Recently, uncertainty has clouded the vision of field service leaders. However, field service industry leaders can clear the way toward exponentiality with a few proactive moves.
By setting a goal-driven focus, promoting better communication, and laying down strategic growth expectations, you can rise above uncertainty and grow in any climate.
How to Leverage Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt to Grow
Even though fear and uncertainty have risen in the last two years, they were obstacles prior to the pandemic. They were just less visible. For instance, shocking events, such as 9/11 and the attack on Pearl Harbor would have created uncertainty if they weren’t such sudden events. Today’s uncertainty is right in front of our faces.
The first step in leveraging fear and uncertainty is realizing the field service industry is positioned to succeed when other sectors might not. It’s one reason the field service management sector is projected to grow from a $2.85 billion pre-pandemic industry into a $7 billion market by 2026.
Once you’ve realized your unique position in the industry, there’s a secret to overcoming fear, uncertainty, and doubt: vision. You can push beyond shaky ground by anchoring the business in a clear vision and goals. Defining, grabbing ahold of, and communicating this vision will lay a sturdy foundation to stand on even as the market ebbs and flows.
How to Drive Exponential Growth During Uncertain Times
Tapping into an exponential mindset during uncertainty requires a sharp focus on the most critical pieces of your business. Here are the main areas to spend your energy if you want to lead during turbulent times and spark more growth:
- Focus on your hiring pipeline. It’s no secret that there’s a tremendous talent shortage in the market. This talent shortage means that revenue will continue to be a struggle unless you have an actionable plan for cultivating and hiring new talent.
- Work to keep talent on board. Keeping talent is the next big action item in high-functioning businesses. This means it’s critical to build a purposeful culture that retains talent.
- Enhance your relationship with customers. Simply put, people buy from the people and companies they like. That's why it’s important to proactively demonstrate your trustworthiness and prove you’re an expert thought leader.
- Prepare your team and customers for the future. Even if your company isn’t ready to jump into trends with both feet now, being thoughtful of the upcoming technology shifts—such as those growing from Internet of Things technology, machine learning, and artificial intelligence—and helping your customers be ready to be a part of these revolutions is important. Start by creating a plan that examines your risk tolerance, maps out when to jump in, and sets up a strategy to engage with technology. By staying informed about industry technology trends and having a thoughtful plan, your business will be prepared for success both now and in the future.
Remember, everything successful starts with a plan. Building the foundation of quality data through an all-in-one field service management solution will help you make informed decisions when you’re ready to grow. Knowing where you’re taking your business both now and in the future is good for customer relationships and it’s good for your culture.
How to Use Communication to Drive Exponential Growth
Once you’ve nailed down goals and a vision, you’ll have the ingredients to spark exponentiality. Still, it takes clear communication to kick-start your organization’s growth engine. When everyone is focused on the same goal, the tide will start pushing in that direction, and it’s easy to ride that momentum to success.
For instance, at Davisware, we made it a point to create goals for each individual that were SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and timely). We also made sure those goals were tied to the organization's success.
At first, we established goal setting for the organization and vision-casting at our annual meeting in December. While these goals were clear for leaders, much of the rest of the organization never thought about them again or heard them again until the end of the year.
The solution?
After mapping each person’s SMART goals directly to the organizational SMART goals, we communicated them in our weekly all calls, in our leadership meetings, and in everything we put out internally.
As a result, our teams saw how their contribution impacted the organization’s goals. This revealed success faster and took the burden off the leadership to maintain a single line of sight to goals. Regularly and concisely articulating the organizational goals created ownership across the organization and emphasized the need for a possibility mindset.
Goals, Vision, and Communication Lead to Exponentiality
Field service business leaders may feel as though uncertain times are stunting their growth plans. However, if you’re leading a field service company, you’re in a unique position to tap into exponential growth. It just takes a bright vision, unshakable goals, and crystal-clear communication to unlock that exponential mindset company-wide. With that winning combination, you’ll have the framework to grow, scale, and race ahead as other companies sit idle in a cloud of uncertainty. Watch "The Power of Technology in the Field" webinar on demand.
