(rock music)
-: Hello, and welcome back to The Sharpest Tool
where we take the sting out of marketing.
My name is Josh Smith, I am your host,
and today we have Al Levi.
Al Levi is the founder of The 7-Power Contractor.
He's a business consultant, teacher, author,
and he's a former contractor who worked for 25 years
in every aspect of growth
of his now fourth generation family,
Long Island New York based plumbing heating and cooling
and electrical business.
So the system Al's put in place enabled him
to sell his share of the business to his brothers
and retire before he was 50,
which, you know, a lot of us listening
are probably thinking how do I do that?
Al helps other contractors learn
to run their businesses with less stress
and through success, through his long-running column
in Plumbing & Mechanical magazine, and his book,
"The 7-Power Contractor: Run Your Contracting Business
"with Less Stress and More Success."
Today, he's even reaching more contractors
through webinars, online programs
and very exclusive one-to-one consulting.
So, Al, it is a absolute pleasure to have you in the booth.
Welcome.
-: I am psyched to be here.
I love this stuff and I can't wait
to share more with everybody.
-: That's awesome.
I'm excited to see what we're gonna take out of this.
So, you're probably best known for
the 7-Power Contractor, arguably.
So, why don't you give our listeners some context.
Let's keep it high level for now.
What is the 7-Power Contractor concept?
And who is it intended to help?
-: Well, you know, really it helps every business.
I could've named it 7-Power Entrepreneur
and then I would be amongst everybody
who ever markets, if you go on Google or any place else,
so I said no, let's just call it what it is,
which is 7-Power Contractor.
So, before your audience tunes out, I would say to listen
because I was a serial entrepreneur.
I wasn't just in that business plumbing heating cooling.
My dad raised us as kids to be in business meetings
and so we'd be in business meetings and,
one thing, we were not allowed to talk.
-: (laughs) -: So we had to sit,
quiet sitting -: Sure.
-: Yeah, but after we were done, it was,
so we owned multi-state real estate, we owned
a radiant heat manufacturer, we owned
a computer software company, we owned liquor stores,
ice cream shop, and we always felt
the plumbing heating cooling business was
the golden goose. -: Yeah.
And that was not a guess, that was told to us
when we were little boys (laughs)
is that you always take care of that
but we had these other businesses to diversify.
And what we found out is that more businesses
are alike than unalike.
Everybody thinks well, no, my business is different.
No, it isn't.
It's about that much different, I'm holding my finger
and my thumb just a little bit apart.
They really are these basic concepts.
So as a contractor, we are overwhelmed.
Any business, whether you're a lawyer or accountant,
whatever you are, you're gonna be overrun.
And how do you deliver services and then work on
the business, this has been a classic case of the problem.
And the good news is, I was making a ton of money.
-: Yeah. (both laugh)
-: Here's the bad news is I was on a path to kill myself.
-: Sure. -: I was gonna be
a really rich dead guy.
And so I speak from authenticity of listening
and learning some systems.
I was very fortunate, good people came in to my life
and as a New Yorker, I did a most difficult thing.
I shut up and listened.
(both laugh) -: Yeah, that's not easy!
-: That's not easy at all 'cause we know everything.
So, you know, I really was very lucky,
some great people came to mind, but basically
as we wake up as business owners,
we think there's several million things we have to do.
-: Sure.
-: And the answer is no, no.
Really there are seven things, and what are they?
Planning power.
Operating power.
Staffing power.
Sales power.
Sales coaching.
Marketing and Financial.
You need to have systematic approaches
to all seven of those things.
Those are the things that make the difference.
One of the things is usually asked as well.
Do you, better than one or the other?
And I've worked with some of
the best contractors out there, and I will tell you
that nobody is a ten out of ten on a scale of all of these.
It's impossible.
But one thing is you cannot be a zero.
-: Yeah.
-: So, in other words, if you're great at all the six
that I mentioned but you're a zero in marketing?
You're going out of business.
-: Sure.
-: And so you have to pick up the skills and the systems
and stuff to make that work.
Seven powers is really the big change for any business.
-: Can you summarize that just in a real solid nugget?
Like, how does this help?
Just in a sentence or two, what's the powerful punch
that you're able to give?
-: Well, if I can unpack a little bit more about what it is,
so planning power is you should wake up and have a plan.
-: Yeah, yeah.
-: And a good friend of mine always says, plan
or be planned for, which I think is so essential
to this concept.
So I was always getting run over by the business,
not ever ahead of it.
So planning power is working on the right thing
at the right time in the right way.
So I call it the three rights of planning power.
-: Sure.
-: Operating power is documenting the policies
and procedures that it takes
for every box on your org chart,
so that you have policies and procedures,
they're not meant to be law documents,
but they're simple ways that I can fill the box
on your org chart.
'cause otherwise, you're just gonna judge me
by how you woke up today, subjective, based on what?
Opinion.
Versus a systematic way for me
to successfully fill that box.
So on staffing, the next thing is, you need to have
the five things of staffing which is always recruiting,
always hiring, always orienting, always training,
and Josh, here's the one they always miss, always retaining.
So I, being a half plumber.
(both laugh)
I would say, think of a bathtub and you're filling
it up with these great people, but the drain is wide open
if you don't address the retaining.
Now, if you do a great job on recruiting, hiring, orienting,
and training, the likelihood
of retaining being an issue is lessened.
If you provide a salary level so they know when
they get their next bump.
If you create an org chart where they know how they move up
and when they move up, which are all
the things I've created, then this becomes less of a problem
and then you can really grow your company
as big as you can make it.
So, staffing really kinda comes there.
Sales is part of what we do, and I think the problem is
everybody if I (laughs) I do this in seminars,
I say, you know, guys, close your eyes.
I'm gonna say salesmen, open your eyes.
And say, what'd you think of?
And they'd all say a guy in a plaid suit selling me
a used car. (laughs)
That is not sales.
-: Nope.
-: Sales is asking great questions, shutting up
and listening, and affirming to a customer
that you have heard what they are saying
to address their wants and needs.
And if you don't get a customer to talk and speak to you,
that's never gonna happen.
So that's what I mean by sales power.
And then sales coaching is we have to coach you
on good, bad, or indifferent results.
Those are all some of the things that need
to be able to be done.
-: Yeah.
-: Marketing, which of course is something
that you guys are good at. (laughs)
Is it's the right amount of calls from the right customer
at the right time.
-: Sure.
And those are the three rights of marketing.
And financial, at the end of it is,
I'm not in love with financial, but here's
what I can tell you, you can't ignore it.
-: Yeah.
-: And there are two different types of accounting.
One is called tax accounting, which is
what your accountant does for you and it's,
the idea of it is to minimize taxes
and to make it happen less often, less frequently,
and delay it, which is important 'cause you don't
want to end up in a pinstripe suit
with bars in front of you.
The fact is, you need real world accounting, as well,
which means, how do you make good financial decisions today
and that has to be based on real world accounting.
-: Absolutely.
-: So that's the seven powers.
-: That's incredible, you hit on something that I know
a lot of business owners face today.
We talk about it pretty frequently on this show.
The retaining aspect.
When you go into a business in the consulting
that you've done, I just want to hit on this
for a hot minute because I know it's always
a hovering question, what's one of the biggest challenges
that you see or maybe it's even a problem
that most business owners are having
a struggle figuring out when it comes
to retaining clients.
What do you see most frequently when you go in
to a business?
-: To retain clients or retain staff?
-: I'm sorry, retain staff members.
-: Okay, yeah, retaining staff, 'cause we do want to do both.
-: Yes. (both laugh)
Very much so.
-: Which is a good point, but just thinking
of retaining staff is, I think what I did towards
the end and what I teach clients today is,
if you weren't you and you sat in their chair,
be them for a minute.
Things become a whole lot clearer.
-: Yeah.
-: And so one of the things is, I come into your business,
I left a job preferably, which is why you hired me,
now I'm coming here and what do I experience?
So that's, remember when I said about recruiting, hiring,
and the next thing I said was orienting.
One of the customers I worked with told me
that the way I orient people
in the first two weeks dictates their success
for the rest of the time they're here.
And I go, well, that's pretty dramatic.
And he goes, no, it isn't.
Remember what it was like the first day you were
in high school?
How much a fish out of water you were?
But if you had a big brother, big sister there
to help you, guide you through, the orientation goes
a lot smoother.
So these pieces that build on it
is recruiting willing people providing skills versus
skilled people and trying to rewire them.
That's where it goes wrong.
-: Yeah.
-: And hiring is, you know, doing a good job,
but it's also showing them where they can go.
And that's what the org chart is designed.
I like to think of it like a pyramid.
The stronger the blocks are at the bottom
the bigger and wider and stronger
your pyramid's gonna be.
And that is what the seven powers are,
but in particular in the staffing end of it
is people at the bottom have to do their job
and when they do their job, they don't have
to go to you and go, "Hey hey hey, when do I get that
"next box above me?".
You should already have that laid out.
-: Absolutely.
-: And so that helps in this retaining process.
One of the things I hated, I was in a union shop
so when my clients tell me oh this won't work here I go,
I'm sorry, I'm in Iowa, you mean to tell me
that this is rougher than a New York City union shop?
-: Yeah.
-: And they start to laugh, and I go, trust me,
I understand that but, you know, one of
the things I did, I blamed them when they would stand
at my door at 5 o'clock.
Josh, why are they standing at my door at 5 o'clock?
-: Yeah, looking for work.
-: Or raise, or something.
Yeah, so, they're there at 5 o'clock and I knew
and I kinda hated because I felt they were taking advantage
of me, but then one day, like I said is,
I put myself at the door through their eyes,
and what I realized in a hurry was,
I was forcing grown people to act like a child
to come to me and ask me when their raise in allowance.
And that is why we created salary levels,
and they're tied to the org chart, and they're tied
to time tables, so you are controlling your own career.
And it, we grew our company, we developed
these people called field supervisors
and they basically ran their team.
And what we said is, instead of making the mistake
where you would get a white truck, go out and think you
can sell it for 5 dollars less than us,
and you will be broke based on percentages that are known,
you can research it online, nine out of ten of you
are gonna go broke and do damage to yourself
and to your family.
Stay here, run the team, we have all the systems
and rules, you know it because you grew up on it,
and you can get all the benefits.
So when they do well, you do well.
-: Yeah.
-: And that really changed the dynamic.
That's really, I know that's a long-winded answer
to retaining but that goes to all of it.
-: That's incredible.
We can dive more into that when we get into
the seven powers a bit more fully in our next episode
which I think will be really powerful
but I wanna kinda step back a little bit.
Tell me a little bit about your family growing up.
It sounds like it was quite a unique situation.
-: Well, the personal note is, my mom passed away
when I was four so I kinda grew up in, and for old people
who are old enough to know The Brady Bunch, I was the,
and if not, go ahead an YouTube it, but we were a family
of six and we were always tied to the business
and our conversations around the dinner table
were pretty hysterical because we would talk about
the sports team, then we would talk about a job
we had been on, then we would talk about a sports team,
then talk about a job we had been on.
This was the insane conversation growing up
and I worked with my two older brothers and my dad,
and my dad was really kind of a life coach,
business coach, you know, and really helped steer me through
a lot of the things, and if I was willing to ask a question
and listen, he was willing to give the advice
and my advice, I share all the time that my dad's advice
is what you paid me to come to your place today.
(both laugh)
-: What were some of the big qualities that he possessed
that you just absorbed or that really stuck out to you
that you started to emulate as you started
to get into business management.
-: I'll start with a bad story.
-: Okay, yeah, no.
-: So, my dad, he believed in knocking on doors
and, you know, networking and things of that nature
and I was very very shy.
-: Yeah.
-: So people would go, come on, Al, you're not shy anymore
and I said, well, this is the end product
not the beginning product.
-: Yep.
-: So in high school, where I'd have to go door to door,
I would be staring at my shoes which is
the most ultimate no no for anybody in sales,
you know what I'm talking about.
-: (laughs) Yeah.
-: Not making eye contact.
And getting enough doors slammed on you, eventually
you get faster and learn how to talk and make contact.
And so he really helped me through that.
And he explained about, if you're in a sales slump,
one more call today, one more visit today,
one more, you know, that was kind of
what he encouraged me to do.
-: Yeah.
-: And that was like a million things,
it was just one more thing to do to break out of
that quote unquote sales slump.
The other thing I would say is, another bad lesson was,
I tried to emulate my dad and my dad was, he had a voice
that was about this loud, and when he was talking, people
would lean in, and you could see them lean in
on the couch 'cause I was with him, and they'd be talking
when he was at people's houses.
So I went off and I was gonna do that
and I was awful at sales because I was
not my authentic self.
So it was a lesson that was well learned early, fortunately,
to be able to do that.
But what my dad, I did see one good characteristic is,
he asked great questions, and he allowed customers
to fully speak and to share and he confirmed
that he was listening by repeating back their answers,
paraphrasing it, and really, his goal, if you will,
was to be a great servant.
-: I love that.
-: And some of the best sellers in the country, you know
the mistake is people go, oh he's a great seller
because he can talk a lot, and the answer is, no he's not.
The best people who are the highest earners
in this country are really great listeners.
-: Absolutely.
They're people that, they don't prescribe before
they describe what the situation is, right?
-: I think also that too is prejudge.
You know, we also prejudge in the home service business.
Oh that area there, they won't pay any money
or, you know, you get out of your truck
and you look to your right and go no they won't
or they're really rich and no, hey.
No, your job is to run every call.
This is a democracy.
You run every call the right way, that's your job.
-: Absolutely.
You mentioned serial entrepreneurship, that your family
had a lot of business involvement and hands dipped
in a lot of pots.
What was that like?
Did you find it difficult to focus in any one area?
-: Well that was one of things again, remember
the golden goose, so when we would drift too far,
you know, he would have a big hook and drag us back
to focus on it, but the more systematized you are,
more things you can do.
I have some clients that they wanna do everything
and I really try to get them to focus on,
can you do three of these?
What are the three you really want to do?
Can you systematize them?
Are they really what you want to do
before you get too wide a circle.
-: Sure, sure.
Did you have a favorite, growing up?
Out of all the little business you ran?
-: You know I think I fell in love with
the plumbing heating cooling business because,
even though I was as a boy, you know, going out with my dad,
we couldn't understand while we were young, you know,
it was great, my dad would wake us up at 2 a.m.,
we'd hop in his truck and go and we were thrilled.
And people were really nice and they'd feed us
and he wasn't as excited, I don't understand why he
was waking up at 2 o'clock every night.
But I fell in love with the business because
when I came out of school full time, I was handed
a toolbox and I showed my dad my diploma,
it was in mechanical engineering which I practice zero days.
It was in my drawer for 25 years with a blanket over it
so nobody would hassle me about it.
And so I fell in love because I had a start
at age 21 learning the difference between an adjustable
and a pipe wrench.
A screwdriver is flat and I didn't know any of this.
And within two years I was the second best tech
and everybody goes well, who's the first best?
And I go, my brother, Richie.
And they go, who's the first best now?
I say, my brother, Richie.
He still, he's just phenomenal, and a good friend
of ours in the industry nicknamed him
the man who could fix anything.
-: That's awesome.
That's incredible.
Did you find that your family or, I guess,
how did your dad encourage entrepreneurship in the family?
Aside from doing it day in and day out.
-: Yeah well, the family nucleus was the business.
That's where we hung out, that's where we interacted,
that's where we go to lunch
and then we would support each other.
One of the things that, some good lessons
that I think, share with the audience was,
I didn't enjoy as a boy going to wakes and funerals
and the rest of it, or going to a hospital
to pay a visit to.
But my father, that was non-negotiable.
He goes, these are people who have chosen to be with us.
I have a quick story if you have a moment.
-: Yeah, yeah.
-: My dad is like 75 or 80 and all of a sudden I see him
in the hallway where people would come in
from the parking lot and he's engaging in every one
with them and I called him in the office and I said,
"Hey, Dad, when did you turn into the Wal-Mart greeter?".
And he looked at me and he goes, you know,
I've been thinking about it.
Said they vote every day with their feet to be here
with us, and I'm gonna make 'em feel really good about it.
(laughs) -: Awesome.
Such a simple way to look at it.
-: Yeah, yeah, that's amazing, you know,
'cause he was crazy busy, he just hired good people
and hoped it all worked out.
It was very different than me.
I, it was a lot of chaos.
And that happens, you know, when you first start out
to grow a business, you don't say no.
But when we came around second, third generation here,
it was time to really put some systems in,
to platform, all these other kinds of things, yep.
-: What lesson, and you mentioned lessons, I'm glad you did.
I imagined you learned a lot through all
the experiences you had growing up.
What would you say, lessons-wise, what stood out the most?
-: I think, you know, the thing is to see yourself as,
it was actually a really good lesson that it was by,
more for my friend in the industry than to me, you know
when I felt overrun, you know, with all these calls
and how am I gonna do all this stuff.
And my friend looked at me and he goes, your customers
woke up today and they had 2,000 choices they could've made
and he wasn't exaggerating, by the way, and they chose you.
Think about that today.
And that sentence alone changed everything for me.
So instead of this burden it felt like an honor.
Now, still was a burden for me to figure it out
but it was a different burden.
So when you see it that way, again a lot of these things
make a difference, I'll share another moment.
So I was at this famous highway right outside
of JFK airport, which is basically a parking lot
and those who live in LA understand.
So, I'm in this parking lot, I've got
a million places to go and I'm just 25 years old
and I'm just going crazy in my car, thinking about
where I gotta go.
And I don't know why, Josh, but I just happened to look up
in my rear view mirror and for the first time
in my life, I thought about all the cars that were behind me
instead of all the cars that were in front of me
and this became a life lesson as, yeah, you know,
there's still a lot to do.
So with the contractors I work with they go,
when can we do this, when can we do this, when can we.
I go, stop for a second.
We've got a master project list, top of the funnel.
We have a top 30 list, we're working on the top five,
and that is what planning power is about.
Think of all the things you have done with me
in the last year.
And you can see the switch just snap because
if we don't stop and congratulate ourselves
with what we put in our rear view mirror,
we won't have that power to move forward.
-: Absolutely.
I love that.
And that's so powerful, too.
It's a very humbling exercise, right?
'cause you do realize in the midst
of feeling unsuccessful sometimes, all you have to do
is look at where you were versus where you are
to get a better sense of your positioning
in terms of where you're going, which, I love that.
It wasn't until you were 48 that you decided
to focus on consulting.
I'm curious what influenced you
or why did you make the shift?
-: You know, it was funny, it's kind of always
is awkward to talk about only because
it sounds spiritual and I am a spiritual person
but I feel I was given a gift.
I was lost and I got found.
I felt the pressure that I was talking about.
That was not made up.
You know, every day was a killing process
and I could feel where the stress was gonna explode me.
And so, when I finally got these systems handled
and I could build staff from scratch
and I could get good people on board and keep them on board
and really grow this company,
that there's a big country out there
that I need to help other contractors just like me
find that there's a different path.
So there was no mistake, when people ask, "Well, how'd
"you pick your tag line?" I go, it was easy,
I was livin' it.
Less stress, more success, that's what we want.
That's what we want and I finally got to that point.
And so this career, when I left, I'm very lucky,
as you mentioned 48.
I left not having to work, which is very strange,
and I feel very blessed for it, but reality is I felt I
had been given a gift and I think that if you've
been given a gift, you're obligated to give back.
Now I get paid, and I think you shouldn't be
in business teaching other people about business
if you don't run a successful business yourself.
-: Absolutely.
-: And you haven't earned your way to the front of
the class as Dale Carnegie always talks about.
And so, yes, it's exceeded my wildest expectations
and I'm really pleased that so many successful people
have gone on and their lives got better
and some of them actually have solved a health crisis.
There was a guy that had a cancer issue
and I said I can't help with cancer
but I can bet if stress is adding to it
we can work on that.
And, knock on this wood table, he's been cancer free
for 15 years now.
-: Incredible.
That's awesome.
And you've been doing this for 17 years.
-: Yes.
Try not to say that so slow.
-: Sev-- (laughs)
-: Really, 17 years?
And you were a, how old were you?
-: Yeah, well, I'm sure you've had a lot of pivotal moments
over the course that time that you've been consulting.
I'm just curious maybe you have a story or two
that have been like keystone moments across this
that have just been awesome experiences
in helping business owners across the country.
-: Well, the little clue behind the scenes is
they asked me what my favorite group was
so I told them Grateful Dead so this has been
a long strange trip, for those who know the Grateful Dead.
I was actually, it was a photographer
in Northern California who called me up
and found me on the web.
And I said well, I work with contractors
and she goes, your contractors are my photographers.
(both laugh)
We went there and organized her business.
I've helped property management guys, I've worked with
a condo builder in Montreal, I've never built a condo.
And so it's very fascinating to me, business is more alike
than unalike, and if I sit with smart people,
the other thing is, I think, you know,
I have been fortunate that I continued to learn.
And when I sit with good people
and they ask me good questions, I get smarter.
So Ellen Rohr, who's very well known
in our industry, says just do what Al says
and if Al tells you something, it's right,
and it comes off as conceited.
She says well, it's true.
I said well here's why it's true
is if I don't know, I won't say.
I will go research or I will find out
or I will find somebody who knows it.
But I have gotten smarter because I work with smart people.
-: Yeah.
Your main tagline, you've mentioned it,
help contractors run their businesses with less stress
and more success.
Tell me about when you experienced this
and how it really kinda turned your life
and your business around.
-: (laughs) Sorry, story.
Richie and I were the last two techs standing
amongst 25 techs, so typically conversations,
inane conversations at 2 a.m., 'cause we're in the office
at this point, complaining about this guy
or we thought this guy was the best guy ever
and when we say, really?
Josh?
Josh is mediocre here.
And we didn't know what Josh couldn't do
because we didn't have any process for anything.
And we decided to stop doing retreads
and we would hire good, young, willing people
and train 'em our way.
And that really changed the dynamic.
The problem was that we didn't know what we needed
to do so manuals became a big thing.
We finally documented, all of this, by the way,
is way funnier today.
-: Yeah. (laughs)
-: But we decided that, you know, we would hire,
so we spent 150 thousand dollars back in 1996.
We hired in our friend to write it
because I had been trying to write it for a long time
and I couldn't.
And so, it just ended up like a legal book, you know,
section two point five dash one point three,
and guys can't read that.
It's worthless.
The manuals needed to be more conversational
and it needed to be integrated 'cause one piece
of a puzzle affects the other, and what I mean by that is,
the way the customer service rep builds sales momentum,
answers the call the right way
so you, mister score bean, does a great job creating calls
and if I can't handle it right from the gate,
I'm gonna blow all your calls.
So, again, bathtub, full of calls, drain wide open.
-: Drain wide open, yeah.
-: So this CSR gets this, and then they hand it off
to the dispatcher whose job is to maximize the day.
And then the dispatcher's gotta get all
the right information to the tech.
Tech has to do everything except
turn the wrenches, screwdrivers.
They have to perform a certain way and they have to get
the information back.
And when any time that,
what I call the triangle of communication, breaks
customers are not served right,
chaos kicks in, and that is really the thing.
So there are different manuals but they're not integrated
and they have to be integrated.
That's what fixes companies the fastest, by the way.
-: Yeah, you know, it's easy to get overwhelmed
as a contractor.
I know you felt that.
You feel like there's 100 things vying for your time
but, I know you disagree.
Can you talk a bit about that?
-: Why I disagree is because
when you go through planning power, what you do is you,
'cause every time you go to a seminar, every time you go
to the keyboard and search something, every time
your friend calls you up and said try this,
all these great ideas.
Well, we're not short of ideas, Josh.
We're short of implementation.
-: Yeah, execution.
-: Yes, exactly.
So the idea is, think of it as a giant funnel.
The top of the funnel is the master project list
so that's where everything goes to wait its turn
at the top of the list and it works its way down
to the middle which is what I call the top 30 which is
if you and I were working together
and I'm back here next year, what 30 projects or habits
that we put in, they're not all projects,
some of them are good habits.
Steps of delegation, which we are,
as contractors, miserable at
because we don't delegate, we dump.
So this is a habit you need to do
as far as corrective actions, giving you a chance
to get back on board, there's no set step.
So a lot of this is not just, oh get
a good marketing campaign, get a good sales campaign, get a,
you know, all of those are important but on this big top
of the funnel is the master project list
and the way it moves to the top 30, it either fixes
the biggest problem or challenge, or the greatest chance
to grow and be profitable.
And so those two strainers, filters, whatever you want
to call it, is how you get them to go down to the top 30.
'cause that's where you're saying if I did this in
the next year, it's going to change my company.
Then you take out the same filters again, one more time,
down to your top five.
-: Got it.
-: And we said these five things will impact either fix
the biggest problem or challenge, the greatest chance
to grow and be profitable.
Well, the phone's not ringing.
Or the phone's not ringing with the right customers.
Or the phone's not ringing with the right customers
at the right time.
Well, that's gotta get fixed, and so what campaign
do I need to do, what paper click, what SEO,
what website, whatever I've gotta fix,
those would be reasons to hit my top five.
So here's the secret to this.
-: All right, lay it on me.
-: Okay.
-: (laughs)
-: I don't care how busy your week is,
because if you're only working in the business
and never on it like Michael Gerber said in E Myth,
then nothing's gonna change, so once a week
at the very least, an hour a week, you have to work
on that top five.
-: Absolutely.
No matter what's going on, you have to work
on your top five.
That is how progress is made, and when you knock out
the five, you go to the 30 and drag the next one down.
-: What are some of the biggest problems you see
in contractors and their businesses?
Kind of piggy backing on that.
-: I would say they were like me in that I wanted
to win every battle.
We're competitive.
I want to win every battle, and here's what I'm here
to say today.
You can't.
And if you did, you'd lose the war,
which is what I finally got attached to.
So, I was a pretty good tech, I could,
even toward the end I would run calls periodically
even though we had 25, 30 techs at that point.
The temptation was to pick up my tool box
on a really crazy day and go out, knock out some calls,
but I had to learn to stay in the dispatch department
and manage them better because that would affect 200 calls
not the calls that I did myself.
So this is how I learned to win a war versus
trying to win a battle.
If I were to ride in your truck
and see you running a call today, I'd do what they call
a ride along, I could easily jump in and maximize
that call today, but what have you learned?
Nothing. -: Yeah, nothing.
-: So I'm willing to lose the battle today to win the war
which is where we get back in the truck, I just turn
to you and go Josh, what'd you do really well?
And let you brag.
Then I go, what would you do better next time?
And you'd be surprised, more times than not, especially
if you have a sales system.
-: Sure.
-: And so I always talk about my five steps to sales process
is this is a system where you just go through
so that you don't skip any steps.
And techs understand that, is that if, so on a heating call
or air conditioning, it's hot.
(both laugh)
If I start on the roof one time, or I start
in the yard one time, or next call I go to I start at
the thermostat, I'm gonna miss something.
So, every call I go in, I start with a process
so I don't skip steps.
Well guess what sales is?
Steps.
-: Yeah.
Following the right steps, the right action
at the right time, right?
-: Yep.
-: How does your operating system really kind of address
some of those problems?
-: Well, starting from the CSRs, they answered all
the different ways in the call, or they go too far
or they quote prices.
All of this will blow up calls.
So, and customers, not necessarily 'cause they're bad people
just will say, you know, what do you think it is?
And a CSR goes, I don't know, it could be a toilet,
could be a sink, could be whatever.
Well how much do you think it's gonna be?
Well, the guy's gonna come out but it could be 100
to a thousand dollars.
And then when I get out into the field as a tech,
and I tell 'em it was the toilet and they say,
well the lady on the phone said it was the sink,
well we're in trouble.
Or if I said it's 500 dollars, he goes, well on the phone
they said 100, 'cause when they hear price ranges,
the only one they ever hear is the bottom.
So this is where manuals tell them how to go through
the call, how to book it the right way, how to get all
of the right information, and then they pass it off
to a dispatcher who's maximizing the billable hours
'cause, with clients, I always say, you know,
you think you sell stuff, and yes, there's stuff
in your truck and there's a lot of money invested,
but really the biggest thing you have is to sell your labor
so the question really becomes where are you going today
to maximize those billable hours?
And that's where the dispatcher
and the service manager working together really make
a world of difference.
-: Yeah.
How do you normally get your clients started?
The businesses you work with.
Let's say there's a listener who's overwhelmed.
Where is a good place to begin?
-: Well, right now I would say the manuals are really
the biggest thing, but you really need to have an org chart
because manuals alone floating around are not really it.
So you really need to have a org chart.
But it's an org chart that's really flat.
It's not an org chart with all the CIOs, CFOs, CTOs,
all these initials that make you feel good
but it doesn't help you run your company.
So an org chart with the boxes it takes
to run your company.
-: Yeah.
-: And then what you were talking about before about depth,
about guys go, guys leave, what do you do?
Suppose if you only have one person who knows
how to do the accounts payable, you got a problem
if they not watching when they cross the street
and a bus hits 'em.
So the idea about this is, when you have an org chart,
you expand those boxes to create a depth chart.
-: Yeah.
And the analogy I use is football.
So the center gets hurt, we still have to snap the ball.
Nobody's cross-trained to be able to do that.
The CSR, dispatcher, tech, and even in AR/AP.
And that is not as doable until you have manuals
for each of those boxes.
-: Yeah.
-: Because you can't sit in that box and be effective.
It's not everything you need to know, we're trying
to cover the 80%.
The 20 is not what throws you.
What throws people in business is waking up
to the fire you thought you put out yesterday
that's gonna break out again tomorrow because there
is no system approach to it.
-: Absolutely.
What would you say to somebody who's maybe
a bit further along, because I know
that's phenomenal advice for a lot of our business owners,
a lot of our listeners,
because a lot of them haven't even done that step.
We're kind of flying by the seat of our pants,
especially if we're in hyper growth,
or we've been growing for quite some time, you know,
and so, often times it's a matter of let's get
as many people in as we can, and we haven't spent
the time on the business, like you said.
-: Yeah.
-: But, some of our listeners are a bit further along.
Maybe they've got some of those structures in place.
What advice would you give them?
Somebody who's in that stage.
-: Yeah, and so, I would say in, two types of companies,
just to back track.
I've worked with companies where they're good entrepreneurs.
They've grown as far as they can but they've already run out
of days in a week, weeks in a month, months in a quarter,
and they have to have systems to leverage.
Or, they're great at marketing and sales
and they are just booming it.
Problem is, every time they make a new sales call
or anything, they just put more gasoline on a fire
that's out of control, so they need systems as well.
-: And so, when you're talking about people
who are further along, I still think that they need
to have a plan.
-: Sure.
-: So the plan, you can go even higher
in what I call leadership power, which is kinda
the bonus thing here is, what's the expression?
Oh yeah, any road will do if you don't care
where you end up.
-: (laughs)
-: So, if you've got the fires calmed down a little bit,
you've earned the right to leadership.
People that I work with over a couple years,
I get to leadership at the end and they go,
ah this is great, why didn't we start earlier?
I go, because you were in a pool about to drown.
This is not the time to teach you how to swim.
-: Yeah, yeah.
(both laugh)
-: So leadership is really, if you have a company
that's far enough along, they should have goals
that are objective and measurable.
So what I mean by what they want to be in sales,
and how many trucks would that be and each of these things
and really begin to break it down and so that,
somebody who's not involved in the business looks at it
and sees it and then so, it's very funny,
partners can sometimes play this role.
When I come in working with two partners,
if one guy who's a great visionary,
they can see a mile down the road, we're gonna be the best,
whatever it is, with zero idea how to get there,
and their partner is like, you know what, I'm overloaded,
I'm just gonna work on today.
The problem is one is my right hand going
as far right as it can,
the other one is this left hand going as far left as I can.
The goal is to bring 'em together so there's a goal, a plan
and then this person who can execute, he is doing it
a block at a time.
So what I say is it's great to have a visionary who
can see a mile down the road but then you need
an implementer who can do a block at a time,
to move to that direction.
-: Absolutely.
Well, Al, this has been awesome.
So many nuggets, I actually, what I'd like to do
is come back next week and talk a bit more specifically
about the seven powers themselves, if you're open to that.
-: That sounds good.
-: It'd be awesome.
Just wrapping all this up today,
what would you say one nugget, I always like
to wrap things up with a nice bow, one nugget,
if they had to take one thing away today,
what advice would that be?
-: I would say systematize your business.
For my case, it was the manuals and, you know, yes,
I do sell the manuals but that's, not here
to be a commercial.
I do fervently believe that there is no business
that can run right until you document your policies
and procedures in plain English.
-: Yeah, absolutely.
Well this was awesome, Al.
Where can people find more about you
and The 7-Power Contractor?
-: It's at 7powercontractor.com.
-: Awesome.
Well, thank you so much, Al, and for everybody listening,
definitely tune in next so we have round two with Al Levi
where we'll talk more about these seven powers
in The 7-Power Contractor.
From wherever you're listening at, definitely hit
that subscribe button so you can get more
of this awesome content.
And from all of us here at The Sharpest Tool,
my name is Josh Smith.
We'll catch you next time.
Thanks.
(rock music)