Service MVP Sales Training Podcast with Joe Crisara: Recent Episodes
Service MVP
I’m America’s Service Sales coach Joe Crisara, and I’ve been down the same path. For nearly 45 years, I performed services for clients just like yours, and like you, I suffered frustration & heartbreak, and I poured out the blood, sweat & tears it takes to survive. Over time, I learned to change how I did things so I got more traction and better results.
Welcome to the Service MVP Podcast, hosted by America's Service Sales Coach, Joe Crisara. In this insightful episode, Joe is joined by Sam Taggert from Door-to-Door Experts. Together, they explore the art of proactive salesmanship and the value of direct customer engagement.
Sam Taggert introduces his upcoming book, "Eat What You Kill," which emphasizes the importance of adopting a carnivore mentality in sales. Drawing from his extensive experience, Sam shares how this mindset empowers sales teams to actively hunt for opportunities rather than waiting for leads. He discusses the advantages of door-to-door sales, highlighting its ability to connect with customers on a personal level and provide immediate solutions.
Throughout the conversation, Joe and Sam discuss the evolving landscape of sales and marketing, noting the increasing noise in digital advertising. They argue for the effectiveness of face-to-face interactions in breaking through this clutter and establishing genuine relationships with customers.
Listeners are encouraged to embrace a proactive approach and consider attending the upcoming Door-to-Door Con to witness firsthand the energy and success of the door-to-door sales community. Don't miss the opportunity to preorder Sam's book and transform your sales strategy with actionable insights.
Join America's Service Sales Coach, Joe Crisara, on the Service MVP Podcast as he welcomes Ryan Bowman from Catalyst Consulting. In this episode, Ryan shares her journey from venture capital to consulting and how her unique perspective can create multiples of success for businesses.
Discover Ryan's insights on valuing businesses beyond mere numbers and understanding the crucial role people play in any enterprise. She challenges the notion that business is "just business" and emphasizes the personal and emotional impact of every decision.
Explore the different paths businesses can take, whether it's building a legacy, seeking investment, or preparing for an exit. Ryan offers her expertise in navigating these choices while prioritizing authenticity, honesty, and transparency.
Learn how Ryan uses her "catalytic effect" to break down barriers and spark action within companies. From optimizing technology platforms to addressing organizational dysfunction, she provides the missing piece that brings everything together.
Don't miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights and practical advice from Ryan Bowman. Tune in to discover how you can transform your business and achieve greater success.
In this captivating episode of the Service MVP Podcast, host Joe Crisara is joined by special guest Paul Ross, an expert in subconscious selling, master hypnotist, and renowned author. Together, they explore the art of using subconscious techniques to enhance sales and build unbreakable rapport with clients. Discover how to get clients to sell themselves and add significant value to your bottom line.
Paul shares his insights on the importance of language and the power of suggestion in creating a compelling sales narrative. Learn the four crucial words to include in your sales pitch to establish trust and rapport instantly. Paul also delves into the concept of breaking patterns to increase suggestibility, using counterexamples to tackle objections, and the significance of understanding your prospect's state of mind.
This episode is packed with practical strategies and fascinating insights into the subconscious mind, perfect for anyone looking to elevate their sales game. Don't miss the opportunity to download Paul's free book, "The Subconscious Sales Advantage," for further learning and mastering the art of subconscious selling.
In this insightful episode of the Service MVP Podcast, host Joe Crisara, America's Service Sales Coach, sits down with Brian McDermott from ProStar Plumbing. They delve into the transformative power of using Rilla AI and Service MVP to exponentially boost sales. Brian shares his journey of implementing these tools to enhance his team's performance, skyrocketing their sales figures beyond expectations.
Discover how Rilla AI is being used to fine-tune sales processes and foster a culture of continuous improvement among technicians. Brian explains the initial skepticism from his team and how it evolved into a self-coaching tool that empowers them to excel. Learn about the pivotal role Service MVP plays in setting the standard for sales excellence and how the combination of these tools has redefined training and management in ProStar Plumbing.
Joe and Brian also discuss the impact on company culture, profitability, and the future of management roles as technology becomes an integral part of the service industry. Tune in to gain valuable insights and advice on embracing AI and structured sales processes to drive success in your business.
Welcome to the Service MVP Podcast, hosted by America's service sales coach, Joe Crisara. In this episode, Joe is joined by his esteemed guest, Rick Picard, to uncover the three secrets of creating high-value service that can set premium service companies apart from the competition.
The discussion kicks off with the first secret: functionality. Joe and Rick delve into the importance of demonstrating functionality when presenting to clients, emphasizing the need to be well-prepared and equipped to provide immediate solutions. They highlight how ensuring everything is functional, from scheduling to presenting prices, is crucial to maintaining high service standards.
The second secret, competence, is explored through the art of storytelling and communicating in a language that customers understand. Rick shares insights on how to convey the value of different service options effectively, helping clients visualize the benefits of choosing premium solutions without revealing prices prematurely.
The final secret, differentiation, focuses on standing out by providing exceptional service that others don't offer. Rick shares anecdotes that illustrate the power of differentiation and how it fosters trust and builds lasting relationships with clients.
Throughout the episode, Joe and Rick share personal stories and experiences, making the conversation both engaging and insightful. Tune in to discover how these secrets can help elevate your service business to new heights.
Welcome to the Service MVP Podcast! In this episode, host Joe Crisara, America's Service Sales Coach, sits down with marketing guru John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing. John shares his journey and insights on how to successfully market home service businesses. Discover the essence of a solid marketing strategy, the importance of understanding your ideal customer, and how to effectively use reviews and referrals to grow your business. Don't miss this episode packed with practical advice and proven strategies to elevate your marketing game and achieve greater success in the service industry.
Welcome to the Service MVP Podcast, hosted by Joe Crisara, America's Service Sales Coach. In this insightful episode, Joe is joined by esteemed colleague Lee Salz, a renowned sales contrarian and author. Despite knowing each other for 12 years, this marks their first face-to-face discussion, making the conversation even more special.
Lee shares his unique perspectives on sales, emphasizing the importance of empathetic expertise and understanding the emotional needs of clients. He recounts a touching story about a recent experience with a veterinary service, illustrating the significance of compassionate communication in sales.
The discussion dives deep into several contrarian concepts, such as the flawed notion of "great salespeople" and the importance of identifying performance factors that lead to success in specific sales roles. Lee also introduces his innovative EASE framework for handling objections and stresses the value of giving before expecting to receive in networking.
Whether you're a sales professional or a business owner, this episode is packed with valuable insights and practical tips to help you differentiate yourself and succeed in the competitive world of sales. Don't miss out on this engaging and enlightening conversation with one of the industry's most respected thought leaders.
Join Joe Crisara, America's Service Sales Coach, on the Service MVP podcast as he sits down with Jeff Tauzin, a seasoned expert in the home service industry. In this insightful episode, Jeff shares his journey from working in his family's HVAC business to becoming a successful business owner and advisor.
Discover the essential strategies for avoiding common mistakes in building a profitable home service business. Jeff delves into the importance of pricing correctly, the dangers of expanding too quickly into new business units, and the pitfalls of running a lifestyle business. His advice is grounded in years of experience, making it invaluable for contractors looking to enhance their operations and profitability.
Tune in to gain wisdom from Jeff's firsthand experiences and learn how to create lasting value in your service business. Whether you're an HVAC contractor or operate in another trade, this episode offers practical tips to help you succeed.
Check out another fantastic episode of The Service MVP Podcast...
If you want learn more feel free to reach out Joe and his team at Service MVP!
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Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Tune in to learn practical tips and strategies for scaling your business, fostering a positive work environment, and achieving long-term success in the trades industry.
Welcome to the Service MVP Podcast with Joe Crisara, America's Service Sales Coach. In this episode, Joe is joined by Trina and Rocky Lozano from Air One Services in Colton, California. They share their inspiring journey of running a successful business for 17 years and their recent growth through best practices and personal development.
The Lozanos discuss how they started their business from home, the challenges they faced, and the pivotal role that joining best practice groups played in their success. They delve into their experience with Service MVP and how the True Grit event in Las Vegas was a game-changer for their business.
Listen as Trina and Rocky talk about the implementation of call-by-call management and its impact on their operations. They share insights on how this approach has improved their service quality, increased their sales, and enhanced their team's work-life balance. The episode also highlights the importance of maintaining pure motives and caring for both customers and employees to build a thriving business culture.
Don't miss this insightful conversation filled with valuable lessons on sustaining growth, fostering a positive work environment, and achieving business success. Tune in to learn how Air One Services continues to elevate their standards and deliver exceptional service.
Welcome to the Service MVP Podcast! In this episode, Joe Cresera, America's Service Coach, sits down with Dr. Jonathan Marion, founder of Steps Along the Way, to discuss the importance of living, connecting, and communicating authentically.
Dr. Marion shares his journey from being a professor of cultural anthropology to becoming a transformational life coach. He explains the pivotal moment in Brazil that inspired him to focus on authentic relationships and meaningful living.
The conversation delves into the concept of authenticity, the challenges of living a life of duplicity, and the importance of alignment in our personal and professional lives. Dr. Marion introduces his "BEING" strategy, an acronym that guides individuals through the process of authentic living: Begin where you are, Explore where you want to go, Identify your options, Now start, and Get your best.
Joe and Dr. Marion also discuss the impact of this approach on personal health, professional success, and overall well-being. They emphasize the importance of self-awareness, meaningful relationships, and the courage to pursue what truly matters.
Join us for an insightful and inspiring conversation that could transform the way you live and connect with the world around you. For more information and to take the next steps towards authentic living, visit stepsalongtheway.global or schedule a complimentary chat at stepstochat.com.
Welcome to the Service MVP podcast with Joe Crisara, featuring an insightful conversation with Brigham Dickinson from Power Selling Pros. In this episode, Joe and Brigham discuss the key barriers to scaling a business and share personal experiences and professional insights that can help you overcome these challenges.
Brigham delves into his journey of growing Power Selling Pros and highlights the importance of overcoming ego, documenting systems, and empowering your team. He shares valuable advice on how to step out of the limelight and enable your employees to thrive, ultimately giving you the freedom over your time that you sought when starting your business.
Join us for an engaging discussion filled with practical tips and inspirational stories that will motivate you to take your business to the next level.
Welcome to the Service MVP Podcast hosted by Joe Crisara, America's Service Sales Coach. In this episode, Joe is joined by his great friend Jack Tester, former President of Nexstar, to discuss their shared passion for helping people succeed.
Jack shares his inspiring journey from an entry-level job at a trade association to leading Nexstar, a pioneering organization in the contracting industry. He reflects on the importance of going all-in when adopting new business practices and the critical role of leadership in driving success.
Joe and Jack delve into the differences between companies that merely gather information and those that truly implement it, emphasizing the need for leaders to bring their teams along on the journey. They also discuss the value of live events and the transformative power of in-person interactions.
As the conversation wraps up, Jack offers insights into his life post-retirement, where he continues to contribute to the industry while enjoying his personal passions. Don't miss this engaging and insightful discussion that highlights the essence of leadership, commitment, and continuous improvement.
Welcome to the Service MVP podcast, hosted by Joe Crisara, America's Service Sales Coach. In this episode, Joe sits down with Richard Astacio, a successful entrepreneur in the heating and plumbing trade. Richard shares his journey of growing his business from a startup to a $33 million enterprise, leveraging acquisitions and strategic growth tactics.
Richard provides valuable insights on how to increase revenue and profitability, emphasizing the importance of creating a budget, maintaining transparency, and investing in team training. He also discusses the significance of having a strong mission and vision statement that resonates with the entire team.
Don't miss this episode packed with actionable advice and inspiring stories from one of the industry's best!
Check out another fantastic episode of The Service MVP Podcast...
If you want learn more feel free to reach out Joe and his team at Service MVP!
Here's Joe's contact information -
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Tune in to learn practical tips and strategies for scaling your business, fostering a positive work environment, and achieving long-term success in the trades industry.
Welcome to the Service MVP podcast! Join America's Service Sales Coach, Joe Crisara, as he sits down with Nick Englehart, lead trainer at Service MVP, to delve into Nick's fascinating career journey.
Starting from his early days in the plumbing industry to working at SpaceX, and eventually becoming a lead trainer at Service MVP, Nick shares the highs and lows of his career. He offers invaluable insights and practical sales tips that have shaped his success in the service industry.
Nick highlights the importance of structured training, focusing on client needs, and the power of personalized service options. He also emphasizes the significance of getting clear commitments from clients to ensure consistent success.
Don't miss this episode packed with actionable advice and inspiring stories from one of the industry's best!
Check out another fantastic episode of The Service MVP Podcast...
If you want learn more feel free to reach out Joe and his team at Service MVP!
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Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Welcome to the Service MVP Podcast, hosted by Joe Crisara, America's Service Sales Coach. In this episode, Joe is joined by Michael Goater, Managing Partner and COO of Environmental Heating and Air Solutions. Discover how Michael's approach to HVAC sales has transformed his business and how you can apply these principles to elevate your own sales strategy.
Michael shares his journey from HVAC installer to sales and operations management, emphasizing the importance of picking a lane and committing to a premium service model. Learn why educating customers and offering comprehensive, whole-house solutions can set you apart from the competition and lead to higher average tickets and more satisfied clients.
Joe and Michael discuss the value of setting strong boundaries, maintaining a high standard of service, and the significance of empowering customers with knowledge. They also delve into the challenges and rewards of adhering to this high-end sales approach and how it can lead to both better customer relationships and increased profitability.
Whether you're looking to boost your average ticket price or refine your sales process, this episode is packed with actionable insights and inspiration. Don't miss it!
Check out another fantastic episode of The Service MVP Podcast...
If you want learn more feel free to reach out Joe and his team at Service MVP!
Here's Joe's contact information -
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Welcome to the Service MVP podcast, hosted by Joe Crisara, America's Service Sales Coach. In this episode, Joe is joined by special guests Ryan and Justin from Chirp, a service dedicated to maintaining customer relationships through automation.
Ryan shares the inspiring story behind the inception of Chirp and how his success with automation in his own windshield repair business led him to create a service that helps other businesses thrive. The discussion delves into the importance of honesty and transparency in sales, with Justin emphasizing the significance of being real with customers and the impact it has on building trust and generating warm referrals.
Ryan and Justin also highlight the power of emotional intelligence and the importance of responding rather than reacting in challenging situations. They share personal insights into how overcoming personal struggles and maintaining sobriety have enhanced their ability to connect with clients and lead effectively.
The episode concludes with valuable advice for sales success, emphasizing the need to genuinely care about the customer's experience and the power of the mind in manifesting positive outcomes. Listeners are encouraged to test these principles and see the transformative impact they can have on their sales approach.
Check out another fantastic episode of The Service MVP Podcast...
If you want learn more feel free to reach out Joe and his team at Service MVP!
Here's Joe's contact information -
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Welcome to the Service MVP Podcast with Joe Crisara, America's Service Sales Coach. In this episode, Joe is joined by a special guest, Troy Aberle, the Executive Strategy Officer at Chet Holmes International. Troy and Joe dive into the legacy and impactful strategies of Chet Holmes, focusing on how these principles continue to transform businesses globally.
The conversation highlights the history and mission of Chet Holmes International, including the success of "The Ultimate Sales Machine," a book that has significantly influenced business growth. They discuss the importance of understanding your dream client, building rapport, and communicating value effectively to stand out in a crowded market.
Troy shares insights on time management, the evolution of sales strategies, and the universal truths that remain relevant in today's fast-paced business environment. He also offers practical advice on how to identify and attract the best buyers, making sales smoother and more efficient.
Listen in for actionable tips on improving your sales approach and learn how Chet Holmes International can help you enhance your business strategies. Don't miss the opportunity to download a free chapter of "The Ultimate Sales Machine" and start implementing these transformative techniques today.
Check out another fantastic episode of The Service MVP Podcast...
If you want learn more feel free to reach out Joe and his team at Service MVP!
Here's Joe's contact information -
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Welcome to the Service MVP Podcast! In this episode, America's Service Sales Coach, Joe Crisara, sits down with Rocky Lozano and his son, Andrew Lozano, from Air One Services in Colton, California. Join us as they share their journey of mastering call-by-call management for their service team.
Rocky discusses the history of their family-owned business, which includes his four sons and wife, and how they've grown over 17 years. The Lozano family recently completed an intensive four-day hands-on training at the Service MVP office, learning to refine their service processes and improve customer care.
Andrew, who has taken on the role of sales coach, shares significant lessons learned during the training, including the importance of observation, customizing solutions for customers, and maintaining a professional standard. Rocky highlights the transformation in their approach to managing service calls and the impact on their team's confidence and performance.
Discover the value of daily huddles, the importance of constant communication, and the benefits of a structured call-by-call management system. Learn how Air One Services achieved remarkable results, with an average ticket of $1,400 from maintenance calls alone, and why this training is a game-changer for any service business.
Tune in to hear firsthand experiences, insights, and the positive changes that can come from investing in professional training and management practices.
Check out another fantastic episode of The Service MVP Podcast...
If you want learn more feel free to reach out Joe and his team at Service MVP!
Here's Joe's contact information -
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Welcome to the Service MVP Podcast, hosted by America's Service Sales Coach, Joe Crisara. In this engaging episode, Joe switches roles with Dominic Rubino from the Profit Toolbelt Podcast, who shares his journey from struggling in business to becoming a successful business coach and podcaster.
Dominic opens up about his initial challenges in business and the crucial steps he took to improve, including reading books and taking courses. He emphasizes the importance of recognizing problems and seeking help to overcome them. Throughout the conversation, Joe and Dominic discuss the significance of working smarter, not harder, and the value of having a strategic plan.
Dominic shares practical advice on setting goals, the importance of industry associations, and learning from others by visiting different businesses. He also introduces the "Healthy Wealthy Wise Planner" as a tool to help business owners and individuals plan for success in various aspects of their lives.
Tune in to gain valuable insights on improving your business, setting meaningful goals, and learning from industry leaders. Don't miss Dominic's inspiring story and the actionable advice he offers to help you work smarter, not harder.
Welcome to the Service MVP Podcast! Join America's Service Sales Coach, Joe Crisara, as he sits down with dynamic entrepreneur Richard Lewis from Redwood Services. In this episode, Richard shares valuable insights on maximizing the value of your service business.
Learn about Richard's journey from ServiceMaster to founding Redwood Services, a company that invests in residential HVAC and plumbing companies across the U.S. Discover the unique approach Redwood takes by providing not just financial support, but also valuable resources and expertise to help businesses grow and thrive.
Richard discusses the importance of focusing on residential services, maintaining operational discipline, and leveraging collaboration within the Redwood family. Find out how Redwood Services stands out in the industry by supporting businesses without stripping away their identity, and how they help companies achieve generational wealth.
Whether you're a contractor looking for growth opportunities or simply interested in the home services industry, this episode offers a wealth of knowledge and inspiration. Tune in to explore the possibilities of partnering with Redwood Services and taking your business to the next level.
Join America's Service Sales Coach, Joe Crisara, and Helena Bouchez, the CEO of Executive Words, for a deep dive into the secrets of success in the service industry. Drawing from her experience working with industry giants like Frank Blau, Al Levy, and Tommy Mello, Helena shares an insider’s perspective on creating transformational customer experiences and maximizing profits.
In this enlightening episode, Helena unpicks Joe's extensive system, emphasizing the significance of offering clients the complete range of options and educating on the transformational impact of 'magic moments' in any business. She insightfully explores how these emotional connections with customers can be a game-changer.
In this journey to profitability, she underscores the significance of acknowledging the hard work others put into their jobs and instilling value in it, terming it as a 'gift to the client.' She emphasizes that profitability enables magnanimity, drawing from her own experiences working with top professionals in her field.
Gain an integrated understanding of how best-selling business books are authored as Helena shares her experiences and insights. She expounds on the winning principles that have shaped countless success stories and discusses the ethos of legends like Jack Canfield, Samuel Clement Stone, and Dale Carnegie.
The discussion further deepens into dealing with resistance and maintaining an effective sales strategy. Helena shares insider points on tackling objections and explores the power of brand storytelling for service contractors.
This podcast transcends beyond just business strategies, delivering profound insights on personal growth and the importance of fostering meaningful connections. Tune in to find out how you can revamp your service industry game, boost your profits and sales, and create impactful customer experiences.
In the latest episode of Service MVP Podcast, our host, Joe Crisara, engages in a stimulating discussion with Brian McDermott, the founder of ProStar Plumbing. Brian reveals his inspiring journey from being a plumber's son to setting up his million-dollar service company, emphasizing the importance of continuous learning and self-improvement.
Throughout the conversation, he highlights the vital role of career development and strategic business practices in cultivating a flourishing enterprise. He provides valuable insights into his evolution from being trained by experienced professionals to training new technicians.
Delving deeper into the key ingredients of a profitable business, McDermott endorses continuous training, open communication, and consistent employee development. He advocates transforming employees from mere laborers into efficient leaders who can significantly influence the company's profitability.
Addressing the qualms associated with employee training, Brian reassures listeners that training plays a pivotal role in a company's successful expansion, far from being a potential risk.
Are you a tradesperson with entrepreneurial aspirations? Listen to successful entrepreneur Brian McDermott as he imparts invaluable wisdom about transitioning from a technician to a thriving business owner. His unique perspective on employee retention, continuous learning, and fostering growth is bound to inspire.
In this episode, Brian also shares his long-term vision for ProStar Plumbing and how he plans on further improving this successful venture while prioritizing customer experience. He concludes by stressing the need to seek help, share struggles, and employ the power of community to grow a business. This episode of Service MVP Podcast is a must-listen for anyone seeking to transform their career from a service professional to a lucrative business owner.
Check out another fantastic episode of The Service MVP Podcast...
If you want learn more feel free to reach out Joe and his team at Service MVP!
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Join Joe Crisara, America's Service Sales Coach, and guest Ryan Lee, of Landscape Lighting Secrets, in a riveting episode of the Service MVP podcast. Drawing from their entrepreneurial journey and experiences, both share a wealth of insights aimed at boosting success in the service business landscape. Ryan dives deep into the world of landscape lighting and shares his journey to success, revealing how he incorporates landscape lighting into pre-existing businesses and creates a niche for transformation.
Increase your revenue, profit, and overall success by learning and implementing Ryan's three key tips in any service business. He starts the discussion by emphasizing the role of pricing in establishing business value and presents 'Offer Stack' as a solution for providing additional value to customers by integrating various complementary services. The episode also serves as a deep dive into landscape lighting and provides a springboard for applying critical business tips to drive growth and performance across different service industries.
Discover the importance of believing in your service or product, improving sales approaches, and prioritizing value in business models. The episode unravels the various facets of effective sales, focusing on immediate pricing and on-the-spot selling as powerful strategies for business growth. Ryan further explores the significance of leveraging customer emotions and dealing with client objections, providing listeners with an arsenal of techniques for effective business communication and improved sales results.
Through this engaging conversation, service providers can gain insights into project problem-solving, managing client expectations, targeting the right audience, and generating high-quality leads. Ryan also reveals his marketing and lead generation strategies, emphasizing the power of referral partnerships and commissions in maximizing business success.
This episode of the Service MVP podcast is an invaluable resource for understanding how to effectively communicate business value, increase customer satisfaction, and grow significantly in the service industry.
Check out another fantastic episode of The Service MVP Podcast...
If you want learn more feel free to reach out Joe and his team at Service MVP!
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Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Welcome to this new episode of the Service MVP Podcast, where our host Joe Crisara engages in an intriguing conversation with business authority Aaron Gaynor. Sharing his rollercoaster journey from bankruptcy to a thriving multimillion-dollar venture, Aaron provides an insightful mix of inspirational life lessons and practical business advice. He sheds light on his early days in the construction business, coping with the 2006-2007 housing crash, and how these experiences influenced his business perspective. Get ready for an enlightening guide to growing a business significantly from scratch.
In this riveting discussion, Aaron discloses his experiences during the Great Recession, how he innovatively ventured into the home service and trade industry, and his forward-thinking emphasis on sustainable technology. He speaks about his vision of the future, nods to the shifting eco-friendly trends and unearths opportunities in overlooked sectors like water conservation. Tune in to learn about the rise of “Eco Plumbers”, the importance of a clear business direction, and celebrating the actual people behind the work.
Our guest emphasizes the fundamental role of learning, self-reinvention, communication, and networking in entrepreneurial success. He highlights the power of resilience, tenacity, goal-setting, and consistent effort in reaching your entrepreneurial dream. He elaborates on the significance of executing strategies effectively and the importance of an accountability culture within an organization for desired success.
The episode also explores the key role of communication and collective accountability in achieving business objectives. It delves into creating an environment of continuous learning within an organization, promoting innovation and preventing stagnation. Ending on an ambitious note of crossing the $100 million mark and eyeing the billion-dollar target, this episode is a must-listen for those eager to accelerate their business growth.
Check out another fantastic episode of The Service MVP Podcast...
If you want learn more feel free to reach out Joe and his team at Service MVP!
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In this enlightening episode of the Service MVP Podcast, host Joe Crisara invites renowned author, speaker, and leader in the trades industry, Kelly Resendez. Serving as the Executive Vice President of Growth at Goodleap and co-owner of GoBundance Women's Group, Kelly shares valuable wisdom and actionable insights gleaned from her successful journey in the business world.
Kelly's story starts with her roots in the mortgage industry and draws on the lessons learned from her parents' heating and air conditioning company. Her experiences, trials, and triumphs have shaped her into one of the nation's top 1% loan officers and armed her with exceptional insights that she is eager to share with aspiring business owners.
The episode revolves around the trio of self-inflicted obstacles that often derail business owners. Drawing lessons from her parents' company's unraveling due to health issues, Kelly introduces each impediment and provides strategies to overcome them effectively. The episode compiles a range of success-critical aspects, from constructing a vision and devising achievable goals to creating a concrete business plan and fostering consistent, high energy levels.
With a balance of personal fulfillment and operational competence at the heart of discussions, Kelly expands on the significance of celebrating achievements and the neurochemistry of happiness. Beyond goals, the conversation explores the importance of creating a vision for how one wants to experience life. Kelly also emphasizes the necessity of CEOs to master the balancing act between vision and operations, highlighting the advantages of outsourcing certain tasks and making strategic hires.
This profound dialogue underlines the importance of creating support and growth networks for business owners, building advisory boards regardless of business size, fostering an abundance mindset, and cultivating a sense of community. In conclusion, Kelly underscores the crucial role of self-care and relationship-building in business success, stating that self-care is not just a luxury, but a requirement for individual wellbeing and robust business relationships.
This episode is a must-listen for entrepreneurs and salespeople ready to avoid self-sabotage and conquer new heights of success in their businesses. It will empower listeners with the knowledge to harmonize their logical operational strategies with the creative right-brain spark necessary to celebrate victories and foster continuous business growth.
Check out another fantastic episode of The Service MVP Podcast...
If you want learn more feel free to reach out Joe and his team at Service MVP!
Here's Joe's contact information -
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Get Joe's New Book - What Should We Do?
In this insightful episode of the Service MVP Podcast, host Joe Crisara welcomes Seth Ure from Goodleap for a thoughtful discussion on the pivotal role of financing in shaping current market trends. As one of the top representatives at Goodleap, Seth delves into the crucial role of financing for contractors nationwide, demonstrating how his career experiences have influenced his professional approach.
Joe and Seth analyze the rapid increase in product pricing in recent years, emphasizing the need for professionals to stay updated with market trends in order to cater to the needs of their clients more effectively. Seth shares his strong belief that financing should not be considered a secondary option, but rather an integrated part of primary service offerings to maximize benefits for both contractors and clients.
This episode also offers a wealth of advice for those seeking to understand and navigate the finance sector more proficiently, showcasing how implementing successful financing strategies can propel contractors towards greater success.
Most significantly, Seth uses his platform at Goodleap to spread their important mission: making services affordable for homeowners. By comparing financing strategies in the car industry and their influence on customer behavior, Seth proposes how the same tactics can be applied to various industries, including solar services.
Lastly, Seth offers insights into utilizing the right loan products and training programs to enhance client affordability and drive business growth. His stimulating conversation serves as a valuable guide for entrepreneurs, highlighting that choosing the right financing partner can significantly increase sales and client satisfaction.
Join us in this enriching episode to understand how to channel the power of financing into transforming the future of myriad industries!
Check out another fantastic episode of The Service MVP Podcast...
If you want learn more feel free to reach out Joe and his team at Service MVP!
Here's Joe's contact information -
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Get Joe's New Book - What Should We Do?
Welcome to the Service MVP Podcast, where today's episode takes you on an enlightening journey into the world of 'Pure Motive Service'. Join your host, Joe Crisara, renowned Service Sales Coach, and his esteemed guest, sales veteran Rick Picard, as they discuss this revolutionary approach to customer service and sales.
In this episode, Rick shares his personal experiences and valuable insights on implementing 'Pure Motive Service'. The discussion delves deep into how shifting focus from selling a product to genuinely helping the customer can transform the traditional sales approach and bring about significant changes in outcomes. The central theme revolves around the power of intent, emphasizing the profound impact a right motive can have on our lives.
We explore the critical correlation between 'pure motive service' and responsibility with compelling examples and practical stories. Rick highlights the significance of instilling a sense of responsibility within team members, revealing how this transformational leadership style can result in improved sales results. Through the lens of Rick's own journey in fostering collective responsibility, the episode presents unique insights into overcoming common sales excuses, enabling teams to take charge, and swapping blame for control.
Appreciation and gratitude also form a significant part of the conversation. We hear heartwarming anecdotes about Rick's recognition of his team's efforts in fostering a positive culture. And also, how his firm belief in customer relationships, learning, and responsiveness forms the backbone of his revolutionary approach towards customer service.
This episode concludes with insightful discussions about navigating price-oriented discussions with customers, focusing on long-term value, and constant service improvements. It serves as an invaluable guide for those looking to redefine conventional sales practices and create lifelong customer relations.
Check out another fantastic episode of The Service MVP Podcast...
If you want learn more feel free to reach out Joe and his team at Service MVP!
Here's Joe's contact information -
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Welcome to a riveting episode of the Service MVP Podcast, hosted by Joe Crisara. Our esteemed guest, Michelle LaFrance, the Duchess of Ductless, shares her inspiring journey and expert knowledge on ductless heating and cooling systems.
Experience the transformative power of ductless solutions as we explore the advantages of these systems over the traditional methods. From efficiency and cost-effectiveness to comfort, learn how ductless is reshaping the home comfort service industry.
For contractors, Michelle provides a roadmap to dominate your market actively. With a stress on commitment and training, she helps visionaries view ductless technology as homeowners' ultimate problem solver.
We delve further into vital skills and experiences required in the ductless system. Michelle discusses her own experiences, explaining the benefits of controlled temperature, energy efficiency, and reduced air conditioning bills. The episode emphasizes the importance of proper training in achieving seamless installation and significant labor cost savings.
Beyond installation practices, we also discuss your firm's online presence. Learn about website visibility, common search queries, and the distinction between website-centric and offsite SEO. Understand the role of backlinks and the Ductless Directory in boosting your online presence.
Be inspired by the success story of the Ductless Directory, a platform that Google loves. It ensures that contractors are not just listed, but also able to educate their consumers through their comprehensive websites. Furthermore, Michelle explores how video marketing can promote contractors and provide major search engine benefits.
The episode concludes with insightful advice for contractors to improve digital performance. From creating an attractive brand and professional website to effective sales training, learn how to effectively tackle digital challenges, and make a significant mark in your industry.
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In this engaging episode of the Service MVP Podcast, hosted by Joe Crisara, America's Service Sales Coach, Parker Lawson from the company Ques is interviewed. The discussion revolves around increasing motivation and retention within the team through dynamic solutions such as instant pay and promotional contests. This conversation is particularly insightful and invigorating for service industry professionals, especially those involved in the mechanical trades.
Parker elaborates on how real-time payroll and monetary recognition stimulate enthusiasm and heightened performances. He underlines how immediate cash rewards, especially in commission-based roles, positively drive behavior. He also discusses how Ques’ services can facilitate transactions for trades and integrate seamlessly with other business management platforms.
The discussion transitions to the importance of non-financial recognition, explaining how acknowledging employees' significant life events can significantly impact morale and instill a personal connection within the team. The episode addresses possibilities for customized contests, and immediate rewards that align with your financial flow to maintain sound business financials.
Parker shares insights on employee recognition platforms such as Ques, which make special occasions unforgettable with instant rewards. Additionally, the platform allows owners to give non-monetary 'high fives', enhancing the feeling of belonging among employees. Ques’ unique features like initiating Google and Facebook reviews also drive upward customer service.
Tune into this enriching discussion to learn more about employee morale maintenance, and how Ques’ applications contribute to a positive office culture, improved employee morale and, consequently, increased retention.
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In this episode of the Service MVP Podcast, renowned service sales coach, Joe Crisara, hosts industry veteran and icon, Landon Brewer. Taking a trip down memory lane, Brewer shares his enchanting journey in the service industry that began around 25 years ago and delves into his rich professional experiences across multiple ventures. He discusses pressing issues in the sector, and elaborates on his personal and professional non-negotiables.
Brewer emphasizes the value of a data-driven business approach, which promotes strategic planning, accurate measurement of results and decision-making. He also addresses the essence of discernment in weeding out digital marketing gimmicks, and the need for evidence through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and metrics to verify the veracity and success of business operations.
Another key topic is the "seduction of potential". Brewer warns of the risks associated with retaining non-performing business aspects out of nostalgia or hopes for sporadic success spikes. He advocates for using data as a trusted determinator and acting steadily and timely to avoid falling into potential traps.
The conversation also touches upon the power of effort within the industry. People's approach towards opportunities and their determination to tackle hard tasks are discussed extensively. Brewer sheds light on the importance of being committed, seizing opportunities, and challenges listeners to step out of their comfort zones.
Lastly, the episode wraps up on a personal note as Brewer recounts his struggles balancing work and family life, the sacrifices he made, and the rewards he reaped for his perseverance-- proving that with the right skills and effort, anyone can create their version of success in the industry.
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Join in on this buccaneering episode of the Service MVP podcast as we unfold the remarkable journey of Bluon, alongside our special guest, Matt Case. A budding refrigerant manufacturer turned frontrunner in the HVAC industry, Bluon is reimagining technician support and efficiency with innovative tools and services. Discover the transformative shift in their operation— from manufacturing refrigerants to designing an uptime tool becoming an indispensable companion for technicians.
We delve into the value propositions of the Bluon app, which provides instant access to crucial HVAC tools, calculators and tips while decreasing research time. Explore how Bluon's ingenuity extends beyond the app by integrating AI tech support— 'Master Mechanic,' responsible for handling a whopping 75% of tech support Q&A. In scenarios that require a human touch, they still offer real-time support from seasoned professionals.
Further into the episode, we discuss Bluon for Business, an unmatched technology aimed at making HVAC contractors' job more efficient. Learn about features like the live video function, quick access to OEM partner parts, planned eCommerce functionality for parts purchase, and a service manager dashboard for monitoring technician efficiency. Tune in to this enlightening session and understand how Bluon is not just elevating tech solutions but also enriching the lives of people in the HVAC industry.
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In the latest episode of the Service MVP Podcast, host Joe Crisara welcomes guests Helmi Ben Flah and Joe Rivera from Guaranteed Services. The duo shares their incredible journey in the service industry, discussing the strategies that catapulted their business from zero to a staggering $33 million. From the importance of mentorship and tactical market strategies to the power of a customer-oriented approach and strong employee culture, this conversation is a goldmine of insights for anyone looking to achieve exponential business growth.
The episode takes a deep dive into the journey of Helmi and Joe, which started almost two decades ago. Their dedication, resilience, and unwavering commitment to client satisfaction took their venture from less than a million dollars a year to a stunning $17 million, with plans to reach even higher. The conversation steers towards the importance of value delivery to customers and showcases how happy clients can be the best advertisement for a business.
Underpinning the discussion is the essence of focusing on the controllable aspects of business and not succumbing to distractions. Despite various challenges, the team at Guaranteed Service has remained devoted to their vision, never allowing doubt to sway their confidence. The conversation delves deeper into their unique approach to team management, emphasizing continuous training, belief in the process, and commitment to overall business goals.
Listeners are also treated to an honest recounting of the highs and lows they've experienced during their growth phase. The duo stresses the importance of nurturing talent in-house and proffers advice on prioritizing employee well-being, diligent training, implementation of robust processes, and team accountability. The episode concludes with an inspiring message about the intersection of passion and business, reminding entrepreneurs that success requires patience, perseverance, and hard work.
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Welcome to another insightful episode of the Service MVP Podcast. The talk series brings you tips and strategies to elevate your business straight from industry experts. In this episode, host Joe Crisara, America's Service Coach, interviews Cassandra Webster from Consumer Fusion for an enlightening discussion on online reputation management — an aspect of running a successful service business that is crucial yet often overlooked.
The conversation revolves around the three pillars of online reputation management, namely, review generation, responding to reviews, and handling negative reviews. Cassandra’s expert knowledge and experience in these areas provide listeners with unique insights and strategies for effectively managing their online reputations. This episode offers an invaluable perspective on how reviews, both good and bad, can shape a business's online image.
The latter part of the episode delves into the specific dynamics of negative reviews. Cassandra unveils the true role of criticism and how they serve as a wake-up call for businesses, pushing them back on the right track. While legitimate criticism is beneficial for growth, the conversation highlights how to navigate negative feedback from non-legitimate sources.
Pulling back the curtains on the professional world of online reputation management, Cassandra discusses why professional assistance in managing reviews is indispensable and how her team at Consumer Fusion handles illegitimate reviews. Towards the end, she emphasizes that online reputation management doesn't stop at handling negative reviews, but extends to establishing a positive brand image online.
This insightful episode featuring Cassandra Webster is a must-listen for all business owners eager to solidify their online reputation. Tune in today for a glimpse into the world of professional review management that holds the potential to boost your business.
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"I did some plumbing, I did some framing of houses. I did different things. And then I met a guy who asked me to come to work from work in his home improvement company. So that was kind of my introduction to sales and sales to me was really foreign because I am not an outgoing person by nature."
- Joe Cunningham
TAC was founded by Joe Cunningham, an award winning expert with over 20 years experience in the HVAC industry. Joe has worked at every level of the industry and has been instrumental in many major manufacturer's training programs. Joe has been honored with Contracting Business' coveted "Contractor of the Year" twice.
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"So I started when I was 15 years old and I was really fascinated with hand lettering, pinstriping cars and I was doing some signs and I think the first actual service van that I hand lettered in my parents' backyard was for a plumbing company."
- Dan Antonelli
Growing a small business is no easy task. It takes ingenuity, resolve and setbacks before reaching success.
Dan knows this because he’s lived it.
From a one-person basement shop to an award-winning agency, Dan navigated the tumultuous small business landscape and lived to tell the tale. Moreover, he’s helped over 1,000 individual brands recognize the better side of business: all while building a best-in-class agency that’s collectively earned over 200 design awards.
Ever since he began hand-lettering trucks at 14, Dan has been chasing his passion for brand building and logo design. His expertise on small business marketing has been referenced by Entrepreneur, Inc. Magazine, Fox Business News, SiriusXM, SignCraft Magazine, Intuit Small Business Blog, The Newark Star Ledger, HVACR Magazine, Contracting Business, and Green Industry Pros, among others.
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"What always comes around goes around. I think when we put good vibes out there and try to help people. That's what I try to do."
- Tim Hook
Tim Hook from Hook Agency joins Uncle Joe Crisara on the Service MVP Podcast today. Joe and Tim discuss "3 Ways To Differentiate and Dominate".
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"I would feel like that client was lucky to have me there because I knew I was gonna look at the whole system.I knew I was given options that they could choose from and I knew that the job was gonna be done right the first time."
- Nick Englehart
On today's Service MVP Podcast, Joe Crisara talks with Nick Englehart Of Service MVP. Nick and Joe discuss the "3 Things Keys To Plumbing Success".
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"So I brought it home,didn't tell my business partners. It was probably the one and only time that I wasn't,100% transparent with my, one of my business partners."
Uncle Joe Crisara has a discussion with Matthew Scott from Dave's World and Ed Smith from Amply on episode 55, of The Service MVP Podcast.
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Uncle Joe Crisara talks with Dan Ariely, author of - "Predictability Irrational" on episode 54, of The Service MVP Podcast.
"How many good friends do you have? How often do you see your relatives? We spend less time with families and friends."
- Dan Ariely
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Our host, Joe Crisara has a discussion with Darren Dixon from Fixify on episode 53, of The Service MVP Podcast.
"We had 26 locations we did $145 Million and we had a good sized business with many franchisees."
-Darren Dixon, Fixify
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"Hello and welcome to the service MVP podcast. And my name is Joe Crisara America's service sales coach. First of all,we want to start this podcast with a special note that this is one year of service MVP podcast.
We wanted to thank you the listener for making the effort to unload these podcasts and listen to all the great information to be able to help you and your family and your team improve and uh to help us bring the message out to everybody else.
We really appreciate that."
-Joe Crisara, Service MVP
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Ben Davis from Express Services joins Joe Crisara, the host of 'The Service MVP Podcast' this week.
"We were almost all commercial, we were 80% commercial and the thing that we had was there was 13 of us and we were really good at doing commercial service. But when the times changed and we decided to go into residential,that's where you got to get really serious on those processes and get a coach like you."
- Ben Davis
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Uncle Joe talks with Travis Smith from Sky Services on episode 50, of The Service MVP Podcast this week.
"How have we been missing out on this for so long? We've been stuck with these three options and,you know, not working on a pure motive of service. We haven't been talking about finding the client code.We haven't been the best with the clients.
We were way too technical talking about load calculations and how it's a manual J version eight with a design temperature of 95 degrees."
- Travis Smith
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Sam Taggert from Door To Door Experts joins Uncle Joe Crisara on episode 49, of The Service MVP Podcast this week.
"Why don't we just share best tips and tricks and share best practices? Because in the world, I come from ,everybody was a cutthroat and everybody's doing everybody's people."
- Sam Taggert
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Service MVP's very own, Shreya Nagwani joins Joe Crisara on episode 48, of The Service MVP Podcast this week.
"I don't even have that natural inclination of emotional intelligence. To me it was a learned skill, just like men usually learn it to be completely honest."
- Shreya Nagwani
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On episode 47, Uncle Joe talks with Ryan Chute from The Wizard Of Ads.
"Bonding happens in adverse moments when you are saving the day for a customer.That's a bonding moment.Leverage the bonding power,not the dopamine part.When you start to figure out what those chemical differences are and how you can trigger Oxytocin and serotonin and, no cannabinoids. Now you're starting to make a person feel long term love for you."
- Ryan Chute
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Uncle Joe Crisara from Service MVP Podcast has a great discussion with Chloe Davis from Express Services on episode 46.
"There's two ways you can motivate somebody whether that's intrinsically or extrinsically,an intrinsic motivation is a really natural thing.And it's something that you can build off of extrinsic motivation."
- Chloe Davis
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Welcome Dave! Dave has joined the Service MVP Team! On The Service MVP Podcast today, Uncle Joe talks with Dave Thomas about the keys to success in business.
What are 3 Keys to Success? Check out this podcast to find out!
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Joe Crisara from Service MVP Podcast talks with Steven Little from Hy-Pro Plumbing & Drain Cleaning on this week's episode.
"3 Mistakes That Contractors Need To Learn From" - Check out this podcast to find out!
"He's really, really coming along with this, he's mentoring some of the other guys. We've had one guy who, his system works better, but now he's doing homework off his hours so like after hours so we can get into the course."
- Steven Little
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On The Service MVP Podcast today, Uncle Joe brings Amanda Triolo from Grasshopper Heating & Cooling to the show. In this unique sit on the couch interview we learn the keys to Call By Call Management.
What are 3 Keys to Call By Call Management? Check out this podcast to find out!
"The team work together as opposed to individual is being isolated by yourself, having all that pressure on one person,they feel supported,they know that there's somebody always there for them, no matter what happens."
- Amanda Triolo
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On The Service MVP Podcast today, Uncle Joe Crisara talks with Anthony Mound from Trust 1 Services.
What are 3 Keys Key Mindsets When You Get Stuck In Your Business? Check out this podcast to find out!
"Hey, Anthony, you'll never be happy until you start your own business. And I was like, oh, really?"
- Anthony Mound
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Here on Episode 41 of The Service MVP Podcast, Joe interviews Steve Akian from Akian Plumbing Services.
What are 3 Keys To Plumbing Success? Check out this podcast to find out!
"Being vulnerable with your team so that when you do slip up, you know, they're there to pick you up and, you know, and cheer you on and you're there to pick them up and cheer them on."
- Steve Akian
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On Episode 40 of The Service MVP Podcast, Uncle Joe talks to Ken Burns from Dream Team.
In this podcast the discussion revolves around 'The 3 Keys To Electrical Service Sales Success'.
"When I come in their house,especially if it's like a VIP inspection, they're not looking to spend anything. So if you're going in there and saying,hey,listen, I can save you money by not doing this right away. It almost like flips it in reverse where they're like, well no, I wanna do that because uh you're not trying to sell it to me."
- Ken Burns
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Episode 39 of The Service MVP Podcast features Andrew Guthrie from Allegiance Heating & Air.
This podcast discusses 'The 3 Keys To HVAC Sales Success'.
"It's easy to say follow the a process, but there's so many temptations or people internally from the intern and then for the external team, and customers who try to drag us off track."
- Andrew Guthrie
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Episode 38 of The Service MVP Podcast brings Nicole Snyder from Do It Right Plumbers.
This podcast discusses 'Keys To Growing A Successful Plumbing Business'.
"When our technicians arrive, they are professional, they are clean, they respect the customer's home."
- Nicole Snyder
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Episode 37 of The Service MVP Podcast brings Trina Lozano from Air One Air Conditioning, Heating and Plumbing.
This podcast focuses on 'Keys To Running A Family Business'.
"I think number one, you have to find people with expertise to learn from. Sometimes we stand on the shoulders of giants and so there are things that we need to reach out for help."
- Trina Lozano
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On episode 36 of The Service MVP Podcast Uncle Joe talks with Kaylee and Clint Moore from Verge Entrance Solutions.
This podcast focuses on 'Creating A Culture Of Service'.
"One of our owners was in the trades and decided he could do it better for himself than the guy who he was working for. So, he went out and started the company and for about 15 to 20 years, you know, our company was pretty similar to how it had always been small company running in a local market."
- Kaylee & Clint Moore
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Episode 35 of The Service MVP Podcast profiles Joe Hutton of Hutton of Hutton Electric, Heating & Air.
On this podcast, Uncle Joe Crisara our host talks with Joe Hutton about The 3 Keys To Electrical Business Success!
"We're seeing a lot of great numbers and revenue coming through the business, but at the end of the day, a very satisfied customer pleased with what they purchased is still what we get the most reward out of." - Joe Hutton
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Episode 34 of The Service MVP Podcast brings a great guest to the forefront.
On the podcast this week, Joe Crisara host John Neves from Green Energy to talk about The 3 Keys To Grow Your Service Business.
"I had this information and I just never used it and things even at the books and the price books and everything I created the same way, but I just never started it, but then I did get going at it." - John Neves
Listen to how education has formed the culture of Green Energy! Green Energy will hit the $10,000,000 mark in revenue this year!
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On the podcast today, Uncle Joe invites Michael Bears from Free2Grow to discuss Call-By-Call Implementation.
"I'm watching them write up their options in real time and I'm correcting them if I see anything that needs to be moved, changed or reconfigured and before they present options when it's warranted, they're going to the client and they're letting them know that my project manager is gonna call you right now because we really feel like you need to, you need to kind of see the big picture of what's going on here. And then myself or someone like me calls, the customer basically tells them what's going on."
Hear how Free2Grow uses Uncle Joe's methods to help close the deal with this great system by Free2Grow! This is a great system to see both the repair and replacement options by the homeowner. This saves home service professionals time in the field and ultimately makes more money for the service company.
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Uncle Joe Crisara and Rick Picard discuss "Let Me Think It Over" on the podcast today. Well, your customer is just being polite, right. Is the customer really going to call the salesperson or company back?
On this podcast learn how to handle this most common objection by a homeowner.
Get the STRATEGIES that Uncle Joe and Rick Picard offer up today on this episode.
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So, how do conduct a sales call? Are you getting a high close rate?
Learn how Rick Picard has changed the way he presents in the home to close the deal with the homeowner! From a 45% to 75% Close Rate!
Joe Crisara and Rick Picard talk about the best way to conduct a sales call / presentation on the latest episode of The Service MVP Podcast.
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Uncle Joe Crisara and Rick Picard discuss "Emotional Buying vs. Logical Buying" on the podcast today.
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How do we create value when we charge more? As profitable home service companies we are challenged with this everyday.
Uncle Joe Crisara talk about dealing with Creating Value When Prices Are Higher on this podcast.
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How are you as a home service professional handling client resistance?
Joe Crisara and Rick Picard talk about handling client resistance on this podcast.
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What is the sales sequence in home service sales calls? The 1st call vs. the 2nd call. Open opportunity calls not estimates or bids but rather an opportunity for your homeowner prospect to buy from you.
Uncle Joe and Rick Picard discuss the sequence of in home sales calls.
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Mike Busher is back on The Service MVP Podcast with Uncle Joe Crisara! As a home service professional it's important to make profit on all jobs. It all starts with pricing!
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Want to improve your customer service with your home service business in Tree Service, HVAC, Garage Doors and more?
Nathan Keller from Free To Grow talks about - "3 Steps To Improving Your Customer Service".
So, who is answering your phones? Are you too busy to answer the phones? Are you the best person to be answering the phone and being the first point of contact? Well, you may not be.
Check out this episode of The Service MVP Podcast to learn more about how Free 2 Grow can help your home service business!
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Ron Collier brings his expertise to the podcast today. Joe and Ron have a discussion on the 3 Mistakes That Contractors Make When It Comes To Their Financials.
Collier Consulting Group was started in 1991 and has dedicated itself to helping small business achieve the profits they deserve. Even though we have evaluated and guided businesses over $50M, our strength are those companies less than $5M. If you, your family and your company are not making the money you deserve, contact us. If you are working more than 60 hours a week in your business, contact us. We know what to do and how to do it! Let us help you become profitable. We are THE business consultant.
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A good friend of Joe's, Tommy Mello stops in to The Service MVP podcast. Joe and Tommy discuss the Secrets To Growing Your Home Service Business.
Tommy has been in the garage door industry for 16 years. Building outstanding processes, leadership, and culture positioned Tommy Mello’s business, A1 Garage Door, for $150 million in revenue. Tommy loves helping other home service professionals win!
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Brendan Houghson joins Uncle Joe today on The Service MVP podcast. Joe and Brendan talk about 'Things Contractors Can Do To Make Themselves More Valueable'.
Check out this episode of The Service MVP Podcast! Learn how training your team reaps huge benefits.
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Today on The Service MVP podcast, Joe Crisara hosts Ryan Lee and discuss Doubling Your Profits Without Any Extra Effort.
Check out this episode of The Service MVP Podcast! Learn how training your team reaps huge benefits.
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On Uncle Joe's podcast today - Anthony Moore from Fuller Electric in Seatle, Washington talks about the keys to business success in the electrical business.
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In this episode of The Service MVP Podcast Rick Picard joins Uncle Joe to ask the question - "Should I Leave The Proposal Behind?"
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Podcast Episode Transcription:
Welcome to the service MVP podcast where you go to learn how to use your motive service to create higher value to grow your results grow your results and here is your host America's service sales coach Joe Crisara. This is Joe Crisara, America’s service sales coach this week's episode will be on should I leave the proposal behind or not please listen learn and enjoy this exciting subject my name is Joe and I am here to join you today and the subject of our meeting today is should I leave the proposal behind or should tonight this is a very important subject because it could be a critical point in HVAC sales as to the information being left behind or not being left behind and truly stuck right you from what I call a level 1 defcon one type of sales professional as opposed to being an also ran with just kind of always wishes that he had sales or wishes that customers that would come back this is the difference between a real pro and somebody who's sitting on the bench and like any kind of thing like in sports for instance if you're not NFL quarterback that could just be enough accomplishment for for you but if you want to be Tom Brady this is the next step higher and that's what we're talking about this one that habit of this one thing whether you've made the decision to go out there find issues in people's homes and then find out what what's going on they called you they invite you in their home and there's an issue and whether or not you leave this information behind if you don't get the job right now is the critical thing can you leave it behind or don't we that is the question that sounds like a Shakespearean quotation but this thing may be again the one of the most one of the most inspirational meetings we've had so far and I hope that you enjoy it and we're expecting our host of Rick Picard to join us very shortly he is on a sales call closing the deal from one of the tech generated leads and so I'm have to carry the show solo so hang in there with me and of course if you want to call in don't forget to call in on our phone line or open line is 419-400-0202 and the code to enter the conference when you go on the phone line is 522910 and that will get you on the phone line and when we open the lines we'll be able to go ahead and get any comments or questions from you so I will open the lines throughout the show and we'll get your comment of course I might do it sooner than later given the fact that Rick is running a little bit late let's little bit talk about the language of selling and I want to I want to begin by commenting on that and how important the language of selling is when anybody language is selling is that word proposal so should we leave our proposal behind is a good question why why do we why we call it a proposal is anybody's guess the word proposal the word bid and the word estimate I believe is a big mistake to even use that language puts the salesperson and disadvantage to start with it's like saying that we're bidding on something as if the customer has something that we want as opposed to the other way around which is really the truth the customer would not call you out there if you did not want a solution from you and so many times with the wrong language we already kind of start off on the wrong foot and yes it is as terrible as it sounds it's like you know buyers come out there making you bid the the lowest bidder gets the job but is that really the way it should work as a bid or an estimate really the way that people buy the finest products that they that they purchase for themselves I don't think that you go out and get bids when you go looking for an iPod what you look for some of the computer equipment you buy or some of the nice sound systems or the OR the wheels for your car you are looking for bids on that you're just looking for the best product and let's face it I think a lot of us fall prey to the fact that our childhood and our memories about the way we purchase influence the way we think that customers might purchase as well well taking this to the next step this language kind of leads us into a situation that will would would bring us right into a thing where we're just part of the pack if you have to make a decision leaving your proposal behind definitely separates you from the pack so when we say should you leave it behind or should you leave behind I wanna qualify a couple things here first I don't think anybody should leave the proposal behind I'm just going to say that flat out but I think that if you don't know what you're doing that you probably should leave the proposal behind if you don't have the strategy and you don't know what to do after you do the proposal that's after you don't leave it behind you have a system that kind of encapsulates those customers you don't want to lose customers due to this process you want us to gain more customers and sell jobs and that's the purpose of this whole thing but I will ask you some I will ask you a question generally speaking if you were going to buy something important for your home like landscaping or a furnace or boiler or a new faucet so that's gonna be in the home for a long time stereo system you know anything would you turn to buy this important thing that you don't know anything about from somebody who is more like a leader or somebody who's more like a follower and that's what you have to kind of ask yourself how do I wanna be viewed by this customer uh if you want to be viewed with high integrity you want to be viewed with low integrity you want to be viewed as somebody who is in charge of this process or somebody who's just kind of following through the process and really has no influence in the way the sales turns out and I will tell you this is the biggest PowerPoint take control of yourselves if you are leaving proposals behind the second that proposal or that presentation is left behind with that buyer that is the second and that is the moment that you lose control of the sale that's that's it right there in a nutshell it might the most important moment that occurs on sale on a sales call and and that's really my belief and my my bottom line now are you wondering how many times the buyer will actually call you back after you left behind the proposal well this is interesting a lot of people don't know this but I did a study back in 2002 of course it's an informal study not part of a university or anything like that but I'm I'm able to do studies what I did in 2002 I worked with a company in southern Wisconsin and they had a lack of belief in the system they weren't really sure that it would work or not and what they what what what happened was at the at this company I mean the challenge there weren't my clients yet I said say what the next hundred calls you go on that you leave information behind let's go ahead and make an he and he took the bull by the horns he made a study of this he made a sheet up and and we tracked every call and we did over 100 calls 106 calls should be exact does this kind of study we studied was if we move the information behind and then get the customer to agree to call us back at a certain day or time how many times did that buyer called back at the exact date and time out of 106 people well in case you're wondering I won't leave you a suspense very much longer the answer to that is nobody called back out of 106 people not one customer called back which again shows you the problem that's the problem we have we we take faith in the buyer that they will follow through and they will go ahead and do what they say they're going to do but rarely do they ever do it matter of fact in that study of 106 customers only three customers ever called back at all maybe they called back afterwards to say they didn't get the job where they did get the job but it wasn't a very high percentage to believe was bothered to call usually it takes a call by us to remind the customer to get it done Rick with that being said we're going take a little pause now Ricky there on the phone yet I thought I heard something start how you doing how you doing buddy well say something alright hello you hear me I can hear you fine alright how you doing I'm doing great I used to listen you you've been listening to me wax philosophical over here yeah just a little bit you know sorry I'm on my cell phone so Rick uh that's OK let me ask you a question Rick do you see a problem with leaving this the proposal behind what's your what's your take on just give me the overall your overall take on this subject you know since dealing with you John you know obviously before I didn't really see a problem with it used to do it all the time but now it just doesn't make any sense to me because I'm doing it are leaving them uh information that can be shared with my competitors and you know that really was the big deal before because before I didn't do anything different than anybody else so I was just like basic proposal yeah so they're making a difference when you were doing the same as everybody else right right there really matter but now that I'm doing something that is so much more to the company where I'm doing all these different packages and programs and and the options that delete that information behind for those to small crew and learn from working today I feel so I really feel the company I can't afford to leave the supplementary information behind well especially from a company like yours regular invested so much money over the past couple of years you know in me yeah teaching all the people at the shop and that thing at the location both management and the employees how to how to use this process you're right it would be malpractice on any employees part and I think that any company who makes it a policy to release proprietary information that the company has paid for it's simply uh not a very bright operator Eric try insert foolish you're crazy they're bad thing to do So what are some of the problems well some of the problems are you know if that if you leave your presentation behind what you're really telling the customer is that you're not needed that there's no value in you as a salesperson and so therefore the customer can pretty much take a blank sheet of paper and just fill out their own presentation if they it's almost like they could go online and buy it like the salesperson is not needed right I mean word you ever get some people who say things like that feel like they have the lack of respect for the salesperson do you ever feel that sometimes with virus Oh yes I mean I think that's on the other day who said to me I don't know why they even had to come over here I don't like you know you're gonna be able to me you could have just mailed it wouldn't come out and look at the situation right right yeah yeah obviously I didn't make the guilt of it they could you know it really made me feel needed it right here right of course we know you got we got you got poor self-esteem right Rick absolutely I was just heartbroken I'm sure if we asked them about your shopping also you you like course you lack self esteem that's my my my my problem I have to work on that Kelly seal alright so so so numbers #2 it shows also I think that if you if you leave your proposal behind or if you go ahead and leave that behind that you taking the time to create the proposal to ask all the questions to do the research to take what's inside that head of yours all the knowledge about plumbing heating electrical and then release it it shows that you have no value on your time did you ever think about the waste of time that must be done by some sales people just given this information what are your comments on that I don't have to think about a joke and I did it for so many years I know exactly I spent tons of time educating the customer and there's you know really still on my calendar that it was as you're saying not only leaving the proposal but just in my whole presentation process educating them so that they could go and buy some cheaper you know so there's a lot of time and effort that we went through that then not to mention that paper and ink print out this proposals and leaving them with other people right well on top of that Rick I always here's what I kind of find I find that you know if you leave the proposal behind and then just wait for a phone call I think that is very poor if you're a struggling salesperson who's going on the bubble and considering that maybe you don't feel like sales is a really good career for you because you've had such lack of success to leave it behind and wait for answers certainly cannot be good for yourself image as a sales professional mechanic now again value that what you do or you are the proposal very much and really yeah it's not a good way to differentiate yourself from everybody else that's for sure yeah how how would you expect the customer to pay for your time and pay for your installation if you're showing that you don't value your time either that there's no value on my time I got it for free and just cough it all up unless you have it I don't know how people think that uh this is this this produces their shows any value about what they do I think the worst thing you do is the moment you leave it behind is that you really lose control of the process right Rick I mean you know if you're going to go back to your boss you know when you know this looks like right when you go back to your boss and they ask you how that sales call you had go and you of course have no idea how it's going because you left the information behind and nobody there's no resolution and you know the story you've been how many hundred calls you got to go on and here are the customers say that he's going to give you a call and you never called you back before you realize you're not going to get a call back right and and that's a good point how many times have I had a customer say to me well I'll give you a call one way or the other never had anybody call me up all the other been doing this uh that didn't call to give me the job yeah matter of fact we got that I just thought I you probably came in during that thing I talked about that study we did in 2002 of 106 sales sequences where nobody called back at the promised time or date and only three people bothered to call it all letting you know what the situation I didn't hear that but that's been my experience I've never had anybody ever called me back and they said that they you know that they would Oh yeah yeah we'll call you back one way or another such a good job yeah I don't think they would have a hard time believing that nobody would call back if you've been doing this for a little while you couldn't even do it for a couple months you wouldn't you would realize that if you leave behind information and wait for a phone call back you're just not you're going to be waiting a long time no matter of fact I hope your life doesn't depend on it because you might as well put another nail in your coffin with that alright alright well yeah it just like with the dating fees so don't call me I'll call you you know what does that mean when you ask a girl for a date and she says yeah don't worry we'll give you a call back is gonna make for Pretty Little bit on it or or of course if the Oscar woman she probably say things how many guys have promised to call her back right as opposed to I'll pick you up tomorrow so I'll give you a call right and how many women have heard that line before it works both ways other than we already found for that right that's the oldest one in the book you know you know when the customer says Rick to me don't call us we'll when the conference say don't worry I'll give you a call back I always go down John and you're telling me the oldest lie in the book don't call us we'll call you come on if I fall for that one what kind of a salesperson would I be I always I always like to have a good fun laugh but that one because you know what if I fall for that one I I'd have to be the worst salesperson in the world to actually believe that somebody would call me back and they say don't call us we'll call you that's like a PT barnum said they're suckers born every minute right right exactly right So what should your presentation let's talk about presentations so we're going to change the language of presentation of proposals we're not going to call it a proposal or an estimate or bid that we're going to call it is a presentation or solution OK so right off the bat I want to change that language let's stop talking about estimates let's stop talking about proposals because this isn't a marriage not a proposal it's not a not an auction this is not a bid like eBay and this is certainly not an estimate I'm not estimating I'm giving you a firm price and I'm going to I'm going to account on that price right So what is an estimate estimate to me create solutions for customers it's different it's got differentiate you from the pack it has to give customers options for the easy way to get this done and the way that we're they do no work and they have the most premium options all the way down to the least expensive option which they do a little bit more work they have to call for their their service and maintenance needs it's got to persuade customers to take action and the the the the options themselves should be used as a negotiating tactic in this in this sense it should eliminate the desire for having to shop around when you make a good presentation there should be no need to shop around you've given them the best options and the worst options and options in the middle and so when you give a good presentation it creates status quality and it makes the company look good because it differentiates you like you said Rick so a good presentation if you made a good presentation you should expect an answer at the end of the presentation and that that law of expectation should be working in your favor because if you've done a good job and you've hit all the right notes why shouldn't he good yes or no right right so let's so in the bottom line I think is this Rick I don't think that your boss deserves to get a yes every time do you absolutely he does he does OK well but he's not gonna but he well he does he does he's a great guy so he does deserve it but I hope I wish he would get them all but you know he he he doesn't he doesn't deserve a yes every time but what does what does he deserve Rick now he deserves any answer he deserves it yes or no either way that's what I owe him yeah so I think I think he deserves to get a conclusion to the call he deserves like you said you get an answer to the call I think that's really why what the what what things are going so but I will tell you one thing guys you know I don't want you I don't wanna just irritate customers because what what would be malpractice would be for me to tell you to not leave your presentation behind but not give you a few guidelines as to how to do it we talked to that gentleman last week and this will kind of inspired this meeting this week was last week the gentleman from Dallas TX he might be on the phone line will see if we can scare them up from over in Texas talking about how he did get a customer kind of upset with him when he when he when he didn't leave it behind right now Rick the customers get anxious and anxiety when you say you're not going to find sometimes well you know if they can there has been occasion where it happened to me but I find that it's best to set it up so that they understand even before you make the presentation that what the conclusion is going to be at the end of the presentation yes or no I mean I I think I've told you in the past that I'm not very good with not leaving it behind so you know the customer said we're gonna leave that with me I haven't been very good at not leaving with me So what I've done is I make sure that before I leave it before I make my presentation we already have An agreement on what the solution is going to be at the end of the presentation so right now before the course before he comes in an agreement Rick one of the things you got to do is kind of clarify the decision factors right because you have to figure out why they're doing this work what's what's the competition's role in this job is if they have any role have they use people before about your company what's their what's their perception of your company and who else is involved with the siding and finally when they're hoping to make a decision to move forward those are all those are all important factors to know isn't it rick?
"Servicing this club base sales can be easier, the pressure to drive and the pressure to sales can be easier because a lot of these customers will just naturally by their, their age, the system age will create replacement opportunity for you."
- Ken Goodrich
We've been hearing all about it! How AI is moving into home service and how it will affect our industry. Ken Goodrich joins the show today with Joe Crisara from Service MVP. Check out this episode to hear from a leader in the home services space on - 'The AI Affect'!
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Podcast Episode Transcription:
Welcome to the service M V P podcast and my name is Joe Coursera America's service sales coach and I have with me,
uh one of my good friends,
uh Mr Ken Goodrich,
uh from the,
the ghetto uh uh services.
It's much bigger than just heating and air started out with,
uh you know,
some uh some very uh the beginnings were uh go back into the history of heating and air conditioning.
Uh Ken,
welcome to the program.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing great.
Uh Glad to have,
be on the show with you,
Joe.
Yeah,
it's a pleasure to have here,
Ken and uh definitely always great to reconnect.
Uh Ken,
today's meeting is called,
uh how will a I affect the service industry both now and in the future?
Uh And let's move forward on that subject.
It's,
uh it's,
I think it's a subject that's gonna get a lot of people watching and listening uh as they are looking for a direction and uh trying to see how it's going to affect us.
We do see some of the smaller effects right now.
Let's start with the field.
Uh We are the hardest working people in this business are working out there in those attics and those trucks and out in the people's backyards and in their basements and stuff like that.
Uh,
how do you think,
uh,
in the field this will affect,
uh,
the average service technician and,
or sales people who are working with customers in the field?
Well,
hold that thought,
I just wanna say,
preface everything with this if I think too deep about A,
I,
I'm completely terrified.
I mean,
you know,
we grew up with the movie The Terminator,
right?
It seems like it's really playing out all,
you know,
right in front of our eyes just exactly how this movie uh described 40 years ago,
which,
you know,
I don't know how they already knew.
But,
um,
it is very interesting that said,
you know,
it's,
it's inevitable and A I is here to stay and it's coming,
it's part of lots of things today that,
that we probably don't even know that's going on.
So as far as far as our industry is concerned,
you know,
I really see lots of applications for us to,
you know,
help our service technicians,
you know,
the from the equipment side,
uh uh providing a,
a more reliable or more predictive maintenance and predictive service methodology uh for the end user.
Um I think that,
uh you know,
overall A I is gonna be a great thing for us and,
you know,
really starting to come on very fast.
But that said,
you know,
we talk about for the service technicians where I really see it headed is,
you know,
you think about a manufacturer,
they could just grab one or two or three inputs,
some sort of inputs in the system,
you know,
a temperature,
a,
a voltage,
um you know,
outside temperatures,
things like that.
They can predict,
I mean,
you can take all that data and start to aggregate it and predict what the challenge is,
what the unit is and,
and start to take reading data and,
you know,
but before the service technician ever arrives arrives,
the A I is pretty much predicted what the challenge is and say,
uh either this is exactly what it is and,
or,
uh you know,
here's two or three things that it could be,
bring these parts,
right?
And streamline the troubleshooting process,
you know,
all these years in,
you know,
I started as a technician and,
you know,
really that's where the skill was is the troubleshooter,
right?
The guy who could figure it all out,
the guy who's really devoted himself to the trade,
understood how it all works.
You know,
the guy who knew how the,
uh,
the T X V works.
That guy.
Yeah.
And uh I see that I can see how it's gonna take the average technician to a much,
uh,
you know,
because I think a I,
what it's,
I'm seeing what it does.
It's taken human history in a way and able to make that available to younger people immediately today.
So they're not,
they're not having to wait to get that experience.
They're going to get it through that A I,
that's kind of what you're referring to is that,
would you say that's correct.
It is.
And,
you know,
think about this,
it's where I see it going is the manufacturer will start to include A I and,
and their systems and,
and be able to,
you know,
predict breakdowns are coming.
You can be more,
more uh proactive on your service and the service technicians will probably start headed to be more of parts changers,
you know,
than they are really technicians who are evaluating,
uh you know,
evaluating the system unless the A I is broken,
I guess.
But,
but you know what,
you know what,
Ken?
That's interesting.
I thought about that myself.
But I always thought this,
uh A I seems like it's kind of like when I,
I said myself,
I said,
hey,
write,
write this article based on this and it came up with some pretty good stuff.
But then it's like,
you know,
I,
I wanna,
I gotta put my touch on it because it's not quite there.
And,
you know,
I think,
I,
I'm not sure,
I think it will probably be there once it gets to know me better and things like that.
But I think there's also 22 parts of it when I saw it write this stuff,
but then I learned how to write better too.
I'm like,
you know what I should write it.
Like,
that's a good format.
I'm gonna use that for my format in my,
in my stuff.
So,
truthfully,
uh,
the cool part about a,
I,
I think the good part of it,
the scary part.
I think we all could see.
Uh,
the good part I see is that we,
humans are learning from the different formats and shapes and things that it puts things in for us and helps us to organize information in a way that we can consume it better and more easily.
What do you think about that when it comes to uh the technic is actually becoming smarter because if you have that like you,
you have a uh I think you are a part investor in a company called smart ac dot com,
which is a system that will do the same type of thing,
it will analyze the system and uh do some predictive analysis of what's going to happen and even some repairs and things like that.
But to me,
um if I was a technician who was unaware and that's telling me that,
oh,
here's the problem.
Here's how we figured it out.
It's like,
oh,
they're not just telling you what the problem is.
Uh They,
they're telling you how it also calculated it based on the re readings and the numbers and things like that can you tell me,
how do you think that could actually help technicians get smarter as opposed to just giving them the end result or an answer?
What do you think of that?
Well,
to your point,
I think,
you know,
if I think uh if,
if we used a I to troubleshoot specifically down to the component level on a system,
you know,
it,
it could clearly say,
you know,
here's,
here's the metrics whereby we made this decision.
So,
you know,
this piece is this,
you know,
this pressures off this temperatures off this air movement is wrong.
And,
you know,
really kind of give a technician a clear understanding on the,
the holistic view of how the system's operating.
And so he can get it clear in his mind uh to be able to troubleshoot without the A I.
So I think there's a lot of learning to be had too.
And just like you said,
you know,
now I'm starting to use the,
the uh chat GP T and when I'm writing things and sometimes it writes better than I do,
sometimes it doesn't.
But uh certainly if I,
if I want to gain a quick amount of knowledge on a,
a big subject,
right?
But pare it down into some specific points on the subject,
you know,
boy,
that does a lot of research for you fast.
So,
same kind of thing,
you know,
I have this challenge,
you know,
they can go and have this I have this challenge of the holistic approach of the system.
Um and especially on the big commercial stuff as well.
Uh You know,
what are the probable challenges or what would be a,
what would be a most efficient troubleshooting uh process even in construction.
If you're,
while you're installing,
what would be,
what would be the optimum uh staging for the job uh and a schedule for the job.
I mean,
this is where it's all going.
Uh You know,
I have these conditions that exist.
Tell me how to optimize the outcome.
That's amazing.
Imagine,
imagine getting like an installation sequence list and how much time each part of the job would take based on input it's had and to give us the install manager,
hey,
here's what it should take to do this job.
I know you sold this much of it,
but here's what it should take.
That is amazing,
you know.
And so I think I always,
I always thought the,
the install,
sorry.
Uh I always thought that the install piece of the business too and,
and I,
we have not gotten anywhere near this at ghetto.
But,
uh you know,
I always thought the installation team should operate more like a,
a NASCAR pit crew.
You know,
everybody knows their part,
they're rehearsed and they pull up and they approach every single job the same way every time.
Now,
I understand it's not quite possible to approach every single job,
the same way,
but for the most part,
um uh I,
I think that,
you know,
that's kind of where you could head and,
you know,
you collect some data and then the A I would start to point in the right direction,
you know,
you talk about uh what,
what's that old,
uh that old uh stuff that G E kind of founded uh Six Sigma,
right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So imagine what that'll do for Six Sigma for instance.
You know,
I imagine,
I imagine this if they had,
you can,
let's say you had control of the uh what A I can do for you.
And you'd say,
hey,
I want my technicians to get the path.
Uh So a this a I has to explain how it found the answer and then,
or just the way,
like you said,
just be a part,
just only show them which part needs to be replaced.
It could be AAA choice of both things.
I guess it could be.
Uh I'm just,
I'm just,
that's the thing that blows our mind,
right?
That's why we all love talking about it is that it just like we start to think about one path like,
hey,
what about these other turns that you could take?
Uh It's uh it gives me it really seriously.
It gives me uh I don't know how you feel but I definitely feel I'm happy to be alive during this uh great time of our,
of our existence.
What do you think?
I am?
I remember having these kind of kind of kind of conversations back when,
you know,
D DC,
direct digital uh control system started to come out and,
and all the possibilities and we had the very similar conversation.
So it's just another evolution of the industry.
And that's why,
you know,
the main reason why I had made it uh investment in the smart ac,
it's because I have been a beta site for so many monitoring devices.
I've been on this monitoring thing for 15 years and,
you know,
various control systems and,
you know,
wi-fi operated systems systems that are,
you know,
picking up signals from a cell phone in,
you know,
inside the device,
all kinds of stuff and they're all over my house.
So my house is just a whole test,
you know,
a,
a test site.
Matter of fact,
I got the most elaborate air conditioning system I think uh of anyone in Las Vegas where I live anyway.
But anyway,
so the ac it uses predictive,
uses A I and uh it's,
it's a predictive system and I,
you know,
me coming from the analog world,
you know,
I like wires.
It seems very clear to me if you put a wire to something and yet and it uh you know,
you're gonna get the right information you need or the right result you need.
So anyway,
I was a little skeptical at first and I tried it out and,
you know,
so I had,
you know,
four different monitoring devices going on at the same time,
including Smart AC and they all kind of came up with the same result except smart AC was 11 week to three months out in front.
Every time it was the same result.
One week,
one week,
I'm sorry,
one month to three months out in front of the analog stuff that I've tried.
Mhm.
Yeah.
After looking at it and they had the,
the system status,
the tech messaging.
It really is like a uh you know,
to me it's a dream for a service manager to be able to uh really oversee the jobs,
you know,
and we do a thing where we really believe in,
you know,
the management uh active management of employees where we're,
we're allowing,
well,
you know,
when you,
when you had the book,
the uh contractor,
your H B AC contractor book,
it's like how can we create the job?
So we always do the job right?
Every time.
Um to me,
this is a great tool for a today for a service manager to use to be able to uh monitor the system performance before somebody leaves to kind of document that this thing was working when we left the house uh was as a management tool,
which I guess brings up the next area is uh how do you think A I will affect management and inventory in other parts?
Of the business in the future.
What do you think of that?
Well,
I think it's just,
it's gonna streamline the whole process.
Right.
I mean,
you're,
you're,
you can already,
you,
we've been able to book calls for a while or certainly the chat functions as a,
as an A I function on a website.
But,
uh,
you know,
that's been evolving a long time.
You're gonna be able to book calls,
um,
uh,
with A I and every other function inside the business will eventually get there.
I don't,
you know,
I,
I'm not sure how many uh head count that will reduce in the business,
but uh it's gonna,
it's gonna be some,
I think it'll be material.
Um And I think it'll be different kind of people in the business one day than what the old model typically suggested.
But,
you know,
back to,
to the smart ac thing I wanna say,
you know,
despite some recent um some recent uh narrative that's been put out on certain Facebook groups,
club memberships aren't dead and they will,
I don't think they'll ever be dead.
And I think the model of bonding your customer in some sort of subscription fashion to your business is,
is got to be the key motive of your company.
Uh You know,
I think where,
where everybody kind of gets off the mark here is they,
you know,
we start out,
most of us start out poor.
We don't have a lot of capital and we don't really understand how to gain capital and,
and utilize leverage,
utilize leverage to grow the business.
So,
you know,
we're hand to mouth a lot of times and,
you know,
we know that service agreements are the right thing to do or serve club memberships yet.
Uh You know,
sometimes you can't afford to play the game as well.
You gotta go out and make the sale and then once you start doing really well and making the sale,
you know,
that overuse strength,
uh you know,
that's a lot more sexier than making a club membership sale.
But really at the end of the day,
like uh like the Tortoise and the hair uh children's book,
you know,
the right thing to do is is build a business based on your club membership base.
I mean,
think about it one day if you had 25,000,
50,000 club memberships uh to manage,
uh you know,
your marketing costs would drop,
drop significantly your need for some great brand.
Uh you know,
brand uh message delivery every single day on the radio probably don't need as much.
Uh We don't need that sophisticated people,
right?
We're just servicing this club base sales can be easier,
the pressure to drive and the pressure to sales can be easier because a lot of these customers will just naturally by,
by their,
their age,
the system age will create replacement opportunity for you.
Now,
you step back and say,
OK,
how do I take this A I and use it to manage that big mass of club memberships and make this really clean,
easy to run.
Duplicate scalable model work.
Well,
I have to have some sort of monitoring device that will,
that will uh predict failures for the customer and slow,
slow the uh the routine twice a year visits down because that's where it's really the struggle,
right?
The more club memberships you get,
the more technicians you require and then you,
you uh are torn every summer between,
do I run the demand call where I know there's a 15,000 hour replacement job or do I run the maintenance for my club membership on a three year unit?
Right?
This will be,
you know,
you can,
man,
it's a better management system to manage it and say we'll,
we'll deliver our service when you need it.
We'll tell you the system will tell you or us when it's time to run.
Not just every six months.
Well,
when I,
when I imagine it,
I,
I obviously believe uh service memberships are the heart the lifeblood of every service company.
There's no nothing you're ever gonna do to arm wrestle me out of that one.
I just feel the way it is.
And,
and you know,
uh like you said,
I,
I believe in not like people say,
how do you sell a membership?
I'm like,
dude,
how do you not sell one.
It's like when you offer it in every call you're gonna,
people don't sell it,
people sell themselves on it.
Right.
But here's the thing,
the maintenance.
I,
well,
I really love what you just said.
I don't,
maybe I'm just gonna sum it up and maybe if you,
to tell me if you disagree with this because I'm hearing you say that the maintenance then could be more of an on demand activity,
Um,
rather than something that's just scheduled.
Uh I call it dumb scheduling.
You just throw it on the schedule and they have to do twice a year.
There's some sealed systems like that are really high quality systems that may be,
you know,
install,
you know,
the best way and your,
your install team is doing so great.
There's no leaks.
The,
you come back out and change the filter and you wouldn't even need a maintenance tech.
It just be somebody out there,
you know,
things are already taking temperatures and pressures.
You can see the monitoring of the system.
Maybe somebody just changes filters and moves on or whatever type of thing.
Maybe somebody could do 12 maintenance calls a day because all you're doing is changing filters and if they,
if need be for people who need it and other people could just have them there to do it themselves if they wanted to.
So I think,
uh what do you think about the on demand?
Uh way of saying it that,
is that something that I'm over?
Am I overreaching when I say that?
No,
I mean,
think about like this,
the burden of the club memberships are typically the maintenances,
right?
That's the burden,
the cost,
the struggle and especially depending on your capital,
you know,
it may require you to make,
make decisions sometimes that aren't in the best interests of the customer,
which means you're not gonna run the maintenance,
you gotta go for the,
the ticket,
right?
And so this would take if,
if you um used A I A system like smart ac to lead your club membership program,
you say we're maintaining the system,
we're,
we're checking the system a million times a day.
You know that every,
it's pinging the system,
it's pinging the system all day long,
24, 7 right?
And it's telling us whether we need to,
to manage it and really what your,
your goal is,
I want to build the base.
I want to go out to maintain only when the system tells me to.
And then I want,
I really want to wait for the system to tell me that I have a breakdown because the money is in the breakdown typically,
right?
So,
you know,
let reverse the model right now.
You know,
we're,
we're building a club membership base.
So we have something to,
to do in the off season and,
you know,
hopefully we can convert them into replacement sales,
uh flip it back this way,
say I'm gonna get enough club memberships and not have to service them,
not have to maintain them uh as frequent and not have so many trucks and heads to try to manage.
And I'm gonna wait for the system to pick out demand calls for me,
for it to have opportunities for greater tickets and really it's better customer service.
Right.
Ken,
because it's like then the maintenance calls are gonna go to the people who actually need them.
You know,
when the system says these 30% of these customers need some help,
like right away these other 20% we're looking at maybe in a month or two,
get ready for these people.
You pretty much stage the customers in,
in an intelligent fashion.
And,
uh,
that,
that's exciting.
I just got to chill about my spine even thinking about,
uh,
you know,
I think as a technician,
really,
that's all technicians want to me in when I was a technician,
I was tech,
you know,
for a long time.
I was like,
yeah,
don't they put any thought into these calls?
They're shutting me out of this thing.
It's like I'm here at 6 30 at night on a job we just did last May and I'm here and it's like,
what am I doing here?
It doesn't even make sense that,
uh doesn't even need maintenance.
I could,
you know,
run a,
got fake.
Like I'm doing maintenance because I think it's perfectly clean.
You know,
sometimes that's just the way companies did it.
And this is uh for me,
if I was a technician,
I would have uh a great hopes that uh now,
uh you know,
a higher,
higher source that's putting a thought into which call would actually be the best.
That to me is a great benefit of employees as well as retention of customers.
I think not to mention that uh smart ac will start to identify trends and such of the system before the maintenance and be able to predict,
hey,
look at this component and look at this component and check that while you're there,
you know,
really kind of giving you lead ins to find other opportunities in the system that you can um you know,
talk,
discuss with a customer to modernize their system or,
you know,
uh uh clean up some challenge they may have.
But it'll all,
it'll do that for you before you before you run,
roll the truck.
So you can,
you know,
now you have an opportunity to even value the that particular maintenance call and choose who you dispatch.
And now with like uh you know,
now the A I dispatch that are in some of the ss the uh software systems,
you know,
those two will marry and start to say I have a smart ac call with these conditions.
Who's the proper tech to connect that one to,
to send to that particular customer's house.
At this particular time now,
you're just making me melt.
That's so perfect.
It's,
uh,
it's,
uh,
it's like a symphony music to my ears.
K give me final thoughts here.
I mean,
I,
you gave,
you gave,
you promised you would be,
uh,
we'll try to do,
try to do 20 minutes but you can't,
you can only hope to contain uh Ken Goodrich.
You can't,
you can't control him.
So can,
can,
uh,
wrap it up with some final thoughts and we'll make it roll here.
What do you think?
Any final thoughts here?
Well,
you know,
I,
you know,
I've always tried to and,
and,
you know,
since day one I went into business,
I decided I'm gonna try to make sure that I'm out in front with all the new technology,
right?
I just started day one,
I didn't,
you know,
and then I've always had a motive and I tell my people whatever they're doing,
we ain't doing,
we're gonna do our own thing in our own way and it's gonna be better every single time.
And so we've been always an early adapter of technology.
I think,
you know,
we were one of the certainly the largest uh platform company that,
that took on servicetitan uh when it,
when it first rolled out,
for instance.
But,
um I think,
you know,
everybody listening to this podcast needs to really think about their business and understand the model's been changing.
The model is changing.
So fast.
And what everybody's deemed is the typical model where,
you know,
you take the phone call with the girls with the headsets on and the cubicles and they type it in tight and then they do this and then they dispatch it out to that's all going away.
And so,
you know,
everybody starts,
needs to back up a second.
Say,
ok,
what's the new model?
How do I streamline this old antiquated model?
I mean,
really the model that most guys are using today,
even some of the really big shops are not much different than how you and I operated when we were in our 30s.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Now,
it's just,
it might have a little more because it's on software.
But,
you know,
putting a schedule up and say 10 to 12,
I'm gonna be at this call is no different when we had a piece of the tin on the wall and a little magnet and a handwritten note that we put up there.
I gotta be at Mrs Jones at 10 to 12.
Now it's gonna be a whole other game.
It's,
it's,
you're gonna use this aggregate data and you build a business based on a smart ac platform,
for instance,
that's,
that's the motive is I'm gonna bond every single customer to me on a subscription basis.
I'm gonna make them so hard to get to,
uh,
anyone to get in the middle of this relationship that I'm gonna keep them my retention rates are gonna be through the roof and I'm gonna be talking to them through this application.
I'm gonna be sending them notices such as,
hey,
you know,
we have a water heater special or hey,
how about indoor air quality or hey,
new systems,
you know,
this month,
uh,
you know,
we're running a special.
If you're,
if you were thinking about a new system,
you can just communicate with the customer at a whole another level and,
you know,
be really be the guardian of their home.
You know,
you're looking at the data that's coming over.
And you're saying,
hey,
I got my on you,
I'm making sure you're OK.
And I'll let you know,
uh when we,
when we got something we need to go check on for you really be out in front of the business model and stop all this nonsense where,
you know,
the game is really about going out and knocking somebody over the head and saying you need a new system with no data,
you know,
with no,
you know,
with no,
a lot of big rationale about it.
We're gonna work on uh a methodology of a true um system that is based on fact,
not on anything else.
That's great.
That's,
well,
you know,
I'll tell you what I,
I think uh we,
you're helping us imagine on this uh podcast that the different places that A I can take us.
And uh I think there's a lot of great positive thoughts about that.
And right now,
we may not all have involved with A I,
but we definitely are involved with K I and intelligence.
And thank thank goodness at the uh universe I put you in the right place at the right time.
Uh from,
from holding that flashlight all the way through,
holding the flashlight for contractors around the country.
Ken.
Thank you for the service and your graciousness and kindness for being involved in this show and be able to bring this message to the people who need it.
So,
thank you so much,
Ken.
Well,
I appreciate it.
Thank you and back at you,
Joe.
You know,
you've been a industry uh leader and mavens for so many years and helped so many people.
Uh uh and I,
I appreciate everything you've done for the industry as well.
Thanks,
buddy.
Have a great one.
Everybody.
We'll see you on the next episode.
Good goodbye,
everybody.
"I have people telling me all the time, just to let you know I'm not going to be buying today and just give me a check for 20 grand!"
- Rick Picard
Uncle Joe Crisara talks with Rick Picard on this episode of the Service MVP podcast. Learn how to qualify your leads to put yourself in the right position to succeed! You're going to get some great nuggets from this episode of The Service MVP Podcast!
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Podcast Episode Transcription:
Hello welcome to the service MVP podcast my name is Joe Crisara, America's service sales coach today's episode is going to be a learning lesson and it's going to be called how to qualify your leads to put yourself in the right position to succeed my friend Rick Picard who is a $12 million sales person from Boston MA has sold that much for the last five years straight and when I first met him in 2004 he grew immediately from a $1.8 million salesperson to a 4.3 he went from 4.3 to 6 million and he's never been to six million since 2007 so listen learn and be ready to take notes you're going to want to hear some of these golden Nuggets that Rick will give us welcome to the service MVP podcast this is where you go to learn how to use pure motive service to create higher value to grow your results grow your results and now here is your host America's service sales coach Joe Crisara alright so Rick why don't you tell me a little bit about some of the most important things in terms of qualifying calls let's talk about how to qualify calls the right way that you like to see it done in today's world when you have a opportunity coordinator so the idea is to create a conversation not just to collect data you were starting with that you explain a little bit more now yeah that's what the thing I think the best thing about a grading system you know right now we have a an opportunity manager who's been working for quite a while and she has a lot of experience and so she really knows what I'm looking for but you know she's going out on maternity leave so that she's training a new person and what I've noticed is it helps the new Perth understand that she's just not here to gather name phone number and an address she's really trying to gather information that's going to help us prioritize the customer the customers that have a more important need then someone who doesn't you know almost like the nurse in the in the in the emergency room she went customers when clients come in or patients come in they evaluate the need that they have so she can make sure she matches the need to the right response right so this goes back to that pure motive service because a lot of people think qualifying is only done for you like it's only a client it's only a selfish thing we do like we're qualifying people to see what's the best opportunity for us go ahead and go and expand that a little bit more because like an emergency room they don't qualify patients to see who's best for the hospital uh they qualify him to see who needs the most urgent attention correct right it's obvious if you're going in there with a sliver you know when someone walks in and around table and off they you know they're not going to say well the guy with the flu was hit first so you're going to have to go over there and possibly lead to death right when you put it that way I mean that would be really bad right I mean you know better services saying excuse me I know you have a sliver and that's important to me but right now I have someone who has a life of this situation here and we have to make sure we reattach his arm and help but that's what we have to do so you know so it's about a better service to the customer So what she calls off you know let's face it there are some people that are in the line better than other people in the line you know your plan service partner member you've been a customer for a long time alright you're obviously that's gonna gain priority over somebody who's calling us because they can't get ahold of people that they usually deal with right so I mean if you look at if you look at the different factors so then you train somebody to listen for the different factors that are in place and even maybe even research some of those factors that's what we're talking about doing here so looking at the top thing so looking at the different factors urgency is a factor right if people are looking to move forward quicker and need to get something done because their mother's coming into town or that uh they want to get this done before they go on vacation they're leaving their kids behind or whatever would be there's uh urgent factor for some reserves urgency is a key factor correct right exactly well you know after a technician goes out there and they have a 20 year old existing system that we've that we've been servicing and now it's finally at the point where it's and they doesn't make sense to invest money in the 20 year old system it's time to replace it and they have no air conditioning and they and the customer says listen I need to get this replaced I need a quote right away that's obviously going to take precedent over customers who says yeah well yeah you got the thing running you know I want to be preventative I don't want to wait for the thing to die to replace it so you know I want to get a price for them it does break I do have a I know where from the Cosby or I want to get a price so I wanna you know replace this in the offseason or I'm not so busy so you know that just because it doesn't demand the fame level services somebody who has I urgent need where they have no comfort so just one thing good I'm sorry just saying Yep urgency of that so that urgency is really important how we gauge that and then #2 is you saying is the relationship that not another factor not necessarily #2 but it is a second factor is the relationship isn't a plan service customer is it a somebody who is just a customer who's what a loyal customer who's not planned service or is it just somebody who's a brand new customer uh maybe a new customer who's referred and maybe a new customer who's never just heard it's just a marketed lead that came from Google or something like that right you said all those things all those things are factors as well planned service loyal customer but maybe not font service maybe a new client who is referred and maybe new client who is not referred that just the marketed person maybe so having so having an urgent lead with a planned service customer at this point start starts the rate a little higher than urgent need with a new customer from Google or just the market leader of paper click type of thing right exactly so there's an asset of time so we want to make sure that the opportunity coordinator understands that how to she's using that asset that's the in a way that can provide the best service and the best use of the salesperson sign and we have and also the customers time too because alright if you if you've got the client who's more urgent you wanna make sure you're in front of the people who need the service now more so than from customers who are willing to wait for the service later exactly right third the third factor I looked at was purchasing history or history of purchasing so if you do have a loyal client whether it's appliance service or just loyal client the frequency and the history of purchasing is also a factor I would think too right if you have somebody who like you used to tell me about clients who every year would have a different property and they would purchase an air conditioning system for you for like 5 years straight and then compared to other people who maybe they've been a loyal client but they're never purchase anything is that probably I have customers that have four or five systems in their home and like seems like every year I gotta call up Yep that you know there are 25 years old and every year I end up replacing the system you know so I gotta call Oh yeah Rick we have our customers that last year we went out there and replaced the master bedroom system well now the main floor system is isn't working and the customer doesn't want to put any more money into remove just wants to replace that one now as well I mean that's obviously a super good lead right so we want to make sure we treat that with priority how about the the you know because one of the things you ask in the qualifying is would you like to be set up for our special financing before he comes out there you know if somebody is a willingness to willing I say call willingness to finance or to get to pre-qualify for financing what does that tell you compared to some get somebody who says well no we'll just we'll just see when he gets out here that the thing willingness to pre-qualify for financing compared with that was that call Jeff another level of commitment I mean if you're willing to give up the confirmation be prequalified credit it just shows the seriousness of the of the buyer and the commitment of the buyer so do you have a guy who's got an urgent need who has a planned service program with the company who has purchased a lot in the past and also says yeah give me set up for the financing before you even set me up out here if you can give me separate financing that'd be great you're looking at a pretty Primo that might be an A plus client on that absolutely Yep and then and then you're looking at different grades that might bring it down a level maybe a maybe just an A would be the top three without the financing or maybe the maybe leave the financing and the A and you'd say somebody who didn't have the history of purchasing but now is willing to finance that might be an aid this analysis you have to make it incisions what would maintain A and B obviously would probably be something where the urgency is not like today reserve and maybe in next couple weeks as well as uh maybe it's not the high history or maybe the frequency and the willingness to finance all those things is there anything else you guys look for in that aspect of thing when you're grading the best calls and do they actually provide you a grade direct or do they just give you yeah no they do provide a grade and and and you know the reason they do that Joe was facing at certain times a year we get really booked and then we'll so we should get the call from an A+ lead and she has to know which one to reschedule she can look through my calls and say oh here's an A+ A BCD she's obviously going to reschedule the lowest grade so it makes it you know you know a lot of people just I find it unbelievable that they schedule by when people call or when they you know so some will call what may and then put them three days away because all these other people are in the schedule for a week you know I mean so it's important that the the opportunity coordinator can take a look at those grades and be able to say well alright it's easy for me to be able to make a decision about which one to be able to reschedule based on the grade that we've already given the customer would you say that somebody could call today and replace somebody on the schedule if they had a higher grade than the other person who had looked like somebody was saying yeah I'm thinking about getting air conditioning next year is it OK if it's OK if you come out today to do this if you book that call today obviously we would do things do you teach your people to try to influence people to say let's come out there next year as opposed to coming out there today how does that work absolutely you know we see them answer for first part of that question Joe is every day we have people call in and we go there today and reschedule some you know reschedule some from get to that opportunity sooner and then her phone calls and say wait what thinking about doing this in the spring in the fall we say well listen you know rebates and credits tax credits and financing programs all change so you know we wouldn't want to come out and give you inaccurate information we find it's best for us to come out for the time that's closest to the time that you're going to be bringing this thing to completion clear may make sure that our presentation our solutions are the most accurate they can be at the time so do you think you be making this decision in September or October hmm and then get me there probably September would it be the beginning of September or the middle of the end of September which would be more convenient for you probably in the middle alright so how about we're on the 15th is that is it during the day and evening or weekend what's best for you so then when you go on that so basically you're finding out what people want and then you're trying to move that date as close to as possible right you have to make what's the reason why you give people for that again Rick it's because it's to their benefit I wouldn't want to give them a an estimate or provide them solutions that wouldn't be accurate come spring I mean the manufacturers of all kinds of different rebates and programs the state of some rebate programs there's all kinds of different financing programs so if I give him something now it's only good for 30 days anyway alright so I'm gonna have to requote it again doesn't really make sense So what it means to be accurate if we're providing better service to the customer is better service for the customer to present my presentation on my solutions to them and the closest town the depending on the completion and so you know now if you just say well when I come out you're ready and this is criticism is gonna work yeah you're doing it to the doing it for selfish reason they're saying hey I'm not gonna come out there till you're ready which means that like my time is valuable but yours is not as opposed to saying well here's what we like to do like to come out there as close to the time as possible this way you could get the best rebates thus pricing because that's the time when you're going to get the best all the benefits that are due to you and by the way the if I lock you into the price now it's only good for 30 days anyway and then you know the prices may go up before we come out there we wouldn't want to lie to you about the price being too low and then then all of a sudden he finds a different price later on that's what alright and then we even took training the one more thing Joe would say well I know that you're not saying I'm doing this until September October but there were some special rebates that were going on right now I definitely something that you don't want to hear about you definitely want to put this off to the ball yeah or even say I remember saying things like so you definitely want to pay more money in the fall as opposed to getting it done now when you have some special rebates and offers that we have right and then is that a picture yes you wanna wait till the fall then you can go we want to watch this be accurate so gonna be in the fall let's say well if you had such things going on we would do it sooner we find out when we say that people say well you know what tell you the truth I didn't know you would have any capacity to do it now I thought I had to wait for the fall I get you know yeah you know we you know we may even be something within seven days we may be something like taking care of what you could do within seven days right I want you to come on now right and this all takes training on the part of the coordinator which is kind of a full time job really where somebody really engaged definitely a full time job and like I was saying to you earlier a girl now whoops now she's fantastic there's no substitute for time the more she does it when she called him and told him she has an A plus lead I believe her when she calls him and tells me she has the sea lead I believe her because she's experienced with no hot ask the right questions in order to get the right information she's training a New Girl now with a with this grading system is helping her understand that she's just not because we talked about earlier take your name phone number and address she's actually part of the sales team helping us get information so we can provide the best service we came to our customer but it's still gonna be a long time before she gets to the point that the regular girl is right because she needs to experience exactly and So what is it like for a salesperson uh before remember we before we taught you all this stuff while you were you were just running row leads remember back in the old days my first right yeah how does that impact your sales when people are just throwing crap at the wall I remember one time it was like a 95 degree day and you and I were sent to a call about 20 miles away from where we were and they we ran out there and you were speeding through the force of Rhode Island and also we got there all they wanted was a duck work or a registered putting their basement duct right exactly yeah you know listen you know my asset is time right now have certain time my time to be in front of people so if they can help me coordinate from in front of the right people at the right time it's obviously going to have a tremendous impact on my on my success exactly and has it would you say which is how valuable is that part of it to be able to influence that now the customer how about this how about the customer says listen if you don't come out there today even though I'm not doing it till January or whatever if you don't come on give me a ballpark this week you can forget about my business what would you still go ahead and book the call and then as a team leader or something like that but yeah probably I I would still book I would still book it that's why you have a reading of the DRF call and then if I had nothing else going on at that. Then I would go through that because there's a chance I can I can sway him right there's also at your job salesperson it's your job as a salesperson to say why are you waiting what's the reason why right try to try to use sales techniques to move the thing forward closer right but the most important thing is I'm not going to something for that athlete that's the big thing is the right to know what F is compared to an A or what D is compared to an A and be able to say Oh my God I got a good one tell the guy who says he wants his outfit today or we don't get his business that we're finally not getting his business right but you know enough it may end up but I'm not doing anything at that time anyway and how many times have gone to a job where they told me they weren't going to buy where I walk up to the agreement yeah how many how many times what would you say happens a lot I have people telling me all the time I just to let you know I'm getting to be close from not buying today and I'm saying I mean I thought you tell me weren't buying today just give me a check for 20 grand when it happened yeah I just figured who needs to look around when I found the right guy right exactly right sometimes when they tell us that I'm buying today Joe it's more of a defense mechanism on their part answer this the terms of the uh disqualification thing I mean some short little thing but that's good and short and I think that's fine anything else you want to add to it I like what everything you said before that you pretty much it yeah I think OK I think we covered it off alright buddy thanks a lot and I was so helpful this will help a lot of people out they were asking me for this and appreciate your weighing in then so thanks a lot thanks Joe alright everybody I hope you enjoyed this week's episode of the service MVP podcast please if you enjoy this material go on Facebook and join our service MVP members group or just go to service mvp.com and join us you'll be happy you did goodbye everybody.
"Every single a company out there that has a product that they want to market are looking for these stars right now and want to pay them for their name and their brand".
- Julie Crisara
Julie Crisara joins Uncle Joe on this podcast. Julie and Joe talk about 'Building Your Employee's Personal Brand' at your home service company. You're going to enjoy this episode of The Service MVP Podcast!
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Podcast Episode Transcription:
Welcome to the service MVP podcast and my name is Joe Crisara, America's service sales coach and today we have a very special guest the one of the founders and owners and the CEO of service MVP one of my very best friends my bestie actually somebody it was long overdue to be on this podcast her name is Julie Crisara Julie welcome to our show here today and thank you for making it with us here today well thank you for having me on the show here today Joe I'm really looking forward to our discussion yes well uh today is a very special day because you know I think it's important that you get to put your vision out there because you know you've always said that you're in the business of making stars not being one yourself and you know definitely you typify that attitude because you're I call it servant leader and that the fact that you make sure everybody has everything they need to do their job correctly here at service AP and all the contractors around the world too now Julie why don't you start the sucker got Julie is going to talk about today is a really important one she's going to talk about how we can build the employees brands the personal brand of the employee within a service business so if you're an owner we'll show you how to put your employees in the forefront and if you're an employee to show you how to build your personal brand within your company Julie what's your start by telling us a little bit about how you got started in the service business and why you're so passionate about doing service go ahead well truthfully my family has been in the blue collar business of service businesses since before I was born so it's kind of in my blood really going back all the way to my great grandfather who was a construction worker had his own business out of the Chicago land area used to go and build homes and churches and office buildings along with my grandfather who worked with him too and after all that my grandmother decided to get into a service business too and started a cleaning business she would go with her sister along after my grandfather my great grandfather and clean up all the a mess that they made while they were there so when people moved into these new places a new church or a new office building or a new home that it was nice and clean and they weren't getting a whole messy entrance you know the first impression as they walked into these places so from there really I've just always kind of been in there I always kind of helped with the cleaning service had done that for many years with my family from about the time I was nine anything from cleaning people's homes to cleaning offices I've been in retail and worked customer service been in the HVAC and plumbing business with you for many years and now of course service MVP getting the help not only service business in the HVAC and plumbing business but electrical roofing solar we're kind of spreading out garage door all these other industries that we're talking to and hopefully being able to help them to discover how they can serve their clients but also their own employees as well and this is one of those subjects that I think is going to really help service their employees out there and get their brand out there at the same time well this is definitely a unique subject Julie because like I said you're talking about here on creating stars in your company and making sure that people get acknowledgement not just privately but publicly talking about building your employees personal brand so why is this such an important subject for you to cover today and why do you believe in this so much yeah well truthfully I mean there's no better time to talk about this right now the way this particular month with March madness going on you have college athletes who have been for years saying that they deserve some kind of compensation for their stardom that they get out there so going back to you know the Supreme Court ruling in 2021 to the NCAA changing you know getting rid of most of the restrictions on what college athletes can earn out there with their own names and now you have actually 2 house bills that are up for review right now currently so there's really no better time I think to even you know begin to think about this as I'm sure a lot of people have and as I was doing a little bit of reading there was a head of brand marketing Sam Weber at open doors who said for 99% of the players in this tournament right now right now like this week as March madness started this is the most marketable they were of will be for the rest of their entire lives this is the opportunity when they get to show themselves off show their skills off and there are uh businesses lining up to in order to look for that star that's going to break out anyone from Dunkin' Donuts to BMW to of course going back to Cheerios or any Wheaties on every single a company out there that has a product that they want to market they're looking for these stars right now and want to pay them for their name and their brand that they have so the opportunities for marketing employees really has never been better in the history in our history at all and can really benefit everybody both the employee and the company and marketing your brand yeah I guess that's the thing about it the rising tide floats all the ships right if you're you have star players on your team and you're able to promote those star players well the team looks like a championship team so truly key tell us why building employees personal brands is important not just to the employee but also to the business tell me some of the benefits that you can get as a business owner like we've done here you've done a great job here of making sure people like Danny or Mike Busher or Mike people here who work here has done he's done a great job of putting them as in the forefront of the star stardom as well tell us what's important to the business how's the business benefit yeah well building the personal brands for employees really can be beneficial in several ways right and it's truthfully it's a work in progress because even myself have had some doubts about things so but you know first it can really help establish the credibility and the expertise of your business in the industry that you're in so for us as you mentioned Danny with us taking over the live events training doing total immersion doing the performance coach training doing the CSR and dispatch bootcamp training if we were going to have him take over we had to be able to show some credibility there that he has and it's turned out that by helping build his brand by getting his name out there in front of people that's the best way to do that and they love him I mean the benefit has paid off to the extent of we have certain clientele like Peterman brothers who is asking for Danny to do all their training for the rest of the year here in our Los Angeles branch so building that brand really is going to establish the credibility and expertise second it's going to help retain those talented employees right Danny is a talented person Mike Busher is a talented person Michael Nunez a talented person I want to keep them Shreya a talented person I want to keep them here working for us forever if I possibly can and this is one way that we're going to be able to show them that we appreciate them encourage them to grow and to develop within our organization and those are just a few of the people I say that because of the forward facing front kind of out there but a few of the people and then lastly really I think it helps create that you know brand ambassadorship I always kind of laugh at that word the ambassadorship because when I first started hearing it I remember after hiring some people out here a lot of them were brand ambassadors for different you know for different soft drinks or you remember we had one employee who had a girlfriend who we were always getting different products coming into us because she was changing jobs and who she was in basic for like yogurt one day and some kind of soft drink the next day but that brand ambassadorship to really help promote your business and bring in those new clients and there's really no better way than in order you know and being able to create these personal brands within your company right there's the moment right there right everybody the golden nugget is that instead of having a watered down effect to say hey the whole company is an expert at something it kind of waters it down when you say this person is specifically an expert at this what he does or she does she's our customer service expert in the way it holds us holds us job standard that really the employee has to live up to and #2 it tells you that the company's not afraid of making sure that you get to know our people that our people are so are we once you get to know them and do you want to be transparent with the public I think that's probably wants to know like who is the person I'm hiring to come into my house or in or to work with my team I think you've done a great job with that Julie so Julie I'm going to add to that point there I mean that's a really good point that you're making there and the truth is is your employees are the ones who are right there in front of your customers I mean we know what happens when a customer complaints it always comes back to you owners in the company but the employees are the first ones out there in front of those customers whether you're in a service business or you're in a coaching business like ours they're the ones out there so they're the ones who are forward facing the customers every day and those customers want to know that these guys you're experts adding the adding going to bring out a fifth thing there too which I didn't really think about before until we just started talking about it but at some point you know if you're looking to grow your business you can't do it all or you're looking to sell your business you can't do it all your business is worth much less if I'm the only person in the business who can do everything so if Joe Coursera was the only person who could teach total immersion really I don't know that we we'd ever be able to get out of it than at any point or even pass it down let's say we wanted to pass it down to Y and we'd never be able to even do that because once Joe Chris there it goes there be no one else to continue that work so it's so important to develop your people to be able to have that to give them these personal brands in order just to keep the business going on whatever your end game is whether it's to keep it to sell it to grow it to pass it on to children whatever your end game is if you're not developing those people internally and developing those own their own personal brands you won't be able to really do that effectively in the long in the long run Amen that makes the basically there's a financial reason is that business is more valuable and that's because when you have a team of stars that's why the New York Yankees are those teams like that the winning teams are worth much more money than they get valuated as the other teams when they wind up they wind up passing it on to the other shareholder once yeah so Julie how can a business start building the employees personal brands if it is such a good idea to share that spotlight and put your team of stars in front of the public how can we start doing that tell us a little bit about that well I think the first step really is to identify the expertise of each employee right each employee comes to us with some kind of a history you know whether it's just their family history or their work history I always think of Chris in this situation our onboarding Co chair right Chris came to us and although he initially worked at a A T-shirt shop right doing a branding you know T-shirts he also had kind of a side gig doing his comedy on the side right he wanted to be a comedian or at least you know it was a hobby I'm not exactly sure how far he was looking to take it off hand and we are able to use that we're able to we were able to identify it as he started working for us that this was a huge strength for us and him being able to come on first what started as your assistant right but you had them kind of entertaining people when they would first get on the zoom meetings you know with you then we had them doing some filling in every once in a while you had them do little segments here and there he was MC net all of our you know True Grit events over the years and then you know now to the extent of where he's the onboarding coach here and training other on boarding he was on boarding coach and now training other onboarding coaches and he's able to use that skill that he developed with comedy doing his comedy and use that skill with what he's doing right now which is either onboarding clients or training other on borders within our company right now and it's a skill that is just to me always been amazing on how I don't know how much time or effort he puts into the back end of what he does but when I see him do it he makes it look like it's easy like it like it's just like he was born to do it so first step is to identify once you've identified these areas you can really start to encourage them to your employees to create content around these topics right such as you know blog posts as a kind of you know possibility social media though for sure so I love seeing stuff I love when our people are putting stuff on social media on our page on social media as well as their own page and then you can also encourage them to speak at industry events I know we had Shreya who spoke at some industry events outside of service MP but we brought our whole team to speak at the True Grit event that we just had right because we wanted them we want to try to help develop courage them to get out there and be seen in front of our clientele so and then this you know not only helps to build a personal brand but also really helps to bring that recognition into the business that overall everybody here knows the material that if you have a question you should be able to go to anyone here to ask it or at least be able to be guided to the direct person in the company right what kind of specific strategies can a business do to build the employees personal brands what kind of specific strategies yeah well one strategy would just be offer the training and development opportunities for your employees right so to make sure that you're training developing them in these areas to become expertise in certain areas as I mentioned even with True Grit for us when we started doing that last year we started getting everybody involved and maybe not in the speaking element of it we had a some people who were involved in it but everybody getting involved in the actual escape rooms and the challenges that we did and when they did that that meant that they had to learn the material that we actually taught people at that time so training developing them this is going to help them of course develop new skills and the knowledge base which then they're going to be able to share with others and then you can also encourage them to network build relationships I love seeing how everyone of our team members and is able to talk and feel very comfortable with either you know an event that we're at or the people that we bring here for our events it's like I can tell that either through osmosis or hopefully through the training that we're giving them that it's really helping to increase their visibility and their credibility with our clients that we have out there and prospects as well that's really great Julie is there anything else you could think of that you know that any other benefits we can get from that that we can see as part of the culture we think definitely well you kind of hit the nail on the head there because the other benefit really is creating that culture of innovation and creativity within your business when employees are really encouraged to develop their own personal brands then they're more likely to be engaged and be motivated in their work on a day-to-day basis which of course is going to lead to that productivity and creativity so and it leads to them coming to us you know with ideas or ways to put ourselves out there in front of customers it doesn't mean everything has to come doesn't mean everything has to come for us which is great because they're coming to us also doesn't mean we have to accept everything that they want us to do at this point either but it's nice that the ideas are flowing there and maybe from that we're able to build on some of that creativity that they have oh Julie this is definitely a subject that I think I think it feels to everybody with the TikTok generation everybody sort of being a star and we had Alicia here at our company was like I didn't realize she was the TikTok star until I saw her I'm like whoa I got to learn from her and she could teach me what we got to do I she helped me create my brand to be better based on what I saw her do and I think it's a synergy that I think we can learn we we're trying to always train our employees but sometimes when it comes to this element of you know stardom with today's social media sometimes the employees can teach us a few things really think of that oh I it's definitely I mean I'm the worst at social media to be honest with you so I'm always trying to call upon them to help me figure things out Alicia particularly she is our one of the ones who is the star here when it comes to social media so I love being able to ask them you know what it is that we need to do to kind of stay I don't always know ahead of the curve on social media but at least with the times of everything that goes on because you know that's a whole other element of it it's like you can't always know everything as a business owner and people are going to bring other things to you that you may not even be aware of out there that are going to be able to help your business get that brand awareness that you're looking for yeah I think what does this say about your company when the biggest problem is recruiting other employees when all the current employees are out there in public saying how much you love the place how does that impact something like recruiting Julie would you say oh definitely I mean when really right now we have no problem recruiting anybody because when somebody is interested in our business they they've seen how the rest of our employees it's one thing that we hear over and over again is how it seems like every employee just loves us and in part This is why you know because we do in part let them go out there and be the star of service MVP from that standpoint I know we like to joke you're the Mickey Mouse you know of that company but we've created these all these other brand characters out there too who really are their stars in their own right and they're the ones who are helping us attract and recruit other new employees which gives us that ability to really kind of handpick who we want to bring on and who we might not want to bring on so that we can continue you know to develop and give the kind of service that we really want to give our clients out there with the people we know are going to be able to do that going forward well Julie thank you for being here today again always amazing when the conversation goes by so quick like it did here today Julie any final thoughts and we'll wrap it up here well I guess you know my thought as far as wrapping it up as I know that I know a lot of people will probably be afraid you know to really to try to develop brands within their company but I think if you can get yourself past that fear what you're really going to find and I know the I know one of the reasons they're afraid is because it is always hard to find employees out there but I think if you can uh see fit to get past that fear right now and just do this anyways help develop these brands which you're going to find is you're going to have much more loyal employees who are going to want to stay with you who are going to help want to service those customers in the way that you want really to be serviced and I always look at it like going back to my original the comparison to college or March madness this month and the NCAA it's one of the longest fights that have been going on for forever really at this point about paying college athletes it's not that you have to pay your people extra money even to do this but the fact that they have this opportunity to put themselves out there is really going to be beneficial to you and the company and getting your brand out there and creating the loyalty giving them the credibility that they need when they're in front of customers and they're going to be much more confident and competent employees as well about what you're nine to what your service is out there to the world what kind of services you're going to provide out there that's really some truth there I think a lot of times there's a negative impulse like what they just built this star and they leave me well I mean you know if you're a college team you don't mind if you're building stars because there's other stars coming in remember like we're if we're good at building stars don't worry if one leaves you can just build another one that's you keep doing it over it's like a cycle everybody it's not like something like that employee you know has a birthright to stay here forever we got to remember we build that brand and we make them bend remember we're the ones who will build it and that's going to be noticeable to other public and also noticeable to other future employees Julie thank you so much for joining us here everybody have a great one we will see you on the next service MVP podcast goodbye everybody, bye.
"Believe in God and you'll succeed in life and I just want to leave this last note, it's by the great Les Brown, 'shoot for the moon because of you missed your land among the stars'".
- Roy Jamarillo
Roy Jamarillo from Amazing Air Solutions joins Joe on the podcast today. Roy, his wife and family own and operate, Amazing Air Solutions. Joe and Roy talk about The 3 Keys To Running A Family Business . This is another must listen to episode of The Service MVP Podcast!
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Podcast Episode Transcription:
Alright everybody welcome to the service MVP podcast and my name is Joe Crisara, America’s service sales coach and we are here with one of my best clients and somebody who I think we'd all be inspired by his story him and his wife Nancy how Daniel run a business called amazing air solutions in San Antonio TX Roy welcome to our program here today I really appreciate you being here well thank you Joe I appreciate you giving me the opportunity that means a lot so I'm very blessed to be here Sir thank you well Roy runs a true family business he has his spouse Nancy who runs things over there it keeps things organized in the back end and does a lot of the probably heavy lifting right Roy is able to go out there and do his keep people comfortable in the great city of San Antonio and he's got his sons and his family and his daughter involved too so today's meeting is going to be about I call out the three things you should know about running a true family business when the entire family is involved and listen it's not there's not there's always progress not perfection right we can't say it's always going to be perfect correct and so that's good to give ourselves forgiveness why don't you start by telling people a little bit about yourself so they can understand who you are and your background little bit you might share that with us yeah sure no problem as you already know I started back in O2 wasn't really going anywhere with the job that had my wife was the one that actually told me to go back to school for it which I did and I was able to learn the terminology and the components behind it actually getting a job as well too as I was going to school for it so it was really good for me to start something good became really good at it installer maintenance service tech and I was able to sell really good in the very beginning process so I never looked back it was something that was bound to it I really enjoyed writing by myself in the vehicle so I was like my own boss so it was fun I really enjoyed it Nancy was a backbone and she actually helped me with it well let's talk about when you first decide to go into business and things like that and you know how important like even part of this sales process for a number of years now you know both know their company and also on your own now at this point tell us a little bit about your decision to finally do this and what was the thing that triggered you and Nancy to say you know what let's give this a go on our own let's not take the safe route the safe route is just being employee and put your head down and go to work and do this type of thing what was the thing that inspired you and Nancy go ahead and take this risk if you will just start this kind of a business what is the mountain like said of I saw how good I was with helping out people providing the service and you know making money for the big boss man I guess you would say and so I was able to utilize what I've learned through all these other companies and I've only worked for three companies in my whole time but I was able to utilize the other stuff that I learned the skills the terminology and bring it to my side and take a risk on going out there the bad part was I started back in September and it was like snow peak and so I was like Oh my God what did I just do you know but I kept in there I had in there with my wife and we were just back-to-back at that time it was just I was doing everything on my own she was still working for somebody else but it you know we got to a point where we were able to just you know what it's just wrong with it and make it happen that's really great you know Roy um let's go over obviously you've got your daughter and you've got you got two sons Roy how many people are how many kids how many children do you have inside your business there are 500 together five together to get you and your wife and then the three children right yeah my daughter my three boys well you know sometimes here's my thing you know although I'm America's service sales coach sometimes I can't get my own family to accept my coaching is that does that make sense Roy tell us some of the some of the challenges and some of the victories or what are some of the key points that keep you and Nancy centered as you have your whole family involved which is definitely I think a great way to do it I think it's the true family American business nothing typifies America more the entire family being involved when I was a kid I had my grandfather's business rob with and things like that right tell me a little bit about the decision to get the entire family involved and all that part of it there and so if you could tell us some of the like tell us one thing you should know first if you do get your family involved so start with one step number one or the first thing that people should know if they do have their family involved with the business what are some of the boundaries rules that you kind of set with the company and with your family too well first you have to have loyalty to each other that's number one because you don't have loyalty you can't rely on someone to do a certain job for you or you can't go to a certain event and not worry about it you know second respect you know we're it's family but we have to respect each other we have to have the loyalty to be able to you know what I'm going to take care of you don't worry about I'm going to take care of this and vice versa itself I think the main one that would fall is category is being able to have a solid foundation within the company in the family itself and that would be coming that becomes a religion thing there for us there we start around our business our foundation our pillars with this the strength of God you know so that's priority right there for us that makes it fun together so you sort of have a priority system mapped out in the family because the guys first and then family second and then the business third or things like that is that something I am on the right track I don't want to businesses that so it's yeah so it's God first family and myself in the business from that and that is that tell us how you how you use that kind of thing you tell some other families out here or people who running a family business about some of the things you've done that you know there are some such situations that could take place that you know you have to lean on those three those three priorities in your life and your value system if you will right uh you know can you give us an example of how something like that comes into play when you dealing with you got two sons who are very active in the business and their revenue producers and things like that and then you get yourself and your daughter who is answering the phones and doing the office stuff like that give us an example of how that kind of stuff comes out when you're talking specifically I think to your power I think sometimes we you know we definitely give each other space and that part of it there but sometimes with the kids are not always on the same page right I mean not just from not just from business but even in life in general makes sense right well about your parenting and where you learned how to you know kind of corral those yes to make sure they are staying with the family value system here well Joe you know it goes back to when they were youngsters right I was young I my guide is a little different the struggle was real I guess you would say for me and I didn't want that for my children so my children learn how to pray when they were very young we started the table we would go to church we would do all that stuff so it's already implemented stated and they're you know in their body and all they got to do is water it and so every now and then I'll go in there and water is well too so they're very fond about that as well too so they know where the backroom at so let's start I guess you would I guess I would say it starts at the very beginning of the process of building a family together you got you have to show them the right way and what is the right way for me it was my religion sticking together as a family I think you've heard it before a family that prays together faith together that's a good one I haven't heard of it's like your ego is not your amigo but fair involved instead that's really great actually yeah right tell me a little bit about just like I know you're in the you're in the total immersion service and sales system tell me about because people tell me that the program that we have sometimes it winds up going into your personal life in a way does that make sense is that fair to say that right yeah so you should that is so true Joe tell me tell me how does the training that you gotten from us in being able to persuade people to do things how has that wound itself into your family how is that part of the creative part of your family culture together can you tell me a little bit about that you know as a human being we all have like a selfless low self-esteem you know and we need to need to get caressed by somebody every single day and so as a parent and as the owner I think it just feels I feel that it's very important to give gratitude to someone that deserves it even though they're having a bad day hey keep your head up or it's going to get better let's keep rolling I'm right here with you know this is all me you know it's my fault you know this is the reason why we're going through this situation because of me I think service MVP has been phenomenal for us to embrace it I love it I wouldn't be here right now but it wasn't for you guys I do have different mentors that I have to give a lot of credit to you but that's for another story but you guys are very important to me and my family and so whatever we're learning it's actually used in our personal family as well too so there's a lot to it other than self-esteem there's confidence you know there's like I think there's a 12 law persuasion emotionally wise and all that has to be taken care of you know um Tommy uh how have things progressed you have uh how long how long has the business been in place right now Roy how far how long you been in business for size 8 oh wait quite a while yeah so you've been doing this business and so has it had have you seen over the recent last couple years some changes in the direction and the success of the company tell me a little bit about you know what was like in the beginning and what's it like now for you can you give us a little example of that it was tough it's been tough the last couple of years you know anyone that has the knowledge could install an outdoor unit a gas furnace but when you get into the core numbers of the company how to run a business itself that's that takes a lot that's where Nancy comes in for me she does her part for with all the numbers it's helped us tremendously I mean our average ticket has gone up for maintenance demand service marketing all that stuff I mean our numbers have been just skyrocket you know so I wish I would have found you guys a lot earlier you know for sure because it's been a little struggle trying to find a good sales process and I'm want to always go out there and take a look before I came across you guys I was doing everything I can out of the blue the book to try to make it successful as soon as I came across you guys Oh my God it was an open light for me I cut everybody out and just we're just focusing on you guys here so it's been a good ride with you with you right at the heart of your business we'll say five year wide anyway you heard that one before as to why does what is the reason why you try to tell your family and your team as to why does what is what why does amazing air exist you say what's the reason why we serve the community and serve your family like this is what's your why Roy if you have an idea about that I guess my wife would be when I was in and this is going back to my history but I lost my mother when I was 27 years old and I wish I would have been a lot better serving her showing her love being able to provide more stuff for her as well too but I think it goes back to my roots you know I want to strive to first the community to put a smile on someone's face to show love with the hand a nice firm handshake or hug you'll be surprised how many customers are out there are eager just to talk to you invite me in for breakfast for a cup of coffee you know so it's phenomenal to embrace that thing to give that back to the community you know I think it's a serving service that we have to do you know one with religion but also two of the make connections that's really great you know Roy I actually you probably don't realize this but I actually learned from you when I see how you treat Nancy with so much respect and as an equal you're not acting like you're what I can see you from my point of view is that you're not a power hungry dude who thinks that the university rows around yourself right that you're you and Nancy are true equal partners in this is what I see and you don't defer because you fear her reactions and things like that it seems like you guys have a truly honest relationship with each other could you expand a little bit more on that and how because it seems like that's the core of the family business is that the fact that you and Nancy can be honest with each other allows you to be honest that everybody else expects that honesty from your family is my off track on that tell me a little bit about that we have a strong bonding uh 19 I go way back to middle school you know and I won't go deep into that but yeah we have a strong bond that it it's unbreakable you can't break it the only way we're going to break it is ourselves and again having the core value of religion around us the love peace happiness freedom trust the loyalty of the faith that we're going to be able to trust on lean on themselves and be able to walk hand in hand you know I love her she's one of the best things that ever happened to me in my life and I wouldn't try to rent for anything give me an example of some of the things that Nancy has to handle as opposed to Roy I like and you got this you got so you got you got the thing where some like yeah she'll just be better at this than I would be and I know there's things that you better add too but what we say her strengths are Roy when you're when something really hits the things that the fan in a certain way what does Nancy shine the most what do you think is her strengths that really add so much to this business oh she'll hold me accountable for it she'll sit me down she'll tell me this is your business you need to run up there right this way or this is what's going to happen and she'll put it on me like Joe like it makes me furious because I'm a grown man you know who are you to tell me but I got to come back to reality understand that OK I get it that's what are we going to do now you know other than that she could make a real good cup of coffee Joe whoa that is priceless I can't even put a price on that oh I love it I thought about that but you know I can tell I always say between you two I've noticed that she's kind of like the conscience of the company in a way that makes sense like you know when everybody else is kind of getting a little bit out there she's kind of centers things is that am I on the right track on that that's my talk a little bit about that how she sort of stabilizing force is that am I on the right track there are you coming out yeah mostly before I even walk out she's like what's the deal what's the plan you come back and you know let us know what's going on with these jobs we got going on you know so she's like the whip you know if you get out of track out of the line she's going to whip you you know I'll put you back you know uh well it must be the nicest whip I've ever seen because she's pretty she got she does it with this she does it with a very warm smile I can see that for sure and she doesn't she does the firm but fair I would say is the way Roy what's your superpower in the family business would you say that you're you say you got to do things I mean she's the whip what are you the feather you're the one who makes it he takes it easy on people or tell me a little bit about that I'm the good guy I'll be like hey look right stop she's going to whip all of us so let's get on track we got to do it no matter what before I was the voice of the company I kind of got pushed back and so she's taken over a lot so that's pretty awesome excited how do you how do you what advice would you give to couples who are in this business like this now of course you have the additional complication of both your daughter and your two sons in the business as well but you know sometimes they take the pick taking the business home with you it's almost impossible not to I mean you probably spend a lot of time at work talking about work and you probably spend a lot of time at home talking about work I what kind of boundaries have you set for yourself in that regard right tell us a bit about that and how difficult is it to stay just centered on you know like when you first met and check in middle school and there's that kind of you know their relationship you had when you were younger and trying to make sure you stay standard on that how what kind of boundaries have you set for yourself to make sure that this doesn't get out of control in terms of the business overrunning your relationship you know so with that you know Nancy just like me we could work all day all night and treated you we treat ourselves with the most high respect it's just one of those deals that you know once you're in it you're in it and there's no turning back itself you know and I could be at Vegas enjoying my good old time I could be in Florida I always find myself back at home trying to figure out what's going on with the business so you know I I think for us it's just like that communication the trust is there that you know I I know I could trust her to do what she's going to do she's going to go be honest even when she clocked out she's going she's going beyond for me it's very respectful for me now I know that she's doing it for us to prosper so and vice versa I will do whatever it takes for her to want to be happy to also to help sure make sure that we're isn't lined up with the everybody's lined up as a good strong pillar for the company itself but right this is a sales training podcast I guess they call it So what kind of sales training tips could you give us some quick tips that you've learned from either us or other people that you could give contractors to at this time of year especially is very probably struggle for a lot of people what can you do to give some a few a few of your best tips you can give to the average contractor out there who was looking to you for a little guidance what would you say I would say definitely invest into yourself I mean even though it may be slow it's one thing you can do is to build your knowledge your wisdom be ready to go when the phone call starts to ring you have to be built for that you know you can't just all just dwell on it you have to continue to build your sales tactics your maintenance tactic whatever the case may be that provides income coming in but you want to be able to provide that service for that customer role-playing with yourself I always catch myself role-playing with myself in the mirror when I'm driving I mean we got a thing where we walk around and one of the kids would say hey look can you e-mail me that invoice please and all of a sudden we have to stop and we go into the preparation of the benchmark and how to come back on that you know so it's pretty awesome we have a lot of fun with it Joe I would definitely say just you know continue working through it build your knowledge wisdom grip whatever you're learning and you know it's going to pay off implement it Invest in yourself to get the material for yourself to get the reading material or videos and I know you're an avid learner you're always reading books and things like that too and investing in that and then you're saying take action don't just learn it but put it into practice is that fair to say that right take action and follow through you know that's the make a decision take action yeah and follow through alright let me just say they say great podcast starts on time a good one starts on time and a great one ends on time boy I know it's been kind of quick here and I could talk to you all day all day obviously and someday we probably will do that and sit down and talk more but Roy thank you for being here today final thoughts you have for your couples out there for running their own business that you'd like to just give them any kind of final thoughts of wisdom that you can give them yeah definitely invest into yourself invest into your business audiobooks events take the risk because in order for you to succeed you have to fail and understand the feeling part of it so you won't have to redo it again invest into yourself into your company and take the risk always believe in God and you'll succeed in life and I just want to leave this last note Joe it's by the great last brown shoot for the moon because of you missed your land among the stars that's really good there right that's a great one uh so great uh motivational statements right there I will definitely put that as our promo for the podcast Roy thank you so much for being with us again here today and definitely it's a pleasure my life got 100% better today I met you as well and it was like it was like you know you and you and Nancy were a marriage made in heaven this mouse would be like our company in your family is also a marriage made in heaven Roy thanks for making our life so much easier and better welcome being part of it I appreciate that thank you Joe appreciate your time alright everybody thank you so much we'll see you on the next episode goodbye everybody.
"If that goes into your mindset every single day, and you know if you're offering a good quality service, and you're going in there with pure motives, you'll find that you feel better about yourself and that level of happiness or contentment will transfer into your following days…"
- Devon Murphy
Devon Murphy from Peterman Brothers joins Uncle Joe on the podcast today. Devon discusses The 3 Things Salespeople Should Know In Order To Be Successful. This is a must listen to episode of The Service MVP Podcast!
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Podcast Episode Transcription:
Alright everybody welcome to the service MVP podcast and I am Joe Crisara America's service sales coach and today we have an exciting guest for all of you who are in the sales position in a service company and my guest his name is Devon Murphy it is with Peterman brothers in Indianapolis IN Devon say hi to all the people who listen to this show hi all the people who listen to the show well it's pleasure to have it here Devon is a course one of the past students and work with me in the before and he's one of the guys who listened to everything we do and definitely he has applied it Devon once you tell us a little bit about how you got here and got yourself in a great position to work with a great company and just give us a little thumbnail about a little bit about you yeah so I'm actually going to go back to getting fresh out of high school so right now graduated high school is approached by a guy who was trying to recruit me into heating and air and I looked at him and I said I will never work in heating and air so I just wanted to throw that out there for everybody after that after a couple failed career attempts and things of that nature end up finding myself homeless in August of 2018 and I had to move down to Los Angeles CA you know and the first job that I was able to get going down there out of necessity which was an appointment generator at a local heating or contractor down there you know I started off as like I said an appointment generator in about 8 weeks I had accomplished with the other five had done in the previous twelve months combined again because I was operating under a better swim and not drown after doing that the owner approached me and said hey how would you like to run the service department even though you know nothing about heating air and service so I went into digging into books reading learning as much as I could and then in the next 12 months we actually had a profitable service department pacing pretty darn close to what the residential replacement side was doing after that we had met this wonderful man by the name of Joe Coursera sometime in in 2019 there and started applying his peer mode of service to our service department where we were really absolutely crashing and so come April of 2020 our sales guy kind of phased out of the company and I let's go over the sales department lead sales guy and I actually went through total immersion with Joe virtually thanks to thanks to COVID there and I was able to in seven months of actual production due 2 1/2 million in residential replacement with a 60% closed ratio or $19,500 average ticket only after going through your program so a lot of thanks to you after quite some time at that company I ended up separating ways I moved out here to Indiana doing some coaching myself actually for a contractor that was a competitor peterman and I knew a guy named Seth year he introduced me to a guy named Jesse Baldwin right here is actually the sales manager here at peterman and we met we got to talking and he took me behind the back alley roughed me up a little bit and told me I need to come over to Peterman was too serendipitous to not be here so I started here in April of last year as the training project manager and have recently been promoted to run the new callback call project so that's how I ended up here well Devin definitely that is a very rapid rise to do the top toward the top right you're still he's always still reaching for the next thing and you know right now he's in the process of taking all the things we teach from teaching it to hundreds of people who work at that company and definitely they are fortunate to have you Deb so today's meeting is going to be about Oh my pleasure and by the way thanks for giving me a shout out there nice to hear I have a little bit of a step on the way up the ladder I could give you a boost there thanks a lot for that I appreciate that uh next I'd like to talk now about the three things that you think so you went from this rapid rise word appointment center to actually doing some sales and now you're teaching people how to do sales according to the metamorphosis if you will so as you're teaching people and what you've learned yourself what are the three things that helps people should know to be successful for themselves what can they do from going from mediocre to getting traction let's God so what's the first thing you think is important for sales people to know that they should consider doing if they want to start moving on that road to success I think first and foremost follow events mark I call it from Joe and follow a benchmark or any process really for that matter and make sure that it's something that you can measure and it's something that you can do consistently and that way you can kind of measure where things go right or wrong right the next thing that I would look at would be hold on hold on hold on here so with the benchmark sheet so having the benchmark sheet is important or some kind of a process laid in front of you I agree that is important how does the salesperson utilize that so I know it may sound obvious to you because you're a rapper is as you could tell everybody he's wanted to move on to number two yeah we're going to run out we're going to we're going to run things to talk about right so anyway I I know I want to milk this out a little bit but nonetheless I how would somebody use that so are you got the benchmark sheet you've actually got to learn the process obviously so benchmark obviously in the beginning is used for the very what's the first there's a couple of different ways you can learn that benchmark sheet what's the first step about that benchmark sheet they think would be instrumental for people to look at when they look at their benchmark it it's going to come off like a commercial job and I don't mean to do for your listeners but I would say the first thing you do is buy a ticket to total immersion or talk to your boss and make that happen I took it I took it virtually the first time and quite frankly being in a in a group of your peers and learning that benchmark in a in an organized setting with instructor LED feedback I think is is number one and that way you know it's really easy to think you're doing something well or read off of a sheet it's a whole different process when you actually have to graduate in front of a group and go through the role play and take criticism and feedback from somebody who's done it before and who's better than you are so I'd say find a mentor and that um that's where I would start after doing that I would take that benchmark and place it somewhere where you see it on a regular basis read through it practice it when I first started learning the benchmark I actually made it a standard practice for every single one of our service meetings and sales meetings to practice one piece of it whether it be you know the initial introduction or whether it be the danger line or whatever it was and we focused on one particular piece every single day without fail to make sure that it's ingrained in my soul next once you once you get really good at that focus on making it your own so that it doesn't sound scripted and then after that just keep up daily and regular practice and then in the end you're using it to evaluate every time you go to call right you're using as an evaluation tool to see where on that part of it is that makes sense yeah absolutely so yeah that's really wise I mean first of all the benchmark sheet is nothing other than a space of paper to get a partner or a learning buddy or somebody who has used it before it doesn't have to be it could be somebody who just you know like a Devin Murphy that's what people do they run things by Facebook all the time I'm like there's a guy who's helping he's got paramotors service he's trying to help people right so you get a mentor or somebody who can help you and hold you accountable to doing it step two let's put it in place and let's teach it for training purposes for the whole team so the whole team can kind of spread viral and then #3 is like let's go ahead and use it to evaluate what I'm doing in every call and so to have a process that you can train on use as a team and to evaluate that would be step one you would say there won't work sorry didn't mean to fill in the sentence I want to sure I kind of sum it up for people because it is because it is the brilliance that comes out of your mouth is great I just want to make sure I can for the normal person kind of sum it up make sure they get all those points because that's only step one guys that's what imagine when step two and step three are gonna be like for the keys to sales success for sales people OK now Devin does that do you want anything else you want to add to that or is that we cover everything there yeah I want to touch on that self reflection piece and that measurement piece using that benchmark for measurement I think it's critically important and you bring up a really good point there and that's something that I carry a little planner around with me whenever I'm working in the field or now when I when I go to ride alongs and help other guys I'll keep a little planner and after each called you kind of an assessment of what things we could have done better we offer each other feedback and so I would say that you know it's really good to have consistent check-ins and measurements on every I think that's is critically important great great well thank you so much for that let's go on to #2 what's the second thing people can do after they get that birthday using it practicing it evaluating with it what are some of the things that you know can do for #2 and the second key to success for this service person sales person to be honest with you you got to take a look inside yourself and you got to realize what your motives are you talk about pure motives and you break them down in a very spectacular way but there's another piece to it that I've come to realize and that's you know when you chase money or you chase sales they tend to run away but when you try to create solutions and help people money becomes you know abundant and your sales become abundant and so when you when you turn inward and you look at what your true motivations are I think that you'll have much greater success to give an example of that I recently had a technician of mine probably one of the best technicians here in all of peterman he you know we were going through the process we were learning and he calls me after two or three weeks of great success and he's like man I'm just not selling anything I'm just not you know these benchmarks not working it stopped working I don't know what happened and so we had a moment of alright you ready for some feedback and he said OK yeah I'm ready for feedback and I said what are your intentions in these calls what are you trying to accomplish well I'm trying to sell tickets that's your problem go in there provide the best customer service you possibly can educate the customer as best you possibly can and find problems provide solutions and and that's how you'll gain success he called me after his next call and you know I have had a $5000 ticket on a on a maintenance I mean there's a lot of a lot of that in there yeah I think it happens to me all the time I tell people all the time I go on a call I try and show off and say I'm going to show people I can sell bunch of stuff and I always flop and I'm like you know what I'm just going to do I'm going to make a friend with people I don't care I'm not going to care what I sell I'm just going to worry about making a friend and see if I can help these people find a solution that's right for them and then all of a sudden I sell 42,000 it's crazy how they solution crazy how that happens isn't like that yeah no 100% it's it all comes down to it all comes down to what you're trying to do and the customer can read off of that as well they can they can sniff out your I don't know if I can curse on here but they're sniff out your BS real quick right they can they can feel your intentions and to give an example of that actually I I went up head-to-head with peterman but this is part of why I'm here now on a on a sale where they were quoting about $45,000 for a new replacement I was able to sell a $91,000 job to the same customer because I took the time to really solve their problem I listened to the customer and I wasn't there to make a big sale next thing you know big so absolutely I think the big the big sale arrives when the big and the great relationship arises because really that's it the only the only thing that can differentiate us is that emotional contribution what do you feel about that Devin I mean when you sell people that kind of job what's the relationship like where you at the end of those calls you know it's funny that you that you say relationship I think there I think they also have to walk a fine line with relationships I think you have to establish yourself as a professional and you got to show that you truly care but I would say that the level of relationship that I have with that person is a lifelong friend now and they feel like I'm they're going to sell your words they feel like I'm their personal concierge it's a great service and so you know it's all the difference it really is again they can smell your intentions they can tell you care for them and their family and that makes that makes for a great relationship well thank you David so that's step number key #2 which is the attention of the motivation the gulf parables of course Simon like no matter what we always you know the biggest thing about peer models I think is that even if we don't get the job at least we know we went about it in the right way and that our intentions were good and nobody could say we tried to overcharge them or gouge them it's like we know what we are doing and the reason why we're doing it and I think if we could live I mean how important is that we can look ourselves in the mirror Devin and say you know they may not have gone with us and they may have said some things that I didn't really like but I could still live with myself at the end of the day what do you think about that no absolutely I agree 100% I think that you know that goes into your mindset every single day right you know if you're offering good quality service you're going in in there with pure motives you'll find that you feel better about yourself and that that level of happiness or contentment will transfer into your following days so I mean absolutely so those of you who are struggling I'd say you know what first of all let's stop worrying about selling something the first thing is getting people to sell themselves on the fact that they have somebody who is looking out for their best interest and not yours that's number 2 #3 Devin it's kind of it's always say good times good times start on time but great ones underline I'm done we're going to have a hard time with this because you have so many golden Nuggets here for us if you don't mind let's go on to #3 now Devin what's the third thing you think a key to sales success would be in the service business you know it's funny I had to I had to really when you started this whole thing you prefaced with three things and I really had to think about it and it it really comes down to the relationship with your team I think that you know we we can promise all of this great service and we can offer all of this great service but without our team to fulfill that service and without them having trust in us and us having trust in them we can't we can't offer we can't truly offer a great service and stand behind our work and our reputation is very difficult to build our credibility is very difficult to build but it is very quickly the first thing that could be torn away from them so I think that having the relationship with your with your installers with your turnover technicians with your dispatch with everybody as a sales professional is critically important training them to maintain the level of quality making sure that you're aligned on speaking the same language and then again making sure that we know what we can do better to make it easier for them to fulfill our ourselves yeah because you know I've always noticed that the salesperson who struggles is kind of put some stuff on an island away from the team and I think that's a good point right there that you know you you're coming into a or you're making a phone call at the very minimum to explain the job you sold to the installation team so they know what's at the heart of what was the what was the intention and this cell was like take #2 and transfer that to the installation team so they have they got a little fire in their belly to do things with the same motivation that you intended right number not even the service tax that makes sure the service tax are you know you can't if you don't help your service tax and you are trying to help them they're not going to help you with the lead turnovers right so obligation that sort of takes place with that and then the management of the company is like yeah you need to make their job easier by making sure you have all the data the photographs that the information that's needed so the customer history can be kind of vetted out so the people in the office love you too so they I think if you give to the office the information that they're supposed to get like now this guy makes it easy on us we love this guy the service people like this guy helps me sell even repair calls and they doesn't even ask for anything but I'm not feel obligated to give them a lead to another and the installation people like it's a pleasure to do this guy's jobs right I mean seriously if you did it that way you are I mean it's really I mean I know you said a little simple thing but on expanding on this probably too much I love it but I but I but I but I think when you put yourself not on the island but as part of a circle that works as a unit really there's no way a person can fail because everybody's now rooting for you and finding ways to help you succeed we just say that's important I was like when you do that together everybody's trying to help you not just the wind is at your at your back and not at your face makes sense absolutely so the less the more that I can empower my team the more that I can educate my team more that we can work together the better service and the more service we can provide but also you know one of the things I made a habit of is every install I would bring add order pizza and uh you know food and sandwiches breakfast burritos whatever it was and I made sure that I always took care of the install time and we'd actually go out and you know and I'd open up a bar tab and let them let them eat drink and do whatever they needed to do because when I had to call them on a you know a cold Saturday morning to come out and do a same day install when they plan on taking it off and spending it with their family that law of reciprocity kicks in it's you know OK well I mean he's willing to buy me food he's willing to take care of me he's willing to listen to you know what I've got going on in my life I can I can sacrifice a Saturday for him and for a customer and come out there and provide a good quality service same thing with Sunday installs and so that really kind of catapulted me ahead of other you know salespeople and comfort advisors because again I had built the relationship they would they would drop everything they can do an insult them so that relationship is critically important and that also goes into your dispatch right as much as I hate to admit it I did give a little bit of favoritism so sometimes when it was like alright well already credit ready and they no it's going to be 40 grand well who are you going to send it doesn't make sense to send out because it's way over here but you know what he actually bought me breakfast today and took care of me I think I'm an offer to him first we're going to get him over here right they find a way to work in your schedule and so again you know you as objective as they try to be this is a subjective business so be good to your people but I think it's like I think really if I look at the theme of this call it is the friendship and relationship you create with the clients you know with your coworkers if you do that that really wants us to clients of peterman you know I mean let's let me just backtrack here a guy from LA who worked in a call center making up our calls to come some hotshot sales guy from about seven months then moves his way out to Indianapolis I imagine people in Indianapolis like who's this dude I can imagine the skepticism that the team must have had when you landed on the ground and why did we hire this dude why is this guy we're listening to this and you know it's like the credibility you've built by saying you know what I'm not going to worry about me and my job first part of my job is to establish this friendship and my team let my team know that I support them and that that I need their support too that it's It's a it's a it's a game it's a team game I think more salespeople would realize that it's like if you just would enroll the support of your team and do something with the character you have to do to earn that respect that would put you in a favorite position so many times so many ways Devin why don't you give us some final thoughts here before we wrap it up we got we got some funny got some timers so take your time give us some final thoughts on what do you think if you if you had if you were with me at one of those bars you had open tab so it's like a tempting proposition there and we're not going to lie you know so have to do that next thing we have to do that sometime go ahead and tell me a little bit about what kind of what's your overall anything else you'd like to say to those people sure so you actually reminded me of how you know I was able to build that credibility so absolutely when I first started at peterman there was like a uproar and ripple effect of who the hell is this guy and why is he here and what's he's doing and why is he trying to change all this stuff and so the only way to overcome that I was really to get to know each person and see what I could do for each person so I made it a point to meet with each department head and have one on ones with as many people as I possibly could and say hey what's a pain point for you and how can I help well this isn't you know in your JavaScript and it doesn't matter how can I help right and offer as much help and feedback as possible to everybody to get that buy in and support and now I have a great relationship with the entire team who is skeptical about bringing down in the first place so I'm glad you brought that up it really comes down to that relationship and when you look at pure mode of service and you look at any the greatest purpose right the only purpose really is service to others and you have to be willing to put in that work before the lacrosse prostate kicks in so that's pretty much all I have there Joe and as far as the open bar tab I believe that since we're coming out to total immersion yet again or we're coming out to the trainings yet again we're going to be there is gonna be your open bar tab but I'm more than to take that well we could we could we could definitely work that out at that you can elbow up to a have an adult beverage with you and definitely be worth every single penny I it's an investment Devon don't worry about it I know it's like an investment every dollar you put this way every dollar that every time every minute I've invested in you has come back thousandfold and every dollar you've invested in us I hope has done the same thing for you absolutely in fact when we first started this relationship with Peterman what was it you said to me you said it's kind of like the first taste first taste is almost like it's almost like a drug dealer right you know you get a little head and you just keep on coming back so it could be the give it a good stuff to try some of the good stuff right and then you'll probably want to come back and get more Devon thanks so much for taking your time have your busy day to be here with us and our listeners thank you and I thank you thank you very much appreciate the opportunity.
" I feel so rewarded every day with what we're doing in the community getting to know the people that I work with and really seeing the fruits of our labor, we work incredibly hard and we're constantly striving to improve and I'm just excited to go to work every day and that is a true blessing it really is ..."
- Justin Giles
Justin Giles from Choate's Air Conditioning, Heating And Plumbing joins Uncle Joe on the show today. Justin talks about the 3 Things Key To A Successful Service Company. This is a must listen to episode of The Service MVP Podcast!
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Podcast Episode Transcription:
Alright everybody welcome to the service MVP podcast that my name is Joe Crisara, America's service sales coach and today we have a very exciting guest his name is Justin Giles and he is with Choate’s air heat and plumbing air conditioning heating and plumbing is in Memphis TN he has a unique story he is not in Memphis although he definitely helps to assist the company to operate Justin welcome to the program I definitely appreciate you being here thank you Joe I appreciate it I've been looking forward to this me too me too and definitely every time I spend with you is precious time so I'm happy you're giving me this gift that's something we can never get back which is our time but definitely I got I got to feeling it's going to be time well spent Justin why don't you go ahead and tell me a little bit about you know I know that shots is a company in Memphis TN tell us a little bit about how you got involved with the position that you're in what do you want people to know about your involvement and shots in general give us a little snapshot about shots and also about you absolutely well first I want to thank you for having me on the show Joe it's a true pleasure Choate’s was started in 1958 it's a family owned and operated company at this time we're probably one of the two biggest air conditioning and plumbing companies in the Memphis area we have about 150 employees and we are growing at an exponential rate and we are doing the best we can to provide the best customer service to the community I came that shoots about seven years ago eight years ago from private practice of law I used to be Choate’s outside council developed a relationship with Saul Choate and Brian Choate uh who are the sons of Chris Choate’s the current owner and his father Joe Choate’s started the company back in 1958 so they twisted my arm talked me into coming over and we haven't looked back it's been a great ride and every day I'm thankful to be at the company well that's really great we give up the practice of law in the in the in the state in the United States of America to get the law of service which definitely I think you got a higher calling with this law for sure that's I would say I'm going to tell you I did not know what to expect when I made the switch but you know after making the move and listening to all my law friends tell me I'm crazy to get into the service industry and leave the private practice I feel so rewarded every day with what we're doing in the community getting to know the people that I work with and really seeing the fruits of our labor we work incredibly hard and we're constantly striving to improve and I'm just excited to go to work every day and that is a true blessing it really is when you make your job something that's fun to do then it's never it's like don't tell anybody but you would do it anyway if you even if we didn't get paid the same with me too I feel sad and guess what shots and uncle Joe we share the same year of a birthday I was born in 1958 too isn't it crazy that's fantastic so we and so we were both probably you're probably considered the best in Memphis and I'm concerned the best for service and sales training and definitely it's great as it was like marriage made in heaven when I first heard what you guys were doing but Chris put together here and what his team and his family and you help taking this lead on the project I definitely was I felt like I brothers from another mother the day I met you guys so it was the easiest thing I ever did was fall in love with Choate’s I tell you that so we appreciate it exactly so we're on the same page we're here to help the people of your community get the best world class service they can get when that being said you have a unique so that's why I said I called you on this podcast because we're not talking about some lifer who's been an Tracey forever plumbing forever we got something from the outside so this is unique everybody listening to this is a unique podcast because we're going to listen to somebody who is moving in from the outside to see some of the things that were unexpectedly pleasantly unexpected that when he joined the company and he became one of the executives that helps run this organization Justin why don't you start by I guess the question is going to be the overall theme of this podcast will be I want to hear three things that you've observed that are not obvious three things that are not obvious that the people who are maybe in the trades but maybe from the outside looking in you it's obvious to you what are the three things that you've seen that are key to the success of shots and really other companies too that around the country do grow up great service one of three keys that are not obvious that you see as an outsider who's now become an insider that you think is key to the success of a world class service company like chokes well I think First things first and I don't know if this is obvious or not but it is critical in this business to love what you do I see a lot of people who are in the business just to make money which is why we all go to work obviously but but to run a successful service company you truly have to care when I started it shots I would have told you nobody's going out work me I felt pretty confident in my skills and my work ethic and then I started it shows and I saw Chris his wife Cindy Brian saw how much they care about the business and the people in the community they go above and beyond in what they do to make people comfortable and I didn't understand that coming from the private practice of law how hard it is to make a business work and so the first thing I would say is you've got to love what you do it's got to be a challenge and not a chore if it's a chore you're going to get burned out you're going to sacrifice excellence in service and you're not going to be able to provide the level of compassion that is really needed in this business you you're dealing with people who for us in the business and I consider myself in the business now you know it is a business we've got employees we've got bottom lines we've got all the stuff that's tied up in business but when you're dealing with customers they're typically in a crisis situation they're panicking they don't know what it's going to cost they don't have a HVAC budget set aside and so it is our job in this profession to come in calm the nerves explain to them the process hold their hand and be that rock that they need in those situations and it starts with loving what you do yeah I think it's like loving what you do is because you love your customers too it's like you're I look at it like this if you're you know either go to a you either go to serve your customer you're picking up that phone or going to their house or going to their business whatever it is that you're doing either you got a feeling that the lights have come on inside of you and you kind of light up I feel like you kind of see the feeling in the tone you get like like I'm kind of like wait like when I go on a service call I talk to people like you know I talk to you just like I talked to you I was like you know this is like a pleasure to work with these people and I had I had your company on the line and I developed a love for the company because I'm like I didn't I didn't know you before I walked into it I could feel it was all heart and I felt like everybody was committed everybody texted me saying they're excited about the program I can feel the enthusiasm and then they've taken the lead by actually using the training we have in the learning and things like that and that's either the either lights come on or you feel like this job sucks right so you get that feeling this job sucks you probably shouldn't get out the get go be an attorney or something right you've got to do something else you've got to be fully committed to the work you do in this profession and our motto at Schultz is let our family serve your family and so we have a do unto others mentality and we walk into every home and we look at that customer like that's our mom our aunt or uncle and we're going to make sure we can do everything we can to make their life better that's the feeling I got when I told everybody I was uncle Joe to your team they took it literally they felt they felt seriously I felt like I was literally their uncle and that's what the I still get texts from people telling me some of the victories and some of the aha moments are getting and I do feel that from your team and definitely that's why I wanted to have you on here because we shared that same philosophy I always say when I'm with your family in a way my family right now is second place because I'm putting all my effort into your family and my and my focus on your family of course when I get back to my family that's the most important thing in my entire life there but you know I think the do great service you have to dive into it and if you're going to be Olympic swimmer you got to be loving swimming you're going to be a ball player it's going to do it yeah you get on the field you light up when you see the green grass or you're like oh none other day of having to run well and everything right yeah it's like that to use the baseball analogy you know every great baseball player there are thousands of hours that they've spent in the cage with no bright lights you know hitting off of a tee and it should be no different in our business for every great service call we run there are hours and hours of preparation that go into making that service call great whether it's participating with you and learning from you and implementing that system uh to setting your price book their hours and hours that go into making the final product great and you've got to enjoy that grind to enjoy the payoff I agree is that your number two or is that something that sounds like you're moving right into the number 2 which is you got to prepare is I'm just throwing it out there but what do you think what's number 2 for you what do you think well I will tell you prior preparation prevents poor performance we live by that but number 2 for me is you have to define what success is to you um OK you know the standard definition of success is accomplishing a goal and so it chokes what we've done is we have set a vision and we have a plan we're not just showing up every day going through the motions we have a long term we call it a bee hag a big hairy audacious goal and then we set smart goals along the way specific measurable attainable relevant and time bound and we're constantly working towards that vision and goal and so for you have to define success because what success to you may be a healthy bottom line and what successes to me may be providing uh the best customer service or supporting our community so when until you know where you want to go until you have that road map in that final destination point you can't be successful you can't measure yourself along the way to celebrate the wins and identify the setbacks that you need to correct to get better the next day so I would say defining success setting vision that is really a great I think I I completely agree with that you know I'm going to let me ask you a critical question since you are running a larger company with chaos it's not it's not a small enterprise and you're and you're impacting thousands of clients lives in the city of and the surrounding area and cities of Memphis TN you know the question I would have and this is maybe you can just give it just give a small you don't got to go probably take 8 hours on this question but we could do this for days give me a give me a thumbnail here if you can how do you get the team like to be like I know everybody could have a different goal like some people go home at 4:00 o'clock and get home early whatever right I'm supposed to younger people today their goal is mainly a personal time off might be there right how do you align those type of things and get all hurt all those kittens to make sure that there's a unified goal that the team agrees on can you tell me a little bit more just the thumbnail and you don't go too far into it but that's thing I'm interested in that if you don't mind sharing that with me well that's the hardest part right and it actually dovetails into what my third key for success really is and that is you have to build a team in an infrastructure that has alignment of purpose you've all got to be rowing in the same direction and the way to do that in my opinion if you have to be transparent you have to be honest you have to let your team know this is our goal these are our values we have core values of chose we call them the dishes teamwork hospitality education dependability integrity service honesty excellence and safety those are the line in the sand that you can't cross you can't mislead a customer you have to show up when you say you're going to show up and we let our team know we literally have it heated on the walls what our mission is what our values are we've established that culture and you've got to get the right people on the bus and the right seats and it's tough and it's hard and we work at it every day and by being transparent by showing them the numbers by setting goals by outlining the path we want to take it's easy for us to identify those people who are not aligned with that that's a heartbreaking part there are people I think there's people we want more for than they want for themselves does that we do I do a lot of the mindset training and it's amazing to me how many people that we deal with on the daily love it and want to learn more and they're eager and they're thirsty for knowledge and then there's some people that say you know what that's not what I want to do and that's OK you know you don't have to see things the way that we see them but if you don't you probably need to work somewhere else and so we set those expectations early we don't hide the ball from anybody and we have found that people love having a sense of purpose it's not just showing up to work every day we have a collective goal yeah and it kind of makes a larger company seem smaller right that's exactly the fact that we have this common values we all know that the person who's on our team it wouldn't it wouldn't be you know here's what I look at too if we if we find somebody who doesn't share the values the same exact values there's things that are gang are stopped or what I call it the they're stopping points for them where they say listen I just can't commit to that right away so it's like you know what it's our pleasure to help you myself I would say let me even help you find another job somewhere because there's plenty of people who need people like you but just not just to hear we work here it's got to be special and unique it's got to be your dream job if you're not this isn't a dream job for you anymore we wouldn't want to put the burden on you and I think that's one of the things that's mature way of looking at it to say that absolutely we're not for everybody right I mean how important is it that joke does exclusive service that when people are allowed to be in the family that there are that there are schools they're exclusive people too that are going to believe in the same thing how important is that it's super important and we like I said we let people know on the front end who we are and for us you know ultimately the customers happiness dictates our success from a profitability standpoint and we tell our employees when they first come on that if you're not happy ultimately the customer's not going to be happy and so one of the things that we do really well and I think is very important to being successful is we have open communication lines or we do what we're called from New York employee check-ins they're basically weekly because we've broken everybody down into smaller teams so we check in and everybody at the company has a voice we don't take pride in authorship if you have a great idea we're going to run with it takes a village right and just because my names up here and I have this title doesn't mean everything that I think can do is correct and so we are leaning on our people constantly for fresh new ideas critiques of us tell us what we're doing right and wrong there's we welcome it and you have to have that open environment you have to do it respectfully there's a time and a place but we welcome that feedback because you can't build a team if your entire team doesn't feel like they're a part of it so I think that companies that are successful like notes on air conditioning heating and plumbing definitely our successful because the way the way they just like you know firemen instead of running away from the fire or the conflict you run toward it and find and seek the conflict so that because you because then it's easy to do that when you know how to manage conflict Definitely Justin it sounds like uh chokes air conditioning heating and plumbing is definitely good at that and I definitely think that the clients of Memphis are fortunate to have some like who makes an effort and unfortunately you believe how fast the time just goes by when we done they always say that a great meeting starts on time which it did and then our uh meeting ends got an entire time which is going a little bit over right now believe it or not but I don't want to cut you off because I really haven't you got to make a promise before you leave here though today can you promise to come back with me and share more absolutely I love sharing what we do at chokes and I appreciate the opportunity that you've give me Joe and anytime you need me give me a call I thoroughly enjoyed it how would people would you I mean if you want me to say it but if you wanted people to call chosen and just kind of see what that culture is like would that be something you'd be open to having people visit and say little tour what do you think absolutely we hire across the country actually we be bringing people in from all over we want to share our model with other businesses so any owners that want to see what we do see our facility its first class we welcome them in and I'll give you my personal cell phone number they can call me anytime and I'll facilitate it it's (901) 734-8811 great well Justin that's what generous offer I didn't even we didn't even clear that before I brought it up so I'm going to have to cut it out that's really great absolutely now we thank you we want everybody to prosper and grow and you know that is a key to success just to end real quick don't think you know it all I've got hundreds of books literally hundreds of books you can always learn from others and you should never stop learning well thank you off and on that note thank you Justin and thanks everybody for listening we will catch everybody here the next episode thanks a lot everybody alright take care Joe.
"Definitely leaders need to be involved, if they're scheduling something for their guys they should be there as well with them you want to feel like it's a part of a group, I mean we're all human, group dynamics are how a lot of things work and you know if the group is separated the leaders are not even there then it just feels like we're not really in the group then..."
- Chris Calamusa
Chris Calamusa joins Joe Crisara on this episode of The Service MVP Podcast to discuss the key steps to Orienting and onboarding Your Team.
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Podcast Episode Transcription:
Definitely leaders need to be involved if they're scheduling something for their guys they should be there as well with them you want to feel like it's a part of a group, I mean we're all humans group dynamics are how a lot of things work and you know if the group is separated the leaders not even there then it just feels like we're not really the group then. Welcome to the service MVP podcast this is where you go to learn how to use pure motive service to create higher value to grow your results grow your results and now here is your host America's service sales coach Joe Crisara alright everybody welcome to this service MVP podcast and my name is Joe Crisara America's service sales coach as some people call me uncle Joe I'm the uncle to the service industry well we here now today are going to welcome if I had a mount Rushmore of uncle Joe's friends he would be definitely one of the figures on that mountain Ashton granite and his name is Chris Calamusa who is our onboarding coach and orientation supervisor for the clients who work at service MP and Chris is going to talk about a great subject called the three steps orienting and onboarding your team Chris welcome to the podcast I really appreciate you being here oh I'm so glad you asked me to be on this is going to be fun thanks for having me it will be Chris first of all we're going to talk a little bit about you know just you know it's like when people get off to a great start you know it's like in a football game if your team scores a touch on the first drive of the game well the other team is already got to catch up they're you know behind the same baseball when you get ahead of the game you're winning most teams were held in the 7th inning usually win the game by the 9th inning you know sometimes you do lose the game but most of the time it's a good indicator of doing things Christ tell us a little bit about how you got started in in this process of becoming an onboarding and orientation coach and tell me what's been your experience and how did you go from wherever you worked to where you right now well when I first joined the team at was originally contractor selling.com now service MVP uh I was just customer service I was just supposed to answer the phones and try to help people with their technical difficulties but the minute that I saw uncle Joe's doing some coaching meetings I was like I need to be a part of that and then about six months later they made me Joe's assistant and there it was for about two years just soaking up all the gold Nuggets that got spit out of your mouth so it was a very impactful time on my life and you know just my career and you know now you were you bless me by giving me the reins to help some other students out and uh practice with them and role play and graduate them now so at this point now I'm the onboarding coach and yeah we're just making sure we get everybody graduated and through our program here's the supervised that department we have other people who are coaches to and Chris has gone from not just the onboarding coach but also to the person who supervises the coaches and that area trains those people as well he doesn't just on board your company he onboards our company to our people here so he's gone through that process right now no matter who it is they have to go to that onboarding and orientation at our company right Christa again uh you know just you know Chris had a career he's still working on his career in stand up comedy he has that one thing he's probably just want me to tell you that supposing everything right now while but well I know well you know this is this is I think the his primary career right now but you never know I would say Chris a lot of question they say I would say that the standard for working a service map is that this has to be your dream job if we pass the test on that first or where we stand on that 100% with all sincerity this has definitely been my dream job I mean if you told me like 10 years ago that I'd be in a position where I get to role play with people and make an actual impact like basically doing improv all day long pretending I'm a customer and I mean doing it rob is one thing but the fact that this actually has a positive benefit on the world you know I mean that means a lot that I get to go home and I just sleep very well at night knowing that you know if there's any if there's you know uncle Joe has a I have a saying that I don't participate in negativity if you go on Facebook you'll see that I usually I don't have anything negative to say about anybody I try to keep that positive and I think Chris typifies that we walked the same path on that part he definitely he sees a lot of people with different backgrounds and different abilities and different elements of sometimes positive sometimes negative sometimes neutral it does a good job thanks Chris for staying positive in the face of helping these people find the path and enlighten the path of luminous path towards success I really appreciate that of course well everybody's got their strengths you know it's just about making sure they know what their strengths are and how that all fits into this big picture that we got here alright Chris let's go into the three steps to onboarding orienting if your team make sure how do we do this right so why don't you begin by telling us about step number one what do you think a company should do in the blue collar service industry to make sure that they get people started off on the right foot I think the key for anything is leadership it's always going to be the key is if leadership can't get it right then it'll be very tough for anybody that they're leading to get it right so one of the biggest advantages that you could have is if you're a leader and you're going through something that you're going to have the people that are following you go through so that way you could answer all their questions and I mean you know what's the definition of a leader it's really someone that serves the people that are following them so how could you serve you know what we call your internal clients if you don't even know what they're going through so leadership is a huge asp tell us about the effort that a leader needs to make to make sure that they're prepped so that they can you know don't got to be a superstar service tacker salesperson or a office you know got to be OK be doing the job but you have to at least experience it tell us a little bit about the effort that a leader would need to make to be able to make sure the team that they have a sufficient credibility so the team would actually follow them they have to be able to put in the effort to First off set the time aside to be able to do that and that kind of leads me into my next point which is scheduling is so crucial so you have to be able to schedule things for people like anything like if you wanted to lose weight you have to schedule your time for the gym if you want to get good at baseball you got to schedule time for practice it's the same thing with this if you don't schedule time watch our videos and go on to our meetings well then everybody's just going to forget about it so the effort from the leaders is about scheduling it's about being able to handle conflict in the right way too I mean there's going to be people that give you pushback some people are negative but that's all things that we could handle and we have plenty of material too to help you out when going through that so you're never alone on that but definitely some of the effort comes into the handling all the personalities even the small stuff like printing out papers for everybody to have so they could physically write stuff down because some people like that just really being prepared and making sure that people feel like they're coming into something that at least somebody knows the process from start to finish and that they could you know lean on them a little bit when they need some clarity it's not like you have to be an expert at the process but you should know where all the tools are located and things like that how important is it that you know if you're asking your people to graduate and go through something like this talk about how the leader needs to kind of complete that training could you go a little bit about that and some like what is the leader's role in this type of a thing you know when you're saying onboarding let's say we schedule it number one before we schedule it the leader should have like already kind of looked at the stuff to make sure we're going to what we're what we're scheduling we're sure it's sufficient for him to believe in the scheduling so to also talk to him about the effort that people need to do as leaders to be ahead of the team when it comes to training tell us about that little bit well yeah I mean what we tell all the leaders is that they need to go through our E course and pass it and graduate you know before they could even ask any of their employees to go through it you know and then you get yourself a lot of credibility when you're able to have graduated before them because then if you're a you know if you're a manager maybe you're not going out in the field you know and if you could do that you know and you're not this isn't even a role that you're typically find yourself in well then man how could somebody who is in that role not do it then so it really just shows everybody who's following you what the possibilities are you know and that's very tough to see if your leader hasn't even done it themselves I mean somebody's walking down a path if you're going hiking and there's a guy in the front of the you know of the group there and he goes hey you guys need to cross this river but I haven't never crossed it yet so good luck I mean you'd be a little bit worried to be like do we really want to cross this river I'm not sure if he hasn't done it yet is this safe to do but if you know you see the leader on the other side he says hey guys come over here I tell you it looks a little bit scary this river but I'm telling you could get through it well then you're a little bit more comfortable with doing that you realize that OK I can get through this it is possible and all that stress really just kind of I mean no pun intended but washes away when you're able to see your leader go through something like that yeah it kind of says well they can do it he's not asking me to do something he hasn't done or she hasn't done himself I think that is a big part of it there let's talk a little bit about that scheduling you mentioned so #2 the step number two you mentioned is the schedule the training the difference between amateur and professional is to schedule things right so let's talk about the scheduling and is it just scheduling the team for this or is the leader going to be part of it or a lot of times people say hey I bought this training for the guys hey guys go ahead and do it is that what a good leader because that's you probably see this that's one of the biggest mistakes as well too could you talk a little bit about not rescheduling it but who are we scheduling and how much time we have to schedule us little bit about what level of commitment it takes to take any employee listen doesn't have to be service envy but whatever you're doing if you're using a different system obviously we have an operating system for service field office staff and management right but you know no matter what you do what would you say is sufficient time and how frequent should it be who should be there and tell us a little bit about that definitely leaders need to be involved if they're scheduling something for their guys they should be there as well with them you want to feel like it's a part of a group I mean we're all humans you know the group dynamics are how a lot of things work and you know if the group is separated the leader is not even there then it just feels like we're not really the group then and people are definitely less motivated there's nothing that holds people more accountable than having your manager sit there and making sure that you were doing this the right way you know and if you're a leader that people respect well then people are going to put in an extra effort to want you to feel satisfied and the effort that they're putting on you know they're going to want to impress you they're going to want to look in front of you and that just means that they're going to put in more effort just by your presence alone and when you're not there I mean you know we've all seen situations I mean we could imagine like imagine a high school class without the teacher in it yeah get pretty chaotic really quick but also the teacher comes in and now they're all listening and paying attention which is good for them because then they learn something you know maybe if they were on their own they'd say we don't need to learn this but then after they do learn it they go you know what that was useful I'm glad I learned that and it really all it took was just somebody being in there leading the way and holding them accountable so a designated leader is going to play the video for the group and then they kind of make sure that everybody looks like you're a facilitator like you're not making the information up you're just doing that now is an important like there's a pretty big companies here like you probably got listening to the podcast probably got people who have 300 employees like that so we're not saying that the CEO has to sit in on these training meetings but we have to have a designated leader that we get through right but how important it would be that the owner is checking in to make sure that that the process is being followed because it's possible for somebody who's been designated the leader to maybe fall short themselves Chris how important it should be checking on that yeah leaders need accountability too you know leaders can have people leading them super important you know you want you want you definitely the whoever this manager who's in charge of the training the leadership they need to be on the same page as the owner and the owner needs to know what's going on because you don't want ownership making different decisions without all the correct information and vice versa too you don't want you know whoever that manager is that leader make a different decisions that you know maybe the owner isn't OK with so we all need to be on the same page and accountability goes all the way up the ladder I remember in my in my book whisperer sales management which we I wrote there's a story about a guy in Canada where I went out there he's like I can't get my team to work as a team and I said OK let's do a meeting so I actually start talking this is that we have the schedule to half a day in the morning from 8:00 o'clock to 12 noon and then about 8:30 the manager goes I got to go to a meeting I got the insurance guy coming and I had to leave the meeting so he leaves the meeting then the sales manager they got I got something I got to do too he lives the meeting I start out the meeting with 25 people Chris and then by other the meeting I had one person sitting there because everybody just got they followed the leader basically leader left so it's like well he's it's time for me to leave too right makes sense Chris that's typifies that how important is that I think the character of the leader that you say we're going to do something that you stick with it for a support is that TU is an employee if your boss is saying to do things a certain way that he does it that way too what do you think of that I mean yeah it's like what's better to lead by advice or to lead by example you know it's like if you see somebody just leaving it just implies well it's not important to him is this important to anybody else you know it makes you question it and then you start thinking of all the reasons why maybe it's not important but if that manager is sitting in there and focused and paying attention well you just assume that that's how it's supposed to be for everybody then so it's a lot and it does leave it to like accountability isn't just from the supervisor to the employee sometimes the employee should speak up and say hey I thought we had this training how important is it that if you're an employee of a company and they said you're going to do an orientation program or something like that it's just pick up for yourself how important OK what would you say a supervisor and when an employee brings up the fact that maybe we said we're going to do this training but I they got me off track I'm not on the training anymore what's going on how important would be the leader can admit that he may have fell short there do you think oh I mean well that's accountability one-on-one right I mean what's the other option you get defensive and blame somebody else I mean that's not a good way to react to anything but if somebody that you're leading is coming up to you and trying t I mean that's almost a blessing to have the fact that they would speak up and have the courage to say something to you especially in a positive way where they're just trying to you know do something that benefits the entire team the customer the company all at once I mean that's a that's a that's a good moment to have even though it's not a good sign it's still like a good pivotal moment where you could switch things around if somebody's able to speak up it's very import Chris let's go on to finally step #3 so you got step number one make sure we have leadership involved and leaders are going to be there to play the videos to test to role play to question people #2 is to schedule these training events and don't put anything else on the schedule right don't put any other calls on the schedule just get this done and then give them the service call our sales car go back to their desk if they're going to do that number 3 Chris what's step #3 to onboarding and orienting your team #3 is being very aware of all of our goals are the key to being able to have something that's the key to knowing what you need to do you know so if we know that the goal is to get graduated well now we can work back how do I get graduated well I got to complete entire call from start to finish well how do I do that well I got to know the benchmark sheet well how do I do that I got to show up to practice so then if you know what your goal is you know how you're able to accomplish it through you know different tasks and how you would work your way up to being able to accomplish that goal but without that graduation then you're just kind of left roaming around randomly doing things you know and what's the purpose of it if there's no goal in the end so it's like anything I mean it's like I was saying before we're losing weight how you schedule it you need to go I want to lose 10 pounds and I have something to work towards or if you just say I just want to lose weight in general but you're going to be happy if you lose what a half a pound which is just get back to next week or you know you just going to keep going and never really feel a sense of accomplishment so and that's the other important aspect of goals too especially as a leader trying to get you know your trainees motivated to want to do all this it's they need goals too they need to have a feeling of like yes I did it I accomplished something I was able to be successful and without those goals they never had a moment where they feel successful so it's really important that they they're motivated the right way for that you know it's interesting and the goals Chris it's like some people would make goals but they're not realistic because you're putting a goal on the results like hey I want to sell $20,000 a week or whatever that's something you necessarily can't control is that number right what you can control is the effort how important is it that goal is like effort based to say hey my goal is to make sure I'm 90 minutes a day for three weeks straight and then graduate on week four that's something that doesn't take a number or a something from the outside make this work how important is the goal is something that you intrinsically inside yourself can achieve as opposed to saying some of the goals like have built-in excuses like the weight because hey I want a vacation or that kind of a thing right certain goals that are important like the way you do things that would you graduate people in three weeks or four weeks that's the goal that doesn't depend on anything other than the fact you put the effort in help so that the goal is based on the effort intrinsically not on something that's outside of yourself that's the one thing that you can do is put in effort for the things you could control so I mean if I make a goal I could make a goal I wanted to reign three times this year it's like well it doesn't allow me to do any part of that you know so that's not even really a goal if you're just basing it off of what you're hoping for so it's really important to bring it down to the level of your effort like you said so one of the goals you can have is I'm going to make sure I go to practice twice a week or I'm going to make sure that I have this section of the benchmark sheet completely memorized by this part those are tangible things that you can do yourself and you don't need to rely on anybody else for that you know and even the team doesn't finish it you said I could still finish it I think I've seen many times when the team kind of fell off and individual people said I don't care I like what I'm doing I'm going to learn this thing you see next before Chris oh plenty of times yeah I mean those are the those are some of the people that are best with the program are the ones that say hey this isn't about you know oh I was forced to do this or anything like that this is something that I see value in this and I see the importance of me swinging the bat all the way through and finishing this thing out and making sure I graduate and learn this program the right way I mean those are the some of the best people with this stuff let's talk a little bit about one thing I was going to mention was the standpoint when you're graduating the sense of achievement that people get could you give us a little bit about that and like I know you that's part of the part you can as a as the trainer the guy who's doing this actually so this guy is Chris has got like I don't know how many meetings do you do Chris how many how many days you do well myself right now is 3 on boarding practice sessions but we have 1234567 day seven practice seven days 33 fills in for Sabrina sometimes he gets three to four a day he does and every single day of the week he's except for Wednesday he's graduating people tell us the sense of satisfaction that you get as a trainer as as a leader of these people in our group what's the sense of satisfaction you get the reward that you get when people graduate as you're leading to this we think well you asked before if this is my dream job and this is literally the reason why it is I mean I can't even tell you how great it feels that multiple times a day I get to have somebody have this sense of relief of happiness of satisfaction of accomplishment and it's just it's crazy because it goes from a span of 15 minutes where they start and they're nervous and you know it's a little bit awkward because we're all on zoom and the nerves are still getting shaken off and by the end of it they did it and it's just this great moment of accomplishment and man I mean there's just nothing better than seeing somebody so excited to have graduated because they put in a ton of work at that point I mean there's a ton of videos a ton of practice sessions a ton of pressure to really come in and nail this thing and obviously the pressure in front of the customer too to try this stuff I mean it takes a lot of courage to do all this so You know when they finally had that moment where it paid off and they're successful to be able to see that live right there and be part of that celebration with them I mean there's nothing better it's definitely one of my favorite parts of this job for sure right and then so the kind of an outline here so what's the journey or the timeline somebody starts with a kick start meeting tell us from the time when they go to kick start for the time they gradually tell us what is happening in that period of time so people can't get understanding of what it looks like and if they did want to see a professional do this everybody here is welcome to join us for a tour to to to watch what Chris does and you could say if nothing else even if you don't join our program for free get to see a professional do this job so you know what it would look like look for somebody to Orient your team could give us look Chris give us a little bit of a sort of a timeline or snapshot of what that yeah thumbnail if you will of all that stuff what was that look like from start to finish well so you have your kickstart meeting and that's where everybody gets oriented on what the program is going to be about we give you some stuff to leave that day and start to see some improvements but then we begin the real training the training is going to consist of watching videos in the morning carve out 90 minutes a day to be able to watch those videos that way you got plenty of time to sit in there and really absorb that material not just fly right through it and then on top of that twice a week we will have five of your guys join us for practice where we literally are going to pretend like I am the customer they are going to be them and we are going to actually start using this stuff so that way they get hands on practice can actually hear themselves say it out loud you know and anybody could role play with anybody right you could do with your manager but there's something about when you know the person and you gotta pretend like you don't know the person makes it a little bit tough to get effective practice out of that so that's why people love coming out to practice with Sabrina and I cause for somebody that they don't know and they could actually treat us like a real customer and not have to you know really play for ten too much so you go to practice twice a week between the videos and practice we do that for about three weeks and then after that point once you finish the videos you're ready for graduation what we'll do is we'll have you send in an option sheet and that's like your ticket to get into your graduation once I get an option sheet that's approved and you did it the right way we'll go ahead and let you schedule your graduation and then when your time for your graduation comes it's just one-on-one and we hit record and it's time to put you to the test and then once you successfully get through the entire call Dennis graduation time you did it you get your certificate we celebrate and then we move you on up to the next level or some of our other coaching classes that we have too but that's the time it takes about three weeks from start to finish right there to get to their onboarding and then at the end of it I I've seen several people make us at the actual companies kind of making a celebration of this thing right they played the video for the team they hand the tell us how that kind of would go on the ground if you OK graduate with you they get the video they get this they get the option the pricing sheet done what's the experience like back at the office for some of these people I mean I've heard a lot of different stories of what people do I've heard that there's pizza parties for people I've heard that there's huge celebrations some people get little gift baskets for doing it and that's really important that we make sure that they realize that we appreciate the effort that they put in so like us as leaders in a company we want our employees to understand like hey you just went through this three weeks of training you deserve a little pat on the back for that and that's what's going to encourage them to continue with the training and make sure they stay sharp because anybody could get trained on something but it's about the coaching that follows too to make sure that you stay consistent with it and no better way to to motivate people than to show them that we appreciate their effort I mean it's one of the things we teach with the magic moments you know so praise and effort goes a long way and that's one of t a magic moment graduation well first of all Chris let me just praise your effort this guy's grinding he's grinding it out all week on a Friday I say hey how about after you're done with work we'll do a little podcast it's like oh and then he comes back and he sounds so fresh like truthfully Chris it's like it warms my heart to see somebody like you who you definitely feel it's in your heart that you really believe in this and if you have to tell contractors from your heart what do you think what's the message you'd like to send to them to let them know that about you and the service that you offer what do you think well I mean at the end of the day I just get a lot of satisfaction from seeing somebody go from not really being interested in something like this to then by the end not only are they interested they're asking me and begging me for more hey where can I find this where can I find this what kind of videos do you have on this and just floating with questions because they see the value in it and you know at the end of the day I I understand the value in this program and I just want the whole world to know how great it is sometimes it bums me out that I can't hop on top of a mountain scream to the entire country that we have this program available so but hey you know when people do find out about it I mean it's just it means the world that I get to hear all the things I mean they're just there's countless stories about oh now I could afford a babysitter or daycare and I could afford cars for my kids and I could afford school and I got more time to spend with my family I have more time to do the things I want I mean there's nothing more satisfying than that and that's possible for everybody just got to get you to go through the training and do the program and follow with it alright everybody that's all we have time for today I would say good meeting starts on time and a great one ends on time I think we qualify for that Chris thanks so much for being a guest on today's podcast and definitely you have my complete gratitude and thanks for that everybody have a great one we'll see you on the next episode.
"If you think about it, everything we do is on social media you know we're running ads on Facebook and Instagram now unlike the job boards where people are already going looking for a job you have to do something to stop the scroll right so they're just scrolling through looking at cat videos or the latest brisket knife or whatever is in their news feed from whatever they were looking at and then here's an ad for your company..."- Jody Underhill
How are you as a home service provider, looking to add good team members to your talent pool? There are many traditional ways to seek out and recruit new employees; however, only one way to get the best new members of your team on board!
You don't want unemployed people applying for job openings! You want motivated individuals who are working hard and not necessarily looking for an employment change.
Jody Underhill from Rapid Hire Pro joins Uncle Joe Crisara on this episode of The Service MVP Podcast to discuss a clever way to attract the best new employees.
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Podcast Episode Transcription:
If you think about it I said everything we do is on social media you know we're running ads on Facebook and Instagram now unlike the job boards where people are already going looking for a job you have to do something to stop the scroll right so they're just scrolling through looking at cat videos of the latest brisket knife or whatever's their news feed from whatever they were looking at and then here's an ad for your company welcome to the service MVP podcast this is where you go to learn how to use pure motive service to create higher value to grow your results grow your results and now here is your host America's service sales coach Joe Crisara alright everybody welcome to the service MVP podcast and my name is Joe Crisara America's service sales coach and I'm here today talking to one of my very best friends Jody Underhill, Jody why don't you say hi to our clients here hello everybody glad to be here to share some great stuff for to help you with your home service business now Jody if you don't mind sharing the name of your company and tell us a little bit about yourself and the reason why you got started in this business so the name of the company is rapid hire pro and what we focus on is obviously recruiting in home service industry any other trades and the reason that we are focused on there is those I worked for the power company for almost 30 years before I started a marketing agency as most people look at it you probably get seven or eight calls a week from people wanting to help you with your marketing but there's not really anybody reaching out to help you get more people and right now what we hear more than anything is I've got plenty of work what I need as good people to so that I can so I can take on more work and we kind of got started in recruiting not in home services but in the trucking industry it's about a year and a half ago my wife reached out to Tommy Mello she's not even as long as I have and said hey if you need people you should check out what we're doing in the next week we flew out there and we showed him kind of how we do things because what we do is very different than what your typical recruiting company does because with the typical recruiting company they focus on job boards indeed simply hired zip recruiter there's nothing wrong with that it's just that everybody going there you know is looking for a job and not everybody is a great candidate So what we do this very different is we use social media and we put brand all of our ads also social media on Facebook and Instagram so because you want to get your information in front of people who are already working for someone else and so that you can get it they're not necessarily looking for another opportunity but when they see yours positioned in their news feed they're going to take the chance taking a look at it so that's what we do that's so very different is we're fishing in a pond we're not everybody's going so if you look at indeed and simply hired Ziprecruiter those are just like basically like you see the fishing pier with 20 people lined up for the same bait and the same fishing pole that's kind of what that looks like we want to go to a stocked pond with the right date and that's help what we do is very different well that's really great so it's and by the way I can personally attest that everybody I've sent to Jody Underhill and his team has said wow where were these guys that I could have used these guys years ago but thank God they found you now as all I keep saying Judy thank you for when I get a referral it's always important that it's a good service because if it's not then not only does the service gets fired that I recommend but you upper circuits fired too is that makes exactly and believe me we we take every referral we look at it and treat it like it's a precious little precious commodity right and that's why I've noticed I've noticed that they said I don't mind doing it Johnny but he I said I told him when I first found it said if I do recommend yes if Tommy Mello from A1 garage door says you're good then I believe that because he is never he's never should be wrong either so between Tammy and you they're good now let's talk about the three steps that are important that once you get that stocked pond and you've got some of the fish on the hook what are three steps that a business can do what tips can you give to to a business the three tips to make sure that you are successful is that once we have a response that we get them onto the team to convert people who are kind of shopping to come to the company how do we convert people from possible employees to actual employees where are step one Joe let's go ahead and just tell me that first thing is you just reducing friction in the application panel and it may seem funny that I call it an application panel but that's really what we're doing kind of like a sales funnel but instead of her customers you're running it for getting employees and you want to the thing that I see with just about 99% of the companies that I talked to and I go because I always do some investigation and I look at what they're currently doing for recruiting without fail if you go look at 99% of home service companies websites on their career page they have a place for someone to apply and without fail it says upload your resume how many people HVAC techs or plumbers or electricians have a resume laying around ready to upload so it's kind of putting a stumbling block there I used to think that it was because people didn't have a resume but the other part of it is what tool or what device do you think that most people who are scanning and I'm looking for something what are they using their phone their phone right they're using their phone I mean I'm pretty technically savvy and I have no clue how to attach a PDF to a fill a fill in the blank form on my phone so that's part of the friction that's being caused and a resume there's going to be as good as what they choose to tell you because most companies have an application why not just have them take them straight to an application to allow them to answer the questions that you want to know because most people on their resume they don't do anything about their driving record but I guarantee you that just about every person that's listening to this podcast they have people that are driving their company vehicles so asking them about their driving record is key right about they have unlawful speed over 15 miles an hour or DUI or hit and run those kind of reckless driving charge makes it so they're uninsurable that you want to know those things not putting that on resume so you can ask the questions you without having to have them take the time to go create a Word document or a PDF of a resume which causes them basically anxiety anyway because that's not really what this business is about I just didn't know how moment right there Jody it's like the resume is the employee telling the company with them what they wanted but they want to tell you and the application is something getting information that you want to know about the person so before we reveal information about the company or some marketing because the resume is basically the employee marketing themselves to your company and telling you telling you filtering it by what they want you to know you need to ask questions that you need to know because driving a truck for instance is a great thing so that's an aha moment there a lot of people think well it's easier it's easier when the guy sends a resume and then really we get about two sentences in there even reading the resume for the burden it takes on the team to read that thing I mean I can't tell you one time I had videographers in Los Angeles looking for that we had like 800 people up I as you can imagine and I'm like well I'm just going to see if somebody followed directions and by reading the first subject line something that something that was good because I couldn't go 300 things I had to figure out something quicker and that I wound up coming at some certain criteria but it was hard it was I realized how much of a burden that was on me I wish I had I wish I had known that advice back then now so the application process is streamlined it and making sure that you must get right to the chase and the device and the device itself can more or less make those questions easy to answer maybe even autofill on some of those things like that right and then you know never two but before they do that or even after they do that I think you mentioned one time you mentioned step #2 was providing a reason to work for the company makes sense so tell me when we're like that so if you think about it they said everything we do is on social media you know we're running ads on Facebook and Instagram now unlike the job boards where people already go and looking for a job you have to do something to stop the scroll right because they're just scrolling through looking at cat videos with the latest brisket knife or whatever's popping up in their newsfeed from where they were looking at and then here's an ad for your company and the way that most people most people or most companies run ads is kind of like the reverse of what it should be they're like we're looking for HVAC contractors with two years’ experience that have this and this and this you wouldn't run ads looking for customers good morning hey we're looking for customers with a 3 bedroom 2 bath house that pay their bills on time and have a 720 credit score so we can come replace your air conditioning right that's the but that's pretty much what we're doing and with most job ads So what we have to do is look at why do the employees are working for you why are they there what are those intangibles if you call somebody to see that and want to take a chance on looking at coming to work for your company now in today's market it's very competitive and most people have pretty decent pay and pretty decent benefits but what are some of the intangibles like for instance are they able to take the truck home do they have a gas card do they have an iPad are they able to dispatch from home is there possibly no on call and I'm not saying that you have to have those things but those are the things that start moving into work life balance because whenever the pay is similar and the benefits are similar and I mean a lot of benefits as being the you know the health and vision those kind of things what makes the difference one of the biggest things that's all in one of them and this is kind of funny because it was and I had a conversation with the owner and she said I want to put on there that we have a fully stocked break room because the employees can come in there's a fully stocked break room they can come get stuff anytime they want that thing in the ad that comment got more comments and engagement than anything else we did for that company so you're looking at what are those things that what are the intangibles that give them more of a work life balance working for you versus someone else so everybody could say we're small we're family owned we have a great corporate culture but what are those things is there continuous training in their company events it doesn't have to be something that's astronomically expensive could be a could be a difference maker so putting it you know so you got to stop the scroll and get their attention and one of the places and I'm going to say one of the places that I found the easiest place to get that is asking your existing employees why they like working for you that's really great I mean if you think about it I love I love it you said there again to kind of recap that about it's like we don't advertise for customers by saying we're looking for somebody who's got enough money to buy an air conditioning unit who lives in a 3 bedroom house who do you who has a garage door or two looking for a or who's got a cool air conditioning like think how ugly that that would look if we said we're profiling customers to look for that kind of a customer in a way profiling is illegal Even so it's something that we're trying to profile people we're putting their profile public by the way which is something that I don't think is a good idea I think let's find good people and then telling me have some good things like I think that thing in the break room I found the same thing Jody that what people do with their time off is the thing that is more valuable to today's younger people than what are you doing when you're actually working for us is that your daddy yeah I mean like I said you know you've heard Tommy say from stage and bunch of times people don't come to work for your dream they come to work for their dream so you know how is it how is that how does that go into the mix and that's you know so really it's just about the thing about that brace fully stocked break room it wasn't the gewirz difference Baker it was something that was different that interrupted the pattern because whenever people are just scrolling through they gotta something's gotta pop and get their attention and of course one of the things we do is it's always visual and we get people who go to logo trucks in their logo shirts and everything doing the work because that gets attention because I'm usually I'm sure you've seen it Joe you don't want to use stock images because somebody made a post on one of the groups like this guy works for every HVAC contractor yeah right my guy with the blue overalls with you testing or testing the voltage on the on the plastic cover of the of the DX unit so it's always making sure that you're greatly represented it's got that hard hat on too yeah which nobody ever wears first Sir and the service business that's funny giving people a reason to work for you and you know it's funny because I would say that's kind of like it's not the stake because the job is the steak and the money compensation would drink at that next but you know the stake is the actual work and the compensation but the sizzle is what that is that's like that's like the smell of the steak or the simple that's not going not eating that but I could it's actually we can all admit that when that stick size and we can smell that steak cooking that's almost as enjoyable you know eating the actual steak is almost like a it's almost left down not left but it's sort of like uh just another steak cooking it and things like that and that sizzle you get from the steak is within that matter that's kind of what you're talking about I know last thing so gonna have that sizzle on your company stake to make sure people are drawn to that right #3 #3 is this is an interesting one obviously the stake is actually the compensation why do people come to work for a place with meat and potatoes are how we get paid and things like that so talk about that part Jody what do you call that number 3 the third step to attracting and converting people to join your company it's the positioning of the compensation and what I mean by the positioning is you not to future pace right because most of the people that you're looking to attract if you're looking for people that have any experience at all they're already working for someone else and you put up there that you know you have made two years’ experience and we're paid $30 an hour with health and dental and vision $30 an hour times 2080 right that's 60 grand but what is it and I always ask it for that question then I said what is it that they would typically make said well you know if they we have a percentage or they have performance paid then what is it that you're a decent tech makes on an annual basis because that's really what you want to focus on you want a future pace what they're going to be able to make you don't want to make you don't want to blow it out you wanna make you not want to inflate it too much over what it actually is but what we found is like starting at $30.00 an hour with a clear starting at $30 an hour with a clear path to 115K per year because if you've got great training uncle Joe here and he can help you understand how to help the customer make the best buying decision and they're able to sell them more a larger unit or a more advanced solution then they're going to be able to make more money so therefore they do have a clear path especially if you have if you have some Joe in there doing the sales training that clear path gets bigger and bigger and even if you start people on a smaller scale so let's just say that you're hiring apprentices right which we mentioned on a few times where he hires apprentices all the time during training they make $18 an hour whatever you do don't post $18 an hour on your ads because you're going to get about of comments what I mean back and bad of comments is going to be things like I could go make that a McDonald's or that kind of thing right so one of the ways to position $18 an hour is what it is weekly right it's $720 a week some reason subconsciously just like we want to do the opposite of what you talk about with yourself you never say it's $1000 right you never say it's $1500 yeah you use it use the smaller turn and you or you go through what the payments are here we want to make it bigger so instead of $18.00 an hour it's $720 a week during training with a clear path to 85K a year now we'll see that OK 700 other reasons psychologically $720 a week sounds like more than $18.00 an hour because it has to say that because we don't get combative comments on 7/28 we but we do own 18 an hour I think that clear path as well so like they're starting to 7:20 a week with a clear path to $85,000 that's a great aha moment there Joe because it's like that's what people want they don't just want to see a job to go in and work for today the job represents the future in a way that makes sense that you need to need to describe the experience all the way through and through and like I said fully stocked break room it's like it's like what I get some peanut butter cracker sandwiches for oh I can't popcorn and some coffee I mean it's about time somebody cares about sometimes it's like you know you're gonna get comments I would say like it's about time somebody cares about their employees or whatever kind of a thing right fully stocked you know I never put that on higher I'm already taking notes right here feverously Jody I learned just as much as anybody else on this podcast that's really great so positioning and the compensation to make sure you realize that how you pack you verbally package that to make sure that it it sounds like it's more and it's the same thing is that you're just using different words to kind of describe the path that people are going to get to the end result there makes sense and then The thing is that and it's like says the future pacing if you think about it you don't want someone to come work for you for 12 months you want to come stay for 5/6/10 years so by showing them what the future is because I guarantee you where they're working now typically they're not sharing what that would what that could be I'm not saying that everybody nobody does but I'm saying that's what you're looking to get that in front of the people who currently don't see what the future is where they are and see a better brighter coming to work for you let me just say this Jody it's every time I it's hard it's impossible to say Jody without smiling number one with you that number two if you wanted to research more about Jody Jody how do people get ahold of rapid hire pro what's the process like when they get involved with your when your absolutely so the easiest thing is rapid fire pro.com when you go there up in the upper right hand corner of the little green button to skip to schedule a call you go in there and you're scheduling it on my calendar and here's how I do it I do all the calls I don't farm that out to anyone else I don't know I do all the calls what I want to do is I want to understand more about what they're looking to do here looking to hire what you're looking for what your pay scale is and I'm gonna share with you exactly what we would do so that you can take that you can if you choose we're not right but I'm going to share a lot of information that you can take and utilize yourself with the choose to and I'm going to record that call Joe because I'm going to send them a link to that recording because I'm not sure exactly what the ads look like exactly what the message is so one of the things I didn't really go into is we have a very robust follow-up system because that's what it takes today's market in order to get in front of people is we put people into about a seven day marker sequence getting them to fill out the application and once they fill out the application the next step is we have them do an automated video interview asking them questions that way you can able to see what they look like see how they communicate causing today's market technician has to not only be able to diagnose and repair they have to be able to share the best solution with the with the homeowner in such a way that they feel good about the decision they're making so with that automated to interview you're able to see them when we go through share what all those things look like put that together so then you'll link to the recording and send you over proposal it's all on one page so that you can take a look at that other side of assumption that's going to work for you and your business based on what your needs are and I'll be the first one to to let you know exactly where I think that the best it is and it sometimes it's not but I do this it doesn't even matter if you need one person I tell everybody sign up for a call because I'm going to share some stuff with you but you're going to be able to take and utilize no matter what I've had people that need one person to come back six months later they know they need three and it's a fit and also they're able to take the things and utilize what I'm going to share only tell people if there's somebody if they're willing to say what they're going to do they should be able to they should be willing to record it and send you a recording of them saying it that is so great Jody again let me just repeat everybody here I I can't endorse him and his services Jody is a person and the service as a service O2 things are perfect together there's everybody's flawed but that the process that Jody has outlined is actually flawless and everybody every client that I have ever recommended to Jody has came back to me with raving reviews Joni again let me tell you what a pleasure and honor it is to have you on the line here and by the way if you want to just look up Jody Underhill rapid higher pro rapid higher pro.com you're gonna see a treasure trove of information on podcasts and videos and things that come up so I encourage you to educate yourself before you meet Jody and he'll be speaking the same thing to you but suffer will be more personalized and customized to you and your team so do you thank you so much for being here I really appreciate that thank you Jody. my pleasure take care.
"In a business everything is sales related everything is a sale right when you're trying to get someone to go your direction or to get on track or start an initiative or complete a training that you're putting in front of them you have to sell them first, sometimes we just want better sales for our team but we have to sell our team first and get them on board". - Danny Zatarain
Uncle Joe Crisara is America’s Service Sales coach! Joe joins Jim Klauck on The Service MVP Podcast to discuss the upcoming True Grit 2023 event being held at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada, March 2nd-4th 2023.
Check out this episode to learn why you and your home service team should attend.
Tommy Mello from A1 Garage Door Service will be Kick Off Key Note Speaker on the Day! Ken Goodrich from Goettle Air Conditioning and Plumbing will be speaking as well.
Joe has been helping service companies for nearly 45 years and has performed services for companies just like yours. Like you, Joe suffered frustration & heartbreak, and poured out the blood, sweat & tears it takes to survive. Over time, Joe has learned to change how he did things and was able to get more traction and better results.
Joe is here today to help all of us in service businesses thrive! Not just survive!
Space is limited to only 200 attendees!
Click Here To Reserve Your Seat - Service MVP True Grit.
Imagine your business one year from now…
- Your office, service, sales, and installation teams delivering that “WOW” experience to every client.
- Your team creating customized premium, mid-range, and economy solutions for every customer.
- Your team assisting clients to bring every opportunity to the most profitable conclusion
- Motivated team members trained to provide the best service possible in every situation.
- See high revenue and profit Online reviews filled with 5-star ratings and glowing praise
Check out this episode of The Service MVP Podcast! Learn how training your team reaps huge benefits.
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Podcast Episode Transcription:
“The client should be saying man this guy knows exactly what I'm thinking he knows exactly what I need he's not just guessing at it he's got it down”
I've got uncle Joe Crisara here from service MVP on the bring on success program hey Joe how are you I'm doing great today Jim how you doing thanks for inviting me I really appreciate that doing great thank you so much hey I am excited coming up March 2nd through 4th True Grit in Vegas at the cosmopolitan tell us about it well True Grit is a place where all the pure motive service professionals come to be able to get together and network as well as learn some powerful new lessons new way of training people Jim and some really powerful speakers too that we're really excited about introducing to our team you know I see my friend Tommy Mello or I should say our friend Tommy Mello is going to be there what's Tommy going to be talking about first of all I'm you know time is going to be there he's going to be there tonight before too so we have to contractor cocktail mixer if you want to see Tommy with a few adult beverages with them you might be you might be able to see them there and you might be able to get a few words in with them that are more personal and off the record you know the kind of time you mellow experience that we'd all like to get on the Wednesday night at 6:00 o'clock till nine and who knows how late it will go hoping it won't go too late so they have to start off the next day but you know the next day on day one which was Thursday then Tommy's going to be opening up with our keynote speaker 8:00 o'clock in the morning he's a great friend of mine and yours right Jim I mean I love how much impact this time how much time how much impact does Tommy Mello had on your life you know Tommy is a significant player in nothing service and I'll tell you he's one of the nicest guys one of the most knowledgeable people and he's opened himself up to help anybody and he's not one of these guys who knows it all he'll tell you he seeks other greats to make him great and then he teaches all of us he's fantastic yeah and so he will be our keynote speaker opening up at 8:00 o'clock in the morning at 8:00 o'clock on Thursday 8 to 9 he will tell you how to develop and train your team so that you can home grow your team of professionals and I can't wait for that it's exciting meeting on that I can't hardly wait for everybody to hear that but then we start after that with the escape room experiences after Tommy and this is where the fun really begins Jim really well let's hear about it well what happens here is we have a speaker that goes up first thing about 45 minutes we have a leasha avani and we also have Sabrina Scott who will be doing our wow customer service experience training there are the customer service reps from service MVP will be teaching you and your employees about how to create that wow customer experience the wild experience which is when you first say hello to the time where you learn about the people how to connect with people what we called magic moments and then we break out into an escape room Jim with four different quadrants the first quadrant is the introduction the next quadrant is the be able to learn about the family the next quadrant is the magic moment and the final quadrant is to make sure that everybody uh anticipates the needs how can we anticipate the needs of our clients so we get we get to do things before they ask us right that's the wild experience and I'm really proud to hear about that one the magic moment sounds kind of romantic the magic moment well it's sort of is it's you that's your customer it's your customer falling in love with you Jamie I figured it was that it's the customer falling in love with you the service provider and not sure if it's romantic but I would definitely say it's an experience that people get and definitely I would I would definitely like to see everybody learn how to do magic moments everybody could be a magic moment service provider I think we'd all be in great shape in this country I know the escape room is something that you do on a regular basis in your trainings
Do on a regular basis in your trainings yeah it is something that turns it from a normal training where people sit at a horizontal table and sit in the chair and try and hide behind their book to what where were you can't hide you're part of the action really you are you're part of the experience you learn it and then you help teach it to other students I mean how many times have you said it at seven our gym where you wish like I was you know I could teach this seminar I could I they should ask me to go up there I know I know as much as this guy does and that's probably true some of it because you know the boys themselves do it right but once you learn something I think we're all excited to help teach it and that's what everybody has an opportunity so you know the first experience again is that wow introduction escape room experience then we go into oh we going through the what I can do for you escape room so instead of saying the word can't or don't remove the negatives we only talk about what we can do and then we go into the code word to learn about the diagnose your client find their code words that they use and then we're going to do the magic moment escape room where we create that experience where people realize how much you do care about them and how much you are going to praise the effort of that client to share with them what impact the client is having on you the service providers that's the wild customer experience Joe you piqued my interest did you say code word yeah the code words clients use words all the time Jim to describe the problem or what they're looking for it's our up to us to learn those words and use them when we present the problems and solutions to our clients isn't it crazy yeah these are buying cues aren't they well it is something where the client is giving us the words to use that will help them sell themselves on the service in a way the client should be saying man this guy knows exactly what I'm thinking he knows exactly what I need he's not just guessing at it he's got it down where do we get that information we got it right from right from where it should come from right from our client that's where we get that from so what's next after that well then we move on to the next experience which is really dynamic which goes into the in home client experience what do we do when we're actually in the home well that is given by some really great people on that one so we have with us on that escape room we have my buddy Rick Picard who is a $12 million salesperson he will be doing that set you'll be leaving that second escape room him and shreya magani who is our another person who sells for us she sold in the first three months she sold over $3 million and $1,000,000 in the first three months and another $1,000,000 in the month after that so basically two high performing salespeople and service people will show you what the in home experience should look like and that'll be 45 minutes with them giving a lesson that we break into that escape room where we go into four quadrants there the first quadrant is the pure motor this game room we go in the pure mode of service defining what the pure motors are the pure motors and other phrases are put on the floor and you have to put those in a puzzle so you could put the parameters in the right order then we have the science of pricing escape room goes over to the science of pricing and for that Rick atreya will help guide you through that thing and the second quadrant will be on that science of pricing there'll be a kind of a game show on that one where you have a buzzer where we show you certain science of pricing formulas you buzz it to see if it's accurate or not you buzz if it's inaccurate and then you answer the question if it's accurate our room number 3 in that one that's quadrant #3 is creating a personal option how we make personal customized options how do we put that in place right #3 and #4 is using the word because to provide a reason why people should go far with your options giving people a reason that is on code like we had before but now you're not only providing the code but you're providing the reason for the code and that is that one that's really it's going to be exciting Jim that's extremely exciting I'm looking forward to the escape room experience and the way people are able to experience the training as if you're in somebody's home but not you're in a safe training environment so exactly objection land training sounds like a word you may have made-up objection land training what is that that is where we are going to be able to handle objections and this one we have again Mike buscher who was a $3.8 million salesperson he worked with sky services and Travis Smith the sky services and other people in Minnesota as well and then we also have my buddy Danny zatarain will be hit with him on that one he teaches total immersion so Mike and Danny will give that lesson and then they will break it to the objection land experienced escape room so first we have the what should we do escape room where Danny will go through that with Mike and they will give you objections like I need more time to think about it these prices are ridiculous my last plumber air conditioning guy never charged this much you expect me to buy this today these little things are all going to be answered the magic phrase what should we do right then we go into escape room number 2 and that is going to be the six pack of objections we have different six different ways of handling objections universally and we will go over those six different methods and Danny and Mike buscher will go through those and help you with that and then we're #3 is really an exciting experience it's the price objection we get price objections we are going to show you how what do you do when your prices are way higher than competitor only you would know since you know the service why do you think our prices are worth more why do you think our service is worth more they'll handle that objection get through it we have at least five or six different ways of handling price objections which everybody role plays on that one and then #4 is called get the clear future escape room that means at the end of every call you get a yes or no or another appointment and that's how we teach people how to do things make sure that at the end of every call the client gets this the service and the tangible service at the end of every single call you know I'm going to help my listeners out with something this is kind of a prequel to the event and I'm going to promote uncle Joe's service MVP podcast both Mike and Danny who he was discussing who he mentioned here on the bring on success program today have been recent guests of Joe's on the service MVP podcast go to Google and type in joker Sarah service MVP podcast and you can hear them talk it'll give you an idea of what you're going to hear and see at True Grit March 2nd through 4th thank you got it probably there closing that meeting on that day and then we're going to go into our dinner and we have an auction speaker auction where you can bid on any of the speakers and spend time and have a dinner or a private gathering with your favorite speaker we do that and closing I just kind of go over to lessons for the day in summary which you know in the day two really which is Friday which we open up with the winners and the announcements from the day got opening comments from yesterday we may have a few surprise speakers come on stage from that experience do we have some people who will be in that one as well and then we go into what's called the office staff training experience which we've launched right that where Julie Crisara herself will go on stage and she will give you her best 45 minutes on the office staff systems that are needed to grow a business like this right first she goes into the call priority scorer escape room where she shows everybody how we make priority scores for your clients so that every client gets prioritized then we go into the call by call dispatch accountability room which is number 2 that is a room where we teach you how to hold the people in the field and each other accountable room number at the number 3 quadrant in that escape room experience the office staff is zero tolerance for turn down how the office staff can be an engine to save lost opportunities and get on the phone and capture those lost customers before they become permanently lost quadrant #4 in that one is the client concerns good declining concern how do you take a unhappy client and turn them into a five star review that is what we're covering in that form isn't it great that's fantastic this is so amazing and we're maybe just about halfway through the event here yeah right about there right and then if that's all we did that would be great but it's not no more as we say on radio but wait there's more what have we got next go well then we're going to go into the really exciting the cop I call prophet X training where we show you how service managers finally get the job they've always dreamed of which is to make a difference in real time Jim imagine a football coach watching a football game are coaching a football game without having to watch that's what happens in most contracting businesses today but in this case we're going to show you how you can watch the field to play by going onto your software watching on zoom and making sure that the client diagnosed the system the client diagnosed the family the client you're your client your technician so as a service manager or sales manager did your person diagnosed the entire system did they diagnose the family and find the code did they make the premium mid-range economy choices and then they bring the job to a conclusion those things are going to happen in real time we'll show you while we're at the meeting how you can actually do this in real time and there's four quadrants to that room number one quadrant is the pre call so the coach has a pre call method of doing things the research the customer both in our company to research them on Zillow to find different facts and figures they'll be instrumental to converting that presentation then we have the pre call technician experience the call by call technician and coach experience then we have the installation experience how do you manage the jobs once you sell the job and then the callback call for the office staff too so everybody is accountable in real time it could be guided on track as problems are occurring not waiting till the day after the problem occurs that's called by call and really it should be play by play or something like that that you get something where it's definitely going to be better than just call by call because it's going to happen minute by minute and you're contracting business the pony probably put the leadership or management to a accountability standard that's much higher than what until the next day you know one thing I often hear is when people go to your training whether it's at your place out in California or if they go to True Grit from March 2nd through the 4th in Vegas they walk away with not just having a good experience but actually increasing their top line and bottom line numbers by multiples and so I encourage everybody you've got to get out to Vegas for this event what's the best way for people to sign up for this well the best way is to go to True Grit 2023 TrueGrit2023.com go there & up now here's the special deal Jim because I know you so well we have a special Angel we call Angel investor the Angel investor is really us we have actually noticed that we want as many people at this event as possible So what we did is we gave we invested some of the money in the contractors ourself and so the Angel investor us has allowed you to attend this event at 50% all you need to do is type in the word Angel when you check out and you will receive 50% off all your VIP and standard tickets Jim that's fantastic so there are different levels if you want to go VIP which I'd recommend you have access to just about everything and then there are other levels correct Yep the VIP has a special VIP dinner on Friday night where you get to meet with guys like Ken Goodrich and other people who are going to be Ricard and myself and the whole host of other speakers will be at that VIP dinner you'll be asked to be a part of that if you want to join the VIP if you want to be the standard attendee that's always welcome to you can go out on your own and the nights things like that so that is what we're doing there and definitely we are looking forward to experience I mean don't forget day three with Ken Goodrich just a bunch of people going to be there powerful people men deep Bala and all kinds of people Mike Robinson all kinds of people will be speaking at that day three too so many so much stuff that you're going to leave with a treasure trove of information to grow your business yeah and hey everybody listen up this is not just for the owner of the company or a tech or a salesperson or sales manager or project manager it's for everybody isn't that true Joe it is the first two days are specifically more for the team and then day three we have other activities for your team we also break out for the team we have break out for the leader so the leaders are going to join more of the Ken Goodrich stuff ken's going to give a thing that appeals to everybody's speech that appeals to everybody but then there'll be other stuff that we do just with the owners and then just with the teams and other training with the team only so that's day three where there's separate tracks on that so the owner can owners can meet together and the rest of the team can meet together with their own trainers absolutely true grit2023.com right truegrit2023.com truegrit2023.com be there and you get to meet me personally and definitely I've been by your first drink Jim you come meet me there well I am going to be there I'm looking forward to getting my first drink I'm looking I'm looking forward to seeing Joe and his entire team I'm looking forward to seeing all the attendees and of course the special guest like Ken Goodrich and Tommy Mello who will be speaking amongst others yeah star-studded event not the biggest event cause we're not probably going to we're probably going to stop selling tickets at 200 so it'll be 200 people so we'll be more of an intimate gathering at the cosmopolitan it won't be a mega event you know where there's tons of tons of 1000 people but it'll be something where you get I think you have more chance of seeing the people you really want to see not just everybody mark seclusive let's put it that way more exclusive the cosmopolitans a perfect size venue for it as well it's not one of the largest casino hotels on the strip it's A and it's located in a terrific place and it's very upscale and beautiful the chandelier bar that is beautiful you want to check that out once again go to your computer now go to your phone now True Grit 2023.com and don't forget to type in Angel when you check out you get 50% off that's it thank you Jim for this thanks for thanks for interviewing me and I definitely hope that we see everybody there at True Grit 2023 thanks Joe I'm looking forward to seeing you there my friend.
"In a business everything is sales related everything is a sale right when you're trying to get someone to go your direction or to get on track or start an initiative or complete a training that you're putting in front of them you have to sell them first, sometimes we just want better sales for our team but we have to sell our team first and get them on board". - Danny Zatarain
In this episode of The Service MVP Podcast Danny Zatarain joins Uncle Joe to discuss - "The 3 Steps To Training Your Team".
Check out this episode of The Service MVP Podcast! Learn how training your team reaps huge benefits.
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Podcast Episode Transcription:
In a business everything is sales related everything is a sale right when you're trying to get someone to go your direction or to get on track or start an initiative or complete a training that you're putting in front of them you have to sell them first right sometimes we just want better sales for our team but we have to sell our team first and get them on board welcome to the service MVP podcast this is where you go to learn how to use pure motive service to create higher value to grow your results grow your results and now here is your host America's service sales coach Joe Crisara welcome to the service MVP podcast and I am Joe Crisara, America's service sales coach here again with another exciting episode and this week we are going to bring out one of my very best friends whose name is Danny Zatarain, Danny is the person do we have taken on the initiative to lead our total immersion training program for field staff office staff and leadership Danny welcome to the podcast today thank you so much uncle Joe I really appreciate it I feel honored to be here well Danny a lot of people may not know and you're kind of hiding in plain sight you know and I know you're not a real big self-promoter like some of the bigger names that are out there but definitely we're trying to trying to encourage you to get your name out there more and this is an attempt to do that Danny why don't you tell us a little bit about how it is you got the road from where you came two leading our total immersion training and in this episode everybody Denny's going to talk about a really important subject which is 3 critical steps to training your team and so I can't wait to hear those three steps Danny much tell us about your background and how you wind up here for sure uncle Joe well listen I don't know to be just with you I never expected to be here in this place and I just want to say First off that I'm very fortunate to be able to do something that I'm so passionate about and that changes people's lives but it was a couple of years ago one of my friends has kind of reached out to me knowing I was in sales management and I've been in sales management for years kind of asking for help with their performance the sales performance of of an HVAC team right or a team that had four different divisions we did HVAC plumbing electrical and roofing and so he kind of you know called and said hey I need some help with sales you think you can help us and we went through a couple of interviews and kind of talked about what the job was all about and I will be honest with you I thought it would be a piece of cake right sells that sells everywhere is what I thought so I took on the challenge I was very excited about it and it was probably about a month in when I realized I had absolutely no idea what I was doing there was a very different kind of cells right than any other industry you know that well kudos for you for being self-aware Danny that's the biggest the first step of being able to work for our team sure absolutely 100% well and part of being self-aware right is knowing when and where to look for help so I did and I kind of took off and started taking some training programs you know some of the most popular ones out there enjoying several different several different you know best practice groups and stuff like that went through a couple of different ones that didn't really match the feel for our company for the values right that we had as a company and so I just kind of kept looking until I found service MP and it was then once I took that program that it you know the values really clicked for us as a company and doing the right thing and being really believing in what you're doing right being able to go to sleep knowing that you help somebody as opposed to taking advantage of somebody so when I realized that program fit I went ahead and took that program and onboarded that another couple of guys and realized that the performance immediately turned around so that was really fun and I think you probably remembered this when I realized that it worked well and I wanted to train the rest of the team and we went through I asked my old boss right for a you know overtime hours for us to be able to come in early and do that daily training for this program and at first there was a definite note right and I had a little bit of a hard time selling the value myself to my company of this program and then you stepped in and I was right on track so we did that we did an initiative that you kind of helped kind of put in place right where we would train about 90 minutes a day for three weeks straight everyone went through a graduation with her partner Chris right Chris camisa so everyone graduated the program and literally the month right after that and then now I'm not going to lie we definitely had other factors in place right for example we were going through a rebranding through Dan Antonelli so I know that definitely helped get us out there in the market and but the very next month after we finished our training we did a record sales month of over $600,000 when I think before the most we've ever done in our company was about 150 so it was a really big substantial change to our performance there as a team right I love that and it was great our performance was getting better and then of course I got stuck not knowing how to hold my team accountable came to one of your performance coach classes and kind of you helped me get the team back on track again and that's kind of our relationship started right with service MVP Yep and definitely when you became available on the market eventually you wind up leading and we definitely snatched it right up and then a great trip a good journey for both of us Danny let's go and get right to the content here right now which is the three critical steps to train your team to make that next step to record sales I mean I know it's branding as an important part of it but you know I say branding sells the company before the doorbell rings what we do is sell the company at doorbell rings to make sure we do that if you don't mind let's go ahead and start with those three critical steps so everybody can hear can realize that you know if you're if you're a service tech or a salesperson who's listening to say you can use this to evaluate your own company to see how you are being trained and if the training is effective because it's possible to do training and have it not effective and then the second step is if you're a leader or an owner of a company evaluate yourself to see if this is 3 steps that you are following these three steps if you are congratulations if you're not well Danny is here to help you and so am I so Danny if you don't mind let's go on to step number one what is the first step uh you need to the first critical step I must say to train your team absolutely so uncle Joe the first and probably one of the most critical steps and a lot of us are very are kind of tempted to skip it but that would be to sell your team first so you because I hear a lot of owners say I'm not a salesperson I'm just an owner of a company so you're telling me that the leader of the company has to be a salesperson too well I'm going to be completely honest with you uncle Joe I think every cent in in every way in a business everything is sales related everything is to sell right when you're trying to get someone to go your direction or to get on track or start an initiative or completed training that you're putting in front of them you have to sell them first right sometimes we just want better sells for our team but we have to sell our team first and get them on board it's that thing that we call voluntary commitment that is most important because it really encourages ownership and willingness when it comes to following through with training and actually being accountable for the results for it right got it got it and so tell us how what is the best way to anything any tips you can give us so the leaders of the company can sell the team to make sure they're on board with committed 100% you know and uncle Joe throughout this last year and a half of teaching total immersion one of my favorite things has been that the people that I've met right and I've been are you saying you know technicians and trainers around the country that implement these things and do an amazing job added one of them being a Blanca Rodriguez I think you met her at one of our total immersion events with Lee Zair she was she was actually telling me that one of the most important things when getting your team to voluntarily commit to a goal is that the goal becomes the goal to be their goal right and they have to trust you and know that you care for them so one of the most important things is just having that onboarding conversation right at the beginning to make sure that any initiative that you're trying to move forward whether it's training or if you're trying to get them back on track that you have that conversation kind of like hey Joe you know we're moving over to a new process that's going to allow you to make the most return on investment for the time you'r and in fact it's actually proven to increase results by almost three times so and the best part about it is that it's not focused on sales but providing the best service so I know you're passionate about that So what do you think do I have your support on this yeah so getting people support that getting that closing in a way by getting that support and upon enrolling people is what you're doing there Danny Blanca is a wise person she works at Lee's service up there in Fresno I think it is and for Tom Howard does yeah definitely is a definitely one of our signature clients for sure Danny I think that is an important thing because the team's not sold you know you could try to lead them if they actually the culture kills everything or the culture feeds everything in a way does that make sense exactly 100% you know that the bottom line is that you can't expect positivity and implementing something new unless there's excitement in the training and onboarding for the training right now would you say this is an individual commitment you're getting or sort of group setting you would get this commitment from people so how would you how would you put that just make sure people get it right well she should you do this as a crowd or do it individually like well I think it definitely depends on the initiatives that you're trying to promote right but for the most part I think it definitely needs to be an individual one-on-one conversation it doesn't have to be super extensive but getting individual commitment from your team is definitely most important I mean so important that Blanca for example right 66 technicians are doing about 60% of the profit over in her place and I mean they're averaging close to 3 million each it's a really high performing group that requires individual long boarding and buying right yeah so getting those people committed so it doesn't make any to get everybody let's just get the people you can't just do what you can right there you go wow Danny that is a great advice and of course Danny is always on Facebook if you want to get more from him he will he's so gracious he sometimes works too hard I try and tell him little bit dude you're probably giving out too much Danny number two what's the number 2 critical step to training your team oh #2 this one super important you have to be committed as a leader you have to be committed through action tell me more about that so by action that's that that says a lot there right and I think that's probably the key the key thing commitment is one thing if we all hear that word but action is different than could you expand a little bit more sure absolutely so there's you can say you're committed to and you process right and you can even commit money to a new initiative like signing up training right but good leaders can relate because they've been there right and it's important that leaders to complete the appropriate training that is that is you know for them to be able to lead their team through training so commitment through action more than anything I remember back when I was doing this training we signed up for your training we decided this is the one we love it we actually paid for it right we did our membership and everything and it was kind of like a checkbox so it's like OK sales training done right but there was no action or or follow through right it was just a kind of like a verbal and even a monetary commitment but there was no actual action towards it and one of the this reminds me of another amazing person that I met Aidan from duo right plumbers there in California I was super impressed by him because he actually came to total immersion before he sent his team it was just him and one of his managers and he said to me and I quote I would never put my guys through a training that I have now taken myself and I'm like wow that's a that's a leader that's got it right you know step one of commitment by action is that you know go through the training be ahead of the team if you're going to leave the team don't try to say the team and I'll sit in my office in the ivory tower take the training first as a leader so you can you can understand and interpret what they're going to learn right what's another level of commitment that's obviously doing the training first so you could be ahead of the team not to answer questions for the team when they that you got to be a salesperson or a service person but you should know the system they're being trained on so you can support that training in a way right oh what's another level that is a big mistake here that I think a lot of people make a second level commitment which is just really the ultimate action which is to do what I will definitely graduation but what about scheduling it though make sure we're scheduling this training oh 100% so when we tried to do it remember I told you I just kind of gave the guys their logins and said watch these videos right and of course there was nothing on the schedule on the board or anything like that nothing set aside for them so of course you know how many people do you think completed that training not too many I don't think I don't think even one of them actually put completed the training until we actually set aside from 7:00 to 8:30 in the morning where we would all come in together and do this training together as a team number one the rolling taking commitment to make sure you go first take the train number 2 scheduling it and now we're going to go #3 which is where you landed before here we are the third step is a critical step if you will cause wouldn't suck the leader takes the training he puts all the people through the training but they don't do the spinal critical this is the critical third step and you mentioned it before but go ahead and say it again Danny what is that it's graduation now what does that mean graduation then tell me what that how does that entail like people probably scratching their head like I have meetings every week with my team it's like you have a meeting with your team every week what's an important part of having those meetings you think yeah it's that final step that really makes the training real right it's this place where you come to full accountability so it can look very different depending on the type of training you're doing in the meeting that you have right it doesn't always have to be like this big d but it does have to be a time where that is set aside for the employee to be able to demonstrate that they understand the training right where you actually celebrate the effort that they made to understand the material and then create an action plan for immediate implementation that's what's important and what does that mean well that means accountability right and that's why graduations are so important because sets the stage for full accountability now that they understand so once somebody has graduated by being tested in a way I mean if you think about it if you're going to get a license with a plumber electrician or HVAC guy you get a license that kind of just say we trained you online like I say come in and take the final Test right that's the thing about it there's this event that takes place for a tent test now when it comes to this type of thing what are some of the tangible outcomes that and how does this benefit the owner to really put to really hate that event and make it happen how can that benefit the team the in your opinion what's the best what's the reason why that benefits the team so much well and actually let me if I could share a story with you of one of the graduations here at one of our total immersion events this year uncle Joe I really stuck with me his name is Blake he's with rice and shine garage door and Blake actually asked him permission to share the story but Blake came to total immersion and you know he was you know he talked to his team and stuff like that and he went and said when his graduation came about you could tell he was a bit nervous right just like everyone else and in our graduation of total immersion is to kind of a big deal right so we go through a call simulation and you have to handle objections and do a presentation and be able to close the deal right and so when he came he was nervous just like everyone else was nervous but The funny thing happened whenever he actually graduated and I finally said hey you did it congratulations you're officially a pure mode of service provider and it was almost like the blood was kind of left to face he was he got even more nervous after the graduation was over and I was kind of like ohh Blake are you OK and you know he looked like he was a little you know agitated and so we kind of helped him sit down and we got him some water and stuff like that and then afterwards he came up to a to us to tell us that all throughout his life Blake every time he had to do a presentation or talk in front of people he would either skip school or just not show up he went through school and his entire life without ever speaking in public in front of anyone and so and I was like Blake why didn't you say anything to anyone and then Blake was like well no I just you know when you when you talked about this at the beginning and doing the opposite I thought well this is my chance to do it and to do it myself right into and I just wanted to take on this challenge for myself alone and so after that he said his confidence was absolutely through the roof he went back and his performance was as significantly different than it was before his bosses actually gave him a promotion he was his performance was so much better that he earned the respect of his boss and his coworkers and he's doing an amazing job over there I was just talking to him earlier today he said he actually told me that what changed the most was his confidence after graduating after knowing that he could go through you know with this benchmark sheet from beginning to end and yes his performance got better and the trust of this you know Co workers and his bosses was there but that it's all related to the confidence that he got from knowing that he's doing the right thing for the people so graduation is just such an important step before we used to follow this process and maybe it wasn't so functional and now we follow this process and there has to be that really defined change right in order to hold someone you're saying if you hold the meeting in your company that the meeting should have a graduation to make sure you prove or test that you know what we just trained on today that's what that's the summary of even if it's just a small role play just like the one Blake and I did what about the pressure I mean with today's people I know that today when I was going I went through all kinds of stuff you know with the you know different wars and recessions and stuff like that so we always like out of pressure on people today I don't think that there seems like there's much that people don't respond to the pressure so much by the way it's pressure and important part of achievement when you think about that well of course it is and there's nothing worthwhile has achieved unless you have that pressure to achieve it right so it's most important to and really yeah we look at pressure sometimes or stress as a negative thing a lot of the time so when it comes to graduation uncle Joe it's kind of like the save button in your brain right it's kind of like hit that save button on a Word document right running on something that you're working on like being able to perform under pressure like that when you're just role-playing with somebody right and graduating a new initiative that makes it so much easier for you to do it in real life afterwards so man I could go on for hours as usual they always say great meeting starts on time good meeting starts on time but a great one ends on time we're about wrapping it up at the end of this meeting and I definitely appreciate you giving us those three critical steps to training your team Danny how can people attend one of the trainings that you do so you got the total immersion field and service and salespeople we learned how to do lead turnovers and things like that and also how to just do the benchmark sheet that gets people there the office staff training for dispatchers and customer service reps to make sure that you prioritize the calls dispatch one call at a time and learn how to do call by call dispatch there and you also have the leadership training like great performance groups and how to scale this success Danny how do people get ahold of you and how can they be able to sign up to get one of your trainings she's got a service mvp.com you can go to a total immersion sales.com on our website all of our classes are listed there where you can click and take a look and get a little more information about it and purchase your tickets and reserve receipts you can reach out to me Danny at the service mvp.com and I'll be glad to sign you up for a class or just call our office and then we'll be able to sign you up for any one of those classes and that office number is 877-764-6304 that's 877-764-6304 all right everybody Danny thank you so much for being here today I definitely appreciate Your contribution definitely it's a pleasure to have you here thanks for your time uncle Joe.
"I'd really rather lose the Business Today, than lose them as a customer tomorrow when the things that they buy don't perform as promised because we ended up cutting corners to save a buck!"- Drew Cameron
Are you doing your customer right? Are you sticking to your guns in terms of offering the safest most practical options for the repair or replacement?
Drew Cameron joins Uncle Joe on this episode of The Service MVP Podcast to explain the importance of "The Elevated Consumer Buying Experience.
This is a must listen episode of The Service MVP Podcast! Learn how to serve your homeowner customer by getting their buy-in on the repair or replacement.
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Podcast Episode Transcription:
I'd really rather lose the Business Today than lose them as a customer tomorrow when the things that they buy don't perform as promised because we ended up cutting corners to save a buck - Welcome to the service MVP podcast this is where you go to learn how to use pure motive service to create higher value to grow your results grow your results and now here is your host America's service sales coach Joe Crisara welcome to the service MVP podcast and I am Joe Crisara American service sales coach and we have with me today one of my very best friends drew Cameron from flow odyssey drew they had all the people who are listening to our show well hello everybody and thank you for having me tell you greatly appreciate that and likewise you're one of my best friends in the industry as well I'm not sure everybody realizes this but you know drew and I have a relationship to go back as far as 2001 when I sat in a class of his one of the very first high level classes I've ever taken and definitely I still apply many of those lessons today so thank you so much for getting me started with this and you know drew is one of the people who got me started with helping service professionals achieve great results so thank you so much for that my pleasure and I was a privilege to do it at the time and just enjoy seeing what you're doing and kind of think of you as my brother on the West Coast kind of making the impact that I'm trying to make and all we're doing is just elevating contractors although it's been definitely over 20 years you've been doing this exercise by helping service professionals and today we are going to talk about a very important subject which is the elevated consumer buying experience uh drew check go ahead and uh just give me a little bit of overview about what you like to provide with this episode so that our listeners can get the best results possible sure uh you know when we talk about the elevated consumer buying experience you know really what we're talking about sales and everybody talks about sales and selling and the sales process and I think there's a little bit of a misnomer of misunderstanding and we use those words because we know them and we understand them and we know what that means in the in the world contracting or even just in the world commerce right but I think when it comes to the in home experience and specifically with the sales professional not necessarily the technician because I think that's a different model that we approach and kind of a conversation another time about that but we talk about sending in a comfort advisor or design tech you know somebody who is focused on that side of the business running either a tech flip lead or a marketing lead what the consumer buying experience is it's an evidence based approach to teach customers how to buy and where value comes from so that they get what they truly want and pay for because I want the customer to understand why the scope of work has to be what it must be and that any shortcuts will lead to headaches and heartbreak sometime after the purchase what they buy doesn't do exactly what they expected to do because happiness is all about expectations and so I I'd really rather lose the Business Today than lose them as a customer tomorrow when the things that they buy don't perform as promised because we ended up cutting corners to save a buck and that's just something that you know I and my clients you never do and it's also how we offer 100% you know unconditional happiness money back guarantee and no surprises no compromises no excuses guaranteed you know that whatever isn't you know whatever isn't working up to their expectations you know we're going to make it right all the way up to 100% of a refund because I believe the myth of sales is that you know that we actually sell something I believe people choose to buy they choose not to buy for their reasons and on their timeline and my job is to align myself with their process and not afflict inflict my process you know upon them because I want to make a sale or film crew day to get a result that I desire I want them to get the result that they desire so it's a shuttle subtle paradigm shift Joe you know it's something that I know that goes back in your family history with your father John Cameron right Yep who probably had who you told me he had he had the theory you can't do it right don't do it at all right and so I think I heard you say to me early in the process when you're teaching me I'd rather turn you down then let you down right this that makes sense and this is a really a good approach it's like sometimes uh the hardest part of sales is being able to guide people the right direction because I think most consumers have a self-inflicted wound is that which sets a fair statement that most consumers when they don't get the service they want that it was mostly a self-inflicted one because they didn't really shop for the most of more effectively yeah but it's also because I don't think it can really knows how to do it right and I think that's kind of the you know the thing I think that's why comparisons customers do comparison shop right they don't know any other way it's the way that they know how to buy cars electronics appliances groceries clothing and no one tells them that comparison shopping is the worst thing you could do when it comes to the you know something that has to have you know workmanship or craftsmanship or craftsperson ship to be you know politically correct right and comparison shopping is the worst you can do right explain that grew a little bit expand a little bit more how is shopping for a service different than shopping for an item on Amazon or commodity you would call it I mean I was just expand a little bit more on that as to why is that such a difference between those two things yeah great question because you know all the value in the thing right the appliance part the tronics the groceries the clothing all the value is in the thing and for us in the service and this really the design the service the installation business the craftsperson ship business if you go all the value of the things comes from the people in the process right and the service you know of that and so it's not in the things but the customer doesn't know any better and most contractors go out there and sell those things anyway right they focus on the boxes the brands the models the efficiencies the capacities and those things are really just you really think about it those ratings are a matter of potential from the manufacturer the contractor through their processes and people and design and whatnot and then practices of putting things in and service and maintaining them ultimately determine the performance at the end of the day that's what the customer wants is the performance if the contractor sells the brand and the alternate commoditize that decision and so customers know no better and so they end up Paris and shopping yes so to get the elevated consumer buying experience it's gonna take somebody who's able to kind of fight upstream against that paradigm where people are trying to commoditize it and turn it into a thing because service is done by people and so in a way you are shopping for the right person we don't really realize it we think we're looking at the furnace or a tankless water heater or electrical panel whatever it is we're trying to do but knowing unknowing we don't realize that the person who does it is the most important element of the service rather than the than the parts itself is that correct 100% exactly you know I mean unfortunately you know as well as I do as long as we've been doing this sales is not a bad thing and selling is not a bad thing it's an honorable profession and salespeople you know I mean I mean people a lot of people say nothing happens until somebody sells something I say nothing happens until somebody buys something it's usually from a salesperson right and so it's an honorable profession it's got a bad stigma and so when people go out there and talk to salespeople consumers I should say go out and talk to salespeople it's like they it's almost like they shut away the person that they need the most you know cause that person's responsible for your ultimate happiness but because you've gotten triggered in buying cars or appliances and things elsewhere you don't realize how important the contractor sales person truly is into your ultimate happiness and quite frankly I don't think the contractors truly realize how important they are to the customers ultimate happiness yeah I think there's a balance between the technical solution that people are you know that's they represent this in the in the service trades by the technical solution you know the equipment or whatnot and the materials and then the balance between that and the people I think most of the industry is out of balance because they focused on the manufacturers the one who sponsored all their training mostly and that's why they wind up and that's kind of a cycle so this cycle of you know as long as long as you and I have been doing this and I've been doing it for just as long as you have except we're kind of brought we could be brothers literally both probably got my slightly younger brother but nonetheless could you better looking one too as I could probably tell you so I'll give you that you know the how can the contractor break the cycle that's been going on and there are a few people who have broken the cycle obviously and you know people who are following training like yours in our mind and our training we have learned how to break that stuff so tell us what is the way that you can give us some Nuggets that people can do to break that cycle of utility where people focus on the equipment and materials rather than focusing on that relationship which is what you're really get yeah exactly I mean it's that that is that relationship that's why I love about what you're doing with you know the service MBP and the little immersion approach with you know pure motive service because you're of the same mindset that philosophy and psychology is you know I am here to serve I'm here to help if I can I don't know if I can I don't know if you want me to there is certainly a price to pay for that but I think how we break the cycle is is to stop selling and be compelling because when you're compelling there's no comparison and so you know if we go out that go about our job about being compelling in our approach to the home and the people and the system and we teach people how to buy and where value comes from versus trying to sell them teach them the process that they should go through when picking a contractor who we are we already said a little bit earlier the most important decision you get to make is the person who you invite into your home to design this configure the solution of the parts and the pieces and the labor component right and then have the installation done and then have that installation verified after the fact test out right verification I think that's important ultimately then leads to customer confirmation that's where you get the review and or referral because you'll know if they're happy I mean because every customer is a author and a critic nowadays with the power of the review and social media and so I think if you basically teach customers how to buy and where value comes from and that the house is a system we look at the people we look at the building envelope and we look at the equipment and the and the duct system and the any of the fuel or the electrical assembly that's attached to it and we approached by gathering data so that we can then take that data from sizing the equipment designing air flow have you been looking at air quality and we can gather that plug that into some software tools that we now have available to us as contractors and build an evidence based approach to back up what I share because then that way it's not my opinion all contractors have their opinions and give proposals on their on their opinions we're backing our opinions up with math facts science data right thermodynamics and physics because I'm not going to just tell you need a certain sized piece of equipment a certain amount of air flow and certain duct modifications and sort of air quality things I'm going to have reports that back it all up right and we're going to teach them that our people and our processes ultimately is what the termed the performance which is the real product because you buy the outcomes and the results is what people pay for and what they want they get the things they don't want the things nobody wants a furniture an air conditioner ductwork or electrical panel right they want the outputs of those things So what is the thing I mean I can understand that the competence in terms of the solution and doing things I say compelling to me means that what's compelling to me is when I see somebody do something different than everybody else is doing that's kind of raises my compelling meter if you will right and so how important is commitment to the process by the service provider to make your case compelling tell me about that I love the question it's a fantastic one because yes you have to be committed to the process and your process is designed to teach them how to abide so it aligns with what they want to do it teaches them how to pick a contractor what the scope of work should be the standards that they shouldn't compromise on and so when you stay committed to that um you'll get the right result because your intention is right and sometimes the right result is you not earning their business and you have to be OK with that as long as you've basically done the best that you could to teach them how to buy and make a good buying decision if they make what they feel is a good buying decision then you should be happy right I mean I don't care what they do as long as they do it knowing and I don't compromise my process no matter how busy it gets how hot it gets with the calendar shows right I mean we don't run to run any more than two to three new opportunities per day Max because that allows me to stay true to my process that's when you start giving salespeople 456 opportunities a day they just start burning through the opportunities and they go away and they violate this commitment that you're talking about yeah because you're giving them it's like this the amount of calls uh being flooded and the people make each call seem like it's less important each relationship less it dilutes the relationships that it seems like you create with people you know and it kind of start goes full circle that would say what you know your dad said which is that right turned you down the left down right I guess that's the way we can gauge commitment drew how many I mean you're the that's why it was compelling about you when I first met you in 2001 you're the first person ever said it's OK to tell the customer no like it's OK to tell him if you want to do it that way we'd have you'd have to call somebody else so you'd be able to been away so we'll just say that's kind of like the defining moment sales people who are really more of a service person who says you know if we're going to do it let's do it right if I'm not going if we're going to do it wrong you're going to have to use somebody else I mean through how many how many how often would you say on a normal sales cycle or it looks like there's a week worth of calls that it salesperson is going to wind up telling you customer listen we need to stay true to this process and if you're going to do it that way we're going to have to tell you to find somebody else or we have to move it you have to move a different direction you know it's nice as you can say it you've got to say we're going to move this direction instead because that's really what it's about is that early in the call move in the right direction so how could you gauge that level of commitment by a service provider when I know you coach a lot of salespeople as you could probably tell me this the best what's your method of making sure that you get your pulse on the guy to make sure that he is committed to that process yeah I mean I don't want them to be so desperate that they're trying to make a sale I mean I again I think playing you know that game is kind of the finite you know game as they say right it's like you're trying to get a result you're trying to get a sale you're trying to get a Commission you know and they and they use that type of language instead of really using that the language that you talk about which is being you know pure heart right they're in it for the customer and if I teach the customer how to buy and I teach them the standards that they shouldn't compromise or compromise on it and I teach them how to pick a good contract what makes a good contract and it's like you don't have to do business with me but you should do business with somebody like me and you know do I want to earn your business sure if it makes sense and because I have to earn their business but they have to also have to earn the right to do business with me as you were saying right so if you wanna do it wrong then we may not be the you know the company for you and that's OK and so how I gauge it is are you willing to walk away if the customer is basically you know you know trying to compromise the integrity of the approach because it's like why would I go into a house and tell you need to modify your ductwork you know when you replace the equipment and then you say well throughout you know I want to do business with you but I really don't want to spend the extra $3500 on modifying the ductwork and if you were basically willing to say yes to that then you're the wrong guy you're the wrong person for the team right because you put the burden on the team and then the team was wondering what the heck the sales guy selling this isn't gonna work with the 14 buyer return drop 100,000 BTU furnace right there the team questions your credibility too not only does the external client but now the internal client too yeah you got to stay committed to doing the right things you know for people the right things for the company and like I said when you stay committed I guess I think when you are so committed and you leave no room for vacillate when people start you know customers start to kind of say hmm maybe I shouldn't not do the duct work you know I probably should listen to them now you know because I mean he's he's going to walk away yeah yeah and I think it shows like when you're when the salesperson starts calling his boss it shows you that cannot because if you're committed you don't have to call your boss you know when I stand for and that's it that's why I look at that drew I have one question for you I wanna make sure I running out of time I want to make sure that's a good that would say a good many starts at time and a great one heads that time we're gonna try but I'm not I'm think I'm gonna accomplish it because I'm you're compelling though thanks here's number three my third question for you is you know how should contractors share options to create a better experience for better results I think it's the mindset I know you're the options mindset I've always been of that way as well we say options not you know ultimatums like give people choices and they'll make good choices and so I in some scenarios though we have to tell customers where they have no choices that's where we talk about code safety functionality pre-existing conditions comorbidities you know the things that we're going to do that you really get a choice on because we have to do those right and then once I share those things with you I then share with you the things you have choices on and I approach it from in this in this order air flow and I give you a replace renovate or repair and repair options air quality I share with you the items as Ala carte as well as bundled solutions on air quality and then air conditioning right where we're heating and cooling the air and we have 7 levels of options that are available with brand neutral basically the equipment becomes plug and play once we do the aforementioned things and then I share within the third thing which is enhancements things that they can do now to improve and enhance things and take things to the next level or build the perfect home environment overtime and that might be things like again could be some air quality stuff could be a generator could be a water heater you know something else that they can they can add to the solution the nice thing about that is you do it now we roll it into one small payment option and inflation so I use a generic investment guide it's like a menu it's like going to a restaurant printed we lay it out in front of them we share with them all their options we lead with payment plans because the majority of consumers are our payment based customers and then we wrap it in a security blanket of Peace of Mind protections and assurances To remove that risk and reverse the risk but it all squarely on our shoulders way up along Wilder that is a mouthful and you just unfolded the whole sales process in about 3 minutes good job on that that you saw it's like I I try to think of you left something out I think he covered it all I I'm not sure if everybody can if I might want to put it on pause is going through that list though because and you were you were shooting it out pretty good now drew this is just the tip of the iceberg if people want to do what I did and learn from drew Cameron how can they do that how can people become more involved with your camera and I and I definitely I'll put this way everybody for every dollar you invest in drew Cameron you're going to get at least 1000 back pocket tight cause I have I've gotten hundreds of thousands of dollars back for every dollar invested in him and I even if I do buy him a nice dinner or cigar someday let's go but I'll still be behind the behind I'll be behind my payback there too but what can I do to help pay it forward for you to make sure that you know people can get involved with you and they can learn from you well I appreciate it John appreciate you having me on here and everybody tuning in listening and in the way you know what I always say is the way we get better is together and so if people think what I'm saying is a fit they can go to flow odyssey dot US or reach me at drew at flow odyssey dot US or just you'll reach out to me directly (610) 745-7020 what's that phone number one more time (610) 745-7020 that's my cell you can call me or text me if you're texting me let me know who you are you're probably not in my contact great and I will give you special credit too for having from Philadelphia and he still said the word water heater like a normal person that drew thanks a lot it's is it's very few times I have so much fun I shouldn't get paid for it and this is one of those times drew thanks so much for being here I really appreciate you being here with us appreciate you brother alright thanks again have a good one everybody we'll see you on the next episode.
Today's guest, Mike Braun, has been in the gutter business, gutter cleaning business and now once again in the plumbing business. Joe Crisara discusses 'The 3 Keys To Plumbing Success' with Mike and how Mike is hitting a home run with his plumbing business!
This episode of The Service MVP Podcast will not only educate you but motivate you as well to grow your service business.
This is a must listen episode!
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Podcast Episode Transcription:
So I'm 1.86 million the total sales numbers don't mean nothing to me the numbers you don't never really talk about Numbers it's all closing and I don't care if I close a $500 job or a $5000 job or a $25,000 job I wanna help a customer welcome to the service MVP podcast this is where you go to learn how to use pure motive service to create higher value to grow your results grow your results and now here is your host America's service sales coach Joe Crisara alright everybody well Welcome to the service MBB podcast and my name is Joe Coursera America's service sales coach and we are here today with one of my best friends in the plumbing industry today's subject is going to be called three keys to plumbing success and we brought with me again a dear friend somebody who has invested in his own success his name is Mike Braun he's from Minnesota he is a plumber he has had a license for 16 years Mike welcome to our podcast welcome Joe how are you my goodness I see you're a man of few words Mike but he's definitely a man of bigger action when he comes to using our system and taking it Mike why don't you go ahead and just share with the people who are listening just a little bit about kind of how you got started plumbing and then how many years you been doing this and what led you to the service part of plumbing go ahead and tell us about that absolutely Joel through high school I actually wanted to be an electrician got zapped a couple of times they said hell with this start looking at the plumbing world while I was looking at that I was doing rain gutters in the nights and weekend started when I was fifteen doing gutters and nobody ever heard of a gutter guy so I concentrated on plumbing and I started doing new construction graduated January 15th 2005 start plumbing January 17th 2005 doing new construction and remodels and then during this whole process I'm doing gutters on the nights and weekends and we just did new construction there's a lot of work it didn't matter how cold it was how hot it was you busted your balls and then the you know the economy crashed I sat on unemployment for one week and I said well this is silly I'm going to concentrate on my gutter business me and my wife really put the hammer down on that we grew to I think our Max we had 1213 guys going very fun industry to be honest I just got burnt out of dealing with drunks and drug addicts that's that industry and then after about eight years we decided to put that company on the market I was told that it's going to take a year to sell I think it was 90 days later we were close we sold the business I took a couple weeks off started I was going to go back plumbing again and then all of a sudden I end up buying a gutter cleaning company ran that for a couple of years and then I said to hell with it once I sold that I want to get back into plumbing and I didn't I was nervous to do what I was nervous of service so actually what I did is I went around the twin city metro here and interviewed with a bunch of different service shops around town and I started with one service shop I really liked the process the way they did everything I went interviewed a couple other companies and then all of a sudden I ended up committing to them that was two years and two months ago there's some things that I was fearful for but now it's fun and I'm constantly learning and educating myself and growing every day I wanna give you special praise Mike because a couple things you know Mike Works for a company I'm not gonna bring up any names of the company he started with that company a little over two years ago he called me about I don't know maybe a year ago about a year into it he must have like you said you found me on Facebook right Mike yes Sir Yep we're in next our organization and they have some great training I did their training but I wanted more and I wanted more and more and more I I just feel like you know just like reading one book you're not going to get everything and I I did some research online watching all these different Facebook groups and everybody kept mentioning this uncle Joe and I said who the hell is uncle Joe so I started doing some research tonight I found this and I kind of Start the Joe and it was life changing it was it was really cool well I tell you what I I agree next door is a great organization and you know definitely I'd say a lot of our members a lot of lot of people like coach our next our members and definitely recommended for people to get into more of a professional mindset that's really what I think the best thing that is done in the in the financials and they do a great job people with the basic training they do a great job with that this is just like you said another layer on top of all that it enhances it and I agree with that I think it's just everything working together everyone working to do the same thing which is make people like you successful Mike with this being That two years later Mike you said you you're finished this year it's your second year doing this as a plumber the reason we have him here Mike is the three keys the plumbing success are is because Mike can share his number on the second year Mike what's your second year numbers you're going to wrap it up right now or that you did the week New Year's leave will be tomorrow and New Year's Day is on Sunday today's Friday so go ahead and tell us Mike what are you wrapping the year up here so I'm 1.86 million and I the pretty cool thing about me the total sales Doesn't mean nothing to me I concentrate even my leadership team my managers like the numbers you don't never really talk about the numbers it's all closing and I don't care if I close a $500 job or a $5000 job or a $25,000 job I want to help a customer obviously we all know the $25,000 jobs are cooler but at the end of the day if I'm helping a customer and doing a great job they're gonna call us back they're gonna be a customer of ours for life and supposing this for everything for me and I finished the year out and I was pretty proud of it I think I finished it like a 77% close rate and the other thing too is I mean the difference between like the service stuff you can figure it out and get traction when I was doing new construction it was 4060 hours a week sun up till sundown I finished this year I think I finished like $1400 I took a ton of time off this year and if you really concentrate on your craft and concentrate at being better than you were yesterday stop looking at all the noise around you and really focus on what you want to do you don't have to work all that hours just be really you know be very effective on the hours that you're there yeah I think that's the key and we always talk about ironically focusing on the money part of it is the Exact opposite thing we gotta do to be successful I think we talked about this before yeah absolutely you know I see a lot of people looking at everybody else around them dude put your head down and grind and money is money is the money is the result of doing the job well and it's not something you can focus if you focus on money most like you're not going to make any always say right and so Mike let's just go right into this three steps of of plumbing that says I know I probably couldn't have a 12 hour interview with you and really kind of So let's just go ahead and try and move forward to this material the three keys to plumbing success that Mike can share with you for all of you plumbers listening out there who say that oh this is an HVAC you can't do that much and here's what I look at it 1.8 million 1.86 hundred $1000 you're talking about $660,000 that is 1.8 million $660,000 in trust that people have trusted their project to you and you have completed the project satisfactory and you would be able to keep going if you weren't making sure that you're executing a trusted project for people that make sense absolutely and it comes down to like I said we can mean you can ramble on for 12 hours about this stuff because it's so fun and I I get consumed by it actually my wife just gets married and I get consumed by and I just read and I read the same page I mean the front when I was in your class the book that you had developed the total version book the front page is filled with notes and I gotta read that page every at least once a week and just go through all my little notes all the little tidbits that we just talked about in class and it's so helpful and just changing your vocabulary so you know jumping into the you know the three things that I think are really successful one of the biggest eye opening things for me and even some of my team around me like what the hell you talking about Mike but like so I say Joe you're your toilet flapper is is worn out you're Jump on home depot's website you're gonna say ohh toilet flapper it's it's 699 so why does Mike want to charge me 285 or $300 for it right but if we start talking about a water level control system and I almost when I do my calls I almost play dumb what is it's a water level control system or what's that it's the water level control system it's inside the tank but if you sit down and talk about a flapper all you're doing is throwing money off the door and one of your number one things is I I forget your exact words but every task you do has got to be worth it's worth typically $500 right so we don't talk about a wax ring I talk about we're going to rebuild all the mounting hardware and reset all the all the critical sewer connections holy smoke the sewer connection so basically you're saying number one is get rid of the industry jargon and adopt and adopt A more professional way of communicating the service not the parts yeah yeah I shut off valve that that that that's worth $2.85 on art right but if we talk about the emergency disconnects that control your water distribution system dude you're going to start you're going to Taking these 2002 thousand $3000 average tickets I really like what you talk about a system right where you got a hole in the water pipe no you gotta failure in the water distribution system and that I it blew my mind and I came back and you know some of our install team was like what the heck does this stuff mean right I'm like dude it just dumb it down to plumbing terms but I'm using it as a as a as a sales process but I think also Mike it clarifies what the customer benefit is right like we're gonna rebuild that water level control system which is I mean to say I mean if you want to give people the parts that means the consumer has to do with themselves in a way like here's your flapper It's like go figure that out it's like dude no we're gonna rebuild cause it's not just the flapper you put you put the flapper in but you it's like you don't test it and adjust things and make sure things are cleaned up in there to make sure that if you did a flapper it would work it's going to actually work and of course doing the flapper with an old toilet is not going to work very well because now that's another secret I think about part of it which is number 2 we move right into that not that you can't continue on number one but #2 is moves quickly quick here is leave your mother in a truck and look at the big picture instead of looking at just the flapper what's making that flapper go back go ahead Mike could you expand on #2 which leave your mother in the truck you told me I love this I I just thought of it as a beautiful story so last year we brought on a fantastic plumber and when he came to us I called him a broke fix plumber you are a broke fix plumber you walk into the house and you fix that wax ring you fixed that flapper we walked into a house and the lady said it was a the toilet kept running I'm like fantastic 10 year old house really icky water I walked upstairs and it was a Kohler it was a Kohler toilet with the canister Clapper I looked at it and I'm like just sit back and watch this I I told the the And that was with me so watch we're gonna put together some really cool options for this lady says what do you mean I said let's put together some premium mid-grade and economy solution for this lady walked out to the truck and I put together 5 new toilets right this house is 10 years old five new toilets I think it was like $5500 whatever was 6000 months and then I broke it all the way down I broke it down to rebuilding all of our toilets right so new toilets rebuilding all of our toilets replacing just that one toilet and then also like rebuilding just that one toilet right and the way I went inside and I I spelled it out to her I said hey I'm happy to do any which option you want to do but here's kind of what my thought process on this this toilet just happened to fail you mentioned to me earlier that you're very busy you travel a lot I wanna take all the ease off you so I'm happy to rebuild that clip but also that toilet just happened to fail first all these other ones are gonna fail too she says Mike why are we talking about this replace all the toilets and he looked at me he's like dude we just came here for a toilet flapper and you just sold $5500 in total I said dude did I did I do anything crooked cause you know Joe you've seen this a million times when you're doing when you're doing really good and successful people go oh Joe's crooked Joe's assignee salesman Joe's yeah no deal so leaving your mother in the truck is it's some people go well especially plumbers right when the plumbers are transitioning into the sales position plumbers know what it takes to fix it right they know it's a 30 or $3 flapper right well why are we charging 300 or they know it's a $700 water heater why are we charging 3500 whatever we're charging right you gotta realize these people are paying a professional you set the stage for that professionalism for of them if you come in sloppy I had a very successful appliance store come to my house the other day and put new washer dryer in I both lost my hip when they came in my house and they didn't put shoe covers on I like was ready to freak and I'm making a point to make sure the homeowner knows that I'm putting shoe covers on to protect their floor going back to living another truck man lay it all out on the table open your eyes to everything in the home when you follow a process and I will admit sometimes I I struggle getting into a process right like I really struggle if I go to a home for a sump pump how do I get upstairs in the master bedroom or master bathroom that's a struggle but if you if you stick to your process last night I went to a house for fixing leaking kitchen sink I walked out of there just over $10,000 and I walked out of the water heater softener kitchen sink two lavatory sinks right and a gas regulator how did I do that I just brought that all to her attention and I stressed and I said you can To the one time we can do this on a rainy day but my biggest fear is for you is to have this 22 year old water heater fail on you on New Year's Eve when you can't have a service professional be all here two days well Mike let me just tell you something you kind of speak to exactly what I've always said most plumbers think that consumers feel this is a bother to having a plumber in their house the consumer is like man if I could have a plumber stay in this house and take care of all this stuff if they offer me this stuff I would do it and so by offering the premium option and leaving In the truck and say you know what this is a faucet league what are people because the mother in a truck is saying don't go to the other stuff they're not gonna want the water heater and water heater but you're like you know what mom stay in the truck I'm just going to offer him everything and let the client choose for themselves and I think that what most people don't realize is that when you got a professional plumber in your house you would like them to stay here and get things because that's what you found like over the whole this one year with success you've had sometimes I mentioned to like my manager I'm like hey man I really apologize I'm really slow and he's like no dude Whatever you do don't change what you're doing I'll go to a house for three hours right and I try to spend an hour just talking about I've been a I've been a Packer fan I've been a New York Giants fan you know just get on the scene the same age as the client and we always talk about you should be able to walk out of that house in the next day tell anybody five things about that customer and if it's their dogs name or their kids go all this stuff and if you create a friend people wanna buy my friend
And if it's their dog's name or Game become a friend give every Give the best service you can and how would you like it if I came to your house Joe and you had to call me back two days later because I didn't look under the sink next to it and it was an inconvenience for your life you couldn't go out on your yacht to cruise around the ocean yeah I think you're I think you're a lazy Plummer who's too busy to look at that stuff that's like a thing absolutely while Mike man I'm falling in love with you all over again except for one thing you said even Packer fans why no no no no no no no no Oh no I've been I've been I've been to San Francisco fan you just said you're daft to who you're right just teasing you Mike I'm just teasing you but because you know the Packers I mean come on I'm just teasing you like let's go on the number three OK let's get back on track which is you said number #3 is that you are a student I was gonna give everybody this thing here Mike's company did not send them to our training Mike said I'm going to pay for my own training Mike how important is it for you to keep learning and you keep consuming information to learn more and you Michael just called me randomly like Joe I got this from what do you think I should have done there I'm like Mike get Melissa on the fly 7-7 minutes or less than he's I got it Joe he goes out there and it turns out in the 20 then he called me he's got 20,000 on that one because they did that Mike tell me about how important it is that people have to the learning doesn't stop once you get your license and you're done you keep learning that's the part that really impresses me the most go and talk about being a student like #3 oh eyes and ears open at all times nonstop Literature so I'm in the process it's funny I'm in the process right now starting a hobby farm so I always say on the weekends is my time but during the week is my profession time so every morning I'm I live half hour 45 minutes West of the Twin Cities every day when I drive in I've got videos playing on my on my phone and I forget who wasn't it was Warren Buffett said you know if you spent so many hours on your phone a day you can you can get a four year college degree right soon constantly learn and if you find a 5 minute video clip that you love I watch that damn thing on replay right so it's constantly learning like I'm going to another next start event next is a great process right there they're fantastic your stuff is fantastic I've seen I would love to go out to see like victor stuff right I want to keep learning and what I've done I've created my own I call it hybrid process right your process is fantastic the process that I learned before is fantastic when you constantly keep learning and educating yourself I think you're just going to become better and better you look at sport professionals on the weekends Weekdays leaders don't sit around they constantly gotta be in shape and learn it at first it was really tough for me because all the training stuff out there in the home service business so much busier towards HVAC and I would love to sell HVAC I think I I think I would I would crush it I think it would be really fun at the end of the day it's all the same right i mean a cracked heat exchanger exchanger right is no different than a burnt out burner assembly on a water heater right cracked sewer pipe or whatever right yeah yeah so when you're constantly learning it's funny because in my organization I reached out to everybody on my direct peers and said hey you know would be really cool once every two weeks we're just sitting on a round table around the table and say hey how do you handle this call right and how do you handle this call what do you do on this objection like me personally I'll admit the number one call I need a softeners I cannot figure out how softeners right we have a dude on our team the guy crushes water solids I wanna pick his brain there's nobody else calling him how to pick his brain and truthfully I'd like I think that's how 90% of the trades actually learn stuff is because you can't learn it in school but when somebody said we all leave the trade school we don't know anything until we get in the field and talk to an actual plumber or another crazy guy he's like he teaches us that little trick of the trade if you will could just be one small word or one small phrase right Mike even not even learning like to better my craft but you know being a student when I go into a customer's home I'm a student I want to learn about that customer and learn their lifestyle and learn what they're about and how many kids they have and you know start talking about dry skin and water quality and gas leaks and future expansions and can I set them up better for future of the family and that goes back to not even learning at home how to be better in training like a sales process and everything else but also just being a student of your client and I think you can present them better solutions if you know your client right One of the biggest things I was asking do you know how long this Smith is gonna live in her home no I didn't ask that question dude you just you screwed yourself if they're going to be there 15 years start talking about a tankless water heater right even money and being green and show them everything possible do they really like that toilet I love it when I sitting at the table with the older generation they're tall and they're trying to get up off this old toilet and I'm like hey do you ever know like when you put a holiday gas station that nice commercial toilet we can put them in your house yeah let me tell you about get your checkbook out and I'll tell you more while Mike But you know what as they say a good meeting starts on time but a great one ends on time and you know like I said I I feel like as much as we have talked in the past we definitely feel like we need to talk more and definitely let's make a commitment that we do talk more in 2023 what do you think of that yes Sir I'm honored that and for sure and Mike I wanna say thank you again for sharing this valuable information to inspire thousands of plumbers will be listening to this and thank you for being just a good friend Mike because that's really the biggest thing I got from him is that his friendship is just gives me a chill on my spine to realize that Mike is my friend and I really appreciate that Mike absolutely thank you very much I appreciate everything you do for me person also for the industry your content is fire man well thank you so much and we appreciate that everybody have a great one we'll see you on the next episode everybody have a good one now!
Many home service professionals aren't in a position to stand out from the pack! They blend in with all others in their space. This is true of Plumbers, HVAC Professionals, Electricians, Garage Door Companies, and more.
Google, Nextdoor, Angi, and Home Advisor are the lifelines of many home service companies. The ones that can stand apart or stand out will ultimately win in the end.
In this episode of The Service MVP Podcast, Joe Crisara interviews Jim Klauck, The Radio Pitchman and they discuss the POWER of the Podcast! Learn how a podcast site of your own can make you stand out in a sea of advertising and marketing options.
To reach our guest, Jim Klauck (The Radio Pitchman) simply email him - jim@theradiopitchman.com
https://www.theradiopitchman.com
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Podcast Episode Transcription:Podcast Episode Transcription:
Let's say you're an HVAC company you're out on that call and you're one of three or four bidding on this job and the homeowner says OK I found you on Google I see you've got good reviews looks like you've got a decent vehicle I see you've been in business for 20 plus years why should I hire you everyone says that they're great they all have 102 hundred 500 reviews on Google and they all seem to be like a 4.8 or higher why hire you welcome welcome to the service MVP podcast this is where you go to learn how to use pure motive service to create higher value to grow your results grow your results and now here is your host America's service sales coach Joe Crisara alright everybody welcome to the service MVP podcast my name is Joe Crisara America's service sales coach and I'm here with a great friend of mine his name is Jim Klauck, Jim say hi hey how you doing Joe it's great to be here my friend now Jim has a business that he has which helps you to differentiate your service matter of fact the name of today's podcast is going to be how to stand out from the pack and Jim tell me about the service you provide and how you got into helping blue collar professionals if you don't mind sure this goes back to 2005 Joe as a homeowner I had an issue I had trouble finding good home service providers good contractors so I help my neighbors out in my neighborhood by putting together something called Check A Pro and at the time it was kind of like angies list when angies list wasn't as big as it is today and I started this in Houston TX well that was close to 20 years ago and now we're nationwide with this but what we do today is we help home service providers stand out from the pack by doing custom podcast sites for them and their business so as a service business of any size yeah communicate through their words on a podcast so that you can use this in your local community or in the area to be able to put put a voice to your company as opposed to just the brand and the and the images and things like that exactly so picture this let's say you're an HVAC company and you're out on that call and you're one of three or four bidding on this job and the homeowner says OK so I found you on Google I see you've got good reviews looks like you've got a decent vehicle I see you've been in business for 20 plus years why should I hire you everyone says that they're great they all have 102 hundred 500 reviews on Google and there all seem to be like a 4.8 or higher why hire you and when you have that podcast that's on audible and Spotify and your own podcast site and you can tell the homeowner you look them right in the eye and you say you know Mr. Jones about three months ago we were talking about this on our podcast talking about this unique type of job because you know that you need a five ton downstairs and a three ton upstairs did you know that no he says well you know what we had a job just like this and we talked about it on the podcast and you can hear all about how we help Mrs. Smith with her job so Joe when you do this you're showing that you're competent and you're credible and you're doing something the other guys haven't done because when Mr. Jones goes back and ask the other three companies to provide a podcast they're like we don't do that you can't learn about us no we don't have it so it allows you as a home service provider to stand out you get credibility you're on Google and you're on apple podcast you're on iheart and audible and Spotify there's backlinks going back to your your site for SEO credibility so there's all kinds of great stuff that just makes you stand out from the pack now it comes down to one word which is research right today's buyer is so sophisticated that they would like to research you know the people I'm inviting you to my home and to learn a little bit more because the problem is that there's nothing in the marketing that tells you anything really about who are the type of feeling people I'm dealing with but the marketing and brand could look great but then you get somebody who walks in the door but doesn't match that brand right so and I remember it would just give you like a little heads up I have one of my back when I had my own service business I put my image my face in my advertising and I said Joe Crisara I will personally see to your this faction which is I guess my form of a podcast back is back in the 90s right sure you know but it worked it was like you know man when I saw you're putting yourself out there and speaking to me in that ad it works in a way we've taken this to the next level where you are literally putting the voice to the company and sharing what's in your heart so Jim by the way the podcast that you Jim produces this podcast so if you like the way this sounds and the way that he does this I'm a product of the product for Jim Klauck and Jim let me just say thank you for the service you provide because you definitely make us sound very professional well thanks for the opportunity and actually what I do for you is it's a little different from what I do for my home service clients because you're more of a B to B and you're you know helping people with their businesses with their home service businesses as a coach and what I do is I help that home service provider get out there in front to the homeowner and be just a little bit different now you know Joe a lot of people say I don't know how to do a podcast I'm uncomfortable with the podcast the good news is I've been doing this since 84 now you're thinking I teen 84 there were no podcasts the Internet was barely alive back then I all started with radio years ago the radio pitchman is my other name it started back in 84 and I pretty much do the same thing I've always put companies out in front used to do it with radio still do some but now we can do it with podcasts on all these great places like audible and Spotify and Google and apple podcasts and iheart you name it your podcast will be out there front and center and I'm telling you your competition isn't doing this well Jim uh let's get started with the content I have I wanted to get three things out of you that we can do to stand out from the pack as a service business So what would you say the first thing that a service provider can do to use a service like this to stand out from the pack so what's great about having your own podcast whether you do it through our services or or you do it on your own it shows credibility it shows that you're an expert and it shows that you're willing to stay on top of the things that are going on today and in home service most home service companies and individuals have traditionally been a little bit behind on the times you'll find other industries that are further ahead so you've got a guy who's been turning wrenches as a plumber for 50 years and guess what he knows how to turn the wrenches but he's really not into the podcast thing and he needs a lot of help with his website and social media so when it comes to podcast site specifically we can really help you so if you want to get that credibility and be out there in front don't worry about it you can figure this out I mean look Joe's all over the freaking Internet right so if he can do it alright Joe didn't use to turn wrenches at this advanced stage if somehow I can yeah tap into something modern like this again I can't believe people just listen to me on their telephone and you know and they get a sense of who I am they get a sense of the kind of person they're gonna deal with it they like tone you know that they're going to be hearing like get a sample of the tone that as I give people advice over the air they get a sample of what the kind of advice and what that tone is going to be like is this guy friendly is this guy suspicious or what what am I what am I dealing with here what kind of a tone am I got there and so I think that's something you're able to do which is express the the tone of whatever the conversation going to be and people are like in a way like when I said before I had my thing where I said I had my photograph and my I will personally senior satisfaction people like Oh my God I can't believe the joke or Sarah is at my house doing a call right now and they like you you're actually here the guy on the on the advertising so in a way I could see this really thinking that wow factor that is holy cow are gonna be like your sales team each person from yourself to do a podcast with them am I on the right track here that you could do your own employees and maybe say something like that and you can say wow you're the guy I heard Ryan the guy I heard on that podcast yeah I was looking I'm happy that I asked for you specifically right you could actually the employee developed their own brand within that brand as well too absolutely and you become kind of a celebrity here's this really critical and i want move on to Everybody here's what's really critical and I wanna move on to that next point if I can which is that second point second point #2 so number one it gets your credibility instant wow right #2 what's number 2 Jim it's education so picture this everybody and I'm going to put up a book some of you may have heard of Marcus Sheridan a book called "They Ask You Answer", our friend Tommy Mello, Joe turned me on to this I will tell you what is so great about this book they ask you answer is the idea of putting up frequently asked questions on your podcast site and these aren't very long these are like three to five minutes and you ask questions like is it better to have a tank or tankless water heater when they're cruising the the web out there they have these questions in mind well they may see a number of your podcasts with these questions posed and answered by you so they get to know you and hear you in this podcast library it's education so when they finally make that appointment and you come out to the home they're like you're the guy just like just said a while ago you're the guy I heard talking and you answered all my questions I went to all these other competitor sites and they didn't even have answers to my questions today people spend a lot of time researching they don't spend a lot of time talking to you ahead of time and wouldn't it be nice if when you went out on that sales call that appointment all the homeowner asked is when can you do it wouldn't that be nice when can you do it instead of asking all these questions that they would have had to ask you but you've already answered the questions in what we call this podcast library and it's a series of podcasts where you ask the question it's a frequently asked question and then you answer it you're the expert they want to hire you Joe so so in step #2 you're saying you're organize the information by the category of what you are saying so for instance if you're a plumber it could be how to handle a slab leak in your home or what to do when you get a slab leak or tank or tankless what's better and then you're creating these these subjects somebody calls you for an estimate on its ankles you sent it out to them and they're kind of in a way you get you so now it's like well what did you think of the information yeah I listened to it man I'm just ready to get this thing done now you mentioned that so I wasn't a good benefit you mentioned there and so I can instant hot water yeah if you want the the what you put in we can get instant hot water at your fixtures wow that's crazy so they're confirming what you've already heard that's brilliant Jim I've never even I'm you're selling me right now I'm selling myself on your service even more Jim I can't believe I can't believe it OK it's already sold but heavy on here but this is a really great information I think even if you are just you could sit a company but I could even see an individual sales person doing something like this you know no absolutely and you know here I am educating we're talking about education this is a book that's written by somebody I know when can you do it I just kind of mentioned that and I actually wrote the four to this book it's a sales book in home sales she's very familiar with that type of thing that's what he does of course the guy who wrote this book his name is Tom Decker years ago we used to do a direct response radio program for him we tripled his little business he went from $900,000 a year within 12 months Joe to $3,000,000 with direct response radio it's the same type of thing we did the answering of the questions we did a one hour long radio show we didn't take calls because what we did is we used that time to ask the frequently asked questions and answer them so when people heard us on the radio they called they knew what it cost they knew how long it would take they knew the owner and all they asked was is when can you do it and that's what we want in home service right Joe we don't wanna go there and have a long sales appointment we want them to be ready to buy because we don't want to sell I think the more you can get that stuff out of away then at least the oxygen in the room for creating a relationship and making a friendship right cause that's really kind of the cherry on the top that's you know the foundation is does this guy know what he's doing do I believe this guy is credible and knows I'm getting one of the best people who understand how to do whatever trade of this garage door or whether it plumbing or electrical or whatever this guy knows what he's doing here right which can be done I think on that podcast kind of a format where you're giving enough information about you know how it benefits the client to do things in a certain process it can also talk about even the process of the way you deliver the information in the home so people kind of prepping themselves I really think that's a great way the educational part of it which does make it sort of prep to make that final choice of getting it done so I think that's kind of pre educating people to a level right and then you know the cherry on top is creating that relationship I think what is 3 Jim we have we have another three other we think something we better because there's a lot here to unpack there's just so much #3 is what I call the SEO factor here's what's really cool when we do podcasts for our clients and I recommend everybody who does their own podcast do this make sure you just don't do a podcast that's just on your own podcast site make sure it's on Apple and Google and audible and Spotify and iheart get it on YouTube we actually put these these podcasts on YouTube as well for our clients and now they're everywhere and then we do something else that's kind of interesting we transcribe everything so make sure everybody you transcribe everything and put those transcriptions on audible on Google on apple and also put back links back to your homepage on your main website so now you've got like Google and audible and Spotify and iheart all back linking back to you and all of that gives you more credibility on the SEO side on these great podcast sites I call them the podcast giants in my book and by the way Joe can I plug my book a little bit more I'd love to give this to your listeners and viewers if they like that may I may do that may I send this out to your people absolutely anything that is free or included is always welcome welcome to I would love to do it actually my e-mail address is on it Jim at the radio pitchman.com Jim at the radio pitchman.com send me an e-mail and I'll send it to you and this is a great way to learn how to do the podcast on your own I'd love to hop on a zoom call and help you out I love doing this for people I've been in the home service business now since 2005 on the marketing side helping home service professionals win more and I would love to help you win more as well so Joe I think we covered the three you know the credibility couple more things Oh yeah I do have something else right here yeah I mean I just want to give a testimony like listen you just start doing now we're on our we have our 5th podcast on so I can see people got hundreds of right I can't I can't imagine what's gonna happen when I have 100 podcasts but right now we've only done five podcasts right I can't believe Jim the sales we've already received but people like I'm just ready to purchase what you said is true I mean I could be a testimonial for that that people are like you know what I just heard you on the podcast giving you the prices so we can get this thing started I'm ready to go and we have I never even mentioned the coaching like I just I just like product placement in there I don't I don't say about the prices of everything like that so people like yeah I looked into it and I just want to get this thing done so that's number one but here's the biggest thing about the SEO I'd like to touch on that if you search Joe Crisara podcast you know it used to be like a plethora of podcast every like Tommy Mello, Christiano these people would interview you you too are you interviewed me too Jim so I have a lot of my but now at the very top of the list comes the service MP podcast with Joe Crisara and if you type in just Joe Crisara and also brings so right so very quickly like I within five weeks you are just my next search my name and the service every broadcast comes to the top of the list Jim I want to say that is a great testimony good I see a lot of people who do websites who can never make that kind of an impact so probably because you've got it under so many different media channels that it has uh makes the SEO really pop I think there's no faster way to get somebody to the top of that searching and then if you were to put that in there and of course you could I told Jim this makes it says sales training podcast we put service MSP sales training podcast with Joe Crisara it's kind of a long time but that is searchable if you type sales training it will come up as well Jim I just wanna say well done on that and it has made a big impact on that part of it do me a favor tell me I'm the home service front what kind of number what kind of people how many people do a contractor talk about his services any kind of numbers for us on or any kind of statistics or data or case studies that you could share with us that might make an impact the impact of the podcast any kind of case study or something like that a little bit more on that it's huge so I have all these like little individual case studies which are pretty much clients that really love doing the podcast with us that check a pro and if I may I'll just tell you quickly how we do this I generally help my clients by interviewing them as a third party endorsement so on the radio call myself czecha pro Joe and it sounds like it's an excerpt from my radio show and it's this podcast site we built for plumbers and HVAC companies and roofers and so forth you know Joe to answer your question it it comes back in so many ways some people say I just love this thing because it gives me great credibility my competition doesn't have it some people say I just love the SEO factor when I type in my name like you know Joe blow or you know Acme windows my company and my name show up right there at the top of Google it just goes on and on there's just so many different aspects to it it's so different than just the regular website and I'll tell you something really interesting that we found it's like a backup website so if anything ever happened to your website you've got a podcast site with your name and your logo all over it with your phone number and links back to your home page my point is if your website ever went down it's it's it's an extra website it's a podcast site Joe I'm sure you'll agree when you go to your podcast site it's basically a website built for podcasts but it has all your information on there it's like a mini website probably one that might be more valuable than your actual website like we've been working with the SEO of our company for years and we still have a hard time getting it to the top it is now comes to the top automatically within about five weeks it has of course you search service MP which before you search service MP we worked it was mixed in with a bunch of other stuff that said MVP and service and everything like that so definitely see that being there Jim is there a place that people can go because one of the things they're going to say is like you know I know they could get ahold of you and talk about it but they probably want to see some research again they want to the research is there a place on your check a pro website that you can go look and see clients that have succeeded maybe check out some of their podcasts to see what this experience clock yeah here's the best way it's really easy go to the radio pitchman.com and you can just Google it just type in you know radio pitchman the radio pitchman and you will see our podcast site and on that podcast site you'll learn more about us but you'll also get a flavor of each one of our clients because they're all listed there and you can listen to their podcast oh that's great so that's a great way to see if this is right for them physically I have listened in on some of those and I can't see how you wouldn't think it's right for you because this is the way you can speak directly to the public and educate the public to whatever degree you want to but let me know what's inside your heart and what's inside the culture of your company so they can feel that warm fuzzy feeling when you get to their house does that make sense to you absolutely and I just want to say something I know a lot of people have trepidation they're like you know I'm just a guy who turns wrenches right I'm not a media guy it's not that difficult I can really help you with it and it's kind of like dancing someone who's never danced before if you have a really good dance partner you don't have to worry about it because that person will lead and I can lead you through this whether you wanna do one on your own or you wanna do it through our platform that's fine but I would love to help you out certainly e-mail me at Jim at the radio pitchman to get my free book by the way Joe if you go to the radio pitchman you can listen to the audio version of the book and the book is short it's 20 minutes long invest 20 minutes and listening to a few chapters you'll love it Jim uh let me just say again thank you so much for the time and and this information education you're giving us today definitely your product the product I can see that and definitely it's gonna help so many contractors communicate to their clients what their company is actually about put that voice literally when your advertising is supposed to speak to the clients you literally can't speak to your clients using your service and definitely I highly recommend it for everybody to look into this to see if it is right for you Joe I really appreciate the opportunity this is fantastic thank you so much for letting us do your podcast it's a great opportunity as a matter of fact it was great about doing those podcasts everybody because we actually you know do the editing and and you know we post it everywhere and so forth we get to learn a whole lot more here at our offices because we actually get to look at it and listen to it so the education on Joe's podcast like what we're doing today is invaluable for all of you home service providers so continue to subscribe watch it and listen to it don't forget to contact Jim at Jim at radio pitchman.com right that's right yes Sir alright guys have a great one everybody we'll talk to you next episode.
What are the 5 common mistakes that home service professionals make? In this episode Uncle Joe Crisara interviews Mike Busher and they discuss these 5 common mistakes many home service professionals make.
Listen to this podcast and make more profit $$$!
It's all here on this episode of The Service MVP Podcast with Joe Crisara!
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Podcast Episode Transcription:We would offer up to a 15 year warranty but the customer is also paying for 15 years of service with that so we can make sure that they're married together right I don't want to give you a 15 year warranty if you're not going to maintain the system so I make sure you have both welcome welcome to the service MVP podcast this is where you go to learn how to use pure motive service to create higher value to grow your results grow your results and now here is your host America's service sales coach Joe Crisara alright everybody welcome to the service MVP podcast my name is Joe Crisara America's service sales coach and I am here today with one of the people that I am most proud of as one of my students here taking our total immersion training his name is Mike Busher, Mike is a seasoned sales professional who's now doing coaching for service MP he also does a pricing meeting that's called our pricing profit tax which is made for service taking members to be able to price out their services the best Mike welcome to the program how you doing today I'm doing good Joe thank you for having me I appreciate and being able to talk to everybody today thank you for taking your time Mike at through a hard day of work you still have enough time to help all you professionals out there get your pricing set up so today's meeting is going to be called I'm in pricing blunders and how to avoid them Mike will be here I'm telling you some of the biggest mistakes that noticed with people that he's been coaching with over the last couple of months now in our company Mike welcome why did you tell people this little bit about yourself and some of the histories that people know who you are sure so I've been in the HVAC industry for a little over six years was able to start with the company here in the Twin Cities with genz Ryan plumbing and heating and they really gave me the opportunity to take anything and everything I wanted for training which included all the HVAC training technical wise and then on top of it Joe your process with pure mode of service and being able to marry the two of those together I've got a fairly lengthy sales career in other industries over the years but never was very successful or had the type of success until I saw your system was able to work there for about 3 1/2 almost four years as a coach and trainer manager and field technician and got to the point of being a $2 million producer as a technician and then decided I was going to take my show on the road and and went across the country and went to a little company a lot of people know called sky heating and air in Portland with Travis Smith and that's where I really was challenged #1 because it was a big challenge moving across the country during COVID and just was challenged on what I was capable of and there is capable of getting to almost half a million in a month in production and just learned a lot about myself in the process and then you're training helped to push that even further to push the envelope of what I wanted to offer to the customer like what was the output that was your highest output when you're there it's got 488,000 in a month which at the time was a record that record only last about 22 days somebody dashed it with 629,000 yeah just it was great being able to even put myself in that arena and never even thought that that was something impossible well Mike yeah you definitely have earned your stripes doing almost 3 1/2 million dollars in sales in a year and so let's talk about some of those common pricing blunders that people make Mike let's get right into it what is the first pricing blunder that you think the number one pricing bonder you see that out there making the general public people who don't understand their pricing number one Joe is going to have to be not offering premium mid Ranger economy choices what happens Joe is what I've noticed it's it's unfortunate but technicians and companies and owners in general think that maybe giving your customer one or two options is going to be just enough through the peer motive process I was able to realize that now if we can give them two premium 2 mid range and two economy options the customer is going to choose way more and it makes it that much easier of a process that they get to decide and uh what I've noticed is there can be a lot of variations people think just a good better best is OK that's even taught in the industry we we work in unfortunately for pure motive service we're able to take that to a whole nother level to be able to make sure that customers and clients are being given every option possible and that we don't stand in the way so offering the premium option first is the key to you're saying is that option I suppose it's saying now what do you say to the people who say Mike I give people a prices like that I verbally tell them the prices is verbally telling people prices is that enough is that kind of what you're talking about there still no Joe it's not verbally telling somebody that's lip service Joe right if I'm not willing to document and write these things down that customer has no benefit from from those options they have to take my word for it so when you say when you say offering the premium mid range economy prices you mean taking the time to writing down the price before you go over all the solutions with people as opposed to saying here's all the problems here's all the solutions and let me go look up a price later on is that some couple under what you're talking about yeah we're what we're doing is we're we're spilling our candy jar at that point Joe and the only reason I've gotten to this level today is because I've done it numerous times and you've scolded me on it like what are you doing what are you doing out there and then I realized oh crap OK I've gotta have a proper way to be able to control the flow of information to the customer doing it that way #1 just makes you look more like a professional nobody wants to look like the average Joe out there you know Chuck in a truck you know trying to offer more service Mike what's the difference in the good better and best and the premium what's the difference in the result if I were to show my cheapest thing first and trying to upsell versus trying to show the premium thing and then say here's the rest of them what's the difference in the result that people upgrading from the economy option well starting at the low end first sure everybody's gonna pick a low end option right but you're not really doing anything for the customer you're gonna have a lot more Band-Aid repairs you're definitely going to get a lot of callbacks versus being able to offer the top solution first getting that customer understand why you're offering these things to them why you want to help take care of their family and provide these different services based on the conversation you had that way you're going to have a much higher result statistically most customers pick in the middle anyway right and only I think 8% of people actually pick a Band-Aid when they showed the process properly nobody wants a Band-Aid they they've got a better self esteem for themselves than that right Joe right right all right Mike what's the number 2 blunder when people do their pricing what do you say there is so I would say it's not really being able to differentiate your options right I I've been able to see some options where somebody thinks that hey we're going to we're gonna change our flame sensor capacitor and then they give you know five years of warranty four years of warranty 321 and it's still only one repair right not being able to offer more and offer more service and all those different things along with that it is a huge blunder and a huge gap for that company so when you say the differentiation of the option you say the options when you're making premium mid range economy options the premiums that premium enough it's not different than the mid range it's the differentiation between the yeah there's no difference Joe yeah there's there's no difference because if the only thing that's different is is warranty and service you're just having a customer pay for extra thank you for for nothing we should be offering them more maybe you know filtration for their air filtration water filtration there's so many more things that the customer really needs that we need to zoom out and actually find out about that family and that customer like let me ask you a question how about if every option has like a lifetime warranty on it wouldn't that create value for all the options?
I'm working on it wouldn't that create value for all the options if we if all the options had the same warranty you would think so Joe but but no in the end it doesn't right because what's the difference so so if I get a warranty I could get a lifetime warranty if I just bought a Band-Aid option Joe is that what you're telling me nobody wants that right so you have to have some or or why would I buy the premium one if the economy one had the lifetime warranty too why should so either yeah it doesn't it doesn't work with that part so the options being too similar and the ones not truly being premium with better you mentioned the air quality the water quality better service the five year warranty versus no warranty at the bottom on the Band-Aid right is that kind of thing you mentioned there yeah exactly if you if you're replacing equipment I know one of the things that I've seen over the years we would offer up to a 15 year warranty but the customer is also paying for 15 years of service with that so we can make sure that they're married together right I don't want to give you a 15 year warranty if you're not going to maintain the system so I make sure you have both so the differentiation which would include the service and the warranty being better at the top premium option and also not being being not as good is really an important thing which is not much number 2 #3 I'm going to bring up which is not using financing we're going to go ahead and put that one up Mike how important is it to make financing the gift of affordability tell us about that I really think that's probably one of the most important things you could do just because in this day and age the one thing I hear constantly is money money money customers don't have money well if you're not showing them that you have the gift of affordability right we're right around the holidays that really wants a gift give them the gift of affordability and they'll see something that fits their budget but that also takes care of their entire family very few people want to shell out six seven 8000 and and sometimes up to 60,000 depending on what we're working with that kind of money and not have some sort of a monthly investment option now on that part of it there when should people offer that should be something like like how should we offer that monthly payment should be delayed payment like six months same as cash or one year same as cash or a monthly payment because everybody says financing but exactly how should that be done because I think that's where people are kind of got kind of out of step on that right we all for sure Joe there there's a couple of different ways you could do it I would say personally that the larger the project you want us try to stretch that payment out for that customer and give them a a lesser monthly investment if it's something you know you could put a dollar amount on it hey 3 to $5000 so you get a 12 month no interest pay it off in a year and then the bottom option could be hey you just pay out of pocket for that one nine times out of 10 you're gonna get that customer to to buy a better option for themselves their family just based on the opportunity that they have to be able to make a small monthly investment and know that it's all taken care of and given that Peace of Mind Mike what is the next blunder of going on to #4 now what's the 4th blunder that people when it comes to making their prices for customers I would say that the fourth one would be the disclaimers that maybe telling clients to do things themselves or that the different things we won't do right there there's some ways that we can add or take away value from our options right so if I told you yeah you can do the bottom option here Joe but you're you're gonna have to do some drywall work are you OK with that Joe no most customers don't want to touch drywall right right right I don't wanna do it I I could do a lot of this stuff you could do a lot of this stuff but most customers are gonna say no I don't wanna do that so we can add or take away value by making sure that we're we're having those conversations and those disclaimers with the customer so how can we then like I know you're saying tell people to do things themselves like isn't it common that a guy service tech would tell somebody how to change their filters in a furnace are you saying we shouldn't be telling on that what should we do instead of telling them that how could that work well they definitely could do that job but what if it was an option where I came out to the house and I changed it out twice a year for you Joe when I was here to check on the system would that be OK would you be OK with that finished like 12 times a year like every month like how would that work you come out well in the bottom option it does Joe I do have some options up here at the top that you could actually have a much nicer system and you don't have to touch it you didn't you said you didn't like going in the basement down the steps right spider webs down there and everything like I hate that yeah yeah that's my job and I don't even like doing it right you live here something like that even a disclaimer like the warranty is not good how about this one you gotta buy a service agreement every year how do you offset that about saying you know that what if the guy doesn't buy a service stream he doesn't maintain the equipment how that's a disclaimer there how professional offset that problem well the the the number one way is just to build it into your options automatically right if you're out there you're showing a customer options for repairs from five years down to one or even a Band-Aid having a preset price for five years of service agreement with the warranty included doing the same for four and three and two and one and it's just the way you run to operate your company and to operate your business don't give them an option we want to maintain this we want to protect the warranty if you saw the media filter and you say well this thing's not gonna work if you change the filter so so so this is so we can't guarantee the filter if you don't change them so you gotta change them once a year you gotta go to the store and pick them up once a year or order them online or something like that wouldn't that are you fair to say that people do that well what else can we do well a true service provider Joe is actually gonna offer them more of those consumables than have them delivered right to the house I would appreciate knowing all my water filters for my RO system are sitting downstairs and just need to be changed from the technician gets here you got this final one which is number 5 and then we can still talk care about this after we get this final one out so the disclaimers and presenting the people for things we don't do or things that they gotta do because somebody shouldn't feel that's #4 what's number 5M it was kind of goes into both for salespeople and service people go ahead and talk about this one yeah Joe this one is a is a big one that I've noticed in the coaching process and the concern is that technician goes out for a repair job and a urgency call and uh the bottom three options are repair and the top three options are replacement right but we should still be focusing on giving the customer 6 repair options and then after so after doing that then get them to convince us that they actually want to see replacement options right we don't want to be mixing the two options it gets way too confusing you're going to end up getting a lot of conversations about hey just just go ahead and e-mail those over to me Joe right that's where a technician unfortunately can drop the ball and even salespeople by not having specific solutions at the right time wouldn't you say that a lot of times the when it comes to this part of the day that they have the separate repair separate replacement options that's gonna take a lot of work Mike what about that part what do you ever see service professionals who they don't want to put that they're working to make all those prices and make all those options and and why do you need six is it 6 gonna be confusing tell me a little bit more about that so with the sixth options again it goes back you know number one not offering premium mid range and economy options we want that customer to see that there's better ways to definitely repair their existing system but we also want to have them you know see that maybe it's not the best way to throw good money after bad and that we should have 6 replacement options built along with that right yes can a technician say gosh that's just so much more work well unfortunately if you feel that that's so much more work then we could always find somebody else that wants to make money at it right we there's all kinds of people out there looking for for work and I know that's where I started six years ago like hey I wanna make more money the six options is a key factor that you know they're always going to pick in the middle and if it's set up properly getting the customer to tell you that they want to see replacement options nobody wants to waste money these days they want to make sure that they made a the the right purchase at the right time and being able to have six and six is is going to give them that opportunity so like you discover all this and the science of pricing which you teach and that power pricing profit X class for service Titan users Mike you probably have gone through a lot of different people I know you've got a lot of in-house and now you're doing public events with this our pricing profit tax program for service Titan users when you do this Mike what are some stories you can tell us about things you've seen you don't gotta mention any company names what kind of things have you seen stars you've seen out there you told me about a client you just saw today could you tell me a little bit about what you saw there just give us that little quick story rundown so people can understand maybe they could tell by the story it might work out a little bit better maybe understand sure talking about what I come across is I do a lot of inspecting right I do a lot of inspecting on the option building on what the team is putting together out there for options for the customer and what I had seen on that particular one was just somebody was really uh not offering you know number one we're offering six options they had a mixture of repair and replace options together and it just you know as a customer I could see where that could be really really confusing some of the other aspects that I've seen where the science of pricing has worked really really well is you know within 45 days somebody going from a $4000 average ticket on the sales side to 12,000 right that's a two point I think it's like 2.6% growth right just in 45 days of understanding the science of pricing proper service agreements and warranties built into the options and then let the customer choose and you told me about the statistics of the company before we came on the air about what happens when you make these blunders you said they had ten maintenance calls tell me about there was yeah unfortunately there are 16 calls that were ran on a particular day and they walked away with one selling one Band-Aid and I I looked at various calls in my inspection process and found it's all across the board of what's being offered to the customers there's no consistency nothing that's able to be able to go back and leverage how the technicians are running the calls or the sales people are running the calls and that's where the problem begins if you can't inspect if you expect or there's no consistent process then it's gonna be an uphill battle I mean like if you look at it like this way the price the prices that we give people it's kind of like the baseball bat and the baseball game that's the that's the implement where we score runs right that's how we use those runs but if you're not swinging the bat right and you're striking out all the time it could be defeating for a team right so how does how does somebody like tell me who sings that bad or somebody who makes those prices how can they get better at this how is the way they can get better at this Michael how would you how would you advise a manager or a salesperson themselves to say I don't the pricing I'm not quite getting it right now how can they how can they improve this mic so the biggest way they can improve it you know how it's being monitored #1 being able to go in and inspect these calls but there has to be somebody may be a dispatch person may it be somebody within the office of field coach field trainer that's able to look at these jobs and recognize immediately when we have you know 6% closing out of 16 calls that there's a gap right if we don't recognize that there's a gap we we really can't fix the gap once they recognize that there's a gap then we have to be able to implement OK what do we have to fix first is that our option building right is it there's too big of a gap right those are some of the differentiating things we do see is having too large of a gap between two options while customer statistically is going to go for the lower number because they don't see value right or or having something that's you know gaps that are only $200 difference like we talked about earlier you know what's the difference here if I can get the same thing for this why wouldn't I just do the the lower one right well Mike unfortunately all good things have to come to an end now before we came on the air you did offer to make an amazing offer to people here on this podcast tell us about the offer that you made about doing a free audit of anybody's pricing if they wanted to contact you directly and say you would inspect their as a professional pricing inspector you would go ahead and make that offer to inspect anybody's price sheet and make them give them some feedback on what they could do to improve it Mike you wanna go ahead and tell us how people can do that yeah absolutely those amazing generous offer on your part Mike and the whole goal Joe is what are we here for right we're we're here to make everybody better I feel like I've been volunteer old so I'll go I'll move forward and and we'll do this see it's easy because I enjoy this right I enjoy coaching I've always have always have if somebody's willing to be open minded to the fact that hey we may have some issues and some gaps and let's let's have Mike take a look at it I would definitely do that you can e-mail me at mike@servicemvp.com if you know Joe personally you can get in touch with Joe you can get in touch with me on Facebook all those different areas I am more than happy to help teams do that and kind of figure out where the gaps how can we make your team better how can we grow because that's the ultimate goal right is being able to grow and and have those opportunities to watch your business day in and day out get better well you heard it here everybody Mike at service mvp.com Mike will offer a free audit of your pricing you have a problem most likely it starts with that using that wrong size bat or swinging that bat wrong in baseball and in this case the bat would be the pricing option sheet have to give people Mike I think it's a generous offer Mike thanks for taking your time after a busy day of coaching hundreds of people I appreciate you taking the time of meeting those here I appreciate the opportunity Joe and I appreciate everything you've done for me over the years so anything I can do to give back to everybody we'll see you guys next on the next episode have a great one everybody.
What are the 3 secrets in "Creating High Value When You Present Yourself To Clients"? Well, Rick Picard has been called in to answer these questions. Rick is a very successful home service professional and is wiling to share this secrets and tips to help you become a better closer in the home! It's all here on this episode of The Service MVP Podcast with Joe Crisara!
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Podcast Episode Transcription:The first secret is functionality and what's going to go someone's home we have to show that we're functional we have to have the tools that we need to do the job. welcome to the service MVP podcast this is where you go to learn how to use pure motive service to create higher value to grow your results grow your results and now here is your host America's service sales coach Joe Crisara alright everybody welcome to the service MVP podcast my name is Joe Crisara America's service sales coach and I am here today I have my great friend back with me again Rick Picard, Rick welcome to the program again I really appreciate you being here well thanks invite me Joe I'm happy to be here well Rick today we're going to talk about the three secrets to create high value when you present yourself to your clients there's a fact of life Rick and everybody should get used to it that if you're a premium service company and premium contracting company that you are gonna be more money get out of your denial and own it take ownership of the fact that it's more money Rick should we why should somebody be proud of the fact that their company charges more well because if we charge more because we're providing a higher level of service I mean if you think about it we're lucky as Americans right because we all know that if you go to a five star hotel it's going to cost more but the service is going to be better right if you go to our high end restaurant you know it's gonna cost more but the service and the food's gonna be better right so we're trained as Americans that you know it costs more good things cost more so why would it be different any different for us if we're going to buy fried high value service you know in order to provide high value it demands more it demands it costs more to provide therefore it has to cost more because that's what it's demands yeah because service is something that's not just in at the person's house I mean there's probably 80% more service that's happening behind the scenes that got the person who did the marketing the person answering the phone the dispatch the software the insurance guy the trucks the parts the material the education and training it takes I mean there's way more stuff that's at least 80% of what happens is back before we did the job right now I think people don't realize that the customer is paying for all of that the customer pays for everything though they Rick right they have to I think we all know that it's actively if we get a great steak in a restaurant that it wasn't the steak we're getting or the actual meat it's the experience we have a plate that's a real estate for one thing where you got a place on the we used to live in Providence on federal hill federal hill yeah federal hill you got the federal hill there and The Capital Grille was in Providence but the federal hill where they had some great Italian restaurants up there and you're gonna pay more for the restaurants because it's on the hill right and some of the ones that are Italian restaurant that's a couple blocks away would be less money because it's just not on that Main Street there right which went to The Capital Grille today so Oh my goodness you know what you and your daughter worked at a place and like on federal hill you sent me what's it called that's it that was a great science restaurant so Rick what are the three secrets number one tell us the first one to get started to create high Are you so we can present ourselves in different and just make sure that we are going to succeed when the prices are higher because the there's no secret here we have to make people think that the solution is worth more than the price they're paying right nobody wants to pay more than they solutions worth so how do we make the solution seemed like it's worth more than the price even though the price is probably five times higher than our competition well I I would say the first secret is functionality and we're going to go to someone's home we have to show that we're functional we have to have be able to have the tools that we need to be able to do the job all right so for instance if we're going to offer two premium to mid Ranger 2 economy options we have to have the tools I'm shocked how many people are talked to can't produce a presentation to show up period of time alright so if both decision makers are there and they're ready to hear information you have to have the tools to be able to make that presentation why you have what I call the mental equity there were certain amount of mental equity right and nowadays that mental equity is getting lower and lower and lower right got to make sure that we're functional enough to be able to take advantage of that time that we have to display our functionality yeah I guess if the customer thinks that it takes like what's this guy working now with the price I mean it hasn't ever done this before it kind of makes you think like he's talking like he's gotta go home and do it back at the office why can't you give me a price right now right this is their this is 2022 this people don't have a computer to get the price and I could go online and get a price right if I'm thinking right and exactly and again it's a demonstration of high value service when you could do it on the spot because if you're there and they have a need and you're leaving well and not giving a price that's just a demonstration of bad service also I good I also say another demonstration of functionality is talking to the right people at the right time right going to make sure that we find out you know that all the people that have to have access to the information have access to it that's being functional right so typically you'd be like the husband says hey we'll just give me the information I'll talk to my wife about it and tell her about this thing and then I'll call you back when I'm ready which is pretty dysfunctional because now you're putting because now he's the PowerPoint he's running the show like he only does one furnace in 20 years probably for himself right now he's running the show and you do like 500 you think you sold said you sold last year or whatever you say so you do 500 furnaces he does one but he's gonna run the show it is that is that functional it's not functional I think and if you could point that out in an effective way he'll see this dysfunctional when you say Joe I really appreciate you want what you want to do my job for me alright but you know what you know I'm sure what if Julie asked you a question you don't know the answer to alright so it would be just very dysfunctional for us to do it that way so I'm going to come back and make sure I talk to you and Julie so I can make sure I have all the solutions of Julie has a question I'm asking you to do my job but what if they say you know Rick I mean all the other guys are doing it or they just e-mail it and let me do it that way do you fight something that when they tell you that well there's a lot of things that are the other people might do that are not good service but we just don't participate in bad service so we either do it the right way or we don't do it at all and that does the functionality and now you have emerged as kind of like that man this guy doesn't even care if he gets the job he wants to get it done right I think that's what everybody you know I think people like around the whole world really not just in New England but in New England specifically I think people like you know they they've been around the block a few centuries and they're like you know I can I know when somebody's going to do this rocking kind of sense it they can kind of sense that when the when you're going to manage the project if you can't manage this part of the project how could they trusted any part of the project gonna get done is that make sense right so you see functionality is important all the way through like when they called the office and they scheduled appointment and then they get an appointment and then I showed up on time it's all demonstration of functionality right and then what you do now is your portion of being functional but it has to continue on I'll all the way through the company so you got that functionality being able to get the price and you know even the sequence of it right you're going to diagnose the system create the prices tell people the value of the system and then present the price that itself what about that the sequence of the call the functionality of that because sometimes people are they just shoot prices that people first ballpark price in a way and then go Oh my God 50,000 I'm not going to do any of that stuff and they already kind of shut the customer now what about putting the information in the wrong place at the wrong time what do you think of that oh that's deadly right because you know we want to able to make the presentation to them so you understand what that 50,000 represents right so you wanna reveal that only at the right time which is after you present all the problems and the solutions and they do that so Rick that step was number one is functionality and then that kind of emerges as like wow this guy knows how to manage a project he refuses to do it wrong I like this guy second thing that creates high value #2 what would you say that would be right I would say that's competence right so we kind of got that just we're starting to touch on that a little bit but I call it telling the story alright so when we have These options representing 2 premium 2 mid region two economy telling the story in a way that the customer understand the value of each one and the difference of each one is very important I saw that and also we're talking about the talking in a language that they understand yeah they're not using trade jargon BTU brands of sears HSP whatever you want to talk about static pressure all that all that stuff right we want to talk in a way that they understand what the value of that is so that they can they could they could see the difference between these the solutions that you're providing them yeah it's a couple of different things I could think of there telling the story I know that you of course you and I you and I are famous for telling stories about situations that happened in the home for service professionals but when you talking to your customer telling the story you mean that you have to kind of help people imagine owning the solution when and how that how that's gonna impact their family with that solution right like I remember you I'm gonna I don't even have one on the hopper you got from me know you told me about it but I wanted to go over one that you really kind of hit me up and I was on the LG training center down there in Florida talking to those guys and I did tell him one of your stories you told me about how does it really make sense guys that we're gonna take the air from a bedroom on the second floor drag it through the attic and then bring it to the garage and then heat it and cool it and then drag it back to the attic again and then into the room why don't we just heat and cool I think you told me that one time you ever is that typical story like that does that make sense yeah exactly you know it's so just in a way they can understand it so you think it's more efficient to deliver the energy right into the room or to send it for a long ride first before it gets here right doesn't make sense right doesn't make any sense right what about the other thing you said you had another story about adapt yeah you're kidding adaptive adaptability tell me about that yeah you you'd ask me like what when you tell the story what's one of the things you like to say and you know I I deal with this every day you know the first thing is you know I tell a little bit about your furnace is like a coward a gas pedal alright it's zero to 100 hundred zero alright and the and the sad thing is we only need maximum BTU's or heating in this house for very for actually 33 hours here in New England how do we ever all right but your furnace has no adaptability at all it's just always prepared for worst case scenario and the best sad thing is Joe we could get in with a third of the energy 80% of the time right so the best and the most premium I'm going to show you is we call it adaptive communicating what we've got and the reason why we called that because it adapts and communicates so as it gets harder and colder we're only going to do some energy as we need it So now I have an hour right but if we need to go somewhere real fast we have the capability of doing it all making what we need we're always right sized which president was comfortable but now we're giving that car gas pedal around the neighborhood hopefully within 20 miles an hour right but if we need to go somewhere real fast we have the capability of doing it all so now it's like having all the different systems that you need all in one system that's amazing so it's like having a that I think people like that that doesn't like the way the user word energy too like because you're because you're putting it that that's what we're using and you're using just the right amount of energy at the time you needed otherwise you've got you know say hot and cold air and things like that it kind of has it down too much but I see that purple packaging that's there too is that part of the above that competence and that verbal packaging there again definitely you know because we've used some words that the customer understand I think everybody can understand it but they just said bring it to the car now you know people do that as well but you know making it in a way that they that make sense to them they say yeah obviously I want something that's going to adapt to what my needs I don't want something that's constant volume right see all or nothing or I don't want to cobble that gas pedal it's dangerous right so I can understand they can understand the differences so it's easy for them to pick in there and see in their mind when you're telling the story you haven't revealed the price of them yet but they already know they want it just because you told the really good story you used the right packaging and help them understand why this one is so good that's great so in the way they've kind of already sold themselves on it right before they ever saw price I mean yeah I mean I think when you do the job right Rick did you say it's fair to say that when you feel like you've done this job right and you've diagnosed the customer you showed your functionality you showed your competence that it that's definitely something that you kind of feel like man I can't see how you could lose the job anyway what does that do for your confidence because confidence is an important element was it for your confidence when you got those two elements side by side going into the presentation well that's it I think functionality and confidence it has to increase your confidence right yeah it's kind of funny I had someone do some little lines with me and they said to me it's kind of funny every person you talk to seems like it's a laydown like at the end and so I actually rode with someone from John Wayne Palos yeah I said I said Carlos we saw 350,000 that week I said Carlos why wasn't laid out how many guys did the contractor did he have at the house for me he said there was four or why wasn't laid down for the other four why was it laid down for me I said because we're so functional and competent that the next natural thing to do is to buy because we're so different than everybody else that that's amazing and that's something a great week for a writer right along right it's too bad you did you give him a tip or something for making 350,000 I I think you actually charged the guy didn't know but you know but they gladly paid it cause tell you what yeah since that visit the John Wayne has grown exponentially you that was a that was a life changing moment for the entire company and today now that company sells over 300 employees and they have grown like four times more since you were there only a couple years ago but of the right before the pandemic hit all that kind of thing you're out there Rick now we go to secret #3 and what is that secret to create high value yeah I mentioned a little bit a second ago differentiation alright we have to be different we have to not do what other people are doing I guess is the best way to put it all right things like emailing prices or only producing one solution or you know a funny story I've had people that I heard presented to the nanny right what happened yeah we'll go back to how the functionality is is presenting the right people the one time I think I tell you one time I did a whole presentation for the customer only to find out it wasn't the customer was the nanny touch at the end she said well I'm only the nanny I'm going to give it to the Mr and misses when they get home I believe there can I confess something yeah at one time I did I was I was about 24 years old when I was good just getting into business I was kind of a rookie and my boss told me to go put a water heater in the house and I just knocked on the door and said I'm here for the water heater and the guy goes yeah go on downstairs it's downstairs go downstairs and start ripping off the water heater and put a new one in and then he comes downstairs run just about firing the new one up and he goes hey what company you're with I'm like I told him the company and he goes I talked to my wife and she didn't order it what I thought I thought I'd let you caught my wife said to get this and we were talking about one we never got it we didn't do it I said well this is 3699 Hutchinson right he goes no it's 3669 the nine fell over and it's like Oh no and I had the wrong house I didn't even see the guy never stopped me and guess what it was a free water heater we put in yeah that was you think that was demonstrating competence no I think well they got a free water here if that's if I'm trying if I was trying to give away free water heaters then yeah it would affect job listed on that one well the differentiation obviously and that is that's not the right kind of difference right we're trying to get right obviously emailing things like that I remember one time you told me a story about a woman whose husband passed away you did something there where you put the brakes on that opportunity and that's what sold the tell me about that differentiation there and that time right well I had a customer that was really nervous because she said my husband usually takes care of these things and you know he's passed away you know first of all I you know I I wanted to see how she was doing and he you know how you handling that how long you been married we were married for 40 years and I was a giants fan so how you doing your hand how you holding up well it's really tough because I never really did this type of things I said well I do this simple things all the time so I'm here to help you to make sure you make the right decision so I'm going to make sure I give you the most premium economy mid-range and economy options I'll explain all the difference to you in a way that you understand and then I'm gonna help you decide which one you think is right for you and the end of it what Rick what happened at the end but she end up buying a new system that was right for her and she that's great well that's good and everybody and you got a customer for life and right you know isn't it funny that the people who see this the you know this functionality the competence and the differentiation that's better differentiation not the one where you put the water heater free but you know that they see this stuff in it emerges like trust right Rick that people say that too what are some famous words that people say how do you know you've established trust what kind of words that people say kind of make you feel like they do trust you there well they I think there's a point and the point is if you look like everybody else and you're more money it's the kiss of death right the reason you have more money is because you're you you provided better service have customers tell me all the time you know the reason I bought from you is the only one who gave us all these options the only one who showed us the adaptive communicating system the only one who showed us the quality system the only one that offered all this different I can't write a check warranty the only one who's that's right so when I hear that every day I hear that then you know you're being different than everybody else and then you can create greater value because you are actually creating greater value by what you're doing I think value is created by actions and not just lip service request that first the first statement too absolutely and I guess that's my point if you just want to give lip service and say yeah well we're more money because we're better but you're not demonstrating functionality or competence or differentiation then it's not going to work because it shouldn't work you don't deserve it to work you got to prove it in a way while Rick you know what as usual is our second time we've done this and took the first time I can't believe how fast 20 minutes goes by just listening to a joke or saying report card we should have our own radio show and people should pay a lot of money for that I think and so we could just relax and tell stories you know but it's fun isn't it Rick thanks a lot for being here again I really appreciate that well thanks for having me I really appreciate you inviting me well my pleasure and so Rick you know anybody who wants to hear more from Rick and I we have overtime over on service MVP and you're welcome to join service MVP all of you are invited to come in there if you'd like to check it out come and go there and look at it it's $50 a month if you buy it on a monthly basis or $35 a month they buy for the whole year up front and of course we also have our live training at TI summit.com that's STI summit.com you come to a total immersion service summit which Rick came to before himself he's been involved with that many times and he's one of the best referral partners so he doesn't father referrals for me and Rick I guess Oh yes thanks for all those referrals thank you so much well I tell you changed my life Joe I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now without your help and like I would say there's nothing better than changing someone's life for the better so I I thank you for that well thank you as well you've changed my life for the better too Rick alright everybody thank you so much we'll see you on the next podcast everybody have a great one nice seeing everybody here we'll see you next time.
In the latest installment of The Service MVP Podcast, host Joe Crisara, America's Service Sales Coach invites Joseph Hughes from Contractor Dynamics on to the podcast. What are the 3 biggest mistakes home service professionals make? Well, it's all here on this episode of The Service MVP Podcast with Joe Crisara!
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.
Podcast Episode Transcription:Here is your host America's service sales coach Joe Crisara alright everybody welcome to the service MVP podcast. As you know out there I'm always on the lookout for new talent and people that can help contractors succeed and I happen to run across this gentleman who are going to have on our show today I his name is Joseph Hughes from contractor dynamics and I saw a lot of those little short videos and he inspired me you know you kind of see uncle Joe's tick tocks or when you see my tick tocks with my reels that are out there oh this is the guy who kind of got me kicked in the rear end I'm like geez Joseph what are you doing out there and how can I tap into that yeah he was so generous enough to give you a few tips the pro tips and I grew from there and it's been a huge success just first I wanna say thank you first of all for taking the time and meeting with us here and thanks for all the help you've already given you already provided value to our members because all those little short things that they see from me kind of started with well you was my saw something so I wanna say thank you alright yeah yeah absolutely welcome I just you know shoot me that royalty check whenever that comes in and we're good to go but that's seriously New Jersey that's a jersey that's a jersey boy inside of you right you got you get paid for everything I'm just teasing you know this guy so generous they're seriously I know he's joking right now but seriously I he provides value from the time you meet him just just watching and observing them you get dry from him just ensure you never know specifically if I could make a profit on this myself I'd definitely be able to cut you some checks if I could do that just showed the father Joseph oh shepherd Thomas about yourself and about you know how you got in the business of helping contractors succeed with their marketing that's really what your focus is on how they can how they can just do the little things I've noticed it's not some big overreach approach we talk about the little things which are common sense that I really like a lot tell me a little about how you got started in that area and how you what inspired you to help the service industry succeed yeah cool we are marketing training companies so like a lot of people listening watching they're probably like yeah I've wasted a lot of money on marketing agencies and buying leads and this that the other thing and I just don't like this marketing thing is like a four letter word now I just don't understand it I know it's a crucial part of our business so we're training company much like you guys are Joe and your team we we equip people and companies with the tools to transform and grow so we basically teach you how to fish instead of selling your fish and then we'll come up on 10 years of business contractor dynamics based here in New Jersey on the opposite coast says as you I've got seen all over the country and the reason that well the reason I'm focused on the contracting industry is because I grew up in it as I know a lot of a lot of us did grew up in my families commercial construction business as a a 6th generation family member so that business use marine farms is 128 years old this year and so I grew up in that got to got to learn to love that and I struck out on my own about 10 years ago because I wanted to create something on my own as I know a lot of the entrepreneurial listeners will relate to and had a passion for marketing saw the gap for marketing and the construction industry which they're there still is so yeah we trained contractors on how to do their own marketing how to run their own content how to generate their own customers how to build their brand how to get more people to know who they are and we have a lot of fun doing it so that's a that's a quick overview yeah it's interesting I really like the approach too just that it said you're training people how to do marketing and I truly believe that the owner of the company that job of picking his brand which is at the top of the pyramid I say that the brand is like the promise that we're making to the community and I don't think I've ever gets away from the ownership or the top professional ones of the company to make sure we're communicating the brand to the in a way that it's personal and customized to the community right so I think I don't think it could ever be handed over to some guy in Florida or Texas or California or even in New Jersey you couldn't find somebody locally who would understand the business like the owner today we're going to talk a little bit about sorry to hear more about that training element you can probably tell us clear we're going to do the three biggest mistakes when it comes to marketing your business and mistakes that which I'm sure a lot of people are going to be familiar with because every marketing every contracting business or service business including ours has made these mistakes and definitely I can't wait to hear now what the mistakes are but also what are some of the things that the contractor could do to avoid overspending and making you know making those mistakes and getting on the right path to begin with so tell me a little about the the training element and the this is not this is a training for you not a done for you service you're talking about so tell me a little bit about that and also tell me about these big mistakes what's number one would you say and also tell me a little bit about how the training element works into that alright yeah so I'll start with the training and get into the mistakes there and I'll frame this up in the lens of like I know like marketing can be this very scary intimidating thing right someone listening watching to this is like hey I run a service business I run a contracting business like start marketing aspect how am I supposed to like learn how to do this it doesn't have to be complex I think a lot of marketing agencies and people online will try to sell you on the fact that like they've got the secret sauce this is very complex like back end stuff and you and never be able to figure out so you have to pay me to do it as essence really like you said Joe it is your reputation it's your brand it's getting people to know who you are and getting people to know who I can trust you at the end of the day it's very simple and for most companies regardless of whether you're startup or $100 million company or anywhere in between like the goal is just to wake up every day and say hey how can I get more people to know about us and that's really like what it comes down to so we ran a full service agency for seven years from 2013 through 19 and you know built websites and ran ads and did SEO for companies and things like that we built up a nationwide you know agency and it was great what we saw however in 2018 was like we had a bunch of clients that were doing really well with the services that we were providing the as we were running and we have a bunch of other clients that are paying us every month but they weren't collaborating like they weren't creating any of their content they weren't they didn't care about marketing they just wanted to kind of outsource the US and you know have us produce magic and you know 2015 2016 that worked you know it's pretty easy nowadays are just so much more noise out there so in 2018-2019 we said alright well in order for a contracting company to be successful they can't just outsource this stuff like they have to be doing some of their brand building and their content a lot of it in house right so that's where we completely shifted our model from a done for you agency into a training company where we train we train you on how to do it yourself because it's that it's that important to do that like I think a lot of companies today this might be the first mistake is a lot of companies just wanna throw money at the problem right like you don't know how to do marketing and you just wanna pay someone a few grand a month or you know whatever it is and have them like produce leads for you and sales for you and that just does not work like it's not about it's not about having the biggest marketing budget it's about how you can get people to know who you are and how you can differentiate by you know showing off your team and telling your story and sharing your process and showing off your you know video testimonials from your clients and your customer reviews and just building that trust and building yourself up as a risk free option to do business with and so you know all the money in the world is not gonna solve that problem you've gotta be dedicating some time to it and if you're looking for a solution there in terms of like the mistake being too many companies just throw a bunch of money at it OK the solution would be invest 6 to 10 hours a week every single week to market your business to build your brand to get people to know who you are now that can be social media that can be going to BNI networking events that can be you know building business building relationships going to coffee with people other contractors like that sort of thing and it could be everything in between but someone in your company whether it's you the owner or it's a spouse or it's an in-house marketing person or admin person someone in your company should be focused on marketing for six to 10 hours a week every single week and that's going to make a big difference I'm not saying you can't you know spend money to help have someone you know run some Google ads or SEO some of the technical aspects right like that that helps for sure but like you should be the general contractor of your marketing you should not just sub it out to a bunch of random subcontractors you don't know your business who frankly don't care about your business right you've got a general contractor marketing otherwise it's going to be a complete mess you guys are able to communicate yeah only you know how you would speak from the heart and so basically marketing is a conference conversation you're having with potential clients now we say you're speaking from the heart as to the motivation as to why you're even in the business that you're in and it's for a third party to understand your motivation to help your community and your clients that's the disconnect is that you know truthfully I'm guilty of that too and you probably are have been too that but it's like man maybe I just pay more somebody would dig in and learn about our business a good sound like I've ever hiring people for several $100,000 and yeah this was enough money where they should be able to dig in and sure enough they just it fell short and I I do it that's why I'm doing tick tock and stuff like that myself because it's like you know what only I can speak about the way I can help contractors and I think that's why you do these take tracks and stuff like that too which are small little bites that people get to learn about you and that's what I did I like you sold me before I even met you truthfully I I just had a good sense of who you her I felt like I got to know you you're speaking from the heart and I can tell when people are doing that could all be authenticity behind it alright Joe that is a good one that because I think you're saying I'm marketing assistant or somebody who could place the advertising as a good idea do you but you got to be the person who is saying the things that you want to say to the market the promise that you're trying to make to your community in a way about how you're going to do business Joe what is number 2 if you can move on from there sorry about that I move rapidly to this is we have a podcast only 20 minutes I wish we accept them too we should be longer but then people are telling me that it's the shortage better so I'm going to see how that works what's number two would you say yeah you actually teased it already Joe we didn't we didn't prepare for this but you said that I sold you before you even you know even like met and that's what you want to do with your marketing right the mistake would be waiting until you need business to start marketing is not about going out and hunting for someone today who is ready to get their eight track system replaced or ready to get a room for whatever it is right if you want that you're gonna have a cold calls or knock on doors or you know whatever it is and that's never a good situation to be in you've got to I call it digging your well before you're thirsty OK so start digging your well now because the work that you do now is going to come back to you in 30 days 60 days ninety 180 days so spring season is coming up right so now for example is the time to start planting these seeds to start building those relationships to start getting people to know who you are so that when March and April comes along then you're in a good position you've already put out your content you've already got people to know you've already got people to see you as someone that's different not just any old contractor or any old service company the mistake is waiting until you need it waiting until you need to need water to start digging your well whereas the solution is to start digging your well now so that when you need water in 60 days then you've already got that water flow and you could just go into that well and get as much as you want when you drink that well like you're talking about Joe I tell us about how I mean seriously I teach sales training so I mean a little bit but he to say this because it's kind of like a conflict of interest from what I teach right but that's why I tell you what this is interesting that I found that when you're right when I start doing what you're talking about and deciding your lead and you kind of led me in this direction but now the sales conversations aren't having the cell people they're coming to me saying yeah I'm ready to buy II I just need to get the prices I already want to I know we're going to use you we already we already have it in the budget for you we just need to figure out what the exact budget is right now and have you found that to be through Joe and I do #2 and you dig that well ahead of time and people get people the familiarity with the company and the brand that they can speak from the heart they know what you're all about that that sales price how much does that affect the sales process is a good question yeah it's it's night and day I mean so for example right now this morning I have two I have two leads in my inbox so one of them is from a guy who someone had just tagged me in a Facebook group yesterday and this guy reached out he has no idea you know who I am what we do that sort of thing OK so that's one lead and then we have another one that's like hey Joseph I've been following you for a while you know I I need help with my marketing I'd like to talk so like which one am I gonna get back to you first like which one has #2 I think #2 on that one yeah which one has the higher likelihood of posing you know which ones gonna be you know not just closing but like which ones gonna be a better customer better client because they're already brought in so like our they're doing things it's night and day so yeah there's no example right there and you are like a brother from another mother I can't even believe this you know my family originally from New Jersey too you never know we might have a small overlap somewhere you just never know from Trenton NJ it's goodbye now and that's a great advice that the familiarity of it and this kind of pre sold though it's like people they sold before you even met them as opposed to get stranger customers are now shopping for everybody and they kind of got this familiarity with your brand that's why I think the impact of the brand is such an important factor because it does put the grease on the sales process for sure people want people sold themselves before they even got there #3 Joe what are we talking about here what would you say the third biggest mistake is alright man so many I can list but so #3 would be waiting till running to like wait till everything's perfect and and lined out before you do it right so you don't have to have like a professional video crew you don't need to have you know all your ducks in a row you don't need to have the perfect website you don't even need to have a website OK just get out there and one way to do it is get out there on social media like we talked about the beginning Joe get on camera guess what everyone's scared to get on camera I I am too I still am nervous about it but I've been doing it for a bunch of years I've gotten the reps in I get comfortable with it and I know that the impact it has on on our market and on our business on the people that we get to work with so if you can get out of your comfort zone and get on camera and just start getting the reps in it's like going to the gym you don't go on you know January 1st and you're not going to you know have any personal records at the gym you gotta show up day in and day out week in and week out and then you get stronger you get better at it those weights never get lighter you just get stronger you just get more capable of doing it so don't wait don't wait do it today if you're listening to this watching this do it today do something today get on your smartphone get on video talk about the services that you provide people solve problems give them some education and just go from there just get started you've gotta start and that's where a lot of people just they don't start you know wait for perfection it's progress not perfection right you're not going to get it truthfully if it was perfection it probably wouldn't be you because you're probably not perfect right it's if they wouldn't be wouldn't be optic anymore you'd be taking away that number 2 aspect of it which is that authentic you that you're getting there right and you're losing that authenticity when it's too slick in a way that makes sense oh absolutely like even on stage I got up on stage and talked about you know I opened up with how nervous I am and things like that not just immediately kind of breaks down that barrier and people can connect with you so authenticity is is so key yeah it's like sharing your feelings about the way things are you know truthfully when I when I took your lead and started doing it myself I noticed that like I'm like man like I look awful on camera alright I saw like I didn't like the sound of my own voice like the way I looked I'm like screw it I'm just doing this and then I started modifying a I got a program that the subtitles for me and I'm like that's pretty cool and then I got you know I found a way to commit my face look a little bit prettier at the so that I'm like OK I can live with this and then truthfully nobody gave a crap that really I was like I'm way over but I think the biggest thing I did like you're saying is that kind of like I'm just gonna do I've gotta take something that happened today I think a good tip would be guys I know we figured this job go get a pro tip for myself I from my I'm listening to you and what I learned from you is that take a problem that you're currently going through today and how you solve that problem and make that problem public as content or your what do you think of that advice Joe use that as sort of a content idea generator we think I mean that's the that's the best absolutely so take the FAQ that you're getting from your customers your market from other people like how does this work or how do I make a good decision about this how do I choose the better of the you know the best contractor for my job or whatever it might be just answer questions a lot of times I'll sit here right here in my studio at the end of the day and just kind of recap my day and I'll you know pull out my phone and I'll do it Instagram real or story or Facebook and I'll just say hey you know we helped this client out with this problem today this challenge I know this is a common thing that a lot of people go through so I want to help you out with it too and like it's as simple as that you don't need to like write a script or anything like that just to kind of recap your day but like 3 minute in terms of like how is your audience going to benefit from this info and if you frame it in that lens and you're that you're going to always like be putting out valuable content and I think that you know we could have taken a lead from TV stations they've known this for many years but the future really has about attention span of about 17 seconds even 30 seconds is like forever you know I do 60 seconds on those things I've some of might do but I and I I realize that you when I'm doing like I used to think like 5 minutes was short but truthfully I start realizing that even 30 seconds so I'm trying to figure out how to get in the 15 seconds so if you got something that's just an idea of lesson that you learned from a mistake that your company made you say Here's something that a common mistake that roofing companies or heating companies make but our company here's what we did to offset that so we're going to do this for you as our community department to take 17 seconds 15 seconds that I think the attention span of the average person got realized that you know it's this thing you're putting out there it may not be perfect but it's you know showing people that you're putting thought into creating solutions for your community that's really what business is about without creating solutions this is really nothing right Joe absolutely yeah I mean you're helping people solve problems I know you talk about that in your sales process the pure motive right like going through the whole process and you're not just selling you know an air conditioning unit or a roof like you're really truly helping people solve their problems so absolutely so Joe tell me what's in your heart why is it So what triggers you as your pure motive I know I got home clear motives for the contractors and we have ours too for service MVP but tell us a little bit about Joseph Hughes and the motivation that gets you every morning to make these tick tocks and hit Facebook and it's still do a full time job working with your clients to teach them and train them well let's think motivates you what gets what's the reason what's better some reasons why you find it so important and you have so much passion for this job because I struggle as a business owner the first three years because I I try to figure I thought I had to figure out everything on my own I thought somehow my business model was unique and I had a I had to figure out all my own and maybe that's my blue collar kind of work ethic coming through and it wasn't until I kind of tapped into you know my first mastermind group got my first business coach three years in I was like wow like my problems are not unique like I don't need to figure out everything on my own right so when you get out of my own way let me trust other people let me leverage the experience of others I'm not going to eliminate all the mistakes of course but can I limit them can I limit the downside can I shorten my learning curve can I get a community of people that really understand my problems and realize that like hey we all go through the same stuff and that's a big part of it I know there's so many business owners out there and other leaders just trying to figure things out right whether it's business whether it's managing business and building a family and trying to stay healthy and all those things like it's all it's all connected so I just like to share my experiences and it worked for me because I know that other people go through a lot of the same you know challenges upsides downsides that sort of thing so yeah I can help people on their journey like that's I can help one person with a piece of content and that's you know shift their mindset around a particular thing or believe in themselves a little bit more or get out of their own way like that's a that's a win every day what's that like for you when you get feedback from clients that said Joe your service is really helping me what's that like when they give you that kind of feedback for you what's that is that the home you're looking for is that is that is that really what you're after what you think yeah words of affirmation or my love language so like if you say thank you or if you let us know that you know getting clients to the point where they're generating more sales and making more money like that's cool you know that's great uh we have young clients who are you know they're hiring their first employee because of you know the guidance that we've given them and now they can you know now they can you know take some more time off or maybe don't have to work 14 hours a day maybe they can spend more time with their family or they can you know we have one client in Texas he's actually a a full time contracting company owner and a full time fireman couple of his fireman in his department passed away on fire and he was able to take a couple weeks off and whatnot his business still ran because he was you know he had people in place he had processes in place he was generating business because of the training and coaching that we provided so that's like life changing stuff so that's an awesome impact that is that's really rewarding I don't think anything can replace that feeling that you helped another person and it just changed your life in a way and so give us a little verbal picture paint a verbal picture for us as to if somebody does in this training process like one or two player combination question here one is that if people are currently have a digital platform or using a digital company it sounds like you're helping them use that platform better it's not like a replacement for somebody who's already got a digital firm I may have their website or Facebook ads you're just going to help them communicate with inside that framework is that am I on the right page or do you is that something that you want to provide that framework too or do you have that available and then how's that work there yeah it could be a little both so like we train our we train contractors on that have to do their own marketing as a 12 month program and I will say at least half of our clients that training but also still working with like an outside marketing agency whether it's like google ads or SEO and things like that we will focus on the social end of things helping them create that content to build their brand run social media ads on facebook and instagram generate those leads you know recruit people to join their team and so yeah that's part of so, but it's you know showing people that you're putting thought you think yeah it words of affirmation or my love language so like if you say thank you or if you let us know that you know getting clients to the point where they're generating more sales and making more money like that's cool you know that's great we have young clients who have you know hiring their first employee because of you know the guidance that we've given them and now they can you know now they can you know take some more time off or maybe not have to work 14 hours a day maybe they can spend more time with their family or they can you know we have one client in Texas he's actually a a full-time contracting company owner and a full time couple of his firemen in his department passed away in a fire and he was able to take a couple weeks off and whatnot his business still ran because he was you know he had people in place you have processes in place he was generating business because of the training and coaching that we provided so that's like life changing stuff so that's a that's a that's an awesome impact that is that's really rewarding I don't think anything can replace that feeling that you've helped another person and just change your life in a way and so give us a little verbal picture paint a verbal picture for us as to if somebody does in this training process now 122 player combination question here one is that if people are currently have a digital platform or using a digital company it sounds like you're helping them use that platform better it's not like a replacement for somebody who's already got a digital firm may have their website or Facebook ads you're just going to help them kind of communicate with inside that framework is that start the right page or do you is that something that you want to provide that framework too or do you have that available and then how does that work there yeah it could be a little both so like we train our we train contractors on that have to do their own marketing it's a 12 month program and I will say at least half of our clients that we're training they're also they're still working with like an outside marketing agency whether it's like Google ads or SEO and things like that we really focus on the social end of things helping them create that content to build their brand run social media as on Facebook and Instagram generate those leads you know recruit people to join their team and so yeah that's part of it so for example we have a new client out in California actually there they're doing a lot and they're spending you know several grand a month on Yelp ads which are just not producing you know they reallocated their Yelp budget into us and to social media advertising so they're you know they're not just generating random leads from Yelp but they're generating leads through their brand through people seeing their content so it could be a combination but I would say yeah I mean that that's a valid point like our clients that understand marketing now they can more effectively work with an agency and say hey here's how we're going to collaborate I'm going to call you out on your BS if you're giving me the runaround or you know I need I need to have better tracking and reporting because I need to know my numbers you know there's so many companies out there that are you know paying a marketing agency to do marketing and they're not getting reports they don't understand their numbers they don't know what they're getting from their money and it's just like this big black hole it's this big like unknown in a way you're like the liaison between the you know even if clear teaching these things here but you're also going to be able to say hey you should be getting you should be kind of a keeper of the Pi and saying hey you're not getting this telling this or whatever kind of helping with that little bit of a mentoring to give those that missing piece like I don't know what they should be doing and you would know more of that kind of a middle piece of that to give advice to people that's really I mean and whether you use your resources which I'm sure that you do have correctly that if somebody needed the whole thing is that we can give you resources of people that will do this for you we will you know get teach you how to how to use those resources apparently if you have your own resources right with each how to use those too is that something the right person yeah we have trusted partners that do you prefer you know if someone needs SER or website or whatever it is we have partners that that we refer just because we know them we trust them and we have 100% conviction in them so absolutely yeah I mean there's we have a company out in the Iowa I was out there this summer visiting them they're spending 100 grand a year on Google ads and they're like they don't they don't they don't even know what they're getting they don't even know how to read the report so we'll sit down with them and you know we're not at odds with that marketing agency we're like hey you know why don't you get double reporting this is how you need to track this is what questions you need to ask like you should demand that you're having you know weekly phone calls with them to understand your data you're spending six figures on this stuff like it needs to be producing you know right what is the process to work with you I mean it's a 12 month I think I heard you whisper out there we leak it out there for us tell us a little bit about the glide path that when you work with contractor dynamics what does that glide path look like for contractors and is it only 12 months or is it ongoing tell me a little bit about that so yeah we're happy to work with you forever if you want but yeah it's 12 month initial today we want you to be brought into this this idea like we're gonna help you build out a marketing machine in your business and train your people you know train your sales reps that they're going out great content as well but it's heavily focused on one-on-one training with our marketing trainers heavily focused on that or you you'll go build you a game plan for the entire year and throughout the year you'll meet on a cadence of every week or two and continue to build that out and to run it the way our small group calls we have a private Facebook group we have a whole online university and then we also included in all that is business coaching from an active 8 figure contracting company owner rather that in this year job because we realized that our clients have you know challenges that are not just marketing related so we brought in brought in a guy named Ben Fisher who owns a successful contracting company and he's a part-time member of our team and he'll provide coaching to our clients on you know personnel HR financing finances you know margin things like that so process so we do a little bit of that as well included in our in our program well Joe it's good I'm good meeting start time but a great one ends up time a little bit late for that because I I'm sorry I could talk to you for hours and our time is up but go ahead and tell people how yeah how can I contractor get involved with contractor dynamics and what do they do how do they get ahold of you yes simple contractor dynamics.com we got all our socials link there we go to YouTube final podcasts although everything there you can follow our content we got a lot of free training ton of free training out there just as you do so yeah get it says for that feel free to reach out if you wanna hop on a zoom call we can help you out some insights there alright Joe we're gonna thank you so much for taking your time and enlightening our listeners to some of the things that mistakes they could make and my greatest hope is that you're going to help them avoid those mistakes and I would definitely highly recommend here's what I can tell you is that I have Joe gives me the feeling like just by watching him and seeing him work that he's kind of undefeated in creating value because I know that he's not going to get out of work he's not going to stop the effort really marketing companies or people teach how to do marketing only fail when the effort stops truthfully and because marketing is an effort it's not like it's not ever perfect the first time you do something it's gonna take time to kind of adjust I think that's what really impresses me Joe about you is that you are relentless in that effort to make sure that contractors get across that goal line that's a great point yeah man amazing team that that that enables that so yeah that's a huge point so thank you Joe I appreciate it the privilege is mine thanks for having me on thank you so much Joe we'll see we'll see you next time we'll see you on Facebook OK alright see you on the socials!
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The host, Joe Crisara, "America's Service Coach" from Service MVP interviews Mandeep Bhalla from Grow Nearby.
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The host, Joe Crisara, "America's Service Coach" from Service MVP interviews Rick Picard from Rodenhiser Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning.
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As the owner of your business you must take ownership and responsibility of everything in your business.
Listen to Joe and Rick to learn how and how to get inspired to grow your business with The Gift of Responsibility".
Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.