Real-World Experience vs. Academic Learning.

The Shark Bite Biz Podcast with David Strausser. A Tropical contact center with Richard Blank 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. https://youtu.be/Bki9lRhp8VE 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. 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. Being a Unique Boss with Personal Touch How do you try to be different, like a different boss? Because everybody tries to be different, I think. But the way you emphasize and the way that came out of your mouth, it sounds like you have something special there that you're trying to say 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 ask them to tell me a coming of age moment during an interview? Because you're 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 depth. Are you capable of 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. Creative Sales Strategies and Humor We believe that anybody that does sales prospecting and runs the risk of rejection, We like to give them romantic deaths. I've 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'd 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. I mentioned my name is Richard Blank, and then you say, who's Richard Blank? Now I got the double-double. You asked the follow-up question. And guess what? We're already 15, 20 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 get the pass to pitch. Customizing Communication: The Mad Libs Approach Custom-made emails, custom-made voicemails. It doesn't have to be the whole thing, but back in our day, there was something called Mad Libs, 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 don't need to review the whole LinkedIn profile. But there are a couple of 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 Pinball Machines and Childhood Dreams 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 growing up, they were so expensive. And Ricky Schroeder had the best arcade in 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. Real-World Experience vs. Academic Learning Yeah, I mean, it's crazy because 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, who's out of Scranton. Yeah. 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, and 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 works. 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, A Tropical contact center with Richard Blank. The Shark Bite Biz Podcast. https://youtu.be/Bki9lRhp8VE https://youtu.be/iqwHl-s1UsE https://youtu.be/ueuRpDCVnTM https://youtu.be/ztDCze4mG8g https://youtu.be/chBpQ7_VSE8 https://youtu.be/4IAJ2FFBfwQ The Art of Making Quality Cold Calls Of course, I'm going to give the Pennsylvania secret sauce. Yeah, 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 is it a quality call? 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. Starting a Call Center in Costa Rica 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, OK, you know, he gave me 44 other ones, so I'll let you go on one. But let's move a little forward and 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 non-voice support