October 20, 2025 • 48 mins
Ready to turn views into visits? We sat down with Jeraud Norman of Jeraud Marketing to get brutally practical about what actually drives people into a rent‑to‑own store: short videos with real humans, clear invitations to try products in person, and simple tracking that proves ROI without fancy software. If you’ve been posting product photos and praying for reach, this conversation shows how to swap static for story and clicks for customers.
We start with the basics most teams skip: fix your audio with a cheap mic, add captions for silent scrollers, and use tight 20–30 second scripts so every second serves a purpose. Jeraud breaks down why personality beats polish, how jump cuts and angle changes keep attention, and why celebrating on‑time payers, deliveries, birthdays, and staff quirks builds trust faster than any discount. The goal isn’t viral; it’s familiar. When viewers walk in asking for the person from the video, closing gets easy.
We also tackle the “pay to play” reality on Facebook and how even $1 a day to your followers can keep your content visible. Jeraud shares real‑world spend patterns around $300 per store and explains why many sales won’t show up as leads but appear as walk‑ins—if you’re asking every visitor how they found you. Tie a simple check‑box sheet to agreement numbers and review gross sales later to see true returns. To speed creative, we outline AI prompts that generate fresh scripts, hooks, and even fun perspectives like a $10 bill or delivery truck telling the story.
If you sell what people sit on, touch, and test, your edge is your front door. Put faces on camera, invite folks to try the sofa, and make it easy for them to meet you by name. Want a jumpstart? Gerard offers a free 30‑second script: email jeraud@jeraudmarketing.com, or book at fastRTOdeliveries.com. If this helped, subscribe, share it with your team, and leave a quick review so more local dealers can turn social views into steady foot traffic.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:07):
Hey guys, welcome to the RTO show.
I'm your host, Pete Shout, andtoday we're talking to my man
Gerard Norman from GerardMarketing.
And let me tell you guys, he hasbeen doing some stuff lately
that has been reallyinteresting.
It's been very inspiring.
And I I gotta get him back onbecause we're gonna talk about
something today that I sometimesI think we overlook.
(00:28):
I think we've gotten so far intothe technical side that we
forgot the basics on how to runthe business in certain areas.
And that's why I have Gerardhere.
Gerard, how you doing today,man?
How's everything going?
SPEAKER_01 (00:37):
Doing good, man.
Any day I'm talking to you is agood day.
SPEAKER_00 (00:40):
That's what we're talking about.
I love when we get on becausesometimes we start talking, and
before you know it, there's anidea or three that pop out of
it.
And I'm like, you know what?
I'm so glad I had thatconversation because it really
is important to not forget thefundamentals.
And when I say that, guys, Iknow a lot of you guys watching,
listening, and hearing this go,you know, the fundamentals, what
are we talking about?
We've gotten so stuck on thethought that I've got to get
(01:02):
this guy locked down on theinternet.
Now, let me tell you, you do.
You don't want to overlook that.
But you don't want to forgetthat you have a front door, and
front door swings usually landyou higher results, higher rate
of results.
Gerard, how are we doing todayas far as our as far as our
marketing goes?
And what do you have to talk tous about today?
SPEAKER_01 (01:22):
Well, first of all, let me preface this by this.
You're my favorite guy in theentire industry.
SPEAKER_00 (01:27):
Thank you, man.
I appreciate that.
I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_01 (01:30):
You and Scott Kaneer.
Scott Scott brought me in, soshout out to Scott Kaneer.
But um, what's going on with umthe marketing aspect?
And I I I do believe what yousaid hits home.
Like, I know we have to do thedigital part, right?
Like, especially since COVID,things have changed up for a lot
of people, especially in youguys' industry.
But one thing that we'verealized over the past year or
two, especially, because we'regetting better at help uh having
(01:53):
the dealers track what's goingon.
Because there's some guys whotrack really, really well.
Um, but I'd say the majority ofyou guys don't really track well
when it comes to your marketingand what's actually working.
But one thing that we figuredout that is working at getting
people into the stores isobviously like I've I specialize
in Facebook ads, and I will saythis too I am the best in the
industry, the best in theindustry when it comes to
(02:13):
Facebook ads.
I don't even know what you said.
Just being honest, guys.
Um, if there was more guys thatcame from my camp like me that
came in, then you know therewould be an actual duel.
But until that happens, um, youknow, I'm the guy.
So if you want to run Facebookads, I'm your guy.
So what we've realized with theFacebook ads is when you start
showing product pictures, and ifyou don't want to run ads,
that's fine.
You don't have to reach out tome, but just hear me out.
(02:35):
If you just keep showing productpictures, what happens is
there's no connection.
So we have a term that we use,and I think we said this on
another episode before.
I always say this, but the valueis created after the experience.
So what we like to do is evenfor the people who are shy,
because the people who are shyusually create the best videos,
so to speak, not necessarilyfrom a performance standpoint,
(02:57):
but as far as resonating withthe community.
Because the biggest advantageyou guys have in rent to own is
that you guys are local and youwant people to come and see you.
And it's like if they can seewhat it's like before they get
there, values created after theexperience, they're more likely
to show up and come.
So that's the first thing.
It we can automatically juststart driving more store traffic
(03:18):
just by doing more videos.
And then I think the otherproblem that you guys have is
majority of you guys don'treally have a good Facebook
following.
Like, I remember I think it wasin Albuquerque, there was a
young lady, I can't rememberwhat company she was with.
She was like the queen ofFacebook Live, she had a big
following.
So, but but there that's likeone to three percent of all
dealers have that and have thatperson, right?
(03:40):
So the first thing is like justposting to your page, post more
videos, yes, but they're reallynot gonna go that far.
And what I realize a lot too,and I can't say it's for
everyone, is a lot of times it'sother dealers, you know, looking
out and liking your stuff, andit's not even actual people.
Not to say that you don't getany sales from Facebook, but
imagine if you reach morepeople.
The second part is again, ifyou're just posting pictures of
(04:02):
products, you have to do thatevery now and then, but it's
really about making thatconnection.
It's all about the know, thelike, and the trust.
They gotta know you guys are abusiness first, right?
So, whatever business you'rewith, buddies, rent a center,
whatever, you know, they knowthe business, but you know, do
they know Pete?
Let's say Pete's at the store.
Knowing Pete and not reallycaring about the name that's on
(04:23):
the front door, that's what it'sreally all about to me.
They want to come in and meetthat person and have a
connection with that person.
And what we realize too is whenwe start doing the the ads with
the videos, yeah, we get actualname, email, and phone numbers
that you can follow up with.
And I know you guys don't likethat.
And for the most part, a lot ofpeople aren't necessarily good
at follow-up.
That's a whole notherconversation because there's
(04:44):
systems in place I think thatyou guys don't have.
Um, and it's not even aboutautomation and stuff, just
systems and checkpoints that Idon't think that are in place.
But what happens is is a lot ofstore traffic we've been
realizing because we're gettingguys who are better at tracking,
a lot more sales are coming frompeople who saw the ad and didn't
give us the information and justshowed up at the store and
started buying.
And when they show up at thestore, they're looking for the
(05:06):
person that was in the video.
And a lot of times it's just theeasiest sale because, in all
honesty, you guys want morestore traffic anyway.
And when people come in, youguys know what to do.
It's really when it's online,it's still that disconnect that
people are still workingthrough.
So that's been the biggest thingthat we've seen is just, yeah,
if you get on video, a shortscript, and I'll make you guys
an offer now that's free.
If you want, I'll write you avideo script at the end of this.
(05:29):
You can, I don't know, we'llfigure that out, but you can
email me or whatever.
Tell me what your offer is.
I'll write you a 30-second videoscript that anybody can shoot,
that you can just have yourphone and shoot with and have
your people put it out therejust to get you guys started.
But it just it's it's a gamechanger.
And again, these guys who aretracking the in-store sales,
it's something as simple as whenthey come in, it's like, hey,
where did you see us?
A lot of times those people arecoming out and saying, Hey, I
(05:51):
saw your video.
Even if it isn't the if itwasn't you, Pete, they're like,
Hey, I saw the video, that's whyI'm here.
By the way, I'm gonna take X, Y,and Z.
SPEAKER_00 (05:58):
Right?
And then I think I think some ofthe things that these guys need
to do too, when I start seeingsome of the videos, I'm with
you.
I've noticed that when I seeanother person's video, when I
see another company's video, andI see some of the likes or I see
some of the names on there, notthat I'm trying to take away
from them.
Guys, keep doing what you'redoing, but it isn't an enclosed
circle, and you don't want yourecho chamber to be like, yeah,
(06:19):
this got 10 likes, but the 10likes really aren't gonna be
people who are buying from you.
They're people who think yourvideo is okay.
And I do think there's a coupleof points too that make your
video more interesting and ithas nothing to do with the name.
And sometimes it might not evenhave to do with the with the
merchandise.
Like you said, it has to do withthe person.
I'd say the first thing is,guys, if you're gonna do a
(06:40):
video, which is okay, I'm allfor it, and you're gonna use
your phone, do it.
Your sound has to come throughthe other side of the screen.
If it sounds like you're at theend of one of those paper rolls,
it's not gonna work.
It it's hard to hear, it's hardto make out what the sale is,
and it's hard to really get intothat because you're you're
you're desperately trying tolisten.
If you're gonna do it, listen,guys, it might cost a hundred
(07:02):
bucks or less.
Invest in a really cheapmicrophone or something that you
can get your voice across.
The second thing, too, is I seethese guys, they're standing in
front, and the first thing theygo is, um, I'm hearing, listen,
put something together.
Put a little bit, put a littlebit of grease on that sucker,
okay?
Stand there for five minutes andjust figure out how to put
something together that you wantto talk about.
(07:23):
Now, we're not talking about,I'm not talking about a script.
Now, he's gonna give you ascript.
What I'm saying is if you'reshooting from the hip, don't do
it.
Unless you got unless you'regood at it.
Now, some of us can do it.
It doesn't mean all of us can.
I think having a script isamazing.
And what I used to do, and I'mnot gonna lie, guys, I've been
in commercials, I would havesomebody literally walking
around with this big oldwhiteboard with what I needed to
say, and I know it looks, it'sit looks stupid, but nobody sees
(07:46):
what's behind the camera.
When you get there, havesomething important to say
because, like you said, you got30 seconds.
Make it insightful, make itimportant.
Don't make it look like you'relooking for the next word to say
so that you can get off thevideo and hopefully be done with
it.
You know?
Um, how many quality aspects doyou think stop people from
coming in the door because theirvideo is just kind of uh not so
(08:08):
good?
SPEAKER_01 (08:09):
I would say the sound's a big one.
Um, I'd say for the most part,the guys that we work with, they
got their sound right.
Um, I think it's not even doingit or attempting to do it is the
biggest hurdle that they runinto.
Because, like you said, if Iagree with Speed, you don't
necessarily need a script, butyou kind of need to know what
you want to say, and I thinkthat part kind of slows people
(08:30):
down.
But even if you don't know whatyou want to say, let's just say
right now we just rift off for aminute.
You can literally take thatvideo, right?
And we're talking about editingit on a free app.
So it's not even like you got topay someone to do it, or you
could just go on Fiverr and getsomeone to do it if you really
wanted to.
But there's there's a thingcalled jump cutting, and I'm not
some cinematography major.
(08:51):
It's just if we're talking andyou got a part that you don't
like, you literally just cutthat little part out and then it
just skips to the next thing,and it skips to the next thing.
And in all honesty, that's wherecontent is nowadays, and that
and it actually is a way ofkeeping people's attention.
So if you're not a one-take hoe,if you know what that means,
where you can do it in one takeand do it right, it's it's okay.
(09:11):
The biggest thing is justgetting it done and putting it
out there.
And like I said, you're justyou're just connecting with
people, and it's it's just agame changer.
SPEAKER_00 (09:19):
I think another thing too is you know, we forget
to bring people inside thestore.
We always talk about calling,and you know, we'll we'll say
come on down later.
Listen, just so you guys areaware, we want to get people in
the door as well.
We don't want to forget that wedon't want to always want to
keep it unpersonal.
If they have a chance to sit onit, mention sitting it on it.
If you want them to lay on it,mention laying on it.
(09:40):
If you want them to look atsomething, put those things out
there in your role to say, youhave to come down and see this,
you have to do that, you have todo that.
And if you change your mind,want to do something else, you
can obviously reach us at.
But be personal.
And I think that's probably oneof the bigger things that I see.
It's always, hey, I work here,we have this, come on down to
(10:02):
see the features.
How about saying somethingridiculously crazy?
I love coffee.
Please come and bring me a cupof coffee.
They are holding me hostage backhere, and I have nothing.
But when you come down, I'mgonna sell you this sofa, this
coffee sofa right here orsomething, and then jump into
it.
But I think, you know, you saythe best view.
It's it's not just the cut, thecuts, but it's the different
(10:22):
camera angle views, it's thedifferent opportunities, the
different angles that you'redoing inside the cut.
And you can be saying the samelines.
You know what I mean?
You're still talking to theaudience, you're still trying to
pitch your pitch.
But when you come from the left,all of a sudden now you're
coming from the right.
And even like you said, you cando that in editing.
You can literally just flip thepicture and come around from the
other side.
It looks like you're doingsomething more, but you're not
doing anything but editing.
You know, you can jump into thescreen, you can jump out of the
(10:45):
screen, you can wave your handsand do something crazy and then
absolutely make it look likeyou're coming out of the
bathroom or going into thebathroom.
When you go into the bathroom,you're coming out of another
side of the you know, the store.
Put some life into it and thenremind them, you gotta come down
to the store and try this out.
Now, if you think I'm crazy, andthere's a lot of people out
there, Gerard, you'll you'llknow that everything is going
(11:06):
digital.
It is somewhat digital, but yousell something that matters.
And I can tell you right now,there's still a lot of people
out there who want to test drivethat sofa before they take it
home.
I think that we don't we wecannot lose on the fact that we
need them to be therephysically.
And you know, you've got tomention it.
You can't just say it, you'vegot to mention it, you've got to
guide that.
Now, as far as like, and I'veheard this a hundred times,
(11:30):
Facebook is free, but if youwant to play, you've got to pay
to play.
Is that true?
SPEAKER_01 (11:37):
Yeah.
If you at one point years ago,and I don't know when they made
the switch, I got into marketingin 2017, and I believe they had
already made the switch withFacebook.
But at one point, if you had athousand followers, you got in
front of a thousand people.
Now it's it's it's throttledback.
And a lot of times the peoplethat like your page aren't even
seeing your stuff.
So something as simple as, andagain, we have a free course
(11:58):
too.
So my whole thing is if you wantme to run your stuff, as long as
we don't have someone that's inyour area, and I don't care if
you have a hundred stores, ifI'm already working with one guy
in the area and he trusted mefirst, then I'm gonna stick with
him.
That's just my my moral code.
SPEAKER_00 (12:12):
That's a professional courtesy, guys.
We gotta do it the right way,gotta do it the right way.
SPEAKER_01 (12:17):
Like, um, so I still have a course that you can do
it, but and I'll give it to youguys for free.
I just want you guys to be ableto get what you need, but
spending a dollar a day just tomake sure that you show up to
the people that already saidthat they wanted to see your
stuff because most of them havealready forgotten, right?
So it you you definitely need topay, but I'll give you an
example.
Like right now, we're workingwith American, we've been
working with a lot of differentbusinesses, but you know, shout
(12:38):
out to American Rental, Mr.
David David, James David, and myguy Justin.
Justin Burns, what's going on,Justin?
All right, so I have to throwanother person in there.
So my top three, Justin.
Justin, you, Justin, and Scott.
So Justin is I love Justin.
Yeah, man.
When I first met with Justin,and you know, we just hit it off
and we just connected, but umthey they've trusted me, it's
(12:59):
going on a year now to help themwith their with their marketing
and helping their their guys.
And um, for the most part, Iwon't share all the details with
you guys that I don't know whatthey want me to share versus
not, but they you know, I'd saystores are spending about$300 a
month and they're making thatback and some.
And some of that stuff I talkabout in my emails, I don't ever
say with business, because wework with all together, we work
(13:20):
with like close to 80 stores,right?
Doing ads.
SPEAKER_00 (13:25):
That's a lot.
SPEAKER_01 (13:26):
I never say this person with premiere, because we
work with premiere deals, wework with some buddies' guys.
I don't ever say this person didthis unless they give me an
actual testimonial that theywant me to run.
But you know, for the most part,a lot of their stores are spent
$300 or less a month.
And a lot of those guys overthere, they're really good at
tracking in-store sales.
So shout out to my guys, uh Rickand Jasper and Chris and Attica.
(13:49):
They're like the kings oftracking, and we got some other
guys coming along.
But um, like for instance,there's been a campaign we're
running because we like to keepour cost per lead at like$10,
right?
So every time you spend$10, youget someone's information.
Obviously, it's less sometimes,sometimes it's more.
But this is where it comes intohaving someone who's in the
store who's actually asalesperson.
I think that's the biggestchallenge that people have.
Um, whether it's well, when theywalk in the store, I think it's
(14:12):
okay.
But when you're dealing withdigital leads, the people who
are following up, I thinksometimes they're hiring people
to just follow up.
When they're really in aprospector or a setter, they're
not really a salesperson whoknows how to follow up.
But either way, these guys aretracking really well.
And Chris was one of the, youknow, basically, if we were if
we were just to go off of thedashboard, the cost per lead was
(14:34):
getting in the 40s.
But when we had conversations,he's like, Oh, well, I've I've
closed thousands of dollars incash sales, or I've closed this
much in monthly recurringbecause people are coming in
versus give me the information.
So without that information, Icould have changed the ad and I
could have ruined a really goodthing, right?
So it it's really important thatwe we track on both sides.
(14:55):
We we track on our side and andand and again tracking the
in-store sales.
And I got some guys I work withthat they just can't do it.
They're like, oh, well, we hadthis many people come in.
Some of them mentioned thevideo, I don't know which ones
they were.
And I'm like, well, I don't wantit to be a gut feeling when this
stops working that it didn'twork, because we have to take
into account all the times thatit did work.
I mean, marketing is not just astraight up trajectory.
(15:16):
Now, I'm the type of guy that Ialways want you to win, and I
don't like losing at all.
So I want to make sure they'realways getting a return on
investment, but that's a hardguarantee from anybody you work
with, no matter what you'redoing.
So it's always good to havethose numbers tracked so that
you know, hey, even if, youknow, I think Justin had said
this, all the months that startwith J's are typically the more
difficult months than rent toown.
And I was like, that's a goodway to grab it, right?
SPEAKER_00 (15:37):
They they really are.
That's that's an excellent.
I've heard that before, but uhin a different way.
I like the J months because thatis absolutely the truth.
And I tell you, sometimes wemake it more harder than what it
is.
Guys, if you want to trackwhat's coming in the door and
you want to know what your lead,your cost per lead is, and you
want to know how much the returnis, it could be something as
simple as, you know what, goingto one of your word processors
(15:58):
or whatever the case is, you caneven do this on an Excel sheet
and make a little sheet thatsays, Hey, how did you hear
about us?
It doesn't have to beintertwined with your rental
order.
You can just make a literalsheet that you hand out with
your rental order that says,Hey, how did you hear about us?
And listen, you don't want tohave 25 check marks because not
everybody's gonna read throughit.
But if you're advertising six toeight different ways, then you
need to put that in it.
Did you leave?
Did you get a door hanger?
(16:19):
Did you walk in?
Did you see us on Facebook?
Did you, you know, a couple ofdifferent ways and just throw it
out there.
Take a look at that.
And then what you want to do isjust write down when you create
an agreement number or agreementnumbers, depending, because
hopefully we're we're selling,we're upselling, right?
You take those agreementnumbers, and every month what
you can do is whether you haveVersailles Rent or anything
(16:39):
else, put in that agreementnumber, go to that payment
history for that agreement, andyou want to know what you've
generated, you go to the grosssales and that'll tell you.
That'll tell you immediately.
Now, somebody's gonna say, Well,I only want to track rental
revs, or I only want to track,you know, this or that.
Hey, listen, if you got a feefrom it, it's because of the
sale.
If you got the$10 agreement fee,that's because of the sale.
(17:00):
If they got the club, guesswhat?
That's probably because of thesale.
Now, we're not talking aboutcost, we're just talking about
what it's generated for you outof that situation.
So at the end, and does it taketime?
Obviously, it's gonna take time.
You want to know, I'm gonna tellyou right now, it takes time.
But if I found out that that one$300 month and I only got five
people out of it, and thatdivides that up, but then out of
(17:22):
the course of these agreements,I made a thousand, fifteen
hundred dollars.
And remember, we're talkingabout gross.
Is that I'm gonna just say it,if that$50,$55 investment
created a$1,500 return, wouldyou do it?
Well, listen, if every day Ibought a telado ticket for$55,
but I knew the next Tuesday Iwas gonna get$1,500, I'd buy it
(17:43):
every single week in mass.
I would spend every checkgetting bigger returns.
Now, does it work that way allthe time?
No, you're gonna have thosemonths, especially the Jay
months, where it's you might geta little bit less, but here it
is.
If you get this information andthe longer time frame you do it,
the more information you have.
Guys, I'm gonna tell you rightnow, invest in training on your
(18:06):
marketing, invest in training onyour videos, invest in learning
how to do these 30-second littleads that are gonna get people
in.
And even if you only spend oneor two dollars on your ad, make
somebody enjoy it.
Make them don't put that guy orgal in there that don't smile
either.
I dude, you look like you'remiserable, man.
Don't sell miserable.
(18:26):
Look, they're gonna have toshake it off.
So listen, we can't record tillyou shake that shit off.
I don't care what it is, justshake it off and have a good
time.
You know what?
It's so important to do that.
And so just shake it off, smilea little bit, get your
five-minute thing or 30-secondscript, whatever works for you.
And guys, if you don't thinkit's important, I'm gonna tell
you right now look at what yoursales are going through and then
(18:48):
invest$100 and marketingequipment.
That could be a very smallteleprompter, it could be a
little microphone.
Heck, it could be anything.
And I guarantee you theinvestment that you make is the
only one that counts is theinvestment that's used.
If I bought a car and I neveruse it, it's just wasting time.
If you buy something, use it.
(19:09):
And I promise you, I see peopleout there, like you said, there
was the queen of Facebook andmen.
You know why?
She had a presence, she hadcharisma.
It you could have put a cameraon her while she was coming out
of the bathroom, and I guaranteeyou she would have had something
to say that would have made yougo, that's hilarious.
But but you want to watch her.
Find that person, and it doesn'tmean it's your salesperson, it
(19:29):
doesn't mean it's your manager.
Heck, it could be one of yourdrivers that really just has a
lot of swag.
And you know what?
It doesn't always have to beabout product listing.
It could be, hey man, hey bigmic, what's going on?
Yeah, I just came back from thisdelivery.
I made this customer happy.
We went up and down.
She made me move it six times,but she loved it.
Come on down and see us at yeah.
It matters, it matters.
(19:49):
And getting people through thedoor, like you said, it's that
personality on the video.
Get them to smile, get them toknow that Jack and Bob and Susan
and Billy, and those are thepeople they want to come see.
And honestly, those are thepeople I want to see.
I I I I really do.
I and and because how many timesdo we go to our favorite place
and attach a name to where wego?
Yeah, I'm going to that place,but I'm gonna see Bob, I'm gonna
(20:13):
see Billy, I'm gonna see Jimmy.
I'm not gonna just go over thereand just randomly show up and be
like, hey, whatever.
No, I'm going to go there tosee.
Be that person.
Do you want to be a pony?
I want to go see you.
Be that guy, you know.
Um, talking about the scripts.
So let's say I wanted to write ascript because I know you are
king of AI.
I want to do something.
How do I make a catchy scriptthat sounds good?
(20:36):
You know, because let's say theygo, they call you up and you got
a script.
Okay, it's a month later, and Iwant to kind of freshen it up.
You know, I want to kind of tieit.
What would I do withoutstraining my brain to think that
I'm a full-time writer to make agood 30-second script that maybe
you could help me with?
SPEAKER_01 (20:51):
Hmm, I just thought of something while you were
saying all that.
I mean, essentially it is usingAI, right?
Like there's plenty of differentAI tools.
I like Chat GPT.
Some people say one's betterversus the other.
My biggest advice, because Iactually, where I live locally,
I do a lot of trainings where I,you know, through the Chamber of
Commerce and other, you know,bodies like that, where I train
people on AI.
(21:12):
The biggest thing that you cando, or this the best way to
simplify it, I should say, isjust pick one tool and use it
until it doesn't do what youneed it to do.
Don't get caught up in I shoulduse maybe you heard a
perplexity, maybe you haven't.
Um, I should use Manaus or allthat stuff.
Just use one.
And when it doesn't do what youneed it to do, look for another
one.
That's the first step.
But let's just go with ChatGPTbecause that's what I use.
(21:34):
I wish I can get affiliatecommissions off of it, but it's
not set up in that way.
But essentially it's it'ssimple, man.
Like AI can be AI is like one ofthe greatest inventions, I feel
like that we have at ourfingertips, especially now as us
as regular people have access toit.
But it's actually an openplaybook, uh like an open
sandbox.
(21:54):
So if you don't know what to askit, it's like garbage in,
garbage out, right?
So, what I would say is if yougo to AI and you can loosely
lose it, use this script thatI'm gonna give you.
It could be, hey, I want you toact as if you're my marketing
director.
This is the name of my company,and this is what we sell.
You could probably just copypaste stuff off the site.
And what I want you to do is actas if my marketing director, I'm
(22:17):
gonna ask you for emails, ads,and video scripts.
And I want them in the style andtone of, and this is my favorite
part.
So you can do style and tone.
You can say, I want to beprofessional, which I don't
think any of you guys should bedoing professional stuff.
Um, but if you want to take it astep further, instead of just
saying professional or friendlyand using those words, why not
say, like, for me, I like DaveChappelle, right?
(22:38):
Like, I don't keep up with allhis stuff, but he's a funny guy,
right?
Some people may not like him,some people may.
So let's say you like DaveChappelle, or maybe you like
Larry the Cable guy.
Remember, he used to be funny,whoever it may be, right in the
style and tone of DaveChappelle.
Um, or if like MatthewMcConaughey came up a lot the
last few days in some of thestuff that I'm doing for
(22:59):
whatever reason.
So I want it to be in the styleof Matthew McConaughey, so it'll
be his style, but it'll be inthe tone of Dave Chappelle.
What it'll do is it'll mix thetwo and give you um a video
script or add or post and uh youknow copy that you can use that
has a little bit more life toit.
Like when we're doing some ofthese calls with like uh our
clients, or even when we'redoing the call with American
(23:20):
Rentals, like we'll say, hey,well, you know, give me shoot
some stuff out, and sometimesthey'll they'll go off the wall
with with some different thingsand we'll write copy in
different ways.
And when they start laughing,it's like, all right, cool.
If you guys laugh from readingit, imagine what they're gonna
do when they see it, right?
And it just gives you ability tohave some more fun.
If you want to be basic, sure,professional, courtesy,
courteous, and friendly orwhatever.
But that's pretty much it.
(23:40):
Actors are my marketingdirector.
I need an ad for this.
This is my business, writing thestyle of tone in this.
And then the last part that Ilike to throw in too is
perspective.
You can say right from theperspective of.
So one of the best offers thatwe've ran from multiple stores,
ad-wise, has been the$10 down,right?
Um, whole nother story is whatsales you guys are using.
(24:02):
That's a whole other thing.
But ten dollars down seems towork pretty well.
So sometimes we'll write fromthe perspective of a ten dollar
bill.
Whoever would have thought a tendollar bill still had a
perspective on anything.
Right?
So it's an it's an inanimateobject, right?
So you can say write them fromthe perspective of a ten dollar
bill, you can write from theperspective of a cash register,
(24:24):
you can write from theperspective of the delivery
truck driving the stuff.
You can you can come up with anyof these different things.
And what it does, it just givesyou an angle that no one thought
about.
So it's almost like you becomelike a storyteller just by
having the idea that you caneven do it.
SPEAKER_00 (24:40):
So I'm gonna tell you right now.
That was an I I I've never,you're right.
You I like I as you're sayingit, man.
I'm like, do you know how manythings I could come up with as
the as a dollar bill, as a cashregister?
I'm thinking, my mind is going.
So, guys, you got to understandthat the limitations that you
put on yourself is why you can'tget it done.
There is so many things, there'sso many tools available out
(25:01):
there.
And listen, I'm not here to downanybody or what they're doing.
A lot of times we're like, hey,listen, I have a job to do, so I
got to put out a video today,I'm gonna do this and keep on
rolling.
What I suggest that you do, andI promise you want to see
results, the better results youget, is the more time you spend
doing it.
You don't go to the gym for fiveminutes and expect to look like
Lou Ferrigno, okay?
It just doesn't work.
Well, you can't spend twoseconds on your videos and
expect it to work.
(25:22):
Take some time, and especiallyin this, because I love the
idea.
I love that idea.
There are some other things thatyou can do.
And in those prompts that you'reputting there for your AI, you
can also say, hey, I also want aprompt to that will be more
likely to get them to mylocation versus coming, hitting
me up online or sending me aphone call.
Now, the course of this outlineis to say, you want to do
(25:44):
everything it takes to getnoticed and to get them in the
door.
Because here's the thing (25:48):
we're not saying that online doesn't
work, and we're not saying thatwe're doing a bad job.
What we're saying is we could doa lot better.
And I think everybody listeningto this knows we can do a lot
better online.
But what have we been doing forthe last 40 years?
When somebody walks in thatdoor, and I could tell you with
my eyes closed, I'm going toclose that sale.
Now, does that mean they closeit every time?
(26:10):
No, but it's my mentality.
I'm gonna walk up to you and I'mgonna say, What am I gonna what
are you taking from me?
What am I gonna lose out of thisstore today?
Because I'm gonna tell you rightnow, if you don't take
something, we we're gonna havean issue.
And we they look at you like,what the heck?
But you know how fun that is,and you can have fun with it.
Also, you either the king orqueen of your domain, you get to
upsell in person, you get to tryit out.
(26:31):
Hey, how much this sofa withthis set of lamps or with this
refiner, or that matches thisdining room table, or those are
the little things that weforget.
It's it's easier to say, harderto do online.
When you're in person, hey man,I'll move a table.
You want me to move a table?
I'll move a table.
You want me to set it outside inthe sunlight?
SPEAKER_01 (26:51):
I'll do that too.
Everybody doesn't have thatthough.
Like, I I think about a lot ofthese guys that they they just
don't it's your years in thegame, and then you just have
that personality mixed with theyears in the game.
So it's like a lot of peoplejust don't have that person.
And the ones that do, those arethe guys that said, Well, I had
my team for X amount of yearsand so on and so forth.
But everybody's not that lucky.
Like, yeah, if I had a store,I'd want them all on your
(27:13):
program.
Like, I'm even thinking part ofwhat I was thinking too is like
maybe I'll just create an AIinside Chat GPT that I can give
the dealers who want it, andit'll basically walk them
through what we just talkedabout and just ask them step by
step so they don't have toremember it and do it for
themselves.
But now I was thinking, like,damn, the AI should sound like
Pete.
SPEAKER_00 (27:34):
Because Pete AI you're gonna have the Pete AI
selling your stuff.
You know, I just I love the ideaof getting somebody in the door.
And I don't want again, I'm I'mnever gonna say we're not
selling online.
I'm never gonna say that thephones aren't ringing.
What I'm gonna tell you is thatyou cannot forget about our
biggest asset, and that's thefact that you have square
footage that you're using everysingle day.
If you have your guy setting upa living room, a bedroom, and a
(27:56):
dining room and a computer area,and you're not using it, well,
what's the point of that?
What's the point of that?
Get people in the door.
Don't forget about working onthat aspect of it because a lot
of us have seen that, you know,hey, it's going online and we
forget to push.
And I'm telling you guys now,what you push is what you
discuss.
You have to push your videos.
(28:17):
You mean you haven't seen ourvideos?
You could be saying this on thephone or online.
You haven't seen our videos.
Listen, you've got to take fiveseconds out to see this because
John did a great job atembarrassing the heck out of me
yesterday, and I think you gotto see this.
It's already sold.
Here's what it is you've got toplant the seed to get somebody
to watch because you're notgonna be there when they're
watching, and you're not gonnabe there hopefully when they
(28:39):
tell somebody else to watch thatembarrassing thing that John did
to you the other day.
What you're doing is you'replanting the seed for people to
see.
Another thing is you gotta beregular.
Probably one of the biggestthings that I've seen is we'll
throw an ad out there because wefeel like it's a great idea.
I need to sell something.
So I'm gonna make an ad, andthat's what it is.
Regularity wins the race.
(29:00):
Number one, if you're gonna doit and you can't do it every
day, pick Monday, Wednesday, andFriday.
Pick Monday and Friday, pickSaturday.
Who cares what day it is?
Try to put it out on a regulartime frame.
And what I'm saying is itdoesn't, if you don't make it by
11.01, nobody's gonna stab you.
But that's also the problem.
It's just like college.
I'm gonna tell you, theprofessor's not gonna go, hey,
you're late again, you're lateagain.
You're just gonna show up andnot have a class.
(29:21):
Well, the same thing happens forthe people that are online.
They get used to that.
They get used to seeing it.
I don't care who you are, theyspend 60 years on TV telling us
that, you know, MASH was gonnabe on at 4 p.m.
and you know, the fall guy wasgonna be on, and then they
change it to, you know, morningcartoons and stuff.
If we'd have changed that,everybody would have stopped
watching it.
Like, what's going on?
You know, nowadays we get usedto the streaming whenever we
(29:41):
want to.
But if you don't put it outregularly, it's stale and it
gets old.
And they want to see somethingnew.
Put something out regularly thattells them, hey, come on in.
And then I I think the mostimportant thing is people forget
don't just sell.
I know it soundscounterproductive.
You're not just selling, theyneed to know the Staff, they
need to know the birthdays, theyneed to know the special events,
(30:03):
they need to know about thespecial sofa that's coming in,
the new delivery truck that yougot, the best program that you
have.
Don't just say, come in and buythe sofa.
Because it doesn't matter howmany times you say that, it's
basically the same episode overand over and over and over
again.
Be fresh.
Be fresh.
SPEAKER_01 (30:20):
It's social media.
You got to be social.
You got to be social.
That's what they're looking for.
Like you think about how do youmake rent-to-owned sexy?
Um, right?
And for the most part,everybody's gonna struggle with
that because it seems like it'sthe same thing.
Then you guys have so manyproducts you can literally focus
on any product.
So it's like, how do you make itsexy?
It's just you just be moresocial because when people are
(30:41):
online, they're the stuff thatthey are spending time to watch
and it draws them in.
Now I will say this again, mostof you guys and gals, I would
say, don't necessarily have theperson that's anywhere close to
a Pete.
And if you have one treasurefront, you can give them a
raise.
So, even worst case scenario,what you could do is even if
it's like especially if we'retalking an ad, if you just stood
(31:03):
in front of the video, let's sayyou had a 15-20-second script,
they did it in the store, it'sbetter than putting nothing out.
Um, and then eventually you canbuild on top of that.
I think what kind of gets peopleis um the thought that they have
to go so far and do this that itkeeps them from joining on.
Because like I grew up anintrovert, like I never thought
(31:24):
that I'd be doing videos and allthis other stuff.
Like, my mom still is amazedthat I can even do something
like this, or I can just go, Ican go live on Facebook right
now, not that I'm going to andnot even have an agenda and just
make it work and not feel anyany kind of way about it.
So you don't get thereovernight.
Um, but one thing I've realizedtoo is like when you challenge
the people, like as long asthey're open to it.
Like, I think sometimes withsome of the managers or owners,
(31:47):
they already start saying thattheir people aren't going to do
it before they even present itto them.
And if you come to them withthat energy, then they don't
feel like they have to do it,they're stuck in their ways.
Well, it's your business.
Um, it's your business.
Now, for some people, they'reworth letting them be stuck in
that way and keeping them aroundbecause they're inner quote in
quote part of the business.
But don't be afraid to challengeyour people to put them out
there.
Like, and what happens too islike the people who really never
(32:10):
wanted to do video, like, andagain, shout out to American
Reynolds for this because everysingle store, they got 54
stores, and I think we've workedwith at least 30 or 40 of them.
I can't remember the numbers getall jumbled up.
Every one of those stores hasput out a video, and the people
that didn't want to do it, theydid it, and when they did it,
they just felt so much better.
And then the feedback they gotfrom the people that came into
(32:31):
the store just changed them, andthey're just like, not that
they're about to just startdoing videos on upon videos for
themselves, but it just givesthem a greater sense of duty.
And the one thing I really likeabout rent-to-owned people is
that you guys actually careabout the customers, at least
most of y'all I met, right?
So it's like it starts becominga mindset of this is my duty to
be able to help them.
(32:51):
Because let's say that youdon't, I don't want to start
naming you know companies thatpeople don't like, but let's say
the company's on the corner andthey do shady business, you have
a moral obligation and a duty toget them into your store so you
can take care of them becauseyou know what's gonna happen
over there.
And more than likely, the peopleover there, especially if
they're corporate, aren't doingany videos.
So, what can you do?
You can let them know thatyou're here, you're a real
(33:13):
person, you'll take care ofthem.
And then another thing y'allcould do too is just like some
of your customers would bewilling to get on video with you
guys.
You just gotta ask.
You just gotta ask.
I mean, I love that idea.
SPEAKER_00 (33:23):
I mean, I think I think going live, listen, not
everything is scripted.
He's right about social media.
It is number one the socialconcept.
I can guarantee you, if you dosomething as crazy as you're
getting a payment from MissJones, who has been doing it on
time for the last 20 payments.
If you one of the one of thethings that we've always heard a
rent to own, and this is the godhonest truth, when I was
(33:45):
younger, I said the same thing.
You could probably name 20customers that have a difficult
time paying, couldn't you, Pete?
Oh, I could I could name 20, Icould probably name you 40.
Okay.
Name me 10 that make payments ontime every single week.
Celebrate those people.
Oh, wow.
I could probably name maybefour.
Now, here's a question.
Why is it that you you canremember them, but you don't
(34:08):
remember the people thatprobably should be praised more
for making your job not onlyeasier, but giving you that
sense of purpose.
Every time they come in, weshould be set, like you said,
celebrating those people, right?
Oh, wow.
I had to really think aboutthat.
Well, one of those ways you cando that is you know what?
Have your Facebook Live ready.
And if somebody comes in, getthem to join you.
Obviously, you're gonna ask, youknow, hey, Miss Jones, you mind
(34:30):
being on a quick video with me?
We're gonna go live real quick,and you're probably one of the
best people we have here rightnow.
SPEAKER_01 (34:34):
I would say never tell them you're gonna go live
because whenever you tellanybody who goes you're going
live, they freeze up.
So one of my tricks is maybenot.
Maybe just do a video.
Yeah, and even if I go live,they don't know, and it's like,
well, it's out in the ether now.
SPEAKER_00 (34:48):
You know, and I think one of the things is that
you have to bring them into theepisode, you have to bring them
into the thought process.
And it it does a couple ofthings.
Number one, it re-confirms thatthis is a relationship that I've
built with this person, and it'sa good relationship.
This is what we want to buildwith you.
Number two, they're gonna showbeing in the location.
(35:09):
This is not something that I'mdoing online like we're doing
here with that virtual stuff.
As we do it, you're gonna seethem behind the counter or in
front of your living room set orin front of your TV wall, which
is another in-store relationshipthat we're building.
And we want to continue goingdown that road with you.
You want to show that thatfriendliness, that that love you
have, the respect you have forthat customer in your
(35:30):
environment.
Bring them into yourenvironment.
And, you know, guys, we we talka lot about advertising.
Make sure your environment isnice, make sure it's clean, make
sure it sounds good, make sureit smells good, make sure that
you greet them when they walk inthe door.
Because those are the thingsthat I'm telling you, as it
happens, we get so focused onthe idea of what's online that
we forget to love on the peoplethat walk into the front door.
Now, does that happen all thetime?
(35:50):
No, you might be one of the guysthat are doing it extremely
well.
For everybody that's doing itextremely well, I can tell you
that there's somebody out therewho isn't.
And it might not be their fault.
They might be a youngergeneration that are used to not
really dealing with peoplebecause they do better on the
phone or online.
And I'm gonna tell you also,hire somebody who's like that.
Hire somebody who's good atbeing on phone, hire somebody
(36:11):
who's good being on theinternet, and then hire their
opposite.
Because for everybody that walksin the store, it's good to have
a dichotomy because the personwho's good at the store might
not be good online.
And I can always tell you, I'veseen some shy people, but you
get them online, and man, theysound like Gerard, man, they're
just ready to go.
They're ready to handle somebusiness and get stuff done.
And then you handle and then yougo to the other side, they're
like, hi, hi, how are you doing?
(36:32):
And you're like, I don'tunderstand.
And and it's those differentviews that also make a
difference as you're as you'representing them online, as
you're presenting them in yourvideos, as you're trying to get
people to the door.
Somebody might relate to uh, youknow, I I had just had Angelica
Tomas on the other day, andshe's very introverted, and
she's coming out of her show.
(36:53):
But you can't forget that thereare people like her who might
want to interact with peoplelike her who are not as crazy as
Pete and Durano, like, oh mygod, that guy just crazy me out.
And they like that quietness.
Bring them in to understand orshow them on the video that,
hey, no matter who you are,we're gonna take care of you one
way or another, and we've gotsomething to show you.
This is what we have, this iswho we have, and this is how
(37:16):
we're gonna make your daybetter.
Uh also say if you're trying toget people from the guys next
door, don't ever mention a name.
Mention what you what they'redoing.
If you have somebody nottreating you right by doing
this, yeah, this is what you'regonna expect here.
If you're if you're getting thisout of what you you know, you
are you paying for this bygetting this, this is what you
(37:36):
have.
Don't shame them, don't go afterthem because I'm gonna tell you
guys the world is a big placeand it's gonna come around.
Just give your people some loveand show them how to come down
to the store and get what theyneed.
And then obviously you're alwaysgonna say, but if you can't, hit
me up online, hit me up on thison the phone calls.
How many times would you saythat maybe not just the video,
(37:59):
but the type of video that theyhave would make such a huge
difference?
SPEAKER_01 (38:03):
In the beginning, I just think it's just getting it
done.
I think when it comes to thevideo, obviously, like you said,
the audio and another thing iscaptions.
Most people aren't able toalways listen.
So, you know, there's there'sapps.
I mean, you could literally gointo Instagram or Facebook and
edit your video there and putcaptions on it and then download
it out.
That's a free app.
I think Cap Cut just startedcharging for that.
(38:25):
Um, and I have one that I payfor like$70 a year.
I particularly like it.
But if you want to just keep itfree, they can just do it there.
So having the captions on toread it helps out a lot.
Um, so that way that's great.
SPEAKER_00 (38:37):
I'm glad you said that because I completely forgot
about that.
But you are right.
If you guys are doing shorts oryou're doing small videos, put
the captions on there.
If somebody's sitting at theiroffice desk and they can't hear
it but they can see it, thatmight make the difference of a
sailor not getting a sale.
Great idea.
SPEAKER_01 (38:50):
And another variety tone, too.
And I had a few people that werestarted doing this a while back,
but is being in the store isgreat.
But you know, especially withthe economy the way it is.
Like I suggested to one guy, andI think he did it, it's like if
you're at the store and if yougot a person that's comfortable
doing it, you could literally bein the milk aisle in the eggs
aisle because eggs areoutrageous now, and just be
like, man, pulling out someeggs, man.
(39:11):
The cost of eggs is crazy now,yada yada, and then just tie
that back in.
And obviously you can have AIhelp you ride it.
Tie that back in.
You can be at the gas station,don't pump your gas while you're
on the phone.
I don't like when people dothat, I feel like they're
putting everybody in danger.
But before you pump the gas,like, man, the price of gas is
going up, yada yada yada, andthen tie it into how you can
help alleviate that pain.
Um, because the the other side,too, is what I'm working on with
(39:33):
a lot of guys is because eachstore, let's say there's a an
intersection, there's a uhcompetitor on each corner, which
some cases it is, you guys areall basically saying the same
thing in different ways.
If I'm doing$10 down, you'redoing 99 cents down or$25 down
or whatever it is, all of itsounds really the same.
And then the crazy part is, iseven if they they they're
(39:54):
overloaded with decision making,in a few weeks you change it up,
and then they're back in thatdecision matrix again.
It makes me think of Cork Romanowhen the guy couldn't read and
he's looking at the ice creamtruck and it says strawberry ice
cream and chocolate.
He's like, What do you want?
He's just like, uh uh, I'll takeRocky Road.
He's like, I don't have that,sir.
It's just uh the same thing.
So it's always a constantoverload.
(40:14):
So another thing that I I I Iurge you guys to do too is
everything we talked about doingthe video to get people in is
maybe start talking more aboutthe pain that they're facing.
Why does someone want a newcouch?
You know, don't always worryabout selling the entire store.
I mean, you guys have so manyitems and products, and
sometimes you guys have specialorder stuff.
But again, from that perspectivesituation, what if we wrote it
(40:36):
from the perspective of a couch?
I'm a mom with two kids, and youknow, I got young kids and
they're just beating the couch,and it's just like, well, you
know, they're they're kids, andbut I I I can't go get a new
couch the way I want one, andyada yada yada.
Like, you can talk aboutsituations like that.
Don't be afraid to just talk tothat lady or those ladies to get
more sales in and drive them in,and then make another post where
(40:57):
you talk to a different subsetof people, right?
Because then if you're talkingto what's going on in here, that
opens them up to listen to you,and then they'll come in and oh
yeah, by the way, we have thisdeal.
Or shit, you don't even have togive them the deal at that
point, they're just ready tomake something happen.
So I think that that's uh adirection I'm heading to in the
in the entire industry, and Iwant a lot of guys too, is
because like like right now themonth's about to end and Black
(41:20):
Friday's about to get crazy.
I'm like, well, what's next?
Well, you know, guys are like,we're gonna run this off for
now.
I'm like, well, it's not reallydifferent from last month, you
know?
SPEAKER_00 (41:29):
Be different, be heard, and I'm gonna tell you
guys right now be original.
Gerard, you said that you'regonna help them out a little bit
and give them a free 30-secondidea on what to do to get them
in.
How would they reach out to youand get a hold of you?
SPEAKER_01 (41:42):
Um, I would say a few ways.
Uh, Gerard atGerardMarketing.com, that's my
email.
Um, also, if you want toschedule a time with me, go to
fastrto deliveries.com.
And one thing that we like thatthe reason why we call it fast
rteliveries is usually once weget a campaign going, if you
decide you want to go that routewith us, because we will, you
know, if you want if you justwant the course and you want the
(42:04):
video script, just email me.
But if you're interested intalking to us about running the
ads, then go to fastrtodeliveries.com and fill it out.
We'll get on a call.
I'm not gonna high pressuresales you the way I see it.
You you you're you're checkingme out and I'm checking you out.
I'm not gonna say yes toeverything, and you shouldn't
say yes to everything.
So it has to be a fit.
You gotta be someone who'swilling to track and who's
willing to get better and listento our advice.
(42:26):
And I'm always gonna listen toyou as well because it's a
partnership.
Um, when I get with people thatexpect the world but don't want
to do anything, it doesn't workout well.
And you guys have a pretty tightniche, uh niche circle.
So if one guy's not doing workand he starts poisoning the
water hole, then that don't lookgood.
And now I have more people thatknow that that's not the truth,
but I don't even want to putmyself in that situation.
So just look looking to workwith the right folks.
(42:48):
And again, if the area is taken,the area's taken.
I don't I don't care how big thecheck is, uh, value, integrity,
and honesty is it is my corevalues, then I'm not gonna
change that for anyone.
SPEAKER_00 (42:59):
Well, that's what you're gonna get when you go to
fastrto deliveries.com.
Listen, guys, if you guys haveany questions, hit me up at Pete
at the RTO Show Podcast.com.
You can also go on the website,therto showpodcast.com.
Just get in there, get someswag, order some shirts, order
some cups.
We love those things.
And besides, it also helps uh,you know, the show.
You can be a sponsor like GerardMarketing is and help us out
(43:21):
because we run with you guys.
Also, real quick, I'm gonna addinto my closing.
If you guys want to have somereally good mindset insights,
check out LinkedIn.
Go to Gerard Marketing'sLinkedIn.
Gerard has some really greatthings that he puts out every
single week or every every otherday, really.
He has some good mindset things.
If you guys want to learn togrow, check that out.
If you want to check out theshow, we're on there you go,
(43:43):
check it out.
Bulletproof mindset.
If you guys want to check outthe show on social media, we got
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn,where we see him, and YouTube
where you're gonna see this.
Make sure you subscribe and likeso that you get to all the
notifications.
And Gerard, as usual, alwaysgetting some good pointers on
some marketing and some goodthings that we need to hit up.
Guys, you guys are gonna seethis very soon.
Make sure you apply this foryour black your Black Friday and
(44:03):
everything you have going on inthe fourth quarter.
And I will tell you guys asalways, get your collections low
to get your sales high.
Have a great one.
Hey guys, welcome to the RTO show.
I'm your host, Pete Shout, andtoday we're talking to my man
Gerard Norman from GerardMarketing.
And let me tell you guys, he hasbeen doing some stuff lately
that has been reallyinteresting.
It's been very inspiring.
And I I gotta get him back onbecause we're gonna talk about
something today that I sometimesI think we overlook.
(00:28):
I think we've gotten so far intothe technical side that we
forgot the basics on how to runthe business in certain areas.
And that's why I have Gerardhere.
Gerard, how you doing today,man?
How's everything going?
SPEAKER_01 (00:37):
Doing good, man.
Any day I'm talking to you is agood day.
SPEAKER_00 (00:40):
That's what we're talking about.
I love when we get on becausesometimes we start talking, and
before you know it, there's anidea or three that pop out of
it.
And I'm like, you know what?
I'm so glad I had thatconversation because it really
is important to not forget thefundamentals.
And when I say that, guys, Iknow a lot of you guys watching,
listening, and hearing this go,you know, the fundamentals, what
are we talking about?
We've gotten so stuck on thethought that I've got to get
(01:02):
this guy locked down on theinternet.
Now, let me tell you, you do.
You don't want to overlook that.
But you don't want to forgetthat you have a front door, and
front door swings usually landyou higher results, higher rate
of results.
Gerard, how are we doing todayas far as our as far as our
marketing goes?
And what do you have to talk tous about today?
SPEAKER_01 (01:22):
Well, first of all, let me preface this by this.
You're my favorite guy in theentire industry.
SPEAKER_00 (01:27):
Thank you, man.
I appreciate that.
I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_01 (01:30):
You and Scott Kaneer.
Scott Scott brought me in, soshout out to Scott Kaneer.
But um, what's going on with umthe marketing aspect?
And I I I do believe what yousaid hits home.
Like, I know we have to do thedigital part, right?
Like, especially since COVID,things have changed up for a lot
of people, especially in youguys' industry.
But one thing that we'verealized over the past year or
two, especially, because we'regetting better at help uh having
(01:53):
the dealers track what's goingon.
Because there's some guys whotrack really, really well.
Um, but I'd say the majority ofyou guys don't really track well
when it comes to your marketingand what's actually working.
But one thing that we figuredout that is working at getting
people into the stores isobviously like I've I specialize
in Facebook ads, and I will saythis too I am the best in the
industry, the best in theindustry when it comes to
(02:13):
Facebook ads.
I don't even know what you said.
Just being honest, guys.
Um, if there was more guys thatcame from my camp like me that
came in, then you know therewould be an actual duel.
But until that happens, um, youknow, I'm the guy.
So if you want to run Facebookads, I'm your guy.
So what we've realized with theFacebook ads is when you start
showing product pictures, and ifyou don't want to run ads,
that's fine.
You don't have to reach out tome, but just hear me out.
(02:35):
If you just keep showing productpictures, what happens is
there's no connection.
So we have a term that we use,and I think we said this on
another episode before.
I always say this, but the valueis created after the experience.
So what we like to do is evenfor the people who are shy,
because the people who are shyusually create the best videos,
so to speak, not necessarilyfrom a performance standpoint,
(02:57):
but as far as resonating withthe community.
Because the biggest advantageyou guys have in rent to own is
that you guys are local and youwant people to come and see you.
And it's like if they can seewhat it's like before they get
there, values created after theexperience, they're more likely
to show up and come.
So that's the first thing.
It we can automatically juststart driving more store traffic
(03:18):
just by doing more videos.
And then I think the otherproblem that you guys have is
majority of you guys don'treally have a good Facebook
following.
Like, I remember I think it wasin Albuquerque, there was a
young lady, I can't rememberwhat company she was with.
She was like the queen ofFacebook Live, she had a big
following.
So, but but there that's likeone to three percent of all
dealers have that and have thatperson, right?
(03:40):
So the first thing is like justposting to your page, post more
videos, yes, but they're reallynot gonna go that far.
And what I realize a lot too,and I can't say it's for
everyone, is a lot of times it'sother dealers, you know, looking
out and liking your stuff, andit's not even actual people.
Not to say that you don't getany sales from Facebook, but
imagine if you reach morepeople.
The second part is again, ifyou're just posting pictures of
(04:02):
products, you have to do thatevery now and then, but it's
really about making thatconnection.
It's all about the know, thelike, and the trust.
They gotta know you guys are abusiness first, right?
So, whatever business you'rewith, buddies, rent a center,
whatever, you know, they knowthe business, but you know, do
they know Pete?
Let's say Pete's at the store.
Knowing Pete and not reallycaring about the name that's on
(04:23):
the front door, that's what it'sreally all about to me.
They want to come in and meetthat person and have a
connection with that person.
And what we realize too is whenwe start doing the the ads with
the videos, yeah, we get actualname, email, and phone numbers
that you can follow up with.
And I know you guys don't likethat.
And for the most part, a lot ofpeople aren't necessarily good
at follow-up.
That's a whole notherconversation because there's
(04:44):
systems in place I think thatyou guys don't have.
Um, and it's not even aboutautomation and stuff, just
systems and checkpoints that Idon't think that are in place.
But what happens is is a lot ofstore traffic we've been
realizing because we're gettingguys who are better at tracking,
a lot more sales are coming frompeople who saw the ad and didn't
give us the information and justshowed up at the store and
started buying.
And when they show up at thestore, they're looking for the
(05:06):
person that was in the video.
And a lot of times it's just theeasiest sale because, in all
honesty, you guys want morestore traffic anyway.
And when people come in, youguys know what to do.
It's really when it's online,it's still that disconnect that
people are still workingthrough.
So that's been the biggest thingthat we've seen is just, yeah,
if you get on video, a shortscript, and I'll make you guys
an offer now that's free.
If you want, I'll write you avideo script at the end of this.
(05:29):
You can, I don't know, we'llfigure that out, but you can
email me or whatever.
Tell me what your offer is.
I'll write you a 30-second videoscript that anybody can shoot,
that you can just have yourphone and shoot with and have
your people put it out therejust to get you guys started.
But it just it's it's a gamechanger.
And again, these guys who aretracking the in-store sales,
it's something as simple as whenthey come in, it's like, hey,
where did you see us?
A lot of times those people arecoming out and saying, Hey, I
(05:51):
saw your video.
Even if it isn't the if itwasn't you, Pete, they're like,
Hey, I saw the video, that's whyI'm here.
By the way, I'm gonna take X, Y,and Z.
SPEAKER_00 (05:58):
Right?
And then I think I think some ofthe things that these guys need
to do too, when I start seeingsome of the videos, I'm with
you.
I've noticed that when I seeanother person's video, when I
see another company's video, andI see some of the likes or I see
some of the names on there, notthat I'm trying to take away
from them.
Guys, keep doing what you'redoing, but it isn't an enclosed
circle, and you don't want yourecho chamber to be like, yeah,
(06:19):
this got 10 likes, but the 10likes really aren't gonna be
people who are buying from you.
They're people who think yourvideo is okay.
And I do think there's a coupleof points too that make your
video more interesting and ithas nothing to do with the name.
And sometimes it might not evenhave to do with the with the
merchandise.
Like you said, it has to do withthe person.
I'd say the first thing is,guys, if you're gonna do a
(06:40):
video, which is okay, I'm allfor it, and you're gonna use
your phone, do it.
Your sound has to come throughthe other side of the screen.
If it sounds like you're at theend of one of those paper rolls,
it's not gonna work.
It it's hard to hear, it's hardto make out what the sale is,
and it's hard to really get intothat because you're you're
you're desperately trying tolisten.
If you're gonna do it, listen,guys, it might cost a hundred
(07:02):
bucks or less.
Invest in a really cheapmicrophone or something that you
can get your voice across.
The second thing, too, is I seethese guys, they're standing in
front, and the first thing theygo is, um, I'm hearing, listen,
put something together.
Put a little bit, put a littlebit of grease on that sucker,
okay?
Stand there for five minutes andjust figure out how to put
something together that you wantto talk about.
(07:23):
Now, we're not talking about,I'm not talking about a script.
Now, he's gonna give you ascript.
What I'm saying is if you'reshooting from the hip, don't do
it.
Unless you got unless you'regood at it.
Now, some of us can do it.
It doesn't mean all of us can.
I think having a script isamazing.
And what I used to do, and I'mnot gonna lie, guys, I've been
in commercials, I would havesomebody literally walking
around with this big oldwhiteboard with what I needed to
say, and I know it looks, it'sit looks stupid, but nobody sees
(07:46):
what's behind the camera.
When you get there, havesomething important to say
because, like you said, you got30 seconds.
Make it insightful, make itimportant.
Don't make it look like you'relooking for the next word to say
so that you can get off thevideo and hopefully be done with
it.
You know?
Um, how many quality aspects doyou think stop people from
coming in the door because theirvideo is just kind of uh not so
(08:08):
good?
SPEAKER_01 (08:09):
I would say the sound's a big one.
Um, I'd say for the most part,the guys that we work with, they
got their sound right.
Um, I think it's not even doingit or attempting to do it is the
biggest hurdle that they runinto.
Because, like you said, if Iagree with Speed, you don't
necessarily need a script, butyou kind of need to know what
you want to say, and I thinkthat part kind of slows people
(08:30):
down.
But even if you don't know whatyou want to say, let's just say
right now we just rift off for aminute.
You can literally take thatvideo, right?
And we're talking about editingit on a free app.
So it's not even like you got topay someone to do it, or you
could just go on Fiverr and getsomeone to do it if you really
wanted to.
But there's there's a thingcalled jump cutting, and I'm not
some cinematography major.
(08:51):
It's just if we're talking andyou got a part that you don't
like, you literally just cutthat little part out and then it
just skips to the next thing,and it skips to the next thing.
And in all honesty, that's wherecontent is nowadays, and that
and it actually is a way ofkeeping people's attention.
So if you're not a one-take hoe,if you know what that means,
where you can do it in one takeand do it right, it's it's okay.
(09:11):
The biggest thing is justgetting it done and putting it
out there.
And like I said, you're justyou're just connecting with
people, and it's it's just agame changer.
SPEAKER_00 (09:19):
I think another thing too is you know, we forget
to bring people inside thestore.
We always talk about calling,and you know, we'll we'll say
come on down later.
Listen, just so you guys areaware, we want to get people in
the door as well.
We don't want to forget that wedon't want to always want to
keep it unpersonal.
If they have a chance to sit onit, mention sitting it on it.
If you want them to lay on it,mention laying on it.
(09:40):
If you want them to look atsomething, put those things out
there in your role to say, youhave to come down and see this,
you have to do that, you have todo that.
And if you change your mind,want to do something else, you
can obviously reach us at.
But be personal.
And I think that's probably oneof the bigger things that I see.
It's always, hey, I work here,we have this, come on down to
(10:02):
see the features.
How about saying somethingridiculously crazy?
I love coffee.
Please come and bring me a cupof coffee.
They are holding me hostage backhere, and I have nothing.
But when you come down, I'mgonna sell you this sofa, this
coffee sofa right here orsomething, and then jump into
it.
But I think, you know, you saythe best view.
It's it's not just the cut, thecuts, but it's the different
(10:22):
camera angle views, it's thedifferent opportunities, the
different angles that you'redoing inside the cut.
And you can be saying the samelines.
You know what I mean?
You're still talking to theaudience, you're still trying to
pitch your pitch.
But when you come from the left,all of a sudden now you're
coming from the right.
And even like you said, you cando that in editing.
You can literally just flip thepicture and come around from the
other side.
It looks like you're doingsomething more, but you're not
doing anything but editing.
You know, you can jump into thescreen, you can jump out of the
(10:45):
screen, you can wave your handsand do something crazy and then
absolutely make it look likeyou're coming out of the
bathroom or going into thebathroom.
When you go into the bathroom,you're coming out of another
side of the you know, the store.
Put some life into it and thenremind them, you gotta come down
to the store and try this out.
Now, if you think I'm crazy, andthere's a lot of people out
there, Gerard, you'll you'llknow that everything is going
(11:06):
digital.
It is somewhat digital, but yousell something that matters.
And I can tell you right now,there's still a lot of people
out there who want to test drivethat sofa before they take it
home.
I think that we don't we wecannot lose on the fact that we
need them to be therephysically.
And you know, you've got tomention it.
You can't just say it, you'vegot to mention it, you've got to
guide that.
Now, as far as like, and I'veheard this a hundred times,
(11:30):
Facebook is free, but if youwant to play, you've got to pay
to play.
Is that true?
SPEAKER_01 (11:37):
Yeah.
If you at one point years ago,and I don't know when they made
the switch, I got into marketingin 2017, and I believe they had
already made the switch withFacebook.
But at one point, if you had athousand followers, you got in
front of a thousand people.
Now it's it's it's throttledback.
And a lot of times the peoplethat like your page aren't even
seeing your stuff.
So something as simple as, andagain, we have a free course
(11:58):
too.
So my whole thing is if you wantme to run your stuff, as long as
we don't have someone that's inyour area, and I don't care if
you have a hundred stores, ifI'm already working with one guy
in the area and he trusted mefirst, then I'm gonna stick with
him.
That's just my my moral code.
SPEAKER_00 (12:12):
That's a professional courtesy, guys.
We gotta do it the right way,gotta do it the right way.
SPEAKER_01 (12:17):
Like, um, so I still have a course that you can do
it, but and I'll give it to youguys for free.
I just want you guys to be ableto get what you need, but
spending a dollar a day just tomake sure that you show up to
the people that already saidthat they wanted to see your
stuff because most of them havealready forgotten, right?
So it you you definitely need topay, but I'll give you an
example.
Like right now, we're workingwith American, we've been
working with a lot of differentbusinesses, but you know, shout
(12:38):
out to American Rental, Mr.
David David, James David, and myguy Justin.
Justin Burns, what's going on,Justin?
All right, so I have to throwanother person in there.
So my top three, Justin.
Justin, you, Justin, and Scott.
So Justin is I love Justin.
Yeah, man.
When I first met with Justin,and you know, we just hit it off
and we just connected, but umthey they've trusted me, it's
(12:59):
going on a year now to help themwith their with their marketing
and helping their their guys.
And um, for the most part, Iwon't share all the details with
you guys that I don't know whatthey want me to share versus
not, but they you know, I'd saystores are spending about$300 a
month and they're making thatback and some.
And some of that stuff I talkabout in my emails, I don't ever
say with business, because wework with all together, we work
(13:20):
with like close to 80 stores,right?
Doing ads.
SPEAKER_00 (13:25):
That's a lot.
SPEAKER_01 (13:26):
I never say this person with premiere, because we
work with premiere deals, wework with some buddies' guys.
I don't ever say this person didthis unless they give me an
actual testimonial that theywant me to run.
But you know, for the most part,a lot of their stores are spent
$300 or less a month.
And a lot of those guys overthere, they're really good at
tracking in-store sales.
So shout out to my guys, uh Rickand Jasper and Chris and Attica.
(13:49):
They're like the kings oftracking, and we got some other
guys coming along.
But um, like for instance,there's been a campaign we're
running because we like to keepour cost per lead at like$10,
right?
So every time you spend$10, youget someone's information.
Obviously, it's less sometimes,sometimes it's more.
But this is where it comes intohaving someone who's in the
store who's actually asalesperson.
I think that's the biggestchallenge that people have.
Um, whether it's well, when theywalk in the store, I think it's
(14:12):
okay.
But when you're dealing withdigital leads, the people who
are following up, I thinksometimes they're hiring people
to just follow up.
When they're really in aprospector or a setter, they're
not really a salesperson whoknows how to follow up.
But either way, these guys aretracking really well.
And Chris was one of the, youknow, basically, if we were if
we were just to go off of thedashboard, the cost per lead was
(14:34):
getting in the 40s.
But when we had conversations,he's like, Oh, well, I've I've
closed thousands of dollars incash sales, or I've closed this
much in monthly recurringbecause people are coming in
versus give me the information.
So without that information, Icould have changed the ad and I
could have ruined a really goodthing, right?
So it it's really important thatwe we track on both sides.
(14:55):
We we track on our side and andand and again tracking the
in-store sales.
And I got some guys I work withthat they just can't do it.
They're like, oh, well, we hadthis many people come in.
Some of them mentioned thevideo, I don't know which ones
they were.
And I'm like, well, I don't wantit to be a gut feeling when this
stops working that it didn'twork, because we have to take
into account all the times thatit did work.
I mean, marketing is not just astraight up trajectory.
(15:16):
Now, I'm the type of guy that Ialways want you to win, and I
don't like losing at all.
So I want to make sure they'realways getting a return on
investment, but that's a hardguarantee from anybody you work
with, no matter what you'redoing.
So it's always good to havethose numbers tracked so that
you know, hey, even if, youknow, I think Justin had said
this, all the months that startwith J's are typically the more
difficult months than rent toown.
And I was like, that's a goodway to grab it, right?
SPEAKER_00 (15:37):
They they really are.
That's that's an excellent.
I've heard that before, but uhin a different way.
I like the J months because thatis absolutely the truth.
And I tell you, sometimes wemake it more harder than what it
is.
Guys, if you want to trackwhat's coming in the door and
you want to know what your lead,your cost per lead is, and you
want to know how much the returnis, it could be something as
simple as, you know what, goingto one of your word processors
(15:58):
or whatever the case is, you caneven do this on an Excel sheet
and make a little sheet thatsays, Hey, how did you hear
about us?
It doesn't have to beintertwined with your rental
order.
You can just make a literalsheet that you hand out with
your rental order that says,Hey, how did you hear about us?
And listen, you don't want tohave 25 check marks because not
everybody's gonna read throughit.
But if you're advertising six toeight different ways, then you
need to put that in it.
Did you leave?
Did you get a door hanger?
(16:19):
Did you walk in?
Did you see us on Facebook?
Did you, you know, a couple ofdifferent ways and just throw it
out there.
Take a look at that.
And then what you want to do isjust write down when you create
an agreement number or agreementnumbers, depending, because
hopefully we're we're selling,we're upselling, right?
You take those agreementnumbers, and every month what
you can do is whether you haveVersailles Rent or anything
(16:39):
else, put in that agreementnumber, go to that payment
history for that agreement, andyou want to know what you've
generated, you go to the grosssales and that'll tell you.
That'll tell you immediately.
Now, somebody's gonna say, Well,I only want to track rental
revs, or I only want to track,you know, this or that.
Hey, listen, if you got a feefrom it, it's because of the
sale.
If you got the$10 agreement fee,that's because of the sale.
(17:00):
If they got the club, guesswhat?
That's probably because of thesale.
Now, we're not talking aboutcost, we're just talking about
what it's generated for you outof that situation.
So at the end, and does it taketime?
Obviously, it's gonna take time.
You want to know, I'm gonna tellyou right now, it takes time.
But if I found out that that one$300 month and I only got five
people out of it, and thatdivides that up, but then out of
(17:22):
the course of these agreements,I made a thousand, fifteen
hundred dollars.
And remember, we're talkingabout gross.
Is that I'm gonna just say it,if that$50,$55 investment
created a$1,500 return, wouldyou do it?
Well, listen, if every day Ibought a telado ticket for$55,
but I knew the next Tuesday Iwas gonna get$1,500, I'd buy it
(17:43):
every single week in mass.
I would spend every checkgetting bigger returns.
Now, does it work that way allthe time?
No, you're gonna have thosemonths, especially the Jay
months, where it's you might geta little bit less, but here it
is.
If you get this information andthe longer time frame you do it,
the more information you have.
Guys, I'm gonna tell you rightnow, invest in training on your
(18:06):
marketing, invest in training onyour videos, invest in learning
how to do these 30-second littleads that are gonna get people
in.
And even if you only spend oneor two dollars on your ad, make
somebody enjoy it.
Make them don't put that guy orgal in there that don't smile
either.
I dude, you look like you'remiserable, man.
Don't sell miserable.
(18:26):
Look, they're gonna have toshake it off.
So listen, we can't record tillyou shake that shit off.
I don't care what it is, justshake it off and have a good
time.
You know what?
It's so important to do that.
And so just shake it off, smilea little bit, get your
five-minute thing or 30-secondscript, whatever works for you.
And guys, if you don't thinkit's important, I'm gonna tell
you right now look at what yoursales are going through and then
(18:48):
invest$100 and marketingequipment.
That could be a very smallteleprompter, it could be a
little microphone.
Heck, it could be anything.
And I guarantee you theinvestment that you make is the
only one that counts is theinvestment that's used.
If I bought a car and I neveruse it, it's just wasting time.
If you buy something, use it.
(19:09):
And I promise you, I see peopleout there, like you said, there
was the queen of Facebook andmen.
You know why?
She had a presence, she hadcharisma.
It you could have put a cameraon her while she was coming out
of the bathroom, and I guaranteeyou she would have had something
to say that would have made yougo, that's hilarious.
But but you want to watch her.
Find that person, and it doesn'tmean it's your salesperson, it
(19:29):
doesn't mean it's your manager.
Heck, it could be one of yourdrivers that really just has a
lot of swag.
And you know what?
It doesn't always have to beabout product listing.
It could be, hey man, hey bigmic, what's going on?
Yeah, I just came back from thisdelivery.
I made this customer happy.
We went up and down.
She made me move it six times,but she loved it.
Come on down and see us at yeah.
It matters, it matters.
(19:49):
And getting people through thedoor, like you said, it's that
personality on the video.
Get them to smile, get them toknow that Jack and Bob and Susan
and Billy, and those are thepeople they want to come see.
And honestly, those are thepeople I want to see.
I I I I really do.
I and and because how many timesdo we go to our favorite place
and attach a name to where wego?
Yeah, I'm going to that place,but I'm gonna see Bob, I'm gonna
(20:13):
see Billy, I'm gonna see Jimmy.
I'm not gonna just go over thereand just randomly show up and be
like, hey, whatever.
No, I'm going to go there tosee.
Be that person.
Do you want to be a pony?
I want to go see you.
Be that guy, you know.
Um, talking about the scripts.
So let's say I wanted to write ascript because I know you are
king of AI.
I want to do something.
How do I make a catchy scriptthat sounds good?
(20:36):
You know, because let's say theygo, they call you up and you got
a script.
Okay, it's a month later, and Iwant to kind of freshen it up.
You know, I want to kind of tieit.
What would I do withoutstraining my brain to think that
I'm a full-time writer to make agood 30-second script that maybe
you could help me with?
SPEAKER_01 (20:51):
Hmm, I just thought of something while you were
saying all that.
I mean, essentially it is usingAI, right?
Like there's plenty of differentAI tools.
I like Chat GPT.
Some people say one's betterversus the other.
My biggest advice, because Iactually, where I live locally,
I do a lot of trainings where I,you know, through the Chamber of
Commerce and other, you know,bodies like that, where I train
people on AI.
(21:12):
The biggest thing that you cando, or this the best way to
simplify it, I should say, isjust pick one tool and use it
until it doesn't do what youneed it to do.
Don't get caught up in I shoulduse maybe you heard a
perplexity, maybe you haven't.
Um, I should use Manaus or allthat stuff.
Just use one.
And when it doesn't do what youneed it to do, look for another
one.
That's the first step.
But let's just go with ChatGPTbecause that's what I use.
(21:34):
I wish I can get affiliatecommissions off of it, but it's
not set up in that way.
But essentially it's it'ssimple, man.
Like AI can be AI is like one ofthe greatest inventions, I feel
like that we have at ourfingertips, especially now as us
as regular people have access toit.
But it's actually an openplaybook, uh like an open
sandbox.
(21:54):
So if you don't know what to askit, it's like garbage in,
garbage out, right?
So, what I would say is if yougo to AI and you can loosely
lose it, use this script thatI'm gonna give you.
It could be, hey, I want you toact as if you're my marketing
director.
This is the name of my company,and this is what we sell.
You could probably just copypaste stuff off the site.
And what I want you to do is actas if my marketing director, I'm
(22:17):
gonna ask you for emails, ads,and video scripts.
And I want them in the style andtone of, and this is my favorite
part.
So you can do style and tone.
You can say, I want to beprofessional, which I don't
think any of you guys should bedoing professional stuff.
Um, but if you want to take it astep further, instead of just
saying professional or friendlyand using those words, why not
say, like, for me, I like DaveChappelle, right?
(22:38):
Like, I don't keep up with allhis stuff, but he's a funny guy,
right?
Some people may not like him,some people may.
So let's say you like DaveChappelle, or maybe you like
Larry the Cable guy.
Remember, he used to be funny,whoever it may be, right in the
style and tone of DaveChappelle.
Um, or if like MatthewMcConaughey came up a lot the
last few days in some of thestuff that I'm doing for
(22:59):
whatever reason.
So I want it to be in the styleof Matthew McConaughey, so it'll
be his style, but it'll be inthe tone of Dave Chappelle.
What it'll do is it'll mix thetwo and give you um a video
script or add or post and uh youknow copy that you can use that
has a little bit more life toit.
Like when we're doing some ofthese calls with like uh our
clients, or even when we'redoing the call with American
(23:20):
Rentals, like we'll say, hey,well, you know, give me shoot
some stuff out, and sometimesthey'll they'll go off the wall
with with some different thingsand we'll write copy in
different ways.
And when they start laughing,it's like, all right, cool.
If you guys laugh from readingit, imagine what they're gonna
do when they see it, right?
And it just gives you ability tohave some more fun.
If you want to be basic, sure,professional, courtesy,
courteous, and friendly orwhatever.
But that's pretty much it.
(23:40):
Actors are my marketingdirector.
I need an ad for this.
This is my business, writing thestyle of tone in this.
And then the last part that Ilike to throw in too is
perspective.
You can say right from theperspective of.
So one of the best offers thatwe've ran from multiple stores,
ad-wise, has been the$10 down,right?
Um, whole nother story is whatsales you guys are using.
(24:02):
That's a whole other thing.
But ten dollars down seems towork pretty well.
So sometimes we'll write fromthe perspective of a ten dollar
bill.
Whoever would have thought a tendollar bill still had a
perspective on anything.
Right?
So it's an it's an inanimateobject, right?
So you can say write them fromthe perspective of a ten dollar
bill, you can write from theperspective of a cash register,
(24:24):
you can write from theperspective of the delivery
truck driving the stuff.
You can you can come up with anyof these different things.
And what it does, it just givesyou an angle that no one thought
about.
So it's almost like you becomelike a storyteller just by
having the idea that you caneven do it.
SPEAKER_00 (24:40):
So I'm gonna tell you right now.
That was an I I I've never,you're right.
You I like I as you're sayingit, man.
I'm like, do you know how manythings I could come up with as
the as a dollar bill, as a cashregister?
I'm thinking, my mind is going.
So, guys, you got to understandthat the limitations that you
put on yourself is why you can'tget it done.
There is so many things, there'sso many tools available out
(25:01):
there.
And listen, I'm not here to downanybody or what they're doing.
A lot of times we're like, hey,listen, I have a job to do, so I
got to put out a video today,I'm gonna do this and keep on
rolling.
What I suggest that you do, andI promise you want to see
results, the better results youget, is the more time you spend
doing it.
You don't go to the gym for fiveminutes and expect to look like
Lou Ferrigno, okay?
It just doesn't work.
Well, you can't spend twoseconds on your videos and
expect it to work.
(25:22):
Take some time, and especiallyin this, because I love the
idea.
I love that idea.
There are some other things thatyou can do.
And in those prompts that you'reputting there for your AI, you
can also say, hey, I also want aprompt to that will be more
likely to get them to mylocation versus coming, hitting
me up online or sending me aphone call.
Now, the course of this outlineis to say, you want to do
(25:44):
everything it takes to getnoticed and to get them in the
door.
Because here's the thing (25:48):
we're not saying that online doesn't
work, and we're not saying thatwe're doing a bad job.
What we're saying is we could doa lot better.
And I think everybody listeningto this knows we can do a lot
better online.
But what have we been doing forthe last 40 years?
When somebody walks in thatdoor, and I could tell you with
my eyes closed, I'm going toclose that sale.
Now, does that mean they closeit every time?
(26:10):
No, but it's my mentality.
I'm gonna walk up to you and I'mgonna say, What am I gonna what
are you taking from me?
What am I gonna lose out of thisstore today?
Because I'm gonna tell you rightnow, if you don't take
something, we we're gonna havean issue.
And we they look at you like,what the heck?
But you know how fun that is,and you can have fun with it.
Also, you either the king orqueen of your domain, you get to
upsell in person, you get to tryit out.
(26:31):
Hey, how much this sofa withthis set of lamps or with this
refiner, or that matches thisdining room table, or those are
the little things that weforget.
It's it's easier to say, harderto do online.
When you're in person, hey man,I'll move a table.
You want me to move a table?
I'll move a table.
You want me to set it outside inthe sunlight?
SPEAKER_01 (26:51):
I'll do that too.
Everybody doesn't have thatthough.
Like, I I think about a lot ofthese guys that they they just
don't it's your years in thegame, and then you just have
that personality mixed with theyears in the game.
So it's like a lot of peoplejust don't have that person.
And the ones that do, those arethe guys that said, Well, I had
my team for X amount of yearsand so on and so forth.
But everybody's not that lucky.
Like, yeah, if I had a store,I'd want them all on your
(27:13):
program.
Like, I'm even thinking part ofwhat I was thinking too is like
maybe I'll just create an AIinside Chat GPT that I can give
the dealers who want it, andit'll basically walk them
through what we just talkedabout and just ask them step by
step so they don't have toremember it and do it for
themselves.
But now I was thinking, like,damn, the AI should sound like
Pete.
SPEAKER_00 (27:34):
Because Pete AI you're gonna have the Pete AI
selling your stuff.
You know, I just I love the ideaof getting somebody in the door.
And I don't want again, I'm I'mnever gonna say we're not
selling online.
I'm never gonna say that thephones aren't ringing.
What I'm gonna tell you is thatyou cannot forget about our
biggest asset, and that's thefact that you have square
footage that you're using everysingle day.
If you have your guy setting upa living room, a bedroom, and a
(27:56):
dining room and a computer area,and you're not using it, well,
what's the point of that?
What's the point of that?
Get people in the door.
Don't forget about working onthat aspect of it because a lot
of us have seen that, you know,hey, it's going online and we
forget to push.
And I'm telling you guys now,what you push is what you
discuss.
You have to push your videos.
(28:17):
You mean you haven't seen ourvideos?
You could be saying this on thephone or online.
You haven't seen our videos.
Listen, you've got to take fiveseconds out to see this because
John did a great job atembarrassing the heck out of me
yesterday, and I think you gotto see this.
It's already sold.
Here's what it is you've got toplant the seed to get somebody
to watch because you're notgonna be there when they're
watching, and you're not gonnabe there hopefully when they
(28:39):
tell somebody else to watch thatembarrassing thing that John did
to you the other day.
What you're doing is you'replanting the seed for people to
see.
Another thing is you gotta beregular.
Probably one of the biggestthings that I've seen is we'll
throw an ad out there because wefeel like it's a great idea.
I need to sell something.
So I'm gonna make an ad, andthat's what it is.
Regularity wins the race.
(29:00):
Number one, if you're gonna doit and you can't do it every
day, pick Monday, Wednesday, andFriday.
Pick Monday and Friday, pickSaturday.
Who cares what day it is?
Try to put it out on a regulartime frame.
And what I'm saying is itdoesn't, if you don't make it by
11.01, nobody's gonna stab you.
But that's also the problem.
It's just like college.
I'm gonna tell you, theprofessor's not gonna go, hey,
you're late again, you're lateagain.
You're just gonna show up andnot have a class.
(29:21):
Well, the same thing happens forthe people that are online.
They get used to that.
They get used to seeing it.
I don't care who you are, theyspend 60 years on TV telling us
that, you know, MASH was gonnabe on at 4 p.m.
and you know, the fall guy wasgonna be on, and then they
change it to, you know, morningcartoons and stuff.
If we'd have changed that,everybody would have stopped
watching it.
Like, what's going on?
You know, nowadays we get usedto the streaming whenever we
(29:41):
want to.
But if you don't put it outregularly, it's stale and it
gets old.
And they want to see somethingnew.
Put something out regularly thattells them, hey, come on in.
And then I I think the mostimportant thing is people forget
don't just sell.
I know it soundscounterproductive.
You're not just selling, theyneed to know the Staff, they
need to know the birthdays, theyneed to know the special events,
(30:03):
they need to know about thespecial sofa that's coming in,
the new delivery truck that yougot, the best program that you
have.
Don't just say, come in and buythe sofa.
Because it doesn't matter howmany times you say that, it's
basically the same episode overand over and over and over
again.
Be fresh.
Be fresh.
SPEAKER_01 (30:20):
It's social media.
You got to be social.
You got to be social.
That's what they're looking for.
Like you think about how do youmake rent-to-owned sexy?
Um, right?
And for the most part,everybody's gonna struggle with
that because it seems like it'sthe same thing.
Then you guys have so manyproducts you can literally focus
on any product.
So it's like, how do you make itsexy?
It's just you just be moresocial because when people are
(30:41):
online, they're the stuff thatthey are spending time to watch
and it draws them in.
Now I will say this again, mostof you guys and gals, I would
say, don't necessarily have theperson that's anywhere close to
a Pete.
And if you have one treasurefront, you can give them a
raise.
So, even worst case scenario,what you could do is even if
it's like especially if we'retalking an ad, if you just stood
(31:03):
in front of the video, let's sayyou had a 15-20-second script,
they did it in the store, it'sbetter than putting nothing out.
Um, and then eventually you canbuild on top of that.
I think what kind of gets peopleis um the thought that they have
to go so far and do this that itkeeps them from joining on.
Because like I grew up anintrovert, like I never thought
(31:24):
that I'd be doing videos and allthis other stuff.
Like, my mom still is amazedthat I can even do something
like this, or I can just go, Ican go live on Facebook right
now, not that I'm going to andnot even have an agenda and just
make it work and not feel anyany kind of way about it.
So you don't get thereovernight.
Um, but one thing I've realizedtoo is like when you challenge
the people, like as long asthey're open to it.
Like, I think sometimes withsome of the managers or owners,
(31:47):
they already start saying thattheir people aren't going to do
it before they even present itto them.
And if you come to them withthat energy, then they don't
feel like they have to do it,they're stuck in their ways.
Well, it's your business.
Um, it's your business.
Now, for some people, they'reworth letting them be stuck in
that way and keeping them aroundbecause they're inner quote in
quote part of the business.
But don't be afraid to challengeyour people to put them out
there.
Like, and what happens too islike the people who really never
(32:10):
wanted to do video, like, andagain, shout out to American
Reynolds for this because everysingle store, they got 54
stores, and I think we've workedwith at least 30 or 40 of them.
I can't remember the numbers getall jumbled up.
Every one of those stores hasput out a video, and the people
that didn't want to do it, theydid it, and when they did it,
they just felt so much better.
And then the feedback they gotfrom the people that came into
(32:31):
the store just changed them, andthey're just like, not that
they're about to just startdoing videos on upon videos for
themselves, but it just givesthem a greater sense of duty.
And the one thing I really likeabout rent-to-owned people is
that you guys actually careabout the customers, at least
most of y'all I met, right?
So it's like it starts becominga mindset of this is my duty to
be able to help them.
(32:51):
Because let's say that youdon't, I don't want to start
naming you know companies thatpeople don't like, but let's say
the company's on the corner andthey do shady business, you have
a moral obligation and a duty toget them into your store so you
can take care of them becauseyou know what's gonna happen
over there.
And more than likely, the peopleover there, especially if
they're corporate, aren't doingany videos.
So, what can you do?
You can let them know thatyou're here, you're a real
(33:13):
person, you'll take care ofthem.
And then another thing y'allcould do too is just like some
of your customers would bewilling to get on video with you
guys.
You just gotta ask.
You just gotta ask.
I mean, I love that idea.
SPEAKER_00 (33:23):
I mean, I think I think going live, listen, not
everything is scripted.
He's right about social media.
It is number one the socialconcept.
I can guarantee you, if you dosomething as crazy as you're
getting a payment from MissJones, who has been doing it on
time for the last 20 payments.
If you one of the one of thethings that we've always heard a
rent to own, and this is the godhonest truth, when I was
(33:45):
younger, I said the same thing.
You could probably name 20customers that have a difficult
time paying, couldn't you, Pete?
Oh, I could I could name 20, Icould probably name you 40.
Okay.
Name me 10 that make payments ontime every single week.
Celebrate those people.
Oh, wow.
I could probably name maybefour.
Now, here's a question.
Why is it that you you canremember them, but you don't
(34:08):
remember the people thatprobably should be praised more
for making your job not onlyeasier, but giving you that
sense of purpose.
Every time they come in, weshould be set, like you said,
celebrating those people, right?
Oh, wow.
I had to really think aboutthat.
Well, one of those ways you cando that is you know what?
Have your Facebook Live ready.
And if somebody comes in, getthem to join you.
Obviously, you're gonna ask, youknow, hey, Miss Jones, you mind
(34:30):
being on a quick video with me?
We're gonna go live real quick,and you're probably one of the
best people we have here rightnow.
SPEAKER_01 (34:34):
I would say never tell them you're gonna go live
because whenever you tellanybody who goes you're going
live, they freeze up.
So one of my tricks is maybenot.
Maybe just do a video.
Yeah, and even if I go live,they don't know, and it's like,
well, it's out in the ether now.
SPEAKER_00 (34:48):
You know, and I think one of the things is that
you have to bring them into theepisode, you have to bring them
into the thought process.
And it it does a couple ofthings.
Number one, it re-confirms thatthis is a relationship that I've
built with this person, and it'sa good relationship.
This is what we want to buildwith you.
Number two, they're gonna showbeing in the location.
(35:09):
This is not something that I'mdoing online like we're doing
here with that virtual stuff.
As we do it, you're gonna seethem behind the counter or in
front of your living room set orin front of your TV wall, which
is another in-store relationshipthat we're building.
And we want to continue goingdown that road with you.
You want to show that thatfriendliness, that that love you
have, the respect you have forthat customer in your
(35:30):
environment.
Bring them into yourenvironment.
And, you know, guys, we we talka lot about advertising.
Make sure your environment isnice, make sure it's clean, make
sure it sounds good, make sureit smells good, make sure that
you greet them when they walk inthe door.
Because those are the thingsthat I'm telling you, as it
happens, we get so focused onthe idea of what's online that
we forget to love on the peoplethat walk into the front door.
Now, does that happen all thetime?
(35:50):
No, you might be one of the guysthat are doing it extremely
well.
For everybody that's doing itextremely well, I can tell you
that there's somebody out therewho isn't.
And it might not be their fault.
They might be a youngergeneration that are used to not
really dealing with peoplebecause they do better on the
phone or online.
And I'm gonna tell you also,hire somebody who's like that.
Hire somebody who's good atbeing on phone, hire somebody
(36:11):
who's good being on theinternet, and then hire their
opposite.
Because for everybody that walksin the store, it's good to have
a dichotomy because the personwho's good at the store might
not be good online.
And I can always tell you, I'veseen some shy people, but you
get them online, and man, theysound like Gerard, man, they're
just ready to go.
They're ready to handle somebusiness and get stuff done.
And then you handle and then yougo to the other side, they're
like, hi, hi, how are you doing?
(36:32):
And you're like, I don'tunderstand.
And and it's those differentviews that also make a
difference as you're as you'representing them online, as
you're presenting them in yourvideos, as you're trying to get
people to the door.
Somebody might relate to uh, youknow, I I had just had Angelica
Tomas on the other day, andshe's very introverted, and
she's coming out of her show.
(36:53):
But you can't forget that thereare people like her who might
want to interact with peoplelike her who are not as crazy as
Pete and Durano, like, oh mygod, that guy just crazy me out.
And they like that quietness.
Bring them in to understand orshow them on the video that,
hey, no matter who you are,we're gonna take care of you one
way or another, and we've gotsomething to show you.
This is what we have, this iswho we have, and this is how
(37:16):
we're gonna make your daybetter.
Uh also say if you're trying toget people from the guys next
door, don't ever mention a name.
Mention what you what they'redoing.
If you have somebody nottreating you right by doing
this, yeah, this is what you'regonna expect here.
If you're if you're getting thisout of what you you know, you
are you paying for this bygetting this, this is what you
(37:36):
have.
Don't shame them, don't go afterthem because I'm gonna tell you
guys the world is a big placeand it's gonna come around.
Just give your people some loveand show them how to come down
to the store and get what theyneed.
And then obviously you're alwaysgonna say, but if you can't, hit
me up online, hit me up on thison the phone calls.
How many times would you saythat maybe not just the video,
(37:59):
but the type of video that theyhave would make such a huge
difference?
SPEAKER_01 (38:03):
In the beginning, I just think it's just getting it
done.
I think when it comes to thevideo, obviously, like you said,
the audio and another thing iscaptions.
Most people aren't able toalways listen.
So, you know, there's there'sapps.
I mean, you could literally gointo Instagram or Facebook and
edit your video there and putcaptions on it and then download
it out.
That's a free app.
I think Cap Cut just startedcharging for that.
(38:25):
Um, and I have one that I payfor like$70 a year.
I particularly like it.
But if you want to just keep itfree, they can just do it there.
So having the captions on toread it helps out a lot.
Um, so that way that's great.
SPEAKER_00 (38:37):
I'm glad you said that because I completely forgot
about that.
But you are right.
If you guys are doing shorts oryou're doing small videos, put
the captions on there.
If somebody's sitting at theiroffice desk and they can't hear
it but they can see it, thatmight make the difference of a
sailor not getting a sale.
Great idea.
SPEAKER_01 (38:50):
And another variety tone, too.
And I had a few people that werestarted doing this a while back,
but is being in the store isgreat.
But you know, especially withthe economy the way it is.
Like I suggested to one guy, andI think he did it, it's like if
you're at the store and if yougot a person that's comfortable
doing it, you could literally bein the milk aisle in the eggs
aisle because eggs areoutrageous now, and just be
like, man, pulling out someeggs, man.
(39:11):
The cost of eggs is crazy now,yada yada, and then just tie
that back in.
And obviously you can have AIhelp you ride it.
Tie that back in.
You can be at the gas station,don't pump your gas while you're
on the phone.
I don't like when people dothat, I feel like they're
putting everybody in danger.
But before you pump the gas,like, man, the price of gas is
going up, yada yada yada, andthen tie it into how you can
help alleviate that pain.
Um, because the the other side,too, is what I'm working on with
(39:33):
a lot of guys is because eachstore, let's say there's a an
intersection, there's a uhcompetitor on each corner, which
some cases it is, you guys areall basically saying the same
thing in different ways.
If I'm doing$10 down, you'redoing 99 cents down or$25 down
or whatever it is, all of itsounds really the same.
And then the crazy part is, iseven if they they they're
(39:54):
overloaded with decision making,in a few weeks you change it up,
and then they're back in thatdecision matrix again.
It makes me think of Cork Romanowhen the guy couldn't read and
he's looking at the ice creamtruck and it says strawberry ice
cream and chocolate.
He's like, What do you want?
He's just like, uh uh, I'll takeRocky Road.
He's like, I don't have that,sir.
It's just uh the same thing.
So it's always a constantoverload.
(40:14):
So another thing that I I I Iurge you guys to do too is
everything we talked about doingthe video to get people in is
maybe start talking more aboutthe pain that they're facing.
Why does someone want a newcouch?
You know, don't always worryabout selling the entire store.
I mean, you guys have so manyitems and products, and
sometimes you guys have specialorder stuff.
But again, from that perspectivesituation, what if we wrote it
(40:36):
from the perspective of a couch?
I'm a mom with two kids, and youknow, I got young kids and
they're just beating the couch,and it's just like, well, you
know, they're they're kids, andbut I I I can't go get a new
couch the way I want one, andyada yada yada.
Like, you can talk aboutsituations like that.
Don't be afraid to just talk tothat lady or those ladies to get
more sales in and drive them in,and then make another post where
(40:57):
you talk to a different subsetof people, right?
Because then if you're talkingto what's going on in here, that
opens them up to listen to you,and then they'll come in and oh
yeah, by the way, we have thisdeal.
Or shit, you don't even have togive them the deal at that
point, they're just ready tomake something happen.
So I think that that's uh adirection I'm heading to in the
in the entire industry, and Iwant a lot of guys too, is
because like like right now themonth's about to end and Black
(41:20):
Friday's about to get crazy.
I'm like, well, what's next?
Well, you know, guys are like,we're gonna run this off for
now.
I'm like, well, it's not reallydifferent from last month, you
know?
SPEAKER_00 (41:29):
Be different, be heard, and I'm gonna tell you
guys right now be original.
Gerard, you said that you'regonna help them out a little bit
and give them a free 30-secondidea on what to do to get them
in.
How would they reach out to youand get a hold of you?
SPEAKER_01 (41:42):
Um, I would say a few ways.
Uh, Gerard atGerardMarketing.com, that's my
email.
Um, also, if you want toschedule a time with me, go to
fastrto deliveries.com.
And one thing that we like thatthe reason why we call it fast
rteliveries is usually once weget a campaign going, if you
decide you want to go that routewith us, because we will, you
know, if you want if you justwant the course and you want the
(42:04):
video script, just email me.
But if you're interested intalking to us about running the
ads, then go to fastrtodeliveries.com and fill it out.
We'll get on a call.
I'm not gonna high pressuresales you the way I see it.
You you you're you're checkingme out and I'm checking you out.
I'm not gonna say yes toeverything, and you shouldn't
say yes to everything.
So it has to be a fit.
You gotta be someone who'swilling to track and who's
willing to get better and listento our advice.
(42:26):
And I'm always gonna listen toyou as well because it's a
partnership.
Um, when I get with people thatexpect the world but don't want
to do anything, it doesn't workout well.
And you guys have a pretty tightniche, uh niche circle.
So if one guy's not doing workand he starts poisoning the
water hole, then that don't lookgood.
And now I have more people thatknow that that's not the truth,
but I don't even want to putmyself in that situation.
So just look looking to workwith the right folks.
(42:48):
And again, if the area is taken,the area's taken.
I don't I don't care how big thecheck is, uh, value, integrity,
and honesty is it is my corevalues, then I'm not gonna
change that for anyone.
SPEAKER_00 (42:59):
Well, that's what you're gonna get when you go to
fastrto deliveries.com.
Listen, guys, if you guys haveany questions, hit me up at Pete
at the RTO Show Podcast.com.
You can also go on the website,therto showpodcast.com.
Just get in there, get someswag, order some shirts, order
some cups.
We love those things.
And besides, it also helps uh,you know, the show.
You can be a sponsor like GerardMarketing is and help us out
(43:21):
because we run with you guys.
Also, real quick, I'm gonna addinto my closing.
If you guys want to have somereally good mindset insights,
check out LinkedIn.
Go to Gerard Marketing'sLinkedIn.
Gerard has some really greatthings that he puts out every
single week or every every otherday, really.
He has some good mindset things.
If you guys want to learn togrow, check that out.
If you want to check out theshow, we're on there you go,
(43:43):
check it out.
Bulletproof mindset.
If you guys want to check outthe show on social media, we got
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn,where we see him, and YouTube
where you're gonna see this.
Make sure you subscribe and likeso that you get to all the
notifications.
And Gerard, as usual, alwaysgetting some good pointers on
some marketing and some goodthings that we need to hit up.
Guys, you guys are gonna seethis very soon.
Make sure you apply this foryour black your Black Friday and
(44:03):
everything you have going on inthe fourth quarter.
And I will tell you guys asalways, get your collections low
to get your sales high.
Have a great one.
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