Episode 8 - The 3 Steps To Training Your Team With Danny Zatarain

Service MVP Sales Training Podcast with Joe Crisara

"In a business everything is sales related everything is a sale right when you're trying to get someone to go your direction or to get on track or start an initiative or complete a training that you're putting in front of them you have to sell them first, sometimes we just want better sales for our team but we have to sell our team first and get them on board". - Danny Zatarain

In this episode of The Service MVP Podcast Danny Zatarain joins Uncle Joe to discuss - "The 3 Steps To Training Your Team".

Check out this episode of The Service MVP Podcast! Learn how training your team reaps huge benefits.

Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.

Podcast Episode Transcription:

In a business everything is sales related everything is a sale right when you're trying to get someone to go your direction or to get on track or start an initiative or complete a training that you're putting in front of them you have to sell them first right sometimes we just want better sales for our team but we have to sell our team first and get them on board welcome to the service MVP podcast this is where you go to learn how to use pure motive service to create higher value to grow your results grow your results and now here is your host America's service sales coach Joe Crisara welcome to the service MVP podcast and I am Joe Crisara, America's service sales coach here again with another exciting episode and this week we are going to bring out one of my very best friends whose name is Danny Zatarain, Danny is the person do we have taken on the initiative to lead our total immersion training program for field staff office staff and leadership Danny welcome to the podcast today thank you so much uncle Joe I really appreciate it I feel honored to be here well Danny a lot of people may not know and you're kind of hiding in plain sight you know and I know you're not a real big self-promoter like some of the bigger names that are out there but definitely we're trying to trying to encourage you to get your name out there more and this is an attempt to do that Danny why don't you tell us a little bit about how it is you got the road from where you came two leading our total immersion training and in this episode everybody Denny's going to talk about a really important subject which is 3 critical steps to training your team and so I can't wait to hear those three steps Danny much tell us about your background and how you wind up here for sure uncle Joe well listen I don't know to be just with you I never expected to be here in this place and I just want to say First off that I'm very fortunate to be able to do something that I'm so passionate about and that changes people's lives but it was a couple of years ago one of my friends has kind of reached out to me knowing I was in sales management and I've been in sales management for years kind of asking for help with their performance the sales performance of of an HVAC team right or a team that had four different divisions we did HVAC plumbing electrical and roofing and so he kind of you know called and said hey I need some help with sales you think you can help us and we went through a couple of interviews and kind of talked about what the job was all about and I will be honest with you I thought it would be a piece of cake right sells that sells everywhere is what I thought so I took on the challenge I was very excited about it and it was probably about a month in when I realized I had absolutely no idea what I was doing there was a very different kind of cells right than any other industry you know that well kudos for you for being self-aware Danny that's the biggest the first step of being able to work for our team sure absolutely 100% well and part of being self-aware right is knowing when and where to look for help so I did and I kind of took off and started taking some training programs you know some of the most popular ones out there enjoying several different several different you know best practice groups and stuff like that went through a couple of different ones that didn't really match the feel for our company for the values right that we had as a company and so I just kind of kept looking until I found service MP and it was then once I took that program that it you know the values really clicked for us as a company and doing the right thing and being really believing in what you're doing right being able to go to sleep knowing that you help somebody as opposed to taking advantage of somebody so when I realized that program fit I went ahead and took that program and onboarded that another couple of guys and realized that the performance immediately turned around so that was really fun and I think you probably remembered this when I realized that it worked well and I wanted to train the rest of the team and we went through I asked my old boss right for a you know overtime hours for us to be able to come in early and do that daily training for this program and at first there was a definite note right and I had a little bit of a hard time selling the value myself to my company of this program and then you stepped in and I was right on track so we did that we did an initiative that you kind of helped kind of put in place right where we would train about 90 minutes a day for three weeks straight everyone went through a graduation with her partner Chris right Chris camisa so everyone graduated the program and literally the month right after that and then now I'm not going to lie we definitely had other factors in place right for example we were going through a rebranding through Dan Antonelli so I know that definitely helped get us out there in the market and but the very next month after we finished our training we did a record sales month of over $600,000 when I think before the most we've ever done in our company was about 150 so it was a really big substantial change to our performance there as a team right I love that and it was great our performance was getting better and then of course I got stuck not knowing how to hold my team accountable came to one of your performance coach classes and kind of you helped me get the team back on track again and that's kind of our relationship started right with service MVP Yep and definitely when you became available on the market eventually you wind up leading and we definitely snatched it right up and then a great trip a good journey for both of us Danny let's go and get right to the content here right now which is the three critical steps to train your team to make that next step to record sales I mean I know it's branding as an important part of it but you know I say branding sells the company before the doorbell rings what we do is sell the company at doorbell rings to make sure we do that if you don't mind let's go ahead and start with those three critical steps so everybody can hear can realize that you know if you're if you're a service tech or a salesperson who's listening to say you can use this to evaluate your own company to see how you are being trained and if the training is effective because it's possible to do training and have it not effective and then the second step is if you're a leader or an owner of a company evaluate yourself to see if this is 3 steps that you are following these three steps if you are congratulations if you're not well Danny is here to help you and so am I so Danny if you don't mind let's go on to step number one what is the first step uh you need to the first critical step I must say to train your team absolutely so uncle Joe the first and probably one of the most critical steps and a lot of us are very are kind of tempted to skip it but that would be to sell your team first so you because I hear a lot of owners say I'm not a salesperson I'm just an owner of a company so you're telling me that the leader of the company has to be a salesperson too well I'm going to be completely honest with you uncle Joe I think every cent in in every way in a business everything is sales related everything is to sell right when you're trying to get someone to go your direction or to get on track or start an initiative or completed training that you're putting in front of them you have to sell them first right sometimes we just want better sells for our team but we have to sell our team first and get them on board it's that thing that we call voluntary commitment that is most important because it really encourages ownership and willingness when it comes to following through with training and actually being accountable for the results for it right got it got it and so tell us how what is the best way to anything any tips you can give us so the leaders of the company can sell the team to make sure they're on board with committed 100% you know and uncle Joe throughout this last year and a half of teaching total immersion one of my favorite things has been that the people that I've met right and I've been are you saying you know technicians and trainers around the country that implement these things and do an amazing job added one of them being a Blanca Rodriguez I think you met her at one of our total immersion events with Lee Zair she was she was actually telling me that one of the most important things when getting your team to voluntarily commit to a goal is that the goal becomes the goal to be their goal right and they have to trust you and know that you care for them so one of the most important things is just having that onboarding conversation right at the beginning to make sure that any initiative that you're trying to move forward whether it's training or if you're trying to get them back on track that you have that conversation kind of like hey Joe you know we're moving over to a new process that's going to allow you to make the most return on investment for the time you'r and in fact it's actually proven to increase results by almost three times so and the best part about it is that it's not focused on sales but providing the best service so I know you're passionate about that So what do you think do I have your support on this yeah so getting people support that getting that closing in a way by getting that support and upon enrolling people is what you're doing there Danny Blanca is a wise person she works at Lee's service up there in Fresno I think it is and for Tom Howard does yeah definitely is a definitely one of our signature clients for sure Danny I think that is an important thing because the team's not sold you know you could try to lead them if they actually the culture kills everything or the culture feeds everything in a way does that make sense exactly 100% you know that the bottom line is that you can't expect positivity and implementing something new unless there's excitement in the training and onboarding for the training right now would you say this is an individual commitment you're getting or sort of group setting you would get this commitment from people so how would you how would you put that just make sure people get it right well she should you do this as a crowd or do it individually like well I think it definitely depends on the initiatives that you're trying to promote right but for the most part I think it definitely needs to be an individual one-on-one conversation it doesn't have to be super extensive but getting individual commitment from your team is definitely most important I mean so important that Blanca for example right 66 technicians are doing about 60% of the profit over in her place and I mean they're averaging close to 3 million each it's a really high performing group that requires individual long boarding and buying right yeah so getting those people committed so it doesn't make any to get everybody let's just get the people you can't just do what you can right there you go wow Danny that is a great advice and of course Danny is always on Facebook if you want to get more from him he will he's so gracious he sometimes works too hard I try and tell him little bit dude you're probably giving out too much Danny number two what's the number 2 critical step to training your team oh #2 this one super important you have to be committed as a leader you have to be committed through action tell me more about that so by action that's that that says a lot there right and I think that's probably the key the key thing commitment is one thing if we all hear that word but action is different than could you expand a little bit more sure absolutely so there's you can say you're committed to and you process right and you can even commit money to a new initiative like signing up training right but good leaders can relate because they've been there right and it's important that leaders to complete the appropriate training that is that is you know for them to be able to lead their team through training so commitment through action more than anything I remember back when I was doing this training we signed up for your training we decided this is the one we love it we actually paid for it right we did our membership and everything and it was kind of like a checkbox so it's like OK sales training done right but there was no action or or follow through right it was just a kind of like a verbal and even a monetary commitment but there was no actual action towards it and one of the this reminds me of another amazing person that I met Aidan from duo right plumbers there in California I was super impressed by him because he actually came to total immersion before he sent his team it was just him and one of his managers and he said to me and I quote I would never put my guys through a training that I have now taken myself and I'm like wow that's a that's a leader that's got it right you know step one of commitment by action is that you know go through the training be ahead of the team if you're going to leave the team don't try to say the team and I'll sit in my office in the ivory tower take the training first as a leader so you can you can understand and interpret what they're going to learn right what's another level of commitment that's obviously doing the training first so you could be ahead of the team not to answer questions for the team when they that you got to be a salesperson or a service person but you should know the system they're being trained on so you can support that training in a way right oh what's another level that is a big mistake here that I think a lot of people make a second level commitment which is just really the ultimate action which is to do what I will definitely graduation but what about scheduling it though make sure we're scheduling this training oh 100% so when we tried to do it remember I told you I just kind of gave the guys their logins and said watch these videos right and of course there was nothing on the schedule on the board or anything like that nothing set aside for them so of course you know how many people do you think completed that training not too many I don't think I don't think even one of them actually put completed the training until we actually set aside from 7:00 to 8:30 in the morning where we would all come in together and do this training together as a team number one the rolling taking commitment to make sure you go first take the train number 2 scheduling it and now we're going to go #3 which is where you landed before here we are the third step is a critical step if you will cause wouldn't suck the leader takes the training he puts all the people through the training but they don't do the spinal critical this is the critical third step and you mentioned it before but go ahead and say it again Danny what is that it's graduation now what does that mean graduation then tell me what that how does that entail like people probably scratching their head like I have meetings every week with my team it's like you have a meeting with your team every week what's an important part of having those meetings you think yeah it's that final step that really makes the training real right it's this place where you come to full accountability so it can look very different depending on the type of training you're doing in the meeting that you have right it doesn't always have to be like this big d but it does have to be a time where that is set aside for the employee to be able to demonstrate that they understand the training right where you actually celebrate the effort that they made to understand the material and then create an action plan for immediate implementation that's what's important and what does that mean well that means accountability right and that's why graduations are so important because sets the stage for full accountability now that they understand so once somebody has graduated by being tested in a way I mean if you think about it if you're going to get a license with a plumber electrician or HVAC guy you get a license that kind of just say we trained you online like I say come in and take the final Test right that's the thing about it there's this event that takes place for a tent test now when it comes to this type of thing what are some of the tangible outcomes that and how does this benefit the owner to really put to really hate that event and make it happen how can that benefit the team the in your opinion what's the best what's the reason why that benefits the team so much well and actually let me if I could share a story with you of one of the graduations here at one of our total immersion events this year uncle Joe I really stuck with me his name is Blake he's with rice and shine garage door and Blake actually asked him permission to share the story but Blake came to total immersion and you know he was you know he talked to his team and stuff like that and he went and said when his graduation came about you could tell he was a bit nervous right just like everyone else and in our graduation of total immersion is to kind of a big deal right so we go through a call simulation and you have to handle objections and do a presentation and be able to close the deal right and so when he came he was nervous just like everyone else was nervous but The funny thing happened whenever he actually graduated and I finally said hey you did it congratulations you're officially a pure mode of service provider and it was almost like the blood was kind of left to face he was he got even more nervous after the graduation was over and I was kind of like ohh Blake are you OK and you know he looked like he was a little you know agitated and so we kind of helped him sit down and we got him some water and stuff like that and then afterwards he came up to a to us to tell us that all throughout his life Blake every time he had to do a presentation or talk in front of people he would either skip school or just not show up he went through school and his entire life without ever speaking in public in front of anyone and so and I was like Blake why didn't you say anything to anyone and then Blake was like well no I just you know when you when you talked about this at the beginning and doing the opposite I thought well this is my chance to do it and to do it myself right into and I just wanted to take on this challenge for myself alone and so after that he said his confidence was absolutely through the roof he went back and his performance was as significantly different than it was before his bosses actually gave him a promotion he was his performance was so much better that he earned the respect of his boss and his coworkers and he's doing an amazing job over there I was just talking to him earlier today he said he actually told me that what changed the most was his confidence after graduating after knowing that he could go through you know with this benchmark sheet from beginning to end and yes his performance got better and the trust of this you know Co workers and his bosses was there but that it's all related to the confidence that he got from knowing that he's doing the right thing for the people so graduation is just such an important step before we used to follow this process and maybe it wasn't so functional and now we follow this process and there has to be that really defined change right in order to hold someone you're saying if you hold the meeting in your company that the meeting should have a graduation to make sure you prove or test that you know what we just trained on today that's what that's the summary of even if it's just a small role play just like the one Blake and I did what about the pressure I mean with today's people I know that today when I was going I went through all kinds of stuff you know with the you know different wars and recessions and stuff like that so we always like out of pressure on people today I don't think that there seems like there's much that people don't respond to the pressure so much by the way it's pressure and important part of achievement when you think about that well of course it is and there's nothing worthwhile has achieved unless you have that pressure to achieve it right so it's most important to and really yeah we look at pressure sometimes or stress as a negative thing a lot of the time so when it comes to graduation uncle Joe it's kind of like the save button in your brain right it's kind of like hit that save button on a Word document right running on something that you're working on like being able to perform under pressure like that when you're just role-playing with somebody right and graduating a new initiative that makes it so much easier for you to do it in real life afterwards so man I could go on for hours as usual they always say great meeting starts on time good meeting starts on time but a great one ends on time we're about wrapping it up at the end of this meeting and I definitely appreciate you giving us those three critical steps to training your team Danny how can people attend one of the trainings that you do so you got the total immersion field and service and salespeople we learned how to do lead turnovers and things like that and also how to just do the benchmark sheet that gets people there the office staff training for dispatchers and customer service reps to make sure that you prioritize the calls dispatch one call at a time and learn how to do call by call dispatch there and you also have the leadership training like great performance groups and how to scale this success Danny how do people get ahold of you and how can they be able to sign up to get one of your trainings she's got a service mvp.com you can go to a total immersion sales.com on our website all of our classes are listed there where you can click and take a look and get a little more information about it and purchase your tickets and reserve receipts you can reach out to me Danny at the service mvp.com and I'll be glad to sign you up for a class or just call our office and then we'll be able to sign you up for any one of those classes and that office number is 877-764-6304 that's 877-764-6304 all right everybody Danny thank you so much for being here today I definitely appreciate Your contribution definitely it's a pleasure to have you here thanks for your time uncle Joe.