understanding like depending on your business model. Yeah. difference is what but the problem is when you started the year in growth mode and you hired a bunch of people and then there so now your profit's down. Yeah. You know cuz you actually it's hard to make up for that like 10 to 20% if that's the case. And I'm just curious like from your perspective what is the what is the is there like you're talking to a lot of people out there. What is the feeling? And maybe they come to you when they have issues. So maybe that's not a fair assessment. I don't know. Um I definitely think call volume is down for all three trades. You as a marketing agency probably know that or can verify that. Um, however, the companies that are doing call by call and they're they're making the most of every single call, they may not have as many calls, but they're still executing on the calls they do get better. And that's why I always say call by call management is more important in the slow times than the busy times because of course we want to make as much money as we can on every call, but when sales are down, when you when the economy's low, when you're you're in a shoulder season, every call is literally gold. Still a lot of money chasing the uh chasing these these transactions. You know, there's still really good outcomes out there for sellers. It's good to have someone like us in your corner because we're not emotional. But guess what? When you're selling your business, it become it becomes emotional. And so, it's really good to have an intermediary, you know, there every step of the way. www.sfpadvisors.com. All the contact information is directly on the uh on the website. Let's just do this economic update for one more second. I just want to like it feels like uh purchasing apprehension is a bit up because Mhm. Uh consumer confidence is down. Mhm. Would you say that's an accurate assessment? Like what's your assessment? Give us just a quick like newsy update for this podcast.
I would say it is it is it is December 2023 as we're recording this. So yeah. Um I I would say that there is definitely they call it inflation fatigue. I think there's definitely that going on. I think HVAC is suffering the most. Taco Bell. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's insane. Bring my kids to Culver's and it's like $50 to go to Culver's. It's just great. Now, that's worth it though. Taco Bell. I will when you have three kids. It's not. Maybe. I don't respect the $12. Like, we know what's in that food. It should not be $12. Okay. Tulivers. I used to work there. Oh. Oh, well, that makes a difference, I guess. And I Every time I go there, I tell my wife, I'm like, "You don't understand how cleanly it is back in that kitchen. Super. We were wiping constantly and it is a very clean environment. At Taco Bell, I've seen like the tubes of meat out by the garbage can. It says like grade D, do not serve to your dog, you know? So, it's a different I shouldn't be paying what I'm paying for that. $5 for a taco like that or whatever it is. Yeah. Right. Anyways, so like anything else just on like what what are you feeling based on your conversations with other companies right now?
Yeah, I think HVAC is is by far the the toughest one. I think right now u most electrical companies that follow a good sales process seem like electrical is doing very well. HVAC I think is suffering. Plumbing is one of those industries that it's like people almost got to have it, you know, like it's it's 90% well, let's call it 80% repair, right? Any well okay this is I was just talking to somebody yesterday about this and it's the fact this is tell me if I'm wrong this is just me trying to understand the industry I I act as the journalist not the expert in these interviews but it feels as though maybe you can have more people doing 80% of the calls that are not that highly trained because a lot of the calls are basic plumbing plumbing um say that again like basically you could have a lower employee doing basic stuff cuz there's a lot of basic calls. I guess
Yeah, I would say that's possible especially when you bring in drain cleaning. Yeah. Um I would say that's true, but again the the successful companies are finding those more opportunities in the home and then they're bringing in more experience or better salespeople when they see those opportunities. And okay, so that brings us back to our main subject here. Where is the right mode? So if you're doing call by call in the right way and you're doing it not just at the beginning of the call but through maybe at a a key juncture to throughout is it just one or two junctures? It should be from from dispatch to finishing the install and permitting and everything in between in that moment where you'd essentially get help from a higher level sales saleserson. What are the triggers that lead them to say the call by call manager back at the office to say, "All right, time to bring in we got Jimmy out there. Jimmy's great for doing basic tasks, but he's not this advanced guy yet." Y let's bring in Ken. You know what's what's that moment?
Okay, so um again, it depends on your sales model. U my sales model, we have the technicians take what we call vitals. So plumbing, it's water quality, water pressure, um gas leaks and electrical, uh age of electrical panel, type of wiring, voltage drop, and then in HVAC, it's age of equipment, static pressure, air flow, stuff like that, right? So the technicians within 30 minutes of arrival are supposed to be posting in their call by call channel or the communication channel their vitals, right? Right. So, it's like when you go to the doctor, first thing they do is take your vitals. Same thing with those. Doesn't have to be Slack, but that's what I or whatever the communication. Okay. It's like it's a it's a hashtag vitals or #allbycall or something like that and they pop and everyone's are going in there preferably like when we use Slack, we create a a separate channel for every home. Okay. Oh, wow. Yes. Interesting. And then we actually save that channel. We we cut and paste the link and we put it into our CRM whether it's House Call Pro, Service Titan, whatever. Okay, interesting. And then three years from now, we can click on it. We can see the conversation that happened when we were there. Okay, cool. Uh, also on a note with that is if you ever sell the private equity, they love to see you have a documented archived sales process in your CRM. That's cool. You have channels for each one. It gets a little messy maybe when you have 50 channels over on the left. Not if Well, yeah. I mean, your guys are only on depending on how many people you have. I mean, if you have 20 technicians, Yeah. you have 20 channels open, but they but they archive those as soon as they're done with that call. Yes. Yep. Then that call then that that channel is just for that job and then the next job is going to have a whole new channel. Okay. Mhm. Cool. And then they're they're the moment when they up when we bring in the big dog. Yeah. So once they take those vitals, once the vitals fail, y we know that this is a major repair or replacement opportunity. Um, and my training is when those vitals fail, we're staring down the barrel of a $5 to $50 plus,000 job. Yeah. So, we know that within 30 minutes of arrival. Mhm. So, within 30 minutes of arrival, when the vitals fail, we're staring down the barrel of a $5 to $50,000 job. We're teeing up our top sales guy, our, you know, best communicator, whatever you want to call them. We're teeing that person up. Or in some companies, they're just dispatching them straight out. We haven't even told the homeowner this person's on their way, but we're teeing them up and they're on their they're on their way. Because if I'm a homeowner, I actually don't really know that Jimmy just got Ken down in the basement. I don't like it's happening. Possibly. Yeah. I wouldn't necessarily be super conscious of the like I I would assume that's just the normal flow of things or something like that.
Yeah, I mean, so the technician would tell the homeowner, "Hey, you know what? My I have a field supervisor in the area. We're the only company in the area that does an internal second opinion. We never want to sell you anything you don't need. He's going to come out here and take a look at it. Internal second opinion. All right, buddy. I like that language. And then, hey, use that. That's value right there. Internal second. We're the only company in the area that does internal cuz we don't want to sell anything you don't need. That's Kent Bull premium sauce right there. There you go. There you go. And then when that person arrives, they they come in as the field supervisor. So now the homeowner is like, "Oh, this is the manager." Right? So now that person has escalated their level in the home and their opinion now matters even more than the technician that's in there. And then now that person may be technically knowledged, maybe they're just a salesperson. You could run it different ways. Uh but then that person comes in and then they're the ones that are proposing the $5 to $50,000 plus options to the homeowners. M and that happens because the vitals get in there and they're low or they're wrong. They're failed. Something's failed. Failed. Something failed. And automatically the the call by call manager is like he's been watching for this and he's like his whole job is to watch for this. Mhm. Like with HVAC and electric those vitals were will fail 80 to 90% of every home. So, it's not like this is just a woo random thing. Like the majority of your calls, they're going to fail. Why? Uh because that's the way. So, like with HVAC, most homes fail. According to Ashray, 80 to 90% homes fail air flow. They people don't install duct work properly in new homes, especially spec homes. So, when we run our test, these these these pieces of equipment are set up to to move a certain amount of air. And if they're not, they're not being efficient. They're going to run harder. They're going to break down more. The life expectancy is going to go down. The energy bills are going to go up. And we explain that to the homeowner. And then we get our supervisor out there.
Is there any other additional things like level of concern, homeowner qualification, those types of things? Is there anything like that where you're putting a few more things in with the vitals to say, "Hey, this homeowner's like ready to play ball." Mhm. Or like there's a high level of concern from the homeowner cuz I would assume that that would make it more of a ripe opportunity.
Yeah. Yeah. So, I have that all built in. So, when we fail the vitals, the technician will then go to the homeowner and present four, three to four pre-built packages to the homeowner of we got to figure out why this is happening, Mr. Jones. This is what it costs for us to figure out why this is happening. And it may come with some repairs in it. Mhm. Um, and it's different levels are usually between $5 and $1,500. And we let the customers choose how important it is to them. So, if they choose a level one for, let's just call it $500, that may be a lower level customer. But if we have a customer who's like, "Yeah, I want the $1,500 one. I want to figure this out." Well, now we know that that's probably the one we're going to get our top guy over to quicker.
Is this ever something where it's like the $1,500 would come off the larger project?
It can. Okay. I'm just kind of curious about like does it feel clunky to sell them twice with the like there's here's the first diagnostic package type thing or the first like the first tier and then we got to sell them this other bigger thing afterwards. Does that feel like a little like almost like I thought you switch type thing?
Yeah. Um, so some people think of it that way, but what you'll really find is that it actually locks your customer in with you because when a customer spends a decent amount of money with you, $500 or more, they like the odds of them price shopping you after that drops significantly cuz they already spent the money because they invested with you.
I think it's the law of consistency. Yeah. Well, and they chose you. Like once they paid you, they've chose you. You're you're the one, right? M um and so very very seldom when we sell these packages. Yeah. Very seldom when they sell when we sell these packages and then we we give them the $5 to $50,000 packages. Very seldom do they price shop us after that because they're locked in with us. And to your point, we can use that money as a coupon for the larger if we need to the larger package. So it's actually opposite. it it locks your customer with you. Because let's just take like HVAC for an example. A lot of technicians will go to a home, let's say the system's 15, 18 years old, it's in horrible shape, it's broken down, and they go straight to the homeowner and they go tell them, you know, it's not worth fixing this thing. We should probably replace it, right? And then they give them prices. Mhm. And what do the homeowners do? Thank you. We're going to go get some other bids. We'll call you back, right? But if the technician goes in and they're like, "Hey, your air flow is horrible. You might have duct work issues. we really need to figure this out. It's $500, $800 for us to figure it out. Customers like, "Oh, gez." Okay. They pay it and then they give them the prices. Very rarely, they won't price shop you after that. And these are generic ways of saying it, by the way. It's more in depth than this, but um that's how we lock the customer in with us. Okay. And even if they do get other prices, we won. We got $500, $800, $1,200. We won.
Talk to me about what other things you think are you you often you go into people that have already implemented call by call management I'm assuming. Mhm. Yeah. Sometimes. Yeah. They've done some version of it. When you when they they need more, they need a little help. They need a little Kent Bull special sauce. What is the um what are the improvements that you're often making? What is broken in many people's call by call management?
Um, usually what happens is they say, "Yeah, we tried call by call and it didn't work." This is this is usually the conversation. It's a adoption problem. Yes. Because what happens is the technicians will say, "Well, what happens when this happens?" Or because there's all these nuances, right? What if they have a warranty? What if what if uh another company put it in? What if um you know, what if we screwed something up? What if it's old? What? There's just so many different variables and if the homeowner hehaws around and doesn't quite know how to answer the question, then the technician loses confidence in the whole thing. It falls apart and we all just revert back to what we did before. That's what I see 90% of the time. But when you bring somebody like me in, I've seen, okay, when they have a a manufacturer warranty, we do X, Y, or Z. If you guys put it in, we do X, Y, or Z. Right? like I give them the playbook of how do we handle all these nuances. So when the technicians ask these questions in training, I have the answer. There's no hehan around. I don't really know. Let's try this. There's none of that. Like I give you the answer and then the process sticks because I'm there to make sure it sticks.
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What are other objections to just implementing call by call in general? Like what somebody out there has thought about it five times, they've looked at it, but they just don't think it's right for them.
Yeah. Doesn't apply to me. Kent, excuse me. Um, I would say you're losing hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars depending on how big you are by not doing it. Um, some people will call, well, I'm micromanaging my people. It's like you could look at it micromanaging or you could look at it as you're holding them accountable or you could look at it that you're helping to coach them on every call. It's just like in the NFL, right? the quarterback has a has uh an earpiece in his helmet in the NFL that talks straight to the coach. Why? Because the coach can see the whole field. The the quarterback can only see the guy in front of him, right? He can't see the whole field. And so the coach is telling him through his helmet and they may change the play. Now, I believe the rules are when the ball is snapped, they can't talk to the quarterback after that. I believe that's the rules. Um but that's called by call management, right? It's it's the same type of thing as a manager in the office when you see pictures come in of the equipment. You are letting your te your your technician or your salespeople know what the next play is because that person is in the office. They're not getting emotionally attached to what's happening within the home. Mh. Because I've been to calls where somebody's running a daycare and there's 20 kids running around. It's absolutely chaotic. that's going to throw your sales process off. Or the husband's in a horrible mood or somebody's really sick, right? And you emotionally change the way you are, which means your sales process changes. But if somebody is in your ear or your pocket, right, on your phone saying, "No, the next step is this. Go do this." And you're like, "Oh, yeah, that's right. I got to do that." Right? It it makes things more consistent. And then your sales are more consistent because of it.
Does the um the do they get dependent a little bit on the call? I mean at a certain point does it create a culture of dependence around the mothership?
Yeah. Um possibly. But in in a way that's a lot of work right at the at the office level. That's that's you're providing more time position. You're providing more support. Yep. It's a full-time position. That's probably one of the biggest objections people have. It's It's a lot of money to have that person back there. Well, the thing is they're already paying somebody to do this. They call them a dispatcher. Okay. They're already paying somebody to do this because your call by call manager can't should be doing the dispatching also. So, um and you and by the way, you don't need a 20-year veteran technician that knows how to fix everything. That's not the person. In fact, I wouldn't even want that person there. Why not? because they know too much technical stuff. And usually when somebody's that technically knowledged, they're not the best salespeople. Of course, there's unicorns out there, but it's usually not that way. I fixed that back in 2008, right? And then become fixers. I don't want fixers. I want we're we're proposing large replacements, right? So, I want somebody who can sell over the phone because one of the part we really haven't talked about here is the decline part. So when they decline one of these prepackaged diagnostics I have that manager is getting on the phone on speaker phone speaking directly to the client finding out why they're not buying today. Okay? It's not a coaching call with the technician like hey go in there and tell them X Y or Z. No, this is a sales call. The technician will walk in with the manager on speakerphone and they will try to sell the diagnostic and then now the manager knows why the customer is not buying. So, when the owner goes to the manager and says, "Hey, why aren't we selling much?" The manager knows exactly why, it's the holidays, people don't have money, um, you know, people are laid off, uh, there's a factory that closed down in the area. Whatever the reason is, we know now. It's not just, I don't know, the numbers are low. I guess we got to train more. Well, what are we going to train on? Well, I don't know. We'll train on this. Is that the problem? We don't know. We're just going to train on anyway because we don't know what else to train on.
That's good. Give me a little bit more about your um personal experiences out in the field. Give me an interesting story that like maybe somebody that was skeptical at the beginning before they implemented this and ended up having a great result.
Uh yeah. Okay. Um so you're saying an experience with me actually running calls or an experience you said in the field? More like sorry uh training people. Okay. Like in like a like a um somebody that was a little skeptical on the front end because I'm assuming sometimes an owner talks to you but like usually the owner people are a little skeptical and you kind of got to get over it. And I'm assuming other people have that objection out there too. Yes. Where they're like I actually do want this but god if I give my people another initiative right we changed CRM we changed brand. Yeah. This is the fourth sales trainer we've had and everybody wants to do it different, right? So, exactly. So, how do you get through that with with a team and and like give me maybe if you got any stories.
Yeah. So, um several many many different stories, but when it comes to technicians, what one of the responses I love the best is when I'm in these trainings because I'm on Zoom every week with these teams and we always talk about wins and losses and, you know, all that stuff. And when we have a win and the owner says, "What do you contribute this to?" And they say, "Basically, it's just running Kent's process. Just trust the process and do the process and it works." Right? That that's the biggest compliment I get is when I hear that in in the trainings because it's not like they're the guinea pigs. Like I've implemented this in over 50 companies. I've ran I've implemented in my own businesses.
Is it Kent or Kent? Kent with a T. Like Clark Kent. Oh, I keep on like switching back and forth in my head. It's Kent. Yeah, I thought I was Kent Herbeck, Clark K, whatever you want to say. Yeah. When you're going through the Kent Herbeck, that's twin, right? He was a twins player. Yeah. We We were talking about the quarterback thing, I couldn't help but go like, "Oh, man. Our our Vikings are having a having a rough time." A real rough season. We just had the first shut out since 2007. I'm like, doesn't matter how much we get in that guy's year. Yeah. The last our couple quarterbacks that we've been working with. Doesn't matter how much and I think I believe our coach is a beast actually. And that's I I want to believe it. I believe he is. But but unfortunately it hasn't worked out. So now we have to question it. Y I always And that's probably happening in some home service businesses out there, right? There's there's some people questioning leadership right now. Yeah. Oh. Oh, I'm sure of it. I think every owner questions their leadership at some point. There's a little bit of lack of trust. Mhm. Mhm. And um there's also who whose fault is it, right? Who's like is it the two quarterbacks? Obviously, they sucked. Mhm. But at a certain point, it's ownership's fault. Yeah. So, if that maybe that would be the sales manager, the the Mhm. But at a certain point, it doesn't matter cuz it's still the ownership's fault. Yeah. Well, I mean I I believe in some of these Facebook Vikings groups are are fake, so I don't know if it's true, but one of them said that Kevin Oonnell, the coach, said, you know, the play calling was all on me. Like, I shouldn't have called those plays. That was my fault. Like, he did take a lot of the ownership on some of it in this recent the shut out game you're talking about. Yeah. Just wildly embarrassing. But you say that as a coach no matter what. Like cuz he is a good I mean I believe he's a good coach. I believe he's a good guy too. You know what? I wouldn't even be surprised. I'm just going to call it right now. No, I'm just kidding. I just keep on making calls. Call in a Super Bowl with Kevin Oonnell at some point in the future. I think he's a very smart guy. Yeah, I think he is too. So I I and I don't know about ownership and some of these moves, but I'm trying to relate it back to home services and it's like knowing which component is messed up. Who's at fault? Are the sales people really bad? You kind of got to go to the sales manager and it this this is the second or third sales manager that's been roughing it a little bit or whatever. Um at the end of the day it is the ownership's fault. So you got to make moves. Mhm. Mhm. And you are the one that will end up being responsible cuz it's going to show up on your P&L. So at a certain point it doesn't matter how much like if you're making the sales manager uncomfortable by pulling a a move that has to be made.
Well, in in sports, we look at the tapes, right? We look at what happened on the field. Yeah. In home service, that's what Slack is. That's our tape, right? We're looking at what happened in this call and why did it go south? Why did we sell on it? Yeah. Um, and if we get five, six calls in a row where all these same mistakes are being made, it's like it's probably the manager's fault because he's not holding the people accountable for following the process. Right? Now, if he's holding the people accountable and he's having conversations and he's writing up employees for not following the process, okay, he's doing his job. He's trying. Um, and maybe we need to replace technicians at that point because they don't want to do it or they're not good at it or don't like it or whatever the case may be. Um, but if if the if the if the manager isn't in the call by call channels at all, yeah, well, clearly he's not doing his job.
Let's flip to the winning team. We we don't want to get too obsessed with the Vikings here. Um let's flip to the winning team. When you when you've got these things running, like let imagine with me in a year when you've got when the company out there has call by call up and running, paint a perfect day and maybe one perfect call all the way through from your point of view and give us even if it's a recap of what we talked about. I just like to kind of this is how it will feel in a year from now if you implement this process.
I'll give you a quick version. I don't want to take up too much time, but the the technician who is going to the call will post that he arrived. Mhm. He he or he or she should post that their vitals of what they found, the diagnostic proposals they proposed to the customer, the one that was sold. Then the sales manager will tag in the field supervisor or the comfort adviser, whatever you want to call them. That person will arrive. What do you want to call them? I like field supervisor. Okay. I like it too because comfort advisor sounds fluffy and field supervisor sounds uh high status. And I don't want it to be I don't want the customer to think a salesman's coming out. I want them to think a manager, a manager or a more experienced technician is coming out. That's what I want them. I actually like that too. Comfort advisor does sound like Yep. That's a little salesy salesy. Yeah. Um and then the then the field supervisor, comfort advisor, whoever comes in. Now, he runs his process, which is following all the steps, right? He sells we want uh those guys to sell um about $12,000 a day is what we want those people to sell. And so, let's just say in a perfect world, he sold a $12,000 job for that day. Then tags the install manager. Now the install manager is tagged in the channel and all the pictures are uploaded of what the work is that we sold, what we have to do. And now the install manager is like, "Yep, that sounds good." The install manager orders all the material. He posts in the channel all the invoices and receipts in that Slack channel. So they're all in there. We know what was purchased. We know where it was purchased. We know how much it was purchased for. And then the installers show up. They do their work. before a before pictures, after pictures are all in this exact same slack channel. Um the permit manager posts the permit in there and um the close out is done. We collected payment. Maybe the financing forms are posted in there. The final um inspection report Yeah. that passed is post in there and it's closed out. That's the perfect scenario where we want zoom out for a second like the daily or weekly cadence for the the owner? Let's just put this in the head of the owner because they might be making the purchase decision on working with a call by call management coach. Mhm. What what is going better for them in their life that week because they did this and this is going on.
Yeah. So, the best thing about call by call is that it turns your business in from being reactive to proactive. Because in this industry, from what I've seen, most owners and managers are completely reactive. It's we're putting out fires all day long. That's all we're doing. And at the end of the day, you feel like you got nothing done cuz all you did was put out fires. Yeah. Well, if we're being proactive and we're fixing things before the fires start Yeah. and we're using Slack to do it. Now, the owner has more time. It seems like the business is running smoother. There's more customers that are happy because we're not dropping the ball. Technicians are happy. Installers are h Everybody's more happy because we're being proactive before these problems start. Yeah. Like, I'll just give you a quick stupid example. um our installers were not calling in to give the model and serial number so we could register the equipment for warranty. Right? This is before we had Slack and before we had call by call. Well, I found out that my permit gal, who also did the warranty registration, was calling customers, asking them to go to their units and get the model and serial number off of it so she could register the warranty. She was spending all day calling customers doing this all day long. I didn't know this was happening. I was biggerish at the time. I didn't have my hands on that. I found this out. I'm like, "This is the stupidest thing ever." I'm like, "Why are we We shouldn't be inconveniencing our clients to go look for model and serial numbers. You should be spending your time doing good. The installers should be giving you this information." Well, if that's number, let's say, eight in Slack for our installers, they have to post the model and serial number. And they can't say they forgot because it's in the channel. The rules of the road are in the channel. They have to do it. Mhm. And if they leave without doing it, we all know who was responsible. The install manager clearly didn't look at the Slack channel before he let those people leave the house. It's just one stupid example. But look at the chaos around that one stupid thing. Now take that over all the parts and pieces from sale to close out and you can about imagine how many fires we're putting out or we're not letting start from the beginning.
Well, I appreciate you walking through that. Where can people go to check you out to get get started on this process?
Yeah, so um they can reach out to me on Facebook. Uh just Kent Bull is my name. Uh otherwise my Facebook page, Bull Co. Um email me. Um or um you can call me um either way, whatever way is easiest for you. I'm not hard to find. You Google my name, you can find me on LinkedIn, you can find me on YouTube, Facebook, whatever. Pretty easy to find. Appreciate you very much for talking through that. I I wanted to end this with just a shout out Hook Agency got since this is a hook agency.com podcast. Um just got a review today by Kristen Sullivan of Bob's AC. They said, "Hook Agency has been an incredible partner for our digital marketing growth. Their team is sharp, responsive, and truly understands how to drive highquality leads through SEO and paid search. Since working with them, we've seen stronger visibility online, improved keyword rankings, and a clear strategy that actually moves the needle. They communicate proactively, provide transparent reporting, and genuinely care about helping businesses grow. Highly recommend them for any company wanting real, measurable digital marketing results. Thank you, Kristen Sullivan, for that. And I appreciate everyone that watches the podcast. Appreciate you for driving. Yeah. An hour to get here. I think it's so much better to do an in-person podcast. So much better. Yeah. I just like seeing real people. It's uh it's a little, you know, we're all around the country, so there's just Well, I work from home, so I got to get out today and do something a little different. Yeah, exactly. It is. Just so you guys know, it's bitter cold. There's probably some uh heating calls going on in Minnesota. 12 this morning or something like that. Yeah. 12. So, there's probably some heating calls going on. Good luck to the Midwestern um heating and AC companies out there. And um yeah, one more time the for just bco.com. bco. And uh let's just practice your elevator pitch. Say it one more time. bco.com. Go to bullco.com. Look at that camera. Go to bullco.com. You can fill out a form there and get a hold of me and I would be glad to get on a call with you and talk about how you can get your business scaling the way it should be. I think like the best part about it feels like call by call is like it's not just about more money too. It's about getting a little bit control of the chaos cuz I think some people are making a lot of money from pure grit and maybe you need to be gritting your teeth a little bit less and enabling your people a little bit more. So less of that chaos gets to you. Yeah. At the end of the, you know, Yeah. day and week. And I think a lot of owners and managers thrive off of I hate to say it, but they thrive off of putting out fires. They feel like they're a hero cuz they're putting out fires for their people. Like they're they're they're worth more, per se, but it's exhausting at the same time. So So don't don't call them if you just need those fires to keep going. Yeah. If if you need those fires to drive you and to make you feel important, keep doing it. Uh but eventually you'll probably burn out or you'll have too many people to put all the fires out. All right. Thank you, bro. Thank you. I can't commend Hook Agency enough on just the experience. We're talking about plumbing experience, but the experience we've had overall working with your team members on this uh project, they really draw out ideas that otherwise I I didn't even think of, which is incredible. So, thank you guys for being a a valued partner of the family plumber. I really appreciate that.