The Art of Speech as a Strategic Tool

The daily standup with lifetime value podcast. Episode 151 with special guest CEO Richard Blank. Your destination for Customer Success and Post-Sales content.Lifetime Value: The Customer Success Channel Episode 151: Amidst an AI surge, Richard Blank believes in language more than ever. Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:02 - Richard Blank: Journey from Northeast Philly to Costa Rica 00:02:14 - Gamification and creating a fun work culture 00:04:45 - Proactive vs. reactive: The call center approach 00:05:38 - Why Costa Rica? The appeal of a nearshore BPO 00:06:00 - Language, cultural nuances, and the home run close 00:07:05 - The irreplaceable human touch in customer support 00:10:55 - Speech craft: The art and strategy of communication 00:12:42 - Wrapping up: Time to make this a series! Creating a Positive Work Culture But Richard, you know what we do here? We ask one single question of every single one of our guests, and that is what is on your mind? When it comes to customer success, you might want to modify that a little bit to sit inside your wheelhouse. But what is that for you, Richard? Well, for me, I need to set the agents straight. I believe in a gamification culture, so I have a happy medium of pinball machines, Pac-Man, and air hockey. So at least when you're bonding, you're relaxing, letting off steam, and recharging batteries, you're not throwing swords on people on the phone. Misconceptions About Call Centers That is correct, Dylan. And do not be fooled on what Hollywood does. I do not do sports books, casinos, stocks, pharmacies, or sweepstakes. This is something where in a strict Catholic country, the agents can go home and tell their parents what they do for a living. The Art of Speech as a Strategic Tool I think we all often forget that this can just be a game that we play with our customers at times as seriously as we might take it as any Birds fan or Jets fan knows. You and I have a luxury trade. It's the art of speech. And it could be a game if someone feels manipulated. And if you want to persuade in a certain way that's too aggressive, I understand. But I think an assertive tone is wonderful. You can change vocabulary. Use the thesaurus. Stop saying help. It's assist. God lend a hand. No more excuse me. Say, for my clarification, you can fall on certain swords, readjusting tones. https://youtu.be/U8K_x9MYogA?si=5DgxuWNwtL5Z7NH1 https://youtu.be/3Y_hVFEU41g https://youtu.be/9-mAZcKXCy0 https://youtube.com/shorts/2OHDhmpw4oM https://youtu.be/g5qXweu3VjE Richard Blank hired bassist Garry Gary Beers of INXS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieGjN5H4xPQ Dillon Young, Jean-Pierre Frost, Rob Zambito, the daily standup, Richard Blank, Costa Rica's Call Center, Outsourcing, Telemarketing Call Centre, BPO, Nearshore Contact Center, Sales, Entrepreneur, B2B, Business, Podcast, Gamification,Leadership, Marketing, CX, Guest, Money, B2C education, BPO trainer,call centre, contact centre, contact center,trend, trending Rob Zambito: TLDR: I build and scale customer success teams and GTM functions at startups. I specialize improving customer adoption, retention, expansion, and advocacy. Long version: I'm a three-time customer success leader and consultant with 10+ years startup experience and a track record in vertical SaaS and entrepreneurship more generally. My primary skill is in management of fast-growing CS teams, particularly those between seed and Series B stages. I focus on turning customer success teams from cost centers to highly scaled, proactive revenue-generating expansion functions, with the goal of getting companies from 0 to $25 million ARR. My operational specialties are in renewals, upsell, cross-sell, account management, onboarding, support, customer advocacy, business operations, and business intelligence. Shoot me a note if you're looking to improve gross margins or net revenue retention. My main professional interests are in consumer psychology and behavioral economics. I have a degree in these studies from University of Pennsylvania and still study them as often as I can. Outside of work, you can find me running, writing, cooking recipes from around the world, and learning languages. I'm currently practicing my Spanish and Arabic, so throw a few words my way if you're fluent! Jean-Pierre Frost: “Let the mind be enlarged...to the grandeur of the mysteries, and not the mysteries contracted to the narrowness of the mind”. Francis Bacon Why use the same 2 colors when today's palette has more choice than ever? I love red and black, but sometimes I need some blue, white, pink, or green. Just realized those are all Power Rangers colors, but I digress...the possibilities! I'm willing to bet I can help you utilize a suite of tools and features to make your vision a reality Nothing excites me like an aha! moment. When things start to click, we're in for the kind of ride Six Flags can only dream of. Ironically, I'd rather read a book than board a roller coaster, but that's because learning gives me a rush without a heart attack. Teaching is fun too, because it's another opportunity to learn if I stay open to the possibilities. I want to say let's discover what's possible together but that sounds like a credit card slogan or something. So I'll just say I'm dreaming big so I can live even bigger, until something more inspired chases me down! Dillon Young: Do you love watching your customers run into the arms of your competitors long before you've broken even on your CAC? Oh, you do? Then I guess we're all good here. But if you want your customers to: Onboard faster and more smoothly Renew more often Buy your other stuff along the way, and, Tell their industry friends how great you are Then I'm here for you I've worked at top tier fintechs like mortgage techs Maxwell Financial Labs and LoanLogics, depository and pricing tech like Nomis Solutions, as well as recruiting / ATS tech co's like Thrive TRM and Apploi. Along the way, I've achieved: Average onboarding speed under 30 days Historical NRR averaging 110%+ Successful rescue of over $10mil in at-risk ACV while the 2022-23 mortgage market blew up around us Built revenue-driving Voice of the Customer programs 3x Yep, I can hear you already. "That's cool, Dillon. But what do your clients and colleagues have to say about working with you?" I thought you'd never ask: "Dillon's intuition for customer experience combined with operational chops makes him a slam dunk." Bryan Traeger, VP of Customer Success at Maxwell Financial Labs "Dillon's depth of knowledge is evident from the first conversation, and the results speak for themselves." Johnathan Bant, SVP of Global Sales at Nomis Solutions Are you still there? Then we may be a perfect fit for one another. Drop me a DM if you're looking for the revenue fixer who can: Get your customers live, engaged, and PAYING faster Plug the hole in your leaky post sales bucket While finding the money in your happy-customer-couch-cushions Generate cheaper, warmer intros to customers that walk and talk like the ones you already have Richard’s journey in the call center space 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. 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. Costa Rica’s Call Center (CCC) is a state of the art BPO telemarketing outsource company located in the capital city of San Jose, Costa Rica. Our main focus has been, and will always be to personally train each and every Central America call center agent so that we may offer the highest quality of outbound and inbound telemarketing solutions and bilingual customer service to small and medium sized international companies, entrepreneurs as well as fortune 500 companies. We encourage you to visit one of our call centers on your next personal vacation or business trip to Central America’s paradise, Costa Rica. While you are here, we would recommend taking an extra day of your trip to visit breathtaking virgin beaches, play golf next to the ocean, try your luck at deep sea fishing, explore tropical jungles, climb volcanos or just relax in natural hot springs. Come and see for yourself why call center outsourcing in Costa Rica is a perfect solution for your growing company and a powerhouse in the BPO industry. https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/ #DillonYoung #JeanPierreFrost #RobZambito #thedailystandup #RichardBlank #CostaRica #CallCenter #Outsourcing #Telemarketing #BPO #Sales #Entrepreneur #B2B #Business #Podcast #Gamification #CEO #trend #trending #listennow #subscribe #podcastclip #podcastvideo #videopodcasting #podcastguest