The Insurance Agent Referral Sales Channel with Matt Danskin

A Contractor Radio episode where Jim Johnson interviews Matt Danskin (founder of Restoration Referral System) about creating a focused sales channel through insurance-agent referrals for roofing/restoration contractors. Key points: sales channels differ from casual networking—sales channels are focused systems built around a partner type; insurance-agent referrals provide warm introductions and higher-quality leads when you target preferred carriers; practical steps include asking homeowners who their agent is and their opinion of them, pursuing agents for carriers you want to work with, securing appointments focused on mutual customers, and offering referral value (delivering referrals) rather than cash incentives. Fit criteria: contractors must do ethical, quality work and ideally already have one agent referral to replicate. Contact: restorationreferralsystem.com; host CTA: contractorcoachpro.com free assessment.
Questions this video answers
November 4, 2020
Jim Johnson (host, Contractor Coach Pro) and Matt Danskin (founder, Restoration Referral System)
restorationreferralsystem.com
About two to three years ("only about three years, two and a half years")
contractorcoachpro.com (free assessment / strategy call)
Chapters
Hey, everybody, it's Jim Johnson here, the head coach at Contractor Coach Pro and your host on Contractor Radio. And we have another great episode for you this week. And we're going to be talking about sales channels. And we want to start off this week a little bit with some tips about the difference between what networking is and what a sales channel is. And a lot of us in this industry join up in some type of networking group. Group, whether that be a B and I group or something that you may have local there. And that's a wide variety of people with special talents. They could be real estate brokers, insurance agents, CPAs, all kinds of different people. And we exchange lead opportunities, prospects because we're in this network together. And what we're going to be talking about today is a sales channel, which is a bit different. It's a quite a bit more focused. You pull out a group that you want to go after. Today we're going to be talking about insurance agents, which is one of my favorites for the insurance restoration world. But really, each one of those folks could be a sales channel. And what you do is you build a system around that particular group or entity that provides value. And so we got to ask ourselves a few questions. We're going to ask ourselves, what are they dealing with? What's some of their problems that they may have with their business? And could I provide value that way? Way. What about them getting customers? Could I provide value that way? And once we start to identify what their problems are, we can build a little system around it where we add more value than just being their roofer. You walk into an insurance agent or real estate broker and just tell them, hey, I'm a roofer, I'm a really good guy, and you should have me do your work. That doesn't get you very far because it sounds like everybody else out there, but if you can add value to them, you. You can help them get more customers, help them close more deals, retain more customers, those type of things. You start to add some value. So that's your tip of the week. Start thinking about your various sales channels. And the best place to start is who do you know? You guys that are new in this industry, a lot of you are in this situation, knocking doors. You need to look at each one of those folks that you meet as a possible new person in your network or possibly even a sales channel. But you should also make a list of everybody you know, every single person that you know. And then who do they know? And because of that type of thing, you may know a CPA or you may know an insurance agent, you might know a landscaper. They all have customers and hopefully those customers could be your customers if you introduce them to what it is that you do. So that's kind of the difference between networking and sales channels. And we're going to talk intense about one particular sales channel today and one that is near and dear to my heart. We have coached and taught on it for, for years, 20 plus years on this. But we've got the master of it with the insurance agent Referral System and it's Restoration Referral System, as I believe the name. If I get that right, I always mess it up. But we have the master of that. He is the owner and creator of Restoration Referral System. And we've got Matthew Damson on board with us today. Matthew, welcome aboard the Contractor Radio. How you doing, sir?
Hey, Jim, I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on.
No problem at all. You know, we've gotten to know each other here over the past couple years or so since you kind of put this thing out and even more here recently, I think you joined the Catalyst Group. And so we're getting pretty connected. And I got the opportunity to talk to you at roofcon for a little while. I'm like, yeah, man, I know that thing. And you had some really good insight on it and hopefully you'll share some of that today a little bit better at what they do.
Yeah, I appreciate that.
But before we do that, tell us a little bit of your background. Like, did you, were you always in roofing? Did you do something before that and then kind of how you got into roofing and into this?
Yeah, so I, I kind of grew up building houses with my dad in the trades before this show. You know, about the fact that, uh, I was out pouring some footers, uh, just today with my dad. Kind of a throwback to, to my origins. But I went back into the, the building industry several years ago now, selling new builds, remodels, additions, pop tops, dig outs, kind of a whole lot of different things. And that's where I discovered roofing. I discovered that we could, you know, sell a $15,000 roof for $1,000 from the customer. I discovered that the projects last a day or two instead of three or four months. And I was instantly in love. And so fortunately, I was able to spend a couple of years really learning the roofing industry before I had to depend on it solely for my income, which I'm very thankful for. So that, that's kind of my background. What Got me into. Into the roofing industry here.
Okay, so got into it. And how long were you in the roofing industry before the whole insurance restoration referral system stuff started happening for you?
Only about three years, two and a half years is all that I was doing just roofing before coming up with restoration referral system. And, you know, for me, it was something that when I started in roofing, you know, I kind of went from one employer to. To the next when I started. And. And I really had to. I had to make some hay quickly. And so I was out hustling, doing everything I could, knocking doors, buying leads, you know, beg, borrow and steal, doing BNI groups, whatever I could to. To try to get some. Some business. And, and that's really where I discovered that those referrals I was getting from one agent were. Were far and away the most efficient income that I was making. And that. That's really where that. What started me off on my journey to. To figure this. This kind of area of the business out.
All right, cool. We're gonna. We're gonna talk about restoration referral system here in just a minute. Before we get there, we always ask a few questions as we go throughout this. We think they're helpful to understand the person behind the mic there behind the camera. And to this point in your time on this planet, what's been your greatest achievement that isn't your family or kids or any of that kind of stuff. That's the easy win. We know that's what we're supposed to say. Our wives will kill us if we don't.
Yeah, sure.
Let's challenge you a little bit more than that. What's the greatest achievement today?
You know, I. I would have to say not to like, make this all about my business, but I think starting a business and. And right now I'm just. Just past my first year in business, starting a business and growing that business and all the things that I've learned through doing this, I would say is kind of the biggest single achievement that I. That I've been able to do and just being able to provide a lot of value and do something that I love.
That's awesome. That is super cool stuff. Yeah. This idea of starting our own business and going into that, that first year is like this massive learning experience. At least that has always been my experience. Even if I've actually started business before, I'm on my eighth or ninth one at this point, and it's still like that first year is always big struggle because it's something new. It's something different. And so that's kind of cool. We might get into some questions about that here in just a minute. But why the insurance agent thing? Why did we go after that versus so many of the other opportunities that are out there for us to go after when it comes to marketing, Let.
Me count the ways. So number one, I would say is about the quality of, of leads with. If I go after an insurance agent to generate that business, I can, I can control which carriers I'm working with. And that right there, you know, no matter how good you are at supplementing or negotiating or taking things to PAs or appraisals or litigation or whatever, there's nothing that has a bigger impact on that claim than who that customer's carrier is. And so if I can control that one piece, that's huge. Beyond that, obviously coming in as the recommended expert as opposed to just, I'm the guy that they found on Google, maybe even. I have good reviews. I've got the, the cards stacked in my favor and I'm always, you know, I feel like I'm a pretty good salesperson, but I'm always looking for an advantage. How can I set up, set the table so that I've got every advantage going in? And those, those are the two probably biggest pieces of why I like going after insurance agent referrals over any other type of lead source or business development in the industry.
So that's awesome. Number one, this idea of having the card stacked in your favor. Right. Like, that's a, it's a big one for me. And you come from a position of authority whenever you're being referred by an agent, obviously this agent's probably done his homework a little bit. And as a policyholder, I'm going to trust my agent quite a bit. And while it's great having Google reviews and Facebook reviews and all the other stuff, when you start to combine those things on top of each other, right Then it really gets powerful. So let's talk a little bit about the system itself. So can you give us an idea of what that is and how it works and why is it such a good thing and everybody should do it?
Yeah, you know, certainly, you know, I think it's a great thing. I don't think that everyone should do it. You know, the beautiful thing about this industry is that there's a lot of ways to skin the cat. But I, I do think, as I know you're, you're kind of in the, the same train of thought is you do need to be thoughtful about what you're doing in business, you do need to look at, not just kind of randomly go out there and try to do everything and be everything to everyone. But I think that it's important that you, you make a decision on the type of business that you want to generate, the methods that are going to generate that type of business for, you know, and it, it's always a science experiment working that out in terms of restoration, referral system. It's really a process that we look at every step of, of that so that we can filter out to have exactly the type of business that we want. So we look from the very beginning at how we're accessing the agents. You know, we talked about this a little bit at Roofcon. I'm not a fan of going to Google and just randomly going, you know, approaching any old agent out there. I, I want a warm introduction. I do that through clients that we're already in front of. We do that in a very targeted approach. I don't even go after every agent of my clients. It's only the agents of the carriers that I want to work with that have customers that are happy. And once we do that, we've got very specific conversations that we have to get an appointment with them. That's another huge hurdle. Getting past the gatekeepers, getting their time where we've got some dedicated time to present to them what we offer. And then as you were, you're starting the show, kind of alluding to we have to have something to offer that the 10 other roofers that went in their door before us can't do. And being a plus ready on the desert business bureau ain't gonna do it. You know, being preferred with your shingle manufacturer isn't gonna do it. The really, the number one thing that we can do is be able to offer them referrals. I made a video, you know, a few weeks ago, kind of making fun of people that give out a hundred dollar Visa gift card to agents for a referral. And you know, if you look at that in the reverse, if you were referring homeowners policies to an agent left and right and he has people calling about roofs and he's not giving out your name, instead he gives you a hundred dollar Visa gift card. How is that going to feel? You'd probably want to fight the guy.
Yeah, that's super insightful. Number one, like we look at this whole hundred dollars or maybe 250 for this referral thing. As I see it common in our industry, whether it's with an insurance agent or another Homeowner, any of that kind of stuff. And while, yeah, it's cash, it's money, a lot of times you have to wait for it, which I found that the more instant gratification tends to work a little better. You can actually get them less and get more out of it. But you said a few things there I kind of want to talk about a little bit, if that's okay.
Yeah, yeah.
You said you had some steps that you follow, and I noticed that one of them was that you really concentrate with that homeowner you already have and who their agent is. Is there something to that approach? Like, for example, if I was to ask somebody and they said my agent's Allstate, well, I might not want to like, pursue that. Is that some of the stuff that you see? How does that go for you?
Yeah, for sure. So obviously we're going, going at this through the, the customers that we're already in front of because we've got a, a warm introduction, we've got something to talk about. And, and I am very exclusive in how we want to do this because you can be very effective here and, and there's only so much of you to go around. I know a lot of people have a, a limited mindset on this, of I need to go after every agent on the planet because I'm only going to get 10% of them that I go after. But if you can be very effective at that, you can be more selective and say, hey, your agents with, you know, your agents with Allstate, I don't want, I don't want those problems. You know, you're not going to say that to the customer. There's no, you know, there's no benefit there. I don't believe. But I'm not going to pursue that agent. I'm going to pursue those agents of carriers that I want to work with that are going to pay claims quickly and profitably so that I can be efficient about what I'd want to do. Ultimately, that's what it boils down to, is I want to make the most amount of money with the least amount of effort. Right. And we can provide really great service and really great quality as we do that. But everything suffers that quality and service that you can provide suffers if you're tied up in a mud wrestling match with an Allstate adjuster.
Yeah. So that's super key. So you don't work with every insurance. And so you're looking for probably particular carriers. Are you even getting as financed like particular agents because of who they are. And it sounds like this person that I'm sitting in front of that's got Allstate might be somebody that I could send as a referral. Do you approach it?
Yeah, exactly. So I'll. We talked about this at Roofcon a little bit. And. And so we. We ask every homeowner, number one, who's your agent? Number two, what do you think of them? And so if they don't like their agent, they don't know their agent, or maybe they just have a terrible carrier. Now, that person is somebody that I can refer to an agent who is referring me business. And if you. If you do nothing else, if you don't buy my program, you don't buy Jim's program. And you want to go after. After this, if you can find referrals and deliver on those to the agents that you want to get business from, you're going to be out ahead of the crowd, I would say ahead of 90 of the people out there. That is what they are looking for. There's a lot of other great things that you can do for agents, but that is the one silver bullet that if you can. If you can fire that silver bullet, you can defeat every other roofer that's going in and dropping off donuts to your agent there. You know, I was saying the other day, there's nothing sweeter than another contractor's donut that you're sharing with an agent as they're. They're giving you another referral.
That's super funny. So you posted something the other day, and I thought it was interesting because I thought the answers were to be honest, not truthful. Okay, your answers were fine. But you posted this thing that said how many of you, when you're sitting with your clients, ask them who. Who their insurance agent is? Oh, yeah, and the vast majority said they did, right? No, they don't. They might ask them who their insurance company is. I could see maybe some. Some confusion there. Like they're asking who their insurance company is. So they think that's the same thing. It's a completely different. That's focused on carrier. This is focused on, hey, maybe I could get a referral partner.
Yeah. This is something that you are in front of that customer, that value right there. And really what you're doing is you're able to tap into that value. There's value if there's an agent that you can pursue. There's value if there's a customer that you can refer to another agent. And if you are not asking those questions, you're you're stepping over, you know, the phrase I use in my training is you're stepping over a paper bag with $10,000 in cash in it. Every time you don't ask those questions. And so pick up the bag, ask those couple of questions, get that value and you're either going to be able to cash in on that value or you can trade it, you can do a value exchange with that insurance agent. And, and you know, you need to be able to present that to them. And a lot of, a lot of nuances to, to how that's done, but those are some of the, the critical features.
So you mentioned how it gets you past the gatekeeper because you got it in now you got a policyholder saying, hey, talk to my roofing guy, because my roofing guy is great. So you get past that gatekeeper that way. What happens in that conversation with that agent, is that something that is like the secret sauce, you can't tell anybody or is that something that you're willing to talk about a little bit?
There's some of it that's secret sauce. I won't give you the script there. There's a lot of people that paid good money to, to dominate that. And, and I know there's tens of thousands of people that watch this podcast. So I won't give you the whole thing, but I'll give you some of the, the key points here. Number one, you've got a mutual customer, you've got shared interest there. But I would say beyond that, don't try to sell yourself over the phone. Get an appointment with them. Sell yourself on that appointment to talk about that customer. Don't, don't, you know, resist the urge to, to tell them, hey, did you know that we're the best roofer in town and you need to send us business and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's not going to work. You are dead in the water. Even if you get that appointment, they are not going to listen to the thing you say. It needs to be about that mutual customer. And you need to be, the only thing you need to be selling on that phone call is an appointment with that agent to talk about that mutual customer.
So these, I finally got my camera fixed. I don't know if you noticed I was dealing with that. It was a little fuzzy and finally it's taking me a little bit of effort. Sorry about that everybody. But you know, this is, all of this, this whole business comes down to like this relationship building aspect of things. Things. And so you've worked with Insurance agents for quite a few years, it seems like to me, at least. While you were doing the roofing thing. I don't. Do you still do the roofing thing, just out of curiosity?
I do a little tiny bit. I stay pretty busy with the consulting though.
I would say you've probably built some relationships. You're like, well, it's almost like free money. I can't not keep doing that. Right? Yeah.
So I, I just moved. So I have a bunch of relationships back in Denver that I kind of handed off to, to friends and clients and that sort of thing. And then I've got some relationships here in Nashville. And so like I said, like you said, it's kind of free money. It's a lay down deal. It's, you know, handed to you on a silver platter. And so I, I still do a little bit. I don't have, you know, I don't have the time to focus on it too much. So a lot of it just comes down to I can go, you know, I, I know, I know this process backward and forward and so I can go generate a relationship that's going to produce and then I can hand that off to somebody else.
That's what seems super cool about it. Like you're not pursuing any new ones for you. You're, you're coaching people, you're training people, you're consulting with people and getting them up and running with that. And that's. This is how you make money now, right?
Yeah. I mean, ultimately there, there's only so much that I can do, so much that you can spread me around, but if I can replicate myself through training other individuals. We've got hundreds of people around the country now going out and establishing these relationships with agents in an effective way.
You, you hit on something earlier. That was a really key point. I don't want people to miss it.
Okay.
This isn't for everybody. The thing I've learned, we lost your camera for some reason. The thing, the thing that I've learned over all these years, been doing this for 22, 23 years now, is that certain things fit certain people. They're comfortable with it. It's the way that they like. Some, some guys just absolutely love door knocking. I enjoy it. It's a blast to them. Others are like, hey, I like to send letters out and other guys are like direct mail and other folks are Facebook. And there's all these different ways. What's one of the things that's like an indicator to you that whenever you're talking to somebody this is the right fit for them. How do you kind of ascertain that? Because I would assume you may talk to some people that think it's a great idea, but it ends up not being a good fit.
Yeah, sure. You know, so there's a few things that I look for. You know, some of them may seem obvious, but number one is that they have integrity. This does not work if you are doing bad business. If you are filing claims when there's no damage, this will not work. You know, the second is that they're doing quality work. And again, this, like this stuff should go, should be assumed. But you can't, you can't assume if you're not doing good work. Your, your results are going to be very anemic, you're going to be battling uphill. But I would say for me, the, one of the biggest indicators that I found is people that already have an agent or two that refer them business and it may be somebody that was a friend or family member or, you know, or they just happen to do a roof for them and, or one of their customers and they found this relationship and they've got one relationship that they can take care of and that they can and you know, continue to, to service. That's a huge indication for me that, that that person is competent to take care of insurance agents. And now we just need to go out and replicate those relationships. So instead of one or two agents, you've got 20 or 30 agents that are sending you.
Yeah, it sounds like they almost understand the value of it. If they've got one or two, they understand the value and so they're kind of bought into it. Where if they've never done it before and never dealt with an insurance agent before, you're kind of having to get some belief before they can actually have some success. Yeah, so that's, that's good. Like I think that's something that you should consider whenever you're looking at anything that you're going to do. We had a wide gamut of things. We had all kinds of stuff that our sales guys could do. They could knock doors, they could go after insurance agents. We had all kinds of different marketing programs. We actually had. I mean, I don't know if you know, but you ever fill out one of those things to win like a free six month membership to a health club, like the box at like the doctor's office.
Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I don't fill those things out.
Yeah, smart guy. But people do like crazy.
Yeah.
We actually had Those we had, we called them lead boxes. And if somebody wanted to pursue that, we would help them set up their system. There's all kinds of different systems and ways to get new customers and determining the fit for you. Like, are you professional enough? Can you carry yourself well enough? Are you confident enough sitting at the desk of an insurance agent? Some people are intimidated by that for some reason. But guess what, you. He's really not anything more or different than you. He's a sales guy. He's really what he comes down to. So it should be something you'd be pretty comfortable with. And so we're not bringing donuts, right? Or are we. Are we bringing donuts to that meeting?
I love donuts. I'll probably bring some. I really had fun with doing that at Roofcon. I'll probably bring some to the next conference I go to. But no, don't bring them to an insurance agent. That is the biggest waste of time. If that's all you've got to offer, then go knock doors or something.
I'm laughing because your donut thing at Roofcon was so good. Like, as soon as I saw him, I went the other direction. I'm like, I cannot even look at those. I'm gonna gain weight just looking at them. Yeah, one guy that had one with, like, I think snickers or something all over it.
Yeah. There was. It was ridiculous stuff on it.
That was brilliant. That was really good. That was kind of like this almost over the top.
Yeah. My job at guys that. And I was that guy. You know, as I. As I developed this program, I started doing the same things everybody else was doing. I was bringing in a box of donuts and a stack of business cards and telling them I'm A plus rated with the Better Business Bureau. And really, you know, I had a client the other day. They're like, you're a genius. How do you come up with all this stuff? And I was like, no, I came up with this because I'm stupid. I'm too stupid to take a no and just be defeated and go do something else. And I just kept working on the process and pulling pieces out and putting other pieces in until I had something that was surgical in its effectiveness. And so really, that's what I offer to contractors, is, hey, you can. You can skip the couple of year process of getting your teeth kicked in trying to figure this out and just skip to something that works.
Yeah, this whole coaching thing, consultants, these programs and stuff like that, if it's something that fits, you invest the money. Seriously, like spend the money, you're gonna learn it faster, you're gonna go through all the headaches that that person had to go through through two or three years to get it all figured out. You do it right away. And all you're doing from that point forward forward is improving upon something that was already really good. And I think a lot of folks just don't come on. Every single athlete, every single high level C level executive with large businesses, they've got coaches all over the place. Nutritionists, business coaches, finance coaches, physical nutrition coach, like you name it, they got them. Why in the world would we not like skip those steps to be the best we could possibly?
And I guess I will say that is another thing that for me looking at clients, when I first started this just over a year ago, I really thought, okay, I need people that don't have a coach or a trainer or that type of thing. And those people don't have anybody because they don't see the value. And usually they stay in the same level that they're at year in, year out versus it ends up. Most of my clients have other programs and coaches and trainers and stuff that they invest into. A lot of times a bunch of them and their, their businesses are exploding. But that, that's been something that was kind of interesting for me. But another marker that I look at, if somebody sees the value in investing into training and, and growing, then they'll, they'll do it over and over again because it works.
Yeah, my wife would be like, she'd argue with it. She's like, do you know how much money you've spent on coaches and mentors and stuff like that over the years? I'm like, yeah. She goes like, if we had that money, I said, well, we wouldn't have any of the money we have right now if it wasn't for those guys. So think about it that way. It's an investment. It really is an investment in your future and one of the better one. I know it seems self serving to say that kind of stuff, but I'm proof in the pudding. I've had tons of coaches in all aspects, whether it be life, spiritual health and fitness, business, finance, all those things. And I just think that it is a valuable thing and why I thought I would do it and why I interview other coaches like you and consultants, because I think you're valuable to our industry. So it sounds to me like that's what we have to figure out whenever we're talking to our agents. I have to figure out how are we Valuable to them. One of them is being a referral partner with them. But there's other ways to do it too. You know, doing special things for just their policyholders, helping them realize that. And you tell me if this is part of your program or not, because we do this. This idea of realizing that we're going to help you retain your policyholders longer. Like, that's a big thing for these guys. They want to make sure. Like they'd like to just sell as much as they can for three years and never work again. Just retain a bunch of people. We can show them how we can do that. That can add a lot of value to what we're doing. So those would be the things I would be telling people to think about. And if you want to skip all those steps of thinking and trying to put together a whole system, talk to Matt. But you can certainly do it on your own. This isn't rocket science.
Yeah. People were doing this long before I came along, or you came along, and they'll be doing it after. But yeah, that's. I think that's a good point. Is helping them not only get new customers, but keep the customers that they have, keep those customers happy. And, you know, and you do that through providing them with transparency into what you're doing with their customers, you know, and having that bond where they know if they refer you something that's going to be taken care of properly and ethically. And.
Yeah, so I think we've. We've kind of covered what. What you guys do and how you do it and the importance of it and all that. So I got a couple more questions to ask you, and we'll. Sure. We'll cut you loose for the day unless you get questions for me. So first question, what's the most valuable thing that you've ever learned from a mentor or coach consultant somebody looked up to? What's the most valuable thing that you. If you think if you shared it, it would be valuable to people listening. Today.
I will go back quite a while, and I was actually in the car business years ago, about 10, 12 years ago, and I had a boss. I was handling what they call the wheels. When they sell a car and it needs a new oil change or a set of tires or whatever, they hand that information to me. I make sure that it happens. It was a terrible job. It was the worst thing I've ever done in my entire life. And I've poured footers, I poured concrete. It was a terrible job. But what was happening was the. Basically the information wasn't getting to me. It was passing me. The things weren't getting done and customers got upset. It got to him, and I had an excuse, was, hey, they didn't give me the little slip of paper with the we O for me to know what I needed to do. And he said, hold on. You designed this process, right? The little slips of paper do not.
Allow.
Someone else to dictate whether or not you are successful. And I don't mean that to say you have to be an island. You have to do everything yourself, but you need to set up accountability. You need to set up processes so that if someone else drops the ball, that doesn't mean that you drop the ball. There needs to be redundancies. There needs to be. You need to think through every scenario or, you know, kind of develop an SOP that takes care of every scenario so that your objective is completed, that you're able to do what you need to do. And that's something that has just followed me for years in everything that I do, that I don't want to ever be able to let down my customers, let down those people that I'm ultimately in construction. What you sell as promises, not let those things down because of the process.
Yeah, we have a really good podcast about that particular thing. I don't know if you've heard it or not, but it's. Nathan actually did it. It's called the hero sales culture, and it's really good. You guys, if you haven't heard that one, go find it on contractor radio, Play it for all your sales guys, because it'll change the mentality of that particular thing, of people dictating your success for you. That's fantastic. That's really good, man. I like that one. So, last question.
Okay.
This one I didn't give you any warning about. So first off, you said, like, 10 or 12 years ago, like, you only look like you're 25, and what are you, 15? You got that young baby face going, so. But at some point, we all only have so much time on this planet, right? Like, we're all gonna go at some point. What's the. What do you want people to think about here? What kind of legacy do you want to have? People remember about Matt dancing?
I would say more than anything, I. I want people to know that. That I serve them. That's something that, you know, we've talked a lot about personally, just in my faith, that is. And it's a struggle for me sometimes, you know, I probably. Pride is probably the biggest thing that I deal with, but just that I can generously give of my time, my resources to those around me, I think is the, the biggest thing that, that I feel called to do.
That's awesome. Yeah, this idea of serving that aligns with me quite. I think that's why we get along so well, because that's like job number one. I'll tell you how to get rid of that pride, real thing, real easy. Get your wife involved. She'll knock it down all day long. She'll be like, hey, you're not all that important.
So that's, that's why, that's why I married her is because she does, she does that well.
Matt, awesome job today. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for sharing a little bit about what you do. I think you shared quite a few golden nuggets for folks that, you know, if they want to attempt it, go for it and that type of. If somebody wanted to get a hold of you and talk with you, how do they find Restoration Referral Systems? Sure.
So they can go to my website, restoration referralsystem.com they can schedule a call with me or a zoom call there. They can find me on social media through my personal page, Matt Danskin, or through my business page, Restoration Referral System. We, we keep good tabs on all that stuff. So feel free to reach out to me whether you want to sign up for the program or not. I'm happy to talk to people, happy to, you know, kind of give you what I think is going to be good advice.
Awesome job, Matt. Thanks for being on board. You guys check them out. I think those, those zoom calls to talk about it are free, imagine. So go learn a little bit.
I'll charge it to your card. So, yeah, those calls are free. So. And like I said, I want to be a servant to people and that's really worked out well for my business. If I just give to people, the right people align with me and they pay for my service and, you know, I think they're pretty happy with it. But I appreciate you having me on the show and giving me the opportunity to talk to your, your sphere of influence here and, you know, appreciate your, your relationship we've got here in the industry.
It's an honor, man. It's an honor and I, I look forward to seeing a lot more from you as the future goes on here. You've got a, you've got a tiger by the tail you don't even know of yet. So maybe we can, we could talk about that more in the future. Thanks for being on Board, we will see you in the the future and I'm sure we'll have you back.
All right, bye.
All right, everybody. So that was Matt Danskin, the owner and founder of Restoration Referral System. And what we were really talking about today was this concept of sales channels. And I want you to focus on that. And this idea of like, yes, that was all about insurance agents, but what else is out there available to you? Could you do something similar with real estate agents or CPAs or plumbers, landscapers? There's all kinds of other people that have customers that own houses. And could you build a program around that to take your business a little bit further? So some of the takeaways from that from today, I want to make sure that you guys get this before you leave. Number one, the channel you choose, make sure it's one that fits you. Make sure it's something that you're going to align with whoever those folks are. For example, like if you're thinking you want to invest in real estate and things like that, maybe real estate brokers are the right people for you. If you're thinking about stock investing in stocks, maybe aligning with a stock advisor, financial planners and those type of folks because you'll have more in common. Don't forget about the things that are out there for you too. While you chase these channels and chase these marketing concepts that are out there, there you want to make sure that you keep your business flowing. And if that involves door knocking, go door knock. If that involves sending out letters or Facebook or whatever it is the way you're currently getting business, don't drop the ball and go after that. The other thing is be very focused, don't be abroad and try to do everything all at once. Get one down, get it perfected and then take on the next one. If you want to go after another sales channel, the other takeaway is don't be close minded on how there's so many different ways to get business in what we do. Whether you're a retail contractor or insurance restoration contractors. It's interesting to me as I think all of us here, I think it's between the years of the mindset of what we're going to use to go out and get business. Some of us get very focused on this door knocking thing and we think that's the only thing we can do when there are other things out there that might fit some of our salespeople or business developed people a little bit better. So take the blinders off, listen to what's out there, find the thing that aligns with you and go after it with passion in a way that it brings an added value to your business that you didn't have before. Thanks for joining us on Contractor Radio today. We will be back with you next week. We've got a new guest lined up for you next week and this guy is one of the most intelligent folks that I've had the honor to meet. I cannot wait to do this podcast with him next week. You won't want to miss it. We're going to be talking with Zach Kerr from Sales Rabbit. Talk about a guy that I would actually put that genius level to. He's one of those guys and it's always an honor to speak with him. It's an honor to be on here with you guys to share a little time with you. Thanks for listening and make sure you subscribe download to our podcast so you don't miss any of our future episodes because they're all focused on one thing. To serve you and help you do it better so you can get control of your business, grow your business and in the end, find that freedom to chase the passions that you're after. That's what this is all about. That's why we exist. And we'll see you on the next episode of Contractor Radio. I'm Jim Johnson. If you need to find out more about us and how we help contractors get control, grow and find freedom, you can check us out@contractorcoachpro.com click on the free assessment. Take our little assessment there and we'll do a free strategy call with you. Strategy call that will help you with your business that day. No high pressure sales pitches or anything like that. It's either right for you or it's not. And we're here to help, so we'll see in the future.










