G’day mike, I thoroughly enioy seeing you help other small businesses become more successful and profitable, keep up the great work you and your team do 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻
@mikeandes can I sales for you. For 10% that seems like a nice agreement. As long as you show up your team will do good alot of people don't show up to jobs. Let me know thanks
Only reason she'd be that scared and terrified is because she knows he's gonna find out anything and everything. It's her guilty conscience knowing she isn't doing well and still getting paid for it.
It needs to be a experienced tree service man to do sales bids on tree jobs ..the bigger companies here have arborists doing that...like this guy it's struggle to even keep employees..have zero currently..I actually seen one of your trucks in my area amongst the thousands of mowing companies and or non companies..I do both tree care and comercial landscaping/mowing ..bevause it keeps me able to have income even without help...I offer full service..where competition only do 1 or 2 things..have downsized amount of customers because cannot not find American ls to work ..they want to come on board then don't follow the rules or my standards..running buisness is a fulltime lifestyle that I enjoy ..worked 25 years for other companies and crew leader .but these kids see the RU-vid and think they deserve top pay but don't put in the work and they don't respect that I worked 7days week no days off 5 years coming from nothing ..took long time building customer relations...the employees should be focused on work only and groing learning and sticking around being loyal so they can one day take over daily operations. However they only want to be over payed and don't care about work ..there in big hurry to go home..very sad every small buisness is struggling..
@@Peterzach85are they really undersold. Maybe she’s telling the owner one thing and the customer another. That’s the classic way an estimator will steal money from a company. Especially if the owner isn’t really monitoring what’s she’s doing. If I’m the owner I’m going with her to see how she bids jobs.
The sale lady took advantage of the guys kind heart to offer her a job and commissions. As soon as she got word Mike was coming, She knew she was getting canned. Glad he sees she was a bad investment. Hopefully he can keep his mind set positive and push through the bump in the road.
She seemed to be overselling her skills and experience. Nobody good in sales is working for under 6 figures if they know their worth and options. She mentioned struggling and giving in to basic price objections, which is beginner stuff.
In any service business, you don't send a sales person out to bid a job, especially if they aren't experienced in the business you're running. You send someone out to see what needs to be done, what condition the area is in, and all the variables, take pictures and measurements and then go back tot he office and work out the time needed, equipment needed and cost to do the job. Then you call or go back with the estimate and the contract. Once the contract is signed, you have the job. This isn't selling girl scout cookies.. If they don't have a formula to give her, or make her go out, take pics, measurements, etc and go back to the office to work out the numbers, then she will forever under price their work.
The sales lady is your typical salesperson. They speak highly of themselves their resume talk about how they have a large network of people but don't bring those networks to the company.
Lady reminds me of employees who BS about their experience, talk all this game and have little to no skills. If she was getting 6% topline and has all these connections and loves and wants the company to grow so bad, why not reach out to all her 'connections' she has to sell more ?
This is crazy. We have a lady at our dealership that gets all of the online leads. If we as the salesman do all of the work, she demands 50% of the pay. Absolute bullshit.
I was watching a tree service at my neighbors last summer in Louisiana. One of them threw up mid job, immediately lit a cigarette and went back to work.
I was recieving medical treatments that would cause me to vomit mid day everyday. Some days worse then others. I always felt better afterwards. I just got it over with & got back to work. Went through this for 6 months. Those who noticed always said I should go home or stay home. My thought was, I can barf, get work done, and make money, or be musserable at home & not have enough money. I prefer the just getting on with life option.
Yea, I just don't understand how a salesperson was hired to sell but doesn't know the business. Time and what it takes to complete a job should have at least a few years on a crew to get a full understanding of jobs being bid on. Trust me, it takes years to get it right
Dudes.. this episode was epic.. he low-key is a pretty good boss in the sense that he went above and beyond in showing her that she was a problem lmao.
First of all, can you please not use the phrase clow key" because it's a phrase that doesn't really make sense because it can mean a few different things to a few different people so it's best just to use standard language that people have used for decades so that nobody is confused. Second, I am only about 5 and a half minutes into the video and I have read a few of the comments and based on reading the comments, it sounds like the sales lady is the main problem but I can tell just from watching the short amount I have, the owner is the problem with the company which in the end is typically the problem anyway. The reality is, issues within a company start from the top down and that includes the owner plain and simple. Although he might be a decent guy as far as his personality, the reality is, I have this feeling that he really doesn't know how to understand business and do a proper budget or cost analysis for his own business so he knows how to actually be profitable overall. Although I am getting ahead of myself here, if the salesperson is the major problem in the business which I'm assuming it probably is in this case, then it should be a glaring red flag that should be easily identified plain and simple and you could calculate it all with math just by looking at the profit and loss statement or your overall costs of your business. I believe a few other comments said that the majority or almost all of their revenue goes to payroll after other expenses are taken out and if that's the case, then there's obviously an issue with employees which includes the salesperson as well. The bottom line is, you need to generate enough revenue so that you can take care of all of your costs which includes your payroll and your equipment expenses including any loans that you might have out on equipment as well as operating costs such as utilities and insurance and rent or lease or a loan payments on a building and things of that nature. And then, after you have figured that out, you need to also account for any sort of salary that you want to take out as the owner unless you are figuring that in as your payroll which is fine. But in the end, you need to have a cushion after it is all said and done so that you are not just balancing on a thin line of margins. That is how businesses go out of business. So, at this point in the video, my bet is on that although the owner might be nice, he doesn't actually understand business well enough to be able to manage it properly and he needs to probably either have somebody sit down with him for a few days or maybe a few weeks and go over some business strategies with him or, he needs to have an actual manager come in and take care of the business and he becomes more of a general manager for the crew. My guess is that he is not doing enough volume to justify this though so I'm not exactly sure without knowing all of the details and obviously, I'm only about five and a half minutes in so maybe something will change as I get to the end of the video.
She wouldn't be so worried about Mike if she was competent and doing her job correctly. If she's been in sales all her life, she should be a whole lot better. Just because someone has been doing something a long time doesn't mean they are good at what they do.
Mike, I normally think you are spot on in your advice. However, you didn't even mention the biggest cash cow in tree work which is INSURANCE jobs. Go to all your local agents and drop off business cards. Buy them doughnuts or lunch once in awhile. Your CAC decreases and your profit margains sky rocket because customers dont nickel and dime you over price. Ask me how I know....
YEP, insurance related jobs to prevent property damage or clean up after a tree has fallen, area realtors and property management companies are all a MUST for local tree service companies to focus on, canvas HEAVILY and build relationships with!
From my experience in sales, if the sales person is scared of straight commission as a payment that person is an order taker, not a salesman, big difference.
The tree cutting service we use sends an arborist out (owner) who scopes out the job and calls back with a quote. It’s a family business. It is very successful.
I enjoyed watching this video! I own a boutique tree care company in Tulsa, and we are in our fourth year. I will say, I do not have anything figured out, probably about 60% actually, however, I feel like we’ve done a good job maximizing our potential, and I know every market is different. Some things I might recommend. -We ran a dump trailer for two years, and last year we purchased a new Bandit 15 XP, (I already had a 20 yard chip truck that was pulling the dump trailer with, and was anticipating a future chipper). $86,000 for a chipper seemed like a lot, but we doubled and some days quadrupled what we could get done in a day, especially when coupled with crane use. You can get rid of chips in so many places, and most of the time it’s free. -Slashing dump trailers is way more hazardous than operating a chipper (you’re running a chainsaw towards your legs in a boiling hot box, and there’s a high likelihood of a person fallen out, or injuring a leg getting in and out), especially considering nowadays almost everyone feeds a 15”+ chipper with a mini skid. -100% become an ISA Certified Arborist, and encourage your crew to achieve the same. Buy them the books, give them big bonuses for passing their certification! You need any professional credential you can get, and that paves way to become a BCMA, which very few have in most local markets. -Your crew looks a little heavy for your gross income. If you can hit the 600K range, then that crew size might be OK, but you should be able to achieve $130-160k+ per crew member annually in the South/Midwest. Lean and mean is the name of the game, and I’m sure a lot of these people you care about and are like family, but to optimize you need to cut off the fat. -I don’t believe there’s any need for a salesman within the tree industry until you’re hitting a consistent 750K or more a year. You will be the best sales person! There’s many ways to fry a cat, 😂 in my company, we work roughly four 10’s (7:30-5:00), and I bid every Monday. My crew enjoys having a three day weekend, so we go hard four days a week, and they enjoy their life for three. -Don’t focus too much on closing percentage, focus on net profit. We close about 30% of our jobs, but we are around 40-50% profit, however, we have focused hard on credentials and educating ourselves constantly to become authorities in our local industry. We tried to only book out two weeks, but with profitable work that fits our equipment and crew size. -Figure out what part of tree care or removal you do best in, and focus 75% on that. We bang out massive removals several times a month, but our big money makers are actually higher end pruning.
Hey Cody! Thanks for the response We are going to make it happen I have a bc1000 i use that’ll be going behind the grapple saw. I don’t tell the crew to cut up in the trailer. I’m usually managing the job but for this day i had my dad set up so things weren’t necessarily how we work. With a grapple saw, I’ll be focusing more on removals and clearance pruning I appreciate all the recommendations and will be working on the ISA certification and the Crane certification with New Jersey crane experts
Spot on. It looks like they are doing a lot of things the hard way and spending money in the wrong areas. They need a chipper and branch manager grapple and rig down big limbs instead of cutting little limbs and letting the saw hang down 10feet from the bucket. The sales lady is not the biggest problem.
This guy is very likeable and him and guys seem like hard workers too. He actually is quite aware of his numbers. I think once some of his business financials gets tightened up he will succeed. Consolidation of his finances with one lender with a clear payment might also help. Mike you’re the man.
I’m actually on track to paying off all of my loans to free up an additional $3000 per month Every purchase was considered and calculated for the risk involved with the roi that it would potentially have Hiring someone in sales was a learning experience as I’m trying to grow in delegate task to other people. I appreciate your kind words
Sales con lady was worried and scared from the start...... She knew she was busted! She claims expertise and a huge network of contacts.. so why hasn't she used any of it!? Well made video too btw! Interesting & super informative. Thanx for the work.
Great video Mike your knowledge you share is amazing .The owner Cody is a good hearted man and cares about his crew from what i see in this video.I wish i could have had a boss like him . I've been in the tree business for 28 years working for various companies here in San Diego CA .Mostly as a Forman/groundman /production manger I even had my own tree service for 2 years but its a lot of work being a single dad and running a company i was working to much and not being there for my kids I couldn't find a balance . I was curious on the way the branches were being loaded up and had a few questions first one is why no chipper you can dump wood chips almost anywhere free and cut up wood to fireplace size then theres no dump fees ?second one is why did they load up branches in a bobcat to be token to trailer witch is a few feet away seems like it would be faster and cheaper just to throw straight in trailer seems like your moving the same branches more then you have too ? PS (I WAS Worried FOR CJ WHEN HE WAS USING CHAINSAW IN BACK OF TRAILER HE NEEDS SOME TRAINING ON HOW TO PROPERLY USE A CHAINSAW FROM WHAT I SAW IM NOT TRYING TO KNOCK HIM HE SEEMS LIKE A GOOD DUDE I JUST DONT WANT HIM TO GET HURT ) And my last question is what was the guy blowing in the grass?would't it be faster just to rake it up
One thing I see a lot of these small business Owners do is they are answering the phone all the time, whether they are on a job or in their vehicle or after hours when they are with their family. Why not hire a person during the day to answer the phone part time and to manage the calls? As the owner you should have a simple script the person follows and their main focus should be customer service and processing the calls with some sort of priority so you can be notified of emergencies and also set a block of your time aside to just work on possible bids. There are a lot of People claiming Social Security at 62 that can still work under 20 hours a week part time.
I’m actually in the process of trying to find somebody to do my answering and scheduling! Let me know if you have any virtual assistant recommendations Cody Graver Trinity Tree Llc
If I was ever in this business I would always be the person to do sales cause you know what makes you money and saves money and don’t have to pay an additional person to half ass it
Never pay commissions on the gross, it incentivizes the sales people to underbid. Pay on the profit. When they write out that bid, and they add 30% for the business, then add their % to the final.
At the 12:00 minute mark into this video, we like many others realized two things...1) Cody needs to be a lot better owner, boss, delegator, troubleshooter and make responsible, logical decisions about running his business, and...2) Jennifer the marketing, lead-generator, sales woman has been way overpaid for her dismal marketing and sales performance; she needs to be replaced with a go-getter who makes AT LEAST 1/2 of their monthly income from COMMISSIONS on closed deal, completed jobs! It is well worth it to find self-motivated sales people and dangle healthy commissions in front of them, they KNOW and UNDERSTAND that the harder and smarter they work, the bigger their pay will be, very similar to them automatically having the BUSINESS OWNER mentality that was mentioned. ; )
As much as people may wanna dislike Mike, his business model on the outside if you can follow it, is successful (it works in basically any business but in particular one where hard work is inevitable i.e. lawn care, concrete, masonry, plumbing, any trade really). He can look at it from the perspective and teaches so well. It really is amazing from such a young age how great and hard this dude works. He’s right, being able to say no (which could mean letting people go) is the hardest part. Also, just being clear. I have to let you go if you can’t perform at this level. Give a date where it needs to get better n if expectations are not met, you gotta follow through.
As a middle manager for most of my career, I learned early you gotta let folks go. It was never easy or pleasurable but my job was to make money for the firm.
Man i do the same work as these guys do. Just me myself and I. They have to many employees. Writting from canada. 150-250 average hieght. 1 man to 3 man crew. Chipper, dump truck, climber . Been in buisness longer than i want so its possible
As a business owner, one of your biggest regrets is sometimes the person/people who you couldn’t bring yourself to let go. It’s terrible to have to do it, but it’s often way worse to avoid doing what has to be done.
@@DJSolistica Well she’s a sale person, but she needs to know the tree world 🌎 taking a tree down or pruning a tree requires education and experience! When you’re giving a estimate you need to know the process and plan how you’ll do the work, how long does it going to take, how many guys does it take, what type of tools they need to get the job done... Like they said she underbid 2000 on a job that’s a little bit frustrating for the crew and the company owner lol
Being a certified arborist is only extra have to have field experience and knowledge of tree care all aspects. I have seen people who have no field experience be certified
Very nice humble guy, easy for people to take advantage of.. Also under that nice reminder there is a dangerous amount of stress and pressure building up. It's just like a volcano when bad economic cycle comes it will easily blow up... Hope he reduce his experiences
Im only a quarter way through this and i already know he's too nice to really put business ahead of everything and im certain he gonna have a bittered relationship with the owner of the business after this over
As somone in a similar line of work, 20-30% closing rate is terrible. I try to be 80-90% closing and have porbably north of 90% closing as a business owner when I look for new clients.
The one hard part about an open book business model is the rare employees that are actually driven enough to care, and can move the needle in your business will take all that value and trust given to them (with no risk) to take and start their own business.
I address this in the book coming up. This is a risk with out without open book management. The famous question is "what if you train them up and they leave?? What if you don't train them up and they stay??"
I'm in the trucking business, I have drivers that know exactly what "their" truck makes and what it costs to make that portion of my business's revenue. It's been a good motivator for almost every driver. The "slugs" don't stay around when their co workers are watching out for the company.
i’ve worked for people like this before. yes men and will always do everything to help and make the customers happy but in the end are just head over heels in debt and it trickles down to the workers who believe and give you their life and time and then as an employee you see your not getting paid correctly and work is extremely spotty but your always expected to show up and work when asked but you can’t make your employer do the same commitment on work/pay.
I would gladly sell for this guy. I have 15 yrs of sales experience in commercial and residential sales. That woman was not doing anything to generate her own leads. She should have been pounding pavement, knocking on doors, doing home shows, hitting every golf course, resort, and large property management companies within a 100 mi radius, lawn services that will sell the jobs for you. I would work 100% on commission. That way the business stays profitable, and I'm incentivized to make jobs pay more, and close.
I owned my own tree business. I couldn’t imagine hiring someone who has no experience doing the work that they are bidding. How can you expect them to be able to bid work when they have know idea how to do it. You would be way better handling it or using your dad if he works with you to do that. I used to be out til sunset doing bids. Your personality and caring will sell jobs even if you aren’t the lowest bidder.
The proper title that needed to be used was quality lead generation. I can make contacts with all kinds of different leads but there's a difference between just contacting a random person or a random business that doesn't need your services versus a business or person that does need your services. At least that way, you have the potential to make a closing sale. If you just contacting random people without reason, then they are not considered quality leads and as such they shouldn't really even be considered leads at all. Need to have qualifying leads to make it worthwhile.
The whole PFP aspect I've never been a fan of. Give them a respectable hourly wage, with an incentive bonus based on performance, reliability, and profits.
I just despise humbled companies suffering financially. These men seem like good fellas. Lets pray for them and their work, pray the lord gives them blessings and great hope to get through the financial season their going through. And after hearing what his sales woman had to say, id have her packing her things and kicking the can.
