CEO Warrior - First Edition - Sept 2017

CEO Warrior - First Edition - Sept 2017

september 2017

A newsletter for service business owners who want more wealth, freedom, and market domination.

What the One-Armed Workout Can Teach You About Growing Your Home Service Business

Imagine a weightlifter with Schwarzenegger- sized muscles on only the right side of his body. He only works out the one side of his body, so his right arm and right leg are massive while his left arm and left leg remain average. This person wouldn’t seem like an imposing wall of muscle; they’d seem like a cartoon character. We’d laugh at their comical lopsidedness. As silly as this sounds from a weightlifting perspective, this is exactly what’s happening in service businesses everywhere.

Growing Your Business Is Good. But Are You Focused on the Right Things?

So, let’s take a step back to gain a higher- level view of the strategy of growing your business. This approach helps you spot growth opportunities that you may not have been aware of. Although you can probably list many practical actions that could lead to business growth, there are actually only four ways to grow your business. Each of the practical actions you’re thinking of can be filed into these four high-level strategies.

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Increasing your direct-mail marketing Building an online presence to attract website visitors Offering a referral incentive for customers who refer their friends Developing a public relations (PR) strategy Creating a social presence

Growing your home service business is smart: You’re able to help more homeowners, employ a bigger team, create a positive impact in your community, and build your personal wealth. The benefits are obvious.

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But what’s less obvious is how to do it. How do you grow your business?

This is the most common way to grow your business, but there are other ways to grow your business as well.

You might have some actionable ideas already, such as a need to increase your marketing or to get more referrals. But simply listing out these ideas and trying to implement them can actually be a problem! You could end up growing your business only in the ways that you can think of, while missing out on many other ways that are just beyond your awareness. And surprisingly, this can result in a lopsided business that grows too much in one way and not enough in another way.

Growth Strategy 1: Increase the Number of Customers

Growth Strategy 2: Increase the Average Transaction Value

This is what most service business owners think of when they think of growing their business. With this strategy, you’re marketing to potential new customers or you’re trying to get your customers to refer their friends and family to you. It might include such actions as these:

In this strategy, you make more money on every invoice. It’s not just a matter of raising your prices (that’s one strategy, and maybe the first one you think of, but it’s not the only one).

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Great Leadership in 13 Critical Steps “Where’s the action? Where’s the game?” is a line in the song “Oldest Established” from the immortal Broadway musical (and my personal favorite) “Guys and Dolls.” slack, lacks work ethic, or is slow to decide, employees have been given tacit permission to be and do the same. The best leaders are first in, last out, and work their humps off in the middle.

so with a helpful, positive attitude. You must be a coach and a teacher, not a manager or a boss. There’s a big difference, both in results and morale. 13) Great Leaders TrainWith Their People, Continuously If training is to retain a lasting value, it must have leadership support and participation. Leaders must train to be better leaders. Did I just define you as a leader? I hope so, but I doubt it. Start by rating yourself on the qualities I’ve listed above. Any score of less than seven requires immediate attention. The challenge for you, whether you’re a leader or a teammember, is to study these qualities and talk about them openly. One of the tragedies of leadership is that the (overrated) 360-degree feedback process usually only goes 180 degrees.

For the uninformed, the show features a craps game and a gang leader named Nathan Detroit. The movie version stars Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando and won all kinds of awards. The plot is about gambling, winning, and sexual attraction. It’s an exhilarating story with great music and a happy ending. The overarching theme of “Guys and Dolls” is how people look to their leader to make things happen. And it’s the same in your business — just without the craps game and the songs. But it’s not without the gambling. All business is a gamble, and all businesses look to their leaders to make it happen. Below are the actions and qualities that I’ve observed that are mandatory for leadership success. I call them the “13 Golden Rules of Leadership.” They’re actions that build trust, earn respect, and create a team of people who are inspired to be productive and do their best. 1) Great Leaders Are Value Providers, Not Order Givers At the top of every employee’s list of job wants (besides more money) is to be appreciated and valued. When appreciation for a job well-done is conveyed, a positive environment thrives. 2) Great Leaders Tell the Truth Truth creates trust, confidence, and a reliance on the consistency of message. All other leadership characteristics and the outcomes fade if there is a lack of truth. (This is the same in life.) 3) Great Leaders Are in Control and Earn Respect Quick to decide and unafraid to make or admit mistakes, great leaders are respected because they take action. 4) Great Leaders Focus on the Outcome to Ensure Completed Tasks Don’t focus on tasks or project completions. Rather, think what will happen after the project is completed. 5) Great Leaders Are Responsible by Example and Expect the Same From Their People Everyone looks to and at leaders. They watch their every move. If the leader is

“One of the tragedies of leadership is that the (overrated) 360-degree feedback process usually only goes 180 degrees.” 6) Great Leaders Value andDisplay Tolerance and Temperance I’mnot a fan of leaders who rant. You should praise in public and reprimand in private. Record yourself performing both praise and reprimand. See howyou sound to others by listening to yourself. Youmay not like it. 7) Great Leaders Are Excellent Communicators Who Are Listened to Intently and Clearly Understood The one characteristic that enhances productivity and generates more achievement and positive outcomes is clear communication. Leaders have a responsibility and a challenge to be excellent at it. 8) Great Leaders AreWide Open to New Ideas and Innovations “That’s the way we’ve always done it” is a recipe for failure. Leaders are readers, constantly searching for new ways to be better. 9) Great Leaders Are Tech-Savvy Leaders need to be tweeters and lead theway by communicating value and ideas through social media. A leader’s example can create an avalanche of great service, goodwill, loyal customers, increased sales, and a better reputation—or not. 10) Great Leaders Concentrate on Achieving the Best It always takes extra effort to strive to be the best, which is why so many people fail at it. Failure occurs when people (leaders or not) fail to do their best and be their best every day. 11) Great Leaders Remain Committed The best leaders never waver. They’re loyal, steadfast examples of what others aspire to be. They’re not just business mission driven; they’re also personal mission driven. They are respected and followed because of their commitment. 12) Great Leaders Encourage They build pride with a “you can do it” philosophy and communication style. They encourage their people to succeed, and to do

In addition to exhibiting the right qualities, a leader must use the right words.

Pabulum leadership words really bug me, but not as bad as they probably bug you if uttered by your leader.

Leaders are known by their words, deeds, actions, values, principles, and by the people they attract on their team, but …

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It’s their words that set the tone for the environment. It’s their words that start the internal chatter. It’s their words that shape their internal reputation.

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... then it’s the actions that follow. All are studied and judged by the team.

It’s a truism that great leaders attract great people. So, why is there so much leadership mediocrity in the world? It must be their words and the way they’re spoken! Below, I’ve put together a collection of leadership words (in no particular order) that sound good, but mean virtually nothing. You’ve heard them and groaned about them. I’ve highlighted these words in italics, explaining why I hate them, and suggested better words in ALL CAPS. continued on page 7 ...

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Raise your prices

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Offer memberships where multiple visits per year are expected Promote seasonal preparation services, such as a get-your-house- ready-for-winter service Have your call center follow up with customers regularly

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Plumbing Electrical

Create upsells, such as bronze, silver, and gold packages Offer ancillary purchases, such as environmentally friendly drain line products with every drain cleanout Offer discounts on bulk purchases

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HVAC

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Bathroom installs Water heaters Filtration units

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Generators

Offer memberships

Create opportunities for your experts to go back to your customer’s homes more often so you can serve them regularly. This frequency helps to establish you as the go-to expert in your customer’s minds as well.

Extend your lines of business so you have more to offer your customers.

The goal is simple: Get customers to spend more on every transaction. And the simplest way to do that ethically is to offer them products and services that truly serve them.

Summary

Business growth is good, but if you focus only on the few strategies that first come to mind, you’ll end up with a lopsided business. Grow your whole business by using all four of these growth strategies.

Growth Strategy 3: Increase the Frequency of Purchase

Growth Strategy 4: Increase the Lines of Business

In this strategy, you increase how often a customer buys from you. So, if they buy a duct cleaning just once a year, try to offer them services that will have them coming back twice a year or more.

In this strategy, you have more to offer customers. I think this is a massive trend in the service business today since customers want to pick up the phone and have one trusted company they can call for all of their home service needs. Add services like these:

- Mike Agugliaro

Top 3 Ways to Persuade Skeptical Buyers Your leads and prospective customers are skeptical. It’s not your fault, nor is it their fault. Rather, it’s because they are very protective of their homes and their hard-earned money. They want to invest in a safe and comfortable home, and they don’t want to waste their money. Here are three ways to turn skeptics into buyers:

» GIVE A GUARANTEE

drinking water, and that study became a useful part of an email blast, which linked to a water filtration offer from my company. Do some research on studies that pertain to the trade lines you offer and use those studies regularly. Be sure to reach out to your vendors and suppliers because they’ll likely have some valuable scientific studies that might already be packaged in a marketing-friendly way.

A guarantee is a powerful tool that will help you convince skeptical prospects to hire your company. Your guarantee should be easy to understand, easy to use, and powerful. The fewer clarifications and clauses the better — because prospects will naturally wonder what you’re trying to avoid if your guarantee is complicated.

» BRING IN SCIENCE

» PROACTIVELY ADDRESS OBJECTIONS

There are plenty of studies that explore what we do in the home service industry. For example, a recent study by Harvard noted an alarming level of toxins in

If a prospect has too many questions, they’ll start to get worried. They’ll wonder what they don’t understand, or even what you’re hiding! List all of the

most common objections you hear over and over during a consultation, then proactively answer them and weave those answers into your presentation.

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Warrior Fast- Track Academy Get ready for four interactive days at the new 10,000-square-foot CEO Warrior Training Facility, where you will create the blueprint for your business. We’ll cover sales, marketing, customer service, leads, branding, hiring, training, and more. It’s four days you’ll wish you had put in sooner to get the wealth, freedom, and market domination you’ve always wanted.

Go to www.WarriorFastTrackAcademy.com for details and registration.

YOUMISSED OUT ... Sept. 19-22, 2017 is SOLD OUT

Get your tickets early for our next event at WARRIORFASTTRACKACADEMY.COM

NEW - CEO WARRIOR WORLD

It’s a Facebook group exclusively created to serve business owners like you, who want great ideas and strategies, and an opportunity to share your own insights and connect with others.

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It’s a closed group so you’ll need to request to join

• I’m just starting it up so this is the best time to join and get involved • Watch for amazing strategies (including some exclusive stuff that I don’t share anywhere else) • Check your notices for some exclusive Facebook live trainings • ... it’s absolutely free

JOIN TODAY! WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/GROUPS/ CEOWARRIORWORLD/

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Million-Dollar CEO Warrior Insights Create more wealth, freedom, and market domination by using the insights and strategies of the best minds on the planet. These insights include:

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Brian Tracy: Secrets of Successful Small Businesses

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Larry Winget: Mastering Core Values and Social Media

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Cameron Herold: The Secrets to Thinking Strategically and Creating a Vision for Your Business

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Dan Kuschell: The Framework of Success

Plus, the proceeds go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

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Mike Michalowicz: Putting Your Profits First

GET YOUR COPY TODAY! VISITWWW.CEOWARRIOR.COM/INSIGHTS.

GET MORE WAYS TO BE A WARRIOR IN YOUR BUSINESS!

Meet Brian Vardiman!

A couple of years ago, I completely removed all of the fears and limiting beliefs that were holding me back. Then I played full-out. I started to religiously follow the Core 5 and charted it. I made massive improvements in the first six months. I have gone from two trucks (one of themwas me) to seven trucks in 2015, and I have two more trucks ordered and more planned for the future. I expanded my electrical-only business to plumbing and HVAC, and I am already growing past my next year’s plans, and the year isn’t over yet! My revenue this year was two times last year’s … and 70 percent of it was made between August and December. My revenue for next year will be over two times this year’s. I will add three-plus additional trucks next year. Plus, I funded this without taking on any debt, paid myself more than last year, bonused myself for the first time ever, and still made a profit! I am UNSTOPPABLE.

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Listen to the CEOWarrior Podcast. Mike interviews a ton of guest experts sharing their path to success. Get the CEOWarrior app! Full of free exclusive resources, trainings, and more! Join the CEOWarrior World Facebook Group and get exclusive live Facebook training fromMike, plus a ton of strategies.

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4. Subscribe to Mike’s online magazine Home ServiceMAXMag , with articles by authors in your industry about service business owners with real-life solutions. Go to HTTPS://CEOWARRIOR.COM/ FREE-RESOURCES/ to access them all!

Brian Vardiman Best Service Electrical, Heating, Plumbing And Air Warrior since 2014

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Here’s How To Achieve More Than You Thought Possible

by Mike Agugliaro

Leverage is using a small amount of power, intelligently applied, to achieve a comparably larger result. There are several powerful ways that you can leverage your time to achieve even more than you thought possible. Here are the ways I use leverage in my business to get comparably larger results. Automation and technology: Leverage your time by using technology and by automating parts of your business. For example, email, Skype, and YouTube are all great ways that you can connect with your team regularly even when they are out on the road. Delegation and outsourcing: Leverage others to help you achieve more in less time by handing off lower-value work to others and doing only the highest-value work for yourself. Figure out what your time is worth, and then make a list of all the work you do and assign a dollar value to it. Any work that is less than the value of your time should be handed off to someone else. Want to master your time, money, and success? Get leverage and multiply yourself by using automation, technology, delegation, and outsourcing to do more in less time. But first, you’ll probably have to break through your limiting beliefs to retrain your mind that you DON’T have to do everything yourself. (Most people think that only they can do it all and that handing it off is either cheating or will • •

result in lower-quality work.) You can get a lot more work done if you hand the work off and then use leadership and teammanagement skills to monitor progress and get results.

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Create checklists for everything in your business — from a checklist of the very first activities that someone needs to do when they arrive in the morning, all the way through the day, and ending with a checklist of activities to be completed by the last person to leave at night. Don’t forget checklists for cleaning, end-of- day activities, end-of-month activities, marketing, and more. (I’ve already created a marketing checklist that you can use when creating marketing! You can get it, along with other great resources, by going to CEOWARRIOR.com/warriorlibrary.) Save time traveling by communicating with vendors through a video call, or even have them come to your office. Expand this thinking to your personal life, too. Can you get groceries or your dry cleaning delivered to your door? You’ll save a lot of time, which can be better spent making memories with your loved ones. within your company and see if people are doing mule work when they should be doing warrior work at their level. One example might be something like this: Do you need a warehouse guy to handle your warehouse so that your higher-paid experts are free to spend more time on house calls? Remember, it’s not JUST about getting more time for yourself. Look at other roles

Here are some ideas to get you started and to expand your mind:

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Record videos (and get your staff to record at-the-jobsite videos) to automate the training of new hires. You can also use videos in other parts of your business, too, like team communication, marketing and sales, and more. This is a fast way for you and your team to interact clearly and efficiently. There are two types of work —mule work (which is lower-value and repetitive) and warrior work (which is higher-value and helps to build your business). Know the difference between the two and make sure you are only doing warrior work. Group together several similar jobs and hire a new person for that position. For example, if you’re doing a lot of recruiting activities, group those activities together and hire a recruiter. Look outside of your company for help — there are many outsource firms that can do a lot of work, but you might not be thinking of them because you’re only looking in-house. Can someone else help you with marketing, for example?

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Here are the first three warrior steps to get a fast start:

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Overcome your limiting beliefs that YOU need to do it all yourself.

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Make a list of everything you do, prioritized by the value it contributes to your life and business. Identify which actions can be automated with technology and which can be delegated or outsourced.

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Embrace means you’re okay with the idea, but not necessarily a participant. I don’t want leaders to “embrace change.” I want a leader who takes ACTION.

I prefer the word INCLUSIVE. It tells a deeper tale of involvement, and it’s a positive word that needs no defining. It’s also singular. I’m inclusive. “I’m diverse” or “I’m all about diversity” sounds contrived.

Results is another milquetoast word that drives me crazy. Bob is results-oriented. Bob focuses on results. Yada, yada, yada. A stronger word is OUTCOME, which takes both people and task into consideration and emphasizes what happens after completion. At the end of the day is a summary of expectations and predictions, usually stated in the negative. When someone says this, I can assure you they’re just searching for words. At the end of the day, it has no alternative. The phrase should be just eliminated forever. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of 12 best-selling books, including “The Sales Bible,” “The Little Red Book of Selling,” and “21.5 Unbreakable Laws of Selling.” The latter is now available as an online course at www.gitomerVT.com. Known for a speaking style that is funny and in your face, Gitomer offers his selling expertise at more than 100 seminars each year.

ACTION is a better word, because it means something’s happening.

Focus means the leaders is paying major attention to something. But then what?

area that he wants to target. If he doesn’t have a big budget, then he might select just one street. If he has a larger budget, he might select a neighborhood. Rarely does he start bigger than that. Then, he sends postcards to this target area. A couple of weeks later, he sends another set of different postcards. A couple of weeks later, he sends brochures. A couple of weeks later, he acquires the phone numbers of the people in that area and calls them. A couple of weeks later, he puts up signs in the area. A couple of weeks later, he sends flyers in a targeted mailout. And his phone starts ringing. Customers start calling. He starts serving people in that area. Other customers who have been receiving these marketing pieces start seeing trucks in the area, and the brand is further reinforced. So, they start calling, too. Accountable means the leader has fessed up after something has gone wrong and the poor results have been demonstrated for all to see. This is a weasel word and should be banned. RESPONSIBLE is a better option. Be responsible for yourself and to yourself. Be responsible for your words and deeds. Be responsible for your attitude. Be responsible for your achievements. Effective is a synonym for mediocre. The word carries a “so what” feeling to it. I really don’t want an effective heart surgeon. I want the BEST. Which would you rather have cutting you open? Diversity is a word spoken by many, but understood by few. I guess it refers to hiring and doing business with all types of people and businesses. continued from page 8 ...

I’d rather knowmy leader’s INTENTION. Just because you’re focused on something doesn’t mean you intend to do something about it. Understand is weak and passive. Bob understands. Sowhat? Is Bob doing anything about it? I want someone that knows what to do and does it. I want an EXPERT.When I have an issue, do I want to bring it to someonewho understands, or do I want to bring it to an expert?

Paradigm is old hat. As I like to say: With paradigms, you get 20 cents.

Sometimes it’s accompanied by the word “shift” and means there’s a new way.

A better word is OPPORTUNITY. When there’s a paradigm shift or change, doesn’t it make a lot more sense to look for opportunity?

For public event dates and information and Gitomer’s training and seminars, visit gitomer.com or email him personally at [email protected]

The cost? It’s often substantially less than the conventional way of spread-out marketing described earlier. The timeline? Weeks. An added benefit is that each marketing piece builds on the last. The effectiveness? Highly effective. This really works because the frequency of the message has an impact.

Rather than spreading your marketing out too thin and only sending out one brochure once in a while, choose a smaller marketplace and hammer themwith marketing over and over again, with the goal of dominating that small market. With stackable marketing, you’ll see huge results at a lower cost from a smaller market.

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Inside What the One-ArmedWorkout Can Teach You About Growing Your Home Service Business Great Leadership in 13 Critical Steps Top 3Ways to Persuade Skeptical Buyers Warrior Fast-Track Academy Secrets of Business Mastery New CEOWarrior World How to Achieve More Than You Thought Possible What Is Stackable Marketing? Meet Brian Vardiman!

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Stackable Marketing Get Huge Results at Lower Costs

If you read my book or watch my videos on CEOWarrior TV, you will at some point read or hear me mention something I call “stackable marketing.” It’s a concept I developed as I was testing marketing strategies and seeing what worked and what didn’t, and people frequently ask me what stackable marketing is. So, in this blog post, I want to give you a high-level view of what stackable marketing is. First, let me explain howmost people market: A service business owner wants to advertise his business, so he creates a brochure and then sends it out to as wide of an audience as he can afford. And then he waits for the phone to ring. When it doesn’t ring as often as he wants, he wonders if there was something wrong with his brochure or with the zip codes he marketed to, so he gets new brochures printed and sends them out to different zip codes. Again, the phone doesn’t ring as often as he wants. So, he repeats

the process a third time, and a fourth time, and a fifth time, etc. Perhaps, at the same time, he puts up billboards or bus bench signs, hoping that he’ll reach even more of his audience.

enough to break even. But he does it anyway, because it brings in some customers, and those are better than nothing. Now, let me explain how stackable marketing works: A service-business owner wants to advertise his business, so he first identifies an continued on page 7 ...

The cost? Probably thousands of dollars. The timeline? Weeks, or, more likely, months. The effectiveness? Minimal, sometimes not even

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