Clay: I remember as a business coach I hired a guy years ago who worked at Taco Bell. I hired a guy years ago who worked at Reasor’s. I hired a guy years ago who I met that had zero sales experience. Three guys come to my mind. And with a call quota, it’s just bottom-line. You have to hit this number and if you don’t, you’re gone. And the second thing … This is kind of the ying and the yang. You have to be a business coach and mentor. And I know Justin does a very good job of this, I’ve seen him do this. But management today is mentorship. And we could have a whole show about this. But the percentage of Americans that don’t have a father, they don’t have a mentor, they don’t have a trainer, they don’t have an apprentice, they don’t have anybody providing to them a standard of excellence, is massive.
And so when we come back, I want to talk about this because I see Justin do this. He’ll pull these young men aside, he’ll pull these young teammates aside at the Elephant in the Room, and he’ll invest a ridiculous amount of hours into mentoring people. But he doesn’t have to rearrange his schedule. It’s more of like, when he goes somewhere, people will shadow him. And he realizes, “Hey, I have a call quota. But I also have to mentor these guys. They have to know that I care”. And I think that today, given the current state of affairs where the average person doesn’t have both a mom and a dad they grew up, the average person doesn’t have a mentor in their life, mentorship absolutely is what we call “management”. You can’t manage people today without mentorship. The people you manage won’t look up to you, they won’t listen to you, they’ll push back from you, unless they view you as a source of wisdom. And I think that’s why I love working with Dr. Zoellner because he knows so much more about business than everybody else. And it’s just like … And he also knows so much more about life. And I love asking him questions and ways to get better and efficiencies. And that is what it’s all about.
So when we come back, we’re gonna talk about the tips for running an effective call center. Stay tuned business coach listeners. Thrivetimeshow.com.
All right welcome back to the Thrive Time Show. We pride ourselves on showing you specifically what you need to do to start or grow a successful company from lessons taught from a business coach. I don’t have a whole lot of interest in giving you, I don’t want to give you random tips, I don’t want to give you things that don’t work. I want to interview people inside the box that rocks that knows that they’re doing and that do it. I mean, bottom line, success is not that complicated. If you’ll study a GOAT, greatest of all time, study a GOAT, greatest of all time. Find somebody who is the greatest of all time or the best that you know or someone that’s at the peak of their profession. Study them. Then they’re gonna show you the way.
So we had a Thriver who text us at 918-851-6920, 918-851-6920, and they asked this question for one of our business coach members. They asked, “What’s the best way to keep my sales team motivated when they make cold calls?” Well tip number one is you want to have a quota. A set number of productivity or action numbers that people need to take period. The number that you’re gonna put up with. The number you’re gonna tolerate. Bottom line, you have to accept what you … You have to expect what you accept. So if you expect a big number but you expect a small number, then that’s a weird deal. So whatever you’re accepting as “Okay, that’s OK” then you have to expect that to become the new default.
People as a general rule fall to their level of accountability. They fall to their level of preparation. And so we said tip number one is you have to have a quota. Tip number two is you have to mentor people. Justin, founder of the Elephant in the Room men’s grooming lounge, that many of you Oklahoman’s know about. Justin, how big of a role has mentorship … And I know you’ve mentored people that have screwed you over, you’ve mentored people that have not taken the highroad, you’ve mentored people that have gone to become your unsuccessful competitors. But talk to me about mentorship and how big of a role is it for you? And how do you try to mentor your team?
Justin: So I said if I help enough people reach their goals, I’ll achieve my goals. And so part of my process is, if you want to come to work at EITR, any of our positions, you have to want to grow. And I find that most people just grow 10% and they’re like, “I’m good, I’m happy”. Well, I don’t want to grow my business just 10%. So, with the mentorship/running of EITR, letting people know that we have the tools, the resources to grow them. And you mentioned our call center. Teaching people the ability to ask questions to solve problems. And it puts more on them and less on the person they’re talking to to resolve those problems or figure out problems.
Clay: I think you do a very good job teaching communication. It’s amazing to me, but many of the people that will apply for a job at the Elephant in the Room are good people. I believe God has a plan for their life. And they don’t know how to shake a hand.
Justin: True.
Clay: They weren’t taught how to greet somebody.
Justin: I wasn’t either. I wasn’t either. I was –
Clay: If you would guess, out of a hundred people that come in, yourself included, they apply for a job … How many of them were not taught how to shake a hand or to greet somebody in a non-awkward way?
Justin: 10-15% know how to greet. The rest of the 85% don’t know how. And I’m talking about posture, communicating eye contact, and this is the example I give. It’s like me in high school, right? I barely passed, I’d tell teachers “I’m not gonna show up, I need to play baseball. And on your multiple choice test, I’ll be the first one done because I’m gonna do A all the way down. And I’ll be the first one done”. And why was I the first one done? I wanted it over and done as quick as possible because it was awkward, it made me uncomfortable, reading the questions I knew I was going to get it wrong. So it’s like the same thing when someone’s shaking a hand. And that was me at twenty-six years old. I didn’t know how to shake someone’s hand, look them in the eye. These are things that you just … Is your parent going to teach you? Is society going to teach you? You know? And neither, most cases.
And so when I had these going out looking for jobs and they don’t know how to greet someone.
Clay: So here’s what I do as a business coach and Steve, you might think I’m mean. Justin, you might think I’m mean. My whole thing is I look at everybody who comes, and I look at them as though they have a post-it note on their face that says, “Don’t be mad at me. My parents did a bad job”. I look at them and every single person I see I say … I’m telling you, this is what I’ve taught myself. I see a post-it note on their face saying, “Don’t be mad at me. My parents did a bad job”. And I try my best to expose them to the knowledge. I try to teach them, I try to coach them. And if they choose not to do it, I move on. And some of my most successful people … I remember one of my sales guys, I talked to him one day and I pulled him aside and I said “Hey”. This is back when I owned DJ Connection. And I said … This is kind of a sad story but I pulled him aside and I said, “Hey. When your dad was talking to you about being a man and being consistent” … I was a younger businessman and business coach then, I was like twenty-five. “What did he teach you?”
And this is a guy who’s like twenty-four. And he goes, “I grew up homeless and I didn’t have a dad”. And I said, “So, what did your mom teach you?” He said, “She was on drugs and was usually passed out”. And I said, “I have nothing to say right now. I don’t know what to tell you. But here’s what we have to do”. And it blew my mind. I remember talking to one guy and I said, “Hey”. ‘Cause I have five kids and the idea of not being a dad and responding to their phone calls or being there for them on the weekends or talking to them or sitting down with them. It’s just foreign to me. My kids are like my number one … God is number one, faith, then my family, my wife, and then my kids. That’s kind of the order there. That is not even including my business coach business
And this guy I said, “Hey man. You cannot talk to people that way”. And I remember just going, “What did your dad show you about this?” And he goes, “My dad was in prison in my entire life”. And I’m going, “What?” If you look at the statistics, I encourage you to look this up right now. There’s a group called “National Fatherhood” or you can look up statistics. “Focus on the Family” has some statistics. But the majority of kids today do not have a father in the home.
Justin: 40%.
Clay: It’s not good. It’s not good. And when I said the majority, I guess I’m referring to the suburban areas where you have Chicago and you have Tulsa. The country out in the rural areas, you’re correct. The whole totality of the country is about 40%. But it’s sad. It’s not good. And so you have to look at people as though, “Hey, my parents did a bad job. Could you please help me?” But then you also have to make a profit, right? So move number three is you have to have a whiteboard where you tally up their stats. Or a spreadsheet.
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