Effective Communication Strategies for Business Success w/ Richard Blank

with you anyway.

You're so handsome. Oh my God, everyone, this is— okay, so here we are again. I think this is the 6th interview today, Richard, and I'm just so energized. I think I could go— I think I could do 100 liveathons and not have a problem. But okay, so I met— I, I haven't met Richard, no prep needed, but I will tell you I've seen his face and he looks exactly the same. What a good-looking guy. I can't wait. So Richard, you got to introduce yourself, tell us who you are, What are you doing? And it's so glad to have you today. You look beautiful. You look beautiful, I have to say, but you are a beautiful human being.

So, well, thank you so much. I'm so happy to be with you and your amazing audience. My name is Richard Blank. I'm the proud CEO of Costa Rica's Call Center. I'm a long shot from Northeast Philly that actually followed his dreams, got past parents' guilt, married the girl of my dreams, and here we are today. So it's a Great story of twists and turns.

Oh, you married a Costa Rican woman?

I did. I married a tropical girl. Uh-huh.

I'm jealous. Sorry, but they're so beautiful. Beautiful. I love that. So you're living your dream. So the call center. So you live in the dream in Costa Rica, but tell us about the call center.

Well, it's a dedicated center and it's bilingual and we work with sales and customer support and back office support and non-voice support. I believe today most people are frustrated with omnichannel non-voice where they fill out forms or do chats and emails. You and I might press zero. We want to speak with somebody to retain our account, upsell, maybe possibly get a referral. And at the end of the day, if they're dropping the ball, maybe we could tell them what to do and call the balls and the strikes so they can keep our business and not lose it. And so it's a very delicate relationship that you have to build a business, but There's so many amazing people out there that earn a living making and receiving phone calls. So hats off to those amazing warriors.

I know, you know what, my, my parents, when they started the business, they always said, you know, I don't work in the family business anymore, promotional products, but they always wanted the live person to answer the phone. That was always important, even at the point where people started changing and they would go into the voice. My parents were like, no, we have to have— it was Patty at the time at the front. That was so important. There is nothing more irritating than going through and trying to get a live person, and most companies you can't even get the live person. So that's what you offer, right? Is the, is the ability to have— is it outgoing or incoming? Like, is it both outgoing calls and incoming calls?

We do both, but I'll tell you 5 things we do not do. Especially since Hollywood glamorizes them. I don't work with sportsbooks, casinos, pharmacies, or sweepstakes.

Oh, I love it. I love it.

Yes, here, this is a strict Catholic country. I want people to go home and tell their mommy what they do for a living. But I also compete against Amazon, HP, Intel, and Oracle. So once again, I need leverage by offering them something stable they'll enjoy, build their character and self-reliance, and maybe play a game of pinball or two with me in the game room. That's the sort of working environment that I want to make for the people here.

Oh my God, I love you. Well, so I— if you don't mind me asking, I'm confused. Like, what do you mean with, um, Amazon? What is that? I don't, I don't understand that.

Well, Amazon has multiple locations here and they snatch up my agents constantly. Oh, but they do it in a good way. I mean, I think all is fair in love and war. Let's talk attrition at any sort of job, but, but for call centers, because it seems to a very large rotation, Adrian. So natural attrition— let's say your boyfriend or girlfriend works somewhere, you could go there. Maybe it's a better schedule for your university, could be closer to your home. But they'll never get the walk of shame. I'll never make them cry on the floor, try to use that ego that a lot of CEOs have to fire people to make themselves feel better. And it's a big investment, and it's a delicate stage. The average age is 24. And so you want to make sure that if anything, if nothing, you're paying it forward and you're balancing their bike a little bit more. So when they leave, they say nice things about you and you know that you did your job.

I love that. And so you're already challenged with 24-year-olds that don't even like the phone. So I hear them all the time saying, oh my God, I'll text more than I will ever pick up the phone and call. Or I get this a lot. I don't listen to my voicemail. So how are you getting them interested in— and actually, I know you do other things because you said so. I want to hear that. But actually using the phone and actually I think we have to go back a couple of steps. Can you explain what a call center is? Because maybe someone is not familiar with that terminology.

It's okay. It's call center or contact center. It's where individuals can receive a customer support call. They might be opening a new account or working with an existing account and trying to resolve issues for you. Sometimes they're clever and they can do an upsell, as I mentioned, or get a referral. The clients and the companies that do their due diligence have better relationships when they custom make voicemails and emails and updating information.

It's—

it just doesn't have to be so plastic and so distant and foreign and where they keep calling you ma'am and sir. You can have a beautiful relationship with somebody on the phone that can save the day. Especially like when I've called into AAA before, a lot of those individuals are trained to have extended empathy. Why? Because I got a flat tire and it's raining on me. Of course they want to make me feel a little bit better and that the people are on the way to assist me. These are trained experts. Now, you asked a good question, I'll give you an amazing answer. There's nothing better than a home-cooked meal or a painting or live theater. I believe that when people are speaking with one another, it's a real dance of speech. There can be beautiful turn-taking. Someone can lead. You can readjust tones. You can be diplomatic and strategic, choose certain vocabulary to not offend. I'll, I'll never say, Adrian, how may I help you? I'd never do that. I'd say, my friend, how may I assist you, possibly guide you, or even lend a hand because you're my favorite. And you fall on certain swords, you say, for my clarification. Compared to asking someone, excuse me, or I can't hear you because of a dog or bad cell connection. You, you adjust these things. There's certain ways to ask tie-down questions for checkpoints just to make sure things make sense and sound good. Is it a manipulation? Yes, but I didn't say that I was lying or cheating. All I was doing was ensuring that we have checkpoints, that we're on the same page. That everyone's leaving with something on the table, and that at the end of a 10-minute conversation, which in my opinion is 20 30-second small conversations, don't be surprised if you're building pipelines and having long-term clients. So I did it the old-fashioned way, the way that our grandparents taught us, just to do things old school, and it seemed to have worked.

Oh my God, you know what I feel like? I feel like if I was a cartoon character, I would have hearts going out of my eyes because I'm falling in love with you. Like, there's something about you, your voice and how you're talking and oh my gosh. So what we're all dealing with right now, one of the worst is this lead generation, people calling up and it's very hard to understand them and trying to sell you something, talking really fast, not explaining anything. And I'm so nice, I try to help like, How can I help you even though you're bothering me during the day?

Yeah.

So do you— is that something too that people could use your company for lead generation or—

Of course they can. And those that are even making those calls, they should be prepared from the client. I can't just snap my fingers with magic dust and create a script and a calling list. And here's the thing. If you're marketable and you have options, you should never go on a forced march. You know, as I mentioned, Hollywood glamorizes the stocks and the real estate sales and RECOs and cold call closings. And sure, it's a beautiful thing when it can happen in a certain way, but some people do compromise ethics or they feel they're forced into something because that's what's expected of them. But look at it like this, how you and I touched base prior to this live podcast today. I gravitated towards your work. You seem so nice and non-threatening that I reached out to you. You in turn wrote back. We had to organize the schedule a couple of times because it, it needed to fit. And we were very conscious of our schedules and priorities and just strangers all of a sudden became friends. And here we are now on your podcast. And so people need to see that it's not just a snap of fingers. Sometimes both people need to put in a little bit. And then you can start building. And that's a very nice thing. So you and I got a nice first down and we're going for a touchdown right now.

I just— oh my gosh. Okay. So what do you do when people actually say things that are like— I'll hear sometimes. So first of all, I noticed that when they call and I've always wanted to say this, so can you make this happen, please? A telemarketer calls. I don't know if that's a new word or that's an old word. Telemarketer calls and you answer the phone and they're so excited that you answer phone that they spit everything out and they throw it out and they forget to ask the question, do you have a minute to speak, or do you have any time, or is now a good time? And the reason why I say that is because I always feel like someone's behind them saying, don't ask that question because they'll say no. But yeah, I answer the phone because I have 4 children in different locations, and if there's an emergency, I want to know. So I'm answering the phone and then it's all being spit out to me so fast, I'm like, wait a second, I'd actually listen to you if you asked me that one question, is now a good time? So how do you respond to that?

What an amazing image. I can picture the supervisor with bad coffee breath named Billy screaming at you to read the script so Adrian doesn't hang up on you. Imagine the pressure that's going through. I mentioned 20, 30-second calls for 10 minutes. No one's giving you 5 minutes with you. No one's even giving you a minute. They need to earn that first 30 seconds. They should possibly try to anchor with you. Let's use, let's use real estate for an example. When people were making FSBO or cancels and expired calls, I, I told them to do the address spike. Or if I was calling your podcast, I'd go, Adrian Barker Speaks, how are you today? I start off strong. I start off with a company or a name spike. Why? I'm using anonymity. It could snap you, my friend, out of that trance of all those telemarketers. And then just in that 3 seconds— I'm not anonymous the whole call, that's shady— but for that 3 seconds, I gave you something you were familiar with. I said it better than you did. And then I get a chance to gauge a positive or a negative reaction. Instead of, as you said, do you have a minute? This is a sales call. You'd say, I'm busy, I'm not interested. Stop selling me. We're good, thanks. Hang up. But if I said, Adrian Barker speaks, how are you today? You'd probably say, who's this? Gotcha. So your defense goes from a 10 to a 2, and I'll take that 8 and move it into a forward motion. So guess who wins the first round? Chuck Wepner versus Ali. I did. Why? I anchored. Why? You didn't hang up on me. All I know is that I slowed you down, calmed you down, got you out of the trance, said something you were familiar with, the name spike. And then you'll say, who is this? That's when we use a buffer boomerang technique. Adrian, that's an excellent question. My name is Richard Blank. Name drop buffer. Let them know it's an excellent question. Repeat the question so you don't have to repeat it. I got you. And then I'll send it back to you positive. It's readjusting tones. I'm not going to tell you my company yet. You're gonna have to ask me another question. What's the name of your company? Once again, what a beautiful tone you have. We're at a 2 now, or a 3. We're not at a 10, a D. So it's nice motions. And now we're, what, a minute and a half in? Obviously, I got your past to pitch. Let's say your son answered the phone. I'm going to let you know how charming and nice and a gentleman your son was. Give that positive escalation verbally. Might even do it in writing. So when I happen to call your company or house back, there's the Richard happy circle. The kids answer the phone, goes, 'Yeah, you told my mom I was nice on the phone.' I go, 'Of course I did. It's just happy, happy. So Billy, your supervisor's got to stop yelling at you. Tell him to calm down. Leave me alone, man. Look at my numbers on the wall. They're good. Stop pressing me. I'm speaking to a friend on the phone.' And so if people can just make those sort of phone calls, their metrics might move a little bit. They'll talk longer, less calls and won't be like the pack. They'll be doing their own Jonathan Livingston Seagull circles and flips. Let them be creative on the phone. It's a lost art. So I think that more people could have that spark.

It's a— it really is. It's— to me, it's a serious problem because these robocalls, and you know, they call up and you could say anything. They— it's, it's, it's Do they really believe that we don't realize that it's a computer on the other end? So stop trying to fake it. Get a real live person to call and your business will soar. And it's crazy how these companies are hiring people that don't know how to answer. Or, or I also, another thing, Richard, I ask people, do you ever call your own company? So how many times have I called the company and I apologize for waking them up? Oh, hello. Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry, were you sleeping? I feel like I just woke you up. Like, because they're so dead. Hello? To me, this is your first impression, is the phone call. So if you're not doing it right, you really could lose the business. But I do have— so my parents, growing up in a family business, we were taught not to ask the question. So if you are calling up a company, so I'm calling your business up, Richard, and I say, is Richard available? And they say to me, may I ask who's calling? And so I say, who's calling? And then they come back and they say, no, Richard's not in a meeting. I think that Richard doesn't want to talk to me because you got my number and my name. You're asking Richard. Richard probably told you no. This is what's going on in my mind. So we were taught never really ask that question, may I ask who's calling, so that you can come back and say, you know what, oh, Adrian's not— Adrian's out of the office. I didn't realize that. And it sounds real. Not like, do you know what I'm saying? Am I making myself clear?

Of course I do.

Yeah.

But as I say before, this person has been trained for the average burger. There's nothing special about it. You, my friend, are gourmet. You don't need to angle in or ask this. As I say before, you should have earned the pass to pitch. My suggestion, depending on the size of your list, do 2 minutes of due diligence. Look at a LinkedIn profile, look at a website. Maybe you get lucky, they just celebrated their 15th year in business. Then you could say, hey, just wanted to say congratulations on the 15-year anniversary. Or maybe there's a chance when you see the directory whom will be answering that call. So then you could say hi to Kathy. Nice, Kathy. And so you're asking me, how do I increase my metrics? And when someone's busy and I'm asking to speak with them, I do 3 or 4 marinated things prior to asking for time or commitments from people. I need people to lay down their swords, and they need to not judge me on what happened with others that didn't show that sort of respect to that company. And so when I leave a custom-made voicemail, make a custom-made email, or I try to anchor with this gatekeeper one, two, or three ways. If it's mystery shopping, if it's the due diligence, a callback, or just randomly throwing darts out there, you got it. You got to hit the sizzle in the beginning of something they can relate with. It's not— you— they're just not gonna give that pass. These people kind of want you to be a little bit clever. And so when I smile over the phone by saying the name of the company better than they do, I'm teaching them to stand up a little straighter. You sound terrible when you're answering the phone. Please let you know, have some pizzazz. So it makes them chuckle for a second. I seem sweet. It's innocent. It's a lollipop sort of intro compared to a jagged edge angle. And does it work? It could work in some places. I tell you what, good point. If I'm calling in the Northeast, let's say Philadelphia, New York, Boston, that area. Yeah. Cut the fat. When you're in the Midwest, take your time. West Coast, got to be kind of, you know, cool about it too. I mean, it's— that's why when I do teach my classes, I have to talk about genres. We just don't say the beach, we say we go to the shore, you know. So people have to learn these things. And so the more that you teach the North American culture, the more they can make those adjustments so they don't sound foreign to you if they're making these calls. But Listen, people are paid to hang up and filter. And if you're gonna have romantic deaths, at least say a company name spike, a positive escalation, two buffer boomerang techniques. And if you can jump clouds that way, you can get through an 8-hour day of making phone calls. Because I'm not judging you on 5 10-minute calls where 2 of them closed. I'm judging you on 135 30-second perfect pitches. Perfect pitches. That's an artist. And I'm willing to play that game.

I can listen to you talk all day. There is— I don't know how I went 61 years without meeting Richard Blank. Listen, everyone, listen, this is serious. Richard, if you're— when you're doing coaching calls, what— like, I want to know every course you're taking or you're delivering. So I, I am fascinated by you. I just think you are so important to all of us. This makes a big difference in business. You know what? This is a big difference. My parents always taught me never to say I'm busy. So I don't, I would never say that, but I love like everything coming out of your mouth. Okay. One last question. Cause unfortunately I do have back-to-backs cause I messed up. But my question is, what do you do when you hire someone and you find that they have this like habit of saying, of course, of course. Cause of course to me never sounds great. It's like telling me, if I say to you, Richard, your jacket and your suit, you look so handsome today. I love everything. It looks so great. And you tell me, of course. Am I wrong in thinking that of course almost is an insult to me? Like I should have known that. So could you explain the terminology?

Answer, I give it a C minus. What I would do is make him listen to the Mr. Ed song. Was it a horse is a horse, of course, of course? He started whipping me with the of course. I'm like, yeah, Mr. Ed. Nice. And then he'd realize, maybe I might need to think of something a little sharper. And so yeah, watch some Remington Steele or something. Maybe learn some skills from some good speakers and dressers. But listen, it's just somebody that might need to look into the thesaurus. So if there's certain words that they like, and they're just beating to death, they might be able to expand their vocabulary or just find something that fits their personality. And so there's nothing wrong, as I mentioned before, with just studying that colorful language that we have. So we're just not dull and boring. You really should put more adjectives and descriptions in your speech so people can get their attention. So we're face to face and this is great. So imagine if I lose 3 of my senses, my taste, touch, and smell, I really got to double up on the hearing and visually just give you so much imagination and storytelling to keep your attention. So yes, my friend, this is something I've been doing for almost 3 decades, so I should be good on your show and be able to bite an apple when juggling.

Oh my God, you are so lovely. I mean, I want to watch you live too. I want— I, I— you, you don't— you have a crazy super fan here in Daytona Beach. I am literally going to follow you everywhere. I'm going to recommend you if you have a podcast. Make sure you interview Richard. He's on Matchmaker.fm. I think you are incredible. You've got everything. You got the voice, the tone, the looks, the beautiful wife, the great business, the life in Costa Rica, the tan going on. You're a really great dresser. I'm in love. I'm in love. I'm not— I'm— this is—

I—

there's something about you. There's something about you. All right, I hate that I have to go. Richard, you and I are staying in touch. You are incredible. Mwah! Thank you. I, I don't even know how to tell you. My heart's not beating.

Love. Take care.

Bye. Thank you.

Oh.