Greg Voisen
Welcome back to Inside personal growth. This is Greg voisen, the host of inside personal growth. And joining me from Florida is Richard weylman, and we're going to be speaking about a new book that he's got out 100 proven ways to acquire and keep clients for life. And this is a gentleman that certainly can speak about this, to this and cover the topic very well. For my listeners, Richard, go to Richard weylman, and that's spelled W, E, y, L, M, a n.com, there you can click on his resources. He's got videos, his books. This is not his only book. The services, his speaking engagement. And Richard, it's a pleasure having you on how are you doing today? From

Richard Weylman
I'm doing fine, Greg, thanks so much for the privilege of being on this great broadcast to this wonderful group of people. Thank you so much.

Greg Voisen
Well, we thank you, because every time I do one of these interviews, somebody out there learns something, and then I learn something. So if we can take one thing away from this interview, and I hope that my listeners take out more than one thing in our next 40 minutes, but I'm gonna let them know a little bit about you. You guys can learn about him at the website. Richard is a highly sought after keynote speaker, author and Business Growth consultant. He possesses the unique ability to see things from the client's perspective and interpret their needs, putting audience members, regardless of the industry or role, on a proven path for permanent business growth and success. He was inducted into the professional speakers Hall of Fame. Associations and fortune. 500 companies globally engaged Richard to speak at their conferences, and he sought out all over the world to speak. In addition to his induction and professional speakers. Hall of Fame. He's earned a place in customer service, customer experience, CX Hall of Fame. He's received many awards and accolades for being a two time recipient and the keynote presentation specialist of the year. All around he is a very, very sawed off speaker, both of his previous books closed, open and closed doors, key to reaching hard to reach people, and the power of why breaking out in a competitive workplace are international bestsellers. I think one of the noted things is, is that if you go to his website and you click about him, he grew up as an orphan. He was really not brought up in very in much wealth. And like many people who succeed and come to that fact, he's actually, I think, probably exceeded all of his expectations of when he was six years old. Would that be true? That's

Richard Weylman
a fair statement. Greg, thank you so much for for that. And yeah, it's yeah, I lived in 19 foster homes. Went to 11 different schools. So it was great training, because my first sales job was selling cookware door to door, and a guy said, Now the disadvantage of this job is, I want you to be aware of this. You're going to spend a lot of time in strangers houses. I'm like, What's the big deal? I've been living with it my whole life. So it just never dawned on me, you're supposed to have call reluctance or some concerns about this. So anyhow,

Greg Voisen
that's that's really awesome. You know, I have a similar kind of background, maybe not the same. I wasn't an orphanage, but I was a fuller brush salesman. For years, I also was the top salespeople person for Boy Scouts of America, selling Christmas cards every year. I always wanted to win the guitar. I never won the guitar, but I did that year in and year out, banging on doors, banging on doors for fuller brush I remember so many people saying to me, we haven't seen a fuller brush salesman in years. And I said, Well, I'm here now to save the day. I've got one of these wire haired brushes, you know, but I learned a lot, as you can relate to our listeners, and I've never been a person to take no easily, and I think that's part of it. You have to be persistent. And the introduction, you share the powerful story about chewy, thoughtful customer service and how it resonated with the kind of this entire audience. Why do you believe personal, human, driven acts of kindness like this have such a profound impact on customer loyalty, because I remember selling fuller brush, I would go once and once I created a client, that client just kept repeating back and back. And I think referrals are like, hey, now that I have you, I also want the referral. So even in this air that's dominated by all this technology and get on social media and do all these kind of things to try and attract people. I still think that good old fashioned, one on one selling is really important. So tell us that story and how you believe it relates, how these listeners could utilize this.

Richard Weylman
All right, just very briefly on the story. I think, well, I'll just, I'm speaking in Nashville when I was writing the book a year and a little over a year ago, November, and I was speaking about elevating the client experience to stand apart from the competition. And it was about 1200 people in the ballroom, and, you know, it was so I was, this

Greg Voisen
was CHEWIES, right? Yeah. And when I say CHEWIES, for all those who don't know, that's a thing where people can order online and get stuff for their dogs,

Richard Weylman
that's exactly right. So I was on stage speaking about elevating the client experience for this, I think was Financial Advisor Group. There's about 1200 people. And I said, By the way, just to give you an illustration, I saw on LinkedIn this morning, this individual had posted that she had a standing order with chewy for cat food, and it the cat food just came and she called chewy on the line and said, I can't take the cat food. My cat has died. The rep at chewy said, We will not take that cat food back. You have to donate it to the shelter. The audience was like, whoa. And I said, Not only that, they gave her 100% credit on the bill, ooh, I said, but not only that, she wrote right on her LinkedIn profile. Three days later, she got a bouquet of flowers and a get a condolence card from the chewy rep. And at that instant, Greg, a woman, stood up in the middle of the audience, held up her phone and screamed, that was my cat.

Greg Voisen
Oh, my God, that's

Richard Weylman
she said, Yes, I posted that. I posted that. And, you know, I mean at this. So I just stopped and I said, well, thank you for posting. I said, ladies and gentlemen, what does this tell us? The whole room starts chanting, we're switching to chewy. We're switching to that. So when people ask me, is this important to personalize and humanize the connection point, look at Chick fil A. They close November 15 and they open December 31 Well, no, they don't. They're just closed on Sunday. That's 52 days, 52 Sundays. So it's like they closed November 15, they opened December 31 and they have record sales per unit per store. Profitability is the highest it's ever been. And why is that? Please. Thank you. And my pleasure pretty much drives the business. The chicken sandwiches are decent, but when I wrote the current book 100 proven waste, I knew to it. Kathy, full disclosure, he was a good friend. I did a lot of work with Chick fil A, but I walked the line. I called Dan. I said, I want to walk the line and see why people are Chick fil A. He's momenta, he's not chicken sandwich. And I laughed. I said, I know you're going to be right, because your dad taught me, we're not in the chicken business. We're in the people business. But I walked the line, and I put a walk up with the microphone, and I say, Hi, ladies and gentlemen, we're doing a little interview. Why you're a Chick fil A, and they'd always say, well, the chicken sandwiches are really good. I said, so that's why? Well, no, they're just so kind, and they're so and they're so nice. And there's one little girl jumps up to the pillar behind her mom and goes, and they always give me lots of extra pickles.

Greg Voisen
Yeah. The other thing that is part of the culture, and is, is part of that? Is it? They're a strong Christian based company, so they close on Sundays. And I think everybody knows that, but I I really respect that. They respect their own values, right? In other words, here's a CEO of a company willing to close down and probably one of the busiest days of the year and say, Look, we're we're honoring this as our Sabbath. We're honoring this because we're Christian and I like that. What are the key warning signs that a client might be thinking about leaving, even if they seem satisfied at the moment? I mean, you're saying 100 ways to acquire and keep, and I'm going to underline the word keep your clients, because it takes a lot to acquire one, Richard, but it takes so little to lose one, right? All you gotta do is mess up. And that story that you just said was great

Richard Weylman
point you've made. It's so easy to lose them, so little backstory. How did I end up writing this particular book? We do a lot of, you know, consulting and branding and all that stuff. And we're doing branding started in about 2019 when we'd be interviewing a client's customers to find out why those customers do business there. We'd ask them, how's the service? And people would say, Well, let me tell you about the experience I'm having. Let me tell you about the experience, and the word experience. And it dawned on me, I said, well, people are service is a minimum expectation. What people are focused around is the experience they're having. So I start asking people, so if I wanted to have you as a customer, what experience are you looking for? Well, if they would do this, I would do that. And I started writing these down. And then I began to ask people, so why do you stay here? Well, let me tell you about my What do you think of the word was experience? I'd say, great. So what keeps you there? We did. Okay, let me write that down. So when it came time to write the book, what I began to realize was that people, and we just did a study on this. You know, we're a research based consulting firm, as you already know, but in our interviews of individuals, we ask people, if you have a bad experience, does that impact your desire to finish the sale or perhaps seek another provider? One out of three. One out of three said it. One bad experience. They're open to moving their business, one bad experience. So when people say, well, the frontline this, or the marketing that, or the service this, or as a CEO, as a leader of an organization, if you're leading an organization, you've got to build a culture around the fact that the customer, the client, is the sole reason we're there. We have, I'll tell you the thing I see Greg and I spend a lot of time with executives on this. We have to realize that, yes, you're right. It cost money to acquire. It's probably in this environment. It's probably six to seven times more expensive to acquire than it is to keep. That's the data we've been seeing for the last two and it since the pandemic. But here's the reality, what we have to do as as leaders is step back and say, Hey, what's the LTV of this relationship.

Greg Voisen
What's the life value?

Richard Weylman
The Life and time value, the lifetime value is where, where everything resides. Again. Back to your point, underlining the word keep. And that's what got me motivated, because I was speaking to, I mean, I had, I had a client. Call me, lost 13,000 clients in one year in the financial business. He's like, What am I going to do? He said, Here's what he said to me. He said, we're doing a lot of satisfaction scoring, Richard, and the satisfaction scores are very high, the best ever. And I said to him, let's stop right here. Satisfied clients are loyalty neutral. They may be satisfied, but they're sure not necessarily delighted your job should not be how, how did we do that's a look back. What we should be doing as leaders is getting them to help us figure out how to go forward and elevate the experience. So I had him change the questions, instead of, how was this and how was that, and how do we do this? And aren't we wonderful? Aren't we a wonderful people here? The first question that we taught them was, what are three things we can do to elevate your experience in the coming year? Hundreds of great suggestions now some of you can't implement, but that's not the point. The point is, if people are rude, oh, I have a situation right now where an individual moved over a billion dollars out of one financial institution because they were rude to his wife.

Greg Voisen
You talk about this and pretty nonchalantly, but the reality is, you know, I don't know. I can my clients know my age and I used to be in the financial services industry, and I was one of the top life insurance salesmen at million dollar roundtable for years and years and years. And what I remember about the whole human connection side of it, we always talked about lifetime value. Yeah, so the lifetime value of a client, whether they bought that life insurance or group insurance or whatever it was was you wanted the renewal. You didn't want those people to leave. Because not only did you receive a commission on the first sale, you receive renewal commissions that came in every year as the person paid their premiums and and I reflect on this, because in today's digital age, we see technology even AI taking over, in many cases, for customer service. Um, I'll relate a quick little story here, because I think you would love this one you just wrote the one about chewy. I all my listeners out there have to, at some time, go to a doctor. I think the worst customer service I've ever experienced, and I can't understand why they don't hire you. So all of you out there hire Richard, because the people you put in to actually help the patient, in many cases, 90% of the time, are not very customer. They feel like they're overworked, like they're underpaid. You sense it on the phone. They don't really want to do much further than get you off the phone. And you're like, I just went through this three times on a referral letter. You know, to get a referral letter, try and call in, get a doctor. And here's my point of this. You know, what could we do? Or what can companies out there do to keep keep customers, even in this case, my case, it's a choir, because I've never even gone into this doctor yet. So you know what I told him? I said, I'm not going to you, I'm going to get a whole new referral to somebody else right even before the get go, like we're talking right at the start, right? So how do we keep and acquire them? Because that's the $64 million question.

Richard Weylman
Well, it is, and I and again, that's one of the things that it I didn't, you know, I wasn't like, ready to write another it's a lot of work writing a book, as you know, so, but it was so clear to me that people have, we're in a complete shift in the in people's mindset. Product and services are so commoditized today, the experience is what drives everything. You know, I work with NFL teams. I work in the hotel industry, the food. In fact, we work with Freddie steak, burger and custard. We installed the Freddie's way in every store. This was a culture of how they treat their customers. We trained all these high school kids and, you know, employees, and they just won the National Restaurant award for the best best schedule in the United States, highest gross, highest repeat business, biggest fan club. We beat everybody, Culvers, smash burger, everybody. But what was the secret? The secret is, is realizing that to be able to acquire them and keep them really, you have to make a connection with people. Relationships drive revenue. So if we step back, I mean, that's the fast food business, but maybe you're in the air conditioning business, or maybe you're in the financial business or in the hotel business, the way you connect with people and relate to them is what makes people feel like they're in the right place with the right provider. Let's say it that way. So that's great. You might be sitting here as the head of sales and saying, Well, yeah, that's good. My people do pretty good, but pretty good is no longer good enough. What we have to do is realize the way we communicate with people has a profound effect. Now, again, these are not my words. These are talking to hundreds of people over the last couple of years in branding surveys who would say, Well, let me tell you what I think. I don't like it when they sign your emails. Best, that's just rude. Best what best for them? Best for me? What are they trying to say? They can't really say something nice to me. Well, we so I had my interns start making polling calls. Oh my god. People hate the signature best they don't like sincerely, yours, either. Too institutional. What's number one? Kind regards? Number two, Warm regards. That's what they want to hear. They want to you didn't know their name, so I have a friend of mine in Atlanta, she's her name's Elizabeth and but she goes by lolly. If you call her Elizabeth, she didn't even turn around. She goes by lolly. She's 83 because when she was a young child, her grandfather gave her lollipops, and so she became lolly. It's even on her driver's license. So my point is that what companies have to do if we're going to acquire them and then keep them we need to personalize and humanize. Know their name, it's T, Boone pickets. He never went by T. My first initial is C, I get lots of emails, dear C, I don't read those because my dad's I go with Richard. So it's all these little things. And you know, I I'm not going to do a seminar for you today. It's not fair to your listeners, but it's all these little things that we do to make a difference. I'll give you one other illustration. If you're a sales or marketing professional, we love our products and services, and rightly so, and it's one of the reasons I speak so much about this, because you've got great products, you've got great services, and we're in love with those products, and we're in love with those services now we can't tell wait to tell you, Greg about these products and services. Mm, hmm. The problem is, the consumer's in a different place today, no matter what you're selling, when I worked with the Minnesota Vikings, is the first thing I told was we're not selling we're not selling tickets. That's not what we're selling here. We're selling the experience. We selling tickets. Yeah, but no, we're not selling tickets. We're selling the experience. So what's the point? We tend to love our product. However, the consumer is in love with the experience and the outcome. So as a CEO or as a leader in an organization, if you'll focus focus on the outcome and the experience that people have. Do we know their name? Do we greet their name? If I'm explaining value to you, if I say to you, Greg. So Greg, you know, we've been in business for 23 years, but let me tell you what that means to you. You'll see people lean forward in a conversation. Oh, gosh, they're talking with me. Another one is when you sit down with people, we ask people, How do you feel about it? When you sit down with a salesperson, that person that says, so how can I help you? They said, It's rude. I don't even know if they can't help me. I want to be able to tell my story. So what salespeople, what we found was if you simply ask the question, you know, Mr. Mrs. Wilson, now we've been the air conditioning business here for 43 years in Paducah, Kentucky, and I'm glad to be able to come over here and give you an estimate. But before we get to all of before we get to all of that, how long have you all lived here? Right? Because people all want to have a story. They want to tell you a story. And when they hear that you're interested in their story, they go, finally, somebody that cares about me and I just,

Greg Voisen
I always love Zig Ziglar, you know, he used to go to his conferences, and he said, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. I mean, let's face it, that line has been around forever and ever and ever. It's never going away. It's timeless and it's true. And that brings me to this, you know, you I'm going to use one of the I'm going to not say the biggest retailer, but I'll say the biggest technology company is is Apple okay? And all of us is who use Apple products have been in a store and had the experience. Now, I will say that of all the things that have happened to me around customer service, because one of the things they pride themselves is kind of the, I don't know where you guys refer to it as Cradle to Cradle, right, all the way through the whole process, like from your experience to being able to get it on. And I will say that no matter what the price was, I will pay their price over a cheaper product. And the reason is because I've always had amazing customer service. Like, literally, I call it customer service within minutes, they call me back on the phone. Not even minutes. It's like, nanoseconds, it's somebody's there, and they stay with you until your problem is resolved, they don't try and push you off the line and get rid of you or whatever. So that brings me to this. You mentioned that focusing on price is a mistake that goes along with Apple, because they're not the cheapest. How can businesses position their value over cost effectively without alienate clients concerned about price, because a lot of people are shopping price. Well,

Richard Weylman
they are in this economy, obviously, let's just say prices have increased. We'll just say it that way. And so people obviously are trying to stretch the dollar and make things go further. The the best way to do it is to to, well, I can just tell you, from our research in my previous book, The Power of why breaking out in a competitive marketplace. I I just signed off. Now it's in seven languages about how do you communicate value? Well, today, people, as I mentioned earlier, we love the products and etc. They love the outcome and experience. So what sales people and marketers have to do is define outcome and application. That's what people look for. They define outcome and application. So in other words, how does this solve my problem? Because the value gap you got, let's say us over here as salespeople, and then you got the consumer over here, and you got this gap in the middle, we talk about our process and our platform, and then probably, etc, they're over here trying to figure out, how is this going to solve my problem? Solve my problem? So, and I, you know, you mentioned in my introduction, that's, I call it a God given. I don't know how I see it. I mean, I'll look at I have companies that put together a product list and send it to me, and I'll say, Okay, this is all good about the product. Let me tell you what this means to the consumer. They're like, who thinks like that? Well, the consumer does. And so the way to explain it is, I mentioned earlier what this means to you, and the benefit to you is, what so illustration, did you say you were in the financial services? Did I remember that correctly? MDRT or something, in life insurance? You I was, yeah, alright, Greg, so you might say something like, now we have universal life insurance, and you can buy a universal policy. But let me tell you what this will mean to you. What that basically means to you is you can build up inside value of the product line, and you can have inside cash value that's really tax deferred or tax free. And the benefit to you is you can build a net worth that's not taxable, and the most important thing your family is going to be taking care of for the rest of your life. And you did say that was important to you,

Greg Voisen
right? Mr. Wilson, yes, I did, and it sounded just like the training that I used to teach at Dale Carnegie. So I'm going to tell you, you just built the best sales burger ever, right? People said to me, Oh, how did you get so good at what you did? It was mandatory, not only that I took Dale Carnegie, but that I actually taught it. And actually Michael Crom, the grandson of Dale Carnegie, is a good friend. And so the reality is, over the years, I heard what you just said, you had built the burger just perfect. You couldn't have built it any better. It sounded like you were in the business. And this is, this brings me to this, like, I

Richard Weylman
just speak a lot in the industry and other like, Oh, I'm sure, yeah, company the day and and the CEO come up said we talked before I did this meeting, and I told you a little bit, but he said, I've had guys come up to me say, How long's this guy been working for us? We didn't know he was working

Greg Voisen
that's true, because you know all the lingo. Now, look, there's a lot of companies that listen to this show, the CEOs, mid level managers, and what are some of you talk about these memorable experiences. And I agree with you 100% that if everybody could do an outstanding job of creating a memorable experiences, they would keep their customers most of the time. But we've got some low cost, high impact ways that small businesses and mid sized businesses can implement strategy. What would you say are high impact, low cost ways that you would tell the little mom and pop business out there that's like, hey, we don't have a customer service person here. We don't have any of that that they could actually implement to have a way to keep and retain customers. All right? Well,

Richard Weylman
a couple of quick things, then we'll take it from the small business. Small business and we can elevate that immediately to a larger business. Because, again, it's about people. It's not about budget. Let's say it that way. And as you having read through some of the book, I think you've already discovered, I think the most expensive event in there's a $35 expense. It's just you don't have to spend money to elevate the experience. But Mia, I'll tell you what. I'll give you a great illustration. A great illustration right here in Sarasota, next to the police station, here is a donut shop called Five. Oh, donuts. Very appropriate. Alright. Now their tagline is arrestingly good donuts, and I laughed out loud when I saw the sign. But they open at 530 in the morning, and if you're not there by 730 or eight, don't worry. You're, they're closed. Um, they're they they call and they're the donuts. Every day you get a jelly donut. You bite into it, you get a bowl of jelly on your face. They're huge donuts. Anyhow, I bought my first donut there, August 4, 2019 now, how do I remember that? Because every August 4, I get a text. Get a free congratulations, loyal squad member. $5 off your next order of donuts. I'm not a big donut guy, but every year, and I do a couple of times a year, I'll go in there, they always know who I am. They build up and they give me credit, so I get loyalty credits. So what's the point? Any I'll just, let's just stop here. So I bought an air conditioner from you. Do I ever hear from me again? Probably not, but you could be sending me congratulations another year of success as a loyal customer. We're we're glad we're able to serve you three years ago. And if you ever need additional service, here's $15 off. Here's what the mistake that most companies do. They give you, how should we say, a coupon or a discount to become a customer, and then they do nothing to keep you as a customer. In terms of such things as 5o donuts does, which is $5 off your next set of donuts and your next order of donuts. Now 5o donuts, she now has seven stores in Florida, she's killing Dunkin Donuts. They're like, they don't know how to compete with her children's across the street. They end up, you know, in trouble discounting coffee. She's not discounting anything. She's just saying, five oh, donuts. Welcome to the squad. So those are good things that make an impact on people that 80 small business owner can do, and don't just give people, shall we say, coupons or credits to become a customer, give them loyalty credits for staying as a customer. Because when that bills end up in their bank and they want to do it, the airlines have sort of figured it out. Delta sort of led the way with frequent flyer points. Now they did have a little stumble a year and a half ago. He got religion real quick when he put the, put the, shall we say, revamp the frequent flyer program. But my point is that there are many, many things you can do that make a difference. I'll give you one other example, if I may. I have a young lady, she's in the financial services business. She sent me a wonderful note. She said, Richard, I read the book, and it dawned on me, I could be sending my clients a celebration cake when they on the anniversary. She said, so I sent it. Sent a cake. And she said, I followed what you said in the book. Don't send the cake to the house. Send it to the office. So it'd be sitting in the break room, and everybody would ask about the cake. She said, so I sent it to my client. Congratulations, another five years as a great client of mine. I'm so happy to work with you. Etcetera, etcetera with a note. Nice, big cake. So what happens he's sitting there eating cake in the bake room. This woman comes in and says, What who gave me the cake? Whose birthday? He said, No, it's my advisor. She sent me a cake celebrating another successful year together at this point, this woman gets all choked up, starts getting teary eyed, starts to cry and says, you know, my husband died six months ago. I have no idea who to talk to about my finances. And she starts crying. This guy picks up his phone, dials his financial advisor right break room, and hands the phone to her and said, it says, my advisor, help her.

Greg Voisen
Yeah, no, I those stories look and there's hundreds of those stories, and I think they're great for our listeners to realize that, you know, okay, every year she sends a cake. I know for a fact, you know, we in our industry, the previous industry was birthday cards, right? Send a birthday card with a coupon for dinner. And I used to send a little coupon that said, you can redeem this anywhere. Just send me the receipt and I'll send you back, or Venmo. You the money. Right at that time, there wasn't Venmo. We used to actually send a check. But the point was, is that I didn't want to restrict where they spent the money for dinner. I wanted them just go wherever the heck they wanted to go, right? And so the the point here is, is that waiting one whole year sometimes is a little too long, right? And the point I'm going to make is the touch points in between can be more frequent. And I don't mean a newsletter, and I don't mean those kind of things, because that isn't what's going to keep someone's attention. I mean that when you have something of value that you think they could use, then you email them, you send it to them, you call them, you do whatever contact you need to do to make that happen. Does that sound reasonable? I'll

Richard Weylman
give you two other examples. When I was, you know, I built a, I was in the Rolls Royce business, a General Sales Manager, and built the third largest Rolls Royce dealership network in the world and in the United States. And so as a young General Sales Manager, it occurred to me that relationships were driving revenue. So every year, I would keep track of my widows, and on Valentine's Day, I would send them all a dozen red roses with a note that I love working with you, if I can help you in any way, I'm here for you on their birthday, or I would send them a note. And when their spouse died, I always call or send a note that particular day, just thinking of you. All these things make it it's just and there's so many other things you can do. I'll tell you one thing I'd just like to share with you that I think is really important in that regard, too. We often focus on the people that are doing business with us. You know, we want to stay in touch with them, as you've just said, etc. But how about the people that say no one? I had an epiphany moment many years ago that it occurred to me, just because somebody says no doesn't mean No, never, it may just be bad timing. Yeah. So, in fact, I just spoke in Chicago in January to a group, and boy, it was cold anyway, and the CEO got up and he said, five years ago, I tried to get Richard to come in and we could put it together. We couldn't work it out on his schedule or mine. Then we had the pandemic. And yeah, he got it, he said, but the thing that struck me, he said, I want to read you something. He picked up a card. You read it, and he just said, his name is Brandon. Dear Brandon, I'm disappointed we're unable to work together now. I look forward to working with you in the future. Always feel welcome to call kind. Regards Richard. He read that note and he said, I've kept this note all these years because this guy said, Thank you for saying no, even though I didn't say no, we just couldn't work it out. That's why he's here today. Handwritten

Greg Voisen
notes are it's an it's an anomaly today. It doesn't happen very much. I noticed when you sent me your book, what fell out was your little card here with the handwritten note on it. And I appreciate that, because you know that is so seldom happens. I know I used to do tons of them, and I got away from right. I use the phone more now to just call people when I get an intuition to call. So literally, it's interesting, if I really tap into my intuition and it says, Hey, call Richard. I'll just call and say, Richard, how you doing? I was thinking about you. I just wanted to check in. I mean, it can be as easy as that, because the reality is, a lot of times you get voicemail, and most of the time the clients will call me back, and they'll go, Wow, it's so nice to hear from you. You know, as a matter of fact, I have something I want to talk to you about, right? So you I call it intuitive. Calling people can if you want to put them on a schedule, but it works. Now, look, there's some overlooked details that can make or break a client experience, and even if everything else seems to be going well, what are some of those overlooked details that might make and on the flip side, might break the actual client experience, because these both relate to us, keeping and attracting. Because you say, hey, this person is still a prospect. The way I look at it is, they're not, they're still a prospect, yes, until they buy. But the way you treatment, treat them until they buy. If you sold rose Royce's, which you did, right, you realize there probably isn't a more challenging kind of customer right to to cradle a customer, to buying $180,000 car, right? Or whatever the number is doesn't matter, but let's just say 180 you know this from selling Rolls Royces, what did you guys do back in the Rolls Royce day? And what would you recommend them doing today if they were selling a car even close to that of a Rolls Royce

Richard Weylman
Well, it's such an interesting question, because way back then, I real, and I thought about this recently. It's amazing. You brought this up, Greg, because people have alluded to, you know, what was it like selling cars at a couple 100, whatever, $300,000 and they realized that it was even back then. It was all about the connection, the relationship. It was showing interest in them as an individual and not as an account. I think a lot of people get caught up in the, you know, I got a prospect, I got a I got a suspect. Or, you know, we use all these phraseologies, right? What awed on me way back, way back. And, you know, I serve on the US Institute luxury board. So, full disclosure, we support, you know, 100 luxury brands. So of course, I get a lot of data from all these affluent and high net worth and ultra high, really, ultra high net worth people. But, and that's what got me thinking about it, because we just finished another round of research, what it really was is people don't want to buy anything, and they don't want to be closed. They want to open a relationship. And so if we can take our frontline people, I'm talking about, all the way down to the customer service reps, the sales reps, the people that are in accounting, and the way they send out invoices, you know, past due, all of these kinds of commentaries are off putting to people. So what you do is you begin to change the culture and realize people want to open a relationship. Because the what people really don't realize is when they buy something that's not the end of something, that's the beginning of to your point earlier about LTV of a long term open a relationship. So I'll give you just one little illustrative point. There's a printing company down in Port Charlotte, I believe Sarah's Florida, and I've had the privilege of doing some things for them. And, you know, it's a small local printer, nice guy running the place, and he bought it from the owner, and on and on it went. It's built a pretty big business now. But I had to laugh when I pulled in the other day, because most people have no parking and where it says customer parking, all of we towed. That's what all the thing I saw a couple today, customer parking only. All others will be towed. His sign says customer parking only, all others will soon become customers. I like it. I love it that completely. When I walked in, I said, I asked him. I said, What a great change. He said, That's the way everybody here feels. Now, I'll give you another tip here, if I may. Greg, very quickly, one of the things I've done for, well, not just him, but lots of organizations, Vikings, Freddie, steakburger, custard, is we come up with, we call rituals. We do. We do it the wind and the rituals, meaning every day when the, let's say, we're starting our day, just for instance, the whole team comes together. Sometimes it's five or 10 minutes, very brief, and we're going to have the customer experience. We're going to focus on today. Today, we're going to smile and say good morning to everybody. Everybody got it? Yeah, we're going to smile and say good morning to everybody. And when you and we have like 25 both 25 to 30. But the point is, it reinforces in the team's mind that who's the only reason we're here is because they're there and they're coming here. So we want everything we can to give them an elevated experience. We're not going to be short we're not going to bring yesterday's news to today's performance. What we're going to do is we're going to focus on, and I can't tell you how, I mean big companies that I've walked in situations with several 1000 employees, where I've worked with them, and I'll be on a a branch somewhere, and somebody come say, you know those rituals, Richard, are just they're so helpful now, yeah, I mean, this might be just somebody working in, you know, accounting or something, but, or, or maybe it's just somebody that answers the phone, but, but the fact that that it helps them stay focused on helping the business grow and be retained, that's just a win. And every, of course, every company is different, so they have different so they have different rituals, but it's just a such a joy when somebody I had this happen recently, actually in a physician's office, and he's part of a physician's group, and the nurse said to me, she said, those rituals that we do, that you help put together with the doctor. She said, I love them. Yeah. Well, what's that worth? I mean,

Greg Voisen
I think you know, much of this is being authentic, yeah, grace under pressure. When you get into customer service, how do I actually work through being graceful, or grace, meaning the term grace. And I don't know if you've ever studied this guy, but I'm just going to throw this out for a minute, because this is an off the wall look for somebody who sold bros Royces and understands high end purchase people. You understand that this is a one to one person business. And there's a TV show I just finished watching the series, and it's Ken golden. Do you know who he is? G, o, l, D, I n. All right, that well, that this particular guy. Last year, he is an American auctioneer, television personality and sports card collector, and he sold 1.3 billion in memorabilia and sports history and pop culture in his career, and he's made all these relationships with these really, really high net worth individuals. We're talking like Peyton Manning and Ken Kendricks, the owner of the Diamondbacks, and all these people that he has to acquire the actual memorabilia from to actually put on his channel to sell, right? And then he makes a commission in between, right, of course. But it's fascinating the study of what the sales people, because the cameras follow them. They go meet all these people, all of these people, you would probably recognize many, many of them. We're talking like Babe Ruth cards. We're talking about things of babe, babe ruth baseballs, all this kind of stuff, right? And here's the point of the story, he drives home, always, the importance of going that extra mile to satisfy the customer, meaning, whoever this high net worth vendor, even if it costs our company money to make it happen, he says, because the value, long term value, of that client, with all that memorabilia, is way more valuable than us screwing up on one sale. Brilliant, brilliant,

Richard Weylman
that's exactly right. And what people are, what you said, authentic, and that type of understanding that, well, Ritz Carlton does, well, lots of, lots of clients know that do that, but we're, let's say, frontline employees. We'll just use that phrase, have the ability to make decisions on behalf of the guest or the client or the customer without checking with somebody. So it's sort of the same thought, but I'll tell you the whole genesis of the book opening close, as I was talking to people and having opening conversations, and what was important to them, the the premise that dawned on me around experience is people are looking for four things. They want to do business with somebody that's kind, someone that's thoughtful, that'll take an extra minute and find out what they need. Really need somebody that cares enough to really build a connection with them, and empathetic enough to try to see things from their point of view. And if a company builds a culture around kindness and caring and thoughtfulness and empathy, then the only question is, how big you want to grow it and right? And that's really been sort of the basis of my work for many, many years in consulting and obviously speaking, but, and that's soft skills, but really, the way you sign your emails, the way you communicate with people when you go to a meeting, what do you say to people you know, nice to meet you, who says that, that's a defensive mechanism, nice to see you. It's far more gracious. And you'll see people will melt like, oh well, nice to see you, too. And it just removes all of the conflict that people have when they meet someone, that tension when you say nice to see I mean, all these little things that the consumer, not just high net worth. I mean, gosh, I mean lots of the people, it's any consumer, these are things they're telling us,

Greg Voisen
well, those four things that you just clicked off on your fingers are important. And, you know, I'll relate back, and then we'll close this interview up. Just go out and get this book, everybody will put a link to the website and a link to Amazon. 100 proven ways to acquire and keep your clients. I've been signing my emails, whether you noticed it or not, in spirit, for many, many years. I don't sign it in Best regards. Sincerely, yours, whatever. And I've had clients come back to me and say, Wow, that's the most unusual kind of salutation, if that's what you want to call it, or signature, what you wrote before your signature. So where'd you come up with that? And I said, Well, you know, I always felt like if I could give a little bit of me to you every day and I uplifted you and uplifted your spirit, that that, to me would be a value. And I know to this day, when I get it, I still get people that comment like, I really want to know what that means. And when I explain what it means, they're like, Wow, that's really cool, right? So, yeah, so, and I think that, you know, there's so many things, little things. And a point here, you pointed out so many little things that don't cost a lot of money. I mean, you know, the the cake that the lady gave to the guy for his fifth anniversary, the little thing you get from the donut lady who says, Here's five bucks off on your donuts. I mean, you and I could sit here for the next hour and come up probably 100 great ideas that people could use to market. But more importantly, think about and and Richard said, this the lifetime value of your customer if the acquisition cost was x, the lifetime value is geometrically more valuable than the X, right? In other words, x is way down here and the y is way up here on the axis. So I know for a fact, and I know you know this, that if you acquired a client for 500 bucks and you looked at the lifetime value of the client, you'd probably be looking at multiples in the 1000s times the acquisition cost. You're exactly

Richard Weylman
right. This roofing company, the group that I spoke for, people say, well, they put a roof on every 20 years. So what's a lifetime value? Well, what I was able to help them with was great. But guess what? When I get to put a roof on and ask my buddy, put your roof on, he says, I'll tell you, ABC roof in there. Unbelievable. Guess what? That's lifetime value. You're going to get that job on top. Because the real Centers of Influence today are the elevated experience and those delighted advocates, those brand ambassadors marching around town saying, what a great job you're doing. And the sad thing is, you don't have to spend money here. It's like when you sign your emails. I get it all the time. People say, you know, feel free to call. Well, that went out a long time ago. I got a cell phone. It's now one 800 I'm here for you about if you're welcome to call, it's far more gracious. Yes,

Greg Voisen
yes. Well, you have graced our presence with so much value. Here for all of my listeners, please go out and get Richard's book, The forwarders by Bob Berg. It's been an honor having you on inside personal growth, because everything you do around acquiring, attracting and keeping a client or a customer is of huge value to any business listener, owning or any business listener listening right now to this podcast. The other thing is, I would say for the medical industry, because of my poor experience, I hope you listen to this and you do a little more training with the people in customer service. It only requires just a little bit of what I call emotional intelligence, right to say, hey, this person, you know, Oh, Mr. Voice, and I'd love to take your number and get back to you. No, no, no, I said to the girl just today, I've called four times, you call me back, and if I don't hear from you, then I'm going someplace else. That's point. The point there is, is that you know you gotta be your own advocate. You gotta tell people what you think. And the reality is they need to hear that. And that's the other thing from a customer who's listening to this right now, if you're having a bad experience, don't just leave. Most people just leave. 90% of them just leave. And you know this, you've heard this, and then they don't say anything, but they also don't give a referral. But those silent people that walk off to the side, do you realize how much they cost you? Right? Wow.

Richard Weylman
I have a company, you know, the book has done well. It's, in fact, it's number one in an Amazon and marketing consumer behavior and and customer relations. But I think the reason is, is because individuals have bought the book and then bought books for their staff and going through it, I got a wonderful email from a group down in Brazil. They ordered 100 copy shipped to Brazil. The CEO had read the book, and he's like, what I'm doing is, every week we cover two of the things that are in the book, because I want to educate my people. They read it, and they come in and said, Here's how we're going to implement it. And that doesn't mean everything fits everybody, but it simply means that if you educate people, that motivates people to want to be better, do better, and if you do better on behalf of the customer or the client, then they become advocates on your behalf. And that's a wonderful way to grow a business when you have to let ambassadors speak for you. The

Greg Voisen
most important thing I would say to you is being the thought leader and the key wisdom keeper, that if you were had that client and you wanted to bring all the people on, 100 of them on a zoom call, and have Richard be there to address what's in the book. I don't know if you're doing it now, but my point is, is it the value of having you actually deliver something like that to that company would be of extreme value, not that you have the time I get your real busy guy, but on the other hand, it's another way for you to market yourself. Yeah? So yeah, you should and this and this, this podcast is going to reach 1000s of people, and I hope you all were listening. Really enjoyed this. Please go to Richard's website. It's Richard W, E, y, L, M A n.com there you can learn more about him. Thanks so much for being on the show. Everybody. Run out. Get your copy of this book today, because just taking a few of the tips, you're going to learn something. Thanks so much.

Richard Weylman
Thank you. Greg,