The value of integrity

 

RICHARD DiTOMA L.M.P.,

contributing writer

 

Integrity is defined by Webster’s as “moral soundness, probity — wholeness, completeness — the quality or state of being unimpaired.” Therefore, when someone is unethical, dishonest and flawed in any quantity, that person does not have integrity. There is no such thing as partial integrity. You’re either honest or you are dishonest.

 

No one wants to deal with an unethical dishonest person. Yet, it is inevitable that we all will come in contact with that type of person from time to time. Some people tell you they are fond of you. Then, behind your back, they tear you to pieces when speaking with others about you.

 

In business, you probably have, or certainly will, run into consumers, other contractors, and in some instances, your own employees who are mean-spirited miserable dirt bags. In their own selfish minds they will step on anyone to get what they want.

 

Types of people without integrity

 

The following describes the different types of malicious people without integrity that you as a contractor will inevitably encounter.

 

Type 1: Consumers from Hell. The CFH spend your resources. They often don’t allow you to recover the costs of those resources and/or make a profit. The CFH are a main source of your stress and frustrations. Some have the unmitigated audacity to agree to your prices, terms and conditions before you start to perform a proposed service for them because they want it done now and you are available to do it within their requested time period. Then after the job is done and they have enjoyed the excellent performance you delivered to them, they complain about those prices, terms or conditions to which they agreed before the job commenced.

 

Type 2: Ignorant Busy Bodies telling the person you serviced that “They paid too much.” This type knows nothing about the true costs you incur in servicing the public in an excellent manner, and even less about the circumstances regarding the service you provided to the consumer.

 

Type 3: Ignorant and Machiavellian Competitors. They know nothing about proper business procedures. If they did, they wouldn’t say anything about anyone else’s business. They further fuel ill feelings by trying to make themselves look good in the eyes of the consumer at the cost of making you look bad. This type of low life often tells untruths about you.

 

Types 1, 2 and 3 don’t know how to spell integrity let alone possess integrity. Brainless consumers with flawed beliefs fueled by the lies, erroneous assumptions and misperceptions of others are blinded by greed. They cannot envision the value you as a contractor with integrity delivered to them at their request in a professional timely manner in fulfillment of a contract to which they agreed. They are not only ignorant, they are foolish and unjust.

 

Type 4: Unscrupulous and Ridiculous Employees in your company who show their lack of integrity by doing stupid things or making untrue statements that are detrimental to your company. Besides having no integrity, this type is an outright moronic, disloyal person. In their attempt to look good, they kill the golden goose that gives them an opportunity to earn a living. Some may even use your business to promote their own moonlighting activities.

 

Type 5: Internet Blogs and Companies. The other four types have existed for a long time. But this type is the latest potential purveyor of maliciously injurious lies about your business. They allow the other four types to post their opinions about your company on their Internet websites. Their trashy posted opinions are often based in the fantasy mind of a misanthrope who lacks common decency. More often than not, their twisted views lack total veracity. Most, if not all, of the people offering their scrutiny of your business hide behind the anonymity of an assumed Internet name.

 

The truth shall set you free

 

People who speak truthfully are entitled to enjoy freedom of speech. Those who slander and/or libel while maliciously injuring others and their businesses should be taken to task. Freedom of speech does not include freedom to lie, especially in a spiteful manner.

 

Before you begin taking people to court you should consider the financial and time-consuming expense you will incur. You must understand that you have no control over the stupid malicious actions of others. But, you do control your own decisions.

 

You can avoid the costs of bringing litigation by developing the ability to interact with people in a fashion that lets them know you are intelligent, honest, ethical and fair. Armed with integrity, you can put protocols into your business, which will help you avoid most potential problems. However, if you think you possess these traits but don’t, you’ll only exacerbate any problem that arises.

 

Protocols that avoid problems

Protocol 1: Use Contract Pricing not Time & Material Pricing: The first problem many contractors give themselves is charging customers on a time and material basis. Charging by the hour works for psychiatrists and consultants because the client dictates how much of the psychiatrist’s or consultant’s time they wish to use while knowing the rate they must pay for the time.

 

If you utilize a T & M pricing method in your contracting business, you take the choice of time spent away from the client and place it in your control. If a client agreed to pay you $1,000.000.00 per hour and you performed in an excellent manner, the client still did not agree to how many hours for which they were willing to pay. Therein is the potential for an argument. You could be accused of stretching the time. You know they will find an ignorant and Machiavellian competitor who could claim that he would have completed the task faster and/or at a lower rate. Either allegation would put your integrity in a questionable state.

 

If you use a contract pricing method, you would describe a task and quote a price to perform the task before commencing the task. If your client agreed to the conditions, and you fulfilled your obligations under the contract in an excellent manner, the client would have no legitimate reason to contest the amount they must pay. In that instance, your integrity could not be justly questioned. (If you would like me to help you with this protocol, I can through my “Profit-Ability” workshop.)

 

Protocol 2: Don’t give phone prices for circumstances you have not seen: Consumers often call contractors expecting a price over the phone. Sometimes they have already had the job performed by another contractor and are just comparing prices after the fact. Sometimes they are looking for prices before deciding to have a task performed. Either way, if you quote phone prices without seeing the conditions related to the task you could threaten your own integrity.

 

If the consumer is comparing your phone price to that of another contractor who has seen the job, your phone price has the potential of being based on erroneous assumptions, which are not germane to the actual circumstances surrounding the service request.

 

On the other hand, if the job has already been done by the other contractor and you quote a phone price without all the right information, you will have, in essence, now become the aforementioned Type 3 Ignorant and Machiavellian Competitor that helps the consumer to complain about a perfectly executed contract between that consumer and the contractor who really did the job. Once again, your integrity is at risk.

 

If no contractor has yet done the work and you quote a phone price sight unseen, you must understand that there is the probability that your phone price is too low to properly fulfill the consumer’s request. In such a case, you again threaten your integrity. If you try to raise the price after seeing the circumstances that you must confront to perform the task in an excellent manner, the consumer will see you as a person without integrity.

 

Years ago, I sat in a seminar conducted by a sales rep for a water heater manufacturer. The seminar was intended to show contractors the best way to conduct water heater replacement sales. He had a video on the process to use. In it a consumer was speaking with a contractor over the phone about a water heater replacement. The video instructed the contractor to agree upon the water heater model and price before going to the consumer’s home.

 

I always have been a bit outspoken. When I heard this statement, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I raised my hand during the video and insisted that the facilitator address my concerns about that statement. It took some time for me to convince him that I was not going to be quiet until he addressed my questions.

 

I told him that the advice he was giving to the contractors in the room was wrong and that I could prove it if he allowed me. Since I wasn’t going to let this travesty be presented to these contractors, he was forced to let me speak. I told him that there were several reasons he was wrong and why contractors should not quote prices over the phone without having first seen the circumstances regarding any service request.

 

Reason 1: Consumers know very little if anything about building codes, proper equipment to use and caveats regarding materials. They might call for a 40- or 50-gallon gas water heater but not know the difference between a standard height water heater and a low-boy. If the consumer doesn’t tell the contractor that the heater is in an area that requires the installation of a low-boy for proper combustion clearance, the contractor might quote the wrong price and bring the wrong heater.

 

Reason 2: Seeing the job first gives the contractor the ability to present all the options the consumer might have with regard to which water heater is best suited for the consumer’s needs. If the consumer decides to purchase a 40- gallon gas water heater with a 40,000 Btu input, and doesn’t tell the contractor that he has a large whirlpool tub, the hot water created by the water heater would soon be tepid at best the first time the consumer tried to use the whirlpool tub.

 

Reason 3: The use of inadequate information to arrive at a selling price is a bad business practice. Prices that are based on flawed information are wrong prices. Flawed selling prices can hinder the ability of the contractor to deliver excellence while earning the reward he/she deserves for the delivery.

 

My point was made and the sales rep continued his presentation never again returning to that part of the subject. Just because someone puts a topic before you in an organized manner, don’t buy into it unless it passes the smell test. If you do, you may be putting your integrity in jeopardy. Additionally, you could be utilizing a bad business technique that will

hurt your chances of success. Manufacturers and sales reps don’t care if you succeed. Their only concern is to sell their product to you. 

 

Protocol 3: Avoid consumers without integrity. Develop a phone persona and set of procedures that will help you sift through those who call you so you can differentiate good consumers from potential troublemakers — whom you will never be able to satisfy. [For help on phone protocols, give me a call about my workshops on “Addressing Consumers Questions” and “Logical Procedures.”

 

Protocol 4: Hire employees with integrity. Your technical staff is often the only people in contact with your clientele. It is imperative that your technicians possess integrity, loyalty, mechanical aptitude, great mental attitude, self-motivation, the desire to deliver excellence and the propensity to follow legal and ethical orders. [For help regarding technicians, call for information on my “Star Tech” workshops.]

 

Protocol 5: Converse with your competition. Initiate a conversation that politely and intelligently shows them the detriment to one’s integrity and financial well being when anyone libels and/or slanders the reputation of another for a malicious and/or self- serving purpose. [For help on educating your competition, call me.]

 

As each individual contractor decides to do the right thing, the industry as a whole starts a trend of higher standards where integrity leads the way; the delivery of excellence becomes the norm; and contractors have the opportunity to earn the reward they deserve.  That’s the value of integrity.            

 

As always, I wish you well. Call me at 845/639-5050 to find out how my business theories and methods can help your business.