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Richard Blank
  • 5 hours ago
The BUILD & BALANCE Show with Richard Blank. A call center sales training expert in Costa Rica.

BUILD & BALANCE Show dedicated to serving salespeople with 0 - 5 years of experience; and anyone who wants to improve their public speaking skills. Michael Neuendorff has been in sales and marketing for more than 20 years and knows what it's like to start out in sales. It's not easy! This is why Michael Neuendorff post videos that help you to get the basics down and also understand various success secrets that can catapult you to the front of the group faster than it would take on your own.

In this video, Michael Neuendorff talks with Richard Blank a successful call center owner and sales trainer, located in beautiful Costa Rica! In this video, Richard shares many tips on cold calling and how to become successful with cold calling. If you have more questions, be sure to leave a comment on this video! Check time stamps below for interview questions.

Richard Blank, CEO of Costa Rica's Call Center (CCC), appeared on The BUILD & BALANCE Show with host Michael Neuendorff to discuss outbound B2B sales strategies, call center operations, and workplace culture.

• Best Practices in Outbound Sales: Blank breaks down effective techniques for cold calling, handling rebuttals, leaving compelling voicemails, and prioritizing conversion quality over rigid talk-time metrics.
• Why Costa Rica for Nearshoring: He explains the strategic advantages of operating a call center in San José, highlighting the country's democratic stability, lack of a standing army, 95% literacy rate, strong infrastructure, bilingual talent pool, and alignment with U.S. time zones.
• Gamification & Company Culture: Blank discusses how he combats agent burnout and builds retention by integrating play into the workplace, notably through his collection of restored American pinball machines and antique jukeboxes at the office.
• Entrepreneurial Journey: He shares his background moving from the U.S. to Costa Rica at age 27, training over 10,000 bilingual telemarketers, and leading CCC since 2008.

Interview Questions
00:00 intro
01:56 Why did you open a call center in Costa Rica?
05:36 Why are cold calls better than cold emails?
08:18 What is a good percentage of answered cold calls?
10:54 Tips for cold calling?
23:10 How do you develop new salespeople?
27:26 When should a business consider using a call center?



https://youtu.be/BDAGoHBahBo?si=IvrJ4MNZswK7AG3u
Transcript
00:03I'd like to welcome Richard Blank to the show today.
00:07I've been really looking forward to this conversation.
00:09I know you're going to enjoy it too.
00:10So before we get into the questions, I'd like to introduce Richard formally.
00:14Richard's journey as an expat is filled with many twists and turns.
00:18When he was 27 years old, he relocated to Costa Rica to train over 5,000 employees for
00:24one of the larger call centers in San Jose.
00:27With a mix of motivational public speaking style backed by tactful and appropriate rhetoric,
00:33Richard shared his knowledge and trained over 10,000 telemarketers in the past 20 years.
00:37He has the largest collection of restored American pinball machines and antique Roccola jukeboxes
00:43in Central America, making gamification a strong part of CCC culture.
00:49Richard has been the chief executive officer for Costa Rica's call center since 2008.
00:54Richard holds a bachelor's degree in communications and Spanish from the University of Arizona
00:59and a certificate of language proficiency from the University of Sevilla, Spain.
01:04Of note, Richard was the keynote speaker for Abington High School's 68th National Honor Society
01:11Induction Ceremony.
01:13Giving back to Abington High School is very important to Richard.
01:16And as such, he endows a scholarship each year for students that plan on majoring in a world
01:22language at the university level.
01:24Richard, it's really great to have you here with us today.
01:27Thank you so much, Michael.
01:28It's great to be here.
01:30As I mentioned to you before, I watched so many of your videos and they were entertaining
01:36enough where I was able to get through them, motivated me enough to write you.
01:40And here we are today.
01:42And so I'm just very happy to be spending time with you and your audience.
01:45Well, likewise, Richard, I am keenly interested in your background and your experience.
01:51And I just know that our viewers are going to get a whole lot out of it.
01:53So I'd like to just jump right in and ask you the first question.
01:56Sure.
01:57Why did you decide to open a call center in Costa Rica?
02:02That's one of my favorite questions, Michael, and I appreciate you asking it.
02:05And I have to go back a couple of years and tell you where it all began.
02:09When I was growing up in Northeast Philadelphia, a lot of opinions were provided for you.
02:14And sometimes your destiny and careers were pre-decided for you.
02:18So a lot of my friends were going to Ivy Leagues to study medicine and law, engineering and architecture.
02:24And I myself, I wasn't really sure what to do, but I knew my favorite class was Spanish.
02:30So as a dreamer that felt a little bit alone because no one else could relate to it,
02:34I decided to double down and go to the University of Arizona and be a bi-major.
02:39I majored in Spanish and communication.
02:42And like yourself, Michael, as a teacher and a really effective public speaker, I decided to study that.
02:49In addition to that, I concentrated on rhetoric.
02:52So your message and delivery was more effective.
02:55And everyone needs a special sauce.
02:58So my special sauce was phonetic micro-expression reading.
03:02I used to like to study body language.
03:05And then here at the call center, I was able to do it where we're more voice micro-expression
03:09reading, which we'll get to later in the show.
03:13And when I had the opportunity post-grad to move here at 27, a friend of mine owned a call
03:18center and said, Richie, why don't you come down for a couple of months and teach some
03:21English?
03:21And naturally, a 27-year-old kid, you fall in love with Central America tropical beauty.
03:27And when I was at the call center, I kind of shed some skin.
03:31I realized that I had a calling.
03:33This was an environment where people were using the art of speech.
03:36They were converting phone calls and giving positive customer experiences.
03:41And actually, since English was their second language, they were fulfilling their studies.
03:46I took to that.
03:48I embraced it.
03:50I decided to stay and work there for four years.
03:52So obviously, I learned the business.
03:54But the one thing I did learn, Michael, was I learned how to enrich the experience.
04:01Being politically correct, I saw certain things, the gripes and the tough times of working
04:06the phones or working in a certain structured environment.
04:08And I realized that if people are given their dignity, if they're not treated as robots or
04:15as numbers, besides the productivity, you'll get a much more fulfilled person working with
04:22you that will work longer with you.
04:25And in my opinion, in my goal, will grow with you and be some of your future supervisors.
04:32A great story and a great philosophy all wrapped into that answer.
04:36And it happened in 2008.
04:38I mean, I worked at the center for a while.
04:40And my thing came later in life.
04:44Everyone has a coming of age moment.
04:46I had certain stages that gave me an experience or a vision quest to complete certain goals.
04:51But at 35, I started my company.
04:53The fact that I've lasted 14 years, a Philly boy here in another country, it says something.
05:00So I let my record speak for itself.
05:03But I'm very proud of the people that work with me.
05:06And my favorite thing is walking the rose, Michael.
05:08I love to stop on the occasion and listen to somebody speaking with a client and smile and
05:13give a thumbs up.
05:14And that's the essence of what I do.
05:18And that's why I'm capable of doing this for so long.
05:23Excellent.
05:23Okay.
05:24All right.
05:24So now we have an understanding of how it all came to be.
05:26So now we want to kind of get into some of the sales-related questions, right, and tap
05:32into that great wisdom that you've accumulated over the 14 years.
05:36There's so much emphasis on cold email these days in selling.
05:40Why should the use of the phone still command respect?
05:44I think a cold email is fine if you're just doing email blasts, if it's just a templated.
05:50I think a phone is essential these days for multiple reasons.
05:53The first is it will give you a chance to understand the company's culture, where you're calling.
05:59Secondly, you might meet people prior to the decision maker, where you can build a relationship,
06:05learn more information, and in my opinion, do a positive escalation.
06:09So when you have this relationship with either the gatekeeper or somebody else that's assisted
06:13you before transferring, you can give the gift of mentioning how amazing this individual
06:18was that works at your company.
06:20So your first impression, if it is a cold call and you're meeting somebody for the first
06:26time, you're showing very good faith.
06:28You're just not coming in asking for an appointment.
06:30In my opinion, you're gaining a couple of points.
06:33And I think you're also eliminating the chance of any sort of upsell compared to just a cold
06:39email.
06:40You're eliminating any sort of chance of getting a referral or any additional business from
06:44that unless they decide to write back.
06:46There's no way to get any sort of feedback, the positive or the negative aspects of the
06:51product in which you're representing.
06:54And then finally, as I say before, there's that relationship and rapport building that
07:00you're meeting with somebody.
07:02So where you would be able to get the pass to pitch, you will be able to get that follow
07:07-up
07:07appointment.
07:08Or you would be considered a little bit more than somebody that just sends out templated
07:12emails.
07:13But I will say this, my friend, if somebody is just using these cold emails as their marketing
07:19strategy, why don't you take an extra 30 seconds, okay, just to look at their website
07:25or LinkedIn profile?
07:26Because you would possibly be able to uncover something that would give you a sort of connection
07:32where you can congratulate them on a promotion, on an anniversary, a third location.
07:38You could say their slogan.
07:40I don't know.
07:41But if you're just calling me, sir, and giving me some email, it's extremely informal.
07:45But if you mention my pinball machines, I'm going to read your entire email.
07:50So at least you're going to have a shot with me.
07:52So my suggestion is just to, instead of being a print, be a painting, actually add a little
08:00bit to these templates if that's your only strategy.
08:04But Michael, to answer your question, you are eliminating so many different ways to build
08:08momentum, energy, and relationship building by eliminating any sort of phone calls.
08:14Wonderful.
08:15I totally agree with you.
08:17So thank you for that.
08:18I recall a past client telling me that they'd only reach live people about 3% or 4% of
08:24the
08:24time when calling all day long.
08:27What do you think is a realistic percentage of reach for cold calling?
08:32If all they're doing is speaking to these people like four times out of 100 phone calls,
08:38it's really an oasis in a desert.
08:39My opinion is, why don't you hang out for a while?
08:42Instead of doing an average five-minute phone call, why don't you stretch it to 15 minutes?
08:45Because you're probably a little cold and you need to warm up and somebody's there.
08:49These are two ships passing in the night.
08:51I would take advantage of that.
08:53If you need to throw your list in a predictive dollar so you can speak to at least three more
08:56people.
08:56But that's not the point.
08:58The point is, if you're doing these phone calls, I think you should slow down a little
09:02bit more and just take advantage of that.
09:05More people are doing omni-channel non-voice support, as you were mentioning, filling out forms,
09:10doing check.
09:11One of my clients has the same challenge.
09:15They're getting the 4%.
09:16So instead of doing 150 phone calls a day, they reduce it to about 115.
09:21So as I mentioned before, they can find out a recent promotion or some sort of company culture.
09:26So when they're leaving their voicemail or they're sending that email template, it's really custom
09:32made.
09:33And I've seen that, yes, phone call area, contact conversion ratio dropped a little bit.
09:39But then here's your advantage.
09:41Let's say you make another phone call back to these people.
09:44You're mentioning cold emails.
09:46Not anymore, Michael.
09:47Now it's a warm email because I've sent it.
09:50I could be following up on it, even if they haven't read it.
09:53But I might ask, and I'm sure you like something from the email to at least try to anchor in
09:57there.
09:57But you could be doing a second, third, or fourth touch approach to a client.
10:04Realize this is their protocol.
10:06But I do believe by doing a little bit of due diligence research and seeing the one thing
10:13that the person loves the most and just mentioning it with them, it will give you a lot more mileage
10:20when you're speaking with the people.
10:21Yeah, I think that's really smart, Richard, this idea of doing a little bit of homework,
10:28right?
10:28I mean, if you're tasked with making 100 calls a day, 115 calls a day, you can only do so
10:32much homework.
10:33But you point out one thing, as you said, that one thing that that person loves, that's going
10:38to already put you a little ahead of the people that couldn't do any homework at all.
10:43And so they're following a templated approach, as you said.
10:46Yeah, I love that.
10:47Now, without giving it all away, Richard, as you have so much experience and you have
10:52your secret sauce, could you please share a few tips on how to have better cold calls?
10:57Because you did mention, look for that one thing that the client loves.
11:01Anything else that you would add?
11:03If you're willing to walk through a little journey with me and close your eyes, I can give
11:07you from the beginning to an end of a five-minute phone call.
11:11I'll walk you through some steps.
11:12I'll make it easy for you.
11:14So it's not advanced because once you see it, you'll never unsee it.
11:19And so just allow me just to share some things that I've noticed in the years that, once
11:24again, will not compromise your ethics, values, or morals.
11:26But I will teach you something today where you'll be able to note when you need more clarification
11:32from somebody.
11:34All right, everybody, let's begin.
11:37This is the way I believe that the average attention span is 30 seconds to two minutes.
11:43So let's just use this as the base of thought, all right?
11:46Every conversation has an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
11:50But if you think about it, if you don't land the intro, your body and conclusion don't even
11:54exist.
11:55So let's not even think about that.
11:57We'll just go on the momentum from just your introduction.
11:59We'll focus on that.
12:00We mentioned calling companies before.
12:03And let's just assume, Michael, that the contact ratio is higher than 4%.
12:07You're getting calls.
12:08You're contacting people.
12:10A lot of telemarketers or prospectors will ask people how they're doing initially.
12:16I prefer, since you have the first chance to speak, use your anonymity to your advantage.
12:24Don't be anonymous the whole call.
12:25That's shady.
12:26But you're allowed to say something the first time.
12:29I'm not saying my name.
12:31I'm saying the name of your company.
12:32I'm going to ask, how's Build and Balance doing today?
12:36You know, I'm going to say something like that because obviously Michael's doing great
12:39and his company's doing great.
12:41And so your combo, instead of doing horizontal, we're doing vertical.
12:47I am stacking questions.
12:49Your theory that you've spoken about is open-ended versus closed-ended questions.
12:53Yes or no compared to explanations.
12:54I like stacking certain questions so you can answer it for me to reduce the time and possibly
13:00get some sort of traction out of that.
13:03So first, we ask how Build and Balance is doing today.
13:06Michael, of course, is doing great.
13:08And he goes, my name is Michael.
13:09Oh, hello, Michael.
13:12Hello.
13:13My name is Richard.
13:14Or you could say, what is your name?
13:18That's when you get your first buffer boomerang technique.
13:22When somebody asks you a question and makes a statement, you buffer it because sometimes
13:27the tone may be negative.
13:29Michael, you're a nice guy.
13:30You're a gentleman.
13:31But sometimes people can give you a negative two, negative three tone.
13:35Same question, negative tone.
13:38You buffer it by saying, that's an excellent question.
13:42I just buffered it.
13:43The name of my company is Michael and I plus two you back.
13:47So I can buffer it.
13:51That's an excellent question.
13:53Repeat the question and send it back, which shows active listening so they don't have
13:57to repeat it.
13:58You're sending back what they said at them.
14:01So it's their energy coming back at you.
14:03It's your words.
14:04But I'm doing it as a plus two.
14:06And I'm going to name drop you as well.
14:08Just to teach you a little manners to bring yourself to a plus two level.
14:12You don't need to yell at me.
14:13You could be a nice person on the phone.
14:15And I can teach buffer boomerang you with one, two, and three type of questions on how
14:20nice you want to give the response, how you repeat it.
14:23So you move along.
14:24There's never a repeat or a rabbit hole.
14:27That's the first thing.
14:28And I do this with the gatekeeper.
14:30So initially, they like the fact I repeated their question, said their name, answered the
14:35question.
14:36And I mentioned earlier about the positive escalation.
14:39Once they've been so helpful for me or explained that it's Michael's anniversary or that this
14:43company did this, I'm going to let her know.
14:45I can't wait to tell Michael how nice you were.
14:47Now, of course, you didn't want to transfer the call.
14:50Maybe one out of 10 do that.
14:52Maybe.
14:53But once that call is transferred, you're starting off with momentum with Michael by saying,
14:57hello, this is Michael.
14:58Michael, I just got to let you know this individual that works with you is incredible.
15:03And then you say, what's your name?
15:04Hey, here's another buffer boomerang.
15:08Ah, Michael, glad you asked that question.
15:11My name is Richard Blank.
15:12You know, so you just keep bringing it back, buffer boomerang.
15:16So then what happens in the middle of the call when you're giving lists, you're explaining
15:20what you do.
15:21We do A, B, C, or D.
15:24Time out.
15:25It's got to be like a dessert tray.
15:28Each one deserves its own thing.
15:31We can do A.
15:33We can do B.
15:34I'm waiting for either a positive reinforcement or potentially you reacting to that.
15:40And so as I say before, after you mentioned a list of things, you might say to them, I'm
15:45sure you like at least one.
15:47I didn't say you liked them all.
15:48I'm not that brazen.
15:49But I'm also confident enough to know at least you like one.
15:52And you might get the one.
15:55So instead of doing horizontal, now you're vertical again.
15:58And we see how many things you like of that one.
16:00But this is what happens in the middle of the call.
16:04I told you about 30 seconds to two minutes.
16:06I told you about the gatekeeper, positive escalation, buffer boomerang one, two, and three technique.
16:12We're good to go on that.
16:13But Richard, what happens when they're speaking?
16:16What do we do?
16:19We use the phonetic micro expression reading.
16:23What's the purest form of speech, Michael?
16:25It's phonetics.
16:27It's the sound.
16:28So there's four steps to phonetics.
16:31You have tone, which represents your emotion.
16:34And my suggestion, which you have in abundance.
16:37It's confident and it's empathetic.
16:39That is the consistent variable that does not change.
16:43The mirror imaging technique, which you've always mentioned in your classes of matching people's styles.
16:49In my opinion, Michael, it should be done with their rate, how fast they go, and their pitch.
16:58Now, we do this every 30 seconds to two minutes because that's just how conversations go.
17:03And you back it up with the answering speed because that's something they can't do subconsciously.
17:07You can easily control your tone.
17:10You can manipulate your rate and your pitch.
17:13But subconsciously, it's very difficult for you to control your answering speed.
17:18And so once you see it, you can't unsee it.
17:21After three weeks, it becomes a habit.
17:22It will not hold you back from any work that you do.
17:25You'll just be a little more astute, a little more lucid.
17:27And you will see the tell signs that people are giving you.
17:30Face to face, no.
17:33Over the phone, or if you really want the purest read when you're sitting with somebody,
17:37close your eyes, and then you can actually really read these people.
17:42Why do I do this?
17:44Because if somebody is doing a spike or a dip in regards to their phonetics,
17:50then that means that there is a tie-down question or a pin-down question
17:55or a confirmation question that might happen.
17:58You're reacting in a certain way.
18:00So I might be saying, Michael, sounds good, right?
18:02Or it makes sense, right, Michael?
18:04Or hypothetically, since people are working from home,
18:09you might have dogs or children or distractions in the background.
18:13My suggestion for your audience, Michael, is inadvertently and passive-aggressively,
18:18let them know the Me Too technique, that you love dogs,
18:22which is really letting you know they're barking.
18:24But don't just say that.
18:26What the real salesperson or the attentive listener does is they ask the follow-up question.
18:33Dog's barking.
18:34She loves dogs.
18:35I love dogs.
18:36It's killing the call.
18:36But it's not that.
18:37But then I say, what's the dog's name?
18:40Her name is Fluffy.
18:42Great.
18:42I can wait till, you know, Fluffy can go outside for a minute.
18:45And so once that calms down, you go back a step, but you leap forward three.
18:51It's an excellent anchoring technique because you're looking for certain areas of the call,
18:55not your pitch and what you're trying to land.
18:58No, you're trying to look at that one thing you can connect on if it happens to be a child
19:02or a dog or music in the background or some sort of anniversary that you can relate to.
19:07That's what you anchor on.
19:09And so this Me Too technique, in my opinion, is a great way to get back onto the straight line.
19:13But let's go to this again.
19:16You have a dog barking in the background.
19:18My opinion is to say, not excuse me, I'm sorry, Michael, can you repeat that?
19:24No, no, no.
19:25I'm going to fall on that sword.
19:27Michael, for my clarification, when your dog was barking, did you say A, B, C or 1, 2, 3?
19:34Michael says 1, 2, 3.
19:37It's for my clarification.
19:40Fluffy was making noise.
19:41You know I couldn't hear you, but it's for my clarification, not I'm going to ask you to
19:46repeat that because that's an ego defense mechanism that could kill the tone of the call.
19:51All of a sudden, there's rabbit holes there.
19:54So then we get through the body of the call.
19:57And the greatest thing that could happen in the call is if somebody says your name,
20:02especially in the body, which means, once again, you anchor, you have this relationship.
20:06So the rest of the call is cool.
20:07But let's say you get to the end of the call.
20:09It's the conclusion.
20:11What you would say is, since you have me on the phone, Michael, are there any additional
20:15questions you may have?
20:17I might have forgotten a stack.
20:18Remember, we spoke about A, B, C, and D.
20:21Oh, I like C, too.
20:22You do like C, too.
20:24And then we talk about that for a little bit.
20:27And those are the additional questions line.
20:29I get to rake it one more time.
20:31Remember, in the body of the call is I'm sure you like at least one.
20:34You liked one out of the four.
20:36But then when I raked it again, we recapture one, second one, third one you liked again.
20:41I raked you.
20:42Got it.
20:43Got a third one.
20:44And then I always do this for the icing on the cake.
20:47We always confirm your email address or any sort of words with military alphabet because
20:53chances are you've served, know someone that served, or it's just a great way just to make
20:58things tight.
20:59And it's kind of funny where the call should be ending, and then you do military alphabet.
21:04And the next thing you know, I'm talking about my grandfather that served in Europe and my
21:08father in North Korea.
21:10So South Korea, excuse me.
21:12And so it's one of those things where you don't rush the end of the call.
21:17You want to make sure that your speed is consistent.
21:22And you've taken their time.
21:25And by recapping and showing active listening, and I like to call it like meeting minutes
21:30in a sense, you really show this.
21:33And then, Michael, we're going to even close it even better for you post-call.
21:37Once I write you again about the appointment we have or the business we're doing, I'm going
21:42to be mentioning the individuals like David, for an example, and others that work with you
21:46so well, their participation, because that's a one in a thousand.
21:50No one writes that sort of stuff.
21:52And you know, when I call you back, and this individual picks up the phone, they're going
21:57to be so happy to speak with me.
21:58And they're going to say, I can't believe what you wrote about me.
22:01Thank you so much.
22:02In 30 years, no one said that.
22:04And so that's the Richard Circle, Michael.
22:07That's from the beginning of the call from the company name Spike, better than they do to
22:11the conclusion, ranking, positive escalation, written.
22:14And if you do everything in the middle consistently, and staying focused to these 30 seconds to
22:19two minute intervals, you will have such balance, you will have such focus, you won't be a print,
22:28you'll be an amazing painting, you will have incredible phone calls where strangers or friends
22:34you haven't met yet.
22:35And you'll probably get a ton of referrals, you'll be getting a lot of phone calls back
22:39of the way that you treat people.
22:42Wow, that's really interesting, Richard.
22:44Thank you for sharing your process with our viewers.
22:50I mean, that is really interesting.
22:52I know that they're going to watch it again, because there's multiple sections, you know,
22:57the introduction, the body and the closing.
22:59They got to get their pen ready.
23:00Yeah, hopefully they'll watch it and take notes and probably take a snapshot of the pitch and
23:06diagram and the buffer boomerang diagram and so forth.
23:10So then how do you develop salespeople who are relatively green to become someone that is
23:24effective at following your methods and processes?
23:27What do you look for in salespeople to know that I'm working with someone who could be great?
23:35Michael, those are my favorite agents to hire.
23:39I can mold them.
23:40They're not coming in with bad habits.
23:44They're coming in bilingual, which shows such education for them.
23:48I get to be their first coach.
23:49It's their first call center telemarketing job.
23:52But let's go through it in three stages, if we may.
23:55The first one is the psychological stage.
23:57I have to let them know that fear is a morbid anticipation of something that hasn't happened yet.
24:03And just in my own instance, just by these agents being bilingual and myself, once again,
24:08it shows dedication and structure.
24:10So they've done something very difficult.
24:13If I can properly prepare them and put them on a level playing field with all the resources,
24:19such as a proper script, rebuttals, training in the CRM, in the system, how to use their phone system,
24:26doing quality assurance, which is QA support, where we go through, we call them KPIs, which
24:31are key performance indicators.
24:33So we can just see their consistency.
24:35Trust me, everybody.
24:36It's a test you can easily pass.
24:38The points that I give are for the soft skills.
24:40We just judge you to ask their email address and mention your information.
24:44I don't do that.
24:45I concentrate on the aces.
24:47I expect you to do that.
24:49That's what I'm paying you to do.
24:50What I want you to do when you're in class is to, once again, relax and realize that this
24:56could be something that could pay more than most vocations.
24:59And the fact that you have a thesaurus and you should expand your vocabulary.
25:04So instead of using words like help, my suggestion would be to use in this specific order would
25:11be assist, guide, or lend a hand.
25:14Same message, different delivery.
25:16You're being more strategic on this.
25:18You're being a little more clever.
25:20You don't, once again, need to say, I'm sorry.
25:22It's for my clarification.
25:24So once I expand their vocabulary just with work words, and then they go home and learn
25:29additional words because they're just so into it.
25:31And so what happens then?
25:32Then you start connecting people together.
25:35So you have a certain sort of buddy system or unlike myself, who's the owner of the company,
25:43telemarketer, when you have somebody that shines, let them work with the local Costa Ricans
25:49in their own language, knowing their culture.
25:51It's very important for me that people get promoted here from within.
25:56And I'm able to delegate certain responsibilities.
26:00Now you're talking about a new guy, but if the kid shows up on time, front row center, takes
26:07notes, role plays, participates, just a great all around kid.
26:11You don't think I'm going to want him to stand up on Wednesday and do a little bit of the
26:15class
26:15just for fun to build his confidence, love kids like that, have to do things like that.
26:21And they will make sure that the people that work with them, break bread with them, know
26:25each other's names, and you just don't say, good job.
26:28What do you say good job on?
26:29Let them specifically know you listen to a call or let them know, thank you for your one
26:34year anniversary with us.
26:36I must be doing something right because Amazon, Oracle, Intel, and HP, they're here.
26:42I compete against the big boys.
26:44But guess what?
26:45They don't play pinball with their people.
26:48They don't train their people personally like I do.
26:52They are not selective of sometimes the campaigns that they choose just to make sure that people
26:57feel comfortable with the sort of training that they have in the preparation.
27:01And so that's why I believe that this smaller sort of company that I have is why certain
27:05people gravitate towards this.
27:07It may not be for everybody.
27:09Some people just want to lose themselves and thousands of people.
27:12But those that work for smaller call centers can make a very, very good name for themselves
27:17very fast.
27:19Yeah.
27:20Excellent.
27:21All right.
27:22Then when we talk about that, the last question is, when should a business consider using a call
27:30center like yours?
27:32What's the thought process that one would go through to make that decision?
27:38That's a very good question.
27:40And if I may, I have to, I guess, say something for my own piece.
27:44I would prefer, Michael, that people choose me for merit over price.
27:50I can name 10 call centers that can do it for half my costs in the Philippines and India or
27:55anywhere in town.
27:57So if that's your first question for me, I'll answer you by saying $1,000 an hour.
28:01They go, no, you're not.
28:02And I go, of course I'm not.
28:03What's your second question?
28:05At least just to see what they have to say.
28:07And then a lot of the times on those calls, because people shop around, which they should,
28:11and people do know certain telemarketing, they have done it in-house, but they've never
28:17outsourced.
28:18So maybe they're not familiar with some of our infrastructure, our reporting, our supervision,
28:24onboarding, training, quality assurance.
28:26They've just done it with a half a dozen guys in their office.
28:29And a lot of the times they have unrealistic expectations.
28:33Sometimes people have to go through a certain process with me.
28:36So they qualify.
28:37I reject more campaigns than I accept because I'm very selective.
28:41I use the smart theory, specific, measurable, agreed upon, realistic, and time frame oriented.
28:50But to answer your question in a certain way, anybody that would like to scale their company,
28:56maybe compare apples to what they're doing to my structure here.
29:00We're very price comparable to the United States, including full benefits here.
29:05I don't force hands.
29:07I don't twist arms.
29:08And from an educated point of view, potential clients make a decision about working with me.
29:14And most of the time, and I will be candid about this, it's price.
29:18And how can I compete when we're the most expensive in Central America?
29:22But we also have the best infrastructure, if that's important to you.
29:27We also have Spanish language capacity.
29:29We're very close to the United States.
29:32We're on certain time zones.
29:34And we have a democratic society here.
29:36We don't have an army.
29:37So there's a 95% literacy rate.
29:40So one of the questions that I would ask as, let's say, a salesman is, since I have these
29:46skills and you're asking me because I'm 50% more, am I capable of doing 1.5 an hour compared
29:53to just one an hour?
29:54If I put it on a predictive dialer, if I speak in Spanish, if I use Richard's coaching, if we
30:00do rebuttals, if I do voicemails, am I capable of doing 0.5 more?
30:06Because you're saying you pay half.
30:08Well, then that's fine.
30:08Put me on a level playing field.
30:10Maybe my agents are capable with the skills that they possess and the coaching and the
30:16environment that they have.
30:17And I've seen it to do 0.5 more, which means that we even out and I'm worth my costs.
30:22And then we get seats.
30:23But my goodness gracious, I can't do 20 calls an hour.
30:26You know, if the average one is 10, you can't make up time.
30:30But those are the sort of questions that I would ask to see if it would be a good fit
30:34or not.
30:35But I do appreciate anybody that calls me.
30:38They must have found me on the internet through search engine optimization or read an article
30:42or at least took the time to reach out.
30:46And so I almost tell them to put their checkbooks away.
30:50No one sends me money on a first phone call.
30:52It's my pleasure to share information.
30:55And I hope that I shared plenty with your audience today because there's so much more I could
30:59share, but there's only so much time.
31:01But I believe that I shared with you my best, where it would give somebody such great foundation
31:07training where, Michael, all they do is just dedicated practice.
31:11If they just do things when the cameras are off and no one's around and they just practice
31:16their kicks, punches and painting their guitar, they're going to be amazing artists of speech.
31:20But the one thing is when they're too well rehearsed and they're too commercialized, they're not
31:27raw anymore.
31:28They lose that sort of spark and character that they first started off this journey with.
31:34And that's pretty much my final thoughts on that.
31:38Yeah, that's excellent.
31:39That was a nice little nugget right there at the end, too, Richard.
31:44So thank you very much for sharing with us today.
31:47We're grateful for the time that you spent with us because you're running a busy and successful
31:53business down there in Costa Rica.
31:55So I'm grateful.
31:57Thank you, Michael.
31:58Thank you, Michael.

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