Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/45004
26 • NOVEMBER 2011 • WORLD FENCE NEWS Working in the field in various management positions at a fairly large fencing contractor for a good part of September, I have come to realize a great truth that most of you were surely aware of all along: It's not so easy running a fence company! No matter the size of the operation, there's a lot of work involved, and, boy, did I find Murphy's Law rule running true to form. If anything in the day-to-day operations of a fence company can go wrong, it usually does. And there are so many combina- tions of potential problems that can arise; it's not at all like making and Dealing with the variables (or moving parts) of running a fence company BY TOM LUBY, PROFIT BUILDERS INTERNATIONAL selling a standardized item, like a burger. There are too many moving parts in fencing, too many different sit- uations and too many variables, not to mention the people you have to deal with, and I'm including staff and crazy customers in that mix. It's not easy standardizing systems and operations to create the ultimately efficient fencing operation with all these variables, but it's not impossible. That being said, there is a lot of detail that needs to go into the systems and operations procedures flowchart for any mid size to large fence con- tractor, simply because of the vast amount of possibilities and variations that all must be covered. Smaller "mom and pop" one or two crew oper- ations will also do well to try to inte- grate many of these systems and pro- cedures into their operations, but they may find some overkill and duplica- tion of effort. Still and all, this system I am de- scribing now and over the next few months can be something to grow into and can certainly help any transition for growing companies. Last month we ended by review- ing the pre-contact and first contact phase of running an efficient fence op- eration. We talked about the impor- tance of communication within the company and by all employees, from the office to the sales staff to produc- tion and field installation crews. This month I want to pick up after the initial contact with the customer and examine the systems, procedures and functions that come into play in the residential sales departments. In December we will discuss sim- ilar but slightly different systems and procedures needed for commercial es- timating. I will be using as a point of refer- ence the fencing contractor I have been working with in the Midwest for these examples. The company has two branches about 30 miles apart and they run both in-house and subcontractor crews, a total of about 10 crews at this time. I will refer to the positions I cre- ated for this company in my examples and these positions can be referenced via the organizational chart printed last month. Residential sales staff procedures The sales staff should utilize as many sales tools and techniques as possible to optimize sales capture ra- tios and maximize profit margins. It is critical to use all of the sales tools pos- sible, like "value selling," personality based sales, "backward selling" and "closing the value sale," all of which can be found in my fence industry sales and marketing book "The Close." You will find ordering infor- mation at the end of each of my monthly columns. Some of the step-by-step sales procedures to be followed include: 1. A daily sales appointment schedule is created in MS Outlook, Act or similar software by the opera- tions coordinator for each of the resi- dential sales staff. This sales appointment schedule can be booked anywhere from a few days to a few weeks out, or, in the height of the sea- son, possibly more. 2. When a request for an estimate is received by the operations coordi- nator, an appointment for that estimate is scheduled for as soon as possible and immediately entered into the sys- tem. A time is set that is convenient for the customer and at a time the sales