Jim Baston, continues his series that looks at how to encourage your service technicians to see generating revenue in the field not as a selling, but instead as a fundamental part of their role in providing the best service they can to their customers... 

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 of these 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.

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 FOCUSED ON THE SERVICE PROVIDER RATHER THAN THE CUSTOMERS AND THEIR NEEDS

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 – closingtechniques, 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 will resonate well with the customer.

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.

TAKING A "SERVICE" PERSPECTIVE ENHANCES SERVICES AND ADDS VALUE

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”?

 

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership and Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more exclusive articles by Jim Baston @ www.fieldservicenews.com/jim-baston
• Connect with Jim Baston on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/jimbaston
• Learn more about Jim Baston and BBA Consulting Group @ jimbaston.com
• Connect with Jim Baston directly by email @ jim@jimbaston.com

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’re 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’s 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’ve 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

And 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?

 

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership and Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more exclusive articles by Jim Baston @ www.fieldservicenews.com/jim-baston
• Connect with Jim Baston on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/jimbaston
• Learn more about Jim Baston and BBA Consulting Group @ jimbaston.com
• Connect with Jim Baston directly by email @ jim@jimbaston.com

 

A Field Service News' favourite, Cheryl-Anne Sanderson, joins Mark Glover for our latest podcast bringing ideas around networking, perception and nurturing young talent. 

It's been nearly a year since Cher made her debut on the Field Service Podcast. Since then a career move, a successful presentation at last year's FSN Connect, not to mention a well-deserved place in FSN's top 20 service individuals - the FSN20, has made the last 12 months, by her own admission, rather crazy. Yet despite the madness she has still found time to contribute thought-pieces for us on reframing networking and to make a second appearance on the podcast on nurturing young talent.

Cher's belief in guiding the next generation of leaders in service and FM remains undiminished and has possibly got stronger. She shares with us process her firm is undertaking when guiding through young, new recruits; and ponders if anything has changed around the perception of our sectors, a key metric when attracting new talent. She also explores some of the ideas raised in her article about networking.

As ever, it's a fascinating listen from one of the strongest most forward thinking voices in the sector. Listen now!

You can listen to Cher's previous podcast for us here and you can reach out to her on LinkedIn here.

 

Regular Field Service News' contributor Jan van Veen says surrounding yourself with those on the same wavelength can foster high performance, innovation and change.

Silicon Valley thrives as its own ecosystem exists on disruption. Each start-up flourishes with individuals all moving in the same direction; keen to change what's gone before. Each person has the same values, habits, goals and mindsets. As a collective it's no surprise this part of California is one of the most creative hubs in the world.

In this edition of the Field Service Podcast, moreMomentum's Founder and MD (and long-time Field Service News' Collaborator) Jan van Veen urges service leaders to choose their network wisely if they want to change the status quo. Citing the aforementioned Silicon Valley and high-performance judo athletes van Veen lays the foundations of a successful social environment for your business.

Also, for the first time this series, the podcast incorporates input from a LinkedIn discussion on this topic before the podcast was recorded. One of those who contributed to that discussion, Rohit Agarwal shared this diagram with us. It's handy to reference this image at the appropriate point of the podcast.

You can reach out to Jan on LinkedIn here and find out more information about moreMomentum here. 

 

Ahead of Field Service Connect this year, being held 12 to 13 May in Windsor, UK, Becky Johnson, Content Director at WBR and curator of the speaker line-up joins us on the Field Service Podcast to give us a sneak preview of what delegates can expect this year.

The service conference circuit is a crowded one. For professionals who operate in a time-precious environment choosing the right event to attend, where you can garner the most amount of value for your time is an important business decision. Sharing challenges with other delegates, gaining insight on new tech and sharing a coffee with colleagues should be part of your event requirements.

In this special edition of the Field Service Podcast Becky Johnson from WBR who is overseeing the content at this year's Field Service Connect talks us through the speaker acquisition process: from the initial research involved and the overall honing of the talks and debates. Being close to the trends in the industry Becky also shares some of the insight she has gained during this research process. It's a fascinating listen.

 

You can reach out to Becky on LinkedIn here. 

Regular Field Service News contributor Michael Blumberg makes his debut on the Field Service Podcast and explains why firms should be embarking on a digital transformation journey.

As a regular supplier of insight to the pages of Field Service News for many years now, the FSN editorial team though it wise to get Mize's Michael Blumberg on the podcast. Deputy Editor and host Mark Glover batted topic suggestions with Michael over email and the pair eventually decided on Digital Transformation, a journey that all service professionals should be contemplating if they haven't already.

Covering the challenges and advantages of DX, including tangible case studies of successful integration, Michael explains with clarity how you can begin your own transformation, one that can only be beneficial to your business.

It's essential listening for any service professional. Download it now!

You can connect with Michael on LinkedIn here or reach out to him on email. You can also read his most recent article on how to optimise your engineers here.

Steve Zannos, Director, Customer Care, Elextrolux and FSN20 alumni shares his thoughts on service in the latest Field Service Podcast.

Steve Zannos is a worthy addition to 2019's most influential in service list, the FSN20, our annual run-down of those making a significant impact on the sector. As Senior Director of Service at Electrolux, Steve oversees a vast pool of engineers as well as external contractors and has shifted the firm's service strategy to a modern outlook with tangible outcomes.

Steve wrote a fascinating piece on management and engineer engagement so we got him onto the podcast to discuss the article; challenges that arise when introducing new technologies; and how the the profession can encourage more young people into the sector. It's essential listening for any service professional.
You can connect with Steve on LinkedIn here and join the Customer Services Management Professionals LinkedIn group here.

Understanding the various ways in which your customers may perceive value from your services is crucial if you are to be able to effectively sell preventative maintenance based service solutions to them, writes Coen Jeukens...

Selling preventive maintenance is not what it used to be. In the old days a manufacturer could use its expert position to prescribe a maintenance scheme. Today, a combination of emerging technologies and pressure from buyers to do it cheaper/ smarter warrant a revisiting of the value proposition of preventive maintenance.

PM = Periodical Maintenance

As acronym we use PM. When talking we utter the words preventive maintenance. But what do we really mean?

• Planned Maintenance
• Periodical Maintenance
• Predictive Maintenance
• Prescriptive Maintenance

Analysing a lot of service contracts offered by OEMs we still see most of the maintenance is periodical or counter based. Just like the maintenance interval for your car; a PM each year or at 15,000 km.

All those periodical or counter based maintenance jobs are good service revenue for your service organisations But what happens when customers start challenging you? What if the customer has access to knowledge that amends or contradicts the engineering assumptions that led to the definition of your current maintenance intervals?

Buyers seek to reduce maintenance cost

In a world where people are more vocal, we see customers expecting things to work and buyers seeking to reduce maintenance cost. These expectations impact the way we sell service contracts.

Selling is more straight forward when you can see a direct relationship between the pain and the gain. Such a link is obvious for installation and break-fix activities. But it is less apparent for preventive maintenance. Try to picture buyers asking these questions:

• What does PM prevent and what is the risk that remains?
• What is the rationale of the current maintenance interval?
• Nothing happened last year. What will happen if we skip or delay a PM?
• Can you dissect the PM job in activities (show me what you do) and is it really necessary to have all those activities done by an experienced/ expensive technician as yours?
• Can we do pieces of the PM job ourselves?

 

 

 

You get the gist of the conversation and know where it is leading less cost for your customer at the expense of less PM revenue for your service organisation.

What complicates the selling of service, is that in most scenarios the buyer and the customer/ user are not the same person. You may convince the user of a piece of equipment to do preventive maintenance, the buyer on the other hand has a different set of objectives. Most likely the buyer will push you on a path towards commoditising and cannibalising your PM services. All in order to reduce cost.

Rediscovering value

To stay ahead of the game let’s dissect PM along the lines of value creation for the customer. High level you can split a PM into three pieces:

1. The execution of the maintenance activities
2. The reporting on those activities
3. The communication and interpretation of the results

Ask your customers to rate the value of each of those pieces. It’s probable that you will find that the business value of PM to a lesser extent is in the execution and more in the reporting and communication.

Maybe you pride yourself in your uniqueness of execution, whereas the customer might perceive it as a commodity. If also reporting and communication are on par, you may face price erosion.

If your customer needs the PM report for compliance or insurance purposes, the value of the report increases. When you consider that PM is often a play of risk and liability, you can price the value of your brand.

Example: It does make a difference to an insurer if a yearly PM/ inspection is performed by a triple A company or a middle of the road company. Communication value comes into play when your customer expects you to be a partner rather than a supplier.

• Supplier – “just send me the PM report, I’ll read and interpret it myself. When I need assistance, I’ll contact you.”
• Partner – “help me interpret the findings and consequences of the PM. How does this impact my business?”.

In the latter situation you can monetise the communication beyond the effort of having a conversation for a couple of hours. PM can thus elevate from an obligatory periodical execution to an instrument of customer satisfaction and cross- and upselling.

Repackaging the preventive maintenance offering

In order to retain and expand your PM revenue stream in a context where the buyers move to reduce their spend, do go in discovery mode and (re)define preventive maintenance.

PM is not a singular black box once defined by somebody in engineering with a product focus. Modern PM is a menu of choices (and consequences) for your buyer based on the usage profile of the product, budget and risk.