The growth in our business comes from managing time and understanding that time is a perishable commodity that once past cannot be resold.
■ Managing customer revenue on a periodic basis long into the future.
■ Price work at an acceptable return per hour that yields a profit each and every time we service the customer.
■ Scheduling or routing work that maximizes the efficiency of our technicians.
FIRST
let’s explore the PCO model and discuss the reason it is
so powerful: The pest control business is a simple model (not easy to execute but a simple business model). Basi-
cally we sell time on a recurring basis. This time includes: ■ Diagnosing the Problem ■ Providing a solution ■ Setting the Customer up on a Service Contract ■ Doing the same thing over and over until you
have built a route or several routes. The growth in our business comes from manag-
ing time and understanding that time is a perishable commodity that once past cannot be resold. If we are efficient in our routing we can maximize the amount of time we sell. So is it better to sell one shot work and constantly be chasing the next one shot job? … or sell recurring work that can be easily routed that provides future revenue if we perform well. I think the savvy PCO knows the answer to this. In fact the same standard should be applied to any services that we may offer that are considered “add on” services. Prior to going into any business endeavor a
careful analysis of the endeavor itself as well as our strengths and weaknesses as it relates to providing this “add on” service should be made. As I see it, we
as PCOs have the following strengths: ■ We can do small jobs assigned to one Technician in a truck who repeats this process all day long. ■ We know how to sell these jobs in a formula that
includes: ■ Initial Service ■ Sell a recurring contract or renewal
26 PESTWORLD NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011
■ Having a back office operation that allows proper billing and A/R management.
■ Minimizing financial risk by each ticket being small compared to our overall operation making it almost inconsequential if the customer defaults on the services.
Our Weaknesses Include: ■ Having equipment that is highly specific and can’t be used to do much other than pest control.
■ Our sales efforts are based on selling a formula of standardized service making it very difficult to sell complicated services that need further research and multiple visits to price the service.
■ Our general knowledge of home or commercial services may cross many trades or disciplines but our specific knowledge is usually only in Pest Control.
■ Skilled employees are hard to find. ■ We are not used to billing on percentage of completion or carrying large customer balances.
■ Competitors in other disciplines can sometimes employ cheaper help. In addition to assessing our strengths and
weaknesses, why would we want to expand into other services? Probably the most compelling reason is to maximize our average revenue per customer. In addition, we have a business model that can be applied to several services and our customers usually like us and would trust us for those other services. As long as our primary objective of building the value
of our company is met, moving forward with this en- deavor is probably a good idea. Remember building the
www.npmapestworld.org
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