Richard Blank Podcast Guest Appearances Costa Rica's Call Center

Shark Bite Biz, hosted by David Strausser, started as a show on how to navigate to your business during the Covid Pandemic and now focusing on "the 3 G's": personal growth, professional growth, and business growth. This show has hosted many CEO's, VP's, Managers, and Small Business Owners all giving their insight as a subject matter expert in their field. The show has had legendary music producer Jack Douglas, Soledad O'Brien, film director James Cullen Bressack, Recruiter.com and CNBC Contributor Evan Sohn and many more. Strausser is a member of the Forbes Business Development Council.

Are call centers alive or dead after covid with work-from-home going strong. Today's interview may surprise you as Shark Bite Biz's David Strausser chats with Richard Blank of Costa Rica's Call Center. Episode #213 Modern Call Centers.

https://youtu.be/Bki9lRhp8VE

Shark Bite Biz is a podcast dedicated to helping businesses achieve growth in the roaring 20's. In a world full of sharks, learn how to bite first!

This vodcast focuses on personal, professional, & business growth during the on-going global pandemic. We focus on bringing some of the top experts and small business owners to the show to tell their stories about how they broke through barriers preventing growth and got their business to the next level.

More about the Host: David Strausser is an expert at enabling small businesses to drive growth via the promise of technology. David empowers his customers to digitally transform by automating business processes and maximizing business intelligence. David writes on Forbes as a member of the Forbes Business Development Council and a member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council. You can find David's full bio here: https://davidstrausser.com & https://sharkbitebiz.com.

David was born and raised in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, the heart of coal country. At a young age David realized that the small city life wasn’t for him. He yearned for something larger and 6 weeks after the September 11th attacks, while barely 18, he decided to pack up and move to a new life.

 “Viva la Mexico”. David moved to Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Why? Simple. He was able to live in Mexico and then work in San Diego, right across the U.S. / Mexico International Border Crossing at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

 Since his first job at the age of 14, David has always been enthusiastic about sales. He had worked at places like Foot Locker at the age of 15 and then Sears while a young adult. Just like he wanted more while living in Pottsville, he also felt that the retail life was not for him. Yes, he could do it and excelled at it, often being the top sales representative in his store, but he felt he could achieve bigger and better things.

During the economic depression of 2008 – 2010, David found himself searching for answers. He moved to Peru for about a year, where he met his wife, Raquel Strausser. From there David immigrated Raquel to Mexico and they re-established themselves in the Baja Cali Megaregion. Employment was tough and while David could ultimately earn a living that was good enough for living in Mexico, their ultimate goal was to move to San Diego. The current wage environment at that time did not support him being able to make such a move.

 That’s when David realized that after 10 years of living in Mexico at that point that he had some unique skills. Not only was David fluent in Spanish and had a Mexican legal status as a Residente Permanente (Mexican Legal Permanent Resident), but he had many contacts in business throughout Mexico, Peru, and the rest of Latin America.

 Instead of taking a position where he would be grossly underpaid for his skillset out of necessity, David went another route. He started the business “Strausser Consulting Services” and began independent consulting. The goal of the company was to assist American companies trying to find growth throughout Latin America with their products and technologies. The start though wasn’t that simple. The very first contract David got was with a Sprint retailer who saw his vast retail experience and hired him as an independent consultant to help turn around 7 of their newly acquired stores in San Diego County. It was a six-month contract but it gave David something solid to run off of if he was successful.

Success happened and from there David acquired separate large contracts over a 6 year period. While many of the projects were fixed-term and project based, some of the contracts were long-term. Some of these contracts were with companies like P.I.N.T., Inc., doing business development to help them break into the Mexican market, Kodenshi AUK, a Japanese and Korean semiconductor manufacturer looking to break into Latin America, TAAG Industries, BorderTraffic / LaLineaEnVivo, and BajaBound. This all was the passion of what David does best, help small to medium size business grow. He was creating new channels and opportunities for these businesses that they did not know how to achieve on their own.

Interestingly enough, because of the unique border situation with the Baja-Cali megaregion of Tijuana and San Diego David was specializing at one point not just in technology, but border crossing technology. This lead to David developing extensive relationships with the Mexican Government, which led to him being contracted as the “Consejero Binacional” (Binational Advisor) to the Secretary of Tourism for Baja, California, Mexico where he worked in making lives easier for American Tourists while visiting Baja, Mexico with the promise of technology. David assisted trying to modernize the Tourist Visa process online for Americans visiting Mexico and even helped transform the fishing permit license so that Americans can obtain the licenses digitally online. All impressive feats at the time with a government that is notoriously slow in adopting new technology. In fact, David is one of the few non-Latino American citizens with a written letter of recommendation from the Mexican Government.

​During that time also, David realized that there was a huge education gap in Mexico. Latinas, Mexican women specifically, were behind in their knowledge of how technology works. Although with the younger generation it was getting better, at that time if you were 25 or older and female, your understanding of basic technology was little to none. That’s when David and his wife Raquel created a tech blog called TechChicas that was dedicated to helping Latinas around the world understand basic technology that they could access to make their lives easier. The site was a success winning multiple awards including one from Penn State University. That service was sold in 2015 when David took another turn in his career.

 As successful as he was, the consulting world was a tiring one for David. Not only was he working 40 to 50 hours a week for clients, but he was also working an addition 20+ hours a week just trying to find new projects and bidding on new work. It was relentless and gave David no work / life balance.

After 6 long years of sacrificing all his time working to give his family the life he felt they deserved, David finally got offered a position that would give him what he was searching for. David and his family moved to Los Angeles in December of 2015 to start with Vision33, Inc.

​

This brings a brand new chapter. Finally, David was able to use his networking skills, business development skills, sales and marketing strategies for one dedicated company. David was new to the ERP (enterprise resource planning) business but he had a thorough understanding of technology due to his degree from Penn State University in Information Sciences & Technologies with a focus on Business.

David was able to use innovative techniques to turn a barren region of Los Angeles to a powerhouse for Vision33. Creating millions and millions of dollars a year in revenue that Vision33 never saw from that region previously. He did this because of the way he builds personal relationships with his clients and how he manages a sales cycle. There were very few opportunities David lost. In fact, he became the king of creating his own pipeline by doing creative events like his “Executive Luncheon” that had an anti-luncheon type there where desert was served first and used out of the box type of speakers that brought true value to all the businesses that came to learn how to grow their business and breakthrough the barriers preventing growth.

After 4 years, David was given the opportunity to move back home. Vision33 had a new region that needed a General Manager to oversee it and that is the Northeast. Since March of 2018, David has been managing the Northeast from sales, implementations, customer service, everything where he is growing the business at a record pace.

Even with the position that David currently has, he still feels that he has more to offer in order to help businesses grow and therefore on July 6, 2020, David launched the business podcast entitled Shark Bite Biz. This podcast is a discussion with subject matter experts and business owners discussing what works and what doesn’t in a global pandemic world.

​

Overall, David has had a tough, but fun career. It has always focused around one main topic though. Helping small to midsize businesses grow. There are many ways to do this and David uses his outside the box methodology in order to help his clients achieve that growth.

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.

https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/

#RichardBlank #CostaRica #CallCenter #Outsourcing #Telemarketing #BPO #Sales #Entrepreneur #B2B #Business #Podcast #Leadgeneration #Appointmentsetting #SacrificetoSuccess #Sharkbitebizpodcast

Shark bite biz, Richard Blank,Costa Rica's Call Center, Outsourcing, Telemarketing, BPO, Nearshore, Sales, Entrepreneur, B2B, Business,Podcast,Gamification,Leadership,Marketing, Radio, Guest, Money, education, trainer,

https://youtu.be/Bki9lRhp8VE

from the City of Brotherly Love This is

shark bite Biz with David

strausser you just arrived to the newest

episode of shark bite Biz I'm your

Rockstar wab be host David strausser and

this is your place to learn how to grow

a business during complete Global chaos

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Enterprise we have a solution for you

now let's get back to today's episode

are call centers the place of the past

or the future let's think about this so

who do we have today none other than

Richard blank with probably the most

unique uh intro I've ever done and

shortest as well too so it's pretty cool

Richard blank has the largest collection

of restored American pinball machines

and antique rockola Juke boxes in

Central America making gamification a

strong part of

CCC culture and CCC is Costa Rica call

center which is the name of his business

so hey without further delay let's bring

Richard right on in here business

strategy Richard welcome to shark bite

Biz you my friend you just became shark

bait I'm so happy to be Chum Costa Rican

Chum on your show today ah thank you so

much for coming on we have a tradition

on the show very first question we ask

everybody what's your background what do

you do for your living how'd you get

there what do you like about life what

do you think happens after life

basically in a nutshell tell us what

makes Richard Richard let's give you a

Richard Supreme Pizza um from Northeast

Philadelphia oh born and raised yeah man

and uh decided to make Spanish my major

so I built on that momentum at Arizona

moved to Costa Rica when I was 27 years

old started my business 15 years ago and

I'm the CEO of Costa Rica's call center

so it's a journey of twists and turns

but it was the kind of Vision Quest that

I stuck with when I was a young man and

decided what to do with my life well

that is pretty amazing

and you know we do people that watch

this show I know some people watch it

just not every episode they watch the

ones that are more interesting to them

which is pretty cool but you know you

went Central America I went to uh

Northern Central America uh with Mexico

but then also Peru as well too um you

know and have built myself from scratch

from the ground up like being an

18-year-old in Latin America white guy

from Cole country Pennsylvania as well

too

learning Spanish becoming bilingual um

you know we have a trational family

Mexican Peruvian American uh so it's

been pretty crazy it sounds a little bit

similar to kind of how you are and uh

what you're doing look how many things

we have in common and we just started

exactly but obviously the second

language and open mind being a guest in

other countries and being accepted

learning to love it and Incorporated in

your life you and I have seen that this

language skills and being a traveler of

the world a nomad opens so many doors

and so it's just one of things but it's

not for everybody I mean you sometimes

have to dip ail in the water travel

first a little bit before settling down

and you know seeing if it's the right

thing for you but I tell you what the

the world's an incredible place if you

give yourself a chance to explore it and

no definitely 100% is

so let's just talk that your origin

story I mean what motivated you to move

to Costa Rica I mean i' personally I've

been to a couple places in Central

America just got back from Panama a few

months ago but um you know I've never

been to Costa Rica I've heard it's

amazing I heard it's beautiful I hear

there are a lot of Americans there not

as many as are in Rosarito though uh

Rosarita Mexico but I do hear that there

are a lot of Americans down there or X

as they're called like what motivated

you to move down there at the Costa Rica

I tell you what you and I both grew up

in Pennsylvania I remember those snow

days when they didn't call your number

from KYW News Radio that wasn't cool

Abington it should be 301 I should be

calling our name but

anyway it was cold it was dreary and you

would fantasize about Gilligan's Island

or some place that was much more fun and

so I knew that if I ever had a one in a

million opportunity and get get past my

parents' guilt I might take it so I was

really setting up for that barn door to

be open as you did as well with that

second language but no when when you go

up in the Northeast it gives you a

little bit of grit you have some

backbone we're competitive with

Athletics and life and and I like

growing up there I thought the changing

of the seasons and it's a nice culture

the colonial homes and the warm cozy

fireplaces during you know the fall and

the winter can't beat it but the row

homes in Philly but we needed to change

just to test ourselves and to see if we

were one trick pony or if we could

accommodate to other different areas and

so me being a Spanish major I was able

to use that language outside in Tucson

Arizona at the University of Arizona all

the World a Stage so if you think about

it it was much easier for me to do that

compared to another sort of major plus

David I'll be straight I didn't have the

maturity or the grades for IV League or

for medicine or law oh same here I

didn't go to college till later in life

till the Great Recession when I was

forced to uh go to college because you

know I used to be able to get good jobs

when I was younger just because of

experience in track record and then

during the Great Recession things change

they were like yeah we want that but we

also want people to college degree and

because of that I wasn't able to you

know it was hard it's what led me down

the path I'm on and where I'm at now

because I ended up having to do

independent Consulting and stuff like

that and it was bringing American

companies stuff into Mexico and

eventually down to Peru and it it kind

of was a blessing in disguise because

for all those like you talked about grit

having that grit um you know it was

gritty for me you know like pulling

teeth trying to make things work uh

during that time period but I eventually

did get out of the rut and now you know

once I of the world but I feel like I am

starting to ascend to a higher level and

it's because I left yeah know I'm not

from Philly Philly I live by Philly now

but I'm originally from Pottsville the

home Yingling and you know that's coold

country Pennsylvania which is you know

entirely different than if I lived up in

Philly who knows maybe I would have

never wanted to move but being there I I

wanted to just get the heck out well in

Costa Rica you meet people from all over

the world they're looking for the same

thing you and I did maybe to shed some

skin or at a later stage in life when

you have your maturity you could look at

things differently but I tell you what

it's unfortunate that you were forced

into an education but hopefully some of

these people inspired you to do some

dedicated practice or some pondering I I

feel education's 5050 I I think a

teacher can't pull you over into the end

zone but they should be good enough to

inspire

and I've had teachers along the way not

just pay it forward but encouraged me to

write better to continue my studies in

Spanish and Humanities and art and it

was nice it wasn't the pressure of

having to pass a test cheat in class or

hustle my way for a certain grade these

teachers knew the score and they would

allow you to take a test or write a

paper or come to office hours if if you

a is what you want then you got to earn

it but they wanted to prepare you with

your balance bike and so I respected

them they really made you earn that

grade and if you put in the time you got

it but then again it wasn't punishment

when they asked you to elaborate or to

practice your grammar because it was

miscommunication and so you have to

respect that person that has so much

patience you have to you have to show

the dedicated practice to the teacher in

order for them to start mastering levels

and and going to other levels with you

David so hopefully through that sort of

univ University education you got that

it just wasn't a force March where you

just had to get a piece of paper yeah I

mean it's crazy because um it it felt

like a lot there are some things that I

learned but to be honest a lot of it

I've already passed through in life like

I remember the one marketing class in

fact I'm friends with the professor till

this day um who's out of Scranton

and uh I had to argue with him final

exam technically I flunked I'm like dude

I've been doing marketing my whole life

and the way these questions were written

I I went through every single one and

I'm like no in the real life this would

not work why because of this and because

of this yeah it looks good on paper but

this isn't how the real world world

works you know and I think that was the

difference between me being someone

that's was out in the work for field

since I was 14 then going to college

when I was in my late 20s early 30s

compared to someone that was fresh out

of high school is like I had these real

life experiences the compar gads and you

know I think he gave me credit for every

question except for one of them which he

was like no I disagree I still think

this is right but I'm like okay you know

you gave me 44 other ones so I'll let

you go on one but uh let's uh move a

little forward start a little bit about

you started a company from scratch down

in Costa Rica what company did you start

and what does it do well February 6th of

2008 I closed my first deal for one seat

for Costa Rica's call center we're a

Nearshore bilingual dedicated call

center that focuses on outbound sales

lead generation appointment setting

inbound customer support back office

support and nonvoice support any type of

specific Niche you go for oh we're known

for our inbound customer support

companies such as Amazon P Intel and

Oracle have a very large presence here

and the school set the neutral English

accent the infrastructure the proxim to

the United States the stable government

I mean the Ducks were all in a row and

when I had the opportunity to come here

I was only supposed to be for two months

my friend wanted me to come down to

teach English at his call center a

really good friend of mine from college

and as I was mentioning earlier barn

door open parents guilt wasn't there and

I saw my opportunity and I decided to

stay so I learned the business from the

inside out not from sea level and I got

to see the good and the bad but guess

what I did learn this is the real life

experience my good friend you were

mentioning earlier right I realize that

people just want their dignity they

don't want to feel Expendable they don't

want to feel like robots know somebody's

name really sincerely appreciate the

work and I said to myself if that's all

it takes to be a real Coach like the Bad

News Bears I'm going to do this and so

uh I realized that by incorporating

gamification my pinball machines in my

arcade and by personally knowing their

names and teaching them soft skills

walking rows and breaking bread I might

have that sort of Base Foundation that

you and I grew up with where you want to

come back the next day you don't want to

quit the sports team you want to do a

little bit extra not just to impress

your teacher but to impress yourself

because you're you're really into this

to win this and so I I I try to be a

different boss that they've ever had

don't don't fear me how do you try to be

different like a different boss because

everybody tries to be different I think

but the way you emphasized and the way

that came out of your mouth it sounds

like you have something special there

that you're trying to save by different

boss sure and these are little

checkpoints you need little first downs

before touchdowns with people I can't

expect them to sign a contract and

devote their life for me why don't I

asked them to tell me a Coming of Age

moment during an interview because

you've already qualified and I don't

want to see your bells and whistles I

want to see in the moment if David asks

you an incredible question to know your

death are you capable expanding and

telling a little bit of something about

yourself especially the time my friend

when you beat up a bully or saved a

kitten let me see if I can give you a

cool nickname that day or pick you up on

a rainy Tuesday and that's the sort of

thing where if I find the right sort of

fit no bad habits but someone willing to

be coached and

to delegate and grow with the company

then then I'm finding my dirty dozen I I

have 150 I don't have 50,000 so I could

be exceptionally selective of the

campaigns in the agent so it's it's a

luxury but then again when you find the

perfect fit you win championships and

listen the fact that have people been

with me over a

decade it's hum

especially the fact that you and I are

from Pennsylvania we're here in in these

type in this world where people Le in

two three years you know and that's an

average career at a company people stay

in for a decade plus I mean that is uh

that's rare loyalty these days yes

you're in Costa Rica yes the culture is

a little bit different but I I think

even down there I mean staying with

companies for your whole life is still

is starting to get a little bit more

oldfashioned is it not David let's let's

keep going on to what makes me different

I'm still on that momentum knowing your

name but calling the balls in the

strikes come on Pennsylvania boy you

know about giving that Northeast guilt

I'm going to tell you how it is but I'm

not just going to beat you up and twist

the knife it's not fair I'm gonna first

ask may I make a suggestion so yes David

you say yes so then that eliminates any

sort of Defense now we're cool and then

prior to telling you your tie is not

straight I'm going to give you three

stories about myself to put an anchor

there and to explain how I've

experienced that as you're mentioning

this maturity and gray hairs that we

have over the younger students in your

classes so explain to them these sort of

passes that you went through and so I

can level that playing field you're in

my wheelhouse Don't Think You Can Dance

this I can run around it five times to

Sunday and teach you a nice after school

special lesson so why don't we calm down

here because maybe your teacher your

best friend your mentors drop that ball

you're with me now you're with David

now and we're going to treat you like a

mature adult give you the benefit of the

doubt and see what you can really do if

you can eliminate any sort of blockage

and so you ask what I do

differently I can't buy it and I can't

spin it but if I can understand exactly

who you are and realize that I will give

you a straight shot at to the

top I find Aces and I find Winners and

if you're really young then you're the

Squire to the night they're even better

then we can really cultivate those

skills and so I like uh personally I

like younger sales reps because uh not

that they're young in their sales

experience but they're young in their

Erp sales experience with what I do at

sedor because then people like my sales

rap Jake for example he's has all the

sales skills but he's never had a coach

or a mentor like me and now we're

putting it together and we just won his

first deal and it's going to be the

first of many this kid not kid I mean he

36 but this you know younger executive

is going to end up being an allar within

a few years yo here's my virtual high

five ah there you go main man on and you

know what's cool David you're creating a

company culture that's what I was

brought in that's that's part of the

reason I was brought in it's like and

part of the reason why it came because

it was like hey what we had wasn't

working so I gone and uh come in and uh

build what you need to be built and you

know do it and you know I've been

building that I mean like transparency

honesty uh even with things say lead

distribution stuff like that I mean you

got to remember I've been a sales rep I

know how it is like hey why don't my

boss do that like and it you know makes

me upset in the back of my mind whereas

if the boss would have just came out and

said hey look just see you guys now I'm

giving Jake this lead not Neil this is

the

reason decision final okay and then

maybe two months later but they all know

that it comes back it'll be like hey

Neil remember I gave that lead that

should have been yours to Jake for a

specific reason well here's one from uh

uh Jake uh that you're getting to take

that back because what goes around comes

around but I do it in the open so that

everybody knows what's going on and

there's no Mystique you know it takes

that away and I feel that by doing that

it allows a more open transparent

happier culture because people don't

feel like someone's going behind their

back trying to stab my man man there

will always be Mystique oh there will

always be but I limit it a little bit I

look at it like this Athletics is the

greatest way to gauge Merit if you're

the fastest can jump the highest you win

and so if you put everybody on a Level

Playing Field and give everybody the

resources the person that rises to the

top everybody else has to understand

they won and we do it through very

strict quality assurance kpis so I can

grade people on soft skills in the 10%

wiggle room but 90% of this thing is is

cut and dry and there are some people

that are just hitting perfect shots that

is absolutely absolutely true one thing

I have and maybe you do or do not agree

with this uh it be interested and find

out is I

believe okay so me personally I feel

like I'm a chameleon okay I feel that

and I say that to the sense that I I I

can meet your personality I can meet

your tone or I can figure out a way that

I need to be in order to communicate

effectively with the person I'm talking

to most of the time now I say most of

the time and this is where the question

is I feel everybody can't sell somebody

there's always one person out there no

matter for what reason personality

mismatch they just don't like the way

your face looks whatever it means

you will never be able to sell that

person but I I view that's a very rare

occasion that's like a 99 out of 100

type Prospect things but when you

realize that that's when again because

you have to always be you know reviewing

and growing what you're doing to get

better and learning from your past you

realize like hey I'm not going to be

able to get through with this person so

I'm gonna hand it out to someone that

can potentially sell her um what do you

think about that whole philosophy that

whole Spiel I have going on and hey it's

my show if you disagree you can freely

disagree we believe that anybody that

does sales prospecting and runs the risk

of rejection we like to give them

romantic

deaths I got to write that one down well

good we jump clouds David if I could say

shark bite Biz podcast before you hang

up I get a point if I could name drop

you I go David how are you today get

another point if you ask me who's this

not in a negative tone because you're

curious because I said your name so well

and I thank you for asking and mentioned

my name is Richard blank and then you

say who's Richard blank now I got the

double double you ask the followup

question and guess what we're already

1520 seconds in those are two good long

deep breaths so at least it gives me a

chance 100 times a day to properly

introduce myself prior to pitching

because you you get the P to pitch and

if you have the luxury to speak to a

gatekeeper you give a positive

escalation when you get transferred you

do it written in verbal and these are

the sort of soft skills which will at

least put me from a half court to at

least a foul shot

percentage in regards to pitching of

course I'm going to miss a few but I

tell you what I built a business on just

being very courteous and doing meeting

minutes and following through before the

end of a business day and being

forthright with no surprises the way

that I was raised now mind you India and

the Philippines offshore they're half my

price why do people choose me well if

it's on marriage we can do it but if

you're asking me to double the

production in the same amount of time

it's almost impossible there's only so

much talk time but I've been able to

earn accounts because of that sort of

sight unseen trust and people would like

to work with this a smaller company that

gives you that sort of extended service

and so kind of sounds like value to me

is what you're talking about if you want

it to be you're you're a sales

rep imagine being on hold for a long

time where is that workforce management

you didn't staff properly how about

people that don't even have customer

service live departments and you have to

fill out Omni Channel non-voice forms

and wait you're going to elevate to your

pop and so it depends on how much you

value a client could they give you a

referral could you sell them additional

services and you know you might retain

them or they might even make suggestions

on what to do to sell them two scoops of

ice cream and so you you take everything

into consideration and some people

you're mentioning today about business

loyalty to companies how they treat

their clients well it's not just me

being old school it's just my hard

earned dollar and and I don't need

backflips and people swallowing sword

words but my goodness gracious let's

let's just have a deal where everyone

meets in the middle and I feel comfy and

I want to come back but if you happen to

remember my name my favorite dessert and

you make me feel really comfy on a on a

sad day or a day where I'm celebrating

and by all means I'm gonna go there for

the next 20 years that's great you know

I I've gotta say your perspective

attitude personality it is it it's

Unique I mean to be quite blunt with you

and I find it uh kind of like we just

used the word Mystique you know like uh

it's got this this Vibe this Aura of

energy that uh I don't know I kind of

find it inspiring in a way with how

you're talking about these things and

the passion that you are talking about

it when you're talking about it it it

just you know like I just see it leaking

out from all pores of your body it's

amazing so I mean I do want to go into

though there is one topic before we go

in and that was a compliment by the way

just so you know that was a good a nice

compliment that's why I didn't interrupt

you you can keep going my mother's

watching this is great I was trying to

make you comfy on a on a happy day but I

want to talk about one last topic before

we do end up wrapping up okay first off

you did give some kind of advanced

marketing telemarketing strategy ideas

of you know couple minutes ago when we

were

talking today I think it's a little bit

of the challenge like I have my sales

reps out there

prospecting um and they're getting a lot

of broken numbers a lot of a lot of

people change jobs during the Great

resignation during all the layoffs stuff

like that uh remote work to where you're

not able to reach people directly

anymore and you get in uh you you know

the name directory hell I guess we'll

call it and it it it's made it a little

bit

more challenging for us to get people on

the phone when we do get them on the

phone it's usually pretty decent it's a

it's a start you know and then we build

off from there but it does make it a

little bit harder to get people on the

phone what's your secret if you can

share without the you know spilling your

secret sauce all over the place of

course I'm going to give the

Pennsylvania Secret Sauce oh there you

go it's whiz no I'm only kidding you

have to offset the lower contact ratio

with more of a quality call but then

you're going to say Richard how's it a

quality call if it's a cold call it's a

cold call because of the list it's a

quality call because you might be able

to put yourself on third base well I

want to I want to interrupt you right

there because I want to to talk to my

specific scenario which I think many

people people probably uh are feeling

out there with me too like for example

we have a list like you're saying which

is the cold call list but it is a very

very high targeted you know down to the

sick codes of businesses uh you know zip

codes even every like it's very targeted

on what type of people what type of

company we're looking for and I think

many of our viewers are the same way

they're looking for a specific person

and they may have that list but their

problem is then actually breaking

through so sorry for the interruption

but maybe that can help with what you

were saying the frame it that way it

definitely helps because a list like

that I could load into a predictive

dialer and really you know pound the

phones and carpet bum compared to manual

dialing but if it's a list like that my

suggestion is if you have the luxury of

the time just do a little bit of due

diligence there are websites in LinkedIn

profiles it may assist you with updated

in third party information definitely

company culture you could complement

loading docks second locations in my

case my art deco building neon lights

and my pinball machines you mentioned

that I'm giving you five minutes yours

to lose but getting back to that why do

we do this because you're speaking to

less people but you have better

conversations because if I'm looking at

a LinkedIn

profile mentioned Pennsylvania look at

all the things we had in common I mean

obvious VI ly even if I was selling a

widget that you didn't need we have way

too much in common and these two ships

are passing T night we'd have to wave

and talk for a couple minutes and wish

each other well on our similar Journeys

and so in this crazy world of circles

there are some

crisscrosses and if you're going to do

this from time to time you put your chin

up your chest out and you represent

yourself in the company in the best

light I get a lot of yeah were good

thanks but at least I'm going to say

David good morning so even if you hang

up on me I'm like the full card as the

tarot walking off of the cliff sniffing

the roads you have to not go into this

with fear they're black and blue from

these phone calls and if you get passed

around and you speak to Billy in the you

know mail room and Kathleen and

accounting when you speak to David you

mention how great some of these

co-workers were and he's going to be

like you're the first person to ever see

these things and so you need to be a

painting stop being a print and if you

grind these calls you're going to hate

it it becomes a force March but then you

just can't go out there as a fool what

you need to do is to have structure and

discipline but really show active

interest in something and live in the

now because there will be something you

hear in the background someone says

something something that's happening

that you can anchor and then you pull

and as I'm mentioning you get these

first downs 30 seconds to two minute

checkpoints of confirmation questions

tie down

questions trans you know you got to have

transitional sentences with people just

don't there's no straight lines in

nature you need to have bridges in

between these islands of conversations

by asking people if it makes sense oh

that's great so this next thing I'd like

to discuss and so you're you're dancing

kind of like this podcast exactly that's

why you do a great podcast David oh

thank you so bu but it shouldn't be a

chore with people and they shouldn't be

checking their watches when they say

they don't have time 10 minutes should

go by and so you should really take each

call that way so don't think of the

numbers you could have that one call

that could recommend five people so then

there's your whole day and so everyone

just needs to slow down a bit and if

you're trying to connect with people do

it the real way you've definitely given

me a little bit of a different uh

perspective and just listening to you

speak about this it has given me some

ideas on some things that we may try to

implement and change and yeah we mean

we've done like the LinkedIn looking up

LinkedIn stuff and all of that but I

think it's more the approach of how

they're doing it is what will ultimately

make the difference in our success rates

because that's where we are struggling

but we're also building it from scratch

with our bdr team and stuff like that

customade emails customade voicemails it

doesn't have to be the whole thing but

back in our day there was something

called mad lives where you put in an

adjective and it can make the sentence

funny and so custom make the intro two

or three things in the body to Anchor

and then a beautiful conclusion to show

that you did a due diligence you you

don't need to review the whole LinkedIn

profile but there are a couple things

there that you could mention quickly in

the body to let him know that my

goodness gracious how much time did he

spend reviewing the company very nice so

you're asking about voicemails and

emails that's where you get your percent

percentages of call backs that's where

you can net them you're hunting right

you're hunting leaving the voicemails

hopefully the message in the bottle hits

and then if you do do a good email or

voicemail that carries it comes back and

so it's not the same as your contact

ratios before when everyone was picking

up but then again maybe you don't want

it that way it's better almost filtering

to see who calls you back response to

the email because that could be their

preference of communication compared to

voice and so you catch people that would

prefer that and so um if you're good at

what you do and you're very you have an

eye-catcher and you're really good in

your subject matter and you get positive

escalations don't be surprised if you

can match if not exceed those old

numbers with less work yeah yeah that's

great so since you have spilled so much

knowledge to us today I'm going to give

you one minute one whole minute to tell

us what you love about pinball machines

the fact that I can afford them now

because go growing up they were so

expensive and Ricky schroer had the best

arcade and silver spoons and it wasn't

fair and so just like Tom Hanks in the

movie Big look at his disposable income

he got trampolines and all those games

in that awesome Loft and so for me I'm

an owner of a company but I'm still a

kid and I combine the two you gotta have

fun got the greatest arcade in Central

America 13 pinball machines got an air

hockey tables six arcade machines Juke

boxes that is awesome hopefully you have

arrol Smith on those Juke boxes

somewhere oh without a doubt but here's

the skinny when I bought them here you

figured you would get a cache of

Aerosmith but no it's all Central

American artists from the 60s and 70s

not even labas is in there and so that's

crazy so anyways Costa Rica's call

center Richard tell us where can people

find out more about your company how can

people reach out to you thank you David

they can buy a first class plane ticket

can come visit me in Central America but

they also can go visit my Costa Rica's

call center Facebook fan page we have

close to

118,000 local Costa

ricanos give your audience a chance to

know the business process Outsourcing

industry in Central America what we do

but also David when this goes live look

at all the new fans that you will have

and oh yeah I can't enough a great time

today and natural you bring the best out

of your guest H thank well it's pretty

easy when you have any guest as amazing

as you are so Richard thank you so much

for coming on I love what you're doing I

mean it really comes down to helping

businesses grow and how to be a good

boss I mean that's how I that that's

like the two core messages I got out of

today well just like us being in

Pennsylvania and the Broad Street

Bullies the Flyers took it home in the

70s and so sometimes you got to be a

champion even if you're one of the newer

teams in the league or a backup

quarterback against a legendary seven

time super Super Bowl win right exactly

and and your audience shouldn't be hard

on themselves entrepreneurs they need to

start somewhere there's only so many

kings they're more princes than Kings

out there and so just remember that yep

definitely hey Richard thank you so much

my friend this has been awesome thank

you my friend have a good one you too

cheers wow that was an incredible chat

with Richard right first you all know

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uh his COA Rica call center out there uh

you know trending let's do it now let's

get back to the real rock star of the

show Richard great hearing the unique

enthusiasm that Richard has for call

centors and all the advice and expertise

that he gave us about how in 2023 postco

post work from home call centers still

do work and they can be effective but it

does seem like it's a little bit harder

to be fair that was probably one of my

favorite interviews and Richard you are

such a unique character I really love

you dude awesome stuff again Richard

thanks for coming on sharing your

expertise and please check out the Costa

Rica call center business all the link

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