Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, welcome to
another Small Business Pivots,
and today we have a very specialguest from around the world and
, as I say weekly, I knowthere's nobody but the business
owner that can say their nameand their company, like the
business owner.
So go ahead and introduceyourself, your company and where
you come to us from today.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Well, thanks for
having me on, michael.
I'm Gene Slade.
I'm the owner of Lead Ninja andLead Ninja AI.
I own a sales training company.
I also own an AI company thatdoes conversational AI, and I
grew up in the trades.
So I mean, when I was 11, myfather owned his own air
conditioning company and myuncle owned his own plumbing
(00:37):
company, and my dad said, boy,if you want food, you want
clothes, come to work.
So I've been working in thetrade since I was just a
youngster and it's been sophenomenal to us, so I'm
grateful to be able to be hereto do some giving back.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Fantastic.
Well, I know our listeners willappreciate it.
What do you think is a coupleof things that we can help them
with today so they can know whatto expect?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, first and
foremost, I think that sales is
a massive thing that needs to betalked about more right?
Nothing in business happensuntil a sale is made is what Zig
Ziglar used to say.
So some real simple tips forhow to get better engagement
with your clients, how toactually increase senses of
(01:24):
urgency and get them to actuallywant what it is that you have
without being salesy, would beone thing, and then I mean we
can see where it goes from there.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I love it.
I love it.
Well, let's take a quickintroduction for the show and
we'll be right back.
Welcome to Small BusinessPivots, a podcast produced for
small business owners.
I'm your host, michael Morrison, founder and CEO of BOSS, where
we make business ownershipsimplified for success.
Our business is helping yoursgrow.
(01:57):
Boss offers business loans withbusiness coaching support.
Apply in minutes and getapproved and funded in as little
as 24 to 48 hours atbusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
Well, welcome back to SmallBusiness Pivots.
We've got Gene today.
If you're in the trades, youbetter buckle up, because we got
(02:18):
a lot of good information foryou, because sales is hard to
come by these days, would yousay.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
That's a fair
statement you, because sales is
hard to come by these days,would you say that's a fair
statement?
I think, whether you think itis or isn't, you're right, like
Henry Ford used to say right.
I think that we've just got alack of education and a lack of
training.
I mean, when you were in gradeschool or high school, did you
have a sales class?
No, they barely teach you how tobalance a checkbook right and
they don't really teach you howto even think.
They teach you how to balance acheckbook right and they don't
(02:45):
really teach you how to eventhink.
They teach you how to memorizestuff right.
So I think that having moreeducation in that area would be
phenomenal.
And if I could give some peoplesome examples you know I work
in the trades mostly HVAC,plumbing, electrical would be
the main three or the biggestthree that we work in and
(03:06):
electricians and HVAC guys.
They deal with stuff like surgeprotection.
So as I travel around thecountry, I ask people to
establish a need for or to sellme a surge protector and they
really just want to talk at me,it seems, want to talk at me, it
(03:26):
seems.
It seems like they just keepgiving me information, expecting
that giving me information isgoing to be what convinces me to
purchase said product, but thereality is they have to sell a
problem first, right.
So here's an example.
And we use questions in orderto do what we call establishing
a need for products.
So pay attention, audience andcount how many statements I
(03:50):
actually make when I do thislittle role play for you.
So if I was with a customer outby their air conditioner.
First question I would ask iswhy don't you have surge
protection?
And I would just kind of cockmy head sideways and look at
them.
They're probably going to say Idon't know.
And I'm going to say did youknow that we get over 1.2
million cloud to groundlightning strikes a year here
(04:11):
and that when that happens weget in-home surges?
And did you know that when weget in-home surges, that your
compressors and your motors canglow cherry red on the inside?
Do you think that's good?
Right, so I'll pause afterthree questions to let them
answer.
They'll usually say no.
What do you suppose that doesto the reliability of your
system?
How about the lifespan?
(04:32):
Have you ever purchased a newcompressor before so you weren't
aware that a new compressorcould cost you $4,000 or $5,000?
Can you see now why our clientsjust get surge protection
instead of replacing expensivecompressors, motors, maybe even
a whole system?
Now again, how many statementsdid I make there?
(04:53):
And why am I asking questions?
We're always told by salestrainers to ask questions,
aren't we?
Yeah, but do they ever reallytell us what questions to ask or
how to ask those questions?
Tell us what questions to askor how to ask those questions.
So if you rewind the tape, whatyou'll find is I did give you
information, information that alot of people would give you as
a technician or somebody tryingto sell that product.
(05:14):
But what I did was I added afew words to the beginning of
each piece of information andturned it into a question.
Now, if you're a business owner, this is super, super important
, because sales is the lifebloodof your business, right?
If I ask you questions, who's incontrol of your thoughts?
(05:37):
Would it be nice to be able tocontrol what your clients are
thinking?
If you could control what theywere thinking, could you get
them to agree with you more?
Could you get them to get thethings that they really truly
need?
I mean, we're so negative.
We usually say no six or seventimes before we say yes to
something, right?
Wouldn't it be nice to be ableto control what they were
thinking?
And that's what we get to dowhen we ask questions and the
client ends up getting to cometo their own conclusion that
(06:00):
something needs to be done.
See, I haven't.
I'm not selling a surgeprotector, I'm selling a problem
.
I'm selling the fact that weare unprotected.
I'm selling the fact that we'regoing to get permanent and
irreversible damage to somethingthat is way more expensive.
And if I can get a client toagree that they're paying for
something and they're notgetting it, I can usually get
(06:23):
them to get it for their ownbenefit.
So that would be the main thingthat I would be looking at as a
salesperson or a business ownercreating those kinds of
questions, putting them on paperso that your humans I mean a
lot of business owners we lookat as like aliens.
(06:45):
Right, they're a differentbreed.
One of my mentors said that tome one time.
He said, gene, your problem isthat you're an alien and you're
trying to teach humans how to bealiens.
He said you've got to give themstep-by-step processes, right,
because you can't.
It's really hard to managepeople, isn't it?
But people can follow a process, and can we manage a process
(07:08):
For sure.
So I would be creating thosetypes of questions, putting them
down on paper and thenrole-playing that stuff with
your guys.
Get them to start asking thosequestions so that clients come
to their own conclusion thatsomething needs to be done, and
then you can be the one that'swaiting in the wings to solve
the problem for them.
And then, secondly, before youever share your solution with a
(07:28):
client, you want to bring inherd impact mentality?
Right, so what we do is wetrain our people.
Once the client has shownconcern right, and we can see it
on their body language We'llsay something like would you
like to know what our clientshave us do when we run into this
situation?
Right, so we're bringing in herdand pack mentality.
(07:48):
Other people have been in thesame position and if they've
come through it safe, then I'llbe safe too.
Right, so we increase theclient's feeling of safety by
bringing in herd and packmentality and we get permission
to share a solution rather thanjamming it down their throat.
And when I started doing thisas a salesperson man, the
(08:12):
resistance just went way, waydown.
So those would be the thingsthat, like, I would really be
focusing on first as a businessowner who has got a company
that's, let's say, million,million and a half or less right
, by the time you get up to amillion and a half, you probably
got some systems and processesin place.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
No, yeah, yeah,
absolutely.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
A long answer,
Michael.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
It's a good one and
it sounds like the right one
because it's worked for you.
So let's talk about how you gotwhere you are leading up to
discovering the questions forsales things like that.
So others can kind of relate tohey, he's been where I'm at,
kind of talking about that herdmentality of I was in your shoes
.
This works.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
I've spent over 30
years now in the trades and you
know, going back to my father,he trained me and by the time I
was 15, I was a full-fledgedlead installer.
So my father decided to turnour one truck company into a two
truck company, went out andbought a truck, got a 21 year
(09:09):
old to be a helper for me anddrive me around, and we became a
two truck company.
I ended up going off to collegeand did some wrestling there,
but came right back to thetrades as soon as I got back and
around 20 years 21, 22 yearsold I ended up getting into
sales because I was frustratedthat I was making half of the
amount of money that the salesguys are making and I knew 10
(09:29):
times as much as them, and so Idid really, really well in sales
.
It took me three years and thisis 20 years ago now, but it
took me three years to breakthat elusive million dollar mark
.
I got really bored and almostquit the trades because I didn't
know anybody else who wasselling that much.
I ended up finding some peopledown in Florida that were really
killing it and I went down andlearned that you could really
(09:51):
make money in the trades, myfather.
We were like two chucks in atruck.
We were the cheap guys.
Beer can cold, hvac guys willknow what that means.
But I found some guys thatreally understood business and I
just became a sponge and I justlistened to whatever they said
and I did whatever they said andI didn't try to reinvent the
wheel.
And then, of course, as youexperience life, you learn stuff
(10:14):
along the way as well.
So I ended up eventuallystarting my own HVAC company.
Um, we ended up hitting a bunchof ink magazine awards and six
years and one day later I endedup exiting that business for a
nice seven-figure profit, wentinto semi-retirement and almost
went crazy.
Right.
(10:34):
Five, six months later I'msitting on my couch and I'm like
what in the heck am I going todo?
I need to do something.
I got a non-compete and it justpopped into my head that I had
this radio show that I'd beenusing that generated two or
3,000 new customers a year forme, and so I went.
You know what?
I bet you I could just take mybest show, have it transcribed,
swap out the names, make surethat they're willing to do the
(10:56):
type of work that we're going totalk about and I'll just go and
sell that and I'll just getpaid every time the phone rings.
And it was wildly successful.
Like four months later westarted that company and
generated tons and tons and tonsof leads for everybody.
But the problem was and we wereon conservative talk radio.
That's where we advertisedOne-hour talk shows and the
(11:20):
clients were calling me saying,hey, listen, we don't think
these leads are very good.
And I'm like look, they're fromconservative talk radio.
35 to 65, middle to upperincome.
They don't like inconvenience,they have disposable income,
right it's.
You don't have a marketingproblem, you have a sales
problem.
And so eventually I had to goout and start showing them what
we had done with our company andhow we turned those leads into
(11:41):
gold and the the sales trainingside of our business just took
off.
So now we're the leading uhsales training company for the
trades, at least for HVAC,plumbing and electrical.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Is that in North
America?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, well, I don't
think that.
I think that North Americapretty much represents the world
when it comes to sales trainingand people like that, but, but
definitely in North Americathere's nobody that can touch
the results that we get.
We literally have a guy thatjust came out of one of our
mansion events that we hold,where we hold sales training,
and this guy had never made morethan 50,000.
(12:16):
His name's Clay.
Never made more than $50,000 ayear and in the last two weeks,
michael, he's made $18,000 incommission.
Wow, yeah, like that was whathe used to make in four months.
But when you, when you putthese principles together with
ethics, morals and doing thingslegal, it's amazing what can
(12:38):
actually happen for you.
So that's what we do today.
We take guys who are making 50,60 grand a year and we show
them how to make half a million.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
So the process in
between getting to the questions
and I've got a lead in front ofme.
There are so many trades peopleout there you know we call them
Chuck in the truck type peopleand you know they're all
competing on price.
You know it's commodity.
But for someone that has a leadlike yours, how do they get to
(13:08):
the lead so that they can startasking those questions?
Cause I know we can get leads alot of different places, but
how do we get their attention totalk to us so we can start
asking those questions?
Do you have any advice there?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Do you mean once we
have secured an appointment with
them and we're at the house?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Or just getting an
appointment with them.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
From a marketing
perspective.
I don't want to get too deepinto the marketing side because
I really don't understand a lotof the SEO and the PPC and LSA
and stuff.
I was a one trick pony when itcame to marketing, so that would
be a really difficult questionfor me to answer.
But being in front of theclient and talking about the
(13:50):
price concern that you weretalking about, that concern that
you were talking about that,that really is the number one
objection, isn't it?
Yeah, price.
They don't typically say that.
They usually say something likeI got to get some other quotes,
I need to talk to my wife or Ineed to think about it.
Right, and those are just allsmoke screens.
They're veiled price objectionsLike that's.
Answer me this, guys if it werefree, would they need to think
about it?
(14:10):
No, of course not.
So it's just a veiled priceobjection.
You've got to get that out.
Once you've gotten it out thatthere is a price objection,
you've got to be able to standtall and defend your price.
The most fortunate thing thatever happened to me was I
started my sales career at themost expensive company anywhere
(14:32):
within 100 miles of us inMichigan and that taught me
really quick how to build value,and I hate that freaking term,
but I'm going to give some ofthe people out there even some
word tracks right now.
So if somebody says somethinglike hey, my neighbor got one
for six grand less right?
(14:52):
My first reaction is going tobe would you like to know why
more people choose us for thistype of work, regardless of any
difference in price?
What do you think the client'sgoing to say?
They want to know.
Like 85% of people buy based onperceived value, 15% or so buy
based solely on price.
So I'm going to, I'm going topique their curiosity as to why
(15:17):
other people choose us, bringingin herd and pack mentality at
the same time, and I'm gettingpermission to brag about my
company.
Then I will start hitting themwith features and benefits.
Now, guys, this is when, againwhen I travel the country.
This is the difference betweena $2 million sales guy or a
million dollar sales guy and a$5 million sales guy.
A one to $2 million sales guysells the features of whatever
(15:41):
his company does or the productdoes.
An experienced salespersonsells the benefits, the
emotional reason, what it meansto the client, those features
and why we're talking about them.
You can't just say we've got 24hour service.
That's not enough, right?
You've got to expand.
So here's a for instance.
So if they said yes, I'd liketo know why you're so
(16:01):
outrageously expensive and whypeople still do business with
you.
I'd go.
Well, we're in over 5,000 homesa year in this area, which
means that we know the codes,the climate, the construction of
the homes.
We know what works and whatdoesn't.
Your job won't be a testingground or a training lab.
It's going to get done rightthe first time, which is going
to save you time and money.
(16:22):
That's the benefit saving themtime and money.
We use only time-tested,field-tested parts and supplies.
They work better, they lastlonger and they're more
convenient because your systemis not going to be breaking down
all the time.
We have 100% satisfactionguarantee, which means it's
impossible to waste your moneywith us.
I'm going to hit at least 12features and benefits like that
(16:45):
In the trades.
I'd say if we do backgroundchecks, we do nationwide
criminal background checks.
Did you know that the numberone and number two trades being
taught in the prisons today areplumbing and air conditioning?
But with us, you, your home andyour family are safe.
We do drug testing.
Drug-tested technicians haveclearer heads, they get to the
job on time more often and theyhave fewer callbacks, which is
(17:06):
convenient for you, right?
So I'm just going to keephitting as many of those as I
can until they either A stop meor B I run out, right, and when
I run out it's time for a trialclose.
So if you guys don't know whata trial close, it's a question
that I ask before I close, tosee if it's okay to close and
see whether or not we're on thesame page, right.
So I might say can you see nowwhy more people choose us for
(17:31):
this type of work, regardless ofany difference in price?
And if they say yes, I'm readyto close.
So you want me to go ahead andtake care of it for you, like,
I'm going to assume it at thatstage of the game.
So that's really the key tohandling the price objection.
Guys get permission to sharewhy you're more expensive, be
confident about it and then havea list of reasons that people
(17:53):
do business with you and whatthat means to the client, why
they should care, and that willhelp you to get that five or six
grand difference, sometimesdouble.
For instance, I just had a guythat had an $85,000 sale.
The closest person to him was35 grand less, but the client
(18:14):
could see the difference.
Right Again, people don't buyjust based on price.
They buy based on the perceivedvalue that they're getting and
the way that you make them feel.
That's why it's so important toshare why these features have a
benefit and what that benefitmeans to them.
So that's what that's what I'dsay about the price objection,
man.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
What about you're
listening to?
Small business pivots?
This podcast is produced by mycompany boss.
Our business is helping yoursgrow.
Boss offers business loans withbusiness coaching support,
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as 24 to 48 hours atbusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
(18:56):
If you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to hit the
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Now let's get back to ourspecial guest.
The core of the show is pivotsthat people have made, so let's
talk about a few pivots you'vemade.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
So I saw the first
conversational AI that came out
through a company about 14months ago and it was selling a
pair of Oculus goggles, I think,and it was really just a demo.
It really wasn't ready to dothat, but I was like, wow,
that's incredible.
And it also scared the crap outof me because I was like this
(19:34):
is a sales tool like that isgoing to grow into something
that is going to be phenomenal.
And so immediately I went andlicensed the technology because
I said I'm not gonna I'm notgonna have this thing replace me
and if it replaces, I'm goingto be the one programming it.
Right?
So essentially I took this botthat will call my customers,
(19:57):
that will answer telephone calls.
For me Sounds just like a human, I can change the voice, I can
change the accent male, female,whatever and it was a real bitch
first, use the language becauseit just kept breaking over and
over and over again and it wouldbe months that it was again and
it would be months that it wasbroken.
And there were times where Ididn't feel like I was going to
make it, like I had hundreds ofthousands of dollars into this
(20:20):
and promises to clients and myname was on the line.
We ended up even having tochange softwares, but we finally
got it locked in.
And so now I've got clients whohave got lists of customers and
they need appointments and theyneed me to book, let's say, a
bunch of maintenance for them.
And if they need 50 calls onthe board today, I can go into
(20:43):
the database.
I can press a button and thenmy AI makes one or 10,000
telephone calls all at the sametime, scheduling those
appointments, links into the CRM, sees what appointments are
available, books them for thetime slot, and does it way
faster than any human could everdo it.
And so then I programmed all ofmy knowledge into it, all of my
scripts, my whole radio show isprogrammed in there, and so it
(21:07):
can go to the knowledge bank forjust about any question that a
client could ask.
And we've got a 95% adoptionrate.
We actually announce when wecall that it's an AI, and we
didn't at first.
But after about a month I waslike I wonder how this would
work, and I'm a big Chris Vossfan I'm not sure if you've ever
(21:27):
heard of him, but he's alwaystalking about going for the no.
So I programmed it to say hey,you know this is Susie from HVAC
company.
Please don't hang up, it'ssuper important.
I'm actually an artificialintelligence customer service,
artificial intelligence that'sdesigned to improve your
experience with our company andI'm learning all the time.
I can be available for you 24hours a day, seven days a week
(21:51):
for you 24 hours a day, sevendays a week.
And I was just wondering ifyou'd be opposed to me being the
first person or the firstcontact that you have when you
call in or when you need serviceor there's a reminder, and 95%
of the people are like that'scool, right, we've been talking
to machines for years.
This is just a much bettermachine and if a customer gets
upset it'll actually get moreempathetic.
We've got a program to do thatand it doesn't need a smoke
(22:14):
break.
It doesn't pee, doesn't that?
Baby mama or baby daddy Chairsup on time?
Yeah, exactly, and it'll work24-7 for me.
So those 50 appointments, Icould literally book those in 5
to 10 minutes Done Like that.
And we now have got it down tothe cost of about half of what
(22:36):
one human would cost inside ofthe business making inbound or
outbound telephone calls.
It replaces answering services.
I mean, it's the bee's knees.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Wow, that's
incredible.
Wow, that's incredible.
Let's talk about those earlydays of how you got over the
hump when you were thetwo-person operation.
I know that's frustrating for alot of contractors.
They just can't get over thathump.
Can you take us back and kindof some of the things that you
did and that you also see nowwith companies that?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah.
So I was fortunate when I firststarted because I was already a
pretty good salesperson.
I had trained people for othercompanies, large sales teams, so
I was capable of going out anddoing it myself without a
problem.
I mean I, even within the firstcouple of months, I had a big
stack of money that was in thebank.
(23:30):
I mean, I started with nothing.
I started with $70,000 incredit card debt, but within
four or five months all that wasbasically paid off and I had a
chunk of money in the bank.
I almost started feeling bad andthen my mentor was like you
need to stop feeling bad.
You don't have any money.
I was like, well, there's$35,000 in the bank, right.
And I was like, well, there's35 grand in the bank, right.
And he was like no, you don'thave any money.
(23:51):
He said you need a computersystem, you need a phone system,
you're going to need a biggeroffice, you're going to need
trucks, you're going to needthis, you're going to need that.
And I was like, okay, I get it.
And later I ended up starting tohire people and this is where
the challenge really came in.
I take myself out of the field.
I'm a top performer.
Now I put three people in placeto replace me, because it took
(24:14):
at least three people to replaceme from a sales perspective,
maybe four and now I've got topay them wages.
I got to pay their all theexpenses, right, and we're just
not making the kind of moneythat we need to make.
So, um, I had to fire friendsthat I didn't want to fire just
to survive.
(24:34):
But the biggest thing, thebiggest turning point for me,
was when I had like five or sixemployees and I was just
struggling to get them to sell,like me, and one of my mentors
says Gene, your problem is thatyou haven't given them a process
to follow.
You come in and you preach atthem all morning for an hour and
(24:56):
you're expecting them to retainit.
That's not how human beingslearn, that's not how they were
taught to learn.
You've got to put this stuff onpaper, you've got to practice
it with them back and forth, outloud.
And so I began to write downeverything that I did on a call,
from start to finish, and Icreated that process, and one of
(25:17):
the very first scripts that wecreated was the surge protector
script, because it is supersecular, right.
It's people have heard of itbefore, and if I could increase
somebody's faith in the processon something like that, I could
probably increase their faith onthe process with another
product, and so getting thoseproducts and sales systems in
(25:39):
place was what enabled us toreally begin to start growing
and daily training.
I follow a guy named BrandonDawson.
I don't know if you've everheard of him, but he's in the
Cardone world.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
And he's a scaler,
business scaler.
And Brandon says you're nevergoing to find good people, you
have to train them.
Yeah, and isn't that the truth?
I mean, as a business owner, wedon't look at ourselves like
this, but aren't you really acoach?
Yeah and aren't you in, aren'tyour employees?
(26:17):
I hate that word, but aren'tyour employees actually your
internal customers?
And who's more important, theinternal customers or the
external customers?
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Right.
If we take care of the internalones, they typically take care
of the external ones.
So you've got to be, you've gotto have a career path for them.
You've got to be able to showthem how to get from where they
are to where they want to be.
And your dream's got to be whatit's got to be big enough for
all of their dreams to fitinside of it.
So some of you might need toexpand your dream a little bit
(26:50):
so that you got room for otherpeople's dreams inside of your
dreams.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
That's a great point,
because that's probably the
number one challenge I hear fromcontractors today is attracting
and retaining employees.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah Well, guess what
?
After four technicians, Istarted hiring people from
outside the trades.
Completely.
I mean, I was tired of tryingto fix other people's bad habits
and so if you could change atire on a car or change the oil
on your car and you gave me goodcustomer service and you were
(27:26):
one of my servers, I wasrecruiting you and I was showing
you how to make two and threeand four times more money than
you'd ever made in your life.
So that would be anothermassive tip Stop packing your
lunch.
Go out to restaurants.
Don't go to the cheap ones.
Go to the good ones and findpeople who provide the best
customer service.
(27:46):
Even ask the hostess who is thebest server that you got?
Who's it that everybody ravesabout?
And get that person to startserving you.
Build a relationship with.
I have people now that Irecruited that were my server on
my date nights, who arebusiness owners now doing
millions and millions andmillions of dollars in business.
So, and always be recruiting.
(28:08):
Spend a third of your timedoing it, because as you skill
people up, some of them aregoing to leave you, some of them
are you're going to createother business owners, and
that's just part of it.
Be happy for them.
Be happy that you contributedenough to their lives to where
they can do that, and that'sjust part of it.
Be happy for them.
Be happy that you contributedenough to their lives to where
they can do that and maybe givethem help, maybe partner with
them.
Consider that.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah, that's a great
reminder because many of the
successful business owners thatwe've had on the show that are
doing big, big money hundreds ofmillions of dollars most of
their time is spent on culture,building people up.
They set the standard when theyfounded the company and now
(28:53):
they spend a lot of their timekeeping to that standard and
continuing to grow above it.
In fact, one of our guests evensaid that your culture is a
90-day experience on theemployee side.
So every day that you let thatculture slip is another day.
You're having to work harder toget it back to that night
because it's an experience.
It's not those words you put onthe wall, and that all comes
from the owner, like you said.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Losing momentum in
any area is bad for the company.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Yeah Well, with you
being in the trades.
What are some other areas oftopics that you could help us
with today?
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Oh goodness gracious.
Well, let's talk about bringingpeople into alignment when
they're not doing.
You know, early we talked abouthow it's difficult to manage
people.
But people can follow a processand we can manage a process.
So, for instance, I have asoftware tool that my guys are
(29:48):
supposed to log into and they'resupposed to watch 20 minutes
worth of videos every singlemorning and answer multiple
choice test questions at the endbefore they go see any client.
Right, they're supposed totrain before they go to see any
client.
That's part of the culture.
It's part see any client.
That's part of the culture.
It's part of the rules.
It's part of what we do.
It's who we are.
So we sharpen that sword beforewe go out to cut lumber.
(30:09):
And if a technician's not doingthat because I get reports on
the back end, that's importanttoo.
You need to inspect what youexpect, right, if you're not
inspecting what you expect, howare you ever going to get better
?
But I will look at thosereports and I'll go oh, johnny's
not doing his training,johnny's not getting the number
hours in.
Johnny's supposed to be gettingin Now.
(30:31):
Do I just fire Johnny or do Ibring him in for coaching, since
I'm a coach?
So I'll call Johnny up and I'llgo hey, johnny, I won't do it
in the middle of the day becauseI don't want to tweak him out
and I don't want to mess up hissales.
That hurts everybody, right.
But at the end of the day, whenI find out he's done dispatch,
lets me know.
I'll call him up and go hey,johnny, how was your day?
Pretty good, boss.
How are you?
I'm doing great.
Man.
Listen, I need to see you inthe morning.
(30:54):
I know we normally conversationwith you, but just meet me
there at six.
Well, what's going on, boss?
Don't worry about it.
I don't want to talk about ittonight.
We'll just talk about it in themorning.
Now he's got to sit with thatall night, right?
So he comes in at six o'clockin the morning, sits across the
desk from me and I'm like hey.
(31:15):
So the reason that I've got youin here is because you know that
it's part of our culture andour process and part of your
responsibility to be doingtraining for 20 minutes a day
before you see your customers.
Yes or no?
Yes, it is, and I can see onthe report here that that hasn't
been happening, correct?
Yeah, it's not been happening.
I'm not going to ask you why ithasn't been happening, because
it doesn't really matter, right,but I want you to do your
(31:38):
training this morning.
Before anybody gets in here,let's make up what you missed
and look, if you don't do yourtraining again and I have to
call you back in here, what doyou suppose is going to happen?
And they usually go probablygoing to get fired.
And I'll go.
No, I'm not going to get fired.
(32:00):
What are you talking about?
You think I'm the Gestapo orsomething?
No, I'm going to bring getfired.
What are you talking about?
You think I'm the Gestapo orsomething?
No, I'm going to bring you infor more coaching, just like
this.
Okay, right, so I'm not.
I'm not beating him with astick, but it is something
that's unpleasant.
They have been worrying about itall night, wondering whether or
not they got a job.
They come in, I ask themquestions, get them to come to
(32:20):
their own conclusion that theyneed to be doing what we're
supposed to be doing, and then Iset up some expectations, right
, and let them know that there'sgoing to be consequences.
You're going to have to get upan hour early and come in here
and face me again.
Yeah, and that was such a greatlesson that I got from somebody
else of how to be a coach,rather than, you know, beating
(32:42):
people up because we're sofrustrated a lot of times.
Business owners aren't we?
Aren't you dealing with amillion fires every day?
And now I got to tell Johnnyagain to do his training.
Why do I have to tell Johnny somany times to do his training?
And it reminds me of JohnMaxwell's book, the 21
irrefutable laws of leadership.
He's like we get irritated thatwe got to tell people things
(33:04):
over and over again, but that'sa leader's job.
A leader's job is to remindpeople to do things until they
do them and to help coach themto do them right.
So get out of here.
Get it out of your mind thatpeople are just going to have a
magical switch one day andyou're not going to have to
remind people of stuff.
Get used to it, become a bettercoach, become a better leader
(33:26):
and also have some empathy forpeople.
I mean, aren't we all goingthrough our own story?
Aren't we all going throughthings that we keep from other
people?
You don't know what people arecarrying right.
So that's another tip.
You know how about you ask yourpeople how they're doing.
(33:49):
How about you take them out tolunch every once in a while
individually and just ask themwhat their goals are and how
close they are and whether ornot there's a plan, and how
about you set up a plan to helpthem hit their goals right?
It's really hard to get a happyemployee to leave.
Really hard.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Yeah, yeah.
I often say that a businessowner that has challenges, he or
she either created them orallowed them.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Sometimes we get
bored and we'll create stuff,
mess stuff up just to fix it.
I know.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Or just say that's
okay, I'd rather do that than
have to battle the demon.
And so until they change,nothing around them changes.
So what would you say is a goodstarting point for those
contractors?
You know, because mostcontractors work somewhere else.
They're like I can do thisbetter.
I'm tired of putting up withthe crap over here and then they
(34:38):
go over here and they deal withthe same crap.
Where could they start?
Speaker 2 (34:43):
The old
entrepreneurial seizure.
Yes, start, where do you meanstart?
Speaker 1 (34:51):
With leadership, like
where can they go?
Where would you say is a goodstarting place for somebody like
that, that they just have thecontractor skill set, mental
mindset and they want to getinto some leadership and
coaching so they can be better?
Where would you say is a goodspot for those people?
Speaker 2 (35:09):
I think that every
owner of a business should be as
good of a salesperson as theypossibly can.
I learned so much becoming asalesperson and dealing with
people inside of sales and howto listen to people.
That's a big key.
A good salesperson is not agood talker, he's a good
listener, right?
(35:30):
So I would focus all of myeffort on finding a really good,
ethical sales mentor and try tobecome as good at communicating
with people as humanly possible.
Second thing, from a leadershipperspective, I wouldn't call
myself the best leader, right,but I did read a great book that
(35:51):
I mentioned earlier, by JohnMaxwell, called the 21
Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.
Read it and listen to it.
I typically listen to most ofmy books, but I really, really
liked that book and I think thatif you followed the principles
that John Maxwell's laid out,there's not really anybody else
that I could say is a betterleader than that man.
(36:13):
So find the people that arebest in those areas and just
listen to them, just do whatthey say.
And, last thing about that,don't go too wide.
I have friends that that likethey listened to too many people
.
Uh, grant Cardone taught usthat you, if you're gonna, if
you're gonna have a mentor, tryto learn everything you can
(36:35):
about that person and everythingthat they've done.
Like, go deep into thatperson's life.
You want to learn about WaltDisney, go deep into his life,
ben Franklin, whoever but try tolearn as much as you can from
that person rather than being soscattered, if that makes any
sense.
So I would find one or twomentors, maybe three tops, and
(36:55):
that had something that I wantedin their life in different
areas, like I wanted my life tobe that way, like maybe I have a
marriage mentor, maybe I'd havea business mentor, maybe I'd
have a financial mentor, butthat's what comes to my mind
when you ask that question.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Well, I want to
remind our listeners every week,
our guests, at some point inthe show or another they say a
mentor or a coach.
So it's just so valuable it's.
It's almost impossible tofigure this thing out alone
because you're going to be sixfoot under by the time you even
get close to doing that.
(37:33):
So I appreciate you sharingthat.
Can you kind of recap yourcompany, so exactly what it does
and how you can help ourlisteners?
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Before I do that, can
I just piggyback on something
you just said?
Absolutely One of my mentors isLes Brown, and if you guys
haven't heard of him you've gotto look him up.
But Les Brown is famous forsaying no man is an island.
We ask for help not becausewe're weak, but because we want
to remain strong.
So ask for help and don't stopuntil you get it.
(38:07):
There are people out there,successful people, like helping
other people.
That's how they got there, Okay, so a lot of them will help you
for free.
Just ask for the help and usethe free help until they tell
you listen, dog, you're going tostart paying me.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Hey, well, I'll share
a story.
When I first, the way I learnedhow important mentoring was was
here in our city.
They had used to in the paperwhen it came out on Sundays,
they had the business person ofthe week and it was somebody
that was featured that wassuccessful.
I didn't know who these peoplewere and I was like you know, I
was in, I had owned my businessfor maybe a year and a half and
(38:44):
I was like this this has got togo.
Something's got to change.
So I just started reaching outto these people random people,
successful, featured in a paperand said hey, I saw your article
.
I'm a brand new business owner.
I have no clue what I'm doing.
Would you help me?
Yeah, I was never turned downonce In fact almost all of them
said I won't tell you what to do, but I will tell you what not
(39:06):
to do.
They came from that angle,almost every one of them, but
none of them told me no.
So for all you listeners,people want to help.
It doesn't have to be a coachthat you pay to start with, but
at least find somebody.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Yeah, a hundred
percent.
So, wrapping up what you askedabout, um, we are, at least in
my opinion, the number one salestraining company for HVAC,
plumbing and electrical in thecountry.
We're famous for taking peoplewho are making 50 grand a year a
hundred grand a year anddoubling and tripling that in
(39:38):
like 60 days or less.
It's not difficult.
We just have to know what notto do, like what you were just
saying earlier.
If you wanted to find me, allyou would have to do is just go
to the Google and type in GeneSlade.
There will be plenty ofarticles from places that I'm
sure that you guys have heard ofin the past.
(39:59):
So G-E-N-E-S-L-A, l, a, d, eand most of my socials are at
Jean Slade.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Fantastic.
Well, I always end with aquestion, and that is if you
were in a room of all kinds ofbusiness owners, all seasons of
business life, everything else,what is something you could
share that's applicable to allof them?
Speaker 2 (40:22):
You know this might
sound like copycat, but you said
quotes right.
Zig Ziglar and Ed Foreman bothmade famous the quote that you
can have anything in life thatyou've ever wanted if you'll
just help enough other peopleget what they want.
And also, more importantly,people don't care what you know
(40:47):
until they know that you careabout them.
If you can genuinely care aboutpeople, this is one of the this
is a, this is a superpower Ifyou can just really go about
your day in sales loving people,not like loving to be around
them, but like loving thatperson that's across the table
(41:09):
from you, not thinking aboutwhat you're getting out of this
deal or your commission oranything like that.
Don't ever think about thecommission that you're going to
make while you're with a client.
Just show them that you care,do actually care about them, and
they will share their wealthwith you.
I promise you.
People don't care what you knowuntil they know that you care
about them.
Wow, that's how I'd end itWords of wisdom.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Well, Jean, you've
been a blessing to many and a
wealth of information.
Appreciate you taking the timeto share with our listeners
today.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
Thank you for the
platform.
I do appreciate it as well.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
My pleasure day.
Thank you for the platform.
I do appreciate it as well.
My pleasure.
Thank you for listening tosmall business pivots.
This podcast is created andproduced by my company boss.
Our business is growing.
Yours.
Boss offers flexible businessloans with business coaching
support, apply in minutes andget approved and funded in as
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(42:04):
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We'll see you next time onSmall Business Pivots.