Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections. An Interview with Richard Blank and Michael A Forman
- mforman521
- Apr 4
- 28 min read
📍 📍 I've got quite an interesting guest today, Richard Blank. He's calling all the way from Costa Rica. And I'll let him go into that a little bit further, but following his childhood dream, he owns the largest collection of restored American pinball machines and antique jukeboxes in Costa Rica.
That in itself just sparks all my interest. But I'll let Richard Richard, how are you? And welcome to the show. I'm so happy to be here, Michael. Thank you so much. for having me as a guest. Yes, I'm in the land of poor Evita of pure life. And I did follow a dream. I grew up in the 70s and 80s. And Ricky Schroeder's arcade on silver spoons made everyone envious.
And once you have discretionary income, instead of buying a Rolex, I'd rather have three pinball machines. And so that's what I decided to do. Good, good. Okay you know what, I'm going to delve right into the whole thing. Let me ask a question. Sure. How has your background in telemarketing shaped your approach to networking?
Great question. And first is I am the CEO of Costa Rica's call center, where a dedicated bilingual Near Shore Call Center located here in beautiful Central America, north of Panama, south of Nicaragua, and real quick for your audience, and there's no exam or quiz on this, but we're the only democratic society in Central America, no standing army, they put their money into education, 95 percent literacy rate, neutral English accent, best infrastructure in Central America, and companies such as Amazon, HP, Intel, and Oracle have made a very big name here.
So we have a lot of money. Labor pool that packs a punch. And before we even got on to the podcast, you're like, what part of the world do you call me from? And we're very close to the United States. Just a couple hours flight from Florida and mountain time zone. But a lot of people either have been to the States, traveled.
No family. We have a large expat community here. So we're very attuned to the North American market anyway, in regards to telemarketing and networking, I see it as a means to an end AI, I think is wonderful in regards to gathering, but they can never master empathy. And if they try, it's weird. I don't want a computer to hug me.
What happens is. That people are used to chat, texting, and emails, we call that omni channel non voice. While today it's the actual reverse. Making a phone call might seem first class. Top grade, going above and beyond. And if you want to talk about super old school, strangers or friends you haven't met yet, you're giving comparisons between being the life of the party and breakdancing in front of everyone, compared to staying at home and sending texts and both are good for you.
But, I agree with that, but there's times, Michael, when people need to shed some skin. And they don't need to go all out and be the prom king and beat up the bully. But there are certain things where you can learn a proper introduction or listening skills. Or even asking second and third questions so it's not glancing over at its actual foundation interest.
And you might have one or two things. Of course. And I can remember something about you a year from now. You respect that. But telemarketing it, a lot of people, it has a bad rap because of Hollywood or just bad experiences. But I tell you what, and I'll make this quick. If someone is clever, rehearsed, does their due diligence, knows positive escalation so they can make nice around the company before speaking to the decision maker, it's a means to an end.
You can make a ton of money. And those that have that skill are extremely marketable. They'll never have to look for a job. People want them. And not only that, but besides being the top on the board and making a ton of money, just like yourself, where you do speaking at schools and helping the younger generation find jobs and tie a tie and, be first class you have the chance in this.
Language in this art of speech to literally balance someone's bike and to pay it forward in regards to grammar, vocabulary or just self confidence and self reliance. And so it's a beautiful environment of energy giving. And when I first got here 25 years ago and I walked into my friend's call center, just as a guest, I got the chills.
There are sometimes you know where you belong. And I saw this environment, I go, besides being a native speaker, I have an advantage of them. Secondly, I love the artist speech, I thought it was fun. And so I just took it in a different direction, I added some play, and knowing people and going old school, but I still believe that a lot of companies can make a ton of money retaining clients and prospecting new business.
And that's great. And you keep referencing old school ways. And, people think come on, that's old school. But it's so important now that one on one connection it's so important. And yes, you have to put the cell phone down. You have to put the Zoom computer away.
You have to just feel what the other person is like. What conflict management techniques have you found most effective in professional relationships? Okay, it really depends on the stage of the relationship, but in my opinion, I think adjustments of tone is very important. There's a technique in sales called mirror imaging, but you don't want to mirror image someone yelling at you or cursing at you.
But we have a technique called the buffer boomerang technique where I can name drop, go, Michael, that's an excellent question. ABC. is one, two, three. Richard, what's one, two, three? Michael, that's an excellent question. One, two, three is ABC. So you read readjust negativity, put it into positive, answer their questions.
Don't be a child getting scolded by a principal or teacher. Come on, man. That's not fun. You need to buffer it, Michael. Thank you for bringing that up. Calm you down for a second there, buddy. But there's certain ways to earn your respect and like a chess board you make certain moves and sacrifice certain pieces.
Let's talk another strategy of conflict management. I don't like to say, excuse me. Same message, different delivery. I'll say, Michael, for my clarification, was it A, B, C, or 1, 2, 3? Don't say I'm sorry, excuse me. And also, the major thing people say is how may I help you? But I said may. I know you did. But help, it evokes an ego defense.
I think of someone sinking in quicksand and James Bond needs to save you. Depending on the stage of the relationship, Michael, use words such as assist. In the middle, it's guiding, and towards the end, it's lending a hand. Since English is their second language, we thrive in the thesaurus. We look at similes to expand their vocabulary, give them roots and branches, so they're just not regurgitating the same word over and over again, which is just stale.
They need to speak like a painting and be colorful. To capture people's attention every 30 seconds, Michael. So we have checkpoints in these conversations. It's not a Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross, two minute pitch where you close them. Sometimes I need these positive or negative reinforcements from people.
And so something very important you wanted to gain the respect of the other person and keep that respect. And as long as the person knows that's what you're trying, that you want to gain their respect, that goes such a long way. And in networking there's a mantra, know you like you trust you, they'll do business with you.
And no, you wouldn't like you. That's pretty simple because everybody knows you, you're a nice guy. Everybody likes you. Not everybody likes you that narrows the field down just a little bit, but trust you. That's such a crucial factor. And the respect, the trust, it all goes hand in hand. Michael, sorry to interrupt real quick, but people will beat you for price.
In contractual terms, or whatever. But if I come into your office, and I speak to Judy, prior to meeting you, and I mentioned how amazing this assistant was, or how Billy in the IT department, I was talking to him having coffee this morning, I didn't know he went to Penn State, but a nice guy, he's a football fan.
And when you write these follow up emails, and you do meeting minutes, And you mentioned these people. Maybe, just maybe, by doing verbal and written positive escalations, you might get that consideration compared to the person that's bullying in there. Why am I telling you this? Because the majority of the clients that I've closed, where I've beaten out, the price in the Philippines and India, they said, Richard, I love the way you spoke to Judy.
You know you're going to be working with Billy. And look at that relationship you have prior. You wiped your feet. You asked permission, and you knew your please and thank yous. And when I do things that are outside of the box, where it's like chumming the water with sharks. And you and I need to sometimes bite our tongue, be reserved, or suck in our pride to earn it.
I don't want you to do that, brother. I know what you're worth. You shouldn't have to work for free or beg for their business. It should be done on merit. And, I tell you what. If a client says to me I can get it for half the price. I go listen, Michael, if my person can do twice the amount of calls in an hour, they can, but the metrics say they can't because it's a five minute talk time, can't do 30 calls an hour, but if it's lead generation or sales or retention, and I believe that through merit or old school training, like you and I do where we call the balls and the strikes that gives winning teams.
That makes a difference. Come on, where's Rocky without Mickey? You gotta give Mickey credit. And even Adrian. And give the team credit. And so when people look at me, I go, you're damn right. I moved from Philadelphia to Costa Rica. I'm bilingual. I started my own call center. That's the kind of cat you want.
That's raw. Or you can go to the B company where they don't even know you. So go with the home run, King. Yeah, man, go with me and you'll get the, you'll get the sort of attention that you're looking for. And so absolutely. Okay. How can customer support principles be applied to networking strategies?
Customer support principles. That's what you're all about. Yes. It's listening. I don't know what you know. I know what I know. And so the more that I let you vent, oh, and I have some interesting advice for you. Profanity. What do you do, Richard? I tell you what, if it's like the cartoons where steam's coming out of their ears, and they're saying, F this, I'm frustrated with that.
Let them curse. And then I'll go, Michael, you're done. And then I make you feel guilty. And then you go, yeah, Richard, I go, yeah, sure. You can curse three more times. I won't hang up on you. And then the relationship we have after you apologizing to me, we get super straight and then we can walk calmly and resolve your issue.
But if you curse at me, you get a warning. And secondly, we killed a call. But listen, there are certain times you will be speaking to someone on the best or the worst day of their life. Unless you know them well, they might be out of character. Or why don't you give the kid the benefit of the doubt, so as an owner of a company.
Unless they're flat out breaking the labor law, throwing a rock through a window, or scratching my car. And he, as long as he's not cursing on the phone. But if there's a Jerry Maguire moment, I understand the time out. He's got three kids, he's taking care of Grandma. He's late on his rent. So what you do is, and I've seen grown men cry.
Guys that are twice my size. And, I think it's geographical what you're saying is, first of all, you have to have the patience to do what you're saying, but the patients on the other end, I come from New York. Okay, that's a hustle and bustle. Come on, get it done. You don't have what I want.
I don't care next, and they don't even give you that chance. But I've since moved down to Georgia, and things are a little slower. But we have a little more patience, and you can actually respond to the person you're talking to. And telemarketers, that's a different horse, okay, because everybody has their own thoughts on telemarketers.
But you have to have that patience in order, if you can have the patience before you get on that phone, then that's half your battle. That's really good. It can be but, patients can wear thin. It depends on the person. It depends on the person and what they're going through. You may get hold of that person, and they're going through whatever terror they're going through, whether it's the three kids or their parents or in laws or whatever, and doesn't have the time.
But, so it really depends on what that person is going through. Yeah. It's also life. Yeah, what's up? What's up? All right. How has gamification influenced your approach to building and maintaining professional relationships? Of course. Your best friends were made on the playground. Kickball captured a flag.
Nerf football in the snow when they called off school that day, which was great. I love that. I love that. Of course you do. That's why you die for passes and stuff. I love it too. I was also a hockey player, so I'm a huge Flyers fan when we used to beat your Islanders and your Rangers. I'm a Rangers fan.
I'm a Rangers fan. That's fine. Bernie Perrant, my broad street bullies. But where am I going with all this? You need play. You need to let off steam. And just because we're an adult doesn't mean we need to be boring. Look at the movie, Tom Hanks. It was funny. The adult jumping on trampolines and playing with toys.
Why? Because we have responsibilities. And so I tell you what. Many things happened. First is one man's trash is another man's treasure. Arcades are going out of business. So I would look on Mercado Libre, and I'd see some guy selling some game room, and I drive three hours to Perez de la Dome with a pickup truck and three of my buddies and a wad full of twenties, right?
No, ready to buy. And it was great. People were just giving them away and you could get a machine for under 500 bucks, spend a couple dollars to replace certain placas, certain memory cards and the screens. And now you're sitting on a 5, 000 machine. So it's amazing. And through the years I've collected 13 pinball machines.
My oldest is a 1970s Bally's Camelot. The newest is a 94 Last Action Hero Arnold Schwarzenegger Data East. But I tell you what, when you have this space, It gives people a chance to meet others from different departments to try a game, to try a pinball machine, and they'll say hey, Michael, I've played virtual pinball.
You're like, yeah, great. It's like looking at Playboy and not going on a date. Come on, man. You need to be real. And so they get to feel the machine like Elton John when he wrote it. about you could, you feel the machine, you become one with it. These, and saw this, these electrical mechanical machines that are just on contacts, say what you want.
Of course, you're part of this experience. There is an energy transfer and the ball could either go into the spot or run down the middle. And they're gorgeous. They're beautiful, the marquees and the artwork and especially the ones from the late 70s prior where they used to paint the play field so it wasn't a laminate.
And say what you want, and my God will say this to you and your amazing audience when you know what you love. When I see these pinball machines and I can have them and maintain them restore them, clean them up and shine them and turn them on and just when you're a kid, 25 cents in a pinball will go into a minute compared to asteroids, or I could play that for 45 minutes.
And so this is a dream for me. I'm like a child. And I love them, my purest passion, and the fact that I'm able to share this with people, we can be equal, we can tap each other on the shoulder and laugh and I've been able to retain People reduce attrition. People have fallen in love there. They smoke less cigarettes.
They're on their phone less in the corner looking at Japanese anime or Instagram. And my man, I've created fun place, fun time. Like Willy Wonka where he opened up that one room and you can eat anything and there's a river of chocolate. You walk into a company. Have you ever seen a game room? Never.
Maybe a TV and a ping pong table or something. But have you flat out seen a half a dozen pinball, a bunch of fighting machines, air hockey machine, and an Alpine racer to Namco ski machine? That's how I treat my people. That's how I treat me. And so networking wise, when people come in and size me up and have options of where they can work in the country, they look at that and go, you know what?
Maybe I belong in. This environment, so it's about showing to then receive now. It's it's amazing. You're really bringing out the fun that employee can have, but that makes them work that much harder. They're much more into their work because they know that they. It's a great place to work.
So if you love the place that you work harder and that goes to your customers as well, because you can't, I always say, cause I've been, I've owned many businesses. And, you can be one way to employees, but if you're not good to your employees, how can you expect your employees to be good to your clients?
So you have to treat that's a first and foremost, you have to treat your employees. The best so they can treat your clients the best because they're not going to laugh and smile with your client if they're not happy. And it sounds like you're making everybody happy. But as long as we're on the pinball trajectory.
Yes. What lessons of the world of pinball machines have you applied to your networking strategies? Concentration, using other senses. Sometimes anticipation, planning, or how about this? Regardless of the outcome, just enjoying the time. It's like a scent of a woman. When Al Pacino danced with that woman, Yeah, they had the most beautiful dance for five minutes, didn't mean they got married.
But I tell you what, You ask either of them, Hey, do you remember dancing with this person at that hotel back in 96? They'll be like, absolutely I do. You remember somebody for the rest of their lives. So you don't need 30 years to do it. You could do it in five minutes. And so you try to anchor with people.
You try to get real. If not, you're just like everybody else. And you're proving to me that you're not like everybody else. You're not like any other employer. And I like to think of myself in the same way, because I've always treated the employees that way. So I got news for you. We are the exception to the norm.
And It's unfortunate, but it's true. But you're painting a rosy picture on it, Michael. And I very much appreciate this. We might as well show the highlights. Why don't we show the fumbled footballs and interceptions and lost of course you can. Alright, let me ask you a question. Talk to me.
Because you've had some great success with your company today. What mistakes did you make and how did you overcome it? The number one mistake I made was hiring supervisors or executives on the outside. I'll hire a specialist for it and stuff, but it needs to be promoted from within. So that was a huge mistake.
They never earned the respect of the people, but my labor pulls about 24 years old. And most of them live at home. And this is fund money. And Amazon could hire them first thing tomorrow morning. So to think about a huge investment in someone in longevity is one thing. And so there's a very special balance there.
First, we're very selective of A, the campaigns that come in. We don't do sportsbooks, casinos, stocks, pharmacies, or sweepstakes. Secondly, I'm only 150, so I can be selective with the candidates. For then you say, Richard, you see this shining object. Yeah, that's like a mercenary. They're not going to last.
They'll be a jumper and a cancer. I'd rather have an 18 year old kid with great English that can mold like a squire. Okay, that doesn't have bad habits, not a cancer, I can teach these things. But then again, how do I really filter somebody out? And even in networking, this could be a very interesting question to ask people.
I always ask for a coming of age moment. I want to know a time when you beat up a bully or saved a kitten. Why? Because Michael might ask you a zig and zag question every now and again, put your script down. Maybe he just wants to know besides what your golf handicap was there a time you stood up for yourself?
Are you capable of telling me a three minute story? It's not well rehearsed. And so I get to see people because that's, that might be the way I get to contract with Michael. Because he's got ten people to choose from, but no one could answer the simple question of standing up for themselves or saving the day.
And when I see, and when I see what some people write about taking care of families, of younger siblings growing up, losing their innocence, or learning the violin, doing something in regards to travel, or how many books they've read. So I'd rather hire the marathon runner. I want to see what somebody does outside of the office which showed dedicated practice.
Why? So I can also give you a nickname, call you killer, or baby saver. What's up, kitten saver. Moments. I can tell you that on a Wednesday, but then I get to know you. Come on, give me some depth because if you don't play pinball with me, if you can't tell me that you saved the kitten, then guess what, Michael?
No offense. You might be qualified and you're a great kid, but I don't think you belong. Here. And it's not just me, it's the 10 other guys you're working with. They're going to be like, this guy just doesn't fit in. It's not part of the crew edge. And so
I think about two, I was I was in the air force for nine years. I was a police officer and I saved five lives. in that time. And I remember every single one of them like they were yesterday. And it's really amazing the difference when you're trying to serve, when you're trying to do your best and you put the other person in front of you the world's a better place.
I feel it is thank you for your service nine years and we use the military alphabet at the end. Why? Because gentlemen, like you've served. So instead of the call ending, now we're talking about the Air Force in Colorado Springs, the Air Force Academy and how awesome and top gone. Which one did you like one or two?
That was Navy, but still that's all right. Yes, he did. Okay. So let me ask you a question. Tell me Your top motivation that you give to your employees, your top motivation. Guilt. I let you know that you're better than this and you're out of character. And come on, you did 44 the other day. What's going on?
And I also say, listen, you saw me last week. I showed up on time. You saw me last week with three clients. You even sat in on a business meeting. And I'm not going to tell someone to tie their shoes if mine aren't tied. But I'll also see the best in you, so I'll usually point something well no.
I usually ask for your permission. May I make a suggestion? So now we're straight, and I usually do it over coffee, so it's not like I'm gonna grill you, but I will grill you. And then I'm just gonna mention how amazing you are, then I'm gonna mention about what I saw, and then I'm gonna put myself in there too.
And then I'm gonna be quiet and just keep making faces at you until you say you're right. And then you're going to start telling me about things that are happening at home and just things you never knew about so I can let off that steam so I don't lose you that day. What do you want to review script, or have me start quoting books from Zig Ziglar, or Tony Robbins and stuff.
Here's the thing about people like that. I think success is amazing and you can have certain mentors and gravitate towards, but at the end of the day, they're very alone. These people are looking in the mirror and realizing what they need to do and advice is only so good. So I need to get something out of them with broken ribs.
They still need to stand up. And when they see someone like myself, who has the leverage to make or break them, but takes them off of the floor when it's not their break time, to either praise them during a moment when they're shining, or a certain time where I see this readjustment because I just don't want to lose Billy.
What a beautiful time. And so my motivation, unfortunately, doesn't come through sunshine. It comes through some darkness. Why? So you can find your own light. And when you do that, you're golden, man. I don't even know what to say. Your motivation can come from either way. It's how you have created your atmosphere.
Whether you're going to do it in good times or bad times, whatever it is, but whatever works, your motivation is so important because you're letting them know it's going back to that trust and respect factor. That you respect this person so much that you're willing to find out what's wrong. Let him vent, let him get it out of his system, but he's a good person.
You're doing a good job. So come on, get out there and do your best. So we're cashing in the chips. If it's a person you've never met before, you can't do that unless they want to crawl on your shoulder. I'm talking about an employee. I'm talking about a track record. You can cash in those chips. Those the time you leave the building so people don't see the scene and you take the walk.
Yeah like a body. And so people, and then they look at you, go, I'd never expected that from you. And then you say, why? Come on, Michael. How many people have given you second and third chance? It's exact. I guess they didn't. Or they compare it to the other bosses that just piece them out and fire them.
And I don't know, man, I'm seaworthy. I don't know anything else besides technology. I got to hire a guy, my accountants, they got to do the numbers for me. What do I know? I know how to take a walk and have a coffee. My goodness, I guess that's the sort of thing that sustains seasons. It's what separates, it's what separates you from the masses.
That's where people want to work for you. They want to work for you. They don't want, they can take a job, they can take a job anywhere. Okay. But if they want to feel at home, they want to feel respected. They want to feel like a person, then they'll work for you. Work with me. Work with you. Sorry about that.
Come on, the Circa. Come on, Michael. Work with you. What is it? 1984? Remember, they have the leverage. They can leave me any time. It's like a cat. You don't want to spook the kitty. And then the feral cat runs away. So there's a beautiful balance of the open cage bird. And I think I've learned to understand that through the time.
And I tell you what, by really assisting their English. And investing in this and giving them proper grammar and certain suggestions to watch the face man from the A team or the show Remington Steele, from their English. I love Remington Steele. They smile. It reduces defense. Let me ask you one last question that's going to bring everything together.
Just Give me a tip for networking that you would give to my listeners that they can begin today or tomorrow to get them on their journey. Of course dedicated practice in your delivery. I need for you to record yourself. And because this is how people are going to hear you when you leave a message or see you in conversation.
As much as you might think it's funny to sit in front of a mirror if you're planning on sitting in business meetings and networking at a club and shaking hands and stuff, you better realize, because sometimes people, they get not only distracted, but they give away tell signs. They get lazy in regards to self and object adapters start biting nails, scratching, doing weird things.
I've always put my customer service people, I used to have them have a mirror right next to their telephone. Of course. And when they were on the phone, they looked at themselves, because when you smile and you are happy, it comes through the phone. It comes through and the other person actually picks up on that, on the vibe of the person, and they're not even there.
So I found that to be in such an important part of customer service. Michael, they're in the now, they're not spacing out or thinking of lunch. And I tell you what, this is something that will make things very easy for your audience. If you, like you and I did prior to the podcast, if you do just a little bit of due diligence, Facebook, LinkedIn profile, looking at the website, and it's not to have it memorized for final exam time, but there are goodies there.
You'll see certain pictures of someone doing athletics or a company event or the loading dock that's next to the lake. You can say, this is beautiful where you guys are located in Maine. And it's just when people have called me and you've mentioned it multiple times, my arcades, if somebody calls me to pitch me, Regardless of any sort of widget, but they go, Hey, Richard Blank.
I hear you collect pinball machines. You're in Costa Rica. What's happening. I'm going to give you three minutes, unless I'm on the phone with Michael and I'm busy. I'm like, listen, credit card at the ready. It's yours to lose. It's because you snapped me out of the trance. You got rid of the bad taste of the black and blue, bad telemarketers.
You might even. Patted my ego by saying, Costa Rica call center, how are you today? I'm be like, how nice. , how nice is that? You gave me a company name Spike, which snaps me out of the, hi, sir, can I speak to a, I don't do things like that, and so I've realized that instead of making a hundred calls a day, make 85 calls a day, and spend an extra 30 seconds looking up something and complimenting Judy, the secretary, and maybe leaving a custom made voicemail.
You might get back that 20%. And you know what it also does? It doesn't ice a kicker. You were talking earlier about people and their rhythms and stuff and why the games are there. I tell you what, man, when people are on break time, if they slow down, it's like running in place at the stoplight, certain marathon runners.
If you go down and play Pac Man, air hockey, pinball machine for 15 minutes, then go back to the phone. It's not saying you're going to do it better, but I tell you what, you're still warmed up. Your muscles aren't sore. So I can at least guarantee the same, if not better performance, not ramping up and getting lucky with a curve shot.
It's just, you can't do that. People get still get cold. And but what a beautiful art of speech. You're talking networking, forget the guys that are texting. I don't even want to go there. Let's talk about speech. If you're capable of reading with conviction. Using trigger words, spiking those for attention.
So it's not monotone speech. You should be pausing before names and numbers for emphasis. Okay? You should be name dropping your name, at least in the beginning of a transitional sentence. Michael! Makes sense, right? Move forward, right? And then if you say, but you don't use the word Michael over and over again, I know, to name drop.
Calm down. It's like the beginning and the end of the bridge. Okay, the entrance and the end of the transitional sentence and the conclusion. But in the middle, why don't you just emphasize the personal pronouns? The your, are, what do you mean? Add a quarter second slide and spike it a little bit, because it's still attention grabber.
It's the cousin of the name drop. Do you understand? And if you can do these things every 30 seconds. It gives you such balance and movement. But Richard, two steps back. Yeah, brother, you got to sacrifice pieces, but I'm moving seven steps forward in this 30 seconds because I was able to checkpoint the fact of this.
ABC, we checkpointed and moved it forward. Now, I have something for you. Sure. When you talk about target paralysis in the Air Force, where you focus on the trees or the mountain, you hit something. People will get target paralysis on the phone. And I understand that. And one of the greatest things to do is to be in the now.
on so many different buttons to press, things to concentrate, breathing, if and even it's the basics. And so it's a technique that we use, Michael. It's a phonetic micro expression reading because people love to read body language. We can talk about that on another podcast. But in the course of 25 years, Tens of thousands of phone calls.
I think I've cracked the code. And since you're my boy, and I'm so proud of your nine years of the Air Force, I'm going to share it with you and your audience. Is that cool? I'll give you some declassified top secret information. Are you ready for this? Go ahead. Go. Okay. Let's do this. Let's do this. Okay. So you have a simple X, Y chart so think about it like this.
The X, Is your rate of speech, and your why is the speaking level the pitch, so it can be done in any language. So besides your tone of voice which in my opinion should be confident and empathetic consistently. Until I can readjust your tone. I pay attention to how fast and how loud you go. Cause I don't even know you.
And so every 30 seconds, regardless of the transitional sentences, the semantics are pitching are all this soft skills that I gave you earlier of the escalation, the company name spike, the due diligence, I still want to see if you're going fast, slow, loud, or soft. Why? Because if you're spiking or dipping, I stop and I ask a clarification question, if it makes sense.
Sounds good. May we move forward. So these are insurance policies that take three seconds to get it to move forward because a lot of the people and I've seen this in metrics will just run through a call and realize they don't get the appointment. I'd rather have a five minute solid than a 10 minute shaky that doesn't hit.
So you need to really solidify this thing and move it forward like in the show get smart, where you walk down the hallway and the doors closed behind them that's the only way to seal it, deal it and move it forward. And so the paralysis. The target paralysis is thinking of G when you should be on Bravo on B.
And so I'm trying to get these people to focus on, besides carrying this weight, you can mentally, after three weeks of practice, it becomes habit. You become very lucid. In regards to this micro expression reading, but then you say Richard. Yes, Michael, can't the tone rate and pitch be manipulated. Of course it can, but guess is one thing you cannot manipulate the duration, the beauty of phonetics is without silence.
You don't have the sound. So I study even more of a higher level, the silence time, compared to how your tone, rate, and pitch is, or even your word choice. Why? Because someone like yourself, who's part of the police, Air Force and had extensive training and interrogation and psychology realized by the third or fourth question of me cursing at you, flicking the cigarette.
Yeah, copper, you got nothing on me. All of a sudden, when you show the evidence, look what happens in regards to that. answering speed, either it takes an hour for them to start crying or they start crying immediately. And so that cannot be manipulated subconsciously. So if you are capable in this controlled environment of 160 hours a month, 300 phone calls a day to besides doing your job to crack this code in regards to being very focused on rate, pitch, and duration.
To know when to ask these questions, you will reduce your talk time from a 10 minute to a 7 minute call, and your conversion ratios will go up about 30 percent because you're cutting fat. You're reducing rabbit holes for my clarifications compared to I'm sorry's. And here's the best part, the military.
Come on, Michael. Emails bounce back. You gotta be kidding me. You walk through those emails at the end and you pronounce those exotic names properly, because some people will say, thank you. No one ever really asked her too afraid to ask how to say my last name. And that's a wonderful thing to do to somebody.
Don't be afraid. You should ask the proper pronunciation the first time, but do not be afraid. And you ask for secret sauces. Come on, Michael. This is ABC 123 101. This is how grandma and grandpa taught you to behave. And if you do these sort of listening skills in the moment, paying attention, moving forward, cutting the fat, taking notes, acknowledging, you're going to build an extremely large business of really solid long term clients that will recommend you to people.
Cause I know you're a good guy and they loved you before any contracts were even signed. As referrals are gold, it's golden, especially if they are mentioning your name and everything. So that's, that goes for a whole nother podcast. But, referrals, your whole goal is for that referral base because you do that referral base you've tenfold you've done your job.
That's right. Okay, Richard, how can anybody get hold of you, either call center for pinball machines for anything? How can, what's the best way that they can get hold of you? Oh, naturally, buy a first class plane ticket, fly down and come visit me. Besides that. I hear it's freezing up north. I'll give you that.
Oh, my goodness gracious. But no, you can send me an email to CEO Costa Rica's call center and check me out. And I tell you what, All they need to do is mention you, Michael, and say that they saw this podcast. I'd be more than happy to review some scripts for some people, give some advice for free. My, my thing is to pay it forward.
Anybody that's got the guts to make a phone call and are not compromising their ethics, I think they're wonderful. And I'm going to say it again. Dedicated practice. Speak out loud. Practice your phonetics. Record yourself. Pay attention to this stuff. And if you do, you'll become one of the most incredible speakers that people will hire, promote, recommend, or say, Hey, will you speak for us?
You're the guy. And yeah, be bold and brave. You only get one life. You get 99 years. That's all you get. When I used to tell my players, I was a coach for 16 years, a baseball coach. And the parents should say perfect. Practice makes perfect and I said, no, you're wrong.
Perfect practice makes perfect. So you have to, because if you keep practicing the mistakes, you're going to always make those mistakes. But if you don't, and you just practice practice, that's what I do with networking with speaking and everything else. Cause I said in the beginning of this podcast, networking is a skill.
Okay. And you have to practice practice in order to get good. Anyway, Richard, thank you so very much. You have quite a background, you gave me quite a an interesting, you gave me interesting thoughts on the call centers and everything else, and I hope that some of my listeners or all my listeners, I don't care, as long as they reach out to you, I'll feel better.
Okay? So I'll talk to you soon. Sounds good, Michael. Thank you.
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Michael is a business networking expert specializing in enhancing professionals' networking and communication skills to drive profitability. As a leading authority in this field, he is highly sought after for his dynamic presentations and workshops. His extensive experience has consistently led to significant improvements in corporate profitability by empowering individuals and organizations to connect more effectively and efficiently.
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