Introduction to “Some Guys Have All the Luck”
The song “Some Guys Have All the Luck” has a rich history, having been originally recorded by The Persuaders in 1973. It gained further popularity through Rod Stewart’s cover in 1984, which became a significant hit. However, Gina Lee’s version released on the Clocktower record label in 1980, produced by Tommy Cowan & Harold Butler, also garnered attention and has its own dedicated following. In contrast, Maxi Priest’s remake in the early 1990s did not achieve the same level of acclaim among certain listeners. This analysis will explore why some people today prefer Gina Lee’s rendition as well as those by The Persuaders and Rod Stewart over Maxi Priest’s version.
Gina Lee’s Version (1980)
Gina Lee’s interpretation of “Some Guys Have All the Luck” stands out for several reasons:
Vocal Style and Emotion: Gina Lee brings a unique vocal quality that resonates with listeners who appreciate a more soulful and emotive delivery. Her voice combines power with vulnerability, allowing her to convey the song’s themes of longing and envy effectively.
Production Quality: The production of her version reflects the late ‘70s and early ‘80s sound, characterized by rich instrumentation and a polished finish that appeals to fans of that era. The arrangement complements her vocal style, enhancing the overall listening experience.
Nostalgia Factor: For many listeners who grew up during this time, Gina Lee’s version evokes nostalgia. It represents a specific moment in music history that resonates with their personal experiences.
Cultural Context: In the context of female artists emerging during this period, Gina Lee’s rendition can be seen as part of a broader movement where women were beginning to assert themselves in genres traditionally dominated by male artists.
The Persuaders’ Original (1973)
The original version by The Persuaders holds its own significance:
Authenticity: As the first recording of the song, it carries an authenticity that many purists appreciate. Fans often prefer original versions for their rawness and originality.
Soulful Roots: The Persuaders infused their rendition with classic soul elements that resonate deeply with fans of Motown and similar genres. Their harmonies and instrumental backing create an engaging atmosphere that captures the essence of soul music.
Historical Significance: Being part of the early ‘70s soul scene gives this version historical importance, appealing to those who value music history and its evolution over time.
Rod Stewart’s Cover (1984)
Rod Stewart’s cover is another popular choice among listeners:
Mainstream Appeal: Stewart’s version achieved significant commercial success, reaching high positions on various charts worldwide. His distinctive raspy voice adds a different flavor to the song that attracts mainstream audiences.
Rock Influence: By incorporating rock elements into his cover, Stewart broadened the song’s appeal beyond just soul or pop audiences, attracting fans from various musical backgrounds.
Iconic Status: Rod Stewart is an iconic figure in rock music; thus, his association with “Some Guys Have All the Luck” lends it additional prestige and recognition among casual listeners.
Maxi Priest’s Remake
In contrast, Maxi Priest’s remake has not resonated as strongly with certain segments of listeners:
Reggae Influence: While Maxi Priest brought reggae influences into his version, some fans feel this stylistic shift detracts from the original sentiment of longing expressed in earlier renditions.
Comparative Reception: Although Maxi Priest is celebrated for his contributions to reggae fusion, his take on this particular song did not capture hearts in quite the same way as previous versions did—leading some to view it as less impactful or memorable.
Generational Differences: Younger audiences may have different preferences shaped by contemporary musical trends; thus they might gravitate towards more modern interpretations but still find themselves drawn back to earlier renditions due to their emotional depth or nostalgic connections.
Conclusion
In summary, preferences for Gina Lee’s version alongside those by The Persuaders and Rod Stewart over Maxi Priest’s remake can be attributed to factors such as vocal style, emotional resonance, production quality, historical significance, and cultural context surrounding each artist’s interpretation of “Some Guys Have All the Luck.” Each rendition offers something unique; however, many listeners find themselves connecting more deeply with those earlier versions due to their authenticity and emotional weight.
The Business Of Meetings Podcast hosted by Eric Rozenberg.How to Leverage Call Centers with Richard Blank
The #1 podcast for business owners in the meetings and events industry,
The Business Of Meetings Podcast. If you are an independent business owner in the meeting and event space, this podcast is for you! Your host, Eric Rozenberg has created this show to bring you strategies, tips, and tactics to help your business grow. With more than 20 years in the event industry and planning events for Fortune 100 companies, Eric is prepared to let you in on the insider tactics so you can be successful too!
Richard has had an amazing journey! In this episode 116, he talks about call centers, sales, people retention, life, and entrepreneurship. He explains how to leverage call centers to connect better with your customers and grow your business.
https://youtu.be/DmEuOj1nuRQ?si=j1ozp_byHoT2tAf7
Dedicated to offering content to business owners in the Meetings & Events Industry, Event Business Formula features original interviews from The Business of Meetings Podcast and other videos of interest.
Richard’s journey
After graduating in 1991 from Abington High School in North East Philadelphia, Richard went to the University of Arizona. He majored in Spanish and Communication and focused on public speaking, non-verbal communication, and micro-expression reading. When he was 27 years old, a friend who had a call center invited him to go there to teach English, and he ended up working there for four years.
Starting a call center
In 2008, Richard decided to start a call center with his wife. They began with one seat and fifty hours. Today, fourteen years later, they are 150 strong. They are very selective and reject more accounts than they accept because Richard wants to ensure that he can fulfill his clients’ needs with the accounts that come in, and the agent will be comfortable enough to do the work.
The agents’ experience
Richard respects Costa Rican customs, culture, and native tongue. He also respects the bilingualism of his agents. He can mold brand-new agents, and with older agents, he sometimes has to get rid of bad habits. By properly preparing his agents, he feels he can put them all on a level playing field.
The culture
Sometimes, telemarketers and call center agents feel like numbers or robots, and they feel expendable. So before putting them on the phone, Richard gets to know their names and who they are. He also trains them to give them a base foundation to grow.
Quality calls
Richard likes his agents to focus on doing quality calls. About 30% of all calls come about through referrals. Much of their business happens because they do an excellent job on the first call. By working smarter rather than harder, they earn those referrals.
Growing a business by working with call centers
Growing a business has a lot to do with workforce management. Small business owners in the meetings and events industry can grow their businesses using omnichannel support and emails. By making phone calls, they also get the chance to do up-sales, get referrals, and answer questions.
Put more effort into your communication
Putting more effort into your communication, and making it warmer and more inviting, will separate you from others. If you make outbound calls, send an email, or leave a voicemail, take the time to look at the website or the CEO or business leaders’ LinkedIn profiles to get a sense of the tone or the company culture.
Answering calls
Have your best people answer calls. If there is an overflow, it is worth paying a little extra to work with a blended call center answering service so that you never have to miss that special call!
Cold calls
Doing cold calls represents half of their business. Their forte is appointment setting and lead generation, and they sometimes do surveys.
Outbound calls
Richard believes he has cracked a code for making outbound calls! The best approach for a phone call is to use anonymity (apart from mentioning the name of the company you represent) in the first three to five seconds of the call.
The Buffer Boomerang technique
If someone gives you a negative one, negative two, or a negative three-tone, reduce that tone and make it positive to reset the conversation. Then, show active listening by repeating the question. Land it back at them with a plus-two boomerang response.
Positive escalation
When your call gets transferred, it is the perfect time to give a positive verbal escalation (complimenting someone who works for you) to gain momentum and move forward.
Concluding a call
Calls consist of an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. To conclude, ask if there are any final questions, and then finish up with a military alphabet to double-check the email address of the person to whom you are talking.
Follow up
Follow up with a thank-you email that includes the name of the person who assisted you by transferring your call.
Motivation
Richard’s agents are properly prepared and well-rehearsed. He motivates his team by giving them prizes for meeting their goals. Working with good faith and good intentions also helps them weather the storms.
Reading micro-expressions on the phone
The purest form of communication is phonetics because congruence is where audio matches the visual. Phonetics can be broken down into four different sections:
Tone
Rate
Pitch
Duration
Your tone is the one consistent variable you have when you read micro-expressions. Keep it confident and empathetic.
Mirror imaging
Focus on the speed and pitch of the person you are talking to. Read them initially to see if they are going faster, slower, louder, or softer. After about five minutes, you will notice if there is a spike or dip in their speech. Tone, rate, and pitch can be manipulated. Your ultimate tell-sign is your subconscious answering speed. Then it will be the ideal time for you to ask a tie-down, a pin-down, or a clarification question.
Repetition
Richard suggests that you repeat something from time to time to make sure that the person you are talking to is following along with you. It will also give them time to digest what you have been talking about.
An exit interview
Better phone calls sometimes include an exit interview. You could get five reasons why someone chose your competition or get a suggestion to enhance your services.
OUR APPROACH
To build a successful event business, you must be an artist who can play several instruments and smile at the camera all at the same time.
The Event Business Formula™ is designed to help you clearly address 3 major success arenas:
PEOPLE
If you’re “alone at the top” putting out fires and saving the day, then it’s time to share your leadership challenges with experts and peers. The Event Business Formula will help you and your organization solve problems by ’brainstorming with other professionals who face the same challenges and collaborating one to one with top innovators and experts.
STRATEGY
You’re stellar at putting out fires and creating on the spot solutions. It’s part of your DNA, the very thing clients and colleagues have always praised you for doing, but it’s exhausting and not enough for you anymore! It’s time to stop the insanity and develop new strategies and processes that will move you and your organization to a more fulfilling and profitable position.
TECHNOLOGY
Ever wish you had more time to think, learn and grow? Do you spend countless hours doing business – not building business? Have you’ve heard about the powerful methodologies like Blue Ocean Strategy or Business Model Canvas? We’ll bring you up to speed on these and more, helping you transform your approach, making life easier and more rewarding for you, your clients and your team.
OUR PROGRAMS
Discover how we can help you grow your meetings and events business
Through a combination of online training programs, private coaching, and in-person masterminds, we help entrepreneurs in the meetings and events industry grow and scale their business.
1. Interpersonal Communication Conflict Management Strategy
2. Phonetic Micro Expression reading for mastering verbal tell signs.
3. The Famous Buffer-Boomerang Technique
Advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, pinball machines, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Richard’s vision quest journey is filled with twists and turns. At 27 years old, he relocated to Costa Rica to train employees for one of the larger call centers in San Jose. With a mix of motivational public speaking style backed by tactful and appropriate rhetoric, Richard shared his knowledge and trained over 10 000 bilingual telemarketers over two decades.
Richard Blank has the largest collection of restored American Pinball machines and antique Rockola Jukeboxes in Central America making gamification a strong part of CCC culture.Richard Blank is the Chief Executive Officer for Costa Rica’s Call Center since 2008.
Mr. Richard Blank holds a bachelors degree in Communication and Spanish from the University of Arizona and a certificate of language proficiency from the University of Sevilla, Spain.
A Keynote speaker for Philadelphia's Abington High School 68th National Honors Society induction ceremony. In addition, entered into the 2023 Hall of Fame for Business along side other famous alumni. Paying it forward to Abington Senior High School is very important to Mr. Blank. As such, he endows a scholarship each year for students that plan on majoring in a world language at the university level.
Costa Rica’s Call Center (CCC) is a state of the art BPO telemarketing outsource company located in the capital city of San Jose, Costa Rica. Our main focus has been, and will always be to personally train each and every Central America call center agent so that we may offer the highest quality of outbound and inbound telemarketing solutions and bilingual customer service to small and medium sized international companies, entrepreneurs as well as fortune 500 companies.
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
#Event Business Formula #TheBusinessOfMeetingsPodcast #EricRozenberg #RichardBlank #CostaRica #CallCenter #Outsourcing #Telemarketing #BPO #Sales #Entrepreneur #B2B #Business #Podcast #Gamification #CEO #learnpodcasting #podcastepisode #podcastguest #podcasting #podcastinterview #podcastplaylist #podcasts #podcastskills #podcastshow
Event Business Formula, The Business Of Meetings Podcast, Eric Rozenberg Richard Blank,Costa Rica's Call Center, Outsourcing, Telemarketing, BPO, Nearshore, Sales, Entrepreneur, B2B, Business,Podcast,Gamification,Leadership,Marketing, Radio, Guest, Money, education, trainer,
Event Business Formula presents: The Business Of Meetings Podcast hosted by Eric Rozenberg. How to Leverage Call Centers with Richard Blank
https://youtu.be/DmEuOj1nuRQ?si=j1ozp_byHoT2tAf7
The Successful Quitters podcast. North American telemarketing style in Central America with Richard Blank.
"AN AMERICAN SUCCESSFULLY TELEMARKETING FROM LATIN AMERICA" Interview w/ Richard Blank
WHO IS A "SUCCESSFUL QUITTER"?
An individual that has overcame obstacles and quit the bad to become successful in their arena.
https://youtu.be/hMEUKX-aZbg
As an entrepreneur, I have found myself looking for support in different podcasts. Some of my toughest moments, when I found no answers from the people that surrounded me, I was able to find what I was looking for in a conversation I heard through Spotify. As I continue to grow in my entrepreneurial journey, I want to provide a safe space, where people can find their answers through our interviews. They say that "once a quitter, always a quitter, " but I say that "without quitting the bad habits, there is no growth". I hope to encourage one another, and rise to the top together!
Sara Nunez Bee
Sara Nunez interviews Richard Blank, who shares his unique journey from the United States to Costa Rica and his experiences in telemarketing and restoring jukeboxes. Richard discusses the challenges and rewards of telemarketing, the importance of building rapport with customers, and strategies for dealing with rejection. He also shares his passion for restoring jukeboxes and his plans for the future, including creating educational toys for children. Throughout the conversation, Richard emphasizes the power of manners, energy, and listening in sales. The episode concludes with Richard's contact information for those interested in connecting with him.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Introduction and Icebreaker
00:33 Fun Questions
01:09 Time Travel and Immortality
02:50 Introduction of Guest
03:20 Guest's Background and Move to Costa Rica
04:03 Childhood and Early Life
07:12 Relationship with Parents
08:51 Sports and Hobbies
09:24 Transition to Telemarketing
10:46 Passion for Restoring Jukeboxes
12:23 Telemarketing Strategies
15:03 Taking the Leap of Faith
17:59 Delivering the News to Parents
19:32 Finding Love in Costa Rica
21:25 Language Barrier in Telemarketing
23:17 Challenges and Rewards of Telemarketing
24:37 Passion for Jukeboxes and Pimble
26:41 Price Range of Jukeboxes
28:04 Telemarketing Tips
30:15 Importance of Building Rapport
32:29 Dealing with Rejection in Sales
33:37 Maintaining a Positive Attitude
34:46 The Power of Manners and Energy
36:18 Understanding the Customer's Perspective
37:20 The Importance of Listening
38:37 Giving Back through Scholarships
40:12 Teaching Children through Play
41:28 The Future and Goals
46:22 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
50:39 Contact Information
Richard Blank has the largest collection of restored American Pinball machines and antique Rockola Jukeboxes in Central America making gamification a strong part of CCC culture.Richard Blank is the Chief Executive Officer for Costa Rica’s Call Center since 2008.
Mr. Richard Blank holds a bachelors degree in Communication and Spanish from the University of Arizona and a certificate of language proficiency from the University of Sevilla, Spain.
A Keynote speaker for Philadelphia's Abington High School 68th National Honors Society induction ceremony. In addition, entered into the 2023 Hall of Fame for Business along side other famous alumni. Paying it forward to Abington Senior High School is very important to Mr. Blank. As such, he endows a scholarship each year for students that plan on majoring in a world language at the university level.
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
#RichardBlank #CostaRica #CallCenter #Outsourcing #Telemarketing #BPO #Sales #Entrepreneur #B2B #Business #Podcast #Gamification #CEO #smallbusinesschronicles #successfulquitterspodcast #Saranunezbee
Sara Nunez Bee, Successful quitters podcast, Richard Blank,Costa Rica's Call Center, Outsourcing, Telemarketing, BPO, Nearshore, Sales, Entrepreneur, B2B, Business,Podcast,Gamification,Leadership,Marketing, Radio, Guest, Money, education, trainer,
North America sales style in Latin America with Richard Blank.The Successful Quitters podcast.
https://youtu.be/hMEUKX-aZbg
The Successful Quitters podcast. North American telemarketing style in Central America with Richard Blank.
"AN AMERICAN SUCCESSFULLY TELEMARKETING FROM LATIN AMERICA" Interview w/ Richard Blank
WHO IS A "SUCCESSFUL QUITTER"?
An individual that has overcame obstacles and quit the bad to become successful in their arena.
https://youtu.be/hMEUKX-aZbg
As an entrepreneur, I have found myself looking for support in different podcasts. Some of my toughest moments, when I found no answers from the people that surrounded me, I was able to find what I was looking for in a conversation I heard through Spotify. As I continue to grow in my entrepreneurial journey, I want to provide a safe space, where people can find their answers through our interviews. They say that "once a quitter, always a quitter, " but I say that "without quitting the bad habits, there is no growth". I hope to encourage one another, and rise to the top together!
Sara Nunez Bee
Sara Nunez interviews Richard Blank, who shares his unique journey from the United States to Costa Rica and his experiences in telemarketing and restoring jukeboxes. Richard discusses the challenges and rewards of telemarketing, the importance of building rapport with customers, and strategies for dealing with rejection. He also shares his passion for restoring jukeboxes and his plans for the future, including creating educational toys for children. Throughout the conversation, Richard emphasizes the power of manners, energy, and listening in sales. The episode concludes with Richard's contact information for those interested in connecting with him.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Introduction and Icebreaker
00:33 Fun Questions
01:09 Time Travel and Immortality
02:50 Introduction of Guest
03:20 Guest's Background and Move to Costa Rica
04:03 Childhood and Early Life
07:12 Relationship with Parents
08:51 Sports and Hobbies
09:24 Transition to Telemarketing
10:46 Passion for Restoring Jukeboxes
12:23 Telemarketing Strategies
15:03 Taking the Leap of Faith
17:59 Delivering the News to Parents
19:32 Finding Love in Costa Rica
21:25 Language Barrier in Telemarketing
23:17 Challenges and Rewards of Telemarketing
24:37 Passion for Jukeboxes and Pimble
26:41 Price Range of Jukeboxes
28:04 Telemarketing Tips
30:15 Importance of Building Rapport
32:29 Dealing with Rejection in Sales
33:37 Maintaining a Positive Attitude
34:46 The Power of Manners and Energy
36:18 Understanding the Customer's Perspective
37:20 The Importance of Listening
38:37 Giving Back through Scholarships
40:12 Teaching Children through Play
41:28 The Future and Goals
46:22 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
50:39 Contact Information
Richard Blank has the largest collection of restored American Pinball machines and antique Rockola Jukeboxes in Central America making gamification a strong part of CCC culture.Richard Blank is the Chief Executive Officer for Costa Rica’s Call Center since 2008.
Mr. Richard Blank holds a bachelors degree in Communication and Spanish from the University of Arizona and a certificate of language proficiency from the University of Sevilla, Spain.
A Keynote speaker for Philadelphia's Abington High School 68th National Honors Society induction ceremony. In addition, entered into the 2023 Hall of Fame for Business along side other famous alumni. Paying it forward to Abington Senior High School is very important to Mr. Blank. As such, he endows a scholarship each year for students that plan on majoring in a world language at the university level.
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
#RichardBlank #CostaRica #CallCenter #Outsourcing #Telemarketing #BPO #Sales #Entrepreneur #B2B #Business #Podcast #Gamification #CEO #smallbusinesschronicles #successfulquitterspodcast #Saranunezbee
Sara Nunez Bee, Successful quitters podcast, Richard Blank,Costa Rica's Call Center, Outsourcing, Telemarketing, BPO, Nearshore, Sales, Entrepreneur, B2B, Business,Podcast,Gamification,Leadership,Marketing, Radio, Guest, Money, education, trainer,
North America sales style in Latin America with Richard Blank.The Successful Quitters podcast.
https://youtu.be/hMEUKX-aZbg
The Science of CX podcast. Key Takeaways Into More Productive Customer Engagements with Richard Blank
The Science of CX is a groundbreaking new weekly podcast developed to
address the millions of businesses that need to learn techniques to compete better
in today’s business landscape, by using CX as the cornerstone of a new strategy.
Join Steve Pappas in the lab as he puts his 25+ years to the test to make your
business (soar, grow and accelerate).
Getting to know Richard the man. How did he end up with such a large collection of restored pinball machines and jukeboxes?key ingredients to ensure an effective micro-expression conversationHow agents can positively handle and grow from negative calls and feedback from customersRunning a small business? Well tune in and find out what tips Richard has to help you leverage your everyday conversations into a goldmineTime and numbers. Find out whether or not it's productive to measure your employee’s efforts based on the number of hours or sales made Richard shares with us his unique and world-class system of training and mentoring new agents An exercise you can easily pick up in helping you become a better micro expression reader
https://youtu.be/RJnuK2lPYFc?si=yrsPGin8LM1sXy5F
https://youtu.be/AOPI8wCqX-0
Key Takeaways
Learn how to turn new customers into the most loyal customers and be on the
mind of everyone in town. Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned expert, you will
learn something useful in each and every episode.
CXpert - interviews with CX Leaders and Influencers that have made it their
business to treat customers like a million. Steve, will use his years of CX-Centric
business knowledge to bring out cool ideas for every business owner to
learn new techniques and also avoid some
Steve has built a career transforming, growing, expanding and turning around businesses. He has created successful companies by delivering remarkable customer experiences. Steve makes sure each employee has the actionable knowledge necessary to make better decisions, build great culture and serve customers in a way that increases loyalty, referrals, sales and satisfaction.In his recent role with Panviva, the knowledge cloud company, Steve expanded the Australian software company successfully into the US to a market powerhouse position. Steve also advises many companies annually on their CX strategies. Industry associations, publications, and Fortune 500 companies invite him to speak and write about CX best practices in healthcare, finance, utilities, insurance, and telecommunications.A successful entrepreneur in his own right, Steve has built and sold six companies. He has spent many years cultivating his approach to CX and each company has held to the mantra of “the customer is at the center of the universe.
In fact, his first CX initiative was a college Honors project where Steve redesigned the student registration system to ease the process of registering for classes and enhance the student registration experience. He then went on to running an Technology Division with over 12,000 employee customers, while working for one of the largest global government contractors. All the while addressing internal customer expectations and increase customer satisfaction and productivity.Next, he perfected the concepts of personalization with marketing automation tools to better target and deliver one-on-one communication with customer messaging. Now, Steve is focused on helping business leaders build great strategies to deliver the ultimate in customer experiences and drive their business to new heights.When he is not driving CX strategy or launching companies, Steve plays the guitar and mentors startup business. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and sons.
you're listening to the science of C. X. A podcast that hopes to inspire business owners and leaders to learn new techniques and turn prospects into customers, enter customers into raving fans. My name is Steve Pappas. I'm known for my relentless pursuit of all thing’s customer across my career. And in my six startups, I've had to learn how to make decisions in business that customers really respond to. Let's spend some time together and help your business soar grow and accelerate. Well, welcome everybody to another episode of the science of C. X. I'm Steve Pappas, your host and as always, we look everywhere to find the experts that can help you in your business journey as well as your customer experience initiatives within your organization.
Today is No exception. Today we're going to be talking about some remarkably interesting areas. We're going to cover a lot of material. Please take notes if you want or you can come back and listen to it multiple times because that makes it seem like we have more listeners. Hey, yeah, do that. Instead listen to this episode 3, 4 or five times. That'll do it. Anyway, we're going to be talking about advanced telemarketing strategies. We're going to be talking about conflict management, interpersonal skills, customer support, rhetoric, Gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Have I piqued your interest yet? Well, we have a gentleman on today. His name is Richard blank, and he comes to us from Costa Rica, and he is the head of a great business process, outsourcing contact center, but he's also an expert in so many different areas that we want to talk about. So why don't we bring him in from the virtual green room? You know, there's no real green room of course by now, but let's pretend he's coming in from the green room and we'll welcome him to the show.
Richard, thanks for joining us today on the show. See, that's an amazing introduction. I'm so happy to be here, really enjoy your work and cannot wait to share amazing ideas with your audience today. That's great. Well, I'm going to give folks a little bit about your bio just so they understand where we're going to start from and maybe some interesting things about you too. So, Richard's journey in the car Contact center space is filled with twists and turns. When he was 27 years old, he relocated to Costa Rica to train employees for one of the larger call centers in san Jose Costa Rica with a mix of motivational public speaking style backed by tactful and appropriate rhetoric.
Richard shared his knowledge and trained over 10,000 bilingual telemarketers. I think he learned a few things along the way. Richard blank has the largest collection of restored American pinball machines and antique rock ola jukeboxes in central America making Gamification a strong part of Costa Rica Contact center. Culture. Richard blank is the chief executive officer for Costa Rica’s Call center since 2008. Richard also holds a bachelor's degree in communication and Spanish from the University of Arizona and a certificate of language proficiency from the University of Sevilla Spain, a keynote speaker for Philadelphia's Abington High School, 68th National Honor Society induction ceremony.
Giving back to the high school is especially important to Richard as such. He endows a scholarship each year for students that plan on majoring in a world language at the university level. So, I've got to start Richard with the first part here that just jumped right at me as the largest collection of restored American pinball machines and jukeboxes. Now if anybody knows me, they know that I love pinball aside from playing guitar for the last for years. I love pinball, I don't quite go into the Galaga and those things that my wife loves but I love playing pinball.
So, tell us what you have got, I'd love to know what kind of pinball machines you have Steve, I'm so glad that you started with dessert first and naturally our favorite class in school was recessed. So absolutely. I grew up in the seventies and eighties and the arcades were just some of the most amazing places to make friends and compete. It was so new and the artwork on the cabinets and the marquees, it really was an experience and always wanted that game room like Ricky Schroder and silver spoons.
I was jealous. So, I wanted one and down here since I own a call center and I have the space, I go treasure hunting and one man's trash is another man's treasure and they just really do not know what they have in their bodegas. And so, I will find a machine and bring it back here. And with specialist I restore them now regarding my pinball machines. The oldest one that I have is a 1976 Bally's freedom. And one of the newer ones would be like, let's say a last action hero where a doctor who I have an M. B. A fast break in a mouse.
And around I got Williams, space shuttle 1987 I got a judge Dredd Street fighter, two lethal weapon, three jokers, World cup hook and Jurassic Park. So, it turned out into a hobby became an obsession. And when you're a married man, you decide which hills to die on which swords to fall upon. And my wife and I have this agreement where pretty much everything is in her favor. But the one thing she knows that makes me happy of restoring these old classic jukeboxes and pinball machines because what an error and the craftsmanship and the fact that they've been preserved for decades shows that people really cared about these machines.
Now you and I was awfully expensive growing up. So, it seemed like a luxury. But the fact that we can afford it. It really is something that I take full advantage of when I have the moments with just not my agents but myself. There's always a pinball marathon going on down here. Well, it's great that you have the employee engagement to do that. But I'll tell you, we had bought one, we had a terminator pinball machine at one point that had the gun for the pinball release, but it took so much to get it into the basement of the home that we were living in when we sold the house.
We negotiated to sell the pinball machine, so I didn't have to get it out of there. It was so heavy to move, and I wasn't about to, but I have been in the market for another one right now. The prices are through the roof on all those two. I was looking for an Adam’s family or another terminator, but the Adams family was the one that kind of thrilled me and as well as jukeboxes, it's funny, we have a lot of similar interests in collection.
I don't have any jukeboxes. I wanted to cut my teeth on the first one and I have a buddy in the UK that restores German jukeboxes and he's one of the largest in the world that restores those early seventies and eighties jukeboxes that were built in Germany. I think it was like N C D M or something like that and that's an interesting market. But let's get on to some of the other areas that we're going to talk about. I gave folks at the beginning of the episode, a lot of terminology that we're going to be talking about today.
And one of the things that I really wanted to discuss, this idea of phonetic micro expressions, I don't know if our audience knows what that really is or maybe some do and of course they'll yell at me in the comments etcetera. But can we talk about these things because let's jump into some of these areas that we're going to get across and are these all used the things we're going to talk about? They all used in the contact center, and can you train people in all these areas?
They're used in my call center and just depends on the sort of profiled agent that you have there. Let me take it back a bit. Everybody studies micro expression reading. There was a tv show called Lie to Me that specialized in where you can judge people's postures, their eyes, their face, their hands. I mean there's books and seminars about it now when you're on the phone, three of your senses are removed, your taste, touch and smell. And the scientists claim that when you do have one that is removed, your others expand.
So, I expect you to do much more active listening and then people can also argue that you can't see people on the phone, but I beg to differ because there is image streaming, you have metaphysics when you read a book, it's better than the movie because of imagination. You can use more descriptions and more adjectives but let's just concentrate on the sound of speech. The average attention span is about 30 seconds to two minutes, conversations have introductions, bodies and conclusions. So, if you have a controlled environment, you can have a consistent variable and then you can see inconsistencies.
So now we have a base of how we're going to study speech and 32nd segments. Okay your tone is what represents your emotion, and it should be confident and empathetic because that should be consistent on your end. People will talk about a mirror imaging technique Steve, and I agree with that. But you also need to know how you're speaking for your adjustments. So, your mirror imaging isn't about you sitting across from someone and crossing your arms and tapping a finger. No, you don't have that over the phone.
So, eliminate any sort of mirror imaging face to face. I study the rate and the pitch. These are things that can be done in any language. I do not study semantics. The word choice. I'm studying the tone of your voice which is mine is consistent. I could care less what your tone is. That could be a flag or a mask, but you study someone's rate of speech and how loud they speak their pitch and every 30 seconds to two minutes. Think about the X. Y. Chart that you had in pre-algebra, you can see how fast or how loud they're going.
You consistently market every 30 seconds to two minutes. I would back it up with an answering speed because that is something that you cannot control. It's more subconscious, you can manipulate your tone rate and pitch. But the professional interrogators and police officers’ usual throw the question in the fourth or fifth time to really judge the answering speed. So, if you can do that xy chart with a horizontal line behind it and kind of gauge from 0 to 10 where you're going, you will see areas of spikes or dips and in my opinion that's the time to ask a tie down or pin down question or clarification question.
And these are certain times in which you're able to assist the conversation of moving forward for better clarification and it's not really giving away your power on that. You're really doing more of the Wuwei the less struggle the rudder of the ship. And so, this phonetic micro expression reading can be done just mind you this in your 1st 30 seconds. I don't know you and one is the loneliest number in your second minute. We could have a match off one and a one fast and high, low and slow by five at least.
You might have an odd man out in regard to your quadrants because after you've gone all four quadrants you have to repeat a quadrant, but most of the time people are in quadrant, on the top and the fast and so by your 10th 30 seconds to two minutes. Think about it like this, it's about 4. 5 to 5 minutes on something like that. And by your 11th you should know how somebody is speaking that's 5. 5 minutes in on a 10-minute conversation. And by then you will know how to close the deal.
And so, once you see it you can't unsee it. After three weeks it becomes habit and once you start paying attention to it it becomes very lucid and clearer. You are not lying and I'm not manipulating but these people are obviously giving away certain tell signs on how they speak on first time or even long term conversations and if you do catch somebody being facetious or not as clear, maybe ask them to repeat it using other senses or using another example to see if they're consistent. And so, I think it's an excellent way not to be offensive because passive aggressively you could once again use a me-too technique with somebody.
Let's just say you can't hear them. It's a bad connection on a cellphone or a dog is barking in the background. I try to fall on that small sword instead of placing blame on them, it's for my clarification Steve, did you say 123 or ABC because the worst thing you could ever do Is have somebody so upset and go down rabbit holes because now you need to restart your phonetic micro expression, reading the Tarot Card Reader said you could read two different reads in 10 minutes depending if it's sunny or raining, same person, same hour, but it could be a different read.
So, the greatest thing you could do is to ride that weight and keep it at that apex if you can. It's like when people said lucid dreaming, you really don't want to readjust your body to be able to keep that consistent breathing and body posture. With someone that you're speaking with, you try to keep them as consistent as possible. There's a little wiggle room there but don't go extreme and if you can handle something like that, fall on these swords, get clarification.
I think your audience would have some extremely effective conversations with people on the first time. This is a remarkably interesting area because we do have an awful lot of folks that either work in contact centers or are managing contact centers or even outsource to contact centers. And the training of agents tends to be remarkably similar in most organizations but they're not thinking about how they can better control they’re usually using the approach where gee I'm sorry you're having that problem. So, they're falling on the sword most of the time.
But if you think about the calls, right? If you think about the types of calls that come in, I mean they're not picking up the phone because they're just calling to say thank you or their colleagues to say gee what an excellent product this is. They're usually picking up the phone or they're making a contact with them because there's an issue, there's some type of an issue either they don't understand, they don't know how to fill out, they don't know how to do something or there's a more negative issue.
So, if you think about the incoming approach that happens, a lot of it tends to be negative. And unfortunately, the contact center agents these days are feeling increasingly of society's negativity coming out of the pandemic. You know, because people who are very understanding more, more understanding during the pandemic, but they’re taking it out on front line people. So, I don't know how you guys have seen things. But from the folks that I've spoken to in the last few months, it seems like most of the calls are key issues and they have to diffuse right away.
So can they use the phonetic micro expression method that you talk about to kind of even the playing field and get them to calm down so that they can explain what their issue is better rather than they're ready to blow up at any moment type of thing. Sure. And I'm glad that you brought that up, that's a subject that I can easily address and apply the phonetic micro expression read because mind you my friend you could start the call yelling and cursing and at the end thanking them.
So naturally your phonetic micro expression reading might be adjusted with raid and Fitch. But I would never say that I'm sorry unless you specifically spilled the drink or broke the window because then you might get offended because this individual speaking with you is so nice, they didn't do it but they're apologizing for someone else's broken window. So, my suggestion from my agents immediately is to thank you Steve for sharing that with me. I understand your position didn't mean that I agree with it, but I understand your position and allow me a moment to make it work and fix it for you.
And so now the audience, your client coming in, guns a blazing isn't really putting all that anger at the individual because that individual did not make that problem. They're taking the shrapnel; you say the incoming. That's a wonderful way to use it incoming Obama grenade. But I like to defuse. There's a technique that I use called the buffer boomerang technique. And so, if somebody comes at me with a negative tone, I will like sponge and buffer that negative tone. I will name drop you and say Steve.
That's an excellent question, repeat back your question what it was to show active listening. So, there's a connected key lock there and then boomerang it back as a plus three. So, I could potentially my friend readjust the tone and the pace of the call to then put it back into that phonetic micro expression reading that you need to really nail it. But I believe that people are frustrated and mind you this there's a lot more omnichannel non voiced support. So, prior to that phone call they might have filled out a couple forms, send a couple of emails that only elevates the stress.
So, when they're calling, they're almost letting off steam. And if you allow them to speak, you'd be surprised how it goes from attend to it to both in pitching the rate they cry it out and then everyone calms down. You've taken copious notes. Now, Steve, you mentioned A B. C. And D. What about the Richard? Thank you, Steve. And e there's nothing wrong with raking and reviewing and meeting minutes. It's I can't just solve it with you with a magic potion. These things, someone is coming to you emotional, they don't know you you might need to repeat your name multiple times in third person because now they're embarrassed.
Three men it's in to ask your name Steve. So, you could say okay at the end of this call, Richard, you're going to say Steve. You really helped me out in this section you know, oh thank you Steve. Great. I got them I anchored. And so, these are certain soft skills to just be polite, show your manners, Take that certain control of a conversation, more of a shepherd with its sheep. They zigzag but they still go back in the barn. So, I don't need so many jagged edges.
There are no straight lines in nature and and I love empathy with somebody because when I use your name, I will usually use it in a transitional sentence or confirmation. And then during the conversation I will use personal pronouns as you know the yours and ours just to make sure that I'm keeping your conversation going in your attention and then landing in the bomb when I dropped the name drop and you should take these calls every 30 seconds to two minutes because as you say, they could change. But this gives you an excellent chance, my friend, if you really want to look at it logically that if somebody is calling in, you have a chance to retain the client, you have the chance to up sell them.
If that's what you're doing, you could get a referral out of it. But look at it like this, let's say we drop the ball. Worst case scenario, this individual will take the time to do an exit interview and tell us areas in which we could have improved or what our competition had done to earn their business and as long as you're willing to keep an open mind and I don't like the word constructive criticism. I mean you fumbled the ball; you should have known what you were doing.
Then just call the balls and the strikes and let you know that you made this error and learn from it and don't do it again. And these are the sort of things call by call person by person instead of doing 100 calls a day Steve. Why don't you have your agents take 95? They're taking extra couple three minutes on the phone to let Mr. jones relax a little bit. That is the secret to the successor old school style. This is interesting because as you're explaining some of these tips and techniques, it occurs that it doesn't just apply in the contact center world.
I mean this could be if you're a brick-and-mortar store, it could be your pizza place. There could be people calling because hey, you got the wrong toppings on my pizza. The delivery was wrong or there could be all kinds of things, but it applies to all areas of business and people running small businesses could learn from these same techniques. Don't you agree? This could save a thanksgiving dinner. A marriage. These are just diplomatic soft skills of attentive listening and prioritizing, but I couldn't agree with you more and I never even shared with you.
My favorite technique. It's the positive escalation when I call a place and people always give the gatekeeper a bad rap. But these are the individuals that the CEO and the owners love the most and they're the first impression and the strongest warrior of the tribe. They're the first one there, representing them in the best light. And so, for me, I'd like to understand their protocol. I like to properly introduce myself and say the name of their company and ask how their company is doing sometimes better than they do just to at least give them a taste of how I speak instead of just immediately asking to speak to you Steve.
And then if this individual decides to transfer me the first thing, I'm going to let them know prior to the transfers that they did an excellent job. And I will be mentioning that verbally to the owner of the company and at the conclusion of the call with the owner of the company, I will also mention that in writing. So, if I happen to call your company back, the Richard Circle's complete because this individual remembers me, and I've heard dozens and dozens of times. I thank you and saying I've been here for a decade and you're the first person that wrote about me to Mr. jones.
And these are individuals that will tell you anniversaries and promotions or no Steve’s direct extensions. 1 25 calms on Thursdays at two. Thank you, Catherine. I appreciate it and I love them to death. Those are the greatest insiders. It's a plethora of information and the moment that you start bullying your way in there or pretending they're waiting for your call or your insistent. That's why they're there to hang up on you. But there's a certain way to be not clever, but you have 30 seconds to make a first impression.
Half of that is your speech her speech and give a couple of seconds of silence. So, you really got about 12 seconds to speak. That's not a lot. My suggestion is to say things that they're most familiar with which is the name of their company and their own name and then you got to do your own name as well because you can't be anonymous. The whole call that's shady. You can use a little bit of that in the beginning by just doing a name spike in a proper introduction and if you get the past to pitch, you have the momentum and then you do once again that sort of escalation.
It It seems to work for me because it separates you from hundreds if not thousands of people that are prospecting that business interesting back to the contact center for a second. You talked about have your agents take 95 calls instead of 100 but most of the contact centers that I've dealt with over the past 20 plus years. They're driven by their average handle time. They're driven by the numbers to some degree. They're even told when they're going to the bathroom. How do you resolve that to a contact center manager that is just driving everything by the numbers.
So, you're an intake coordinator for a law firm for lawsuits against firings or disabilities and somebody calls in and they happen to become emotional for a minute. What are you going to do Steve look at the clock and say Mrs. jones. Please hurry up. I only have two more minutes to talk to you. You know what would happen? It wouldn't be for the client or for me, the agent might resign on something like that. So as much as we want to stick to certain metrics, you're talking about an artist of speech.
Somebody that is in the moment that's in the now that wants to assist this individual the best way that they can and by limiting their ability to build that sort of rapport or to allow someone to get it out. Which could be the key to closing the deal or to Upsell for something or to get that referral. I don't do things like that. Now we're not doing extreme where someone's doing 50 calls a day instead of 100. But you can see there's an average but that's what it's called an average and if you say you just want to look at conversion ratios.
Look at that too. But everyone once again is an artist and they have their own special sauce and some people are graded intros, other bodies, other conclusions. But my goodness gracious is somebody is in the moment and they're connecting with someone and they're standing up instead of sitting down and you could tell they have the glaze where they're not staring at anyone. They're just thinking of the client, and everyone can see them doing this. You don't think that that energy spreads on the floor. You don't think that that's important as well.
That sort of synergy. So, these rigid centers that judge you on your bathroom breaks and your handling time you're going to break the agent. I mean you can do that and grind it out, but you might have an attrition rate. But if I give somebody the ability to expand on a call and to be themselves my friends. So, they're not just plastic and going through the motions then I can create an ace, I can create a leader. I can create someone that will come to me at the conclusion of the call and say you know, Mrs. jones started crying.
I go she alright, She goes, yeah, it took a couple more minutes but I connected her through to the counselor and I gave additional notes because we had to speak about her husband just passing away and the fact that she has to move and other things that would have never been qualifying the call because you're supposed to be asking her just certain questions but know this individual added additional things and then they say, thank you for listening. You're the different company than the ones before that. Just put me through the assembly line and you know that it's the mom and pop.
It's the bed and breakfast. You'd rather go to the small hardware store sometimes because you know the man, I'll drive an extra couple of miles from my favorite restaurant Steve. That's the sort of the science that you're talking about. It's amazingly simple. It's how you feel and how you were treated. What about the price? What about the price? Sometimes it's worth the money. It's not always about saving a dollar. It's about supporting your business or if I'm having a day with some blues, you come over to me and just let me know you're happy that I'm there and you sit with me for a second.
So, as we get older, my friend, those are the sort of relationships that we see at businesses and you, and I understand that the grind and we also understand when your favorite client walks through the door. So, I like to pay that forward the best that I can. Absolutely. So, I went down that path and I think your answer and your philosophy is brilliant. Unfortunately. I mean it's the way I believe too that the contact center folks in an organization should be revered because they are your front line.
They hold things together. They are the impetus for the referral the up sell the further sell the expansion all those things. Yet still in today's world, C E O s don't always think that way. They look at a contact center as a cost center rather than the proper way of looking at it as it's an expansion center. It's a focus group. It's the lifeblood of the company because those folks have the most contact with our customers post sale, they become the hub of the post-sale journey and unfortunately maybe it'll take another generation before enough sea level folks understand that.
So that brings me more to the conversation of culture. How do we develop a culture in our contact centers especially and I know this can spill out into the rest of the business, but how can we develop a culture that rewards and reveres the contact center agents as being the customer success vehicle, the people that help our customers become more successful using our products and our services. You must look at it Two ways. If you yourself are not centered in balance, it would be exceedingly difficult to expand and to think of others.
I can't hit the ball and drag johnny as much as my agents here have become bilingual, which shows structure and dedication over years outside the classroom. I expect them to do the same thing if they're thinking about being a telemarketer as a profession besides the eight hours that they put in here, they should be doing dedicated practice outside of the center, reading in English watching certain movies or speeches so they can take certain parts of rhetoric that inspired them. That they saw transitional sentences or effective. You could do case studies in history and find out certain speeches that moved people.
And then secondly, I mentioned the word synergy. These individuals were a very social environment. If you and I are working out at the gym Steve, we're going to be pumping each other up to put up three or four more on the bar and put more plates up. So, I expect the audience, the agents to feed off their energy and to share ideas and to pick someone up when they're feeling down. As I mentioned, I created a Gamification culture. So, I have a place where people can let off steam, recharge batteries hang out with me and meet people from other departments.
So that assists me in one way. But also, since once again English is their second language. The fact that they are getting a return on investment. I see that these agents are much more focused for intense periods of time because of the translation. So, it's less area for distraction. But here's the best part my man regarding my culture when I first came down here 27 years old, I didn't start sea level of my friends call center. I taught English decided to stay and then worked at the center and so I was with the proletariat for four years, I went through so many departments.
I saw the good and the bad and what it did for me was it enabled me to see areas to enhance it for the agent and for the client to give them their dignity, so they don't feel like robots are expendable. And when I had the opportunity to start this business, they couldn't fool me because I was on the phone, I've done this before and I hate to say it, I'm not bragging but I am the sin save my dojo in this industry where people burn out and they look down upon it, I thrived really excelled.
But I saw the art in it. Look at it like this, you're very selective of the campaigns that come in here, we're in a strict catholic country. They must go home and tell their parents what they do. If I brought in something gray area or shady, no one would take it. So I'd have no friends of my chuck e cheese birthday party and so you have to do an account to not only where the client feels okay offering it, but the Asian would feel comfortable making the calls because if it's a forced fit, if it's out of place and out of character, they're not going to last long, they're not going to sound natural and we're not giving anything real specific here.
But as I say, I must ensure that what I'm bringing into this call center something where I'm able to fulfill the needs. Now I can add scripts and suggestions, but initially it must be something that just does not compromise any sort of ethics interesting. Well, let's cover a little bit more because I'm fascinated by not only the culture, but the organization that you've built to help organizations that want to outsource their contact center. So, we could talk a little bit about your training, you're coaching your mentoring methods and then what does the knowledge base look like for your agents to always do a better job?
Because quite frankly, I mean you're going to do as good or better a job than the company you're representing because you're going to keep the account and you're going to keep them happy and keep them over the course of a lifetime. So how do you train differently? How do you coach and mentor folks and keep them so that you don't have the attrition level that a lot of places have today. That's a wonderful question real fast in regards to attrition, I have more of a natural attrition than a forced attrition because companies such as amazon hp intel and oracle and Sykes are here, so I'll lose somebody for a scheduling conflict for the university of boyfriend or girlfriend works there closer to their home, very rarely, if not never someone will say that I insulted them, yelled at them, gave them the walk of shame.
It's just maybe an ex-employee with some sour grapes. I treat everybody with dignity, and I look for ways to delegate and promote them, but initially it's really the psychology prior to any sort of skill set. So, fear is a morbid anticipation of things that haven't happened yet. The fact that they learned a second language is 10 times harder than any campaign. I'll put them on. I also believe in the right bus, right seat philosophy. And so, when they come into the call center besides starting their day playing pinball to make friends and relax a little bit.
We really do focus on quality assurance so we can grade their calls for certain metrics. But I try to do certain breakthroughs like when they're filling out their resumes with me and putting in all their credentials, I'll ask them to turn the page over Steve and give me a couple of paragraphs of a coming of age moment, let me know when you beat up a bully or save the kitten from a tree. And so, I could use this when they're having a rainy Wednesday to remind them of when they were a champion.
These are things they always have in them. It's just a matter of getting it out and keeping it consistent and so let's just say in the first day of class, it's especially important not just to lecture them when they just nodded you and walk out the door. You need to have checkpoints; you need to have interaction. You can go over a certain segment and then just maybe have somebody stand up in front of class and read the next paragraph. Why? Because you're triple gunning. They're reading out loud their public speaking, they're doing it in front of the boss.
Imagine those sorts of butterflies you would have, but if you could triple or quadruple your training daily where then you go upstairs, you record yourself reading the script, where you're practicing it. You're not just reading it, you're speaking into a recording device, then you're listening to it and then you're doing a self-analysis for self-adjustments over the things we spoke about. You'll know when you're pausing is off or when you're too loud or too best. Are you stuttered or mispronounced a word and I'm allowing you Steve to write it out phonetically, at least learn how to spell it.
But the vowels are sometimes tricky for Latinos, so it's okay to be able to switch things around so it's pronounced a certain way, and these are the sort of adjustments, minor adjustments that we make for somebody to feel more comfortable initially. So, they don't pick up unhealthy habits and kind of like bedside manner. I can't stress enough; the name drops and the act of listening and the confirmations because people feel much more comfortable when they're being listened to, and you are taking your meeting minutes and if we need to repeat something in the military alphabet.
A it shows that you're extremely involved and engaged in the conversation. A lot of the times people served in the military, so they think that's cool and you're not just making up words and going along. These people know that you are actively trying to spell their name, their email address correctly. And so, I've seen the tens of thousands of phone calls. That that's the most effective way of not to offend somebody when you can't hear them well or they have an exotic name or if it's something where you just say, yeah, okay, but the next thing, you know, your email bounces back.
It would have been better off to confirm if it's L for lima, you know, and just to make sure that you got it. And as I say, these are the sort of things like in school, you come to class, you do your homework and you do your quizzes, you can still not do so well on the final exam, but you're going to pass the class, you will be preparing yourself and marinating and softening up the call in the relationship in order to convert it. And sometimes my friends, it happens a second or third time don't expect a cold call close.
I tell my clients to put their checkbook away. A lot of the times, I just want to answer their questions and show credentials and reintroduce them to other people on the floor that they can meet and make a better decision. So don't feel rushed. People will see that, and they will be apprehensive to move forward with you. So let it happen at a natural pace. So, you said something about you QC. All the calls and I think I remember you were talking about your Hall of Fame, you know, the best and the worst calls.
I mean is that used as a training method for everyone to understand both the good and the bad types of calls. Absolutely. Remember you were mentioning earlier about people calling in the first round of calls coming where people are upset if they can ride that wave and they see the bark is, there's no bite. It's just barking and that we calmed mars jones down. We listened to Mrs. jones, we separated piles, we were able to move forward. The call didn't take that long because we didn't have to repeat things because we were confirming things.
We eliminated rabbit holes. We did the mirror imaging. We did the phonetics; we did the drops. It's beautiful. Now you have this toolbox. It's not a to Z. There are steps that can be skipped or moved back to how about we look at it like this? I loved romantic tragedy. So, I consider that a hang up call is a romantic death. Where am I going with this? Let's just say you're just hardcore carpet bombing, making outbound calls and no matter what you say, you're calling a place that she says, don't call again or not interested or we're good.
Thanks, and hang up. I always look at it like this. If you can do a company named spike and do a name, drop of the individual before they hang up on you. I think that's a beautiful death. I think at least poor lome knows you got something out of that call. But then they wouldn't be surprised that you could anchor yourself by just getting them out of that trance by saying their name in that 1st 30 seconds. I've had Times where we bought another minute, bought another three minutes and just by default, nothing on our own.
We couldn't move forward. I'll give you an example. People can call me, and we could be on the phone and 99% were ready to sign the contract. But then they ask if we do Chinese, I don't have Chinese agents, I don't do graveyard shift and I can't match offshore prices India and the Philippines. So just by that alone, I'm not able to move forward, but 99% fit. So how do I feel about that? A little disappointed. But then again, I was able to go 15 rounds lost on the decision, but I was still able to make my points listen to their points build rapport, have some labs introduce, fantasize good call.
So, another couple of questions, what type of companies or what type of industries do you guys mostly handle calls for inbound or apa? Well, I'll let you know five. We don't do, we don't do sports books, casino stocks, pharmacies or sweepstakes. I have nothing against it. Just don't want to do it. But I'm looking for small to medium sized companies in the United States, Canada Central America and Europe that would need individuals to make outbound lead generation, appointment setting or inbound customer support. And it's amazingly simple.
Our agents are college educated; they're dedicated. I don't have a blended or mixed center. They only work for your campaign, and they have some amazing skill sets here. Costa Rica really packs a punch regarding business process outsourcing. I have mentioned some of the big boys, but there are tons of call centers here and since we're the only democratic society in central America, they don't have a standing army. So, there's a 95% literacy rate Steve so as much as people might see telemarketing call centers as transitional sort of jobs or something in the United States, as you say, has a certain rap here.
It pays more than most vocation. So, I'm having some extremely educated bilingual people with degrees walking in this door and working with me. So, it's amazing the sort of people that you meet here. Very eclectic, all diverse types. That's great. So, if a company called and says, okay, we want to get started, what is that initial onboarding looks like time wise especially and system wise and how quickly can you be up and running to take their calls? Great. Well let's just say I accept the vertical and I'm comfortable with that.
There's a pre-launch checklist that my floor manager and chief technical officer sent to that company. It's exceedingly difficult for me to start moving forward without stations being set up connections, made scripts for bottles, reporting and contact because once the ads go out and people come in, it's really a seller's market. I got to be able to explain it to their candidates a, the campaign that they're doing the incentives that they have and the metrics that they're expecting. It just can't be fantasy time. It needs to be something that's concrete.
And so, once we bring the people in, it really all depends on the training time. I've had people go as low as a half a day just to teacher CRM and do a little bit of role play for fun and others do longer training sessions, even up to a month. That concerns me because we do follow all Costa Rican labor laws and there are certain call centers that are known for like for an example, sykes has the MetLife account and supposedly people will be there for an entire month training and then on their first day of coming back to work, they just don't show up.
And by Costa Rican labor law, they need to get paid for that month they go on a certain list as being a jumper and it's not fair, but that's the name of the game. So, the longer the training, the more I'm concerned because people sometimes can take advantage of that and just use that as a placeholder until they can find another job. So, if we have certain awfully specific checkpoints to ensure that this agent really has done their due diligence, really engage really up to speed.
That's a good risk compared to just doing five days’ worth of classroom, talking about merchant process outsourcing and stuff like that. It needs to be awfully specific, and I have to ensure that this client that I'm speaking with does have a track record. If it's a brand-new pilot project, then we need to invest in the process and there shouldn't be any surprises and I must let them know what to expect when building a campaign, there may be attrition. We may need to readjust the script, call certain area codes, or do certain things.
But I guess the most important thing about it is being forthright, when it comes to onboarding people, I can easily have somebody in five business days, depending if you need 10 people give me up to 10 business days, you know, and maybe we can hire people piecemeal, we can catch them when certain campaigns and other centers and as I mentioned, it's very competitive out there. The more that you put out the start date, the more that you're going to lose people because they need a job between those times and now since Covid came, it really adjusted to the work from home.
So there is an advantage of the brick and mortar because of internet redundancy, my generator and on site I. T. Support but Steve, I was exceptionally fortunate during Covid to be able to adjust my business model virtually because if I owned a brick and mortar only like a bike shop or a pizza parlor, I'm in big trouble as much as I lost a lot of the essence of the center and the camaraderie? I was able to survive. But you know, the labor pools changed. I must ensure if there is training, they should be on site to know the company culture and at least meet us before going home.
It's one of those things my friend where I really did see a huge shift that when I first started this back in 2000, that's great. Well, in the last few minutes that we've got, you know, I'd ask you whether we could give our listeners an exercise. We talked about the two-paragraph coming of age. Can you explain an exercise that folks can do as homework after they listen to this episode. And that might be interesting for them to learn more about the content that we gave them here today and then when we come back maybe you can give folks a way of getting in touch with you guys if that's something that they're looking for.
Thanks Steve, I appreciate it. Let people do the Triple watch. They should watch something without sound, they should watch something without sight. And if you want to study the visual body language, that's great. Just watch something without sound. You can assume what they're doing and then if you want to study the phonetics, to choose a channel that you don't understand the language. Like for me it would have to be Chinese or German or something like that. Italian French and Portuguese are too like Spanish for me.
But if I watch the Chinese channel, it's extremely easy for me to do that phonetic micro expression reading because I don't understand any semantic. So even I'm taking out the tone, I'm just studying their rate in their pit. Do not get study it that way while you're on the phone, once again these are things that you can do. You just draw your xy chart the horizontal line and every 30 seconds to two minutes point to how Mr. Jones's speaking just for practice, but it is about practice. It's about dedicated practice.
Record yourself, listen to yourself. I don't like how I sound. That's what everybody says. But guess what you that's what you got. So, you need to adjust it and as you and I have a mirror and our beards look great because we do look great. You could do the same thing with your voice as well. Record it, master it adjusted. And if you do that, you'll see that you'll get more positive reinforcement from people. There will be more I guess inclined to ask you for advice because you were sympathetic about it and the way you spoke about it and finally if you are in a certain situation where there's emotion and its tense, you should choose to speak last.
And if it's not something where you need to immediately give an answer then you should sleep on it so you can decompress and come back the next day a little more levelheaded and prioritize and that's an excellent way to grow and to crack some codes and to get to various levels. You don't always need to prove your point at that moment. There are other ways to do it. So, you don't overreact overextend and say something you regret. So, it's not like you're being weak. No, you're being considerate of it and you're being tactful about it.
If you're in the moment and its face to face with somebody if you must, even though it looks funny, you should close your eyes when speaking. So, there's less distraction and you're not energy being sucked from you. They might say why you close your eyes. I'm allowed. There's no rules to this. It's not tag you're asking me something emotional, so allow me my focus and my balance and if somebody is being aggressive with you, I think you should look in between their eyes, it looks like you're looking in their eyes.
So it's not like you're looking away or allowing them to suck the energy out of you, like Medusa, but it is a certain technique sir where instead of losing your direction and your energy and your breathing, you can regroup yourself and these are the sort of conflict management skills that have assisted me and having more productive conversations when they could have really gotten out of hand. That's great. I mean this has been filled, filled with great techniques, tips and insight as well. Thank you for being so generous with your expertise.
This has really been a wonderful episode, Richard. How can people get in touch with you if they're thinking about outsourcing if they're thinking about needing a contact center because I think by the end of this, they understand what you bring to the table. So how can they get in touch with you? I really appreciate having me on the show today with you, your audience and allowing me to share this information. The first thing they should do, my friend is by a first-class plane ticket. Come down here to Costa Rica so you can enjoy some eco-tourism, go to some beaches and waterfalls but your audience can give me a call at triple 82716750.
Or send me an email. CEO Costa Rica’s call center dot com. And finally have an exceptionally large Facebook fan page about 98,000 local Costa Rican Ticos. And they can't wait to meet you, Steve. You're going to have tens of thousands of new fans in central America. I can't wait. Well, Richard, thanks again for joining us today. I really love the thing that you said earlier and I'm going to add something to it. So, each agent is a voice artist, and this is a message to all the C E. O. S out there that have contact centers and folks that have agents working for them that each agent is a voice artist and I think you should let them create a great interaction.
So let them create, let them build those great interactions. So that's it for our episode of the Science of C. X. I'm Steve Pappas, your host. We've had Richard blank on today from Costa Rica call center and I want to thank you all for joining us. If you like the content that we bring to you, please feel free to drop us a review wherever you get your podcasts and until we meet again, please stay safe. Stay healthy and do take care everyone. Bye bye. You've been listening to the science of C. X. My name is Steve Pappas.
I really hope you've enjoyed this episode and if you have the highest compliment that you can give us is to subscribe rate and review the science of C. X. Thanks. And we'll see you in the next episode. Finding one place to see all customer experience related tools of technology has been difficult until now. We just built it. Get ready for a science of C. X. Original customer experience technology has been helping to drive businesses by giving them insights into better methods to engage and delight their customers for some time now.
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Richard’s vision quest journey is filled with twists and turns. When he was 27 years old, he relocated to Costa Rica to train employees for one of the larger call centers in San Jose. With a mix of motivational public speaking style backed by tactful and appropriate rhetoric, Richard shared his knowledge and trained over 10 000 bilingual telemarketers. Richard Blank has the largest collection of restored American Pinball machines and antique Rockola Jukeboxes in Central America making gamification a strong part of CCC culture.Richard Blank is the Chief Executive Officer for Costa Rica’s Call Center since 2008.
Mr. Richard Blank holds a bachelors degree in Communication and Spanish from the University of Arizona and a certificate of language proficiency from the University of Sevilla, Spain. A Keynote speaker for Philadelphia's Abington High School 68th National Honors Society induction ceremony. In addition, inducted into the 2023 Hall of Fame for Business. Giving back to Abington Senior High School is very important to Mr. Blank. As such, he endows a scholarship each year for students that plan on majoring in a world language at the university level.
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In this sit down with Richard Blank, we discuss how to train telemarketers, even if English is not their first language.
Introduction 2:55
Learning Another Language 4:08
Contact Richard Blank 4:48
Costa Rica Demographic 5:48
Training New Telemarketers 7:43
Dealing with Conflicts 9:24
Teaching Phonetics 11:10
Keeping Employees Motivated 13:14
Benefits of Outsourcing 14:44
Final Thoughts 17:10 Outro
Big Boss Podcast has accepted Richard Blank's invitation to join the audience for a solid discussion regarding starting a company from scratch in Costa Rica as an expat. Topics discussed with Richard: advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, pinball machines, employee motivation, phonetic micro expression reading.
Richard’s journey in the call center space is filled with twists and turns. When he was 27 years old, he relocated to Costa Rica to train employees for one of the larger call centers in San Jose. With a mix of motivational public speaking style backed by tactful and appropriate rhetoric, Richard shared his knowledge and trained over 10 000 bilingual telemarketers. Richard Blank has the largest collection of restored American Pinball machines and antique Rockola Jukeboxes in Central America making gamification a strong part of CCC culture.Richard Blank is the Chief Executive Officer for Costa Rica’s Call Center since 2008.
Mr. Richard Blank holds a bachelors degree in Communication and Spanish from the University of Arizona and a certificate of language proficiency from the University of Sevilla, Spain. A Keynote speaker for Philadelphia's Abington High School 68th National Honors Society ceremony. Also, inducted into the 2023 Hall of Fame for business. Giving back to Abington Senior High School is very important to Mr. Blank. As such, he endows a scholarship each year for students that plan on majoring in a world language at the university level.
Costa Rica’s Call Center (CCC) is a state of the art BPO telemarketing outsource company located in the capital city of San Jose, Costa Rica. Our main focus has been, and will always be to personally train each and every Central America call center agent so that we may offer the highest quality of outbound and inbound telemarketing solutions and bilingual customer service to small and medium sized international companies, entrepreneurs as well as fortune 500 companies.
We encourage you to visit one of our call centers on your next personal vacation or business trip to Central America’s paradise, Costa Rica. While you are here, we would recommend taking an extra day of your trip to visit breathtaking virgin beaches, play golf next to the ocean, try your luck at deep sea fishing, explore tropical jungles, climb volcanos or just relax in natural hot springs. Come and see for yourself why call center outsourcing in Costa Rica is a perfect solution for your growing company and a powerhouse in the BPO industry.
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
https://youtu.be/nvo7txcSL6Q
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How to score a pass to pitch on a telemarketing call? INspired INsider Podcast guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: Richard, you mentioned from an outbound perspective, so there's different kind of parts to the call. So I'd love for you to break that down, especially the opening part. Cause if you, you know, you've mentioned before, if you don't get past that, it doesn't matter what you have planned
Richard Blank: for the rest of the call.
Richard Blank: That's a great point. Well, every conversation has an introduction of body and a conclusion. You can't land that intro. There is nobody in conclusion. Doctor. I also believe that every conversation and attention span is 30 seconds to two minutes. Okay? And so when we're touching base with somebody, there is a give and a take initially before that positive escalation for the assistant that's answering calls for your company.
Richard Blank: What I love to do is a company name Spike. I'm not anonymous for the entire phone call, but the first thing that comes outta my mouth is the name of your company, how your company is doing. You know, before I even introduce myself, so I'll say better than somebody that answers the phone at your company.
Richard Blank: And then from there, a lot of the times they'll be asking me questions. And what I have here is a certain technique, it's called the buffer boomerang technique. Hypothetically, Germany, if somebody is answering with a negative tone, there's a way to be able to buffer that negative tone. Do a name drop, let them know that's an Exxon question.
Richard Blank: Repeat the question to show active. Listen. Then boomerang it back as a plus two. And so initially somebody could ask what my name is, and now I'd say, Jeremy, that's an Exxon question. My name is Richard Blank, as an example. And so what happens is you're able to show the active listening, readjust the tone of a call, but then in the middle of a call there is something that I like to consider.
Richard Blank: Micro phonetic, micro expression reading, and what I have here, As an actual chart, it's very simple. You're focusing on phonetics, which is your tone, rate, pitch, and duration. Your tone should be the consistent variable of empathy and confidence. There's a mirror imaging technique, but I believe that should be done every 30 seconds to two minutes with your rate of speech and your pitch.
Richard Blank: You're speaking level. Now. I need to match you with this. Because if you do a spike or a dip, that's usually when I ask a tie down or a pin down question if it makes sense or sounds good. And then also when people are on the phone and they're explaining their services. A lot of times they'll do desert pitching, Jeremy.
Richard Blank: Well, they'll just talk without any sort of oasis for drinking and resting. And so what I like to do is to give my list pause in between each one, like a dessert tray to see if there's a reaction at the end. Say in a brazen way. I'm sure you'll like at least one, so I can break the sort of questions that I have.
Richard Blank: And then sort of positive or negative reinforcement in these conversations. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. After three weeks, it becomes practice. I believe in a five to one name drop to pronoun, where in every sentence you're either saying R or your, and then usually use a name drop for the tie down question.
Richard Blank: And then at the end you can also rake one last tongue by saying, Listen, since you have me on the phone today, Jeremy, are there any other additional questions that you have? Usually you might mention something else after I repeat the. I repeat information in military alphabet because instead of concluding the call, there's a very good chance we could be talking about how proud we are of the military and those that have served.
Richard Blank: And then as I mentioned before, giving you a positive written escalation regards to those that are working with you. And so these are things that I believe won't compromise ethics, values and morals naturally. I'm skimming over this quickly, but there are certain things as expression reading. And since we're losing three of our senses over the phone, our taste, touch, and smell, the doctors and scientists say that your other senses should be expanded.
Richard Blank: Besides your active listening. I believe in image streaming where they say that books are better than movies and there's no reason why your imagination, your adjectives and your descriptions could be incredible. It could be illuminating. It could really put some insight in where you're going on some of these phone calls.
Richard Blank: And so as I mentioned before, as long as you become animated, engaged, and you are this individual's biggest fan, and you really take in the information and energy that they're giving with you, you'll find your job very fulfilling. It's because most people today see a telemarketing job as transitional or they look down upon it, but there is a ton of people that make and receive phone calls for every type of business.
Richard Blank: And some of the greatest people that you could speak with in the world do show this empathy because I, I'll share an example with you. I have a law firm account here, and we have intake coordinators for, it's a disability and wrongful termination. And so what happens is, and you being a doctor as well, you might be meeting people when they're most vulnerable in having the worst day of their life.
Richard Blank: And so if you are capable. Of having somebody calm down, find their focus and move forward with you. You could be one of the greatest individuals there when they needed you the most. And so a lot of my agents, instead of they can earn a living so many different ways, but if they can get this sort of fulfillment by knowing that success is built on a million thank yous and that they get all these positive written escalations to our company about how great they're doing.
Richard Blank: They know that they are on the right path and that once again their karma's gonna kick it, and that if they do leave this company and I am the last boss that they ever have, they will be prepared to build an incredible organization.
Inspired Insider Podcast has accepted Richard Blank's invitation to join the audience for a solid discussion regarding taking a chance by moving abroad and starting a company from scratch in Costa Rica. Dr. Jeremy Weisz discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
INspiredINsider.com Show features interviews with successful and inspirational entrepreneurs, authors, and visionary leaders.The interviews reveal deeply personal stories and explore the tough journey of Big Challenges or Big Mistakes that the inspirational leaders overcame to achieve success. Have You Ever Hit a Wall in Business or Life?
Dr. Jeremy Weisz is the Founder of InspiredInsider.com & CEO of Rise25.com He has been featuring top entrepreneurs with video interviews since 2010 that include founders/CEO’s of P90X, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, the Orlando Magic, Rx Bars and many more on InspiredInsider. He was senior producer for 6 years at one of the early top business podcasts helping to put systems in place and to run some of the behind the scenes operations.He continues to run his own chiropractic & massage facility in downtown Chicago and is founder of a nutritional supplement business.
Richard’s journey in the call center space is filled with twists and turns. When he was 27 years old, he relocated to Costa Rica to train employees for one of the larger call centers in San Jose. With a mix of motivational public speaking style backed by tactful and appropriate rhetoric, Richard shared his knowledge and trained over 10 000 bilingual telemarketers. Richard Blank has the largest collection of restored American Pinball machines and antique Rockola Jukeboxes in Central America making gamification a strong part of CCC culture.Richard Blank is the Chief Executive Officer for Costa Rica’s Call Center since 2008.
Mr. Richard Blank holds a bachelors degree in Communication and Spanish from the University of Arizona and a certificate of language proficiency from the University of Sevilla, Spain. A Keynote speaker for Philadelphia's Abington High School 68th National Honors Society induction ceremony. Giving back to Abington Senior High School is very important to Mr. Blank. As such, he endows a scholarship each year for students that plan on majoring in a world language at the university level.
Costa Rica’s Call Center (CCC) is a state of the art BPO telemarketing outsource company located in the capital city of San Jose, Costa Rica. Our main focus has been, and will always be to personally train each and every Central America call center agent so that we may offer the highest quality of outbound and inbound telemarketing solutions and bilingual customer service to small and medium sized international companies, entrepreneurs as well as fortune 500 companies.
We encourage you to visit one of our call centers on your next personal vacation or business trip to Central America’s paradise, Costa Rica. While you are here, we would recommend taking an extra day of your trip to visit breathtaking virgin beaches, play golf next to the ocean, try your luck at deep sea fishing, explore tropical jungles, climb volcanos or just relax in natural hot springs. Come and see for yourself why call center outsourcing in Costa Rica is a perfect solution for your growing company and a powerhouse in the BPO industry.
https://youtu.be/xMQ-mlL9ohA
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
https://www.inspiredinsider.com/richard-blank-interview/
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-inspired-insider-wi-29650573/episode/improving-your-customer-support-with-richard-99381742/
https://player.fm/series/inspired-insider-podcast/improving-your-customer-support-with-richard-blank-of-costa-ricas-call-center
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https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/improving-your-customer-support-with-richard-blank/id729464589?i=1000569868046
Joe Killinger: Welcome to the Real Estate Jam session. You know, I always try and bring value to you guys and it's all geared toward the real estate industry, and I'm always looking for ways that I can really enhance the experience of being in this industry. And cold calling, like it or not, is a big part of our industry.
Joe Killinger: So as fortunate to run into Richard Blank, Richard has been a cold collars entire life. Matter of fact, he runs a cold collar company down in uh, Costa Rica, which I think I need to go visit. Looks beautiful down there, but he came on the show today and really gives us tips and tricks to really be more successful with our cold calling.
Joe Killinger: So make sure you check it out. Give us a like while you're there. Now, if you're new to the channel, my name is Joe Klinger. I've been a real estate entrepreneur for over 20 years, and I use this channel to bring on people like Richard to really help you learn all that tips and tricks to be successful in this industry.
Joe Killinger: So make sure you check it out. Give us a like while you're there, and if you haven't done so, make sure you.
Joe Killinger: So Richard, you know, is a, a real estate agent. Breaking those barriers, getting in front of a client, a serious client, and, you know, a, it's, it's daunting, right? You know, you gotta pick up that phone and be ready for rejection and, um, you know, it, it's very hard. So, can you kind of, uh, let's, let's start with commercial real estate first.
Joe Killinger: Let's, let's start there and talk about what tactics do you put in place to really help you, um, get through to the decision maker?
Richard Blank: Well, first and foremost, very happy to be sharing these ideas with you and yeah, I appreciate it. Really enjoying the time that we're having today on this podcast. And so what I do here, I have a simple structure.
Richard Blank: I have an introduction of body and conclusion, usually in a normal conversation, and the average attention span, in my opinion, is 30 seconds to two minutes. So let's say you're making a prospecting outbound phone call, as you were mentioning, B to. B to B business to business, the first thing I would do is when somebody answers the phone, is to use your anonymity and do a company name spike better than they would.
Richard Blank: So I'd say, Hey, how's Joe doing today? , you know, and then just to make sure that the whole company is doing great. And then the individual that answers the phone would usually ask me. What is your name? And the first technique I would mention is a buffer boomerang technique because they're usually, as you mentioned, black and blue, from getting so many phone calls.
Richard Blank: Mm-hmm. . And the fact that they are just gonna say, We're good. Thanks. Hang up or not transfer the call. You almost have to differentiate yourself, mothers, So usually I like to say even the name of the company, how the company's doing the first time. And then when they ask me this buffer boomerang technique, I will say, Hey Joe, that's an excellent question.
Richard Blank: My name is Richard Blank, and so this individual sees the active listening. I can readjust their negative tone into a positive tone, repeat their question, and then send it back once again with a name drop and who I am. And so after gaining the trust of this gatekeeper, as you would call them, I'm also gonna let them know that I'm transferred to the decision maker.
Richard Blank: I'm gonna let them know how great you are on the phone. We call that a positive escalation. So it increases your odds of actually having that call transferred. Didn't say you get the appointment but transferred. So then when the call is transferred, you are given the gift of telling this individual how amazing Joe was who answered the phone.
Richard Blank: And so you still have your anonymity. And don't be anonymous. The whole call, that's a little bit of shape, right? But if you just start off strong by complimenting someone that works with them. , it separates you from the others that have been calling and shows what you do prior to contracts. And so this individual, once again will ask who you are.
Richard Blank: So another with Buffer Boomerang, that's an excellent question, Mr. Decision Maker. My name is Richard Blank, and so we're having these conversations with the individual and if you're mentioning all the different services, options, and features of your real estate business, In your way. I just wouldn't do desert pitching Joe, because a lot of times people are so scared or reluctant to let someone speak for the fear of being hung up upon, So I believe pitch.
Richard Blank: Desert Pitchings. If you give a list of five things in a row and not even giving the person a chance to look at your dessert and make sort of reaction on it, there's no oasis in the desert.
Joe Killinger: I'm gonna learn a lot today, I can tell. Ok. And so
Richard Blank: it's almost like the MLS when you're talking about a house, you know, you're mentioned ways of the house.
Richard Blank: With the commercial real estate, you have to go over certain sections, and since it's a non-visual call, you have to gauge the positive or the negative reactions from. This potential client. And so I say slow down on your list of things that you're offering. Take the horizontal to a vertical because you are gonna find one or two things of interest, and then stack that with opened ended questions so they can explain to you.
Richard Blank: Why commercial real estate is important, why they may move forward. Okay. And so as we're continuing this conversation, my suggestion, cuz you're very keen on this, is that this is a first time phone call and there are certain tele signs you can get from somebody over the phone. Once again, I talked about 30 seconds to two minutes.
Richard Blank: My tone needs to be consistent of empathy and confidence, right? There's four sections to phonetics. It's tone, rate, pitch, and duration. Everyone talks about mirror imaging, but I'm not gonna mirror image someone that's negative, so I will always stay positive and always have the answer, but this is the part Joe.
Richard Blank: Of manipulation that you will enjoy if you pay attention to how fast and the speaking level, the pitch of somebody. In every 30 seconds to two minutes, you might see a spike or a dip, and you know perfectly well that's the perfect time to ask a tie down, pin down question. Or potentially if there's noise in the background because some people are working from home, that's still even within, uh, commercial real estate that you would passively, inadvertently and passive aggressively.
Richard Blank: Let them know the Me Too technique on how much you like dogs. Because the dog is making noise or there's a distraction. Someone's on a cell phone. In a car. And so you can always ask the follow up question, What's the dog's name? And so if someone says, Fluffy , Well, I love dogs. Yeah, Put fluffy outside. It's throwing in the call.
Richard Blank: And when they come back, Joe, and I know you're trying to lock in in an appointment, but this is the time that your audience can anchor the coal. You've already made your introduction and you're in the body of the call, but the fact that you and I could talk about your dog for a couple minutes, What that does is that's when you will usually ask me again, excuse me, what is your name?
Richard Blank: And then I'd say, That's an excellent question Joe. My name is Richard Blank. And then your name dropping me the rest of the call. And so when we finish it up, when we go to the conclusion, I want you to say, Joe, since you still have me on the phone, are there any other questions that you have? Cuz you showed me you like A, B, C, and d.
Richard Blank: I know you don't like 'em all, but you showed me you'd like two. Any other questions that you may have, You may or may not. But I always review the information, Joe in military. Because A is the cleanest way, but instead of ending the call, a lot of the times the people have served in the military, nobody's that has.
Richard Blank: Yeah. And then instead of ending the call, you're on the call for another five minutes. Yeah. But I'm still not done. When I'm doing the follow up email to the individual, I will definitely give a written positive escalation on Joe who assisted me. Mm-hmm. to transfer the call. So when I do the Richard Circle and I come back again making the follow up, call the individual yourself, that answer the call is gonna say, In 10 years, no one has ever written something like that about me.
Richard Blank: Yeah. Thank you. And so I'm not saying that you're gonna get the deal, but obviously going from half court to three point to foul line, Yeah. I think you've increased your odds and you've also separated yourself. A lot of people that are just trying to angle in on that goal. Yeah. Oh yeah.
Joe Killinger: You're not just.
Real Estate Jam Session Podcast has accepted Richard Blank's invitation to join the audience for a solid discussion regarding taking a chance by moving abroad and starting a company from scratch in Costa Rica. Joe Killinger discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Joe Killinger has been an active member in the real estate industry for many years, wearing different hats, and at times multiple hats! Over the years he has been an Agent, Investor, Syndicator, Founder and Operator of companies as well as properties he invests in. His expertise has been developed over the past 30 years. During that time he has been personally responsible for the sale of and/or directly involved in the marketing of over 5,900 assets, resulting in closed transactions totaling over 900 million dollars throughout the United States.
Richard’s journey in the call center space is filled with twists and turns. When he was 27 years old, he relocated to Costa Rica to train employees for one of the larger call centers in San Jose. With a mix of motivational public speaking style backed by tactful and appropriate rhetoric, Richard shared his knowledge and trained over 10 000 bilingual telemarketers. Richard Blank has the largest collection of restored American Pinball machines and antique Rockola Jukeboxes in Central America making gamification a strong part of CCC culture.Richard Blank is the Chief Executive Officer for Costa Rica’s Call Center since 2008.
Mr. Richard Blank holds a bachelors degree in Communication and Spanish from the University of Arizona and a certificate of language proficiency from the University of Sevilla, Spain. A Keynote speaker for Philadelphia's Abington High School 68th National Honors Society induction ceremony. Giving back to Abington Senior High School is very important to Mr. Blank. As such, he endows a scholarship each year for students that plan on majoring in a world language at the university level.
Costa Rica’s Call Center (CCC) is a state of the art BPO telemarketing outsource company located in the capital city of San Jose, Costa Rica. Our main focus has been, and will always be to personally train each and every Central America call center agent so that we may offer the highest quality of outbound and inbound telemarketing solutions and bilingual customer service to small and medium sized international companies, entrepreneurs as well as fortune 500 companies.
We encourage you to visit one of our call centers on your next personal vacation or business trip to Central America’s paradise, Costa Rica. While you are here, we would recommend taking an extra day of your trip to visit breathtaking virgin beaches, play golf next to the ocean, try your luck at deep sea fishing, explore tropical jungles, climb volcanos or just relax in natural hot springs. Come and see for yourself why call center outsourcing in Costa Rica is a perfect solution for your growing company and a powerhouse in the BPO industry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgL4aBGjWqU&t=328s
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
Watch this video to find out how you can get 5 million visits per month with just one simple marketing tip.
Introduction: Welcome to my first ever video on YouTube! My name is Glenn and in this video, I'm going to show you a few different ways to market your website and drive tons of visitors. This is going to be all the information you need to know in one place and it's all super easy too. Let's get started.
This is a video about how to get 5 million visits per month with one simple marketing tip.
Introduction: Hi, I'm your new best friend for all things marketing. Today we're going to be talking about how to get 5 million visits per month with one simple marketing tip. Let me show you what it takes.
RESOURCES & LINKS:
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How To Get 5 million Visits Per Month With One Simple Marketing Tips (video): https://youtu.be/8wVfLGCM97U
The Best Ways To Convert Website Visitors Into Leads (video): https://youtu.be/0Vsh_wHnTtg
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Why You Need to Grow Your Business With More Visitors Today!
When you’re trying to grow your blog, one of the most important things you can do is find ways to get more people to visit your site. If they don’t end up reading your post, they won’t subscribe to your email list, and they won’t buy your book or download your freebie.
That’s why you should be especially interested in this article, because it shows you how to get 4 million visits per month with just one simple hack. You see, that’s the amount of visits you get every single day, so you can see why this is such a big deal.
In this case, that means that you must be doing something that is actually helping people or selling a product or a service. If you’re not sure where to start, then you should start by looking at your analytics.
Find a Niche That You’re Profitable In
Create High-Converting Content That People Want to Read
Use SEO Tricks to Get Your Blog to Show Up on Page 1 of Google
Use A Blogging Platform That Gives You All The Tools You Need
Wrapping Up – How To Get 4 Million Visits Per Month
How I Get 4 Million Visits Per Month With ONE SIMPLE Marketing Tip
This Free Marketing Advice Will Get You 4 Millions of Visitors PER MONTH
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怎么写一篇优秀的分析论文Analytical Essay? - https://EditaPaper.com
许多学生认为写分析论文Analytical Essay是最具挑战性的作业之一。你必须阅读一篇文学作品,分析作者的意图,找到隐藏的含义。所有这些任务不仅花费了大量的精力,而且非常耗时,有时甚至令人感到很无聊。特别是当你无法选择一个论文题目而必须写一些你觉得没有趣的东西时。但即使在这样的情况下,你也可以轻松的应付这项任务。想知道怎么做吗?
首先,我们来确定写Analytical Essay的主要目标。首先,它是在显微镜下观察给定的文学作品,当然这是隐喻的说法。你需要单独考虑每一个组成部分,最终形成整体的想法。每一部分都有助于更好地理解小说或短篇故事的主要思想。
其次,你的分析必须得出一个逻辑结论,这结论对读者来说是不明显的。你需要一个清晰的陈述——你的论点——必须在正文段落中用一个完整的论证来支持。尝试发现一些文本中读者不能立刻发现的隐藏的方面,记住,不是简单总结你读过的东西,而是讨论它的特点。
如何撰写分析论文Analytical Essay?
Choosinga Topic 选择主题
你可以从大量的分析性文章主题中选择,或者自己想一个。最重要的一点是你需要对它感兴趣。选择一个不能使你兴奋的话题会导致没有动力去写作,没法提出令人信服的论点。大多数在网络上找到的分析性文章的主题都是让你来讨论我们现代社会的一些有争议的问题。你可以选择其中一个去清楚地陈述你的立场。你的主要目标是要有说服力并提供足够的证据。
Analytical Essay Structure 分析性论文结构
你组织分析论文的方式很重要。应该包含一个有趣的,引人入胜的介绍,翔实的正文段落,和一个富有洞察力的结论。从理论上听起来很容易,但当你实际写论文时,会有许多的问题。让我们进一步看分析性文章的结构,了解你的指导老师想要的是什么。
Introduction
你的介绍需要一个好的引子。想想所有其他得到了同样的写作分析论文的任务的学生。你必须让你的论文脱颖而出,吸引读者的注意力。根据你的话题和听众来决定使用哪种引子是合适的。这可以是一个令人震惊的事实,问题,哲学声明等。你的介绍段落的目的是创造进一步阅读文章的愿望,并找出下一步会发生什么。
当你写一篇特定的文学作品时,别忘了提及作者和书名。你可以简短的描述下主要人物,为读者提供一个简短的情节摘要。这是一个很好的让你的观众快速浏览你要讨论的文章,并给他们一个写作的概念的方式。但在文章开头不要详述细节。将详细的信息留到正文段落中。
仔细考虑你的论点。它应该是非常明确和具体的。不要使用过于笼统的论点,因为很难把所有必要的信息包含在你的论文中。根据标准分析性论文的结构,你的论点应该是引言段落的最后一句。但这不是一个严格的要求,你可以展开你的创造力。
一篇好thesis statement的例子:
-Thesymbolism in Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita reflects the author’s attitudetowards the society of those days.
-Thetrue reason of the World War II was the suppressed feeling of resentment andhumiliation.
BodyParagraphs 主题段落
这是你论证论题并介绍相关论点的地方。一定要用事实、引用和可靠的数据来支持你的声明。每一段都应致力于阐明一个想法,以避免使读者困惑。使用主题句将极大地帮助你保持一个全面的分析论文的结构。它给读者一个对主要段落的清晰的想法,使读者更容易集中精力。有几种方法来组织信息:
Chronologicalapproach
这是一个直截了当的分析方法。很多学生选择它是因为读者很容易理解,并可以帮助你用逻辑的方式构造你的论文。不过,有一点你必须牢记在心。按时间顺序写作可能会导致你重述一本书、故事、电视节目、电影等的情节。这不是写分析论文。
Example:
你被要求分析艺术展,你在文章的开始分析人们进入大楼看到的第一件艺术作品。然后你继续按序号逐个描述展览的其他元素。
Spatialapproach
这种方法不同于前一种方法,因为它倾向于关注更明显和更引人注目的对象或论句。当你描述一个项目时,你会从左到右开始,就像我们看事物和阅读文本的方式一样。
Example:
参观一个艺术展,你可以从最引人注目和最吸引人的作品开始,然后注意力再转移到其他的绘画/雕塑上面。
Conclusion
你的分析论文的结论应该总结你的主要论点并重申你的论点。试着在你论证的证据下看你的论点,并解释这个主题的重要性。避免在论文的结尾提出新的信息。这必须是一个逻辑的总结,而不是证明你另一个观点的证据。
EditaPaper.com 是专业论文综合辅助指导机构, 提供学术论文定制写作服务,英语作文修改润色服务,英汉专业翻译服务以及Turnitin专业检测服务,如果有需要,请点击在线委托前往下单页面。
Billionaire God of War novel Chapter 5: https://www.bravonovel.com/billionaire-god-of-war-7358/chapter-5-57450
Billionaire God of War: https://www.bravonovel.com/billionaire-god-of-war-7358
Billionaire God of War novel introduction:
Fifteen years ago, Jiang Ning was thrown out from one of the country’s wealthiest families, roaming the streets after his mother passed away from an illness. At his lowest point, he met a kind girl, Lin Yuzhen, who gave him a sweet. She told him that as long as he ate this sweet, his life would get sweeter and sweeter. After that, Jiang Ning was taken away by a mysterious person and went through grueling training and fights! Fifteen years later, he had risen to become the ultimate God of War in the East, with incomparable wealth and power. He has returned as a king! But her father’s legs had been crippled in a car accident, and her mother was weak and gentle. Growing up in a family that favored boys over girls and infighting over the family’s assets, the family eventually found a man to marry into her family by force. He was willing to become a son-in-law that married into his wife’s family, only because of that favor he owed the little girl who gave him that sweet. When I take your hand in mine, nobody in this world will ever dare to bully you again.
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I recently participated in a hunger strike, organized by extinction rebellion, to address the global climate emergency and to urge politicians in Australia to treat climate change as the emergency that it is, so that we can cease our destruction of the planet. This video serves as a introduction to a playlist of 5 videos that I recorded during the hunger strike in Melbourne, Australia.
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This is an all-introductory video commemorating the release of Nobita Robert & The MuuMuu 1st album “A wonderful style of good old Nippon” released on February 20, 2020.There is a special comment from Kate Pearson of the B-52s. A lifetime treasure.