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Supercharging Revenue Generation Through the Field Service Team – Defining the Steps to Supercharging your Technicians’ Revenue Generation Efforts

In my last blog, I spoke about how the success of our field team’s business development efforts will be dependent upon whether they accept that their proactive efforts are part of their service role and whether the customer sees value in their recommendations.  We can do this when we take a service perspective.  How?  Treat revenue generation as the valuable service that it is and engage our technicians in the proactive promotion of our services in a manner that we would be proud to tell our customers about.  Then, support our techs’ efforts as we would any other service that we offer.

“Super Service”

Let’s look at this a little more closely.  Imagine you are about to add a new service to your portfolio and you want to take steps to ensure it’s successful.  For the purpose of this exercise, we’ll call the new service “Super Service”.  The service you are about to add has the following characteristics:

  • It complements existing services (does not replace any of the services you are currently providing)
  • It’s a new concept – the customer needs to be educated on the value
  • Some new knowledge and skills are required but your existing technicians can perform the service – no additional staffing required
  • Existing tools and test equipment can be used – no significant capital equipment needed
  • It has the potential to be highly profitable – efficiency in delivery is critical
  • You must rely on another division within your organization to deliver a small part of the service
  • Super Service has the potential to be a game changer

The question is:  What specific steps will you take to ensure the success of this new service?

Take a few minutes to write down what steps you’ll take to launch this service successfully.  Don’t worry about completeness of this list for now.  We’ll come back to this list later.  We only want you to start generating ideas about the steps you would include.

…………………………..

To successfully launch this new service, here is a list of possible steps we could take:

  1. Define the service
  2. Support the initiative
  3. Get buy-in from supporting divisions
  4. Talk the walk
  5. Tell our customers
  6. Maintain focus

How does this list compare to yours?  Chances are there are a lot of similarities. 

Using the Super Service to Supercharge Revenue Generation

Now, look at the description of Super Service once more.  Notice that the Super Service described also applies to the actions of business promotion by our field service team.  Through their recommendations for example, their efforts can complement our existing services.  Their actions will require explanation to our customers so that they understand the motive behind, and the value in, their efforts.  Although some new knowledge and skills may be needed by the techs, no additional staffing will be required.  In addition, there will be no need for any significant capital increases and the results of their efforts can be highly profitable.  Finally, our field team’s promotion of products and services can be a game changer if we can help our customers see how they’ll be better off for those recommendations.

So, we can supercharge our techs’ revenue generation by treating their efforts as the valuable service that they are.  This means identifying those things that we must do well in order to successfully encourage and support their efforts.

Our next step is to determine and apply the specific actions we’ll take.  Using the list above, my next blog will look at some examples of actions we can take.  Please note that the actions that we identify may not necessarily be the actions that you, in your specific situation will take.  It’s the approach that is important here, so simply apply the same approach used here to your list.

Reflection

Go back the list of steps that you have created that will ensure that the proactive efforts of your field service team will be successful.  Is the list complete?  What’s missing?  Rework the list until you assured that those steps cover all that is necessary for your success.  

Let’s Connect

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Sincerely,
Jim Baston
President
BBA Consulting Group Inc.

A good leader is not necessarily the most popular person in their business, but the best ones are liked because they are respected for their clarity and vision.

– Alan Sugar

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Supercharging Revenue Generation Through the Field Service Team – It’s All About Perception – Are You “Selling” or “Serving”?

In my last blog, I wrote of the opportunity to stand out from the crowd by helping the customer recognize that they are better off for having engaged us.  Our techs play a huge role in this.  They are in the best position to recognize the opportunities for improvement and typically have the trust and ear of the customer.  However, the success of our efforts to engage our field teams in revenue generation depends on two key factors. The first is that the customer must see value in our technicians’ efforts.  The second is that our technicians must see their proactive recommendations as an integral part of the job that they do.  Achieving both outcomes relies on how we, as managers, define what the technicians are doing when they make recommendations to customers about a particular product or service.  Do we regard the field service team’s efforts as “selling” or “serving”?  Our perception of their actions can mean the difference between outstanding success and mediocrity.

“Selling”

Let’s start with the “selling” perspective.  Many service organizations appear to take a “selling” perspective.  You hear it in the language that’s used.  Managers talk about getting their field service team to “sell”. They use terms like “up-selling” and “cross-selling”.  Unfortunately, a “selling” perspective can have a negative impact on our ability to fully engage our technicians in promoting our products and services.

A selling perspective is centred on us – the service provider.  The focus is on how the customer can fulfill our needs.  It arises from the question, “How can we capitalize on our field service relationships to win more business from our customers and increase our revenues and profitability?” 

This can be problematic for a number of reasons:

Firstly, it can appear to suggest that business development is an opportunistic tactic rather than an integral part of the service strategy. 

As such, it can be perceived as an add-on to the tech’s main responsibility. If it’s perceived by the technician as an add-on to, and not part of, their main role of providing service, then the tech may regard making proactive recommendations as optional and not enthusiastically participate. 

Secondly, skills development tends to be focused on selling. 

Maslow famously said: “If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”  When we see the task as “selling”, we may conclude that the solution to improve our techs’ performance is to provide them with selling skills.  Unfortunately, some of the sales training for techs has been adapted from sales programs developed for salespeople.  Such programs often include topics that prove uncomfortable for the technician – closing techniques, overcoming objections are just two examples that come to mind.  As a result, the technician may not see much relevance to what they do every day in the training and some may even resent being considered a “salesperson”.

Thirdly, a sales perspective has the potential to negatively impact trust with the customer. 

Our technicians typically have high levels of trust with our customers, partly due to the fact that they’re not there to sell the customer anything.  If we try to turn our technicians into salespeople, then the customer may perceive that the technician is “selling” to them.  When this happens, the customer becomes confused about the tech’s role and that foundation of trust is eroded.

Fourthly, a selling perspective is difficult to communicate to our customers. 

How do we communicate to the customer about our techs’ proactive efforts in a way that shows value for them?  Can you imagine if we said, “We’ve asked our technicians to look for more products and services to sell to you so that we can get more money out of you”.  Somehow, I don’t think this would resonate well with the customer.

“Serving”

When we see the proactive recommendations by our field service team as a “service” rather than a “sale”, we set the stage for enthusiastic engagement by our field service team and welcome acceptance by our customers.  That’s because the focus changes from being centered on us as the service provider to being centered on the customer and their needs.  Whereas the focus of the selling perspective is on how to get more money out of the customer, the focus of a service perspective is on how we can deliver a higher level of service to the customer through the recommendations of our field service team.

When we take a “service” perspective, identifying opportunities to help the customer becomes part of the service rather than an add-on to it.  Skills development considerations broaden to include all that’s needed to facilitate the techs’ efforts to share their recommendations with their customers rather than limited to “selling” products or services.  The techs’ efforts can add to the trust they have built by demonstrating the value of their recommendations from the customer’s perspective.  And it becomes easier to differentiate because we can discuss it with the customer in terms of what is in it for them. 

The “service” perspective positions the tech’s recommendations as part of their job – as important a part as their ability to repair and maintain the equipment they service.  We enhance our service and add significant value when our field service team makes recommendations to help our customers to be measurably better off.

Reflection

On a scale of 1 – 10 (“10” being “promoting products and services is an important part of the service that we provide”, and “1” being “promoting products and services is not part of my job and should be done by others”), how would you rate the general view of your field service team of the role of promoting products and services?

What are the factors that caused you to give the score that you did?

What steps could you take to increase your field team’s score to a “10”?

Let’s Connect

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston
President
BBA Consulting Group Inc.

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.

 – Henry David Thoreau

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Supercharging Revenue Generation Through the Field Service Team – Differentiating Service Through the Field Team’s Proactive Efforts

This is the first in a series of blogs on “supercharging” revenue generation through the field service team.  If you encourage your field team to promote your products and services to your customers and you are disappointed in the results so far, please read on. 

Our field service teams represent an excellent opportunity to increase revenues and profitability by proactively making recommendations of our products and services to our customers.  They need only bring their ideas to the customer’s attention while they are on site performing maintenance.  And the revenue generated in this manner can be highly profitable.  No increase in overheads.  No additional travel or other incremental costs.  Profits go straight to the bottom line.

It sounds too good to be true.  And for some of us this must seem to be the case.  Despite our best efforts, we struggle to get our teams as engaged in business promotion as we would like them to be.  We fail to meet our revenue generation goals.  We continue to be disappointed in the results of our efforts.

In this blog series entitled Supercharging Revenue Generation Through the Field Service Team, we’ll look at the possible reason why our results fail to reach expectations and look at specific steps that we can take to turn those results around.  We’ll examine how any service organization can supercharge their revenue generation through their field service teams and use those efforts to stand out from the crowd.

Standing Out From the Crowd

The reality for every service provider is that it is an increasingly competitive world out there.  The challenge is how to stand out from the crowd.  How can we differentiate our service from our competitors when our customers see very little difference between us? The answer is that we can do this by helping the customer answer “yes” to this question, “Am I better off for having known you?” 

Imagine a customer reflecting on our work over the past several months.  Will they say, “Not only does my equipment continue to run exceptionally well, but we’re saving more money today than we’ve ever saved before.” or “… we’re achieving better productivity than we’ve ever achieved before.” or “… we’re getting fewer complaints from tenants than we ever have before.”, etc.  When our customers say those things about us, we will stand out from our competitors and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

Our Customers Want us to Make Recommendations

Studies suggest that helping the customer to be better off is exactly what our customers want their service providers to do.  In May of 2015, the Globe and Mail newspaper published an article entitled “Why Customer Satisfaction is Overrated”.  In the article, they reported on research that found that 75 percent of organizations that left one vendor to go to another, were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the vendor they left at the time that they left.  Upon further investigation, researchers found that the reason that satisfied or even very satisfied customers left was that they thought that the company that they were going to was in a better position to help them achieve their long term business goals.  This study suggests that good customer service, although important, is not enough.  Today’s customer is looking for a business partner who can use their specific knowledge and expertise to help them achieve their goals.

Our field service team is in the best position to recognize opportunities that can help our customers achieve their goals.  They have the technical expertise, they understand our company’s capabilities, they have an intimate knowledge of our customer’s equipment and they have insight into our customers’ goals and challenges.  And, of course, they have direct access to speak with the customer.

Next time we will look at our perception of the proactive efforts of our field service teams and how our mindset may be impacting our results.

Reflection

Think about how your customers view your business:

  • Do they see you as a “service provider” or a “business partner”?
  • Do they claim they are better off for having engaged you? What steps do you take as an organization to help your customers see this value in your relationship? How do you measure your customers’ perception about this? 
  • How well does this customer viewpoint allow you to differentiate your business from your competitors?  How sustainable is this differentiation?

Let’s Connect

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston
President
BBA Consulting Group Inc.

Expect change. Analyze the landscape. Take the opportunities.
Stop being the chess piece; become the player. It’s your move.

– Tony Robbins

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Announcement: Proactive Service® Self-Delivery Workshop

I am pleased to announce that we have developed a self-delivery version of our very successful Proactive Service® workshop to allow organizations to deliver top quality customer service training during these times of restricted travel and social distancing.  The program comes with a step-by-step presentation, videos highlighting the key points and clearly defined exercises so that anyone within your organization can deliver the workshop. 

The Proactive Service® Self-Delivery Workshop is designed to help service organizations successfully and enthusiastically engage their field teams in making recommendations aimed at helping their customers to achieve their business goals.

Participants will learn:

  • Why making recommendations is a critical part of the service provided
  • How success depends on the customer’s perception of their credibility
  • Specific and practical steps to build credibility with the customer
  • How to make recommendations to the customer in a concise and engaging way
  • What to do if the customer says “no” and the risks are high

Click here to view the Workshop Topic Overview

Advantages of the Self-Delivery Option

The combination of videos, guided facilitator presentation and comprehensive workshop delivery notes means that anyone can effectively facilitate the workshop – no previous facilitation experience is necessary, and at a time and location that is most convenient.

This option provides a number of advantages including:

  • Ability to deliver an excellent training experience during these times of limited travel
  • Flexibility in workshop delivery such as:
    • From small to larger groups
    • One day delivery or smaller segments delivered over a set period of time
    • Adjust emphasis and time to specific components of the workshop most relevant under current circumstances
  • Opportunity to include relevant examples from real-life experience
  • Thought provoking follow up emails encourage and reinforce behaviour change
  • Videos can also be used for:
    • Keeping core concepts top of mind
    • On-boarding new employees

What’s Included

  • Subscription to a series of seven videos – each focused on a key component or sub-component of Proactive Service® and presented under the following headings:
    • Personal Credibility
    • Professional Credibility
    • Proactive Recommendations
  • Facilitator slide deck
    • Step-by-step guide and presentation notes to deliver the workshop materials
  • Facilitator “how-to” video
  • Facilitator guidelines
    • Background information
    • Scripts for each slide
    • Suggestions for leading the in-class exercises
  • Participant workbook and exercises
  • Pocketbook of Proactive Service®
  • Follow-up emails to reinforce key learning points

For more information on our Proactive Service® Self-Delivery Workshop, please visit our website at www.jimbaston.com and click on Proactive Service® or contact me directly at jim@jimbaston.com.

Sincerely,

Jim Baston

President

BBA Consulting Group Inc.

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Are You the Reason Your Technicians Are Not Enthusiastically Promoting your Services?

It is no secret that field service technicians represent an excellent opportunity to increase revenues without adding to overheads.  They understand the technology, know their products and services and are familiar with the customers’ equipment and their goals.  And, of course, they have the ear of the customer.

Chances are you already have one or two techs who are great at developing new business and you recognize that, by getting all of your techs to act like them, you will experience tremendous growth.

If, despite your best efforts, your technicians are still not generating as much business as you think they are capable of, then perhaps you are the reason your technicians are not enthusiastically promoting your services.  Perhaps it is your perception that is standing in the way.

Review Our Perception

Ask yourself this question:  “Am I prepared to tell my customers what I have asked my technicians to do?”  If your answer is “no”, then it may be because your perception is that your field service technicians’ proactive promotion of services is “selling” and that you don’t see value in this from the customers’ perspective.  As a result, you are uncomfortable promoting this to them.  After all, how compelling is the following:  “We have trained our service technicians to sell so that we can get more business from you.”  Now, I am sure that you would not be as blunt as that, but clearly there is not a positive message here for the customer.

Change Our Perception from Selling to Serving

But if we change our perception to one that recognizes the tech’s proactive efforts as a serving activity rather than a selling activity, then we start to look at what they are doing through the lens of how it benefits the customer.  As a service, the technician is looking to uncover opportunities for products and/or services to help the customer achieve their goals.  The focus is on identifying and solving customer problems rather than on generating more revenue.  When this is the case, it makes good business sense to let the customer know what your technicians are doing.  In fact, their proactive efforts can become a significant differentiator.

If our perception changes from selling to serving, our conversation with the customer can communicate the value of the technicians’ actions from the customers’ perspective:  “We have encouraged our technicians to use their knowledge and expertise to identify steps that you can take to help you achieve your business goals.  Would you have any objection if, in the course of doing their service work, they identify a product or service that will help you to be better off that they bring their recommendation to your attention?”

Benefits of this Change in Perception

This change in perspective will positively affect a number of factors that will be critical for success and which I will cover in a future blog.  These include:

  1. The technicians’ perception of their role.
  2. The processes and systems that you create to support the techs.
  3. How you talk about proactive recommendations.
  4. The customers’ trust levels.
  5. Sales of new contracts.
  6. Our customers’ perception of us.

We offer tremendous value when our field service team takes proactive efforts to make recommendations to our customers that will help them to be better off.  If your attempts to engage them enthusiastically are falling short of your expectations, look closely on how you perceive what it is that you have asked them to do.  You may be the reason that your technicians are not enthusiastically promoting your services.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“If you want to make the world a better place,
take a look at yourself and make a change.”

– Michael Jackson

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Is Your Field Service Team Missing Opportunities to Help Your Customers?

Here is a simple test for you.  Count the number of “F”s in the sentence below.

Don’t read any further until you have decided your number.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you said six “F”s, then congratulations!  If you said anything else, don’t feel bad.  Most people see three.  Look at the sentence again.  Did you miss the “F”s in “OF”?  Now that you see the “F”s, it’s pretty obvious right?  It makes us wonder why we missed it in the first place.

Now, think of your service business.  Opportunities to help your customers should be obvious too.  Or are they as obvious as we might think?  Is your service team missing opportunities to help your customers?

Even with a Process in Place, Is Your Customer Seeing All the “F’s”?

Perhaps you have encouraged your field team to look for ways that you could help your customers achieve their business goals.  You’ve set up processes and systems to capture any opportunities identified.  You may have even told your customers your intentions and why your field team’s actions are not only unique but of great value for the them.  Even with all of this in place, how confident are you that they are seeing all of the “F”s – that is, how confident are you that they are not missing any opportunities to help the customer to be better off.

Four Actions to Ensure Your Field Service Team Does Not Miss Important Opportunities

Here are four actions that you can take to help ensure that your field service team does not miss opportunities that are important.

1. Establish a customer visit routine

Whenever your field service professional calls on a customer, ensure that each one of them follows a specific process which may include steps like:

    • Stopping by the customer’s office to explain the nature of the visit upon arrival and asking if anything has changed since their last visit.
    • Stopping by the customer’s office after the work is completed to go over what was done and asking if there is anything else they would like them to address while they are there.

2. Have your field team follow up on previous recommendations

Your customers are busy and, even with the best of intentions, some of your recommendations will get forgotten.  It’s a valuable service that you provide when your follow up reminds the customer to address something that had completely slipped their minds.  This is particularly important if the recommendation would prevent something that could seriously and negatively impact the customer if it is not addressed.

3. If appropriate, have your field team ask the customer to take them on a tour of their facilities

While on the tour, the field professional can point out ideas where you may be able to help and even some issues that may not be related to your business at all but will help the customer see that there are improvements that can be made.

4. Share best practices between team members

Whenever a field service member makes a recommendation that benefits a customer in a significant way, share it with the rest of the team.  What was the issue at hand?  How did the recommendation help the customer?  How many other customers might benefit from a similar recommendation?  What do these customers look like?  What questions might the field professional ask to uncover whether they could benefit from a similar recommendation?

Every time we make a proactive recommendation to a customer, we have an opportunity to help them toward achieving their business goals.  But, recognizing opportunities is not always as easy as we may first assume.  Andmissed opportunities might result in a problem for the customer.  Help your field team establish a process that will minimize lost opportunities and further enhance the value that you offer to your customers.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one”

– Mark Twain

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Is Your Field Team Following Up on Their Recommendations?

Is Your Field Team Following Up on Their Recommendations?

At our workshops, I strongly encourage field service professionals to follow-up on the recommendations they have made with customers.  It is a great way to uncover and revive opportunities. But much more importantly, it demonstrates exceptional customer service.

I often ask the field professionals who attend my workshop if they have made any recommendations in the last six months that their customer has not acted upon and that they honestly don’t know the customer’s intentions about it.  Most hands go up.

When I ask why they think that the customer has not taken action, I get a mix of responses including that the customer might have:

  • Determined that the price was too high (often accompanied by nods of agreement – a discussion of value may be needed here)
  • Gone to a competitor
  • Decided not to take any action
  • Forgotten about the recommendation

It is this last point that I focus on.

The Customer Has Forgotten About the Recommendation

To illustrate the customer service aspect of following up, I share a conversation at the workshop that I had with a manager of a company about his service provider.  He told me that after doing a routine maintenance, the service provider’s technician advised him that a critical piece of equipment was showing signs of failure.  This manager went on to say, “The tech recommended that the equipment be replaced as soon as possible to avoid unplanned downtime.  He wrote this recommendation on his work order and I signed it.”

“Time went by and I forgot about the recommendation – it completely slipped my mind.  After about 5 months, the equipment did fail and, of course, it failed at the most inconvenient time.  We had to scramble and we lost time and money.  When the dust had settled, I had to explain to my management why I had not acted on the recommendation when it was brought to my attention.

“It was not a pleasant time for me.  I was angry with myself for forgetting but that anger was soon redirected at the service technician and his company.  Although he did the right thing by making the recommendation in the first place and duly recorded it on the work-order, he was back to our facility 2 or 3 times between the initial recommendation and the failure and not once did he remind me.  If only he had followed up with me about the looming problem, I could have dealt with the issue proactively and avoided looking incompetent.”

Think of your customers.  How many of them have not acted on your field team’s recommendations and, as a result, are headed for trouble?  How valuable would a simple follow up be in helping them avoid embarrassment and possibly disaster?

Develop a Process to Follow Up on Recommendations

If you have not already done so, I suggest that you develop a process to ensure that all outstanding field generated recommendations are followed up in a timely manner. This is particularly important for recommendations that have been made and recorded as part of a work order but have not been converted into a formal proposal.  These recommendations tend to be less visible and more subject to falling through the cracks.

A simple but effective process might include:

  • Positioning opportunity follow up as a customer service activity rather than a sales activity
  • Providing a summary of any outstanding recommendations on associated work orders so that they can be discussed with the customer by the field service representative
  • Teaching the field team a simple and professional approach to discussing open recommendations

No doubt your customers are busy and juggling multiple tasks in fast-paced, ever changing environments.  It is little wonder that they forget some things, even things that are important.

Help your field team recognize the important role they play when following up on their recommendations and put in place the process to help them easily do so as part of the service that they provide.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.”

– Roger Staubach

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3 Ways to Support Business Development by Your Field Service Team

3 Ways to Support Business Development by Your Field Service Team

More and more service organizations recognize the value their field service professionals bring when they make recommendations to their customers that will help them to be better off. The challenge is to get the field team to embrace this business development mindset and maintain focus over the long haul.

To achieve this, we would be well served by supporting business development by our field service team like any other service we provide. Here are three things we can do.

1. Support the proactive efforts of the field service team with tools and processes.

Imagine that you have decided to offer a new service for your customers.  Would you simply announce the new service and wish your team luck in delivering on it or would you provide every effort to ensure that the initiative was a success?  I suspect that you would not leave anything to chance and that you would make the necessary investments to ensure that the field team was properly equipped and directed to make the new service a success.

Now think about the field team’s proactive efforts to make recommendations of products and services to your customers.  Here are just a few questions to consider:

  • Have you made the same level of effort to ensure their success in recommending your services as you have in ensuring that they can deliver upon them?
  • What processes and tools have you employed to ensure that your field team can effectively identify and speak to the customer about your services?
  • How have you employed your field automation and/or other tools to support the efforts of your team?
  • Have you defined clear steps for your field team to take when making recommendations?
  • How will the current status of opportunities identified be communicated and updated?

2. Train the field service team on the details of the service that they are about to deliver and the skills required to do so.

Thinking back to the new service offering:

  • What training would you provide on that service and how would you explain why it is of value to the customer?
  • What would you want the field professional to know about the benefits of the recommended service and the types of problems the new service addresses or avoids?
  • How would you equip your service team to speak intelligently about the new service and explain how it will help each customer?
  • What skills will you equip your team with to deliver the service flawlessly?

Now consider the business development expectations you have for your technicians:

  • How will you equip your field team so that they can explain the benefit of their proactive efforts to the customer?
  • How is this different from simply promoting services?
  • What specific benefits can the customer expect from the field team’s recommendations?
  • How can the field team present recommendations in a manner that helps the customer see the benefit of taking action?
  • What specific steps do you expect the field service team to take when delivering on this service?

A field team that recognizes that their efforts are not solely intended for the purpose of increasing revenues, but rather to improve the level of service provided, will be more engaged and enthusiastic in doing just that.  The fact that revenues will rise as a result of their efforts is a secondary reward for their ability to improve overall service levels.  A clear understanding of expectations will also help to engage the team in this important service activity.

3. Measure performance for continuous improvement

Any new service offering will have to demonstrate a return on investment.  Feedback about actual performance against plan will be analyzed and addressed.  Without feedback you or your team would not have a clear view of the effectiveness of their efforts.

The same is true for engaging field teams in making proactive recommendations.  Feedback on their performance will provide insights into what is working well and what is not.  It will give you a clearer view of the effectiveness of the effort and guide steps to make continuous improvement.

An obvious measure is revenue but that is only the tip of the iceberg.  Other related and critical measures are customer satisfaction and retention scores.  In addition, if we are making recommendations that will help our customer to be better off, we should see a decrease in unplanned maintenance and an improvement in overall labour planning.  These are just a few of the measures we can take to evaluate performance.  There are several more.

We Need Ensure that Our Field Team is Properly Equipped

Engaging our field team to proactively identify and recommend products and services to our customers that will help them to be better off is a valuable service.  When we view our field team’s efforts as a service, we can take a step back and evaluate if we are providing the right level of support to ensure their enthusiastic participation and their sustained success.  Like any service we provide, we need to ensure that our team is equipped with the right tools, skills and processes and measure our performance against plan to focus on continuously improving.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“One of the greatest compliments that we can receive is
when our customer tells us that they are better off for having known us”

– Jim Baston

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Proactive Recommendations by Your Field Team Are a Big Business Differentiator – Three Actions You Can Take

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I meet service leaders everyday who encourage their field service teams to make proactive recommendations to their customers of products and services that will help those customers to be better off.  The vast majority of those I speak to however, do not tell their customers they are asking their field service team to do this.  That’s a pity.  Proactive recommendations by your field team are a big business differentiator.

Why Don’t More Service Firms Promote Their Field Team’s Efforts?

Before we look at the how, let’s consider the why.  It is interesting to note that most firms in my unscientific sampling do not let their customers know that they have encouraged their field service professionals to look for and make recommendations to help them be better off.  This is true, even though the efforts of the field service team can add tremendous value.  By taking proactive steps, the field service team can help your customers reduce costs, improve asset life, increase productivity and numerous other benefits.

If this is true, then, why don’t more firms tell their customers what their field team is up to?  Perhaps it is because these organizations do not feel that the customer will appreciate the real value of these proactive efforts by their field service team.  They may be right.  Unless customers are educated about the value, they may not recognize the significant impact these proactive efforts can have on their ability to achieve their own business goals.

Therefore, one of the important steps that management must take is to inform the customer of this value and use it as an important differentiator in a market that is getting increasingly competitive.  Here’s how.

1. Tell the Customer What You Are Doing

The first step is to tell the customer what you are doing and why it is of benefit to them.  Point out that your field team is in a unique position to recognize actions that the customer can take to help them achieve their business goals.  They understand the technology, they can see how the customer is applying it and they understand their own firm’s capabilities.

2. Ask the Customer for Their Permission

Once you tell the customer what you are doing, it opens up the opportunity for the customer to give you permission to engage them in this way.

The conversation might go like this.  “Mr. or Ms. Customer, as you may appreciate, our field service team includes some of the finest technical minds in this industry.  We have encouraged them to use their knowledge and expertise to look for ways that our customers can do things better and help them achieve their business goals.  We have asked our field team to proactively speak to our customers about their recommendations.  If during the course of our work for you our field service professional identifies something that they feel would be of significant benefit to you, would you have any objection if they brought it to your attention?”

3. Use the Proactive Efforts of Your Field Team to Sell New Service Contracts

Work with your sales team to create your unique selling proposition that clearly sets you apart from your competitors.  Obviously it will take some thought and it will include the unique capabilities of your organization, but it will likely cover the fact that the customer can expect that not only will their equipment be running really well during the contract, but they should expect to be presented with ideas that will help them to be better off.  Arm your sales team with case studies and testimonials.  Now your sales team will have something tangible to present to the prospect that differentiates you from your competitors.

The highest level of service we can provide is when the customer can confidently claim that they are better off for having known us.  Help your customers see the value of the proactive efforts of your field service team and use this to differentiate your business from your competitors.  These three steps will help.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.”

– Albert Einstein

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Building Personal and Professional Credibility

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There is a lot of interest in teaching field service technicians to promote services.  This makes sense as the field service professional is in the best position to recognize opportunities and to discuss these with their customers.  To help them, many firms look to courses to train their field teams how to sell.  But, if you’re serious about engaging your technicians in product and service promotion as part of your strategy to enhance service levels, then building personal and professional credibility are the most important skills needed for proactive service teams.

Remember That They Are NOT Salespeople

Regardless of how proactive you want your technicians to be, it is important to remember that they are not salespeople and, in the interests of your business success, you don’t want them to be.  You want your customers to see them as trusted advisors who are using their expertise to help them achieve their business goals.  The most important skills they need are the abilities to communicate their personal and professional credibility to the customer.

Establishing Trust Between Field Service Professionals and Customers

Field service professionals who are recognized as skilled in promoting services know how important it is that the customer trusts them.  That trust must be in their personal motives (trusting that they are making recommendations in the interest of the customer and not their own) and their professional competence (they know what they are talking about).

These successful field engineers understand that their personal and professional credibility is earned over time by the way they interact with their customers.  They take steps to build their credibility through every customer interaction, regardless of how insignificant it might seem.

Understanding Good Communication Skills

Their success in promoting services is not because they are polished sales professionals, but because customers trust their motives and their judgment and are willing to listen to them and take action.  Understanding good communication skills helps of course.

The ability to present a recommendation to the customer in a way that communicates the benefits of taking action from the customer’s perspective helps the customer see the value in taking action.  The skill of exploring hesitation can help customers make informed decisions and avoid problems.  But, if your technicians do not have personal and professional credibility with the customer, they won’t be successful in promoting services, regardless of how helpful the recommendation is or how skilled they are in promoting it.

So, if you really want your technicians to enthusiastically embrace your strategy to engage them in business development, focus on teaching them how to build credibility with the customer.  Ensure that they know that they are not selling, but rather providing a valuable service to the customer.  Then provide them with some basic approaches to communicate the benefits of their recommendations effectively so that the customer can make an informed decision.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“Earn trust, earn trust, earn trust. Then you can worry about the rest.”

– Seth Godin