In the first two installments, I compared a floor dealership to a hot air balloon. That balloon wants to float up into the sky, but the rope is anchoring it to the ground. The rope represents the number of hours you can physically work in your business. By cutting the rope, your business can soar (grow) and you can work less. In this installment, we’ll conclude with the last of five keys for cutting the rope. You can read the first two in Part 2.
Key #3: Marketing
If you want to work fewer hours then it’s essential that you delegate, and that means hiring quality people. Being able to afford that requires having effective marketing strategies in place; strategies that you can rely on day-in and day-out to produce a consistent stream of revenue.
The best place to begin is by marketing to people who have already proven that they will give you money in exchange for flooring: your past customers. Here are just three examples of dealers who made dramatic business transformations by marketing to their past customers on a consistent basis:
Mark Bouquet, IL: In a period of six months he went from nearly closing his doors to being booked out for weeks. In recent years his business has exceeded $3 Million in revenue.
Garry Combs, IL: He was on the verge of closing his doors. He not only turned his business around but within two years he opened his second store.
Craig Bendele, FL: Craig grew his business by 50% two years in a row. He and his wife are currently building their dream home.
Granted, these dealers did other things as well to build their businesses, but past-customer marketing was a major factor driving these revenue increases. Unfortunately, most dealers neglect this powerful strategy for generating consistent revenue.
Key #4: Systems
A system is a procedure, process, method, or course of action designed to achieve a specific result. Systems are the only way to produce a reliable, quality experience for your customers. They are what allow a person who owns fifteen dealerships to deliver great service to his customers without things falling apart.
Your job as an entrepreneur is to work on rather than in your business, and that means developing and maintaining systems. Let’s say you implement a system for measuring a home, and then quoting the job. If something goes wrong—a quote doesn’t get delivered, or a mistake is made on the quote itself — resist the temptation to jump back into your business and do the task yourself. Instead, work on your business by determining what went wrong and fixing the breakdown in your system.
Key #5: Management/Leadership
Part of good leadership means maximizing your team’s success, and there are three things you must have in place to insure this happens.
First, you’ve got to give your team the tools to succeed. For example, if you want your sales team to increase their closed sales, it’s not good enough to say, “Hey, you need to close more sales.” You’ve got to give them the tools to close more sales. In this case, a step-by-step sales system that can be taught and learned.
Second, you’ve got to train them on how to use the tools.
Third, you’ve got to have accountability to use the tools correctly.
All three of these can be accomplished in a weekly training. This same three-step process can be used for any position within your company.
By implementing these five keys you can cut the rope and allow your business to soar, while at the same time eliminating the stress and burnout of working 50+ hours per week. If you have questions or comments, I’d love to hear them. Please email me.
To Tons Of Customers!
Jim Augustus Armstrong is The “Coach”
Jim Augustus Armstrong is the President of Flooring Success Systems, a program that equips dealers to double their profits, cut their work hours in half and beat the boxes! Many dealers have totally transformed their businesses and their lives for the better after joining Flooring Success Systems.
See what real, live dealers are saying!
Free book! For a complimentary copy of Jim’s book, “How Floor Dealers Can Beat the Boxes and Escape the Cheap-Price Rat-Race of Doom Forever,” visit BeatTheBoxesToday.com.