Justin Deese (00:02)

Welcome to another episode of freedom blueprint podcast. And we are hanging out today with Brigham, the CEO and founder of power selling pros. Now I'm guessing if you follow this show, listen to the show on regular basis, you know who Brigham is. If for some reason you don't, which you should know who he is, but if you don't, if you'll go back to episode 58, we did another interview where Brigham kind of told us, the story and the journey.

of how power selling pros even came to be. And it's an amazing story. It's a great interview. So please definitely, if you haven't checked it out, go check it out, but Brigham, thanks for being here, man, and hang it out.

Brigham Dickinson (00:42)

My pleasure. Thanks for the opportunity. Thanks for inviting me back.

Justin Deese (00:44)

Yeah.

Shoot. Yeah. See it went so well. We're like, let's do this again. So, I wanted to talk about, so when I asked Brigham to come on in my head, was thinking, you know, what is it? Because the, the, point of the podcast is to drive value and help contractors and help them do better and all that kind of good stuff. Right. And I thought, what are some tips from Brigham now that we're starting to get into, like when this goes live, we're starting to hit that summer season.

Brigham Dickinson (00:48)

Yeah

Justin Deese (01:13)

We're starting to hit that track where people are going to get busy and we don't want to spend money and not get any calls. so I thought, you know what, let's talk about a little bit about what, what are some tips for business owners to really move the needle in order to take advantage of the summer.

Brigham Dickinson (01:32)

Yeah.

It would be...

Justin Deese (01:34)

Let me say, obviously

it's to work with power selling pros. That's the.

Brigham Dickinson (01:39)

You know, we could certainly make a difference in your call center, but there is a blind spot. There's a blind spot that most contractors do not see, and that is the thing that's going on inside their call center. There's a lot of reasons why we don't spend as much time in our call center. It's because when we first started, chances are we were a tech, right? We were a tech or we were a comfort advisor, and we got to the point where we were super confident. We felt like we could do this on our own, and we left.

start doing it on our own. And then we hired other techs and then we trained them to do what we do. And it's so much fun, right? It's all a ball. The call center's not so much a ball. And so as a result, you don't spend time in there. And when you don't spend time in there, they tend to leave a whole lot quicker. They stay for a few months and you're wondering why you continue to have to interview people in on that job. And you decide that the job's just not fun. And that's just...

Justin Deese (02:26)

you

interview people in on that job and you decide it's not fun and that's just

Brigham Dickinson (02:38)

A mistake. It's just a major blind spot. But before the show started, you and I were

Justin Deese (02:38)

a mistake it's just a major blind spot before the show started

Brigham Dickinson (02:44)

talking about Tommy Mello. We trained Tommy Mello, A1 garage door. He's got over 60 CSRs. Last year we got him up to 89%. He went and did a, he was at a roofing conference and he explained that he was not ever gonna be under 90 again. When he said that on stage, I was like, gulp. Okay. You've got over 60 CSRs, Tommy.

Justin Deese (02:46)

No pressure.

Brigham Dickinson (03:07)

and I'm sitting there the audience going, wow, okay. Well, luckily, we're at 92 right now, which is fantastic. What does that mean though? Well, when Tommy did the math, each percentage point, in other words, when it comes to his call conversion, if he goes up by 1%, that equates to an extra $3 million a year.

Justin Deese (03:24)

If he goes up by 1%, then it...

1 %

Brigham Dickinson (03:31)

1%. So when he was, essentially what he was saying was, I'm at 89. I need to be above 90. He said, no way in heck, I'm scrubbing this

for you. No way in heck am I gonna be below 90 next year? Of course we get above 90, we're at 92. And what does that mean to him? That's an extra, what is it? 3%, that's an extra $9 million.

Now, when we look at that, we might say, yeah, but that's Tommy, right? And these numbers, can't even, they're so big, so massive, I can't even understand them. Okay. Well, let's take a step back to the same math for a company like Chad Simpson, Simpson Salute. Chad's been speaking with me at each of the Linux lives that we've been going to this spring. And he was at, his top plan revenue last year was 21.5 million. He's on track this year to do 28.5.

Justin Deese (04:01)

Now, when we look at that, we might say, that's tough, right? These numbers are so big, so massive, can't understand. Let's take a step back to the same math for company like Chad Simpson since the week. Chad's been speaking with me in each of the Linux lives.

Brigham Dickinson (04:33)

Massive, doing really, really well. So he started doing the math and he's like, okay, if I take my top line revenue last year, 21.5 million times it by 0.01, get 1 % of my top line revenue, that's $215,000. And he said, okay, so where were we when we first started? Well, his call conversion according to ServiceTitan was at 42%. We thought that was off. So what did we do? First thing we did is we made sure that they were classifying the calls properly and sure enough,

Justin Deese (04:43)

Mm-hmm.

Brigham Dickinson (05:01)

They worked. So we reclassified the calls and he was at 60%, not 42. All right, so we created a real benchmark to start out with. Okay, we're at

60. Well, today he's at 91.

Okay, so 90 take away 60, that's 30 percentage points. You take 30, you times that by $215,000. That's an extra $5 million. And he went back, looked at all his numbers, he said, dude, that's an accurate number.

$5 million. So.

Justin Deese (05:36)

Well, and this is the same, right? Like it's

the same dollars that he's spending for

marketing and so many contractors now are struggling in the, marketing department and it's the same number of calls coming in. So yeah, that's, that's fantastic.

Brigham Dickinson (05:40)

Thank

Yeah, if you increase your call conversion, you might be able to lower your marketing investment. Now I realize that every digital marketing company industry listens podcast is really upset with me right now. I'm turning this podcast off. No, the truth is, the truth is, is if I can book more calls that are coming in, I don't need as many marketing leads. And I promise you that most reputable digital marketing companies are cheerleading this because

Justin Deese (05:58)

They just, they just cringed. Like, what are you guys doing? No.

Right?

Brigham Dickinson (06:19)

When they generate a phone call, the contractor may complain about that phone call. They might say, that leads terrible. They just want a ballpark price. They just want to charge them out. They just want to talk to a technician, right? They're complaining about that lead and the digital marketers have having to explain that that's actually a lead. You know what, you guys, I'm here to help you out. The truth is, that everyone that calls in, look, here's the qualification. You ready? Can they fog a mirror? If they can fog a mirror, it's a lead.

Justin Deese (06:48)

If they can follow me or it's

Brigham Dickinson (06:50)

It's a lead and a lead is a lead is a lead call comes in. That means you have an opportunity to fill your schedule. Alright, let's say it's an advertiser that calls in. You might say, that's not a lead. Of course it is Mr. Advertiser. I'm so glad that you called in. We we tend to work with those who work with us. If I go back to my boss and tell them that yet another advertiser called in, wanted to sell them something, guess what? They're not going to take this call. But you know what? I'm here for you.

Justin Deese (06:51)

and a lead is a lead is a lead. Call comes in, that means you have an opportunity to fill your schedule. All right, let's say it's an advertising call. You might say, well, that's not a lead. Of course it is, Mr. Advertiser, I'm so glad that you called in. We tend to work with those who work with us. If I go back to the Boston Tone and get another advertising call, want to sell them something, guess what? They're not gonna take this call. But you know what? I'm here.

Brigham Dickinson (07:16)

I want to provide.

a pathway for you to be successful. Very simple onboarding idea here. We have a club membership. It's awesome. You got a home here in the marketplace. Love it. Okay. So we come out in the spring, we come out in the fall, we make sure it's running at peak efficiency, your system, right? That artificial comfort inside your home. It doesn't come that way outside. You know that the minute you step out the door, we make that happen regardless of how hot or how cold it is, right? That's what preventative maintenance does. So

Justin Deese (07:18)

a pathway for you to be successful. Very simple onboarding idea here. We have a club membership. It's awesome. You got a home here in the marketplace? Love it. Okay, so we come out and spring on the call. We make sure it's running a peak efficiency resistant, right? That artificial comfort inside your home, it doesn't come that way outside. We know that from the door. We make that happen regardless of how hot and how cold it is, right? That's what preventative maintenance does.

Brigham Dickinson (07:44)

Let me get you on that. That way I can go back to my boss and here's what I'll do. I'll say,

Justin Deese (07:45)

So let me get you on that. That way I can go back to my boss and use my...

Brigham Dickinson (07:48)

Hey, we have an existing customer that's calling in, right? That's going to pick my cut, my boss's interest. And he happens to be selling billboards. Can you believe that's crazy? Artistic customer. So, all I need to do is get you on this club membership and we can, we can, I can transfer over to my boss. If nothing else, you guys are going to less advertisers calling you. You're welcome.

Justin Deese (07:49)

No kidding.

Brigham Dickinson (08:13)

Right? You're welcome. So it's a mindset. It's a mindset. The CSR has to have the right mindset and they need to have the right process. And of the process is the pattern. You've seen this a thousand times, right? Eight principles we teach, it's soft skills, right? These are interpersonal skills. The ability to connect with people on an emotional level. It is something that you learn, right? It's learned. Generally it does not come naturally.

Justin Deese (08:28)

It is something that we learn, right? It's learned. doesn't, generally it does not.

Brigham Dickinson (08:44)

All right, especially today when everybody's on their phone, instead of talking to people face to face. But they need to be positive. They need to be super prepared and confident. They need to have listening skills, active listening, active caring, reassuring that they've called the right place, the homeowner that's called the right place. Need to make sure that they have the ability to ask the right questions and help the customer open up, create value, and be grateful. You do that. You master those principles. You're going to create a wow experience for that customer. And

It'll get to the point where it doesn't matter who's calling in, right? Let's say your mom calls in. Great, we love moms as long as they're ready and willing to buy a club membership. This is the mindset that we need to have. I mean, I've got recorded calls, Justin, you've probably heard them, where they are wrong phone numbers. Customer calls in, it's a wrong phone number. And by the time we're done, we've booked that call, we've wowed that customer. It is a mindset. So the biggest blind spot inside of any contracting company is that they're not spending near enough time in their call center.

Justin Deese (09:42)

Yeah, I would agree with that. And I don't remember when we first started working with you guys. It's been a number of years ago, more than five or more than seven, but they

The CSRs that we still have on the team, they still have those at their desk. The pattern of excellence, which is great. And I think what happens too, and I'm sure you'll agree with this, but as you go through that and as they become more confident in what it is they're doing and answering the phone and getting the questions, they start to have more fun. So now the example that you just gave, I think for anybody who doesn't enjoy their job or is not having fun.

Brigham Dickinson (10:15)

Mm-hmm.

Justin Deese (10:23)

They hear that and they go, I don't want to, I don't want to be like that. But if you like what you do and you're having fun, it becomes a game and it's fun. And you're like, you know what? I kind of hope a customer calls and is looking means to call pizza hut. Cause I'm going to see if I can order the pizza for them and have a tech bring it out to them and go ahead and do a tune up while we're there. Like they start to turn it into a game and have fun. And I think that's a lot of times what we forget is that, man, when they have the confidence.

Brigham Dickinson (10:30)

Yes.

Justin Deese (10:50)

They ultimately end up having a good time. have fun in these challenges or these bad calls as a lot of people like to call them become just an opportunity for them to, to wow in such a way that they're like, I mean, I got to work with this company.

Brigham Dickinson (11:07)

Yes. I think you've uncovered the mantra of this podcast. The mantra of this podcast is the fact that your team needs to have fun to perform at their highest level, right? To get them booking above 90 % of their phone calls. They need to have fun. And sometimes we get caught up in the minutia of what we do. We forget that it is fun. We forget that it is absolutely heroic. What we're doing.

Justin Deese (11:18)

your team needs to have fun.

Yeah.

Brigham Dickinson (11:38)

That, and it's fulfilling. If your team isn't feeling that way, whose fault is that?

Justin Deese (11:38)

that and it's fulfilling. If your team isn't doing that right, whose fault

is that?

Brigham Dickinson (11:48)

We all know the answer to that question is my fault. It's your fault. It's every business owner's fault. If there isn't fun going on inside that organization, inside the four walls of your building. Love it. All about having fun.

Justin Deese (12:04)

Yeah, rigid is is fine. Like there there's some times to be rigid, but there's times to have a good time. Like, think about one of our CSRs that's been on the team for a long time. Anytime she books a call that's kind of either out of the norm or collects payment that she wasn't expecting, she rings a bell. Like just that simple. Like we bought her a bell. It was like five bucks.

But she rings that bell and everybody in the office goes, yeah, that's cause they have fun from, you know,

Brigham Dickinson (12:30)

Yes, yes.

Yeah, whenever we have cells, we send out, because we're all remote, we send out a sailboat, right? A sailboat to everybody on the sales team. Hey, I just got one big. And I love it. It's the best part of my day. I get sailboats every day. I don't even own a sailboat. But when I see that sailboat, I'm like, my gosh, because we know what that means. We know that something good just happened. So that sort of thing.

Justin Deese (12:48)

Yeah.

Brigham Dickinson (12:59)

That sort of culture needs to be cultivated inside your organization. If you've lost it or if it was never there, it's time to put it back in. In fact, if you wanted, we can kind of talk about different ways to make it fun so that you can fix that blind spot. Finally, fix it. Get it up in the 90s. Your expectation should be just like Tommy's. It's got to be up over 90. It has to be for the sake of

Justin Deese (13:28)

Yeah.

Brigham Dickinson (13:28)

marketing expense for the sake of of of morale for the sake of your technicians it has to be you must demand

it

So if you want, I can give you a couple of other things too. Okay, so we want to do two things inside that call center.

Justin Deese (13:43)

think that's great. Yeah, let's do it.

Brigham Dickinson (13:50)

We want to create a culture of training. The way that you create a culture of training is that when you're in the interview process deciding whether or not to hire them, you make role playing and practice part of that hiring and interviewing process. That way they know right out of the gate that you're a company that practices on a regular basis. You're a company that does role playing. The goal here is to make all the mistakes that you're going to make before you get on the phone.

Right? You do that through practice. You do that through preparation. Everybody practices. The owner should be practicing. I don't care if you're uncomfortable with it. I don't care if you don't want to do it. I don't care if you have a hard time listening to yourself on a recording. Don't care. You get through all that crap, right? All the things that are holding you back from exuding the type of culture you want to see inside your organization.

Justin Deese (14:27)

Yep. Yep.

Brigham Dickinson (14:47)

Jump in and do it. So that's number one, create a culture of trading. Number two, give them the ability to make as much money as they want to make inside the call center. Don't just pay them a base. Don't just pay them a salary. Give them a solid, easy to understand commission structure. Here's what I mean by that. If you give them 10 bucks to sell a service agreement, that's easy for me to keep track of. All right. And anybody who,

Justin Deese (15:06)

If you give them 10 bucks to sell a service agreement, that's easy for me to keep track of. And anybody who

is working on that and wanting to...

Brigham Dickinson (15:15)

is working on that and wanting to affect

their own income, I promise you they're going to be looking at that every day. So I would avoid percentage of sales. It's hard to calculate that until I see it in my paycheck. But if it's $10 for a service agreement, say we start doing other creative things, right? Say, for example, we have a company, we have a homeowner that constantly calls in for heating and cooling, but never wants for plumbing.

Justin Deese (15:20)

Yeah.

Brigham Dickinson (15:42)

Well, that's an opportunity there. If I booked that appointment for plumbing in addition to the heating and cooling call, would you not pay me for that? Of course you would. How much do you spend on marketing to make the phone ring? If I have a CSR that's hustling in there and books a second appointment, and side note, you guys, make sure that you're not sending plumbers and techs out at the same time. You don't want to overwhelm the customer with a bunch of guys from your office into their house. Two separate appointments, book them. If I book two separate appointments, if I get two appointments from one call,

Justin Deese (16:10)

From one

call, I should be comfortable with that. Keep it simple. Call it 10 bucks. We love tech set leads, right? We love it when tech set leads for comfort buy-in. It's our best high-supposing ratio in the world. We're right across the board. doesn't matter what people think. Why aren't we having CSRs do the same thing? Hey, Mr. Jones, I'm looking your...

Brigham Dickinson (16:12)

I should be compensated for that. And keep it simple. Call it $10. We love tech set leads. We love it when tech set leads for comfort advisors. It's our best, highest closing ratio historically, right? Across the board. Doesn't matter the company. Why aren't we having CSRs do the same thing? Hey, Mr. Jones, I'm looking at your notes. I

noticed that we've been servicing that system for the last 12 years. You've gotten some great life out of it. Have you ever considered replacing it?

Justin Deese (16:35)

Yep.

Brigham Dickinson (16:41)

If I booked that replacement call in addition to the service call, would you not compensate me for that? Of course you would. 10 bucks. Keep it simple. Real simple. Easy for me to do the math. That way I can just kind of keep track the whole day long. And it's funny how you get what you focus on.

So what are we doing in there? We do two things. We create a culture of training.

And in so doing, we set the expectation for what we're looking to hear with phones. And then we give them the ability to make as much money as they want to make right there. Here's what's going to happen. They're going to stay there longer. And they're going to stay there in that role because they can make as much money as they want to make now. Now, the other thing you've got to do is utilize the technology. Everybody has been recording CSR calls for years, which is great. But we're getting to the point now where we have the ability to see

Justin Deese (17:34)

the end result. In other words, what was the total revenue generated from that sale that the CSR had to deal with? CSR was involved, they booked the fall, they bought the first, maybe they were booked an extra one on YouTube. And the end result was that much revenue. Wouldn't it be cool if they to see the revenue that was generated per CSR? Well, the crazy thing is that technology's coming out. Searchlights doing it, there other companies that could lace their working line.

Brigham Dickinson (17:34)

the end result. In other words, what was the total revenue generated from that cell that the CSR had to do with? CSR was involved. They booked the call. They wowed the customer. They may have booked an extra appointment or two. And the end result was that much revenue. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to see the revenue that was generated per CSR? Well, the crazy thing is that technology is coming out. Searchlight's doing it. There are other companies, I think Lace, that are working on it.

Every AI company, including Zyrotalk and Avoka and so on and so forth, they're all working really, really hard to get this type of information out. pay attention to the technology. Monitor performance. Same with your technicians. If we don't have a ServPro or Rilla, you're making a mistake. You need all of this to be able to take a very good look as to where they're at. You set the expectations through training. You're a training organization.

Justin Deese (18:03)

every AI company, including Zyrotalk and the Bloca and so on and so forth, they're all working really, really hard to get this type of information out. pay attention to the technology. Monitor performance.

Brigham Dickinson (18:33)

Step two of that is to make sure that you're tracking all of it and that the expectation is being met and succeeded or exceeded.

Justin Deese (18:43)

I think that most contractors, I don't know of any contractors really, once you get to be

a couple of trucks, and depending on what software we all record calls. And I think that it's probably one of the hardest things as a leadership to do is to listen to the calls. And even when you listen to the calls, knowing how to handle and manage and coach, what to do with it. And I think that, to your point with the AI that's coming out for some of the technicians and things like that, I think that's going to become the norm.

Just like call recording, right? It used to be a big deal. It like this call is recorded for pain. People were like, weird about it. Now nobody even gives it a second thought. And and I do think that will happen with, technicians recording in homes as well. But what, what do you think about a coaching tip for somebody? Cause I think part of the challenge is if you don't, if you're not consistent about it, what ends up happening is you almost end up weaponizing.

listening to calls and then you got everybody gunshot and then you got everybody not, they're like, you're like, all right, I'm listening to calls and people are freaking out a little bit, not thinking about improvement and help. and I'm, I'm totally pitching power selling pros at this point. And that, that was, that really wasn't where I was going with this, but I think it's, I think it's one of those things where, you know, we, we both have kids that were about the same age. We can both talk about the number of times we've told our kids something over and over and over and over again.

And they don't do it. And then they come home one day and they go, my teacher told me, and you're like, I've been telling you that forever. And the reason that is, is there's power in a third party unbiased, even if it feels like a third party unbiased opinion. And I do think that's one of the things that you guys bring is to be able to be consistent with it. Cause that's part of the challenge to not weaponize it is you want to be consistent with it. and you want to be caring with it.

No, nobody comes to work to be the worst. A lot of times. and we talk about this a lot on the podcast is usually if somebody is not hitting the mark, whatever the market, first of all, they got to know what the mark is. Most people don't. So you got to tell them what the mark, but then it comes down to ability or willingness. And I think that through coaching, through training, that's how you smoke out. If it's ability or willingness, if it's ability, man, that's on leadership. You got to, you got to do whatever you can do to help them fix that.

in order to, be able to get to the next level. Obviously if it's willingness, we all know there's really not a whole lot you can do with that. So, you probably should think about upgrading and things like that. But, again, to your point, I think that's, you've got to be listening to those calls and you've got to be coaching on them. And I think that's what most owners or leadership miss. Cause, cause it is tough. It's hard to do.

Brigham Dickinson (21:42)

Yeah,

yeah. I had the opportunity to interview Ken Goodridge a few weeks ago at a summit in Phoenix. It was so cool. It was amazing, the group interaction that we had. But one of the things Ken said was he couldn't get past five million until he started sitting in his call center and staying there on a regular basis. He said it was really, really hard because that's not his background, but he had to do it.

Justin Deese (22:08)

Mm-hmm.

But you have to

Brigham Dickinson (22:11)

He had to, know where Ken Goodridge is at now. But that's what he needed to do. He needed to fix that blind spot. It can't just be good anymore. It has to be

Justin Deese (22:11)

do it. You have to do it. You have to this and that now. But that's what you need to do. You need to fix that blind spot. It can't just be good anymore. Right.

Brigham Dickinson (22:22)

excellent. And I was talking to Chad Simpson. In fact, we talked about him earlier in the podcast. He is probably one of the best technician trainers I've ever seen. In fact, he has, you know, those local schools in Ohio that do tech training and such. Well, he,

Justin Deese (22:29)

Mm-hmm

Brigham Dickinson (22:40)

He does that part-time. The guy makes so, he does very well. He doesn't need

to be training technician, but he does it because he loves it. And he has come to the realization that he does not love training CSRs the way he loves training techs. And so he is simply, in fact, at Lennox Live last year, he stood up. It was weird. Cause he pretended like he had a question.

Justin Deese (22:49)

Right.

Brigham Dickinson (23:10)

So we give him the mic and he stands up, turns around and begins to address the entire group, basically admitting the fact that he is

not good at training CSRs and that he's going to hire us independent of the price, which is why I had him speak this year with us. I was like, hey, you know what? He's gonna do it anyway. So the truth is that if you are not gonna spend, it's kind of like, you know what? You and I were talking earlier about how your wife is doing bookkeeping. Why is she doing that? Because people don't like to do it.

Justin Deese (23:20)

Right

Brigham Dickinson (23:40)

It's not fun. It's not fun for them.

OK, great. Did you get into business to have a job that you don't like to do? Of course not. OK, cool. What you do is you keep the things that fulfill you, those tasks that fulfill you. You double down on those. Because why? You're the boss. You have the opportunity and the ability to do that. That also means that you also have the opportunity and the ability to delegate out the things that you don't want to do or don't like to do.

Justin Deese (23:50)

Right.

Yep. So as you're saying that I'm trying to think of any contract, cause you know, you said it earlier, you went through the typical life cycle or startup cycle of a home service business, which is I was a tech somewhere.

Brigham Dickinson (24:10)

So yes, if in your heart of hearts, you know you're not gonna do this, you're not gonna create this culture, then by all means, absolutely give us a call.

Justin Deese (24:36)

decided I would do it on my own rarely. And I say rarely, I can't think of one example. And I was trying to think of one, somebody like, well, I was a customer service rep at a plumbing or AC company. And I decided I'm going to go do this on my own. so I can't think of one.

Brigham Dickinson (24:51)

It doesn't happen.

It doesn't happen. Now I have seen people inside the call center become comfort advisors and that's cool. And I had a CSR that went through the training program and she approached me after I spoke at an event. She said, Hey, did you know that I'm a comfort advisor now? Well, that's freaking awesome. Right. She's mastered these interpersonal skills found in the pattern of excellence that we teach on regular basis to the point where she's now able to move systems. Love that.

Justin Deese (24:58)

Mm-hmm, right.

Yeah.

And think about the financial impact for her and her, her life and her family. I mean, that's amazing. And for that business owner who has allowed her and has invested in her to go through this training. Now she's going to be there. Like she's there. She's not, she's not leaving for a couple more bucks to go down the road.

Brigham Dickinson (25:26)

Exactly.

OK, I love that you brought that up. Let's talk about that for just a second. But let me take a step back about cycles. You know Jim Henshaw?

Justin Deese (25:54)

I very yes, he's been on the show a couple times.

Brigham Dickinson (25:57)

Phenomenal guy.

Sage in our industry. Okay, unless you are.

Couple of marbles short.

You won't appreciate a man like this. Okay. You will appreciate a man like this. I'll switch that. You will, unless you don't, unless you're not well, you will appreciate this guy. When he speaks, the moment he speaks, stop everything, turn off your phone and listen and you will learn something. It will change your life. That's who Jim is. Okay. So several years ago at an event, he jumped up on stage in a technician uniform.

Justin Deese (26:23)

Yeah.

Brigham Dickinson (26:39)

And he began to explain that first cycle of when you first start your own business and so on. So you could, I bet you could imagine Jim's energy, right? He freaking crushed this. He was there for two minutes. He runs off the stage. He comes back on in this nice, just like a, just a button up shirt

and some slacks. And he begins to explain the second cycle, right? So first cycle is, your goal is to gain freedom over your finances, right? You want to make money. Cause trust me, when you start a new business, you're taking a step back.

Justin Deese (26:55)

Yeah.

Brigham Dickinson (27:08)

Right? And business owners know that, but if there's anybody else like a technician or CSR listening to this, know that you will be taken a step back, right? It's going to be a painful step back. There are a lot of other ways to make money, easier ways to make real estate, stock market, even though it's not doing very

well right now, I'm telling you, you can save your marriage by not doing this. Okay. See? Exactly. So, so bottom line is, is

Justin Deese (27:28)

A lot less variables in other other ventures.

Brigham Dickinson (27:36)

You first, when you start your own business, you take that step back and you gain financial freedom over time as you build up that company. But what you will do is you've built yourself a job. That's the first cycle. Congratulations, you've built your own job. All right, instead of doing it for somebody else, you're now doing it for yourself, but you're still working 80 hours a week. You're trapped, bro. Right, so what's the second cycle? The second cycle is even though you're making enough money, you've got that nice Ford Raptor outside.

You don't, you can't leave. You can't leave. You have no freedom over your time. So how do you transition to the next, the next stage? And I loved it when, when Jim came running off the stage in between the second and third cycle, he had a little bit more energy 12 years ago and, and it comes back on in this like three piece suit and he's, you know, he's, he's talking and he's explaining, you know, you're like, okay, cool.

Justin Deese (28:06)

You don't, you can't leave. can't leave. You have no freedom over your time. So how do you transition to the next stage? The next stage, and I love it when Jim came running off the stage and put in the second, third cycle. He had a little bit more energy for me.

Brigham Dickinson (28:36)

He's legacy building. He's legacy building. We, everyone on this podcast that is a business owner, our goal is to get past the first two cycles. We gain freedom over our finances. We gain freedom over our time. And we get to the point where you start building a legacy. How do we do that? Well, what we do is we take every department, especially inside our call center, as well as our field staff, and we choose today to make it an incubator for leadership.

Justin Deese (28:49)

we get to the point where you start building legacy, how do we do that? Well, what we do is we take every department, especially inside our full center, as well as our field staff, and we choose today to make it an incubator for leadership.

Brigham Dickinson (29:05)

This is where my leaders are coming from, especially these two departments here. Okay. How do you cultivate leaders inside a department? Well, you provide training on a regular basis and you give them the ability to make as much money as they want to make. You see, you help the short term, right? You've got a short term gain in that you make more sales. You keep the board full, right? If calls aren't coming in, CSR is very proactive to call out. They're taking ownership.

of their job. And then what you do when you see somebody taking ownership of their job, you give them more responsibility and the opportunity to make more money. This, my friends, is legacy development. This is us working towards that third cycle that Jim Hinshaw demonstrated so perfectly. The best part about this is, is that there's a fourth cycle and Jim runs off the stage, he comes back on in Bermuda shorts and a nice button-up shirt, right?

Justin Deese (29:35)

of their job. And then what you do when you see somebody taking ownership of their job, you give them the responsibility and the opportunity to make more money. This, friends, is legacy development. This is us working towards that third cycle that Jim Henshaw demonstrated so perfectly. The best part about this is, is that there's a fourth cycle. And Jim runs off the stage, he comes back on and removes his And a nice button.

Right. Yeah. Either way you're exiting. Yeah. By choice, not choice. Yes.

Brigham Dickinson (30:05)

He exited and you guys, everybody exits. Guess what? You die, you exit, okay? Everybody exits.

So you've got to be proactive there and you've got to recognize those four cycles and you need to be able to look towards those and decide where you want to be and when you want to be there, right? So it was just so great to be able to see that visual, way Jim not only gets it, he's been getting it forever, right? And I'm sure he's impacted you and he's impacted me.

Justin Deese (30:34)

Listen, I've got his book sitting over here on my desk. Yep. Yep.

Brigham Dickinson (30:37)

That's a great book by the way. It's just story after story after story of Jinhensha.

It's that wisdom, that sage advice that everybody should have. Not fun Jim, poor guy, picking on him.

Justin Deese (30:43)

Mm-hmm.

Jim's

awesome. Hey, and so I want to, I want to point this out too, cause you threw me a little bit of a softball and probably don't even know it. But literally when I was, when I was coming up with this podcast and the premise of it, everything you said was why the name is what it is. It's freedom blueprint because so many of us get into business for that one thing and quickly it's the first thing we lose.

Brigham Dickinson (31:13)

Yeah. And we get sucked into the day-to-day business that we don't take time to step back, which is why it's so important to get help. That was the other thing Ken Goodrich said. He said, freaking join an affinity group. Join a group where you can network, you can learn, you can grow, and you can be thinking about your business as opposed to being sucked up into it. So you're so right. You're so right.

Justin Deese (31:29)

Yes.

Well, killer man, I know you got a ton of stuff to do, but I want to give an opportunity. If you have kind of any last thoughts that you want to leave the audience with.

Brigham Dickinson (31:53)

Yeah. So look guys, our mantra today has been fun. So in a moment, I'm going to, I'm going to share a story about fun. But before I do that, if calls aren't coming in, okay, if calls are coming in, you're 90 % booked tomorrow, you're 80 % booked the next day, you're 70 % booked the next day. That's great. No, no need for inbound calling or for outbound calling. But if you're at 50 % tomorrow, 70 % the next day and 30 % the following day, we need to hustle today.

Justin Deese (32:15)

Right.

Brigham Dickinson (32:23)

We need to make phone calls today. Now, if you're teaching your team to offer club membership on every inbound call, emphasis on every inbound call, they will get really comfortable saying, hey, Mr. Jones, I'm looking at your notes. I know you should have a membership plus. I'm wondering why not. If you do

that three times a day, it's going to get really easy to say. If calls aren't coming in, you now have the bridge to start doing happy calls.

and call out. And it's the same process. Hey, Mr. Jones, we were in your home six months ago. Got your system working. How's it going? it's going great. I'm so glad to hear that. know, I'm looking at your notes and noticed you never were able to get a club membership with us. I'm wondering why not. Now, if you're doing this on every call inbound, you're going to know that there are going to be several who say, I'm not interested. And you'll get used to those no's. But you'll also get comfortable with the fact that you will be getting yeses as long as you keep dialing.

Justin Deese (33:08)

Yep.

Brigham Dickinson (33:23)

Same is true with the outbound calls. Just keep dialing, keep dialing. It's going to come. Right. And there are going to be some situations where the customer says, no, I'm not happy and no, it's not working. And

I'm so glad you called us about to pick up. Sweet. Guess what? You just kept your technician busy. Yeah. Wonderful. It's beautiful. mean, things stop working. Right. That's why we're here. So here's what I want to do. I'm going to give everyone listening to this podcast right now, a free happy call script, if that's all right.

Justin Deese (33:36)

On the way. Yep.

to stop

Absolutely.

Brigham Dickinson (33:53)

Okay, so just text and this number is it's 385-247-3714. Once again, 385-247-3714. Just type in happy, the word happy, and we'll send you that script. All right, so text happy to 385-247-3714 and

you'll get that script. You guys, this is the best script I've ever put together.

I had a contractor call me two weeks ago when he got it and he said, holy cow, this is an awesome happy call script. We also talked about where his call conversion was at, where it needed to be. And he realized that he had lost about $1.2 million the year before and wanted to fix it. This is a blind spot, you guys. It's a blind spot. We need to fix it. Whether you do it in-house or let us at PowerSlim Pros do it, I don't care, either way. With that, let me share my...

Justin Deese (34:35)

Mm-hmm

Brigham Dickinson (34:48)

experience last year, 2024, unless you have any questions or thoughts on that.

Justin Deese (34:53)

No,

I will say this, the text number you gave, I'll make sure that it's in the show notes for the podcast. If you're watching this on YouTube, it'll be in that description as well. So that way you can, if you're driving and listening or working out or running, don't feel like you got to stop. It will be there. Yeah. and two guys. Yeah.

Brigham Dickinson (35:02)

Okay, cool.

you

Yeah, 10 and two guys, 10 and two. Keep your eyes on the road. All

right, so last year, it my birthday, July 24th.

And I was scheduled to go out to Larson, Heaney and Cooling in Phoenix, Arizona. Awesome. Well, it's actually Scottsdale, but yeah, same thing, about 124 degrees. But the food's really good. The food's great. So I was there in Scottsdale. Look, why am I doing on my birthday? Because I really love what I do. I really love this team. Jared and Jamie are two of the best people I've

Justin Deese (35:26)

Ooh, rough time to be in Phoenix.

Either way, still in the desert.

Yeah, true.

Brigham Dickinson (35:50)

you know that you'll ever meet salt the earth types of people the type of people that you are so Glad to know and and and just excited for all their success So I went there and I didn't tell them it was my birthday once I got there. I'm training the CSRs And they come in with this like red velvet cake singing happy birthday. It was the weirdest thing I'm like, wait a minute. You're paying me to be here and I'm getting a cake. It's weird

Justin Deese (36:15)

You're like do get off today or what's up? We're

go hike Camelback maybe like

Brigham Dickinson (36:21)

Totally. It was weird. But you know what? I love Red Velvet kick. I didn't know how she found out that was my favorite kick. I'm sure it was my team or what have you. But I trained the CSRs then I started answering the phones. Of course, the next day I was going to work with the techs. I'm answering phones and there's a gal named Sarah that calls in while I'm answering phones. Why do I answer phones? Because guys, I'm not going to train people on how to answer the phones. I'm then going to show them how to do it. And when I'm in a call center, I don't sit. I'm pacing.

back and forth. I don't know how anybody else sits. And by the way, it's fun. It's freaking fun. Okay. So Sarah calls in and Sarah says, Hey, I've got a system. It's 20 years old. I had just got off the phone with another company. They said they couldn't get the new system out to me for two weeks. It's Scottsdale, Arizona. Okay. It's 120 degrees outside two weeks. You gotta be kidding me. Right. So I said, she's

She keeps going, right? You know how sometimes a customer is like, yeah, but this is my situation. I've got two daughters and I'm a doctor, my husband's a doctor and we can't, we don't have a chance to get home and they're there alone and it's so hot and sweltering inside my house. You've heard all this stuff, right? And finally, I just said, Sarah, I've got you. Of course, the CSR manager at Larsen's was kind of looking at me, giving me the, you know, the stink eye. Like, what do you mean you've got her? You've been answering phones for the last half hour and now you've got her, right? She was not happy with this. And so I said,

Justin Deese (37:40)

Yeah.

Brigham Dickinson (37:48)

I just kind of waved at it. like, it's going to be fine. It's going be good. And so I say, hey, look, I'm going to get you out our best technician. going to problem solve here. We're going to troubleshoot it. We're going to do everything we can to get it working. We'll provide a solution one way or the other. In addition to that, I'm going go talk to the install team, and I'm going see how quickly we can get a new system installed. I know that a comfort fire still needs to go out, but I want to make sure that we get you a system as quickly as possible.

Justin Deese (37:51)

It's good.

Brigham Dickinson (38:17)

And I'm certainly not going to make you wait two weeks in this sweltering heat. So regardless, technician's coming. We've got you. We'll have a new system as quickly as possible. I get off the phone, CSR manager's like, good luck with the install department there. They're as booked as that other company. I'm like, it's going to be fine. Where are they? And she kind of points me in the right direction. I go into this dark room. There's two guys in there playing on their computers. Not playing, but like working. They seem stressed. They seem...

Justin Deese (38:22)

So regardless, technicians coming, we've got you. We'll have a new system as as possible. I get off the phone, see if there's an answer to that. Good luck with the install department there. There is, there book us at another company. I'm like, it's gonna be fine. Where are they?

Yeah.

Brigham Dickinson (38:47)

Frustrated that I even opened the door and

of course first thing I do is what am I doing this thing called the pattern for excellence, right? I'm gonna listen care reassure first watch this Hey guys, how's it listening and of course the response was And I'm like, okay cool cool. Here's the thing there's there's this gal. She's a doctor

Justin Deese (38:57)

guys,

Brigham Dickinson (39:11)

Her name is Sarah. She lives about 10 minutes away. She's got two kids. She has to have a chance to get home. their system's broken. It's not working. And they want a new one for sure.

They're just hoping they could have somebody out as quickly as possible. And he's like, well, there's no way. There's no way. I said, and then I began to describe her situation in a different way. Right? Here's the thing. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. And then finally, as I'm talking, he's just sick of me. He wants me to get out of that freaking room. And he says, well.

There's small window on Friday. Cool. When? In between two and something. was like, cool. Save it. Book it. Done. I leave the room before he can say word. I run into the locker room where all the technician uniforms are. I throw a technician uniform on. I jump in my rental car, drive out to the customer's home. Jacob, the technician's already there. And he's in his truck. His van door's open.

Justin Deese (39:43)

Small window.

Lock it down.

Brigham Dickinson (40:11)

I walk in, I kind of scare him, right? Like, hey, how's it going? He's like, what's up? And he said, hey, there's no way I'm to get this thing going. It's 20 years old, it's dead. And I said, grab your tools. He grabs the tools, we go back to the condenser. And I just start talking to him about how amazing he is, what a phenomenal technician he is, how incredible, right? He's like, yeah, yeah, we're right here. And he starts troubleshooting. within about 10 minutes, I hear this, and he plugs it in, and I hear it.

Justin Deese (40:35)

And he starts troubleshooting and within about 10 minutes I hear it in, I hear it.

Brigham Dickinson (40:41)

He got the thing going. They brought it back to life. It's a miracle, right? So I took a picture with him and then we ran.

Justin Deese (40:41)

He's got the big dog, then he's running back to life. Right? So I took a picture with him and then

Brigham Dickinson (40:47)

I ran to the front, knocked on the door, Sarah answers and we were like, my gosh. And she's like, it's working. I'm like, I know. And we did this almost weird kind of hug type of embrace thing. And we didn't, I didn't know what to do. And I was excited. She's excited. And she's like, it's amazing. Comfort Advisor went over to her house later on that day, sold her new system for $18,000. It was installed on Friday. You guys.

Justin Deese (40:55)

Mm-hmm

Brigham Dickinson (41:12)

This is fun. This is fun. It is your job to make sure it is fun inside your office. Do it. Make it happen.

Justin Deese (41:25)

That is awesome. Yeah. Being intentional. And I think that's, know, proactive versus reactive. And I think the story you, just told me, that's just a sign of being proactive in the business. So, Bregan, appreciate you coming and hanging out with us and as always just giving us good knowledge, man. It's always, it's always fun to learn from you. So, thank you so much and all the information about, the text number and the free giveaway. I'll make sure that are in all the notes.

and make sure you jump on there and take advantage of it.

Brigham Dickinson (41:55)

Yeah, yeah, definitely. If you if you want to know more about our services, just go to powersellingpros.com. P-O-W-E-R-S-E-L-L-I-N-G-P-R-O-S.com. There's a link for a demo there. You can click on the demo and schedule a time that works for you so we can custom build a plan. Make it really easy for you to to take care of the blind spot in your call center.

Justin Deese (42:16)

Awesome. Thanks, man. I appreciate it.

Brigham Dickinson (42:19)

Appreciate you.