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In this episode, Richard Blank shares his journey to Costa Rica and the development of his call center business. He discusses the significance of delegation, internal growth, and the balance between people, clients, and technology. Richard emphasizes ROI, training, and authentic interactions, offering insights on maintaining productivity and long-term client relationships.
Delegating tasks and fostering internal growth are essential for gaining respect and building a cohesive team.
Authentic communication and respectful treatment of all team members, including gatekeepers, can significantly enhance client relationships and business success.
Employing strategic vocabulary and soft skills in call center interactions can lead to higher conversion rates and long-term client retention.
(0:00) Introduction of Richard Blank
(0:32) Richard Blank's background and journey to Costa Rica
(2:12) Building the business and team at Costa Rica's call center
(6:04) Importance of delegation and internal growth
(7:09) People, clients, and technology in business
(10:37) The importance of return on investment in call centers
(12:12) The role of training in the organization
(15:00) Company name spike and buffer boomerang techniques
(20:00) Authentic interactions and the value of gatekeepers
(25:00) Maintaining productivity and long-term client relationships
#47 Delegation, ROI, and authentic client interactions in call centers with Richard Blank
Steve Hamoen is a dynamic entrepreneur, CEO, and Principal Broker of Real Approved Inc. He is also the host of the Money Mindset Mentoring Podcast and a 10X Business Coach. With a career spanning over two decades, Steve has trained thousands of sales professionals globally.
Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
Steve is deeply passionate about empowering his clients to achieve their dreams. He has developed tailored systems to help individuals and businesses overcome limiting beliefs and achieve remarkable growth. His unique approach combines belief, action, and strategic thinking to move clients from uncertainty to success.
Steve's expertise is further enhanced by his commitment to continuous learning and personal growth. He holds certifications in 10X Rule principles and mindset, making him an expert coach and hands-on trainer. He works with business leaders and teams across various industries, optimizing productivity and enhancing overall company performance.
Apart from his professional achievements, Steve is a dedicated coach and competitor in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, a father of three, and has been happily married to his wife Emily for over 15 years.
Through his work with PodcastLaunch.AI, Steve helps businesses leverage podcasting to generate revenue, build meaningful connections, and create a lasting digital legacy. His innovative strategies and commitment to excellence make him a sought-after mentor and speaker in the business community..
Building a Business and Trusting Experts
A lot of it was being a dreamer, and it's not saying naysayers are great believers, but who am I comparing notes to? But fortunately for me, my dedicated Spanish teacher wrote me a recommendation letter for college, and my principal, the late principal, got me into college. My grades were terrible. But they saw that I was an artist of speech. And give the kid a chance maybe maybe he'll get his act together which which i kind of did well i'm talking a little bit about the next element is that you've built your business your call center how many how many people work for the call center right now we're at 150 strong So I think you've done a fair bit of building and pioneering in that success that you've gotten to. So congratulations on the work that you've done. Well, thank you, my brother. I think a lot of it has to do, like, let's think of me as a trunk of a tree. I'm not on home court advantage. So I needed roots for some serious stability. Besides my wife, which is the director of human resources, I needed an attorney. I needed some accountants. How about this one, my man? What about the IT director? I didn't have the cognitive skills to go to school and get those Cisco certificates. I pay the big dollars for those people to be available when I need them. But they're not making phone calls like the guys on the floor. No, they're specialists. And when you need them the most, they're there for you. And I understand the value of the IT department and sometimes their leisure time. Trust me. It offsets the times when they need to take deep breaths and save your company when a server goes down or something.
Breaking Family Traditions for a New Path
That's quite simple. My arguments my parents were my great grandparents that came to the United States at the turn of the 20th century from Eastern Europe. They moved to New York were in the garment industry learned English and made their money during the depression. So we're nomads. It's in our blood. And you can't hold back somebody that has a spark for a second language and shows such dedicated practice above and beyond what school expects of you. And it's not a cute parlor trick while you pat me on the head and say I'm cute to you and your friends. No, this was a vision quest. This is something that was inside of me where it didn't feel like work. It's not a forced march. And so when you're 18, how do you make that sort of decision unless you have doctors or attorneys in your family or family business or really that sort of scholastic and career culture direction? For me, it was just, you know, parents that expected me to go into the family real estate business or maybe go to Harvard Law like grandpa. Columbia business like my dad. My older brother went to Washington and Lee University. Now, Steve, I don't know about you, but I didn't have the grades for that back in the day.
Creating Genuine Business Relationships Through Ethical Communication
The game is rigged. Yeah. Barkers out there who are my favorite in the world. So what are you going to do? What you need to do is if you're going to make 400 phone calls a day, jump freaking clouds. Enjoy 30 seconds because you've got to split it in half with pauses and breaths in between. You don't get to say too much. I'm going to say your name. I'm going to buffer you down twice. My name, my company's name, and hopefully by that time you go from a 10 to a two, and that eight moves from the vertical into the horizontal. And that's just mass movement. It's just mass movement. And all I did is reduce defense and put it into momentum offense. And I did it ethically. I didn't lie. And then I'm going to say, yo, Steve, when I call you back two weeks later after Michael does the callback and you remember Richard, hey, Steve, out of the thousands of people that call your company, how many people actually complimented you to your brother? And you probably say none. I go, well, that's the kind of relationship we have prior to a contract, the sort of relationship we have.
From Philadelphia to Costa Rica
Well, if you can get past your parents' guilt, Steve, you can live anywhere in the world. Fora Vida from beautiful Central America, Paris. Oh man, oh man, that is a thing. So now originally when you look at, you set up a business and you run a business called Costa Rica's Call Center, obviously you couldn't locate it anywhere because it's in the name anywhere else. So you had to be in Costa Rica. Originally, were you from Costa Rica or where'd you come from? Well, this is definitely a Northeast Philadelphia accent. So I was born and raised a Flyers fan and an Eagles fan. And when I graduated Proud Abington High School back in 91, I doubled down on my favorite class, which was Spanish. So I left the cold weather where they had snow days with KYW News Radio. I moved to Arizona. I went to school in Tucson. I was a wildcat. Went to U of A for five years. I did the super senior plan. Spent my junior year abroad in Spain and learned the language. And next thing you know, post-grad, I had an opportunity when I was 27 years old to move to Costa Rica for a couple months. Worked at my friend's center. And my friend, I took it. And so here we are 24 years later, happily married, have a business and living one of the best lives.
Perseverance and Dignity in Challenging Work
Thank you, Steve. You're all over the place. You didn't give me a specific industry. I don't know how long this cat's been doing this. Who trained them? What sort of onboarding? You're generalizing, making it seem like telemarketing is bad. Okay. Oh, I'm not. No, I'm not generating at all. But no, seriously, let's do the zero conversion ratios every day. Okay. That's why, as I always said as a telemarketer, how can I use them? What am I going to get out of this crappy-ass job that is paying me per hour and I can't get a single freaking commission because the list is bad or the product is bad, the price is bad, everything's bad. Okay. Well, as I said before, this is the romantic death that you have. I can't guarantee the 95 rest of the call. That's up to Billy and his stuff. But at least that 5% with Steve and myself, Prior to the introduction of that company, I'm an ace. What does that mean? I got to pass the pitch. What does that mean? It's a positive reinforcement that wherever I plug Richard or Steve, we are going to be successful. It just so happens that we are not in the right environment at the right time. It's a little bit, but we've overgrown that cage. And so two things, three things should happen if you're signing your name to something, you give it the best that you got. Secondly is have a freaking plan B, start looking into it. But see, if you're going to go down, don't cry and don't drop that sore. You go down like a champ. Why? So you have your dignity.
Transparency in Business Dealings
So if you're going to make this play big, Let's put everything on the table. And I don't mind having that black and white conversation with you. I'm not going to make you cry. I need to call the balls and the strikes because I don't want you upset or start burning through agents because you're frustrated.
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/
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Richard Blank hired bassist Garry Gary Beers of INXS.
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