Selecting Coaches
and Advisors
Making the Team
In our shop many years ago,
we had a part time technician. He was only available to us in
the late afternoons and weekends. This unique availability worked
fine for our place as we offered extended shop hours to our customers.
His schedule in our shop worked this way because he was a full
time school teacher.
Our other technician was referred
to by our staff and our customers by name, "Chuck". Our part
time technician was referred to by his title, "Coach" instead
of his name. For many years of his teaching career, Coach was
also in charge of the local high school's baseball team.
In
many small towns, and especially across the south, the title of "Coach" is
given to someone that is highly respected. Calling a person by
this title shows our respect for their work and for them as an
individual. There were occasional evenings when "Coach" and
I talked about his title and our observations of the customers
that referred to him as "Coach".
Now that you are
out of school and operating a business, you may think that the
only occasion for you to call someone "Coach" will occur
as your children are in school sports, if a coach comes to do
business in your shop, or if you happen to hire a coach as a technician
as we did. However, there is still a valid place in your life,
and in the life of your business for a coach.
The tradition
in the power equipment industry, or any small business, is for
us to work hard to become an owner or manager. We learn from the
person that has held the position before us, and once that new
position is ours, we are on our own. Most of the new ideas that
we will be exposed to, and adopt in our business, are picked up
from magazine articles such as this, attending seminars at Expo,
or by participating in a program established by a vendor, such
as ExMark's ProCertified Dealer.
As it worked successfully in
most of our lives, the concept of a "coach" is one deserving
of a second consideration. For this second look, we are going
to suggest coaching with a slightly different twist. And there
is a strong likelihood that the coaches you will select after
this article are highly qualified, cost you nothing, and be individuals
that you already know.
Not to take anything away from
the three sources of new ideas that we have already mentioned, but
one of the points in common that they share is that they are exclusive
to this industry. There are however, many other people in your community
that can expose you to some new thoughts and ideas that will have
a high percentage change of succeeding in your business.
Our suggestion
is not that you have a coach, but a group of coaches. And as you
select these coaches, you will find yourself becoming a coach to
those you have selected. Those candidates that will most likely
be chosen are individuals that own and manage the other small businesses
in your community.
Think about the person that
runs the best locally owned pharmacy in your area, a local clothing
store, the variety store, a lumber yard, restaurant, garden center,
floor covering business, and florist - just to name a few. You might
even want to consider someone that is a manager for a local chain
store.
Carefully select your candidates
and speak to them on a one on one basis. As you visit with each
of them, tell them who else you are considering as members of your
coaching group. You will want to make sure that you do not include
any two individuals whose businesses compete with each other. Select
a time and location away from everyone's business where all of your "coaching" team can visit with each
other.
If the idea of everyone working
together is one that you cannot "sell" to
each of your candidates, you can consider utilizing each of them for your business in a one on one scenario.
What are you going to learn
from these coaches? From the experiences of this writer and speaker,
every niche of the retail and service industries has numerous aspects
that are unique to them. On the other hand, there are many management
and operation aspects that are similar to each of their businesses.
From the standpoint of the layout
of your sales floor, there is a lot of similarity in your shop,
that of a pharmacy as well as the local lighting supply. All three
of these businesses, and several others similar ones, have a counter
at the back where people go to see a specialist - be it a technician,
pharmacist, or repair person. The traffic flow, and the way people
behave in these businesses is quite similar.
Your power equipment
shop and a local garden center are also very similar as they do
the majority of their business in the warmer months and depend
on a mix of consumer and commercial accounts.
Likewise the strengths
of one business can often be the weakness of another. While
our industry is not noted for having the most attractive sales floors,
the manager or owner of a clothing store could probably teach
us a few things that would help us have a sales floor that could
sell merchandise just by the way the items are shown.
If you were
ever on a sports team, you probably had a coach that was able
to cause a marked improvement in how you played the game by helping
you make several subtle changes in your efforts. That concept
of a coach can work today for your business. Pick your team carefully
and begin to score some more profit.
