A couple weeks ago, John Gagliardi, by far the winningest football coach in college football history decided it was time to retire. The coach of tiny St. John’s University located in Collegeville, MN – about 90 miles from our headquarters in St. Paul, won 489 games over a college football career that lasted 63 seasons, 59 at St. John’s.
Perhaps what’s most remarkable about what John did at St. John’s has nothing to do with wins or losses, but everything to do with how he did it: He eschewed the toughness of the traditional football coach. There were no blocking sleds. No whistles. No calisthenics. Players could drink water whenever they wanted. They didn’t practice outside if it was raining. Or cold. Or there were too many bugs. There were no printed playbooks. No one got cut. There was no tackling in practice. And his players called him John, not coach or sir.
Gagliardi broke the mold. And by doing so, he broke records.
Want to break sales records in your field service business? Follow in the footsteps of John Gagliardi.
- Live by the Golden Rule. Football coaches aren’t known for their cheery disposition. Bill Belicheck is famously cold to just about everyone. Not Gagliardi. His press conferences often turned into comedy festivals. He was known throughout the campus because he’d stop and talk to everyone, often making himself late for his next appointment. He didn’t cut players because he knew how much that hurt them. And he didn’t believe in tackling in practice because it caused injuries that hurt the team on game day.
For your business, that means treating your customers the way you want to be treated. Answer their questions promptly and accurately. Send them an accurate invoice immediately. Arrive on time and prepared to do the work. If you make a mistake, admit it and make it right.
That doesn’t mean you have to bend over backwards for every customer. We all know there are customers that want to take advantage of your business and expect the world. But it does mean that you have to do everything you can to live up to your expectation of what is right. If you do that, you’ll be successful. - Innovate. Football coaches also aren’t known for their ability to change schemes on the fly. Most buy into a system – the West Coast Offense, the Spread, the Run n’ Shoot, the Option – and run it for as long as they coach. They might innovate with new plays within the system, but it’s still the same system.
Not Gagliardi. In the 50s and 60s, he ran a traditional power football scheme. In the 70s, he invented the quadruple option. In the late 80s, he moved to a spread passing game that no one at the time had ever seen at the Division 3 level. He continually innovated, which enabled him to keep one step ahead of the competition.
So you, too, should continue to innovate. Use the latest and greatest technologies. Attend trade shows to see what your competitors are doing to grow their business. Leverage anything that will allow you to do more with less.
We recently delivered a webinar titled Empowering Your Business With Technology where we gave the example of how long it takes just to type in an address into a GPS device. Sure, that device is great, but there are ways to eliminate the 45 seconds it takes to type in an address. If you innovate by constantly improving processes and technology, you’ll continue to stay ahead of the competition. - Leverage Your Networks – When St. John’s runs onto the field before the game, it can take minutes. Why? Because nearly 200 players have to march onto the field. Gagliardi doesn’t believe in cutting players.
Which, when you think about it, is brilliant. In football, you’re only as good as your latest recruiting class. The larger your network of recruiters, the better your class will be. When those 200 players graduate, they’ll connect to hundreds of other people and possibly influence others to join the St. John’s team. If, like most coaches, Gagliardi had cut down to 75 players, he just eliminated 125 potential recruiters.
The same can be said for your customers. Do whatever you can to build a happy customer base, and they’ll pay you back exponentially. And don’t be afraid to leverage that customer base. Ask for referrals. See if you can build a list of referenceable customers, and reward them when they give you references. The best way to build your business is through your customers, so use them! - Leverage Technology – Gagliardi was known for his intense film study. When video came along, he recognized how much easier to use it was, and leveraged it. Even in his 80s, he spent a lot of time on the computer. Though he hated traditional football tools like whistles and blocking sleds, he was ahead of the curve when it came to leveraging technology to make himself and his team better.
We might be biased, but you can gain a distinct competitive advantage by installing field service software that improves customer service and helps you collect information in the field. Plus, one-click Quickbooks integration will ensure accurate, timely invoices. By leveraging technology, you can improve your business and do more with less.
Take our snow removal software as an example. We recently received a foot of snow. With our software, a snow plowing business can quickly dispatch, route and track their trucks throughout the Twin Cities. They can collect data in the field (what kind of salt they use, dhow much they used, how much snow they plowed, how long it took), and then later leverage that data in reports to customers or to determine what to do better the next time a snownami hits. By leveraging technology, they’re able to innovate and improve faster than those that aren’t leveraging technology. - Be Humble – Anyone who attended a Gagliardi press conference or has listened to Gagliardi speak knows how humble he is. For example, he taught a class at St. John’s called “The Theory of Football.” In it, he would often show a video of a player breaking 6 tackles on his way to the end zone. Then, with a smile on his face, he’s say: “That’s great coaching, isn’t it?” Even after winning 489 games, Gagliardi never took credit for his success. He always talked about how the players who are the ones that win games, not the coaches.
Being humble and grounded may win you some customers, but where it’s really going to win is with your employees. No one wants to listen to a boss brag about how great they are. But they love (and work harder for) employers who praise their employees. And the more engaged your employees are, the more likely they are to produce results that customers notice. - Don’t be Afraid to Imitate Others. At a St. John’s game in the late 90s, they played a team from Washington that burnt them repeated by spreading the field and running a simple wide receiver screen. Gagliardi couldn’t stop it, and he figured other people couldn’t either. So, fans weren’t surprised to see St. John’s use the exact same play the following week – to great success.
Don’t be afraid to copy competitors if what they are doing works. Attend trade shows to find out what your competition is doing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: knowledge is power. You should do whatever you can do to gain a competitive edge. If that means copying someone else’s great idea, do it. - Have fun. Anyone who’s watched a St. John’s pre-game routine before knows about the “Beautiful Day” drill. While their opponents are going through ridiculous calisthenics, St. John’s players lie on their backs and look at the sky, enjoying what is typically a beautiful fall day.
Before Gagliardi came along, for the vast majority of football players, football wasn’t actually fun. Sure, they may have enjoyed the actual game, but they probably didn’t enjoy practicing. It was a chore. But Gagliardi made football fun again by getting rid of the pointless exercises and routines that had no effect on a player’s actual performance on the field.
Do the same for your business. Don’t be afraid to have fun. Get rid of anything that doesn’t improve your performance. Bring your team together for a pizza party to celebrate your success. Reward your high performing employees with tickets to a football game. Hold office Olympics. Do things to make your work fun.
Why does it matter? Because happy employees do better work. Your customers will notice the attitudes of your employees. You don’t want to be known as the business that has a bunch of grumpy employees. It reflects negatively on your business. So do what you can to inject some fun into your business, and you might be surprised at how much more productive and successful your business is.
There are a lot of other lessons you can learn from John Gagliardi. But, ultimately, don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Gagliardi won 489 games by challenging the traditional coaching norms that didn’t actually affect performance on the field. The bottom line: Don’t be afraid to challenge some of your business processes and find ways to do what you do better.