Episode 273: Marketing with Purpose, Plan, and Action with Peter Wilcock
How do you sell a new product that would potentially change the world, but nobody wants anything to do with it? This is where good marketing comes in where you package a product into an offer that most people cannot refuse. Peter Wilcock, a catalyst in UK’s Cable TV industry, offered a product and made it a necessity.
Peter Wilcock is a Coach, Advisor, Author, and Podcaster. He spent over a decade at cable giant Virgin Media and was the driving force behind cable TV and broadband growth across the UK. Following his professional successes, Peter has leapt from corporate executive to entrepreneur – including investing in several different businesses.
In this episode, Peter Wilcock talks with Adam Stott about his journey into working with UK’s cable TV industry. Peter also discussed the importance of having Purpose, Plan, Action, Product, Brand, and Distribution. Listen to learn more!
Show Highlights:
- Landing different jobs including a stint at Unilever
- Why Peter chose to work at a company whose product nobody wanted
- The Persian fable of the camel
- Importance of climbing out of the pot of crabs
- Purpose, Plan, Action
- Product, Brand, Distribution
Links Mentioned:
Join the Ultimate Three Day Business Event and learn more Business Growth Secrets
Be part of our Facebook Group Big Business Events Members Network
Connect with me on Instagram @adamstottcoach
Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
Adam Stott:
Hey everybody, Adam Stott here. Thanks for checking out my podcast Business Grow Secrets, you’re absolutely in the right place. This podcast is going to reveal to you all of the secrets that you’ve been looking to discover. They’re gonna allow you to cure your cash flow problems, attain more clients, bring in more leads for your business, and create systems and processes that give you the growth that you want. You are going to discover the Business Grow Secrets you have been looking for that I’ve used to sell over 50 million pounds worth of products and services on social media, and help clients everywhere to grow their businesses on demand. So let’s get started on the business growth secrets podcast.
Can we give Peter a big big welcome to the stage everybody? Thank you so much for being here. You know, I think it’s amazing to have someone of your caliber coming in and talking to everyone. We have businesses of all sizes in the room. I did love the book, okay, now got a long, long way through that, as well. And I said to you, I love the will at the back. And he said I might draw that out as well. We have lots of wills that are good. It was awesome.
So welcome. What I want to do is start off and go back to the beginning. If we can have your career, you’ve had a really successful career, create some amazing things over the course of your career. If we went all the way back to the beginning, you know, where did you start? How did we go on this journey and tell the audience a little bit about that.
Peter Wilcock:
[00:01:46-00:01:48]. Look at him car showroom windows, thinking I should have one of those one day. Then I kind of went to Leeds Polly and joined Unilever, which my parents were delighted about. And I’m thinking this is quite dull, and they taught me how to sell. But if you if you work for Unilever, you don’t need to sell you just walk in. And you know, the as the manager says that 15 pallets, and they joined Seagrams at the time, the largest wines and spirits business in the world.
So I was very popular because I had a garage with all the champagne and stuff in there. So I used to go out on Friday nights and people used to come back to my garage. And then as ever, there’s a life changing moment. Isn’t that for everyone? And I applied for this job. I lived in Ilkley. And this job was in Teesside. And it was a cable business. So I thought was it cables like it’s quite dull. But it was something to do with television. Right? So I tried to find out something about the business and couldn’t.
So I went for this interview. I knew nothing about cable. But I’m a FMCG – fast moving consumer goods quality skilled salesperson. I’m pedigree, and I really but I know nothing about cable. And for some weird reason. I got the job. And then I went for another job with Levi’s. And I thought, well, that’s quite cool. So I might take the Levi’s job. And then somebody that I spoke to quite often, I said, I think I’ll do Levi’s. And she said, yeah, yeah, do that. That’s easy. So would you mean it’s easy? She said, It’s easier than getting up to Teesside every day, 75 miles in a business you know nothing about, I suppose if it’s rude.
So, I took the job. And of course, I knew nothing about cable and the business was. So the story is I joined a business that nobody had heard of selling a product that nobody wanted. Now, I think that’s one of the rarest things you can do. The business that nobody had heard of today is valued at 140 billion, and family owned. That’s Comcast. The product that nobody wanted was Multichannel television. And the internet, and nobody wanted it. The way the business went to market was it didn’t do advertising and things. It took the streets up. I don’t know if anybody remembers this.
So to get the cable to get broadband, it’s underground. So we dig the streets up. It was the largest civil construction since the underground and 40 Odd cable businesses went often and told investors that they’d get everyone buying television and telephone and the internet. And the average penetration was about 11%. So people knocking on the door said, “Would you like to watch television more than you are on the go? Not really. We’ve got four channels. And then would you like the internet? Turns out they did, though, right? What’s the internet? And then another defining moment, the Comcast guys came over from the States. And we had one of these drunken dinners in a hotel.
At about midnight, the lead guy from Comcast got me in a corner, like this naive, young lamb, and said, What would it take to get 50% of people buying the product? And I went, I don’t know, half Priceline rental. To BT. I mean, why so? Well, if we did that, then the TV’s almost free. And they went, okay. So we went back to the room. He said, we’ve, we’ve decided what we’re doing, and the MD sat there going, how did that happen? So he said, You got 50% penetration, half price loan rental to BT. He looked at me and he said, you’ve got three months.
So I thought, what does that mean? Is it three months to do it all three months, or you’re out? So and then the next day that the MD said, why not? Why would you do such a thing? Why couldn’t I wait? What’s wrong with him? It’s a good deal. It’s free TV, and we’re selling telephones. Everyone’s got a telephone. Nobody wants TV. So why are we selling TV? Why don’t we sell the telephone? So then the next interesting thing was, I think, well, I’m probably in shape now.
So I used to drive to Oakley and back every day, and play Springsteen mainly. And then I thought, well, I need to do something else. So I started listening to tapes of people’s mindset. Come thinking, I don’t know how we’re going to do this. And so I listened to all this clever stuff, Jim Rome, Brian Tracy. 75 miles there and back. And I listened to paradigms. I’m thinking, it’s all about how you think this, this is quite clever. I didn’t realize it, it’s about your mind, and you can convince yourself of anything. Then I started to interview people. It was about three people in the company.
I started doing the interviews and mainly for direct sales people, because to sell any product, you if you want to take territory, a bit like you can see in Ukraine, you can bomb it all day long. But you can’t take it. You got to send troops in, which is difficult. If you want to take territory in households, you’ve got to send people on the streets. And sky, probably one of the best marketing companies of all time, used to unload salespeople from the back of a transit to sell sky in the early days. Otherwise, no. Why would anyone want a dish? So I started interviewing salespeople, and I thought so the cable guys know it’s 11%. So no cable guys. And the MTA kept saying you’ve got a cable guy.
There’s some good guys in Birmingham. That will they’re not really different because they think 11 And I can’t. I’m not going to survive at 11 so I interviewed salespeople, Kirby vacuum cleaner people double glazing. I gave one guy a Java magician, because he did this disappearing handkerchief and said give me the trick. Show me the trick. You can have a job. And it was amazing. You could sit here and poof done.
And the question I asked them was okay, you’ll get 200 doors to knock half price btw line rental. Nearly nearly free TV. I’ll give you 200 doors. How many will you sell? And anyone who said less than 100. Didn’t get a job. So today 150 salespeople came in for training like this. They all thought the same thing. They’re all going well, what’s the bonus? It’s 60. What do you get for 80? Amazing. And nobody knew any different.
And so I put some grip boards on the wall that laminate boards 50% club even before we sold anything, and then the other parts of the business are going well, you don’t want to do that. Yeah. So day one, the sales guys, they went out with all the forms in this pocket. They came back with them in this pocket.
Then at the end of the first night I ran out to ring him every night. Most times he was drunk somewhere. So tell me the next day. Why didn’t you ring me? Because I did drink, you need to know how’d you get on? Yeah, 53, right. And the business got 60% penetration. And the other thing is that going back to this before we started, the guy that took me in the room, he then came to me and he said,
Look, let me give you a tip, don’t sell television. Don’t sell the product. Sell getting in the home. You’ve got to be like the camel. All right, what? Come on. I need the camel. He said that is the story of the camel in the tent, which is a Persian fable. And it’s a story about a guy that smash the love that I love him on some nodding heads. And the purpose of this is to talk about damn crabs soon.
But the purpose is to tell stories that people can never ever forget. You know, I saw something the other day that the shortest story in the world is that the last man on earth was sat in a room. somebody knocked on the door. That’s the story isn’t that so commonly the time the guy is walking across the desert with his camel. Get to the night pitches his turn gets in. Come on girls.
Will I’m coming in because no, no, no, you’re not able to come on the master you stay outside a little bit later the Campbell comes back because it’s freezing out here for could just put the tips in my ears and be amazing. as well. All right, then just the tips. come back again. It’s just the extremities. I mean, we’ve got a long walk. If I get the flu tomorrow, we’re going nowhere, but I could just put them on.
That’s it that goes back with his head because can’t carry on. You’re not coming in the tent, just your head. And then the next day, some other travelers walk across and the guys outside the tent shivering the camels inside. And the principle is that if you want something you don’t always have to go. I’m coming in the tent. Like we knocked on doors and said we want to sell your cable and people went we don’t want it. We used to have stickers on Windows go no canvases. One morning, legally we had to have a cabinet, these grabby cabinets, we have to have a certain amount of people on the system. And we couldn’t get this particular area on the system. So on Saturday morning, I got all the trucks like five trucks with the orange lights and the barriers.
Nine o’clock in the morning started putting the barriers up. Curtains go. People started going out. Mister Neighborhood Watch comes out. Because what you’re doing Comcast because enough trouble is what you’re doing. We know that we’re very sorry. So no, they said we don’t want it. Well, no. So we’re going to take it back. They might want to take what back? Take the cable back because he’s because he’s ours. Anyway, how are you gonna set the cable back, I won’t pull the same way we put it in. You’re gonna You’re not taking the screws. Anyway, don’t be hasty. So we talked about it. And we gave them free cable to cable calls. And the cable stayed where it was.
So that was my first principle really, and, and then in another part of the business. So eventually all the cable businesses that got 11%. They kind of consolidated. And then Comcast thought, you know, we just want to be out. In the States. This is too much because in the US cables are overhead whereas it’s expensive here. And so NTL had two amazing guys, George Blumenthal, the chairman of Barkley, not the CEO. They bought all the cable business stuff.
So I went along with them on a great journey as MD of a business unit, then sales and marketing again. So then we’d gone from no customers to 3 million which was an amazing, amazing journey. Then I had all the call centres for my sins and 1.5 million people a month rang because the set top box didn’t work on a hot day the internet went down. And then one day the daily interest on the debt, which is another lesson, was $3.5 million every single day.
The interest and their view was get loads of debt, keep the equity and as a tip for people you know if somebody’s don’t get too precious about equity, because it’s about how big The pie as you know, I always want to keep 51% Not a Facebook, who cares? And they didn’t want to do that, sadly. So then we went into chapter 11. And then we had no set top boxes. So now we don’t have TV anymore. And we add one meg broadband at 50 quid. Well, one gig is 25. Now, it was going to buy one meg, but there was 120 8k sitting on the shelf. I thought, well, you know what, we can still do the 120 8k. Here’s your broadband, half Priceline rental, same deal. And we sold a million in a year.
Adam Stott:
So phenomenal if you go through the story. We sort of break down the, you know, success and into actual physical increments. If you look at it, it was the offer, getting that offer, creating an offer, that people would feel stupid saying no to, is fundamental view get an offer in front of someone, they’ll go well, logically, I’d be mad to say no. Then you will be selling a ton more. And you scale. Yeah. Now, because you had the margin in the offer you were able to do it. And also then looking at the offer and being creative.
They didn’t know they needed the TV, but they knew that they needed the funds. And that’s how a lot of people have grown massively and been able to move. That sounds like a great offer. And then the level of conversations, how do we go and speak to more people? Yep. And then I love the persistence story. And the book, I really enjoyed you breaking that down? How do you, you know, the first meeting going out in the meeting the person, so it’s not a true story? Is it? It’s not the book, or is it? Parallel? Paraphrase?
Peter Wilcock:
So, it’s a story about because this also comes to what you’re doing here today? Which is you getting mentored? And I don’t think anyone does anything without some form of mentoring. And so I wrote a story about a young guy starting out in life who by chance meets a mentor, who’s a 78 year old American, because I’ve had that throughout my life. You know, we’re not somebody who says, you what you should do, but somebody who goes, have you thought about it? And so he comes across situations, doesn’t say where he says, so I can’t get the team, and then I want you to have stories that are memorable.
So that the mentor student relationships are really key, which is, you know, I think everyone here deserves credit for taking that decision. Because the best thing you can do is being in a room with like minded people, talking to somebody who’s done it. I was going about Everest, and I’ve just gone back into a broadband business, same things happening again. Now, because it’s building fiber to the homes, there’s another 40 companies. And I go well, if you end up Everest, take a Sherpa, just in case, and Adam is a Sherpa. So you’re in safe hands, because base camp to the air gets thinner.
So anyway, so then I wanted stories that you can never forget ever. If you hear one, you can never forget it. So just going back to Down Your situation means that so the young guy says, I’ve got that problem. You know, every time I want to do something I want to expand, or I want to do this or you know, buy something, I get dragged back. And the mentor goes, well, of course you do. Because that’s all about the crabs.
Now who thought we talked about this today? He said, he tells them a story, which you will never forget. I told Ben that earlier and he says so to a fisherman when he goes fishing to catch crabs, he’s got his pot, and he catches one. He puts it in the pot and puts the lid on. And then when he catches another one, puts it in the pot, takes the lid off, catches another one. No need for a lid. Because what they do is as they try and climb out, they pull each other back. And that’s sometimes how life is. People go. No No Don’t Don’t be going off to Stansted and thinking you’re big. Don’t you think you can be successful from where you’re from.
As soon as you know I’ve got two two daughters and any sign that somebody says one really wants to be on the stage go to drama school in London. She gets well. My friends say you know that’s A waste of schooling because they’re going to work for KPMG. Good luck. As Elise just craps, nobody wants you been on stage, why would they? They can’t think they can’t tap dance like that, it’s normal. And as soon as you understand that, you get to deal with it, but you still gotta get out of the pot.
Adam Stott:
So we could, it’s kind of a little bit of a Why do you feel? And I know my perspective on it is good to hear your perspective. Why do you feel the crabs out like that?
Peter Wilcock:
I think it’s inbuilt in people. Going back to the fear thing. I think it’s the first reaction isn’t it? It is you know, what if and people around you like you to stay as you are. And so as soon as you accept it’s normal.
Adam Stott:
So many people in this room have actually gone through that, you know, as I look around, yes, I see it. And a lot of people have new experiences like that. Raise your hands. Yeah, he’s really good.
Peter Wilcock:
It’s interesting. I know you’re writing a book, but the book, the book, is interesting. And it’s the same scenario, and that once you’ve learned that you can observe it from an outsider. So I was told, because I tell stories all the time. Everyone told me you need to write a book. Why don’t you write a book, a great book. So I thought, Okay, well, so I wrote it on my iPad, doing this because traveling is the best time.
So I wrote it. And so then that scenario you’ll go through is people then say, How’s your book? Are you Yeah, yeah. Okay. I finished it. Yeah. No, not yet. Okay. And then again, how’s your book? Yeah, nearly done. Are you finished? Nearly? Okay. When you finish the book, okay. You got a publisher? Not yet, but looking for one. All right, then. And then and then they go, because nobody’s buying books anymore. Can you tell me to write a book? So then this is the end.
So then when you’ve got a publisher? The next question is, how many have you sold? Imagine asking that you have anything in life? How many have you sold? And that’s it. It is just how it is? Nobody wants you in the cable business. Going back to that. I used to walk along corridors in the head office in oak. People would just pass me by and go to sales. Very good. Very good.
Now, there’s a really interesting thing in cable and sky and you’ve seen it in Netflix, where subscribers suddenly dip share price tanks, churn, start losing customers, it’s deadly. So how are sales good? How’s churn best in the industry? Okay, how’s bad debt? They’re not paying for another year on the plan. nowhere else to go. He sold it. The keeping it and paying for it. Stop asking questions. It’s good to deal with. And then another great one that I love about limiting beliefs because I’m absolutely convinced the people in this room will get what they want will be the way the thing 100% in the right way.
There was a great thing Roger Federer was knocking up and one of the commentators looked out for these things. He said, Did you know that Roger Federer is a fitness coach? To sign an NDA, he’s not allowed to write a book until February retires. And the other guy said he can write as many books as he likes. It’s got nothing to do with our returns. We need to read a book about what’s in his head.
And I thought that it’s not his forehand, but his backhand. It’s so much of a muchness they’re amazing, but they’re not 20 grand slams. And then on limiting beliefs, which is really an interesting one as well. That the guys going back can’t get them to get beyond the number and you know, the sort of suppressed we can’t get the numbers higher. And he takes a jar of fleas into the boardroom. The mentor sort of sat there and fleas jumped.
I thought they flew but they jumped and the hitting the lid, and then it takes the lid off as they’re talking and then they realize that the fleas are still jumping to the side level, because the fleas have been programmed. If they jump too high, they’ll hit their head. So they just jumped to the right level. And that’s about life targets. The four minute mile was something that could never be done, broken three times in the next six months, another three times within a year. And again, as an analogy, I just think if you can get things and you know, you can go well, we don’t want to be like the fleas do it because you can actually jump out. It’s just really powerful.
And to the point about how you manage 12,000 people, you don’t manage nine? Yeah, who manage nine, who manages nine, but you’ve got to get the name. To get the story right for the next nine. By the time you get to 12,000. It’s completely different to what you said. And I always found that if you tell a story, it’s better than 10 bullet points.
Adam Stott:
Yeah, I love that. I love that philosophy of storytelling and the beliefs. Because a lot of people again, you were touching on points that people in the room 100% are experiencing. Beliefs are really important. Why do you feel that some people can’t themselves? And when you were building that initial business? Why did you have the belief to put the on the board? And what was your thinking process? Because I would say that, putting that on the board, I always ask people and this is one thing I tell people to do is make it real, you know, make it real, and make it visual.
So the board’s going up on the board with the 50% conversion rate, we know what we’re aiming for. So visually, we know when we can do something interesting is when I have my sales boards, what would happen is, if the board you could fit 20 sales on, they would only sell up to 20.
It’s only when you double the size of the board that they sold 40. It’s mad, isn’t it, but the actual visual representation of how far they can go is what got them to go further. Yeah, so I remember I had lots of salespeople, and the salespeople were sending 10 each, and the board went to 20. And then when I got this superstar salesman, and his name was Chris, they would sell in 10.
In his first month, he came in and bang 40 out. Anyway, I’m gonna need four columns. That’s what he said, we’re on the first day. So we started using the columns. In the end, we just put another board underneath here. But as soon as we put the other board underneath it, and he was going to 40 and everybody else they were no longer at 10 anymore, because that the belief that they could go more, yes. All right, which is really interesting.
So how do you make it real? I think you referenced it in a visual way. How do you break through the bliss? And what would you do if you were these people that are building these businesses that are growing? Whether it’s 100 grand or half a million? How would you get them a push further?
Peter Wilcock:
So I think we had a Napoleon Hill in thinking to grow rich without its amazing book talks about definiteness of purpose. And I think that’s the start point. So you’ve got to set out with what you actually want? And definitely the purpose isn’t things like, well, I want to get fit in the new year. How do you measure fit? What does that really mean? Is that your version or what is it? Whereas I’m going to do a marathon by July the third? In two minutes. 32 Sounds like a bit of a purpose. So I always start with so when I go into businesses, they go well, my first thing is What do you want?
And they always go, well, we want to make it better. But does that mean what does that look like? Well, more profit, how much profit will and then eventually get to a number. And by the way, we want to sell it in two years? Because we want to get out. Okay, we’ve got a chance now. So I think I’ve got a so I have a little visual. I’ve got a couple of boxes again, things that hopefully you can recall.
If you do the purpose here in a box. So you know everybody sitting here is to Adams point about the elevator pitch, can you do it in 30 seconds. That becomes the purpose rather than I want to. I want to run my own business isn’t a purpose, really. And then that drives you to the plan.
So if we go back to my thing, my purpose was 50%. Very clear, can be measured. There’s no ambiguity. The plan then is I’ve got to get people who believe in it. So I’ve got to get great marketing, great salespeople, we sponsored everything that moved, including the Middle School Football Club. Jimmy, there’s a plan that says we are going to swamp this place, you can’t move without knowing who we are.
Adam Stott:
Why is that important? Well, he’s so important. But I think they’ve got a they this is what I want him to understand. Right, I’ve got a swamp in the market. So we’ve got to be out there.
Peter Wilcock:
So I’ve got that. So I’ve got three more boxes to put that one into. And then the next one is action. Which says we’re going to contact every home. And we’re going to leave no stone unturned, as opposed to how many DD contacts? Well, we’re not sure. So if most people, they don’t have a purpose. There’s no plan, there’s a kind of let’s see how it goes. And then the action is. I was busy last Thursday. But I’ll get round to it. And if you just focus on those three boxes.
So being in this room, you’ve already made a decision. So you need to figure out a purpose. If you haven’t got one, the plan is you’ve been given one in the room, which is great, because you don’t have to think of one. But the action is you’ve got to do the work. And that’s it. Otherwise, it’s just a plug. So three boxes. And you know, if you can today, try and figure out how you score the next three products. Now there’s a couple of things about the product. First of all, people get too carried away about the products. I think I think Sara said, There’s no such a you as a unique one. You know, sometimes people say I’ve got this and there’s no phone on Earth, I’ll do this. Well, in China, there will be in a month.
So the next one is brand. So you’ve got a product. And then you need to say well, who are you? So what do you stand for? And you’re in this room because Adams got a great product and a great brand. So you trust him? Yeah. And the final one is distribution. You’ve got to get to as many people as you can, back to the pancakes. It’s about distribution, you’ve got a great product that sounds unique. In Cheltenham, there’s loads of cash. So you can become the brand for the school mom’s picking the kids up. It’s about distribution. We talked about affiliates, that’s distribution. Most people spend most of the time here bore you to death about their products. Then they’ll talk about themselves.
Then maybe they’ll think who’s going to buy it. It’s the other way around. There are some terrible books that have sold 50 million copies. And there’s some amazing books that are still on somebody’s shelf. So those are my sort of six boxes to try and keep me straight in. How do you figure out all this stuff?
Adam Stott:
And, you know, it’s really cool and I’ve that to have frameworks, you know, fundamentally those frameworks can be, you know, re-engineered, renamed in different names for different people, but the bottom line is there are two things you got to do. Right? Distribution could be called marketing, right, for example, but it’s how do you get out to more people? And that’s the fundamental, how do you go out and get in front of people, get in front of as many people, so give you.
So where are you like, look at it in the room? Where are you on it? Do you know your purpose? Do you have a plan? Are you taking enough action? Where is your product? How good is your product? How’s your brand? And are you distributing? Most people? Like you said, their pay is the distribution? Yeah, I smoke. That’s usually the biggest problem not speaking to enough people. And why do you think that is? So my wife? And why do you think that it’s why they’re not speaking to enough people? It’s the hardest bit, isn’t it? It’s the hardest bit?
Peter Wilcock:
Yes, yeah.
Adam Stott:
How do they make it easier?
Peter Wilcock:
Focus on that. Because ultimately, it is the thing I look at, inter alia, interviewed some marketing people a while back. And I said, I’d love to know, I want to know the story about Fever Tree. And they all said the same thing. What happened was they were going to the gym. And the bank manager said there’s loads of gyms that do a really high class tonic. And I went no, no, no. I want to know, how come it’s everywhere. Everywhere you go. How did they do that? That’s the key. Not, maybe it’s a great tonic. I don’t know. Maybe the distribution is phenomenal. And that’s the difference, really.
So it’s the thing that matters is and sometimes, you know, businesses like Spotify and Netflix, they did come up in the Imagine Facebook, if they said it’s a tenner a month. And now musk. Because he’s losing $4 million a day he’s going I think we need to start charging. But what would happen if Twitter was $10 a month from day one? Do you go up to tweet? I don’t think so. So there’s all these strategies out there that these businesses use? And sometimes you just got to think Well, for now I’ll take it, you know, fine, maybe I’ll give you some, maybe I’ll do some parties and give it for free. Maybe, because maybe they’ll tell all the friends.
Adam Stott:
The distribution is massive. And that’s why one of the things that we teach is to have a free offer, not give away the whole cake for free, but certainly give something of value to people for free so they can distribute it more. But you know, making the distribution easier.
If you look at the cable business, the way you made the distribution easier, was coming up with a better offer. And I think that if you can come up with an amazing offer, and really improve your offer at that front end. That will get masses of people in and when you get masses of people, then obviously that helps a distribution, right.
Peter Wilcock:
Yeah. The other thing that I got told early on was Don’t worry about there’s a thing called ARPU, which is still average revenue per user. Don’t worry about that. All the finance people going about ARPU, forget that. Another analogy, this guy’s that one of the senior guys said to me, Look, just get them to put the sheep in the pen, as many as you can. Then we’ll shut the gate and then we’ll fatten them up. And I’ll look to acquire customers and resell them. I love Yeah, I love that. Yeah. Well, there’s some businesses on the Penn gate they’re going to, we’re not coming in. I’m not sure about you. But sometimes, like you say, just just get a lot of customers, then you can figure it out, can’t you?
Adam Stott:
Now, absolutely brilliant. Look, I’m in the book. There were quite a few stories in there. It’s really, really interesting. We should all definitely go and read that because he can simplify some things in your mind that 100% You know, the camel certainly stood out the crabs. What was one of the other ones that you know, your favorite in there. Just one more before we wrap up the session. I think it’d be great. And then we’ll do a couple of questions actually, as well.
Peter Wilcock:
Yeah, this is one because I think it’s so typical. And the other day I did a seminar online and this and two of the girls that ran it were in South Africa and they said, Oh, I’ll be able to beat and I went No. And they said oh, it’s a great place to come.
However, at the moment. We’ve got this four hour power cut because of the electricity they’re having to balance the load. I went oh, are they? She said, Yes. And I said, “How do you know?”. Well, she said, “You’ve been to South Africa”, I went, “No. But how, how do you know”, I said, “I might turn up” and just said, don’t balance the load. And maybe the power will stay on. And because you’re thinking, he’s never been to South Africa.
One of the stories in line with that is, and this is a real experiment, by a guy called Harlow, and he put five monkeys in a cage with a ladder, and a banana hung. So put them in, monkeys go crazy, climb a ladder, won’t get to the banana, pull the banana, buckets of ice waterfall and the monkeys.
So then, leave them a while and take one monkey out, put another monkey in. The new monkey goes up for the banana with another one, and they pull the banana ice water everywhere again. Then takes out another monkey. So now we got put into it. Now you got two monkeys, right? The new monkeys. And then same thing again, the new the latest monkey that’s just gone in, tries to climb the ladder. The other monkeys Stop it, beat it up, right? So so then, again, takes one of the original monkeys out.
Now you’ve got three new monkeys, the latest one comes in, tries to go up the ladder and gets beaten up. And eventually, he’s put five monkeys in the cage, none of whom have seen the way iced water. None of them go after the banana. It’s just there and nobody touches it. That’s conditioning. Because they don’t know what will happen. They’ve just been conditioned that if you do that, so they could starve to death. And I think again, going back to how we can be. It’s very easy to be in the cage.
So many times in business people say to me, oh, no, you can’t do it that way. Like why not? Well, because we we we haven’t we never. We never have? Well, maybe we should. And I think another analogy we know, particularly if you go into something new and people tell you things. Maybe they’ve never seen the ice water.
Adam Stott:
100%. An entrepreneur makes their own rules. There’s only one rule. There are no rules. Yep, I learned that from Best of the Best Soufeel great martial arts film this, there’s only one rule. There are no rules. Yeah. And that’s the reality. You make the rules, you make things happen. You try things. If people in your industry are not doing it. That’s why you should be doing it. Because that’s what’s going to get your market share.
That’s what’s going to help you grow. You got to be the monkey that reaches up, gets a banana and hangs on the top while everyone else gets copied in high school. Right. That’s the mentality. Okay, so we’re gonna open up for a couple of questions from Pete. Give him a big round of applause. Amazing. So who would like to ask a question? We’ve got a few time for some of Andy at the back. We’ve got a mic over there.
Guest 1:
Hi, Mate. Thanks for that, it was great. The ways in market penetration on big trends become known in the local area. We do home improvements extensions, specifically. That’s a big ticket item. I was wondering if you have any tips for market penetration? Good question for that kind of item.
Peter Wilcock:
So you want to attain penetration?
Adam Stott:
Yeah. So now we will keep his private life.
Guest 1:
So and become known in a lot of areas and get everyone known. I was just wondering what you think is the most effective strategy for that kind of item?
Peter Wilcock:
Great question. I would focus on how many jobs do you want to do? So you fit boilers?
Guest 1:
No, no. Extensions, home extensions.
Peter Wilcock:
Okay. So how many do you want to do?
Guest 1:
Ideally 20?
Peter Wilcock:
Because you start with because your penetration would be of total homes that you could get to? Yeah, right, which is not reasonable. So you could make a lot of money at point five penetration. So I wouldn’t worry about penetration. I would get back to purpose. How many jobs do you want to do by a quarter? So how many crews, how many jobs per day, per week per month? In Three months time, six months time. I think that’s the goal number of jobs, not penetration.
Guest 1:
Okay.
Peter Wilcock:
So measure it. Yeah, measure it.
Guest 1:
In terms of advertising to the local market, what do you think would be most impactful for them given your experience?
Peter Wilcock:
What kind of customer is it?
Guest 1:
Homeowners are looking to expand homes, they got equity in their houses, that kind of thing.
Peter Wilcock:
Well, the best time to advertise is when you’re installing. Yeah. So your industry with your logo with the van, which is the logo, I presume? And I would then go up and down the street. telling everyone how amazing it is. Mrs. Biggins is so happy with the shower. And then I would get Mrs. Begin to recommend a neighbor. And use that the best way for you to get out there is people think you’ve done a great job. Right? When you drop loads of leaflets, and they go, Well, who are these guys? But if you’re installing somebody’s bought it.
Adam Stott:
you’ve only got 20 jobs, and that you want to do. One of the things estate agents do very well is you could lend the concept from a state agency. So you do exactly what Pete just told you. But then also you do a postcard drop locally, saying they’re going to send your brand, they’re going to sing your business, and you get postcard dropouts, and we’re working on a house around the corner, doing a home transformation. Right?
Whilst we’re here, we’re available to have a conversation, you know, for free, where we can show you how you can increase the value of your house by 25%. And they’re like, well, they’re in the local area. They’ve seen your brand in your van, you go round gun hands, and about as well. You know, so combining the strategy is really good.
Peter Wilcock:
Yeah, right. Thanks very much.
Adam Stott:
Perfect. Give a big round applause. Okay, another question. We’ve got time for a few questions. Who else would like to ask a question? Raise your hand to jump in anymore? Yep. IV Beverley or Robin? Yep. Yeah, we got Robin first. Robin, sir. Yeah, sorry.
Guest 2:
My question is around branding and a bit of distribution. So I am recruiting for contact center space UK wide. And what tips would you give to brand myself as the best known recruiter because it is quite a disruptive market. It’s quite a ruthless market. So having that brand in contact centers? What tips would you give?
Peter Wilcock:
Yeah, well, first of all, you got to get to them. Which is probably LinkedIn. So customer service directors, and you said best known. And it’s back to the penetration thing, you don’t need to be the best known. You just need to be the best in front of them, don’t you? So if you get to them daily, and there’s so many of them. And, again, I would say get in the door. You know, maybe cut the rate, whatever.
Just put yourself out there as I think with recruitment, and it’s a high turnover, isn’t it contact centers are the best to deal with. I just introduced a guy to a business I’m in and for a customer service director. Somebody who used to work for me, recommended him. I thought, you know, I don’t want them thinking I’m just bringing my mates in. He sent six people. And the MD said, I could have taken all six. But that’s it. Isn’t it great to deal with? You got good people, and they want to ring you up on a Friday and go, You know what, guess what 10 have left? Can you help us? Because that’s it, isn’t it? That’s a service you’re offering.
Guest 2:
Because mainly we do large recruitment as well. So rather than I suppose the director level, we’re filling in the customer service in bulk. So like 50, a week six, we could get requests for 60 and three days. That’s amazing. So it’s trying to get more of those types of clients, larger clients, rather than smaller ones at higher value.
Peter Wilcock:
Yes, yeah. But same thing, isn’t it? So whether it’s a customer service manager, somebody else to say yes, you have to get on the books, don’t you to get paid? And the other one is, show what you’ve done already. I mean, I’m impressed.
Guest 2:
That’s some of them for three days.
Peter Wilcock:
Do you shout about that?
Guest 2:
Probably not.
Peter Wilcock:
Certainly a good point.
Adam Stott:
We just played with 60 People in three days.
Peter Wilcock:
Because if you don’t have those 60 people, that abandonment rate goes through the roof. So you are a lifeline. And you need to talk about that.
Guest 2:
Thank you.
Adam Stott:
Some really good tips: a big round applause. Okay. Probably got time for one or two more. Any other last questions want to get some advice on any aspects of that? What about someone on purpose? Who’s unsure of purpose? I like to. So we go at the front running. Question on purpose, I’m just a bit unsure on exactly what purpose is. So just a little bit more than that.
Peter Wilcock:
So it so it’s, it’s, it’s the phrase is it’s a definiteness of purpose. So there’s absolutely no ambiguity in what it is. And the comparison I use is between getting fit and having a time and a date to do the marathon. So it is 20 seconds. Yeah.
Adam Stott:
Specific, measurable.
Peter Wilcock:
A bit like going back there, penetration would be God knows. You know, first of all, do you know how many homes? Let’s get the consensus on five more being built? Forget all that. How many jobs do you want to do with a clear 20? Whatever it was.
Adam Stott:
And then you can go so much further, once you know those specific, measurable numbers, because he can be hey, I want 20 jobs. Right. And currently, there are 1800 people in planning around that area. Right now I can say, well, how many of those 1800. Do I need to win in order to get 20? Deals? And now we can go much more specific, measurable, and go out there and make those things happen? Working on this back. Well, can we get paid to a massive, massive round of applause?
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