b'Business ManagementHOW TO START (OR GROW)A TRUE SERVICE DEPARTMENT AD HEREBy Greg Hayne, Roof ManagementPart 310 Easy Steps NOT! sale.I am not suggesting that you have to go out When contractors approach us toand hire a service sales person, but somebody talk about how to grow their servicein your organization is going to have to fill that departmentsweusuallystartbyrole as part of what they do or your growth will reviewing with them the informationbe at a crawl at best and more likely you wont we presented in Parts 1 and 2 ofgrow at all.Go sell something! this article series, because if you dont get that right,Step 2:Figure out who is going to go install whatmost of the other stuff wont work either.But justyou sold! If you are a viable commercial roofing how do you grow your department? contractor who has been around for a few years, Think of it this way, everybody starts with just 1 truck.you have people that have the necessary skills (Actually, everybody starts with no trucks, but untilto do the work.Have them go do it! you have a dedicated service truck you really dontStep 3:Go sell more work!Rinse and repeat. have a department).With one truck you cant affordIf Steps 1-3 are working well, then at some point it a full-blown service staff. So, what can you do?will make sense to bring somebody in more formally First, the roles we talked about in Part 2 of thisto manage your growing service department. And, articleseries(theServiceSuperintendentandbased on Part 2, who should that be?My point in the Service Coordinator) are going to need to beall of this is for you to begin to clearly understand adoptedbysomeonealreadyinthecompany.that building a service department requires selling Perhaps your receptionist catches the calls, yourservices,beingcustomerfocusedandstaffing accountant handles the billing and your productionorganically.What works for you will not work for your superintendent handles the scheduling and technicalcompetitor down the street and vice versa. There support for the repair crew(s). is no magic bullet. (Well, actually there kind of is Then you can work through the following three steps:a magic bullet, and it was explained very clearly in Step 1:Understand, that everything starts with aparagraphs 4 and 5 of Part 1.) 20 www.mrca.orgMidwest Roofer'