The Technician
Chances are you are a service contractor owner or employee. It could be an electrical contractor or solar energy or plumbing or HVAC. It doesn't matter. You or your people enter a home or place of business and repair, replace, maintain or install whatever it is that's your specialty. You try to make a difference for your customer.
Keep that thought in mind as you watch this short film. Notice how technician Simon Oliver Fecteau tries to make a difference for his customer. Maybe it's just me, but I do believe Simon is raising the bar for us all...
I recently met the wife of a fellow HVAC contractor. Her husband (the coach of my eleven year old son's football team) had just handed business cards to all parents attending the first practice of the season and was now infield running drills.
ReplyDeleteI took a seat on the grass and briefly surveyed the card which stated her husband's title as "HVAC Technician". To strike up conversation and feed my curiosity I asked "So your husband is in HVAC, huh?", which she confirmed offering no more information. Wishing to establish some commonality I told her that I was also in the HVAC field as a business owner. Apparently feeling somewhat threatened by competition she proceeded to explain that the coach was also a contractor himself at one time but, that working as an employee is much better and why. "Now he gets paid, has regular hours and blah, blah, blah
..."
With a simple gesture in slight agreement I let the conversation go and for several days pondered my fleeting sense of commitment to my own business. You see, against the advice of Matt and other great consultants in the industry, I lost sight of my goals in life and business and let the present state of the economy take control of my life. The downward spiral started with layoffs last December (shortly before Christmas) and lead to a great deal of self pity and depression. Now with the exchange of a few words I found myself at a crossroads; give up and admit defeat or push through this.
The fact that all but one temporary employee was laid off this spring coupled with the fact that our largest vendor had just placed our account on COD status didn't help my decision much. For weeks I wondered what to do then, ironically, the answers started to surface during another football practice.
During practice, a conversation that started between a football mom and myself turned toward her occupation and the fact that she never personally performs any of the tactical work because it involves something she is very passionate about and she doesn't want to lose her passion. I responded stating, "I used to be passionate about HVAC." Uggh, "used to be" rolled off my lips with no less than the force an eye opening blow to the face. But, excitement swooped in and saved the day when I realized that the statement had peaked the curiosity of the coach's wife.
Not wanting to leave both of them puzzled as to how one might be passionate about HVAC, I explained how helping people really makes me feel great and how happy it makes them.
"Yeah sure", the football mom said, "Until you give them the bill." At this point the coach's wife who was sitting in front of us had made a complete 180 and was waiting intently for my reply... "That's why we utilize 'Up-Front Pricing.'" Then just like that the conversation was over.
Fueled by a new positive attitude and a spike in sales I began to seek more motivation and found it (like so many other times before) in the abundance of great material created by the industry icons like Ron Smith, Tom McCart, Charlie Greer, and Matt Michel. Thanks guys for all that you do!
My bottom line is this: Stay passionate.