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pull through - revenue or risk?


Welcome to McDonald's would you like fries with that burger?  Well my friends that is pull through, a situation in the field where you can better serve your client by suggesting additional work items related to the current context of your activity. However, pull-through does not have to be limited to the work at which you are currently performing, it can also be opportunities discovered while talking with the end-user or walking through their site. The challenge is the balance between what is an appropriate recommendation, what borders on trying to sell more items than the client needs, and how does the field worker have faith that the office will follow through on the opportunity. These three elements, more than just the simple process of finding something that needs to be repaired, are what can make or break the success of pull-through within your organization.



Career-based service workers are in this business for one reason, their strong desire to help others. In the purest form pull-through is a perfect situation in which the field worker can help the client. Hey, you have performed service work well for this customer and have earned their trust, keeping an eye out for recommended repairs almost certainly will help prevent additional costs for your customer in the future. It is really a win-win. The water does get a bit murky depending upon the process of the service organization around how they are managing these pull-through opportunities. One of the keys in motivating your field workers to continue to seek out and recommend pull-through opportunities is to ensure that you have a strong process in the office. When these suggestions come through, and some can be managed by the field worker depending upon the company and industry, they need to be addressed immediately and make certain that the recommendations provided by the field are communicated appropriately back to the client.  You need to remember that the field worker gave their word that they would follow up, often times this follow-up is out of their hands and you don't want to end up with "egg on your field workers face".



Like many things if we are pure of purpose and sincere in our actions we will be successful. Let's not forget that our objective as service providers is to make sure that client assets are running efficiently, have the longest life, and operate in a trouble-free state. Pull-through opportunities are completely aligned with this philosophy and can really help improve your revenue and margin.



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