Page 12 - The Compass 2017 | Volume 12 | Issue 4

TRAINING
by Bob Houchin
meet leaRNINg allIaNCe tRaINeR & sgI
membeR: kERRY AdkINS

Kerry is a 13-year member of our SGI family and Learning Alliance
facilitator. He operates OnTime Services, which provides electri-
cal, HVAC, and plumbing services to residential customers in the
greater Birmingham, Alabama, area. OnTime Services’ offices are
also a Learning Alliance training site for SGI Amembers and their
team members.

erry Adkins is passionate about helping people. It’s I might as well go through the
Kno surprise that he won Success Group Internation- process to become a facilitator,”
al’s “Mentor of the Year” award for 2016. He takes count- Kerry added. “I have to tell you, kerry aDkins
less hours to talk with members and provide insight and I really enjoy doing it. To see
direction. He’s also become one of Learning Alliance’s the lights come on in peoples’ heads when they get the
facilitators for classes like Service Essentials, which is the material is really rewarding.”
course meant for technicians to show them how to pro- Read what else Kerry had to say about training and
vide exceptional service. His office in Birmingham, Al- why it’s critical to every service company. You should also
abama, has become a regular training site for Learning note that Kerry shared his incredible training plan he’s
Alliance courses. implementing in his business. This is great information
With so much Kerry does for SGI members, it’s easy that I hope will help you. Here’s the rest of my conversa-
to forget that he has a highly successful company to op- tion with Kerry…
erate. Kerry is a true SGI success story, having been one
of the first contractors to join Electricians’ Success In- As someone who attended a Learning Alliance
ternational in 2004. His family business had been steeped class as a student before becoming a trainer,
in new construction for much of its history. With Kerry’s was there anything you found unique about
foresight and guidance, he converted the company into how the course was structured?
what OnTime Services has become today. He projects the You must keep people focused, and the way Learning Al-
business should hit $5 Million this year at a very strong liance structures the classes—with all the activities—it’s
profitability. a really good model for keeping people engaged and fo-
I asked Kerry how he got involved with Learning Alli- cused. It’s not two days’ worth of lecture. Technicians
ance. “My first contact was, I sent two guys to a Service don’t want to hear that.
Essentials course and I went with them. I wanted to see
what had changed [from previous SGI training],” Kerry How else is Learning Alliance better?
said. “[SGI President] Rebecca [Cassel] actually taught Success Academy was very instructor-driven. There were
that class. I really liked the changes that were made. I en- rows of tables, all facing the front, and you sat and lis-
joyed the new format.” tened. You would then write your scripts and role-play.
“Not long afterward, I was contacted by SGI. They Typically, you would role-play in front of the class, which
were looking for a place to host training in the south- terrified a lot of guys. I’ve been in classes where guys
east, and the conversation started from there. Not only couldn’t even introduce themselves, they were so ner-
did we become a training site, I figured if I was hosting, vous. The whole class became, in a lot of guys’ minds,
“When am I going to have to do that? And how can I get
that done and over with as fast as possible?” I don’t think
kerry with a few service that’s the best way to learn—through fear.
essentials GraDuates. Now, with Learning Alliance, there’s way more partic-
ipation. Way less lecture. The way they do their role-play
is far more comfortable; they’re doing it in little groups
of two or three. You’re not up in front of everybody. The
whole class isn’t staring at you. Instead, you have two or
three people, and you’re working hard back and forth to
get the material down. It lends itself to guys really soak-
ing it up. It’s a good model.

What should an owner and/or technician do to
prepare for class to get the most out of it?
If you have been running service already, you should have
a good idea of what your average ticket is, what your con-
version rate is, what your club-membership sales are—all
those key metrics. You need to know that. If you don’t,

12 THE COMPASS | Issue 4 | 2017