From the Yellow Chair
From the Yellow Chair
From Technician to Leader: The Untold Transition
Tired of launching “great ideas” that die in the field? We break down a practical playbook for moving from technician to owner and getting your team to champion marketing initiatives without the eye rolls. The throughline: earn trust, speak with conviction, and keep every rollout simple enough to sell at a kitchen table.
We start with buy-in and why it begins with you. If you don’t believe in your maintenance plan, financing offer, or private label shift, your team won’t either. Hear how to present with clarity, tie benefits to real customer pain points, and use brand-forward names that spark conversations in the home. We share scripts, framing, and the power of storytelling to make a quirky club name feel like a value, not a gimmick.
Then we dig into emotional equity. Consistent check-ins, specific praise, and genuine curiosity build the trust that makes price changes, software updates, and social video asks possible. Trust turns mandates into momentum. From there, we attack complexity: pick one high-impact initiative, plan backward from launch, update CRM and collateral, train leaders first, and keep rules clean. We even tackle edge cases—like a promo that starts after a customer buys—and why protecting the brand with simple, generous policies can create outsized goodwill and referrals.
By the end, you’ll have two guiding rules for every change: lead by example to create buy-in, and simplify so your team can execute under pressure. If coaching and persuasion aren’t your strengths, we show you how to surround yourself with people who can carry that torch and lift the whole shop. If this helped you sharpen your next rollout, follow, share with a fellow owner, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.
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From the Yellow Chair is powered by Lemon Seed, a marketing strategy and branding company for the trades. Lemon Seed specializes in rebrands, creating unique, comprehensive, organized marketing plans, social media, and graphic design. Learn more at www.LemonSeedMarketing.com
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We'll see you next time, Lemon Heads!
What's up, Lemon Hits? Welcome to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. I'm Crystal, and today I'm talking about the technician going to being an owner and how you can lead your team through marketing when you've never really had to, or I when you've never really had to lead and introduce marketing tactics and a marketing strategy to your team. So let's dive in. Let's six eliminate. All right, so I've got a few quick things to say about this. I have noticed that contractors that are new, so maybe you've been a technician or an installer or some form or fashion before you were the actual owner of your own company. But honestly, this goes to the owners of any companies, right? Anyone that is now in charge of your team, how do we get them on board with us to utilize our marketing strategy, right? So, guys, every day of our life here at Lemon Seed, we have contractors that are like, well, my team's not going to do that. My team would never sell that or present that or do that. And I'm always like, how do we allow that to go on? So it's your company. So you need to figure out a way to effectively lead people that are unsure. The reason that people don't want to maybe present a lot of your marketing options, a lot of your marketing strategy and offers and discounts and all the cool things that you do in marketing is because they really don't understand it. They don't understand the impact, nor do they understand how to do it. And so today I just have two things that I want to say about this. Number one is to get buy-in, you have to have buy-in. Right? So for your team to buy into, let's say you're gonna start offering finance or you're gonna move to private labeling equipment, or you are offering a new indoor air quality piece. It doesn't matter. This philosophy is still the same. You have to lead by example. You have to lead by example. So you can't be like, yeah, we got this new maintenance program, but I mean, it's all right, it's kind of expensive. People probably gonna be a little irritated with it. Well, guys, when you start off your meeting that way, do you not think that everybody else is like, well, he don't even believe in it? Why would I believe in it? Like, I'm not selling this, whatever, right? But if you stand up in front of your team and you say, All right, guys, we listened to our clients, we know what we needed as a company, and also we wanted to make sure we were providing a really good service. So we are really excited to launch our new maintenance program with two different levels. This is how we're gonna sell it, this is how we're gonna present it, this is why we did it this way, this is why it has a funny name, right? So let's say you're the beehive club and you want to, you know, your team's probably like, this is so corny. Tell them why it's corny. Hey, we created a maintenance plan that was built around our brand so that it stays sticky. It's actually a point of conversation when you're in the home. Like, are you a member of Sailor Max Protection Program? And your guys can say, Yeah, I know the name's kind of fun, but what we want you to remember is Sailor Max Protection Program is all here to make sure that McWilliams is taking care of you day in and day out. And this is how we're gonna do it. And we make sure your system's ready for fall and winter, and we don't even have those things in Texas, but making sure that you're ready for the heat, right? So I'm I'm telling you, this comes from the way you present it to your team and the way that you collect buy-in. And so some of you as owners and technicians coming into ownership and and even like CSRs, shout out to the girls that are coming into this business from different avenues, your dad's business, whatever that you're coming into. When you are now in that leadership position, your job is to do buy-in. And I had somebody a couple of weeks ago give me some great advice, and I want to share that advice with you. He told me that there is emotional equity, and this makes so much sense, right? So when you are constantly pouring into your team and feeding into them and seeing them as individuals and you know, celebrating little things. Well, even if this is not your style, so a lot of you do not need coddling or pats on the back or words of affirmation or anything like that, but a lot of people do, and a lot of people want the engagement, they want the interaction, they want the praise, they want the just I'm gonna go back to the word of engagement with you as an owner. And so if you're just like, I stand up on Monday morning meetings, I tell them all these things that we're doing great, and I tell them all the things we're doing wrong, and everybody goes home. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about, hey, Jim, you know, how'd your son's baseball game go yesterday? Hey, Sarah, um, I see that you're having to work two jobs. Like, what's going on? Like, how can I help you? Right? Like, there's ways of you, it's like you just have to kind of look a little deeper past their their employee number, right? So when you look past the employee number and you start seeing them as individual people and you start pouring into them with your with your emotional uh support and your and again, dudes, I know a lot of you this is hard, and there's a lot of women this is hard for, but emotional equity is super important because when you start building this up with your team, then when you come through that your team begins to trust you and believe you and honestly love you, care about you. And even if they're not a super emotional, like outgoing emotional person, listen, building emotional buy-in with your team is so important because it now lets them know that you are in their corner, you're gonna support them. So then when you release a price increase on equipment or a new maintenance program, a new software that you want to do a video for social media, they want to do it for you and for themselves. It's no longer another task on a list, they want to help you. And so sometimes we really have to dig deep into who we are as people to be very aware of ourselves so that we can create buy-in. So people want to do business and work with managers and bosses and owners that care as more about them than they do about the bottom line. And I know that's that that goes both directions. Like, don't keep you know cancerous people on your team. But at the same time, you can loosen up a little bit and get to know people so that when you need to create buy-in with a new marketing strategy, a new logo, a new jingle, a new brand of equipment. How many of you have been changed for you've been an ex dealer for 20 years and now you're a new dealer of this because you couldn't keep the price increases, right? Like so, there's all of these ways that you need the emotional intelligence. You should be working on it very consistently. But that's how we create buy-in. So, with buy-in, what I'm telling you is you need to stand in front of your team, knowing that what you are presenting to them is factual, it is truthful, and you are behind it 100%. So if you're launching a new performance pay pay, oh, got a little chunky with my wording this morning. But if you are launching a new performance pay package, man, say that fast early in the morning. Um, but if you're launching a new, let's do it to myself again, performance pay package, and you get up there and you're like, yeah, God's okay. Let me tell you what we're gonna try to do. We're gonna see if it works. Well, guess what? In their minds, you're messing with their money, so it don't work. Nothing works, everything's a mess, right? So I'm just encouraging you here, like, know what you're talking about when you present. Um, and that just creates buy-in, and they get behind it because you presented it with you presented it in a persuasive way, in a um impactful way. You told them how it was gonna impact the client, the customer, and them, and the whole team, you know, the team as a whole. And so when you give them all of those tools, it naturally creates better buy-in versus, well, you're gonna do it because I'm the boss and I'm telling you what to do. You're gonna launch this maintenance program because I said so. Um, you know, and you might be saying that in the back of your mind, but let's not say that out loud, right? Let's not say it out loud. Keep you should say you not say, don't say the quiet part out loud, right? But that's the first one. The second one is let me tell you what we're gonna do. We're gonna kiss it, right? We're gonna keep it simple, stupid. So when we launch new things, when we launch new marketing strategies, we do not have to launch 20 strategies at a time, 20 different tactics, 20 different email automations, 30 email, because what's happening is you guys are sitting, I think contractors are like sitting on a Ferris wheel, and you're looking down, you're like, all these people are going to all these rides, everybody's moving so fast. I need to move fast. I need to move fast. Guys, we do not have to launch everything at once. So a lot of you maybe are just getting back out of show season, you've gone to the show and you met 10 great new vendors, and you want to launch all these things. That is not feasible nor reasonable, nor is it even healthy for your culture to launch so many things at once. So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna keep it simple. We're gonna pick the most high priority thing that we want to launch. So, let's say for clients, um, it's a maintenance program. You want to launch that in January, kick off a new year with a new maintenance plan. Um, maybe you've got the new communicating thermostat programs going on and you're gonna launch those. You need to be prepared. How does it impact the customer? How does it impact the team? And you need to think all the way through those steps before you just fly in like a seagull, poop all over everybody that finally has their life together and fly out. You need that you that's seagull leadership. You need to think through how can I walk through every step and be as prepared as possible to launch this program? How can I do it? Well, we can do it by creating processes and strategies and also taking a deep breath and prioritizing what we want to launch. So if you look at your company and those of you that are planning, if you look at your company and you say, okay, I want to launch a maintenance program. Let's back into it. So I need to start in October and I need to keep going so that in January I'm ready to launch. It's all set up in my CRM. I've got brochures printed. It's up on my website. I've introduced it to my team, I've trained my team on it. It's got a good name, it's got a good vibe, it's got everything I need, right? Those are ways that now your team feels prepared. So when you show it to your team, so you should show it to your leadership first, educate them, tell them, get them excited, get them on board, and then you let them print announce it to their teams or you announce it to your team. But at the end of the day, guys, what I want you to know here is let's keep it simple. We don't have to launch 20 things at a time. We do not have to make our maintenance program six levels with six caveats and three extra points. We don't have to do that. We can have a very simple maintenance agreement, right? If we're gonna do a financing offer, do not build offers on the outliers. Like, well, okay, what are we gonna do if somebody, you know, I launched, they get a new TV just in time for the Super Bowl when they uh buy a new system from me, but someone bought it a week before. Someone bought a system a week before. Okay, guys, you have two options. Number one, tell them I am so sorry that you missed it. Let me put a$250 credit on your account, right? Or you could give them the TV. You could literally be like, you know what, sir? You're right. You just missed this by the day, by two days, by three days. I would love to give you a TV. You know what? I will be there tomorrow with your TV. So now you're the hero. Make the customer the hero of your story. Let them be the winner. Yes, you are out, whatever it is costing me for this TV or whatever you're doing. But at the end of the day, guys, again, I've said that several times. At the end of the day, when all everything shakes out, you are the winner by giving them the TV. So if you want to go 10 toes down, like, by God, you missed it. I'm sorry, we're not doing anything for you, go for it. That's setting the tone. That's setting a tone that you care more about a date than you do about the client in some aspects. This is all relative. There's lots of good arguments on both sides here. But my thought is from a brand protector and from an unsung hero side of things, I'm gonna give them the freaking TV because it's not that crucial. If they met the criteria and they bought one of my top two systems, however, whatever parameters I put on it, and they did it and they missed the announcement of my new program by excuse me, donning today, by two days, by two days, three days, even a week or so, I'm gonna give them the freaking TV. And so, you know why? Because I'm just keeping it simple, right? Now, can that get out of control? Yes. Do you need to have good rules? Yes. But go ahead and tell everybody, hey, and if anyone calls back and they bought a system within the last week before any of our promotions launch and they ask for it, we're able to give it back to them. You know, set some rules there. Again, the whole point I'm trying to get you to is think through it beforehand. Keep it nice and simple, nice and clear. Don't complicate things. Don't say, well, you can only get a TV if you buy it on a Wednesday at 3 p.m. on the third Wednesday of the fifth month of the year when the moon is in complete, you know, transition. Okay. We're not, we do not have to complicate a whole of our offers or our maintenance program or our call scripts, right? So just start keeping things simple, right, guys? So I know this was just a little quick shot, but I just want to tell you, as leaders, guys, there's two things that you have to do: lead by example, create buy-in and storytelling. And last but not least, like keep things simple. Don't overwhelm your team, don't inundate your team, coach your team through item by item where they see the train is constantly moving. Um, and those of you that aren't those people, you're not good at the coaching and the buy-in side, then I encourage you to find somebody on your team, surround yourself and your team with people that can help you fill holes that you might have. So, guys, thank you for listening to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Welcome to the fall, and we will keep talking to you soon. Leave us a review, follow us on all of our socials. Bye.