(upbeat electric music)
-: Hello and welcome back to the Sharpest Tool.
My name is Josh, I'm your host,
and this is the place where we take
the sting out of marketing with everything
that we're bringing to the table.
As always I'm really fired up when we have
an awesome guest in the booth.
And today is one such day.
I have Kenny Chapman, the founder of
the Blue Collar Success Group here
in the booth with us here on the Sharpest Tool.
Kenny welcome!
-: Thanks Josh, it's an honor and pleasure
to be here man, super pumped as well.
-: I'm fired up man, we're gonna have
a great conversation today.
A lot of people might not know what
the Blue Collar Success Group is, what you guys do.
Why don't you tell us a little bit
about the Blue Collar Success Group?
-: You bet, basically we're a coaching,
training, and development company that's
focused on the home services industry.
So anybody that crosses the threshold of
a door to have communication with a
homeowner about a product service or whatever,
we focus on helping people have better communication,
better management, maximize leads.
Companies like Scorpion obviously generate leads.
That's one part of the equation right?
-: Sure. -: So we focus
on those other parts of the equation that really
help the business operate better.
-: What would you say your overarching
mission is for these business owners you help?
-: Our main overall mission is helping
operators become real owners.
Because when owners actually own companies,
the entire organization gets better.
When you run it like creating enterprise value
for investors, even if those investors
are mom and pop, or husband and wife,
it's a mindset shift that happens
and we help people create that shift,
and then manage that shift so
everybody in the company can thrive.
-: That's awesome, and you guys have been
going through a bit of a kind of
a reshaping of the Blue Collar Success Group
business structure over the past couple years.
Tell me a little bit about that.
-: We have, yes thank you.
We've gone through some through some
massive leadership changes,
and we've added some incredibly
talented coaches and leaders.
And we have a brand new mission that we are
going to completely change how
home services
is communicated Josh.
Home service industry is changing faster
than we've ever seen it. -: Yeah
-: And we want to be
a guiding light to that. -: Yeah.
-: So we're going to touch more lives
and help people understand where to go.
Confused mind never buys
and our clients are confused about what direction to go.
We want to help make that simpler.
-: And that fires me up because that's exactly
what we embody here at Scorpion.
And it boils down to helping business owners succeed
and helping them identify what those goals are
and how to actually achieve those in a tangible way
without having to be the expert in every single thing
that comes to business.
Business owners need help from time to time,
and it's great to have an organization like
the blue collar success group to do that.
And I know there are a lot of those organizations out there.
So, and there is also kind of the growth
that you guys are seeing
and the changes you're going through,
kind of shifts into a little bit about
what I want to talk about today.
And that's a focus
on sales, right? -: right
-: All businesses need sales to acquire
and not just to the acquisition of new customers,
but to affect the bottom line at the end of the day.
So you work with obviously
a lot of home service professionals.
What would you say the current state of sales is
for your typical home service company?
-: The current state of sales
at the time we're doing this Josh,
is very, very good because
the overall economy is (laughs) basically out of control.
So, one of the challenges right now is sales are basically
as good as a company can execute.
Right now the sales prevention department has been put aside
because the economy is so good.
What happens when clients have time to think,
want to process, they're not so urgent
and have some discretionary income.
Sales actually becomes an art
and a communication form.
Right now most sales being done are more order taking
than anything because of supply and demand period.
So right now sales are happening.
The challenge is...
I think it's important that we realize
Warren Buffet said one time that,
"Nobody knows who's swimming naked until the tide goes out."
(both laughs) So the reality is--
-: I love that. -: in economies like this,
there's a lot of sales going on,
but the important thing is sales does not
matter Josh.
Sales doesn't matter at all.
-: What do you mean by that?
Sales does not matter.
Can you dive into that a little bit for me?
-: All that matters is what's goes to the bottom line.
-: Yeah.
-: So meaning that...
We watched three, four, five, $10 million companies
generate a lot of sales,
but there's nothing at the bottom
which creates stress,
which creates anxiety,
which creates fear,
which doesn't allow owners to make good decisions
and therefore we think sales
is the answer to fix everything.
And yet sometimes it's a matter of
it can cover up some things.
Sure, Right? -: Sure.
Well, let's dive into that a little bit more.
Current state of sales,
a lot of business owners are probably
really comfortable right now.
Like you mentioned
the economy.
We typically see things
start to shift a little bit,
-: Yes -: economy wise.
And now there are...
people have been anticipating a housing market debt.
A lot of stuff happening there.
What's the mistake
for a business owner right now
who is feeling comfortable
to kind of rest in that comfort?
What's the problem that
they're going to experience in the next three to five years?
-: The challenge is really...
Entrepreneurs are optimist by nature,
we can not be.
When business owners get up in the morning,
you have got to go,
"Today is going to be better than yesterday,"
most of the time.
And you get kicked in the gut
and you get drug through the mud
and tax and all this stuff comes at you.
All these different types of things.
And so the challenge is that
we don't have our own blind spots.
One of the things we do is
we create mastermind groups at Blue Collar
because you don't know your own blind spot.
And right now people are enjoying everything.
That's cool.
But let's get clear.
Not only is there a recession coming,
what if you could create one yourself?
How would you do then?
What if you could go, "You know what? In 2022,
"we're going to be in a terrible recession
"because I want one."
How would you go into that recession then everybody,
think about that and you go,
"Kenny, you're crazy.
"Nobody would ever ask for that."
I'm not saying you asked for it,
but how would your mindset shift?
And how would you prepare differently?
Would you stack cash a little bit?
Would you look at those notes a little bit?
Would you make sure that you're profitable as well?
and being mindful that things don't continue forever?
What got you here won't get you there Josh.
-: Where are people struggling most
from your perspective in the businesses
that you've worked with?
When it comes to the sales aspect.
-: The sales aspect comes down to
two things.
Education and fear.
And the bottom line is most frontline
team members of home service companies,
regardless of trade,
are not educated on product,
benefits, services,
they are not educated
and trained on proper communication in the home.
They are not properly trained on how to
communicate the technology.
Most companies are now mobile presentations
and they go, "Hey, cool Josh, here's an iPad.
"Go sell some air conditioning
"or garage doors."
And you don't know how to use the thing
and the process and when to show pictures.
So techs aren't educated,
therefore they can't educate homeowners.
When those two things come
to head,
the problem is price and value are always at war.
And so when those value points don't get touched,
price looks high no matter what it is.
It doesn't matter if it's a sticky gum, right?
We have price and value.
If we're at
the convenience store. -: Totally
-: "Do I want a Red Bull or a Monster?
"Oh!This one's two for one."
You have that conversation.
Even subconsciously.
Now we're having it consciously about hundreds
or thousands of dollars in the home
and technicians are like,
"I wouldn't spend that on that."
Guess what?
You can put the garage door in,
right? -: Yeah.
-: So the thing is you're not your own customer
and therefore you start making monetary decisions
for a client in the sales process cause you go,
"I wouldn't buy that."
Instead of going,
"I wouldn't buy that, but I know the benefits
"to my client
"and I'm going to give them all these options
"and all this information about this process,
"and then I'm going to let them make
"an educated decision on what's best
"for them and their family, in the home."
-: What are the biggest differences?
You work with a lot of businesses.
We've worked with a lot of businesses
here at Scorpion. -: Right.
We see the similarities
across all the options that are available to a consumer.
What are the biggest differentiators
in terms of the value a business can provide
that you've been able to see
what the businesses you deal with?
What does a business owner
do you think with
in order to be sure
they're providing the value
that's gonna make the difference
to get people out of the price conversation?
-: Absolutely. So there is a couple things
that come into play.
Number one is, business owners need to realize that
your current competition is no longer your competition.
Meaning we used to think,
I owned a plumbing, heating air company for 24 years.
Many years of my career
I thought I competed with the guys down the block,
down the street, whatever, that did what I do.
And then all of a sudden Facebook comes along
and Amazon comes along
and Amazon decides to train
the entire United States on how they consume
and where they get benefit
and how they value reviews.
And all the consumer process
has completely changed
and contractors quite frankly,
aren't keeping up with it.
And so now all of a sudden you go,
"Okay, cool. Where are you winning?"
The ones that are winning are embracing technology,
are giving multiple options,
are running more like an Amazon without the overwhelm.
The challenge with Amazon offerings is it's all there.
And so if you get sucked in and you scroll for one razor
and then you started looking at the shave cream
and whatever, your clients didn't want you to be
in the home most of the time
and home services anyway.
So that's part of it.
You get clarity, you get focused,
train your team, set them loose
and monitor performance, coach it, look at it.
We're looking to improve behavior.
Improving behavior improves communication,
improved communication, improves education,
improved education, improves closing.
-: Yeah, absolutely. Let's talk...
Your videos you talk a lot about
sales being relational. -: Mm-hmm
-: What do you mean by that?
What's relational selling?
-: So relation based selling is more about you and I.
You and I have a relationship,
but it's more about...
Think about if you were going to marry
each one of your clients,
you're not going to show up at the door,
"Hey, how you doing?
"You want to get married?"
When I met the lovely Christie we went on a date, Josh.
And we went to our favorite little Italian place
and I hung on every word and
I listened and we went on several dates
and it was a long time before I asked her to marry me.
When you ask your client for money,
that's the marriage.
And if you don't build relationship
prior to asking for marriage,
you're going to get laughed at.
Just like showing up to somebody you just met and said,
"Hey, would you like to get married?"
No. You're going to say,
"Hey, can I get you a drink?
"Do you want to meet for coffee?
"I'd like to get to know you a little bit."
You've got to do that with a homeowner
in order to know whether you have the authority to ask them.
-: And the business owners
that are having their people do this
are the ones that are winning now
and the ones that are going to win
in the next five years. -: 1000%.
-: And so it's...
One of your videos you said this,
"Your front line is never gonna treat a client
"better than you treat your front line."
I love how that is positioned.
Dive into a little bit about
what you mean exactly by that though.
-: A 100%. So the...
What happens is we...
You guys are a marketing company.
Scorpion generates leads, right?
So we're all looking for clients,
for customers for external,
and unfortunately when things get busy
and there's all these different things,
sometimes owners have a tendency
to forget about the importance of team
and forget about the importance of how we treat them.
And so I'm a firm belief that if you treat
a client,
an internal client, meaning a team member,
like a commodity,
then they will treat your end user client like a commodity.
And so one of the things we're seeing is,
"Oh, people can't recruit.
"They can't find people."
Look at your culture, look at your magnet.
Now, does it mean you got to have ice cream parties
every Friday and having barbecues on Saturday?
That's not the point.
And we think it's monetary and we think it's...
We have such a blind spot
when it comes to what people truly want
to work in a company that we miss the fact.
So here's the deal, just walking around,
when you look at massive companies
that have crushed it over the years,
and back in the Toyota days
when Toyota was scaling
and the CEO would walk the floor and just,
"Hey, how are you? Hi..."
I don't speak Japanese. -: (laughs)
-: I don't know exactly what he would say,
but he would make
(background noise drowns out speaker)
-: Okay, there you go.
-: Thank you, thank you. You know,
but it made people feel
validated and everybody
wants that.
If you're listening check out
a little thing called
"Maslow's hierarchy of needs."
Where as business owner look at that.
Every one of your team members
wants to climb Maslow's hierarchy.
They can do it in your organization.
You're going to crush it for a long, long time.
-: Let's dive into a little thing you said
we were having an off-Mike conversation
about this little earlier
and I think it's so, so important for business owners
to understand this aspect of the
Tech Challenge
that a lot of business owners
are dealing with. -: Yes
-: If a millennial generation,
different generation of priorities
and needs and how they need to be coached,
how they need to be
worked with, -: Correct
-: and some business owners
are finding that really, really challenging.
What's your take on that entire situation?
The whole Tech Challenge,
-: Number one, Josh,
and don't take this wrong
for our audience, -: (laughs)
-: but get over it.
I mean you guys have a phenomenal TV show
here at Scorpion
called Get To Work. -: Yeah
-: And I would say when it comes to the hiring thing,
get over it.
Now I'm not trying to say,
"Oh, bury your head in the sand whatever."
Yes, there might be a challenge coming,
but it doesn't affect every single company in every market.
Anybody listening, -: Yeah
You have a certain number of team members
that you need to hit budget this year.
That's the number you need to focus on.
Now what happens?
You have...
We come into your organization at Blue Collar
and you go, "Well, we can't get any team members."
And we walk in
and it doesn't matter the age of the building, Josh,
the floor hasn't been vacuumed
and the trash hasn't been taken out
and the bathrooms aren't clean and though we go,
"Oh, but that's not why people they, they drive a truck."
Well, it doesn't matter.
The point is the way you do something
is the way you do everything
and if you're not valuing your people.
If recruiting isn't as equally
as important as generating leads,
then you're not serious about recruiting
and our clients that are growing by 10, 20, 30, 40%...
There is a company in Phoenix last year
that grew $30 million in the
plumbing, heating, electrical business.
30 million in one year.
Now what does that mean?
Without an acquisition, I might add.
Guess what? It takes a lot of butts in trucks
to do an extra
an extra 30 million.
So the point is they weren't going to market,
going there was no good team members.
They said, "What's it take to get this?"
Now let's be very clear, ladies and gentlemen.
You can be a one truck operator
and create differentiation in the market
to where everybody wants to work for you.
The other thing is
if your team's not bringing millennials...
You brought it up.
A lot of our industry in home service
is still owned by old school.
There's a lot of transition going on.
There's a lot of pain
and families going on from baby boomer parents
that have owned a long time to millennial generation
either taking acquisition
or taking over regardless of where you are,
you better be focusing on what their wants,
needs, and desires are
because they will bring their friends by the droves.
Their friends don't want to go to college any more
then some other people,
if they see a path that has value without a ton of debt,
we think, "Oh, they all want to be gamers
"and go to school and just dink around."
Well, as long as you keep thinking that
you're going to keep manufacturing
those results in your organization.
-: Absolutely.
I think too
it's such
an interesting principle,
just how millennials want to be coached.
It's interesting.
I was looking at a training
that we were doing internally here.
And we were looking at the contrast
in terms of how people wanted to be handled
in the workplace 20 years ago, 50 years ago
versus how millennials want to be handled in the workplace.
And you saw this very interesting juxtaposition, right?
You saw people back in the day,
they were told what to do
and they were okay with that. Right?
People today, they ask why?
Why do I need to do that?
They want value.
They want reason.
They want meaning.
They're looking for meaning.
People back in the day,
it was a very much a hierarchical
manager-subordinate relationship.
I tell you what to do. You do it.
Today they want to be treated like a family.
Like they come in and they're part of a family.
That part of something bigger.
Everybody's looking for that movement
and that meaning in life.
And so when it comes down to
how we're treating our techs,
how we're treating our people,
how we're treating the organization as a whole,
we can't forget that we're dealing with people
and people are emotional,
they're irrational sometimes, it's messy.
We're in the people business though.
And if you're a leader in an organization,
you're in the people business. -: Yes
-: And it's a messy business sometimes.
But you gotta be okay with that
and you have to fall in love with that game
and never forget that there's a person
at the end of that position that you're trying to hire for.
-: And 100% and I would add to that, Josh,
I love that.
And I would say not just as there a person
at the other end of that,
there's a person that was raised
differently than you.
-: Yeah -: There is a person...
See, think about this,
didn't every generation in world history
want things to be a little bit easier
the next time around? -: Yeah.
-: So the challenge is baby boomers are really,
what they're doing is crying out
and being victims going,
"Well, life wasn't that easy when I, when I was a kid,"
therefore, you know, (murmurs).
In our space we have this thing
that you can't work on the side.
You get "I own a plumbing company."
You can't do plumbing. It makes sense.
You're competing with your own company.
Here's another challenge that millennials have.
There's a little thing called a side hustle.
I never knew about this Josh. -: Oh yeah! Side hustle.
-: Millennials say they got a side hustle and everybody...
I've got millennials work for me and they're like,
"Oh yeah, what's yours?"
I'm like, "Side hustle? What is that?"
And so then you go, well wait a minute.
That's because a lot of them they're looking for some value
cause they have a boring,
dull job
and so they're going to go run some mover.
They want some walking around money,
they want some validation,
they want some art,
they want to
create something. -: Yeah
-: When you give them the opportunity to do that,
then maybe their side hustle
becomes within your own organization.
-: 100% capitalizing on someone's strengths
and someone's desires and passions
and how do you take those passions
and incorporate them to something
that you can use for the betterment of the organization.
So that way the more time someone's spending
in their passion zone,
the less it feels like work.
-: Yeah -: Right? And so we can't...
I don't think we can forget that
when we're dealing with anybody in the organization.
Still this is to everybody across the organization.
Doesn't have to be a millennial too.
I think a lot of the millennial generation
is influencing even the older generation
and what we can't forget about the younger generation
and the millennial generation is
that they want
to be challenged. -: Yes
-: And they actually want to contribute
and they want to grow
and personally develop. -: Yes
But they just need to be...
They need to be led in a different way
than what people historically have done.
They still need the accountability.
And this isn't to say
millennials are lazy to the point where,
"Oh, they just don't, they just don't want
"the accountability or anything."
They actually want accountability,
but they need it delivered in a specific manner.
-: And 100%...
And one of the things
I think we forget as business owners
and leaders in today's world
is because things are so different. And I'm...
Dan Sullivan, one of my mentors taught me
a concept called Unique Ability.
That's the deal, right?
Is live in that space.
What we forget as owners is most of us started
maybe by ourselves in a truck doing everything.
And then there became a badge
Josh, of I can do everything in the business
rather than having a badge of,
"I do my unique ability. I'm really good at it."
I remember when I was a kid,
my mom tasked my sister and I
with doing the dishes
after dinner. -: Yeah
-: I hated washing,
but I like drying so I worked it with my sister
and we worked out a deal
where we could get the dishes done way better
if she washed and I dried than if I washed
and she had dried cause I sucked at washing the dishes
and she'd have to redo...
You start going,
"Well, what's the point, Kenny?"
The point is the dishes are
all kinds of different categories in your business
and you are still doing the washing and the drying.
Sometimes when somebody raising their hand
in the background going,
"I'm really good at the dishes."
And you go,
"I hate the dishes,
"but nobody does them as good as me, I'm going to keep
"on doing this." -: (laughs)
That such a good point.
And all of that motivation ties right back
into this relational selling. -: Yes
-: Create better people,
they create better relationships.
There're people that customers want to work with
and want to do business with,
and when you allow them the ability
and the freedom to be who they really, really want to be
and challenge them to be who they really, really want to be,
you'll see it pay dividends down the road.
-: 1000%
-: With your business.
Kenny, this has been awesome.
We have so much information
that we have (laughs) so far for our business owners.
We have so much more we're going to get into.
We're going to talk about sales and marketing,
the relationship between the two.
You're going to give some amazing insights
from your coaching experience
and your business ownership experience.
I think we need to break this into two episodes,
if you're all right with that.
-: 100% let's do it.
-: Awesome. Well, where can our listeners
find you online, Kenny?
Go ahead to thebluecollarsuccessgroup.com
check out our website, reach out to us.
We'd love to do an assessment of your business.
Find out what you're looking for
and see how we might be a good fit
to help you get to the next level.
-: Awesome. And for everybody listening,
definitely hit that subscribe button
so you can get notified of our next episode next week,
part two with Kenny Chapman,
founder of the Blue Collar Success Group.
Until then, from all of us here at the Sharpest Tool,
we'll catch you next time.
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