This may sound strange; I’m going to compare scheduling with sausage making. Here we go! We all know that sales are inconsistent; some weeks, we get a lot of approvals, and other weeks, not so many. We also know that we need sales, but often, what is lost is that we need to install those sales because without installing them, we actually make no money.

I grew up with an Italian mother and grandmother in the same house. When I came home from school, our house smelled amazing. Every so often, I would come home, and Mom and Gramma would be in the kitchen with the sausage machine vise-gripped to the kitchen table. Mom would mix the meat and add the spices, while my grandmother would turn the handle to guide the meat out of the tube into the sausage casing. I could help, but I was never allowed to turn the handle because if you turned too quickly, you could squeeze too much meat into the casing, and it would break. Nor could you turn too slowly because that would not put enough meat into the casing, which would cause air bubbles that would cause problems during the sausage cooking process. 

My grandmother would say that mixing and spicing the meats was important for the flavoring, but putting the wrong amount of meat into the casing would cause the meat to cook imperfectly. This is the way I view sales and installations.

So, picture all of the sales that come into your business, like meat that goes into the top of a sausage machine, but the installation schedule is what comes out of the sausage machine. You can have a lot of sales in the top one week and maybe not as many in the next. Do not get distracted if you have too many or too few sales in just one week, and pay attention to the installation schedule. I use an 8 Week Sliding Average, which was covered in my Magic Number’s article and presentation. Reach out to me if you would like to know more about that.

The trick is to “even out” those sales each week with a steady supply of predictable installations, like turning the handle on the sausage machine, not too fast and not too slow. Doing this calms the entire company down, and purchasing knows what the timeline is and hopes that it will not become an emergency. Scheduling knows what the customer expectations are and can work the installation into the schedule when all material is in-house and ready to go. The installers feel safe that they have “regular work” and do not have to panic about getting their 40 hours or having to work late or on the weekends. Best of all, cash flow is best because the installations are predictable.

If you are a $1 million business, this works out to about $20,000 a week, accounting for holidays and vacation time. The deposits come in when you make the sale, which should help pay for the material, but the final payment comes in when you complete the job. How calm will you be, and will the company be having this kind of regular cash flow?

Change your thinking from “How fast can we get this scheduled?” to “When is the best time for us to install this job?”  The old adage of the tortoise and the hare comes to mind. Slow and steady wins the race. If you can, try to pick a dollar amount that is best for you and your business to install each week. Then, begin to install that amount each week.

As your sales rise or fall, so too should your planned installations. Create your target, and then try to hit it every week. Not too much, but not too little either. I acknowledge that this never works as planned; there are always bigger jobs and smaller jobs, and there are always customers who do not care that we have a plan because they, too, have a plan. The idea is to TRY! 

For those customers who do not subscribe to our plan, find ways to help them. Ideas like a “Rush Fee,” perhaps. If your installation schedule is out 4-6 weeks and a customer wants/needs it sooner, have the rush fee as an option. Of course, you can waive it if you need to, but having it there demonstrates that there is a value for your service and accommodation and also allows you to be rewarded for “jumping through hoops.”

Often, you may have a customer who is very easygoing, and when you ask them to change their date, if they do not protest and you do get the rush fee, you can pass some of that on to that accommodating customer. Maybe you offer a free accessory or a gift card from a local restaurant?

There are also those customers who are “looking for a deal,” and you can offer them a discount when your schedule is a bit slower, which happens for all of us at different times of the year. Remember, this article is about trying to even out your installation schedule. I am not suggesting that you do not take a deposit from a customer who is willing to wait, but if you are fortunate enough to find yourself in this position, a deposit is crucial because, without it, you risk losing the sale to someone else because time has passed.

Oftentimes, it seems in our business, with so much of what we do being custom-made for a particular customer and their timelines, along with our desire for cash and profit, we rush too much. In that rush, we can make mistakes, cause unease, and actually waste time, all in an effort to react to the sales. I suggest trying the other way around. Schedule to a targeted goal or timeline — then go enjoy some sausage!