Monday, March 24, 2014

YOU'RE OPEN WHEN?

Here's an earth shattering statement--Most of the people we as BSC's employ work at night, usually starting after 6 PM. Amazing revelation, isn't it?

Here's another earth shattering statement--Most BSC's have their Human Resourses department open from 8 AM to 5 PM. What's wrong with this picture?

If we are in the business of hiring primarily evening staff members, why are we open only during the day? With many BSC's employing part time help, it means that if the applicant has a full time job, they have to take off from their other job to apply for a part time position with you. Or worse yet, they lie, and call in sick so they can put in an application in the hours YOU prefer to interview. Neither alternative, in my opinion, is a favorable choice. They give up pay on their full time job to apply for a part time, probably lower paying job?

It seems to me it makes sense to be open at least until 7 PM in the evening even if you don't start the HR day until 10 AM. At least do it a couple of days a week. In this way you can do interviewing with the quality propects you are always hoping for. Experience tells us that if you are only open during the daytime hours and are looking for part time workers, you are going to get the unemployed applicant that really wants full time work but will take this position until they can find that full time position. This just adds to your woes and the number of W-2s you have to make at the end of the year. And at $500+ per person cost of turnover per employee, this turns out to be a very expensive employee that you probably hired in desperation anyway.

Let's take it another step further. Many companies say they only interview between certain hours, say 2-4 PM or 1-4PM. Now there's a real kick in the teeth. We are a company looking for great employees but we are only willing to talk with them at certain times of the day? My guess is the competitor is hiring those applicants that want to be interviewed outside the window that has been established.

Some companies I know are open from 9-noon on Saturdays in order to give applicants every opportunity to apply. They post it in the ad and encourage Saturday interviews.

Others I know open their doors on Sunday afternoon from time to time from 1-4 PM to catch those people that may be out looking for a home and are trying to determine how they will come up with the extra money for the higher house payment. How about a Sunday ad that says something like--"Found the house you would like to own? Will the payments be a stretch? We are open on Sunday afternoon from 1-4 to talk with you about quality part time positions that will help you earn that extra money needed to afford the house you have always wanted.".

To drive even more traffic to your door, let me suggest you post an ad in whatever media form you use that says something like--"10 immediate openings" as the headline and then put in the rest of the details. I am sure someone reading this is saying something like, I only need 3 people right now Wouldn't that be lying?. Let me ask you. Do you have 7 people you would like to get rid of and if the answer is yes, then you have 10 immediate openings?

I remember helping an HR person for a company write an ad that said 25 immediate openings and the HR manager was resistant because he only had 14 actual openings. I then asked the Operations Manager if we placed an ad that said 25 immediate openings, did he have 11 people he would like to replace. His response to me was, "Today I have 111 employees I would like to replace. He was not having a good day.  It's kind of like the guy who asked me how many people I had working for me and my reply was "about half of them". I wasn't having a good day that day either. Or the basketball coach when asked, after a bad loss, what he thought of his team's execution and his response was, "I'm all for it". Well anyway, you get the idea.

So, let me ask you, when are you open? Are you open for your convenience or at the times convenient for your applicants which just might become your companies future leaders? Some things to think about. In our book, Finding, Training, and Keeping GREAT Service Employees 101" we talk a great deal about the subject of hiring techniques that bring you the right people. Available at www.consultantsincleaning.com

Remember to listen to our FREE weekly pod cast at www.tripodcast.com. We are making some changes in the format and you will want to listen and see what they are.

Let me know your comments, agree or disagree, we read them all.

Till next time.


Friday, March 14, 2014

JUST E-MAIL IT OVER

It is no secret that we have become a technological society. Everthing now is, like me on facebook, link up with me on linkedin, how many followers do we have on twitter and the list goes on. If you are like me you are probably seeing more stuff on facebook than you ever wanted to see.

So too, technology has taken over our industry as to providing proposals for our prospects. How many times in recent memory have you just e-mailed a price or a couple of sheets to a prospect along with the price for service? Be honest, how many times?

Before going any further let me mention there are some very good ways of preparing proposals and e-mailing them to your prospect electronically if that is the way you choose to go. If you were at the last ISSA tradeshow you saw some great examples of this by companies who provide this service.

But the question remains. Are we getting so technologically savvy that we forget that maybe the best way to present a proposal and close the sale is by sitting right next to the prospect and discussing what we have to offer? It's easy to put your features and benefits down on paper for them to read but aren't you missing something? Isn't it important to see the body language of the prospect when they are reviewing the information? Don't you want to see them frown or grin or show no expression? Doesn't that give you a sense of what you need to do next rather than sitting in your office wondering what they are thinking or saying as they go through the information?

How does your electronic information answer some of the following questions if you're not there?

Your price is too high

Let's talk in greater detail about the training and benefit program for your people

These specs aren't exactly what I want

What happens if?


There are many more but you get the picture. I personally want to see the prospects body language when we are talking about the specifications and the pricing connected with those specifications. I want to be able to explain our pricing, detail our training program, and how it benefits the prospect and I want to be able to adjust specifications on the spot if need be, or adjust pricing to meet the adjusted specifications. I want to be able to answer their questions in person if they ask what happens if? O sure, they can make a list of questions and e-mail them over to you and you can ae-mail the answers back but let me ask you---Who has the upper hand when you are just e-mailing back and forth? HINT, HINT, IT IS NOT YOU.

I may be from a really old school but after I have spent considerable dollars creating a prospect list, and even more dollars finally getting the prospect to allow me to present a proposal, I really don't want my computer or their computer deciding if I get the business. I want to be there, see their reactions, answer any questions, ask questions that I may have and provide an overall solid person to person presentation of why they should contract with my organization.

Oh, I know. The prospect tells you they are so busy that they can't take the time to see you so "just e-mail it over". Do you oblige? Or, do you say, "Mr./Ms. prospect, the potential of having your company as a customer of ours is extremely important and I would like to present our information in person. I am willing to meet after hours or over breakfast before you go to the office some morning, but it really is important that I am able to discuss the information with you in person. It will only take one hour of your time".

Now what happens if they say okay but they don't have one hour? You ask for 45 minutes etc. and provide them the Reader's Digest version and prepare accordingly and don't go over the alotted time unless they have questions (which is good) or need additional information.

So how about it? Are you content to "just e-mail it over", or do you want to expend the effort to maybe force the issue a bit and get in front of the prospect? Let me suggest you work hard at getting that person to person presentation.

On another subject, David and I are experimenting with a couple of different formats on our weekly tripodcasts. I hope you are listening and when those new formatted ones crop up here and there let us know what you think of them. Again the pod casts are free and available at www.tripodcast.com.

Till next time. By the way, I would love to hear your comments on this post. Agree? Disagree? Let me know.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

ARE YOU LISTENING?

As David Holly of Don't Panic Productions, Inc. and I were visiting the other day about possible format and frequency changes to our weekly pod casts, the thought occurred to me that some of the people who read this blog and who are regular readers of Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and heaven knows what else may not be listening to the pod casts that David posts every Monday morning.

How about you? Are you one of the thousands of listeners every week or are you missing out on this learning opportunity? It's FREE so I don't feel bad about promoting it here. The price is certainly right. You're not listening every week you say?  Let me suggest you go right now to www.tripodcast.com and sign up in the orange box on the right of the page. Every week we cover something that hopefully helps our listeners to improve their businesses and personal lives.

Another important fact about the pod casts. We DO NOT SOLICIT ANY BUSINESS FROM YOU ONCE YOU SIGN UP. We have people who want to buy our list of subscribers and we have guarded that list diligently. We promised a FREE subscription and we intend to keep it that way.

Another interesting note about our tripodcasts. We archive them so you can go back and listen to as many on whatever subject interests you at the time. For example, episode 140 from February 14, 2011 talks about technology in our business. Episode 218 from April 23, 2012 has the subject of how your altitude in life is in direct contrast to your attitude in life. You can scroll done on the home page and there you will find the various years and by clicking on that year you can see what subjects were covered in each month.

We try to cover a lot of different subjects over the course of a year so hopefully everyone gets something of value from our messages.

Here's another important fact to keep in mind. EACH MESSAGE IS GENERALLY IN THE AREA OF 5 MINUTES SO YOU CAN LISTEN AND GET ON WITH YOUR WEEK AHEAD. Sometimes I get a bit carried away but I try my best to keep it around 5 minutes.

Another factoid to keep in mind. For the past 3 years and we will again this year be doing daily tripodcasts as the BSCAI convention and ISSA tradeshow get closer. Our mission has been to allow as many of the convention speakers as possible provide us with a short, concise briefing on what their session will be about at the convention. These tripodcasts have proven to be extremely popular as we see listenership increase dramatically in the 4-5 weeks leading up to the convention. We have learned that attendees and potential attendees are really interested in hearing the speakers give the overview of their session. It helps them determine which sessions to attend to get maximum value from their time at the show. By the way, this years events will be held in Orlando, Florida the week of November 3-8. Several past convention attendees have told me that these tripodcasts helped them make the decision to attend the convention and they were not disappointed. These are the types of comments that encourage us to continue this free service. Look for these daily tripodcasts to begin around the first of October this year.

So again I ask, are you listening? Your investment is about 5 minutes per week and there just might be something that will help you through that week. And by the way, as you view the home page you will see there is a place for you to make comments. We always encourage comments and do our best to answer them as soon as possible.

Take a listen. We'll both be glad you did. Remember, it's www.tripodcast.com.

Till next time.