Problem- President of this contractor states, "I don't feel we are making the kind of money we should be in service."
Solution-Do a market analysis.
Result- One of the things this M.E.P service contractor learned is that their billing rate was the lowest in the market. Along with undercharging, we identified gaps in the sales process that kept them from capturing revenue. Here you can see the impact of implementing the immediate recommendations that came from the analysis:
Increased revenue comes from 1/2 of the billable workforce performing T+M work.
•23 Budget-$476,190 pr tech $20,000,000
•Hourly+Truck+Fuel Increase $2,362,349 (To align with market standards)
•2025 4% INCREASE $894,494 (Inflation capture)
•50 techs- $553,734 pr tech $4,429,875 (8 technician increase to sustain new sales growth multiplied by increased revenue per tech)
•2026 Budget- $27,684,718 38.4% (Revenue growth in 2.5 years)
Problem- While being commissioned by senior leadership to do a internal audit, we learned that the business unit was very siloed and time and material repair quoting was not happening.
Solution- New org chart to knock down siloes, make paths for career progression, and add inside sales to capture missed opportunities. Combine all trades (Mechanical,Electrical,Automation, Plumbing) that do construction under one operations leader, combine all trades that do service under one operations leader. Set up field leadership team across all trades to encourage cross pollination and team work.
Result- Inside sales model added over $2M in high margin revenue over a 12-month cycle. Higher field labor satisfaction because of office support. Increase in employee engagement due to knocking down siloes and supporting peer to peer communication with new biweekly leadership meeting. The contractor now has a scalable model to reach next step in business growth.
Problem- "We are a union contractor but there is no good labor available." This was another issue to figure out while doing an internal audit.
Solution- Identify all high schools and trade schools that promote the M.E.P workforce. Develop a recruiting process outside of the HR team and the union organizer to go after tradesman and tradeswomen. Promote a senior tradesperson inside the business unit to lead recruiting outreach. (Some areas in the country do not have high schools or trade schools that support our industries. Options do get limited but their are still ways to overcome this challenge)
Result- 6 months after fully being engaged with the new culture shift this contractor was able to select the best talent and start building the ranks for a strong talent pool long term. This built trust within each trade union because the contractor helped organize and sponsor new apprentices and they started to build a reputation that this was a desirable place to work.
Each consulting exercise is a WE thing not a ME thing. Let's work together to build the best solution that suites the needs of the organization. Every contractor is unique and each challenge that we face we can get through together.