How to Make Any Business Successful with Jim Wilcox, Sandler Training

Most businesses are started for the wrong reasons. Many people start a business because they have a passion for a topic. They may be very skilled in that service or product. However, that service or product is only ten percent of what makes a business. One thing that is often missed in a business plan is customer acquisition and what it will cost to bring people in - also known as sales. In this episode of The Franchise Academy, Jim Wilcox discusses having your sales systems dialed in. Once the business processes are systematized, it's all about daily behaviors, attitudes, and techniques in your business model. Listen to Jim Wilcox of Sandler Training explain it in this episode of The Franchise Academy.

0:03

welcome to another episode of the

0:06

franchise Academy my name is Tom skarta

0:08

welcome to the show I am excited today

0:11

because we have a great guest who is a

0:15

franchise owner of a franchise that he

0:18

used to be a client of

0:20

so that is something unique and

0:23

something I really want to share with

0:25

you guys and and talk about more

0:28

I'm bringing to you today Jim Wilcox and

0:31

Jim is a an owner of Sandler training

0:35

and he's based in Fort Wayne Indiana has

0:39

been in the business for some time but

0:42

has gone from being a nurse

0:45

and doing many other things too but

0:47

primarily a nurse to a franchise owner

0:49

which is also an incredible story so Jim

0:52

welcome to the franchise Academy Tom

0:55

thanks for having me pleasure to be here

0:57

this is so fantastic so

1:00

why first let's go back why were you

1:03

involved with Sandler as a client to

1:06

begin with

1:07

yeah so if we go back to 2009 we were

1:11

coming right out of the recession I was

1:12

working for an I.T company and we did uh

1:16

web development application development

1:18

our owners uh got connected with a local

1:23

uh sailor franchise out of Indianapolis

1:25

about two hours south of where I'm at

1:28

right now and and the owners bought they

1:31

they were willing to go all in to come

1:34

out of the recession very strong and

1:38

um uh it it wasn't a it was a Awkward

1:42

start but that's how we got started uh

1:45

there's Kind of a Funny Story there

1:46

about how we got started which ties into

1:49

how I uh ended up owning this business

1:52

but yeah 2009 right coming up before I

1:55

mean we were

1:57

things were pretty uh Bleak back then

1:59

and our owners went all in on Sandler

2:02

training that's so funny that's exactly

2:05

when I started taking sandwich classes

2:07

myself was 2009 yeah I was on Long

2:10

Island at the time and working with uh

2:12

Richard Isaac and Rob fisherman out

2:14

there

2:16

yeah great guys

2:18

taught me a lot and it was the same

2:21

thing I felt like I needed to get my

2:24

game to the next level yeah

2:27

and they helped me really do that to

2:30

become you know one of the top people in

2:33

my company in a six-month time period

2:36

so that was phenomenal

2:38

but you were a nurse somewhere along the

2:40

lines so how far back was nursing before

2:44

the hit yeah it was yeah if we go way

2:47

way back so coming out of college I was

2:49

studying behavioral psychology so put a

2:51

little note there studying uh

2:53

behavioralism at Western Michigan

2:55

University I woke up one day and

2:58

realized that uh it's going to be a long

3:02

path for things like tenure if I wanted

3:05

to teach it's going to be a long path

3:07

for uh you know I want to drive a sports

3:10

car someday so I started rethinking my

3:12

life at that point as many you know 17

3:15

18 19 year olds do and I back then I

3:19

worked out a lot so I was in the gym and

3:22

talking to a guy that I knew from the

3:23

gym but didn't really know what he did

3:25

and I just asked him one day what do you

3:27

do and he said I'm a male nurse and I

3:29

said what a very there weren't a lot of

3:32

male nurses around back then and so we

3:36

uh we connected later that day and had a

3:39

long conversation I was just fascinated

3:41

by what he was doing and the opportunity

3:44

that was in nursing so I switched gears

3:46

at that moment and went to nursing

3:48

school and spent 10 years as a trauma

3:51

and ICU nurse uh also in that time I

3:55

started grew and sold the business so I

3:59

got my first real uh experience at

4:03

business ownership back then it was

4:05

doing double duty working you know

4:08

12-hour nights and running a business by

4:11

day with two other partners wow and what

4:14

kind of business was that it was a

4:16

highly Specialized Staffing Agency

4:19

um and and we were

4:20

Staffing highly credentialed RNs our

4:24

value proposition back then was that we

4:27

could go into really any situation with

4:30

minimal

4:32

um onboarding and be able to function

4:34

immediately it was the it was the

4:36

onboarding that was killing the uh the

4:38

hospitals the the time to ramp up so we

4:41

were coming in highly experienced we

4:44

could navigate their systems day one and

4:47

be highly productive highly valuable for

4:49

that hospitals today we're trying to

4:51

fill open positions in what was in

4:54

Michigan at that time of a fairly

4:56

substantial nursing shortage yeah it

4:59

always seems to be a nursing shortage

5:01

yeah yeah

5:03

that damn organic chemistry that's what

5:05

it is

5:06

that's right that's right that or

5:09

anatomy and physiology right now take

5:11

your right out of it so

5:13

yeah do the organic chem is worse yeah

5:16

yeah but that's I couldn't do it yeah so

5:22

it's just interesting so then did you

5:24

guys end up like selling that business

5:25

or something or I had two other partners

5:28

and we had a kind of a fundamental

5:32

difference of agreement I wanted to to

5:34

take the business in One Direction I saw

5:36

an opportunity they were very content

5:39

with where the business was at that time

5:42

and ultimately we made the decision that

5:45

I was going to move on it was a bit

5:46

fortuitous timing wise uh this was right

5:49

before 2001 right before 9 11 so maybe

5:53

six eight months before uh fast forward

5:56

my wife's job moved us to Fort Wayne

5:59

Indiana kind of as a weird result of uh

6:03

911 what happened immediately after that

6:05

she was offered a job in Fort Wayne and

6:08

we've been here ever since wow yeah it's

6:11

weird how when you connect the dots

6:14

backwards as Steve Jobs talks about him

6:17

his famous speeches at College at a

6:19

college of commencement

6:22

um that is phenomenal so the um

6:26

so you're doing all of that and then you

6:29

get into this other business Yeah by

6:32

introducing the Sandler as a client I

6:34

guess that's the timeline

6:36

um and what kind of business was that

6:39

yeah so if we follow the timeline I

6:41

worked for a couple years in an

6:42

emergency room here in Fort Wayne before

6:45

I got completely just burnt out ready to

6:47

do something different I felt like I had

6:49

I had done what I was meant to do as a

6:53

trauma ICU nurse

6:55

um during that time so if we're going to

6:57

connect dots and work you know backwards

6:59

and forwards studying psychology

7:02

I go into nursing I've got business

7:04

owner experience

7:06

I also figured out pretty quickly that

7:08

in order to get the credentialing that I

7:10

wanted because the more credentials you

7:12

have as a registered nurse more valuable

7:14

you are as a nurse you could command a

7:17

higher hourly rate

7:19

um I've learned pretty quickly that the

7:20

easiest way to get some of these very

7:22

expensive credentials was to teach it so

7:25

I started training so I was training

7:27

basic life support Advanced life sport

7:28

trauma nerve score curriculum Advanced

7:31

you know pediatric life support I was

7:34

training everything so doing double duty

7:37

by day and then training when I could

7:38

squeeze it in so if we keep moving fast

7:41

forward I ended up uh when I left

7:43

clinical medicine I ended up working for

7:46

a friend's company in town here we were

7:48

an I.T company

7:50

um so this fast forwards us to the 2009

7:53

time frame uh in the middle of a

7:56

recession I go to work for them about

7:59

six weeks in they came and said hey

8:00

great news we just signed up for Sandler

8:03

Sales Training and I went wait a minute

8:05

what who needs sales training right

8:10

you've seen that drill before right so

8:13

wasting my time with the sales training

8:15

that's right yeah that was my intro that

8:17

was my initial thought and then our

8:20

sailor trainer from Indianapolis comes

8:22

in and he sets down uh do you remember

8:23

the old president's Club binders yeah so

8:26

he sets down the Box unopened and he

8:29

says to myself and my colleague at the

8:31

time uh before you open those I just

8:34

want you to know I made a recommendation

8:35

that uh the owners fire both of you

8:38

we'll see who you know remains at the

8:40

end of the week and I thought wow this

8:42

guy is

8:43

pretty abrasive and so it was a little

8:46

bit of a rocky start uh to that but long

8:49

story short we went all in as a client

8:51

and uh in fact I was at lunch today with

8:55

a client of mine who sat next to me as a

8:58

client of Sandler so we've been together

8:59

it's this goes back 14 years

9:03

um

9:04

he said wow the one thing that I've got

9:06

to commend you guys on as clients you

9:08

absolutely owned the room and you in

9:11

particular owned Sandler and uh Tom I

9:14

know you have Sandler experience you can

9:16

see it in a classroom setting who who is

9:18

academic with it and who really is out

9:20

there executing with it

9:22

um and so I was out there executing with

9:24

it figuring out how can I make these

9:27

tools in my sailor toolbox really work

9:29

for me in the type of selling I was

9:31

doing back then right and and you know

9:34

just for people that are listening

9:37

there's so many things to say about this

9:38

but you don't need to be into sales in

9:41

order to own a Sandler Sales or

9:44

something no sales anymore but a similar

9:46

what are they calling it these days

9:48

leadership

9:49

um it's still a Sandler franchise

9:52

Sandler you know you say similar

9:53

training that doesn't exactly Encompass

9:55

everything we do it's a big part of it

9:57

it's what we've been known for for 53

9:59

years but it's really a Sandler

10:01

franchise yeah so 53 years you'll take

10:05

note of that there's not too many

10:07

franchises out there for 53 years all

10:10

right

10:12

um and it's

10:14

one of the highly rated franchises if

10:17

they do these International franchise

10:20

Association the associated overseas

10:23

franchising does anonymous

10:25

um

10:26

uh queries of franchise owners uh to

10:31

rate their franchise's company yeah

10:33

always covers in as one of one of the

10:36

top uh in regard to support and and you

10:40

know happy franchise owners

10:43

um but it's still interesting to me

10:45

because Sandler

10:48

um

10:49

is really the opposite of sales yeah

10:54

um because I'm I'm not that guy you know

10:56

I'm like a high s and I am laid back I

11:00

should be on Calif in California surfing

11:03

kind of that's all right

11:04

I'm not aggressive I'm not a sales guy

11:07

and so they teach you how to be a

11:09

consultative

11:11

friend of a business yeah absolutely

11:15

you know that's what we do right yeah

11:19

great questioning strategies honing your

11:22

listening skills followed by great

11:24

questioning strategies and a process

11:26

that moves us from the identification of

11:30

an opportunity to your qualified or

11:33

disqualified and either way is okay but

11:35

if there's a compelling reason to do

11:37

business together let's make a decision

11:39

on that if not let's just part ways and

11:42

you know hopefully we'll see each other

11:43

out on the golf course somewhere there

11:45

you go yeah yeah and that's exactly what

11:48

it is you know like people know me

11:51

people have worked with me since 2009

11:54

when I first started though they know

11:56

that you know I start the first

12:00

um introductory call with you know one

12:02

of three things that's going to happen

12:03

if you work with me one is your favorite

12:06

franchise is not for you right it was

12:09

I'm I might tell you franchising is not

12:11

for you and you have to be okay with

12:12

that yeah third thing is we find it the

12:14

perfect franchise but if you say no it's

12:17

fine we're still friends with still send

12:20

you a Christmas card

12:23

um especially for me I've been doing

12:25

this for 18 years wow

12:27

um so

12:29

what is one of your favorite Sandler

12:33

rules not to put you on the spot but

12:35

Santa has a set of rules right oh yeah

12:38

yeah yeah 52 sailor rules yeah

12:41

for me it's um it's sailor rule number

12:44

one you have to learn to fail to win

12:47

um and that and that's such a tough

12:49

thing it was a tough thing for me early

12:52

on because I was always taught can't

12:54

accept no for an answer and failure is

12:56

not an option and the reality is is that

12:58

could neither of those could be further

13:00

from the truth I can't accept no for an

13:02

answer if there's not a fit then we

13:04

should agree that it's no it could be no

13:06

forever it could be no for now but no is

13:09

acceptable

13:10

um the other thing is I need to fail I

13:13

need to stretch myself and not that I

13:17

want to fail but I only learn through

13:20

failure if everything were about a roses

13:22

if everything were a success after

13:24

success after success we would never

13:27

truly really realize our potential

13:29

because it's been too easy so that's

13:31

without a doubt my favorite sailor rule

13:34

you have to learn to fail to win I love

13:36

that I love it yeah and it's

13:39

um

13:40

you know it's all about uh the the

13:42

batting average that Sandler talks about

13:45

and and it there is somebody or was

13:47

somebody named David Sam correct so

13:50

David Sandler taught all these things

13:52

and he was like they have these old

13:55

tapes and it's 53 years ago so yeah

13:58

Immaculate is way different and and a

14:01

lot of the phrases and examples oh yeah

14:03

we don't use anymore

14:05

um but it's you know like we talked we

14:09

were joking about it um when I was at

14:11

the Sandler Summit in March I was

14:13

talking about I was sitting around with

14:15

a bunch of guys that are veterans and

14:17

we're talking about all the things that

14:19

like we don't say anymore like you know

14:20

when you go to a meeting leave your kid

14:22

in the car right

14:24

has nothing to do with children right

14:27

right has everything to do with our ego

14:30

States yeah right but we can't say that

14:33

one anymore yeah there's a lot of them

14:34

that that we can't say unfortunately but

14:37

that's okay times change and we have to

14:40

evolve it's one of the things I love

14:41

about what I do we are constantly

14:43

evolving

14:45

um as owners but we go six times a year

14:50

to engage in our own professional

14:52

development three regional meetings and

14:54

three National meetings and uh that's

14:56

that's quite a heavy load I mean that's

14:58

and I would do it ten times right

15:01

because it just makes me better so we're

15:04

constantly evolving one of the things I

15:06

love about Sandler's uh uh as a parent

15:09

organization is there constantly

15:12

evolving as well and that's that's a

15:14

good thing to be a part of I don't you

15:16

know we would never want to be part of

15:17

something that's stagnant this is a way

15:19

that we've always done it right so yeah

15:22

and we're being new at Sandler and then

15:26

Rich coming in and talking about this

15:28

new thing called LinkedIn and best

15:30

practices on LinkedIn and it was like

15:32

you know you think about that now you're

15:34

like holy Michael but I just saw I don't

15:37

know when it was

15:39

um maybe two or three days ago I got an

15:41

email from Sandler corporate talking

15:42

about best practices with AI with AI I

15:45

know scary

15:51

um a lot to talk about there but tell us

15:54

a little bit about how you actually made

15:56

the transition into Sandler into being a

15:59

franchise owner yeah so I

16:02

like I said we had gone all in as a as a

16:04

client we were attending weekly uh sales

16:07

Mastery sessions they were called

16:09

presidents Club back then

16:11

um we were really leaders in the

16:13

classroom and our company was evolving

16:16

rapidly evolving and there you know

16:19

there are a couple Rocky points points

16:21

of frustration along the way as you have

16:23

in any you know career that you find

16:25

yourself in and I was kind of at that

16:27

moment where I didn't really want to

16:28

leave but I was starting to become open

16:30

to the idea of uh what might be next

16:34

right so I'm always pushing the goal

16:37

posts Always setting them out farther

16:38

and farther and so I was starting to get

16:41

that feeling again that maybe I've done

16:43

everything here that we could do we had

16:44

we had grown exponentially coming out of

16:46

2009 we had opened uh additional offices

16:50

I was part of that you know pioneering

16:52

that Journey which was a blast and my

16:57

sailor trainer guy by the name of Paul

16:59

Lucian out of Indianapolis

17:01

called me up one

17:04

um it was Friday afternoon

17:07

I can tell you exactly where I was

17:09

sitting had just come out of a sales

17:12

call

17:13

and he said hey I uh want to have a

17:16

confidential conversation with you

17:18

and I said wow this is weird because

17:20

Paul doesn't you know yeah he's he's not

17:23

that type of guy right he's uh he's

17:26

pretty serious it can be abrasive at

17:28

times God love him

17:30

um but he said hey I I've been thinking

17:32

about you uh I can't hire you I can't

17:35

tell you to leave I honestly think you

17:38

should stay but if you're going to leave

17:41

you should at least fly to Baltimore and

17:43

check out Sandler

17:45

so I did took a couple vacation days

17:49

flew out check out Sandler I walked in

17:51

it's it's funny I don't know if you know

17:53

do you know Michael Norton and Sam

17:55

you've been around sailor a long time so

17:57

uh Michael's my twin brother literally I

17:59

walk in I'm not even in the door five

18:01

minutes and uh Desiree who is uh at

18:06

least I think it was Desiree that's the

18:07

story that's in my head

18:09

um I'm not even in there five minutes

18:11

and Desiree who's Dave matson's

18:12

executive assistant comes up behind me

18:15

gives me a big hug and says Michael it's

18:17

so good to see you and I turn around she

18:19

goes oh my gosh it's not even Michael

18:20

and then she gave me a big hug anyway

18:22

and so I'm like all right this is like

18:24

the place for me so I knew I knew right

18:27

away that this was going to be kind of

18:30

the final career stop for me and the

18:32

funny thing is I wasn't I had never even

18:35

considered

18:36

uh Sandler is an option but but once I

18:40

did all the pieces kind of came back the

18:42

psychology psychology is selling the

18:44

training aspect the business ownership

18:46

aspect of it the you know if you if you

18:49

look at uh clinical nursing clinical

18:52

nursing is all it's all algorithms and

18:55

procedures right especially trauma

18:58

um and so all the we teach process in in

19:02

sales and in management so in a weird

19:05

way the entire Journey kind of comes and

19:08

it all fits together going from you know

19:11

Trauma Nurse owning my own business you

19:13

know Etc to being here owning this

19:17

business and seller today and being able

19:18

to you know help the individuals in the

19:20

organizations that we serve

19:22

it's it's like you were training for it

19:24

your whole entire life and never knew it

19:27

yep Amazing Story yeah what is the best

19:31

part what are the best parts of your day

19:34

as a sandal guy

19:37

yeah I jokingly tell people that I'm

19:39

largely unemployable because I don't I

19:43

don't like to follow the rules I mean I

19:45

my uh wife gives me a hard time because

19:47

she claims that I taught my daughters

19:49

that rules are are merely guidelines for

19:52

people that need direction in their

19:54

lives uh which is our little joke you

19:56

know inside of our house but

19:59

um for me it's a freedom it's a freedom

20:01

and the flexibility that's the best part

20:03

of the day

20:04

um and I would say that's 1B 1A would be

20:07

the very best part of the day is

20:09

witnessing the growth in others

20:12

um and so that's that is absolutely the

20:15

best part of the day but but a strong

20:18

close second to that is just having the

20:19

freedom and the flexibility I was

20:21

telling some colleagues on the golf

20:23

course over the weekend that they asked

20:26

how many hours am I putting in a week

20:28

and I said I can't even really answer

20:30

that question I mean I I honestly don't

20:32

feel like I have a quote-unquote job in

20:36

the traditional sense work I certainly

20:38

work a lot I was in here at 5 45 this

20:41

morning

20:42

um but I'll leave today and not really

20:44

feel like I've worked quote unquote I'm

20:47

I'm just simply out have an impact on a

20:49

day-by-day basis so that's important

20:54

that is so so cool yeah

20:58

so a little bit on a little bit

21:00

different kind of question

21:02

um

21:03

franchising versus going it alone what

21:07

are the in your opinion yeah both sides

21:10

of Defense here so

21:12

what's the differences what what could

21:14

you say about owning a franchise or

21:17

owning a private business yeah it's

21:19

that's a great question so I'm very

21:22

blessed in our location we've got you

21:24

know we're in a three-story Class B

21:26

building we're in the very busy

21:28

intersection and there's Sandler right

21:30

on the outside of the building uh right

21:32

next to the sign from the hospital the

21:35

hospital system that takes up the main

21:37

part of the main floor so we've got a

21:39

lot of visibility with that Sandler name

21:41

and we get a lot of individuals that

21:43

come and visit us I'm an open door so

21:46

anybody wanting to go in franchising is

21:48

welcome to visit me at any time

21:49

especially if it's a training coaching

21:51

Consulting type of franchise so

21:54

um we have people stopping in all the

21:56

time and a lot of times it's guys our

22:00

age or gals our age who are tired of the

22:02

corporate grind and they're wanting to

22:03

go out and hang their own shingle

22:05

and I certainly could have done it on my

22:09

own but the problem is I'd have to

22:12

create all my intellectual property from

22:13

scratch that is not me that is not me

22:16

that is not my strong suit I would never

22:18

get it done I would probably get it

22:20

partially done and do it poorly at best

22:23

so

22:25

um

22:25

I think the

22:27

the big difference for me is aligning

22:30

yourself with somebody who can help

22:32

Foster your own success while allowing

22:37

you the freedom and flexibility to run

22:39

your own business for me that's key so

22:42

Sandler does that for me I I own my own

22:45

business I happen to be aligned with

22:46

Sandler

22:47

we you know they it's a franchise

22:50

business right so they get compensated I

22:53

get compensated but I feel like I've got

22:55

I'm doing my own thing and I feel like

22:57

I'm able to have impact with my clients

23:00

in the way that I can best serve them

23:02

not in a way that's pre-prescribed now

23:05

if I have to do that on the private

23:07

business side I certainly have the

23:09

freedom and flexibility but I've got to

23:12

spend a lot of time that's either after

23:14

hours or during hours where I could be

23:17

finding new clients or servicing clients

23:20

to create that intellectual property and

23:22

to me those are the big differences and

23:24

that's what I talk to people about when

23:26

they come and visit do you really want

23:28

to do this on your own because it sounds

23:31

great right this whole gig economy of I

23:34

can go out and make it on my own it's

23:36

great until you're faced with the

23:37

reality of I gotta create something

23:40

better than the next guy or gal out

23:42

there we've got a we've got another

23:44

Sandler franchisee in in Indianapolis

23:46

his name's Tim Roberts and Tim is

23:48

credited with saying uh why create

23:51

mediocrity when you can r d Genius r d

23:55

meaning rip off and duplicate genius so

24:01

yeah yeah really

24:04

um such a great one now you and it's so

24:08

true and I think that owning a business

24:11

um you know owning how can I say this so

24:14

owning a private business

24:16

uh is to owning uh a franchise business

24:19

as owning a home is to owning a

24:23

condominium or or an HOA and and so you

24:28

own both they're yours but you know in a

24:31

HOA

24:33

they take care of a lot of the stuff for

24:34

you yeah they do yeah and I mean yeah

24:37

you're paying for it sure but you don't

24:40

have to spend your Saturday mowing lawns

24:43

correct actually you play golf so

24:46

you know this

24:48

that is kind of the way I think about it

24:50

um it's a business with training wheels

24:52

put simply in my mind

24:54

uh and for me you know when I first went

24:56

into franchising when I went into my own

24:58

business that's what I needed yeah

24:59

business I knew nothing about sales or

25:02

anything so I needed somebody to hold my

25:04

hand and a great franchise company like

25:06

Sandler is really synonymous with a

25:10

coach they're coaching that's right you

25:12

make the more money they make you know

25:14

so it's it's a symbiotic relationship

25:17

um and and so there's a lot to learn if

25:20

you're thinking about buying a franchise

25:22

absolutely you could you could it's not

25:25

hard to find a business but it's

25:27

difficult to find the right business

25:30

correct well and that's where services

25:33

from you know individuals like yourself

25:35

are so hugely valuable right if if I had

25:39

done it differently and gone out and

25:41

sought out a coach to help me figure out

25:42

a business to start I'm guessing that

25:46

you would have started by really

25:47

understanding me what I'm good at what

25:48

I'm not good at what I'm willing to

25:50

admit I'm not good at so that you know

25:52

what direction to pull me towards or

25:55

direct me towards and what to stay away

25:56

from I'm not going to be good at a high

25:58

detail business because I'm more of a

26:00

strategic thinker I need the detail

26:02

support for example so that's where that

26:05

becomes very important

26:08

um in in what you do and and much

26:10

appreciated yeah well thank you for that

26:12

yeah yeah

26:14

so I this is so great and I think we

26:17

could probably talk for another couple

26:18

of hours uh but with time uh being

26:22

crushed on us here yeah

26:24

I just wanted to ask you one last

26:26

question sure um is there any kind of

26:28

myth that you could bust about

26:31

franchising or sales or Sandler Sales or

26:35

and what myth could you bust right here

26:38

right now wow

26:40

um

26:41

well I could bust a couple of them

26:43

probably I think that uh

26:46

franchising is absolutely a viable

26:48

option for anybody wanting to start a

26:50

business especially if you've been down

26:53

the road you've got some career

26:54

experience and you don't want to have to

26:55

take the time to you know start it from

26:57

scratch my first business with literally

27:00

three of us back in I shouldn't remember

27:04

when it was uh

27:06

1995 90 probably 1995. we each laid 50

27:10

bucks on the table because it was a

27:12

hundred and fifty dollars to incorporate

27:13

a business in Kent County Michigan and

27:16

and we filled out the application turned

27:18

it in and we're like okay

27:20

how do we figure it out and literally we

27:23

had we just had to learn it we just had

27:25

to create it from thin air and that was

27:27

that was a lot of long nights and so

27:31

you know I would look into franchising

27:33

because there are so many opportunities

27:36

out there uh you know training coaching

27:39

Consulting gig might not be the right

27:40

thing but there's literally hundreds and

27:43

hundreds of other potential

27:45

opportunities I think from a Sandler

27:47

perspective

27:49

you know in what we do there's probably

27:51

two things one Sandler gets a bad rap

27:53

sometimes because you know we talked

27:55

about you know you ask a lot of

27:57

questions and you listen you don't

27:58

necessarily lead with product feature

28:00

benefits and a lot of people will say

28:02

well I didn't like Sandler because you

28:04

never tell the client what you do which

28:06

is totally false

28:09

you certainly tell them what you do but

28:11

you want to collect a lot of information

28:13

first so that's a myth I'd bust

28:17

um uh in in that vein so yeah a couple

28:21

myths there I would bust for you I love

28:23

that yeah well thank you so much

28:26

I mean your success at Sandler is

28:28

awesome I just love uh have you went

28:32

from being the client to you know being

28:35

a master franchise owner yeah I mean

28:38

being the guru here so thank you so much

28:40

you bet thank you appreciate your time

28:43

today Tom

28:45

I will see you on the golf course soon

28:47

yes you will yep we'll talk soon be well

28:50

take care

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