The Sharpest Tool™

15-20 years ago having a social media presence wasn’t a necessity. Today it is.

But what does that look like exactly and how strong of a personality does one need to have in order to pull it off effectively? Listen as Holly Hoenshell-Nelson, Lead Content & Social Manager at Scorpion, Content Marketing Expert & Strategist, discusses her own experience about how to build the best social media presence you can.

Join us as we discuss:

•  What staying consistent looks like
•  Where to focus your social media content strategy
•  How to switch into social media marathon thinking

Give something really good, but give it away. 

There are a few things any successful marketer needs to do in order to get people to look your way: teach people, build trust, and make them an offer they can’t refuse. According to Dan Bedell, EVP of Innovation at Scorpion, these are some of the best tools you can use today to take your social media marketing to the next level. 

Join us as we discuss:

• YouTube integration into your existing social media
• Capturing the one thing more valuable than your customer’s money - their attention
• How to stand out in a sea of content on social media

Connecting with your ideal audience can be as simple as creating engaging content for them.  

That’s exactly what Susan Kadilak and Paul Kadilak, Owners of Kadilak Homes and Hosts of Renovation Rekindle are doing. 

The wife and husband duo have grown a dedicated pool of engaged customers and clients by simply making content their audience wants to see. 

Join us as we discuss:

• Creating content that entertains and educates your audience 
• Making real content by being real
• Transforming your company and have fun doing it 

Check out the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

For those business owners looking to develop their own brand, the process can be broken down into 4 main factors:

• Company mission
• Benefits of product or service
• Customer opinion of your current business
• Qualities you want associated with your company 

Join us on this introductory episode as we discuss why a great leader leads to better business results, the impact your business has on people, and a key takeaway for the audience.

What we discussed:

• Developing your brand
• Your business impact
• Key takeaway for the audience 

Find every episode of The Sharpest Tool on Apple, Spotify, and more. Find us on our website and join the conversation on LinkedIn.

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Al Levi is an author, business consultant, and president of The 7-Power Contractor®. In this episode, Al shares his best tips for retaining technicians and creating a career opportunity for your employees. 

Building From Scratch

Everyone oversells themselves in interviews. It is what we are taught to do from the moment we start applying for jobs. So when you are recruiting, it is essential that you are aware of this. Al says the best way to ensure that your new hires can do everything they alluded to, is to put them through hands-on tests. Some won’t pass these tests or will be unsure of where to begin but you will have a clear idea of who is ready and willing to learn.

>“With manuals and with training, I can fix the holes in the existing staff because I make it safe for them… [When training new hires] Whatever you don’t know, is now my problem. We’re going to go through it together and you’re going to demonstrate that you can do it. Once you demonstrate it, then you’re now responsible.”

You will never find someone who knows everything on the first day, but it’s up to you to understand their blindspots and teach them what they do need to know.

Create a Safe Space

Help your hires build a career not a job. Employees aren’t overly concerned with the goals of the business unless it in some way helps them reach their goals. Show them that you are there to help them on their journey, and lay out an obvious talent pathway for them to follow.

Your employees should not have to reach management positions to feel valued. Don’t think about only the top of the pyramid when the bottom blocks are what holds the pyramid up. Al emphasizes that your entire team should have clear answers to these questions:

1. Where am I today?
2. Where can I go with the business tomorrow?
3. Who truly is my boss and can I rely on them?
4. If I need help, who can I go to?

If they’re feeling uncertain about anything listed above then it is up to you, as the leader, to secure their confidence again. Help them see the potential and become excited about the journey. Continue to support their development by providing team building exercises and opportunities for growth.

While hiring the right employees can help you delegate and work less in the field, it’s important to maintain a certain level of presence to spot any areas that are lacking. Al is a strong proponent of doing consistent ride alongs so you can spot problems immediately. He also recommends setting up mystery shoppers. This holds everyone accountable to good business ethics.

>"You have to help people stay right. We're not looking to try and find you doing something wrong. We're looking to capture you doing something right and make a big deal about it. Because if you do something wrong and it ends up in one of these sting operations, we all go down."

Pay Raises, Salaries and Bonuses

Giving your hardworking employees a bonus or raise can decrease turnover and boost staff morale. Al recommends implementing these monetary rewards because they incentivize your employees to go above and beyond, which ultimately benefits your business.

For more information on Al’s business and services, visit 7-Power Contractor.

Al Levi is an author, business consultant, and president of The 7-Power Contractor®. He shares how to find, hire and train the best technicians available for your company. 

Hire Willing People

Instead of hiring people for their experience, Al’s philosophy on hiring is to find willing people and provide them with the right skills. That way, you are helping people build a career instead of just offering a job. 

This strategy helps you identify hires that truly want to join your team and are excited about their future with your company.

>“The power of getting willing people to work for you and helping them build a career is life changing not just for your customers, not just for your company, not just for your staff but it’s actually life changing for you. I’ve experienced that myself, so I know that it’s true.”

Train your employees to fit your company’s needs and they will be better at filling that open position than any “magical hire” or experienced veteran.

Always Be Training

Employee training is critical to long-term success. To implement an effective training program, you want to make sure it equips employees with the proper communication skills (with both customers and team members), as well as the technical skills they need to progress. Keep the training clear and objective. This will allow you to see where your new apprentices are thriving and what makes them tick.

Creating an excellent employee training program is the first step, the next is setting yourself apart from the competition. 

Al highlights two things you need to do to own your market and be the best choice out of local contractors:

1. Make more techs.
2. Make more calls.

>“You’ve got to make more techs that can be in more trucks that are great at communication which leads to more sales. Neat and clean operationally. Their trucks are neat and clean, they’re neat and clean, their jobs are neat and clean. They can do the right job and make it work with a minimal amount of callbacks running back to it.”

Your training can be the greatest in the world but if you’re not a good teacher, your training is worthless. If you take your training and teaching seriously, you can create a career not a job and you will have people lining up for a spot in your company.

Make the Investment

Al is also passionate about creating a space for your apprentices to practice. Creating a training center where your apprentices can practice the trade instead of practicing on your paying customers is a valuable way to build experience without jeopardizing business. 

If you don’t have the finances to support the building of a training center, reach out to family, friends and local organizations that may have something to offer your team in terms of material or equipment.

>“[Creating a training centre] is an investment. It’s time, energy and money. Money is not the biggest problem, and even time you can find people to leverage. Most of the training centers I have worked at were built by volunteer labor… The trick is committing the energy to it.”

Putting the right training in place will be a win for your team, for your customers and for your company.

For more information on Al’s business and services, visit 7-Power Contractor.

Al Levi  is an author, business consultant, and president of The 7-Power Contractor®. Today, he shares how to implement clear systems and train the right people so that your home services business can run with less stress and more success. 

Learn From Your Mistakes

No one is immune to making mistakes – we are all human, after all! But if we simply acknowledge the problem and carry on as before, we're in danger of repeating the same errors. 

Al says it is essential to learn from your mistakes and consciously think about how to do better in the future.

>“I’m not brilliant. I fell in every single hole as a business person, climbed out of the hole, dusted myself off. And the only one thing I will give myself credit for is, I said ‘That really hurt, let’s not fall back in that same hole.’ But you know, having been a consultant now for 19 years, I’ve watched others do what I did for so long, which is just continually fall back in the same hole... To solve today’s problem with no thought about tomorrow. And that’s what really robs your progress and kills your growth.”

Learning from your mistakes is one thing. Putting what you've learned into practice is another. Look ahead and change your ways. Or else, you may never reach your goals.

Run Your Business Systematically

Al learned the hard way how lacking formal systems and documented processes can lead to a lack of progress. He shares how important it is to have everyone in your business on the same page, following clear, established processes. 

He lays out seven simple business powers that hundreds of owners have applied to run their businesses successfully:

1. Planning
2. Operating
3. Staffing
4. Sales
5. Sales Coaching
6. Marketing
7. Financial

>“Until you have systems, you can’t leverage. Until you bring people in that are trained right, you can’t leverage.”

Staffing Power

When it comes to staffing, Al encourages business owners to flip the script. 

Instead of finding skilled people and retraining them, find willing people and teach them skills. When you train service techs the way you want them to be trained, you have less rewiring to do later.

>“Let’s start building techs from scratch, from young, willing apprentices, and move them up the ladder. And let’s build them our way, instead of trying to rewire these guys, trying to steal them.”

By putting time and work into finding the right people, you will improve your chances of hiring the best performers and avoid costly, painful mistakes. To increase employee satisfaction and strengthen your staffing system, Al recommends implementing these five staffing actions: 

1. Always be recruiting.
2. Always be hiring.
3. Always be orienting.
4. Always be training.
5. Always be retaining. 

When you build a company of willing people equipped with strong training and clear systems, you will achieve success.

For more information on his business and services, visit 7-Power Contractor.

John Wilson, CEO of Wilson Plumbing & Heating, shares his best practices for aggressively scaling a company through marketing, acquisitions and personal growth. 

Don’t fear the dreaded business plateau. As an entrepreneur, seeing your business grow and reach milestones is incredibly exciting. Everything looks like you’re on the right track until you hit a plateau.

The first plateau that many businesses hit is at a million to a million and a half dollars in sales, says John. This often happens because the owner is not prepared to hire an operations manager to take care of what is happening in the field. Instead, they spread themselves too thin trying to do it all.

You have to hire help in order to grow. You cannot do everything by yourself.

Know what you are good at and stick to that. John explains that although he knew he was better on the business side of things rather than being in the field, this isn’t the case for everyone. 

>“If you’re not good at the business side or you don’t want to do it, then you probably shouldn’t and you should hire someone else to do it. Or just stay super small and that’s okay too… You don’t need to get big.”

Understanding your strengths and your weaknesses is half the battle.

One of the biggest barriers to talent is whether the individual wants to work for your company. John says one way to avoid this is to have people apply to work for you through other mediums. For example, social media and/or podcasts are helpful platforms that can help potential employees understand:

• Who you are
• Who your company is
• What your values are

Showcase what you do on your platforms and put your ideas forward. John has found success building future customer and employee relationships on social media by providing value. He shares his own experiences and failures on Twitter and then interacts with people whenever they ask questions.

>“Audience is king… even with just a few thousand people, you can make an impact, in your business or wherever your goals are. That would be consistently driving traffic towards it (social media), posting on it frequently and making somebody own it so that way you are driving towards the results you want.”

A solid onboarding process is a major component of employee engagement and retention. It impacts the productivity and success of your new hires. Focusing on developing a strong connection is vital for earning their loyalty and commitment to your home services business.

Creating a hiring process is one of the most important tactics John’s team has implemented.

>“Every company needs the same two people. You have the visionary and you have the integrator… you need someone to figure out the vision and someone to run the company. So figuring out which one you’re best at is important and then hiring your exact opposite who plays the opposite role is important.”

For more information on John’s business and services, visit Wilson Plumbing & Heating.

John Wilson, CEO of Wilson Plumbing & Heating, shares the importance of understanding your strengths and taking calculated risks. He also highlights the marketing strategy that has helped him scale his family business.

Recognize Potential

One opportunity can change your life dramatically. John was unsure about getting into the family business when the idea first surfaced. As the grandson of the founders of the company, he had his mind set on founding his own business in a different industry. However, he saw a chance for growth and expansion in the business and decided it was the right time to buy in — a decision he’s grateful for today.

In order to help the business grow, John shares that he and his team implemented these upgrades:

• Updated website for user experience and improved accessibility to service offers and testimonials.
• Moved from paper-based filings to computer based filings.
• Switched to a flat-rate model. 
• Improved marketing efforts. 

Recognizing the potential in the family business and optimizing the strategies already in place helped John scale the business by 5 times since he first bought in.

Understand Your Strengths (And Your Weaknesses)

John says he has a good understanding of who he is and what he isn’t good at. This allows him to delegate to the right team members.

“Over the past four years it’s really been about getting me only doing what I am good at and getting rid of everything that I am not good at. People seem to make that harder than it is but it’s really not. One, I am not good at operating a company and two, I don’t like doing it. That said, there are plenty of people out there who would love nothing more than to do all of the things that I don’t like doing.”

Take Calculated Risks

John has learned firsthand how investing in the right areas of your business instead of just slashing budgets pays off.

“When there is blood in the streets, you go. That’s the rule. What’s the real damage? What is actually going to happen? The stock market is not going to go to zero. That’s not going to happen. If it does, then I have bigger problems than the money I just lost.”

He believes that businesses operate far too much on fear and this will not lead to growth. You have to make investments and take risks. This mindset allowed John to triple their business during one of the toughest market years in history.

Buy Businesses Strategically

When looking to buy or sell a company, there are several factors to keep in mind. John has engaged in many conversations around buying other businesses and shares how he identifies a company worth pursuing:

1. The company understands their true value and they don’t believe they are worth more (or less) than they are.
2. They keep clean financial records.
3. There is a clear upside to purchasing.
4. The seller is understanding and communicates well.
5. The business is reasonably priced.

If a business checks all of these boxes, it may be worth investing your time and money.

Market Effectively

Take a balanced approach to your marketing efforts, says John. Don’t only invest in digital, and on the flip side, avoid investing only in the traditional. 

“The traditional media has gotten severely underpriced because everyone has gone digital, so for the moment, traditional media is bargain basement. So we have been investing a lot more money into that because other people aren’t looking at it.”

When it comes to marketing, focus on who you want to target and keep your options open. 

For more information on his business and services, visit Wilson Plumbing & Heating.

Tatiana Schafer, Strategic Partnerships Manager for Google, and Vanessa Villa, LSA Manager for Scorpion, discuss advances in the Google Local Services Ads and how they can drive growth for home services businesses. 

Embracing a new approach to driving leads in your business can be intimidating. But if you’re willing to invest the time and attention to detail it requires, the results are well worth it.

Tatiana explains that in order to take advantage of Local Services Ads (LSAs), businesses must pass Google screening and qualification processes for their business. The screening process is free for businesses that want to participate and it varies by category. This process may include reviews of licenses, insurance, employee background checks, and advanced verification.

The onboarding process is 2-4 weeks minimum, but this is mostly due to rigorous background checks.

“Businesses that advertise directly with Google will undergo background checks with a third party that Google has vetted themselves, to make sure they’re legitimate… The background check involves identity and criminal history checks… and then the company goes through a background check and that process includes civil litigation history.” - Tatiana

If you’re feeling unsure, Vanessa encourages business owners to contact their local background check companies with any questions.

In November 2020, Google began offering bidding on LSAs for home services companies and law firms nationwide. Tatiana says this gives businesses more leverage in their marketing efforts. The higher you bid, the higher your chances are of having your ads viewed by more customers.

Google offers two types of bidding. 

1. Maximize leads: this gives Google the ability to choose your bid based on the competition in the market.
2. Set max per lead: this allows business owners to set the amount of money that they’re willing to spend on a lead.

“Scorpion also has some more customizable sort of approaches to LSAs for our clients to take it to the next level. If a business wants to maximize the performance and the ROI of their LSAs, Scorpion’s bidding strategy and marketing technology can make that happen for them. Our system automatically bills and employs a strategy that maximizes your budget on the platform bringing those business owners into a new kind of intelligent growth for their business.” - Vanessa

Vanessa and Tatiana highlight how Google LSAs utilize technology that allows you to create a picture of what your ideal customer looks like. You will be able to see how they move on and offline and where they hang out. This will help you understand where to invest your marketing budget so that you can get your product in front of your customers and build connections. 

LSAs also simplify the booking process. This minimizes lead drop off and increases engagement with your customers. However, in order for this to be effective, you must have the Google Guarantee badge, says Tatiana.

 “Radius. Reviews. Responsiveness. Add in all of the relevant zip codes you serve, ask for reviews on every job that you do and answer as many calls or requests as you can. Add all of the relevant job types and verticals so that you’re showing up in the ways that matter to you. Highlight your differentiators… Upload photos of your team… Base your budget on the amount of new calls that you want to receive and always stay in the know and try new features.”

Implement Tatiana's advice, and see how LSAs can help your home services business grow.