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Unknown
Podcasting from Sacramento, California, The Big Tomato. This is the Iron Mine Coach Show, a weekly podcast about peak performers and the secrets they use to create success in business and their personal lives. Here, interviews with special guests, top performers from around the world. And now here's your host, coach, author and Iron Mind performance expert Rich Green.
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Unknown
Hey. Hey. It's Rich Green, excited for another show. And today we got an amazing guest. Frederick Dudek is going to be joining us today and talking about, well, all kinds of things. I'm not going to spill the beans right off the bat here, but I'm excited to speak with him because he's got just a wealth of information on this.
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Unknown
This building is an interesting story, which we're going to dig into as well. And super fascinated by the transitions that he's made in his life. And as always, we're going to ask about his code. So, Frederick. Welcome to the show. Hey, good morning, Rich. Excited to be here. We're happy to have you here as well. So we were talking earlier about your experience.
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Unknown
And so you have sort of a very background, which is I think is unusual of typically personality types take certain types of jobs. But you're you started out your life as an engineer and you sort of have that in your DNA. But you do a lot in sales as well. Now, tell me a little bit something about tell our audience a little something about that and, you know, sort of how you started out in the engineering space and then have moved your way into helping people to sell products and services.
00:01:54:06 - 00:02:20:19
Unknown
And what was that journey like? Well, I started back my dad used to do drafting, and so I kind of now the rock doesn't fall too far from the. I mean, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. But so I started doing drafting and I've worked my way up to where I was picked to design the spot world gun spot world with the 1982 Ford Escort.
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Unknown
So you have these, well, tips that are going in. Well, the body panel and you had to do a lot of 3D, you know, geometry to make sure that it wasn't going to put any divots in. And I was doing on vertical drafting boards full size the car while the calculator time got and spent about $500,000 to buy a computer aided design system.
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Unknown
And I was intrigued by it. And they were asking who would be interested in training. We had to write up some big essay of why we thought we were the, you know, the chosen one. And so I raised my hand and filled out that essay and I was one of five was selling already, right? Indirectly, you know, and so I was picked and I got trained.
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Unknown
And from there it turned out that I his high school friend, was working for a software company teaching people how to do engineering via computers, and they were looking for additional people that were actually from the field and knew what they were doing. So but I needed to put together a resume and back then I didn't know what a resume was.
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Unknown
And so I got a buddy of mine from second grade and I had taken the Washington University to get his law degree. And so for 3 hours on the phone, he helped write my resume and I got an interview and got a second interview and I got a job offer to move me from the Detroit area to the Chicago area.
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Unknown
And I started learning computer aided design. And then, you know, I was picked to teach computer aided design. And I'll share the unique little quick story is that I was picked to go teach Eaton Corp, and I went there and I did the training as I thought to do Train was basically go through a manual and flip through the pages and read it first and then tell people what to do.
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Unknown
Because I was completely novice at this topic. And the manager came in and said, you know, after the end of the day says, that's the worst blank training I've ever seen in my entire life. He goes, I'll give you between now and tomorrow to get yourself straightened out from calling your manager and having you fired. Oh wow, I slept for a while that night.
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Unknown
Yeah, that's. And I invented it. I invented an engagement training where I started asking like, Hey, Rich, how would you handle this particular thing? And, Steve, do you think that this is the right way? And it was like it was a transformation. And, you know, I started speaking in front of people, which I never was comfortable with, and but I had to because it's either that or, you know, we all those ideas and Right, right.
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Unknown
That that turned out to be where he actually wrote me up in the sense of how great my training was. And a few years later, the company that was that was looking for salespeople. And so I figured, you know, I can do what these guys do because more importantly, I know what the stuff does and how to talk to talk.
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Unknown
And I got picked and I got sent through six months of sales training through companies like Wilson Learning Vanguard, Vanguard and Dale Carnegie classes and stuff like that. And wow, my first meeting, that hardly happens at all today with companies. That's that's amazing. Yeah. I mean, I was six months and I got flung from Chicago to Boston for the training and back every month for a week.
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Unknown
We were in Boston through the whole training and videotaping us. So all that stuff. Back then in my first year, I won some sales awards and I've never looked back since. That's fantastic. And I tell you what, many managers out there that are listening to this and I know I've got a lot of business executives that are listeners of the podcast, training is everything.
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Unknown
Invest in your people because this is what you get when you do that. And interesting thing I, I took a note when you said something about how you change that presentation and you started asking questions, which is something that I started doing when, when I first became a college professor, I was teaching business classes and I didn't necessarily have everything memorized in the book.
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Unknown
And I found that asking questions was an interesting way to get people engaged, a way to me to learn how other people were absorbed in the information so that I might, you know, have a pause and think about it, and also to maybe do a redirect for the training. So I think that asking questions was genius, but it was also, as you well know, one of the number one skills in sales.
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Unknown
Yeah. Being able to ask questions without looking like you're interrogating people. So I think it's absolutely correct. It's it's important to ask the questions and then more importantly, to shut up and let people answer it. And then, you know, the questions that you ask will direct where the conversation goes. And that's that's that's the fun part. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
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Unknown
Absolutely. So what for a lot of people that aren't in professional sales, it's not about convincing people. It's not about cajoling them or twisting their arm or tricking them or any of those kinds of things. It's about drawing out information that either they know or maybe they don't don't know that they know, and helping people to make a decision, you know, presenting information in a certain way so that people can see if it fits within their lives or in their businesses.
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Unknown
So asking questions and then listening to the most important sales skills. Yeah, thanks for a thanks for pointing that out because really important. So you so you've been in sales of sales training and you kind of never look back. Yeah no I've, I've, I've worked myself up from salesmen. You know, one of my stories that I share is, is really is paying attention to what's going on in the room.
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Unknown
And I was selling to a railroad car manufacturer, Chicago. And, you know, I've been working with the engineering department and the managers. So we had all this stuff put together and now was time to go see the CEO of the company for approval and we walk in huge office, you know, and the guy sitting behind this desk intimidating doesn't even get up from the desk.
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Unknown
We're standing I look, he's got a glass wall and he's got a heel pad right outside of his glass wall. You know, when wall there. And I'm going, oh, my gosh, you know, this is this is this guy's big time. And he looks up and he goes, okay, you guys got 5 minutes. And that was it. Well, yeah.
00:09:33:15 - 00:10:05:12
Unknown
And so the engineer manager, remember, looked at me and I guess I'm up. So I just looked at my watch and I started doing a presentation. Sure. It was concise to the point and I looked again and it was at the five minute mark and this is my time is up and I shut up and a guy just looked at me, smiled, stood up and said, okay, start talking to the engineering manager another five, 7 minutes and he goes, Okay, you guys are all happy with the deal.
00:10:05:12 - 00:10:24:15
Unknown
He goes, If you guys are happy, I'm happy. And he said, Yes. He goes, Great. Picks up his phone, says, So-and-so, please get a purchase order for Mr. Du Lac. And thanks, guys. We shook hands and it was over. The meeting was done 15 minutes. Well, $150,000. So I tell you what. Yeah, that's a that is a great story.
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Unknown
And it's also I know you're speaker and you know, you've just been on stage and and you be presented and trained and the five minute ability to tell a story in 5 minutes is a lot of information that you can share in 5 minutes. It takes a lot of work to get good at it. To do that and impress somebody like the CEO who is just just didn't have a lot of time in his day.
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Unknown
Probably to hear a lot of blather. That's a great skill. And stopping at the five minute and telling your time is up. That was the key because that's what we're that's what won the deal for me in my and my 100% believe it is. I respected his time and I said my time is up at that moment that his ultimate are changed.
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Unknown
It's a great lesson about respecting somebody is giving respect, showing respect to somebody for their life, for, you know, just for the value of their time. So that's a good one. I you know, I think the acknowledgment part at the end is that little extra there. So definitely cool that you're you you grew up in another country, right?
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Unknown
Well, I was born in France and I moved to this country in three months. My joke is I was screaming. I didn't want to leave. They stuck a pacifier in and said, Shut up, you're going. But I was fortunate that my parents would send me back, You know, when I was five, six years old, we would go back to spend time with my grandfather in France, and I was the only grandfather I really knew.
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Unknown
And, you know, my dad was from Poland and his grandfather was involved in World War Two. I'll just leave it at that. Yeah, okay. But I had some great memories of, you know, being out in the vineyards. My grandfather had a vineyard, you know, and spending the summers there was just, you know, at the time I had a blast.
00:12:28:24 - 00:12:59:07
Unknown
And now I look back and says, you know, those are some of my most cherished memories of just doing some fun stuff with family and everything else. And that was different culture and it was different and I got the travel bug from that. And more importantly, I started to learn about different cultures and different people and that and, you know, I've since have traveled to about 30 countries, and that has given me a different perspective on life and dealing with different individuals.
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Unknown
30 countries. Wow, that's pretty cool. I had pretty extensive business travel, but I don't think 30 countries, you know, we could do a whole we could actually do a whole podcast on PATH or several on the differences between business and different cultures. So so yes, that would be I got lots of stories on it. Yes, I have. I learned sort of the hard way in many, many of the places that I went to that people don't do business necessarily like Americans do.
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Unknown
Exactly. Yes, I have similar stories. Yeah. So cool. Well, you know, I'm I'm pretty interested in the superfans. You're not author. And I know you've done some sales training and you know, the thing about but also there's also a lot of solopreneur is that are my listeners but people that are looking to create fans you know that that love what they have to offer, love their services, love their products.
00:14:01:02 - 00:14:31:05
Unknown
But it seems to be a huge struggle for a lot of people and very difficult thing to do. And I'm wondering if, you know, you've cracked that formula or not. Well, I think I have. I'll be I'm not the world's greatest prospect, but I will say that I am probably one of the top attraction marketing guys. I get people to cover me.
00:14:31:07 - 00:15:02:07
Unknown
So as an example, when I was selling engineering and manufacturing software years ago, we would conduct a lunch and learn event back then and that would be handled in a sense that I would send out letters back in the day to. So it could be emails today inviting executives to this lunch and learn about how technologies transforming the manufacturing and engineering industry or sales pitch.
00:15:02:09 - 00:15:28:08
Unknown
And then I got our our weren't shared executive offices. So I got the girls to contact the guys in the manufacturing world just the way there was that So these guys guys would come in and we would do a presentation. We would talk about how technology is affecting businesses and etc. We would demonstrate our software to prove the point of what we were making.
00:15:28:10 - 00:15:51:24
Unknown
So we were using the software as the demo vehicle without talking about selling. It was just the know how this is your time, this improves your profits, blah, blah, blah. And what would be done is people would say, okay, can you come to our company and take a look at what we're doing and tell us how this technology might help impact our business.
00:15:52:01 - 00:16:23:03
Unknown
So these guys were inviting me to their to their facilities and it was a done deal because then we would go in there and they weren't looking at any competitors. We were in there and I'd say, here's the strategy and etc. So the reason I go to that aspect is because I'm leading up to it. It wasn't one company as a tool and I'm old shop and in Illinois and they became my biggest super fan because what happened is they were 40 man company.
00:16:23:03 - 00:16:50:09
Unknown
And I went in there and we talked and I didn't talk about how my software would make their life better. I really changed the conversation to the CEO of the company says, Where do you see yourself in a few years? Business perspective. Yeah. Now what's your plan to get there and how can I help you get there? And that's how I handled the whole conversation and, you know, says, okay, well, we can use this type of technology.
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Unknown
You know, we don't do this, but here you should buy this from this guy because that'll help you in that area. And I became more of an advisor with them and they they started to grow their business and add people and get more work. And so I would always call them up and says, Hey, you know, I've got this company.
00:17:11:00 - 00:17:34:09
Unknown
Would you mind sharing what we've done with your company? And they would be, you know, they would absolutely say, sure, and they would talk to my prospects. So I was no longer selling. My customer was selling on my behalf. Yeah, but the unique part was that when Bob was the who was the IT manager, you know, I knew what his growth he wanted to control all of it.
00:17:34:14 - 00:17:59:18
Unknown
I was going through a divorce, who was sitting at the bar with them, drinking a beer, listening to all the stuff that was going on to his life? This guy? Yeah. And that's where I made him into my superfan, to the point where, you know, I was about to win a contest and I needed one more sale. And I knew that they were going to buy something in the fourth quarter.
00:17:59:20 - 00:18:16:00
Unknown
I says, Bob, I got to get this thing done by end of June. For me to win this contest. And I'm you know, I need one more sale and I've got this and this is can you help me out? And so the conversation, the short version of it was he goes, What can you do on a payment? I can delay the payment.
00:18:16:06 - 00:18:41:07
Unknown
I'm number one sales kind of company. I can do whatever I want. And that is true, isn't it? Yeah. So I got it. So he gave me the deal. I delayed the payments to him and I won the prize because we just had an early commitment, late delivery and late payment. That was all we needed to do. So stinking out in the box on how to get that deal done.
00:18:41:09 - 00:19:06:13
Unknown
And so that's when I started to create super fans for my customers and everyone. I also made sure everybody was referenced so I can I would hand out my date timer and said, Here's Eric, grab my phone, call. Any one of these people at any time throw a reference. Well, it's good. I mean, there you just listed so many things.
00:19:06:13 - 00:19:29:10
Unknown
There's a lot to unpack there. But I got I got excited because a lot of the strategies that I've used as well. Todd as well, starting off with the lunch and learns which, you know, when I started coaching, I was trained by the John Maxwell Company, but for me it was all about leadership. And I still believe, you know, leadership is key to success.
00:19:29:12 - 00:19:54:19
Unknown
And that was the way that that I would get business coaching. Business and working with executives and sales executives was to give value and do a lunch and learn and insights. So, folks, that's a great way to lunch, learn a great way to do it. Webinars that people do today are a great way to give value, but without shamelessly pitching, which that rhetoric.
00:19:54:19 - 00:20:20:04
Unknown
I think that's what you did. Yeah, well, I got invited in. I mean that was. Yeah, you know, for example, I spoke at the United States Mold Builders Association and they I flew out, I think it was in Caroline or something like that at the time. And they told me I could talk about technology, but I couldn't talk and promote my products.
00:20:20:06 - 00:20:55:08
Unknown
Yeah, but what I talked about was computer speak and every, every owner was dumbfounded with what I was talking about because I talked, okay, you're doing you know, and, and seed manufacturing, you know, programing. You've got mathematical stuff the guts to get calculate to generate the tool path to machine to metal a lot of the particular park. So this is so what's your employee doing as the computer's calculating all this math for 1520 minutes, huh?
00:20:55:10 - 00:21:24:19
Unknown
Nothing. And now you tweet and then as this and then you tweak it and then you got to rerun a code again, because it's not the way I wanted. I got to make a couple adjustments. So it's not a 15, 20 minutes, another 15, 20 minutes. This is a loser loss of productivity. And you're in you're not you know, you're teaching is how I ordered it to spend five, six, $7,000 to get a new latest and greatest computer to do the math calculations so that your guys more productive.
00:21:24:21 - 00:21:50:13
Unknown
And they were like, I never even looked at it that way. And the next thing I know is I got people asking me to come to their companies to take a look at what they're doing and made sales without selling. I didn't sell one thing. Nobody, you know, nobody likes to be sold. I think the other things I wrote down that you do in that formula, which I think are great, you know, you added value, right?
00:21:50:13 - 00:22:18:21
Unknown
And you didn't didn't sell. You got, as you said, you got invited in. You asked a question to the CEO about his life excuse me. And so you put him in the story, started having him imagine something different. You didn't know what it was, but he's creating the story. And then the other thing that I think was great was recommend finding products that weren't your own but would help.
00:22:18:23 - 00:22:41:00
Unknown
And I guess if you're in sales, you better know a lot about the industry that you're in and your competitors or other companies that have ancillary products that are important to your customers so that you can you can be a good can be a good consultant, maybe that's what it is. It's a it's a good because now you're showing integrity.
00:22:41:02 - 00:23:05:04
Unknown
You know, it's not about the sale, it's about the benefit and a success. And again, that's part of building a superfan is making them successful. Yeah, yeah. You know you're the whether you're selling software, widgets or broomsticks or whatever, those are just tools. You know, the reality of it is where do they see themselves and how can you help them achieve the growth that they're after?
00:23:05:06 - 00:23:24:15
Unknown
And the rest of it takes care of itself. They're they're just mechanisms. You know, I would tell people, you know, in manufacturing software, they all do the job. Yeah. In some way, shape or form. Otherwise they wouldn't exist. But where I would, I so I wouldn't get into the weeds of well we flip it this way and they flip it that way.
00:23:24:17 - 00:23:47:03
Unknown
I was more like, okay, how do we help to productivity? How do we help your profit line? How do we help you grow your business? And you know that one company in Illinois last time I was there as a joke, they held the door closed so I couldn't get in. This is what's up, guys. This is They come me through the door every time you walk in your it costs us 200 grand.
00:23:47:05 - 00:24:12:17
Unknown
This is. Yeah, but you bought the building to the left. You bought the building to the right. You're now 100 and some employees. You got a company in the Carolinas. So it was a it was a joke. But the point was, I felt I helped them grow and tripled their business in a period of four years. Yeah, Yeah, that's my estimates.
00:24:12:19 - 00:24:38:24
Unknown
You and, and that's the value of coaching or consulting or you know combination thereof. I think the stats out there on that are your ROIC seven times the investment is like that's just those are industry standard stats so it could vary but that's great. The other thing that that I loved and a one of my favorite authors, many of the books that I read from him came into my mind.
00:24:39:01 - 00:25:04:01
Unknown
You're talking about the guy that was going through the divorce, the personal situation, right? And just listening and being there. Jim wrote, Oh, yeah, I read all this stuff. People don't care about what you have to to say until they know you care about them. Right. And and so that's a great thing. I say, you know, do that and you employ that.
00:25:04:03 - 00:25:34:08
Unknown
Do that sincerely from your heart, right? Not as a trick or anything, but a very, very powerful you know, you it's hard to it's also hard to fire friends. Right. Right. So it's all about relationships and super a super. And then you held up your phone and this is I think the superfans piece is is pretty cool. So you you have some sort of process where you go through to make sure everybody's references.
00:25:34:08 - 00:26:00:20
Unknown
All Yeah. I basically no one is, you know, taking care of your customers is number one. I mean it's not the love of man Leave them. It's, you know, love them all the time. And so I would always reach out to my customers. I would send out letters. I mean, you know, when I was and I still do you know, I apply this today was the fact that, okay, I would hold the meeting in to some company.
00:26:00:20 - 00:26:28:09
Unknown
I make sure I got everybody's name and everybody gets either an email back or I actually mail something to them through the Postal Service, acknowledging their time, appreciating them and all that stuff. And so, you know, going back to the manufacturing world, you know, I would have the guys out from the shop floor that would be coming in to take a look at the technology and everything else because they're two guys going to be using.
00:26:28:11 - 00:26:51:20
Unknown
And I made sure I got their names because nobody ever acknowledges them. And but they all got a letter. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Jill. You know, thank you, Mary, for participating in our meeting and I appreciate all your valuable input and blah, blah, blah. We look forward to developing a great partnership. And so I made them all feel important.
00:26:51:20 - 00:27:27:03
Unknown
And they were contributors. Yeah, I found out afterwards is, okay, why did you pick us, you know, when you wanted the deal? And all of them said we felt that you would provide the best post-sale support. But I position that if you think about that, I positioned that from the from the get go. Yeah. So, you know, one of the things I talk about in you know, and this is what the cover looks like as a superfans is to acknowledge and express appreciation and recognition to people.
00:27:27:03 - 00:27:53:15
Unknown
One of my quotes is people will cross through broken glass for appreciation and recognition. Tell me I'm wrong. No, I can't tell you, Your Honor. I've seen I've seen people do crazy things for, you know, in contest for winning a T-shirt. Right. Things like that, so that they could stand up on stage and be recognized as doing something or winning a contest or just being part of something.
00:27:53:17 - 00:28:27:14
Unknown
It's people are craving recognition and it really costs nothing. Managers, again, you're listening to this and you've got people that you're most valuable asset, recognizing them as as their value of the organization, as people, as it goes a long way. So it's it's, it's more valuable. I'm going to say it's just you have to make a good salary, but recognition in a lot of instances, once that done, it surpasses that absolutely correct.
00:28:27:14 - 00:29:02:01
Unknown
Because you say you want your team is good to know that you appreciate their extra efforts. So they're going to want to do more. Other coworkers are going to see that and say, wow, he really or she really cares about what we're doing. And it changes the dynamics of the company. And so we're the super fans comes in and where I got the idea from it is if you know and that's why if you look on the covered thing, our faces are painted okay But if you think of a sports team, okay, you've got the super fans on their faces painted.
00:29:02:05 - 00:29:35:08
Unknown
Yeah, jerseys, the banner hats, everything else cheering for for her team as a team paying up for that. Yeah. No, no. But they're spending their own money for it, but they're promoting the team. So my idea was why can't businesses That's why I crave business superfans. Why can't businesses create their own team of superfans? And the first place to start with this, with your own internal team, like you were just mentioning, because now you get your employees, your team, to start saying, Man, what a great company.
00:29:35:08 - 00:30:03:14
Unknown
You know, these guys really love us. And they start calling their friends and, you know, and it starts and it grows. And the same thing with customers and the same thing with nobody ever talks about this complimentary businesses. Yeah, right. Absolutely. That's so important because you become valuable. Now you're just you're a source of information and assistance. You know, the the we haven't talked about this, but you and I know that your passion about leadership as well.
00:30:03:14 - 00:30:26:01
Unknown
And and and you're also an athlete. I don't know if I'll get into that now, but, you know, I'm the did eight Iron Man in my fifties and and learned a lot from it and actually a lot of coaching that I do is around high performance and the things that I learned and one of the the four leadership styles of the Iron Man that I developed is the fan.
00:30:26:03 - 00:30:46:19
Unknown
The fan is so important. It's so critical in an organization and it's critical to, you know, somebody that's that's in competition because when things are tough, when you've got, you know, up to 17 hours to finish your race, you know, if it takes that long. But people that are on the sidelines that are keeping you going. Yeah. Yeah.
00:30:46:19 - 00:31:05:09
Unknown
Creating you know, I want to dig into that to the super fan. So I'm just again, I'm fascinated by this sort of the process that you've got and if you'd be willing to talk a little bit more about your book. Yeah. Which is creating business Super fans, I think was available on Amazon and a whole bunch other places, correct?
00:31:05:09 - 00:31:36:12
Unknown
Yes. Well, at the end, we'll make sure that we get information on that so that listeners can get access to that book. But which could you talk a little bit about? Yeah, Yeah. So one of the things I looked at is when I did a research on this stuff and the idea came came to me was the fact that you know, was a lot of people talk about customer engagement, customer retention and all that stuff, but if you stop and think about talking about a silo, it's just one component of the equation.
00:31:36:14 - 00:32:06:19
Unknown
There's other people talk about employee motivation, employee engagement, employee retention and all that kind of stuff. But that's another silo that they talk about. And nobody ever talks about your complementary business partners like a flooring and a painting company and a go together is a simple example, okay? And what I realized was that they're really all intertwined. If you stop to think about it, because I'll give you an example.
00:32:06:19 - 00:32:35:20
Unknown
Okay? You're the you're the painting guy and you've got an employee that's not too happy about, you know, his his job thing. He's doing it because it's a job. Because that's how he feels he's treated. Yeah, the flooring company gives you a referral that, you know, they just need a flooring and these people need, you know, painting done because it doesn't match the flooring.
00:32:35:22 - 00:33:11:15
Unknown
So those employee that's not super motivated goes and does a mediocre job and a painting. And so now you've got a situation where the flooring guy that recommended you looks bad to his customer. The painting company looks bad to the customer. And more importantly now the flooring guy is not happy with the painting company because he just lost himself a customer that's unhappy and right there is a combination of all of those things all intertwine.
00:33:11:17 - 00:33:39:03
Unknown
Yeah. If that employee was motivated, fired up and loved this company, they would walk in and turn around and say, Hey, this is, you know, I love this company and all these foreign guys doing the best, you know, and and all that stuff. So it really reinforces the fact that a customer who they've picked an outstanding flooring company and that's why they got recommended and it all, it just all intertwines.
00:33:39:03 - 00:34:04:02
Unknown
And unfortunately we don't think of it that way. It's like the ripple and it's like the pebble dropping the pump on it and a ripple goes out and it affects so many parts of the shores and you don't even know, right? So or or I guess the the other one that people talk about is the butterfly wings causing a hurricane several thousand miles away.
00:34:04:02 - 00:34:37:15
Unknown
You know, right. There really are very powerful effects from things that we do or say or just even think. And then it admits some sort of energy that people pick up, good or bad. Right. It's like, you know, one things I talk about in the book is, you know, the importance of Thank you. And a follow up for the thank you, because I don't think we you know, you look at there's certain industries and I won't name them but that are weak in in that aspect.
00:34:37:15 - 00:35:00:04
Unknown
So they'll do the job they'll do a good job. And that's the last time that customer hears back from that. I'm crazy. I mean, and, and it's like when you just lost that customer because you do not talking about you. They're not promoting you. They're not saying what a great job you are because they haven't heard from you ever again.
00:35:00:06 - 00:35:20:11
Unknown
And in the mindset as well, it was a transaction. We got it done, we service them and all sat versus, you know, a couple of months later. Hey, just checking in and making sure you know, that everything is working and all is good. And if you need anything, let us know. And if they know they could benefit from us, let us know as well.
00:35:20:11 - 00:35:47:00
Unknown
We'd be we'd be grateful. It's the simple stuff that is the big stuff. And, you know, it's, you know, like six months later or a year later, hey, just want to reach out rich and say hi. I hope all is well, you know, how's life treat now? And oh, by the way, here's a couple. You know, we've expanded because of your your assistance and and we value you because our company has grown because of customers like you.
00:35:47:02 - 00:36:16:20
Unknown
People want to know that they have their they dealt with a successful company. So it's okay to go back to those past customers and says, hey, because of you guys, we've grown in. Thank you. Yeah, right. And that and if you're not going back, how do you going back to your formula for creating superfans if you're not going back and finding out about their business in their lives, you're not going to you know, this is a simple process of checking in and saying and again, saying thank you.
00:36:16:22 - 00:36:45:01
Unknown
But it's all part of that building the super fan process from sort of that beginning that you were talking about. Got it. Now it's it's recognizing, you know, it's like I tell people I talk about birthday marketing people. Is birthday marketing wonderful. Why would you dress as well? Because it's it's an important thing is if you send a birthday card to somebody through the mail, not an email or text, something, it could be the only card that person has received, number one.
00:36:45:07 - 00:37:04:06
Unknown
Number two, it just shows the time that, wow, you know, the time of some card. I mean, I can show you tons of text messages I get from people saying, Oh my gosh, I can't believe you remembered my birthday. Thank you so much. You know, there's a lot of things. Did it take a lot? Did it take a lot of effort to do that?
00:37:04:08 - 00:37:26:23
Unknown
No, not at all. I'm glad you brought your I'm so glad you brought the U.S. mail, because I use the U.S. mail all the time. And it works. It works well because guess what? People will get mail anymore. Yeah, they get they don't like you know, it's it's usually some sort of junk or maybe a bill or something like that.
00:37:27:00 - 00:37:43:09
Unknown
Yeah. Surprised to get a card or even I still I send out letters. I still send out letters to people in the mail because it's they're going to go I mean, you know, we all do this. We look at junk, junk, junk bill that goes in that pile. I open in that because I know they want just money.
00:37:43:11 - 00:38:10:24
Unknown
You know, that's our mindset these days. Oh, my God, What's this? Oh, I'm open this one up and it gets opened, you know, And it's I've gotten more opportunities for prospecting that way because it was, Whoa, what's this? And I love I love your I by the way. I love I love your attraction marketing versus the prospecting because I think you're you're again you're you're adding value, you're attracting people.
00:38:10:24 - 00:38:50:10
Unknown
You're you know I guess you could put that prospecting term on it but in my head and I think a lot of other people's ads, you know, prospecting is a different sort of a process. Mm hmm. Not too much fun for a salespeople, and I guarantee you, not too much fun for the prospects either. Right? So I you know, the other thing that I'm thinking about, something that I've done frequently and for people other authors who have books, which is fun to do, is to send a prospect, a copy of your book from Amazon, know if you got prime, the shipping is free, right?
00:38:50:12 - 00:39:17:24
Unknown
And then every year you get a package is from Amazon versus you're going to open it up right now though the U.S. mail or things that come to your mailbox or your door or you know if people still have the the any box worth stuff sits on top and now it gets opened zero that's super. And I'm personalizing gifts.
00:39:17:24 - 00:39:40:17
Unknown
If you're selling a gift to somebody, make sure you got their name on it. Because if I sent somebody a coffee mug and it's got my logo on it, who's it about? Yeah, it's about me, the company. If I send that same coffee mug with my logo. But now it's got the name Rich on it. Whose coffee cup is it?
00:39:40:19 - 00:40:11:13
Unknown
Yeah, it's your company. You are This is, this is salespeople having read a will Power if they use it responsibly. And you are the company you know you can have the the company could have the best product in the world. You could have the most clever marketing. But if they don't like the people that the prospect does like, people are dealing with, the costs don't past zero.
00:40:11:15 - 00:40:34:21
Unknown
So yeah, yeah, very cool. But they say with the with the personalized gift whereas going with that is okay. Now if you got that, you know, I sent you a coffee cup with my logo but your name on it, you're drinking, it's your cup so don't touch my cup because it's your name on it. That's some man. But, but now you're walking around with your cup, not my cup.
00:40:34:22 - 00:41:08:02
Unknown
It's your cup because it's got your name on it. But you're promoting my company. Yeah. Yeah. Super. I, I help people that are listening to this, writing these things down because we got so many this talk, this dialog that we're having, there's so many gems in it. I mean, so many absolute gems. It and I guess if you you wanted to be able to, you know, to grab more of those gems and you you have some gifts I think some things that you that you give out actually give out for free.
00:41:08:04 - 00:41:39:05
Unknown
Now something called the scorecard. Could you talk? Yeah, that's the Prevent scorecard. What's the this scorecard is a pretty cool thing that the created it's in conjunction to book so that's what it looks like it's like it's like a dart board, you know, the top spot is a center, but it's each chapter is the what I do with the book is each chapter is self-contained, so it addresses customers employees and business partners per each chapter, per each chapter.
00:41:39:07 - 00:42:04:05
Unknown
You know, we start off with the prospect. Then at the end of the chapter is a question that asks you on a score of 0 to 10, how do you rate yourself and your prospecting skills? And you would take your pen and and put that a doctor got it and want to follow up. Thank you. Birthdays, appreciation, recognition, retention, unexpected gifts, reviews and referrals and gratitude is the last one.
00:42:04:07 - 00:42:27:01
Unknown
And you then when you're all done, you connect the dots and you'll realize your will isn't really smooth. It's a little bit had some flat spots in it. Yeah. And so then there is some of those telling you how it works. But then at the back here, there's a whole action guide and you know, being a coach, you can appreciate this.
00:42:27:03 - 00:42:51:11
Unknown
We're next. Action steps, responsible deadline, resources, barriers and results. And I can put dates on here. What do I need to do to make improve my my score? That is very cool. And so on that front page, after you get done scoring yourself, you've got a visual. I guess I'm visiting it right now. You've got a visual and you can see where that wheel is.
00:42:51:11 - 00:43:10:23
Unknown
Like, it's not going to turn, it's not going to feel good when it hits something that's, that's, you know, not that's a lot, right? That's a lot. But we all know clunk, clunk, clunk. So you would focus I'm guessing you would you would use that to focus on the areas that are. Yeah. But you find you realize that yourself you're short with.
00:43:11:00 - 00:43:35:23
Unknown
Yeah. And then I'm I've got a community that people can join too. It's called the business Super accelerate community that people can join for free and is strictly all business owners on launching it. So there's, you know I'm looking to get people in there, start doing some stuff with it. But the whole intent is they get access through me, through that community to help coach them on, okay, what are you doing?
00:43:35:23 - 00:44:17:21
Unknown
How are you doing it? And all that aspect. And the other thing that's available to at a reduced rate is I did a lot of research and spent a few bucks and I downloaded everybody's customer avatar work sheet and I took all the best of everybody's stuff and they send all the other stuff and we created a comprehensive ever customer avatar worksheet that you can go through and it's got, you know, the avatar, deep dive, etc. And then we get into talking about you and about, you know, your KPIs and what you need to be doing for that aspect.
00:44:17:23 - 00:44:55:08
Unknown
And then you know what your unique selling proposition, your elevator pitch, all that stuff. So that you first define who you want to be pursuing and then what's going to be your messaging for that particular group. And so that's available for like three bucks. Normally it's six, but just three bucks. Yeah, but it might be 100 times that because I'll tell you what, there's all sorts of stuff on creating avatars, but all of the follow up is, is it's rare that you find something all put together like that.
00:44:55:10 - 00:45:21:21
Unknown
But now they just mention KPIs, the things that you want to be able to measure. You know, being able to have all of that at your fingertips is Yeah, that's what I said. I, I spent months downloading everybody's stuff, all the stuff we all as part of sales, you know, you got to know what your competition's got and then we reworked it and now it's, you know, it's got some really cool stuff that a great team helped me put this together.
00:45:21:21 - 00:45:45:19
Unknown
And, you know, again, it's all about helping people and yeah, how do you value adding value? And that's that's the way we grow our business. That's the way we grow our superfans. Yep. Super. Frederick, thank you so much for being a guest on the show. I've enjoyed our time together. I'd love to have you back and talk more about this.
00:45:45:19 - 00:46:09:23
Unknown
And I hope you come back. Yeah, I would love to come back because we had a great conversation. Thank you truly for the invite and it's, you know. Yeah, it was this wasn't very enjoyable and we could deep dive into like we talked about some international sales and Yeah. And the cultural exchange stories there. Yeah. So if, if we'd be willing to share, I'd be willing to share my learning stories.
00:46:09:23 - 00:46:35:13
Unknown
Would you be willing to share your learnings stories. Oh yeah. So yeah, the but could people get access to, to the book, to the other materials that you talked about? The scorecard. Okay. The book easiest place is go to Amazon Search for creating business superfans. And you know, Bruce, again, this is what the cover looks like of the book.
00:46:35:15 - 00:47:09:05
Unknown
And then they can also go to business superfans dot com and that's where they can get a scorecard for free and they can buy the avatar. And I'm actually slowly creating documents that people can purchase to help them with follow up verbage. Thank you. Verbiage, appreciation, verbiage and stuff like that because one things that you know and I think you would agree if you give somebody a blank sheet of paper and are I don't know what to write that on the wall.
00:47:09:05 - 00:47:33:07
Unknown
Yes. Right right. You give somebody a document that's got, you know, verbiage on it. They're going to find everything that's wrong with it. They're going to want to change everything else, you know, And so what I'm doing is I'm creating templates that people can purchase for a reasonable dollars, and it gives them a starting point of, you know, here's some follow up strategy and verb ology that they can utilize.
00:47:33:09 - 00:47:57:11
Unknown
You know, thank you. How to ask for a referral. And those are add on products that I'm creating in conjunction with. Well, that's great. I mean, if the statistics are this in sales, if you follow a process that is equivalent to 52% of getting the sale. Now we're not talking about skills or your personality or anything else. We're just talking about fill it.
00:47:57:11 - 00:48:19:10
Unknown
Following a process which is better than flipping a coin. Yep. So it's great that you've got that available for people again. Frederick, thank you so much. Before we go, I want to know what your code is. What's the what's the code that you use? Your motto, your faith, your or your credo? What is it they use to get through tough times?
00:48:19:12 - 00:48:51:10
Unknown
Perseverance, perseverance, perseverance. Because all their gold life is like this. Yeah. And. But if you stay on mission and you belief in yourself and that sort of thing and belief in yourself, it is is everything I know. I'll just share it to prove the point. Our garage door broke and I had a meeting and I had to get the power out and I couldn't pull the handle stuff.
00:48:51:10 - 00:49:09:01
Unknown
I mean, the all the cabling broke. Oh, no. Oh, I got. I got that garage door off by with my partner. She helped the bed when I finished getting it up and she said we got to call the neighbors. Aren't nails as nice as I can get this done. We just got to use our heads and we got to talk.
00:49:09:01 - 00:49:25:06
Unknown
And so it's perseverance and persistence. Perseverance and persistence. Beautiful young Frederick. Thank you so much. Until next time, folks know your code. All right. Thank you, Rich.
00:49:25:06 - 00:49:46:06
Unknown
Thanks for listening to the Iron Mind code show with Rich Green. Make sure to visit our website. Join us next time for another edition of the Iron Mine Code. Show.
