they offer role playing training opportunities to strengthen their skills and incentives for generating leads. Employees receive a $10 incentive for each lead, regardless of the outcome. Another approach to cross selling is offering a reward system to customers, called Moyer Rewards. By using Moyer for all home services, customers can gain points that they then cash in for gift cards at retailers such as Target and Amazon. This works much like a credit card where someone might put all of their purchases on one card for cash back rewards or airline mileage. The incentive pulls consumers in to use Moyer as their one-stop-shop. Admittedly, according to Williamson, it’s not an overnight process; it takes continuous effort to remind people of the multiple services that are offered. It is evident that Moyer is committed to treating each separate entity as a stand-alone company. Each business has its own manager who lives, breathes and thinks only about that business. Each manager focuses on growing and running their business—this ensures that each business gets the attention it needs. Managers share ideas and help each other out, but they do not cross business, they each operate independently. “You need to really be committed to a business. If you don’t have an owner—a champion, you’re just going to get distracted and forget about it.” Additionally, it is important to Moyer not to consider any one area its core business. The company is completely diversified. Quite common, and very important, Williamson advises companies not to go into business just to keep staff busier. He explains that this is the worst motivator and that a business is better off laying workers off for the season. It is important to be committed to starting a new business, rather than just opening it to keep workers on the payroll during off seasons. He also advises that if a company wants to go into another business, they should first visit other businesses and attend conferences across the country to better understand how the process works. Wesson Energy, Inc. Waterbury, Connecticut Craig Snyder, President, Wesson Energy, Inc. was predominantly in the fuel oil delivery, HVAC installation and service business when it decided to expand and include propane delivery, installation and service in 2008. Since then, Wesson has developed its business to include home performance and home services such as home energy audits, home weatherization, high energy efficiency heating/cooling equipment, energy efficient lighting, insulation, generators, energy efficient windows, plumbing and electrical. They took the approach of creating revenue at the household level, instead of just delivering gallons of oil. In practicality, Wesson could no longer afford to ignore that its revenue was solely dependent on the weather. Business was great in cold weather with customers’ needs for more oil, but if the weather was a bit warmer, the business would suffer. “We needed to change…become less weather-dependent. In 2008, when we began this odyssey, oil-derived margins (weather dependent) totaled almost 60% of our total revenue. When you factor in the weather impact on usage and service, you could argue that the total margin from oil was significantly higher,” said Craig Snyder, President of Wesson Energy, Inc. It was also clear that with alternative energy resources like propane, natural gas and green energy finding their way to market, focusing primarily on fuel oil would be detrimental to the business. Wesson made the decision to look at the emerging markets, such as a rise in the use of energy-efficienct products, and combine that with its history, expertise and market reputation to continue to service customers needs. The company realized that if it could tap into these other markets, it could be a one-stop-shop for customers who already trusted and found them as reliable. Snyder reflected that customers are “looking for a trusted ‘partner’ that can address needs as they arise while preventing larger issues from occurring in the first place.” Customers are shying away from the fix-it-yourself mentality. With today’s time-demanding lifestyles, customers are looking to spend as little time as possible on home maintenance projects. Branching out into new areas is like starting a new mini business, so there are always challenges to encounter. “We needed the right people, with 6 ICM/January/February 2017
ICM January-February 2017
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