Let's Scale Down
Alright, so far we have talked about how teaching can help you when you are working for someone else. For the rest of this course, I am going to present three scenarios to illustrate:
Paul, The Painter
Normally, when a home owner wants their house painted, they ask around for references from their friends and neighbors, or look in the classified ads. They call several businesses and ask them to come give a price on what they would charge to paint your house. They then decide who they would trust to do the best job for the money. Notice, I didn't say who had the lowest price.
After reading this course, Paul decided to try something different. He started spending a little more time examining the house before working up the bid and talking to the homeowner. He then took the homeowner around the house, explaining the problems he saw. He explained how they first have to pressure wash the house, then they sprayed on a sealer. After that dried, they spray on a primer that was tinted properly so the true shade of the color they picked would be the end result. By the time he was done, he had taught the homeowner each step in the process and why it was done.
Paul was amazed at the results. Even though his bids were usually a couple hundred dollars higher than some, he was getting more jobs. His prospective clients perceived him as someone who really knew what he was doing and therefore could be trusted to give them their money's worth.
Soon, word got around that if you had any questions about painting your house, Paul was the guy you needed to call. Within a year, Paul had to hire another crew and taught his crew leaders educational marketing who taught their entire crews. Paul wanted to make sure that no matter whom the clients talked to in his company; they would be able to get their questions answered professionally.
Paul noticed another change happening in his growing business. The employees who enjoyed learning and teaching were turning out to be his best employees. The ones who didn't were leaving to work elsewhere. As this progressed, his crews became more cohesive and he had less turnover.
Needless to say, Paul was pretty happy about the way his business was growing. But, as Paul was answering questions from his clients, he noticed that a lot of them were concerning what maintenance was necessary to keep their house looking newly painted.
He thought about this for awhile and decided to put together a new product; a yearly maintenance contract for pressure washing their house to remove bugs and mildew. He later added gutter cleaning and roof cleaning. Although the roof cleaning was only every five to seven years, it is something very few people want to do and he could charge a higher profit margin for it.
Paul went on to find other venues to teach about painting and exterior maintenance, as well as listening to his clients questions for more opportunities, to become a respected leader in his community.