How to calculate labor for products such as wire.
This formula should be used to calculate labor for products such as wire: Time divided by “X Amount” of unit.
For example:
If it takes 10 minutes to run 100 feet of wire, take 10 and divide it by 100.
This is .1 for each foot of wire
Simply Reliable Software’s Weekly Training Series
Projects, Gantt Charts, Work Orders, Scheduling
Return to Salesmanship
As I work with dealers from around the country assisting them in developing their marketing, sales, and back office processes I have noticed a shift back to product focused selling. Obviously we have been experiencing turbulent times and a lot of times salespeople will turn to lowering their price and focusing on the product rather than the benefits of what the customer receives when they purchase from you.
In sales you have the discovery or qualification period where you get to know the potential customer and they get to know you. At this point you have what we refer to as a Suspect. During this time you really want to focus on why the person should buy from you. What features advantages and benefits do You bring to the table? Sit yourself down and have a long conversation with yourself. Write down why you are great, and you are great. Work this into a story line that you can spew out at will. Your personal elevator speech. Now do the same thing with your company. Why should they buy from your company. You could do a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). Get everybody in the company involved. Write down what you find.
At the end of your visit you should now have a Prospect. Now you can go back and design an awesome system for them. When you meet with them next make sure your proposal looks great, is clear and easy to read, and gets your message across. In this meeting start out reminding them of why you are the person they should buy from, then restate why your company is the one to buy from, then explain how your solution is going to be perfect for them. Close the deal and you know have a Client. I use the word client rather than customer because clients bring with them Opportunities and customer kind of denotes a one time sale. They will need to upgrade later, purchase service, require maintenance, they have friends who like the stuff we sell too. Stay in touch every 90 days or so. Let them know they are important even after they paid their final invoice on the system.
If you follow the adage Sell Yourself First, Your Company Second, and Your Product Last I guarantee your closing rate and referral rate will increase.
Great Selling!
Alternate Work Order
Hold ‘Alt’ down on the keyboard and click either “VIEW” or “VIEW WORK ORDER” to view the Alternate Work Order.
This may be done either in “List All Clients” or “List This Client” under the “Schedule” header.
The Alternate Work Order displays more phone numbers rather than only the Home and Fax number.
There is also a Labor Breakdown section for hours to be written in for each employee assigned to the job.
Why attach Labor to Products?
We are passionate people and sometimes our emotions get in the way of clear and rational thinking. As an example if times are tough we might lean towards discounting our services. If we think our favorite installer is going to be a part of an installation we might view it that they can do it in less time than one that we may not favor as much. And, therein lies the problem. The time it takes to perform the tasks necessary to install the products one sells should be based upon an average or a standard if you will. If you design your labor in this manner than you will come out fine in the end. Sometimes you will be a little over and sometimes you will be a little under. As you analyze your jobs you tweak the labor numbers until they are pretty much dead on. The client should not pay more because you have hired a new guy and he is learning, and they shouldn’t pay less because your star red bull pounding wire puller blazed through the house one day. The task has inherent value.
Spending the time up front visualizing how long it takes to do something means you will save time later. Let’s look at a telephone jack. You need to drill holes to run the wire, pull the wire, terminate the end to an insert, terminate the other end to a punch down block or an insert in a connection center, then at trim go back to put the plate on. However, what about carrying the wire and items to the van, unloading the van at the job site, unpackaging the plastic items, stripping the wire, cleaning up, testing the jack. These items are all part of that simple phone jack.
When you break it down and look at the engineering, prewire, trim, final, programming, and project management of each small device and put those together, sometimes your reaction will be “WOW” that’s way too long, and maybe it is, or maybe it isn’t. You will need to test and adjust as you gain real knowledge in the process. But what you gain is a real picture of your business’ costs and processes.
Not to mention that once you have spent that time to create these standards you can produce proposals in minutes rather than hours or days. Try it out on a small job or specific discipline, I think you will be very happy with the outcome. If you are unclear where to start watch the video “Products” on our website.
May the process be with you!
Pre-Engineer for Success
In the year 2000 I came to an epiphany, I had been designing and selling what I called Scalable Convergence for about three years. Scalable Convergence was; The Seamless Integration of Information, Communications, Entertainment and Control with Variable Feature Content and Pricing Architecture, but it didn’t have a name and the process was undefined. That year changed everything for me.
So at the start of the year we called our team together and began what was to be a defining and ambitious project. We looked at the systems that we had designed and installed in the past few years. What was good what was a pain. We clearly defined 13 sub-systems or disciplines. Then wrote out the feature set ( a description of the features advantages and benefits) to each system. From there we developed a Silver, Gold, and Platinum level for each. The basic concept of the system remained in tact but one may have had more of some items, better quality, size differences, etc.
We commissioned our programmer to then sit down and write the most extensive AMX NetLinx program which would cover the largest house with all the features. He would design the program in such a way that he could comment out features for the less expensive jobs. This took about four months to complete.
We designed a logo for Scalable Convergence. We used a brand name for the systems which I had created previously, ActivLink, and we were off to the races.
Back then we used an excel spreadsheet. So we created a large spreadsheet with all the products and all the levels. Contingent to the success of this was defining what items went with what. Today we call this product assemblies or associated products in SmartOffice. We gave every items a labor time and monetary value. Now when I needed to do a proposal I could literally crank one out in about a half a day. They were accurate, they were consistent, and they did not discriminate. By discriminate, I mean my sales team could not give one prospect a better deal than the next because they liked a prospect better than another, the playing field was level.
Presenting this idea to builders, architects, interior designers, and real estate agents, essentially our sales enablers, turned out to be a win. They liked the idea they could now describe what we did. We weren’t the “TV Guys” or “The Stereo guys.”
The suspect to prospect to client timeline was reduced dramatically. A specific and detailed phone presentation was developed to be used when engaging a suspect. Once we determined we might want to do business with them and they might want to do business with us we classified them as a prospect and set up a meeting in our showroom.
Upon their arrival they were taken on a tour of the facility and presented our history and why we were here, why we were the best at what we did. In our board room we would then present the Scalable Convergence concept, educate them on each of the sub-systems and the three different levels of feature sets. During this time we would continually ask trial close questions and wrote down agreements on what features and budget levels were acceptable to them. By the close of the meeting, approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours we had an agreed upon budget and feature set. At that time we would ask for a retainer to then create a design description document, no one wanted to use the word “quote” or “proposal” back then, sometimes we would get the retainer then and sometimes it was after we shared the actual document.
The one thing I can tell you is this process increased our close rate dramatically to about 80%. That’s right I said it, 80%. Why did it increase? My belief is that the consumer who is introduced to systems integration via a sales enabler doesn’t really understand what we do, how much it costs, or why they need it. So when they receive a presentation that answers those questions, allows them to make informed small decisions, they feel empowered and not talked down to they buy in and we now have a “client” not a “customer.”
A client will look to you to help them solve problems, provide new ideas, and to introduce you to their friends. A customer will continue to shop everywhere for anything. Build the relationship, it’s worth it and very gratifying to both parties.
To sum it up define who you are and what you want to sell. Pre-engineer the systems you want to sell. Individual items change but the type of those devices does not change all that often. Make it easy to buy from you, think like Sears did many years ago. Give your prospects 3 choices good, better, and best and service the heck out of them.
Good luck comes to those who thoughtfully and dilligently work towards a positive goal.
How to Present “The Green Solution”
Join our FREE Webinar “How to Present the Green Solution”
Simply Reliable continues its sponsorship of their Free Webinar Series to help you better manage your business. This is not a sales pitch; we want your business to succeed through better management of the overall process. The next webinar in this series, How to Present “The Green Solution”, will be presented on Thursday, June 25th at 1:00 PM Eastern time.
This webinar will provide useful information for seasoned business owners as well as those new to the field. If your organization is doing great we intend this information will provide techniques that will help provide new ways of networking and gaining an edge on your competition.
Everybody is talking about sustainability, energy efficiency, being green, but what does it really mean? How do you get a piece of the multi-billion dollar movement?
The focus of this event will be developing a proven strategy to gain the knowledge necessary to compete in this new environmentally friendly green business atmosphere. Tom will show you a plan to provide knowledge to sales enablers such as builders and architects and how to build a coalition designed to present a unified competitive edge.
Simply Reliable Software has enlisted industry veteran Tom Coffin to host this live webinar June 25th at 1:00PM EDT. Mr. Coffin has successfully owned and operated companies across a wide spectrum from small to large custom installation firms, C-Tailer, Retail, and a hybrid Home Control/HVAC/Electrical installation company. Tom has produced over $50MM dollars in sales in his 29 year career in electronic systems sales.
The webinar is free to attend.
Title: How to Present “The Green Solution”
Date: Thursday, June 25, 2009
Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT
Deselecting disc/zone/sub zone/make/phase in Pick Product
To deselect either a disc/zone/sub zone/make/phase click the black square that opens the drop down menu.
Immediately after press delete on the keyboard.
This will clear the selected disc/zone/sub zone/make/phase.
Simply Reliable Software’s Weekly Training Series
Product Assemblies, Containers, QuickSpecs, and Packages
Please join us Wednesday June 10th, 2009 at 12:00 PM EDT for this week’s free training. Tom Coffin will discuss developing and using product assemblies and containers. Then show you how to create QuickSpecs and Product Packages in order to produce fast accurate proposals in SRS SmartOffice Suite. You may begin logging into the webinar at 11:45AM EDT.
1. Please join my meeting.
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/join/190262491
2. Use your microphone and speakers (VoIP) - a headset is recommended. Or, call in using your telephone.
Dial 712-338-7116
Access Code: 190-262-491
Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting
Meeting ID: 190-262-491
SmartOffice Feature of the Week - Work Order enhancements
Have you seen the schedule lately? There have been several changes and upgrades to the schedule and work orders that we think will help you be more efficient and more productive. You can now customize the appearance of tasks on a work order. You can have time and staff filled in automatically when marking all as complete and you can even assign a phase, priority and order to work orders to help communicate with the person responsible for scheduling. Speaking of scheduling, check out the quick schedule, it’s the fastest way to schedule appointments.
These new features are included in the release notes but here is a summary of the most exciting ones in the schedule section:
- Customize task line items – choose to show or hide labor type, discipline, zone and or subzone individually.
- Assign a phase to a work order. This is done automatically if creating a work order from a proposal.
- Auto fill time and staff person when marking tasks complete. If either of these options are enabled in settings the time and/or staff person** will be automatically fill when you press mark all as complete. (**Staff can only auto populate if there is only one person assigned to the work order.
- Roll-up accessories into the parent item. For example: instead of listing all of the accessories of an item individually now you can summarize them in one line under the parent item.
These are just some of the improvements we have made in the area of work orders and scheduling, so check it out and let us know what you think!
As with the Quick Schedule many of these improvements were made with the help and feedback of Frank Barrett from Barrett Electric in Ft Lauderdale, Fl. Thanks again Frank!
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