Rob Thatcher

Straight Talk on Inbound and Outbound Calls

President and Lead Trainer, SalesComm

Read the Transcript

Chris:

Rob Thatcher. Hey, you’re muted, Rob. You’ve been muted the whole time.

Rob:

I am that guy. I am that guy. I do it. I sit and talk, and you’re like, “What an idiot. When is he going to realize he’s not unmuted?” I probably should update that bio. I think we’ve been reading that for years, but it’s all right. Nevermind. Thank you, Chris. We got to hurry because we got limited amount of time.

Chris:

Let’s go.

Rob:

All right, listen. Welcome, everybody. I’m going to go right to it. I’ve got a call I’ve set aside. I’ve got permission from management and owners to play this call. I edited it down, so you don’t know who it is, and you don’t know what school. The lead’s name is Kate. That’s what we know. We don’t have last names or anything, so I’m going to play this call, and I’m going to correct it as we go. This is a live session training.

If you are an owner, this should speak to you. Question it, hold back and go, “Gosh. You know what? I wonder, do these calls ever come in, and is this how it’s handled in my school?” If you’re a director say, “Man, are my admissions people doing this?” If you actually do admissions, and you’re listening to this call, question yourself. “Do I ever make those mistakes?” All right. And with that, here we go.

Recorded Call:

School: If you would like to book an appointment or would like to book a service, please press one

Rob:

Okay, by the way, I’ve edited things out, so if it feels a little jumpy, it’s because I’ve edited hold times and all that out. And names of schools.

Recorded Call:

School: If you would like to speak with admissions, please press two.

Rob:

By the way, I hate that. Press one, press two, press three. You should never have it. If you want to argue with me on this, I am down to have that conversation because I can tell you right now, you don’t love it when you have to press a one or a two or a three. If you’re anything like me, I got six kids and all girls. They’re all adorable, and they’re always doing something, and I’m always hanging out with them and talking to them.

By the time I get to option three, I’m like, “Oh crap, what was one and two?!” Don’t do that. You should get rid of it, but sometimes that’s not possible. Here we go. There’s the ring.

Recorded Call:

School: Can you please hold?

Caller: Yes.

School: Thank you so much.

Rob:

Oh, and our first mistake. That’s a huge mistake. Look, if you’re going to take a phone call, and it’s going to be a $16,000 to $25,000 phone call, probably should find out what the call is about before you put them on hold. Now, this hold lasted for almost two minutes.

I edited it all out, so it sounds like she just picks right up. It was almost a two-minute hold. Big mistake.

Recorded Call:

School: Thank you so much for holding. How can I help you today?

Caller: I’m just wondering when your next cosmetology program is?

Rob:

Hey, basic question, right? How much is it? When does it start? What’s the schedule? Those are the three most commonly asked questions. Let’s see how she handles it.

Recorded Call:

School: Yeah, absolutely. So, I do have someone who… It’s over our admissions department because I don’t know that question. Um…

Rob:

“Um.” That’s not as much confidence as we’d like to hear, right? Now, this person, she’s just lacking a little confidence. This person needs to be sat down, and we just got to go through and practice scripts.

When she gets comfortable, she’s going to get more confident, but she’s like, “Um, I don’t know. I think we have an Admissions Department. Hold on. I may just send you back to the closet. Hold on.”

Big mistake. I should say that’s a small mistake. The other one was a big mistake. Let’s keep going and see what happens.

Recorded Call:

School: All right. Let’s get your information written down and get you transferred over, but just in case we get disconnected, can you give your name and your phone number?

Rob:

Oh. Now we’re talking. See, that is fantastic. You get a name, you get a phone number before the transfer ever happens. Good job to her.

Recorded Call:

School: What was your first name?

Rob:

Edited.

Recorded Call:

School: And then what was your last name?

Rob:

Edited.

Recorded Call:

School: Okay, and then what was a good phone number for you?

Rob:

Edited.

Recorded Call:

Caller: Zero three four.

Rob:

There’s the last four.

Recorded Call:

School:Okay. Perfect. I’m going to see if our admissions team lead is available at the moment. I’m just going to put you on a brief hold.

Caller: Okay. Thanks.

School: You’re so welcome.

Rob:

Great.

Recorded Call:

School: All right-

Rob:

There was about a minute worth of hold there. I edited it out.

Recorded Call:

School: So, I’m going to go ahead and transfer you over to our admissions and enrollment program.

Caller: Okay. Thank you.

School: You’re so welcome. You have a wonderful day.

Rob:

You see how confident her tone is right there when she says, “You’re so welcome. Have a wonderful day”? It spiked up. Why? Because she’s more confident. Now, I know you guys are sitting there going, “I thought you we’re going to teach admissions.” This is admissions. This is the low-hanging fruit. This is the low-hanging fruit. This is what is easy to attack right out of the gate.

If someone said to me, “Rob, how do I fix my admissions department right out of the gate? What would be the lowest-hanging fruit? What’s an easy tweak I could make?” Look at my service department and see how those calls are coming in. Right? Look at the people who answer the phone first.

By the way, huge mistake to let the admissions calls go directly back to admissions. They only answer the phone 24%… No, let me rewind that. When they hit a voicemail and they almost never answer the phone because you’re paying them to be on tours and taking phone calls, so it’s hard to get a hold of them. When the person hits voicemail, only 24% of the time do they actually leave a voicemail, which means that call just disappears.

All right, here we go. Let’s see what happens here. She’s just gotten a name and a phone number. Her personality spiked, and she got friendly and fun because she knew what she was saying.

Recorded Call:

Caller: You too.

School: Thank you.

Caller: Sounds good.

Rob:

Very nice. Okay, then there’s a transfer.

Recorded Call:

Caller: Hello?

Admissions: Hi, Kate.

Caller: Hi.

Admissions: This is [edited]. How are you?

Caller: Good. How are you?

Admissions: I am doing well. Thanks.

Rob:

Now, immediately, you can hear the difference in confidence. This admissions person has an amazing set of vocal chords. Super confident, super friendly, super fun. I love it. This is the kind of person we can train to be better.

You just got to give her the script, right? Because she’s going to make a couple of mistakes. She’s going to get a couple of green buttons, that sound horn. Listen.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: I heard you’re interested in upcoming cosmetology class?

Caller: Yeah. I was just wondering when it is.

Admissions: Yeah. our next start… Well, we have our daytime program and an evening part-time program. Do you have a preference on schedule or any-

Rob:

Okay. Good to know. Now, she’s asked a question. She’s now giving back some information. By the way, you avoid these three questions. We have scripting for all of that. How to avoid the price, the start date, the schedule without ticking people off.

And by the way, that last part of “how to not tick people off,” that’s the secret, right? I know you kind of go, “Oh yeah, Rob, we got that under control.” Do you? Because I don’t know. You can practice and then about…

Voice Clip: A few minutes later.

I recognize that probably you don’t, and that’s a mistake. So anyway, shoot me a text. I’m going to give you my phone number right now, and I’m going to put it while we play this call.

I’m going to give you my… I’m going to put it in chat, my number. Shoot me a text and ask me questions.

I’ll give you, if you shoot me your cell phone number, I will shoot you a text on how to handle start date, price, or schedule because this person’s not going to handle it right.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: … or know what that looks like for you?

Caller: I’m hoping to do the daytime.

Admissions: Awesome. So that makes… our daytime class will start July 28th.–

Rob:

Oh. And you’re like, “Rob, you covered it up with the horn.” I realized that, but it wasn’t important. All right. I’ll go back.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: –And that daytime schedule is Wednesday through Saturday from 8:30 to 5:30.

Rob:

Well, wait, what are we doing? What?

Recorded Call:

Caller: Okay awesome. And how much would that program cost?

Rob:

So, she lost control right here. Just so you know, this is what this sounds like. This is admissions losing control right here. She answers the question. She stops talking. We call it a death pause. Call it what you want. We call it a death pause. Here it is. Listen.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: —8:30 to 5:30.

Rob:

Boom. Death pause. Wait.

Recorded Call:

Caller: Okay awesome-

Rob:

And what does the lead do?

Recorded Call:

Caller: And how much would that program cost?

Rob:

Asks another question. It just happens to be price.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: Tuition is $17,000. And then your kit with all of your styling tools, your mannequin heads, your textbooks, anything that you use is $2,500, and all of that in your kit is yours to keep after you graduate as well. So, we have a couple different ways to cover that $19,500. Are you familiar with FAFSA® at all?

Caller: Yeah, I am.

Admissions: Okay. Perfect.

Rob:

So there’s another mistake right there. Don’t say, “Hey, are you familiar with FAFSA®?” That’s a silly question. If you’re going to ask about FAFSA®, you should ask, “How familiar are you with FAFSA®?” Right? All right.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: So we can utilize FAFSA® if you decide to go through federal student aid —.

Rob:

I don’t know. Can you? Is she qualified?

Recorded Call:

Admissions: –scholarship information I’d be happy to send over to you as well.

Rob:

Dangerous. Danger. Danger. I need a button for that.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: If you wanted to set up monthly payments over the course of your program, or we can utilize Sallie Mae or any other private financing as well.

Rob:

Oh, there’s another death pause. Hey, there are three kinds of pauses in this line of the business, right? And any time you take a phone call and/or in person, when you pause after you answer a question, that’s a death pause.

I’m going to say it again because it’s different than an awkward pause. If you’ve been through my trainings, you know this, you’ve heard this, I preach it all the time, and those of my competitors listening right now, you can start taking notes. This would be the right time because you can teach it too. Here we go.

The death pause is a pause after you make a statement or answer a question. So if I were to ask you, “So what’s a death pause?” I’d give you a minute.

And we’re back. So again, the answer is a pause after you answer the question or make a statement because it forces the other person to ask another question, and before you know it, you’re off in the weeds, and they’re like, “So how much does the iPad actually weigh, and I need it in ounces because I have a bad back, and I can’t carry it in my backpack if it’s too heavy.” Oh my gosh, what are we talking about? Right?

So you have to control the conversation throughout, without being rude. Again, that’s the little asterisk, right?

And so here we are, we’ve gotten a little bit in the weeds because we didn’t control the conversation. However, this person on the phone, her tone is like… It’s beautiful. In fact, I might say, it’s actually perfect. She’s super upbeat. She’s super friendly. She’s super confident. She just needs the right words. Right? And by the way, we gave her the right words, and boy, is she even more amazing than I’m letting on. Okay? Not as good as me, of course, but amazing. Actually, maybe a little better.

Recorded Call:

Caller: Great.

Admissions: Yeah, definitely. Is there a good email that I can send those scholarships over to?

Caller: [edited] gmail. Yep.

Rob:

I edited it out. It’s not just that Gmail. It’s a short email.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: I’ll send those scholarships over to you. What other questions do you have?

Rob:

Okay. So one of the funny things is she’s lost control and knows it, right? Her tone just said, what? Right? If you sit and listen to what she just said, watch, I want to show you this again. I’m going to zoom in on this audio just a bit. Listen to what her tone tells you about the call.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: Those scholarships over to you. What other questions do you have?

Rob:

What does that tone tell you? Oh, the call’s done. “Hey, I’m done. I actually have to go to the bathroom and then I got to get off early because I got to go pick up the kids.” So that’s what the tone says. “I’m done. So do you have any other questions? No? Okay. All right. No worries. Have a nice day.” Right?

Well, it’s $20,000. It’s not funny. It’s ridiculous. You’ve got to control the conversation. It’s over when you say it’s over, and it’s over once an appointment is made to come into the school. All right, here we go. That laughter, I’m not… I don’t love that one. I’m going to fix it later, but anyway, you got the point. And so here it is.

Recorded Call:

Caller: I think that’s it for right now.

Rob:

That’s it. She doesn’t have anymore questions. Oh, we’re done.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: Have you been able to come in and see our school before?

Rob:

Ooh. So she’s just introduced the idea. She’s like, “I’m done with you. Oh, wait, by the way, don’t leave. Have you been able to come in? Because this is kind of an afterthought. We don’t really invite people, but I’m going to invite you.”

Recorded Call:

Caller: No, I haven’t.

Admissions: Would you be interested in coming and doing a tour or just kind of taking a look around?

Caller: Yeah.

Rob:

Oh. Five in one call. I know. And by the way, I totally stole that from the Price is Right, and it’s the best sound effect I have. I’m going to tell you, this does not smell of confidence. Listen to it again.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: And coming and doing a tour or-

Rob:

Wait. Sorry.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: Would you be interested in coming and doing a tour or…

Rob:

I have this used Honda if you’re interested. Would you be interested in this used Honda? And Honda’s are great. Would you be interested? Don’t ever say, “Would you be interested?” That’s very bad. Control, build a relationship.

At the end of the call, you should know whether or not they’re interested in a tour because you know all the information about them. Right? You know their story. It’s not if they’re interested, you know their story, so it makes sense to invite them in, and it evolves organically.

When you don’t know very much about them, it makes sense that you would say, “Are you interested?” Right? Now, again, I don’t want to give her too hard a time because she’s actually amazing at her job. She just needed to be given the right words. Okay, let’s keep going.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: …and taking a look around?

Caller: Yeah. I’m kind of still looking at my options, and I definitely want my mom to come with me.

Rob:

Uh oh. Danger. I need a button for that.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: Absolutely.

Caller: So I’d have to check with her first to see when she could come.

Admissions: Of course. Yeah. Just let me know.

Rob:

Someone just said, “She sounds defeated.” That’s because she is.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: I would be happy to show you guys around.

Rob:

I’d be happy to do it. Edited it out, the locations.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: Yeah. We are offering in-house tours right now, so you and your mom are welcome to pop in.

Rob:

Yeah. You can just pop in. “I never do anything. I’ve got nothing going on. So you just pop in, just come anytime.” Right? “Just come any time. I won’t be doing anything. If you just… In fact, you don’t even have to say anything. Just walk right back. Just ask for me.” Don’t ever… They don’t ever just come on in. You make an appointment. Oh.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: You can call me directly. I’m happy to give you my phone–

Rob:

No, she can’t because you’re going to be on the other line or doing a tour. She can’t call you directly.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: –number if you’d like to be able to schedule with me directly.

Caller: Okay, yeah, let me get that from you.

Rob:

No, don’t give it out. It’s not too late.

Recorded Call:

Caller: Okay. I’m ready.

Rob:

She’s going to do it.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: My phone number is eight three-

Rob:

Yeah, I edited it out. It’s not just eight three. She doesn’t know something you don’t know. It’s just edited.

Recorded Call:

Caller: Perfect.

Rob:

Perfect. Okay.

Recorded Call:

Admissions: Well, I’ll get this email sent over to you, and just let me know when you guys are available. I’d love to meet with you and show you around.

Caller: Okay. Thank you so much.

Admissions: Of course. Thank you, Kate. We’ll talk to you soon.

Caller: Okay. Bye.

Admissions: Bye-bye.

Rob:

Bye-bye. Bye-bye, tour. Bye bye, all. Now, listen. I’m not silly enough to think that this person wouldn’t eventually come in for a tour. I don’t know. Who knows? And in fact, I can’t remember.

At the end of the day, what I can tell you is that call was not good. We need to control the conversation. We need to ask more questions. When they share a thought or a feeling, and I’m going to do this. I’ve got six minutes. By the way, my alarm’s going to go off because I’ll just keep talking, and this is the way I go. So I’ll just keep talking. When this alarm goes off, I’m not going to be embarrassed or feel stupid publicly. It’ll just be inside, so I’ll stop when it happens. Okay.

Now, here we go. I’m going to teach you guys something that most everybody that sits in my classes absolutely loves. It’s the five types of validation. She didn’t do it. She did it a couple times, kind of accidentally. We want to do it on purpose. Okay? Now, here we go. If you’ve got pens and paper, right now would be the time, and I’ll wait.

I don’t have time to wait. We got to keep going. Okay, here we go. Least effective way: When someone shares a thought or a feeling and you need to validate it because, by the way, everybody that calls, 75% of the people that make phone calls to us that are in this industry are what we call blue personalities, which means they make decisions based on emotion, not logic. Right? They’re artists.

They’re not accountants, and so they make decisions based on feelings. Well, we need to enhance those feelings, and they need to know and feel safe with us. Well, how do we do that? Here’s how you do it.

You validate when they speak, and you do it organically.

You do it sincerely, not to manipulate. Blues, by the way, can smell manipulation a mile away. Okay?

So here we go. Here’s the number one least effective way that you can validate, but at least it’s something, and that is, we call it exclamation point validation. That’s when they say, “Ever since I was little, I’ve always wanted to be a cosmetologist.” You would say, in return to that, you would say, “That’s awesome.” Right? Or, “Cool,” or, “Great.”

Exclamation point validation. Okay.

The next type, number two because we’re running out of time. Number two is mirroring. Right? So someone calls and says, “Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to become a cosmetologist.” You in return would validate by saying, “Okay, so it sounds like ever since you were little, you’ve wanted to become a cosmetologist.” This is mirroring. You’re just using the exact same words back at them.

Now you go, “Rob, that’s going to sound condescending.” Nope. If your tone is right and you’re sincere about it, it actually works wonderfully, and you connect.

Okay. Number three, we’re getting more effective. Number five is the most effective. Okay. Number three is rephrasing. Right? So when we rephrase, someone says, “Oh, ever since I was little, I wanted to become a cosmetologist.” And you say, “Okay, so it sounds like ever since you were a child, you’ve wanted to go into the industry.”

Little with child, industry instead of cosmetology. This works a little better. The risk on this is you may get it wrong, and they’ll go, “No, that’s not what I’m saying.” Okay. You correct, and you bond over the correction. Great.

All right. Number four. This is called a self-share. This is the most risky of all of them, but when it works, it works. And by the way, you really should be careful. Again, be very careful with this one, but it works great. So you share.

So they say, “Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to become a cosmetologist.” Warning. Do not lie and say, “Ever since I was little…” And you just got into the industry 10 minutes. That’s a liar. We don’t lie to make sales. We don’t lie to make appointments. We don’t lie to manipulate people. That’s a jerk move. Don’t do it.

But if you did ever since you were little, you’d say, “Me too. That’s great. That’s amazing.” And then go to ask a question.

Okay. Number five. Most effective, okay, is empathetic or empathic listening, I heard it both ways. Doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, what you’re going to do is you’re going to listen for a feeling, okay? When they give you information, right? So they say, “Oh, here ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to become a cosmetologist.” What you’re going to do is listen for that feeling. Okay? You’re going to then label the feeling and push the feeling back at them.

By the way, this comes from seven habits of highly effective people, that last one, and it’s habit five, “Seek first to understand and then to be understood,” right? He talks about validating, and what you do is again, reflect feelings. You label a feeling.

“So ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to become a cosmetologist.” “Wow. It sounds like you really have a passion for the industry.” Right? And then you let it lay.

And in fact, this would be considered a good death pause. They go, “Yes. Ever since I was… Yeah, that’s right.” What you’re looking for is for them to say, “That’s right. That’s right.” That means that they’re connecting with you, that you’re actually making a difference, and that they know that you’re listening.

By the way, don’t use this just as a tactic for manipulation. If you do it, your blues are going to see right through it, and you’re going to stink on ice. Okay? So don’t do it. All right.

Now, here’s what we do. When I do training, I come in, I listen to phone calls, I play them back for you, for your team, and we get better together. I was a little rough on this one, more for entertainment purposes.

The idea behind my training is that everybody feels safe when we play it, when we play their calls. It’s hard to hear. No one wants to see or hear themselves, but this is the way that we get better. If in your school, you are not playing your calls back and/or even discussing tours regularly as well, you are falling short, and your team is not to the level that they could be.

I promise you, you guys, this is the way to get better. You’ve got to start to listen to and play your calls back for each other. This is how we get better. This is how we improve, and if you’re not doing it, again, don’t expect to get better. You’re just going to keep being the same thing you’ve always been, which is maybe mediocre at best or maybe amazing.

Thank you so much for having me. I think my time’s up, or I may be 30 seconds early, Chris. Oh, there’s my alarm.

Chris:

Dude, impeccable timing. Although, the only flaw is you were muted at the beginning, so I just wanted to bring that back up to you.

Rob:

I was going to forget about that.

Chris:

Hey, so what’s the best way to get a hold of you? I know that you do secret shops, right? You’ll secret shop them, you’ll call their admissions, and give them free, valuable feedback. What’s the best way to get that set up with you?

Rob:

Well, Jennifer just said, “Thank you, Rib.” And you’re welcome, Rib, and here’s the best way. Jennifer, you text me. It’s (801) 979-0071. That is my cell phone. I don’t… Oh, she fixed it. Now, you got to keep it with Rib. You can just text me. That’s my direct cell phone.

If I’m teaching customer service, you’d better be able to get ahold of me. You’re welcome to, anytime. Now, two in the morning, you’re on your own, and when I’m with my girls and my wife, you’re on your own there too. But during business hours, maybe a little after, I’m in.

Chris:

Okay. Rob, well done as always. Thanks for being with us. We appreciate you sharing all of that awesome info. Thanks, man.