Value in Speaking with People

Today's podcast is the value in actually speaking with people live. Go out, meet the people, and show them who you are, show them what you know, walk them through, and if it makes sense to them, they will want to hire you. If it doesn't make sense to them, no selling in the world will ever work. 

Transcript

Mikeandjoconsulting.com

Failure Eludes Me

#10

Welcome to Mike and Jo consulting. Allow us to introduce ourselves. I'm Mike Bonventre and I'm Jo Fabrizio and together we are mikeandjoconsulting.com. Mike and Jo consulting is sponsored by ladylawpublishing.com. Our podcasts are going to be a combination of myself or Jo, the two of us and on occasion guest speakers from different industries and different businesses throughout the nation. Together Jo and I will share more than 70 years combined personal and professional experiences in many diversified fields. We are entrepreneurs. We've consulted entrepreneurs and we have a wide range of experience in many different social issues. Thank you for joining us. Today's podcast is the value in actually speaking with people live. Welcome to Lady Law Publishing Speakers Bureau. I'm Mike Bonventre operations manager and today we're going to talk about the actual value in speaking with people. I was born in 1957. My father started a pest control business in 1958 before I was a full one year old. He was the leader in his industry until he retired. His secret to success was communication and actually speaking with people face to face, while all of his competitors are happy to quote over the phone. My father insisted in coming out to your house. He insisted on explaining cleaning out the areas where Carpenter ants and Termites would gather. How they would get their fuel, the damage that they were doing and explain why doing it the other way was not the right way and, in the end, would cost you thousands and thousands of dollars in nonstop damages. When my father got done going through your home with you personally, you were always willing to hire him even though he might have been four or five even $600 more because it made sense to you. The one thing that he taught me growing up in his business was never sell. Go out meet the people show them who you are show them what you know walk them through and if it makes sense to them, they have no choice but to hire you. If it doesn't make sense to them no selling in the world will ever work. My father was well known to be the highest priced exterminator within 150 miles of our hometown. He got all the jobs because he insisted on going out to your house. The other thing that he insisted on doing in the 70s when I was working with him was tube socks, athletic socks were like $2 a package of 10. Whether you lived in a trailer or a tent or a half $1,000,000 house he always took his shoes off. He always showed your home even more respect than you showed it yourself. That was something that we heard over and over and over again. The wealthy people said you never have to worry about Sam and his guys dirtying up your expensive rugs. The other thing we heard was man I was afraid that they were going to get mad that they got their socks dirty. My father's philosophy was very simple. Treat your customers home better than your own, make eye contact with them walk them through don't sell them. Just explain who we are what we do and why we do it and let them make the choice. The big national firms were never able to settle into our area until he retired. They had satellite offices and were half the price. Sometimes a third of the price. They just couldn't get a foothold in while he was in business because his way made sense.

I've been in business since 1982. When I left his business, he sold everything and retired. I got into several things. We had a diner that was open 24 hours a day. The owners table hosted business owners and entrepreneurs from our local area. Any time of day there'd be 10-12 maybe even 15 entrepreneurs sitting at that table, sharing stories about their industries their professions they're workers and their clients. We realized that the most successful people in our community no matter what business they were in communicated one-on-one. They made eye contact with their clients, and they didn't believe in selling. They just believed in this is what we do, this is why we do it, this is how we do it and if we have to sell, you might as well just go with the other person for half the price. When you realize the mistake you made, you're going to pay us our full price plus the half that you already paid them not to do the job the right way. I had a lot of experiences growing up with my father as an entrepreneur among our local entrepreneurs. In 1982 he retired I didn't want to continue on with the business. I started my own business and I've been a consultant for 38 1/2 years. Last year we closed three of our four businesses. My wife and I have Lady Law Publishing. I am a semi-retired consultant zoom presenter. We do seminars for continuing legal education for lawyers and judges, doctors and just about any business can call me up get me live pick my brain. They can ask questions and get answers. My clients believe 100% in me. When I first started my Rapid Drug Test Systems business in 1999, I had 20 local competitors. I was actually a consultant, and my clients were begging me to open up a drug testing business because none of the 20 people that were existing could satisfy them. I went to each them face to face and said these are the complaints. I'll help you because I really don't want to do this. None of them were interested in doing it my way so I opened Rapid Drug Test Systems in 1999. When I started I had potential clients calling me from all over the country. It would be nothing for me to jump on a plane, fly to California or Oklahoma or Boise Idaho just to have lunch with a potential client. My associates and my competitors thought I was out of my mind. Who in their right mind would spend up to $2000 to go buy lunch for somebody who may or may not be interested in actually hiring them? I just laughed because I knew once I bought them lunch, once I spent an hour or a day with them, they would buy me what I believed in, my ethics, my morals, and my interest in their profits. Very rarely did I spend money to meet somebody in person and not get the job. Now having said that for my 38 years, I have always been the highest price person in my industry and people hire me because of the value of what I offer them. Much like the pest control business the value I offered big national chains in drug testing was saving 10s and hundreds of thousands of dollars by being sure we did it right. Now as I expanded, I needed to outsource. My philosophy was, if you wanted to do my collections and handle my clients you had to be retrained by me. Only the owners or people I approve would service my clients. When we get sued, if we get sued but you know in life you can get sued for anything. I wanted to make sure that the owner of the company the manager the relative was the problem because they had the deepest pockets. I didn't want anybody representing me who could quit and just get on with their life and leave us with devastation. If I subcontracted somebody it was usually the owner of the company who was under direct supervision by me. I called those clients periodically. Hey, how you doing? How's my guy treating you? Do I need to fly out there and spank somebody ha-ha? My success has always been from communication. When we did new business certifications and training, I was one of the few people in the country that insisted, if you want to start a new business with my name on your certificate you will fly to New York and spend 3 full days with me. At the time and throughout the years the average certification was $1,950. I charge 10 times that $19,500. On some occasions I charged up to $25,000 and I made them fly to upstate New York and spend three days with me. If you couldn't invest three days of your personal time, I was not putting my name on your certification. I was not going to introduce you to my industry experts. We did drug alcohol and business training. Day one we went to breakfast got to know each other, trained all day. At the end of the day, we did our mock collections, and I actually had my clients come in for you to service and get real life apprenticeship training. The second day we did alcohol. We went through the device, how to use it what could go wrong with it. We did the mock collections and then I had my clients come in and you actually performed real live alcohol testing. On the third day we didn't just talk business. I hooked you up with your laboratories and my prices. You didn't have to earn your way to good prices. Whatever I was paying you would start paying the exact same price the day you opened your doors. I introduced you to my third-party administrators who were people all over the country that needed new collectors. Trustworthy honest ethical collectors in almost all 50 states. I actually provided the income that would probably in six months’ pay your whole $19,500 investment in training. My clients were making $60k to $100,000 the first year in business. The $19150 clients were struggling barely making their rent. A lot of my clients after a few years became those people that took the cheap certification and never got on their feet. They were about to lose all their time and investment. They came to me, they came up with the money, they got trained the right way. They got introduced to the right people and a lot of them are still in business. Many of them have sold their businesses for a great profit and are pretty much semi-retired. Throughout life communication and meeting people has been key to success. If you can't FaceTime with me, if you can't zoom with me, I probably am not going to have anything to do with you, because you don't want to invest in yourself. You don't really want to know me and what I have to offer. You just want to know how cheap I can be and how much money you can save. When you make money, you're focus you're always chasing money. My father taught me and I've learned through life money is a byproduct of excellent service, communication and personal experiences. I would drive 500 miles to take somebody to lunch thinking they might not hire me. It was always worth my time, my effort, and my investment. So ladies and gentlemen I don't care what industry you're in. I don't care if you're a brain surgeon. I'll tell you how to run your business more efficiently. I don't care if you're a painter or a landscaper. I'll tell you how to run your business more efficiently. I don't care if you don't have tons of money. Many times, I will meet with somebody and think, you know what they weren't born with a silver spoon. I'm going to invest in them a little. Never for free but I made sure the right person got a discount I know how much money I could make with them, and I saw how they responded how they thought before they ask questions how they the questions. How they asked. I knew things I could never know texting, never know emailing and never ever really know if I didn't meet them, spend time with them and listen to them and watch them. You don't know how many people roll their eyes in disgust and disbelief and don't even know they're doing it. I learn more during the silences sometimes than I do during the conversation. Ladies and gentlemen contact Lady law Publishing Speakers Bureau. Look for me. Whatever your concerns are, whatever your industry is, set up a zoom meeting and I'll talk to you. Next Monday I'm talking to 120 judges and lawyers about DUI DWI rehabilitation system that they're all in. I assure you like the last ones they're all going to come back and say, Oh my goodness we've watched so many videos and we've sent so many emails and we never knew half of what you presented to us. How you answered our questions and raised questions. I think the best trainer raises as many questions as they answer. Ladies and gentlemen thank you for joining me today. Check out Lady Law Publishing Speakers Bureau. We have other speakers who are experts in their industry with decades of practical experience. We only deal with the best in our industries. Thank you again for joining me today have a wonderful day. Contact Mike and Jo at mikeandjoconsulting.com to suggest topics or potential guests for our show.