[speaker001:] Say all the right things and. Thanks Richard erm
[Richard:] a copy of the C V plus the form filled in where
[Rod:] Okay
[Richard:] appropriate. Obviously
[Rod:] . That's
[Richard:] Yeah.
[Rod:] great. Yeah saves a bit of writing and er and you'll always get a bit more detail on it can't you?
[Richard:] Yes.
[Rod:] Er while I'm having a look through this er Richard er over there we have erm a selection of the product selection of the product which erm we discussed briefly on the phone.
[Richard:] All right.
[Rod:] So erm er if you wanna look through that I'm no doubt. There's a signature coming up is there? erm certainly the average cost of an ad if you took the most expensive and the least expensive across all of those products would come out somewhere in the region of six hundred pounds.
[Richard:] Per ad?
[Rod:] Per ad.
[Richard:] But what size ad? I suppose that depends on what it goes in.
[Rod:] Well once again if you look at the er er if you look at the full page which costs nine hundred pound on a on a golf club score card and you look at the full page in the A five booklet
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] which will cost a thousand pound and there's only black and while. If you look at a full page when they happen, they don't happen all that often on a schools portfolio which costs two thousand two hundred pounds, you'll see there's there's already three different prices
[Richard:] Yeah.
[Rod:] er across three different products. Because they're all different sizes and they're all erm
[Richard:] The artwork costs and set up costs and so on.
[Rod:] Right. So what we say is that if you took all of our products all our ads they would be somewhere in the region of six hundred pounds. Now if you took a medical practice booklet they range from three hundred and ninety up to twelve hundred. So the least, if fact I I'm fairly safe in saying, that the least commission you can earn on an ad, providing it's in our you know you're taking it from our price system not discounted it,
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] would be somewhere in the region of a hundred and fifteen pounds. So you will go in you will never come out of a an advertiser with less commission than that.
[Richard:] Right.
[Rod:] Unless you have discounted it and you give two or three pounds away when you do that.
[Richard:] Right.
[Rod:] But in the main we are looking for er somewhere in the region of er hundred and eighty pounds per per per deal and we're looking for one of those a day average.
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] Our top people earn top money because A they're not satisfied with one deal a day.
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] Er we say that a an assignment should take two to three weeks for instance.
[Richard:] An assignment being one complete
[Rod:] One complete product yes. We're er I was asked a question earlier on today erm how many assignments will I be looking after in any one time and I just said one. And he only, you start one finished it and then go onto another one.
[Richard:] There's no overlap you have to complete one?
[Rod:] Well if you yeah. There are one or two instances where you can go back. If there's erm For instance I've had a situation where on a medical practice booklet because we er hand back a hundred pound for every full page that we we gain in the medical practice booklet, er it's an encouragement for if we're just a quarter of a half page short, er for the practice to say you know we'll get for another hundred quid we'd all we need to do is make a couple of phone calls and threaten erm [LAUGHTER] one or two of our patients []. And that happened with me. I set up a solicitor two months after I'd finished the the assignment. Because they phone me up and said, Look we needed another half a page in this for us to get another hundred pound. I said yes. And they said, Well I've got a solicitor who's interested now. New pa new relation
[Richard:] Oh I see the doctor right I'm with you now
[Rod:] The doctor did a bit erm arm twisting.
[Richard:] The doctor the doctor's patient is a solicitor n whose obviously he can now advertise anyway.
[Rod:] That's right they can now. That's made a lot of difference.
[Richard:] I can imagine yeah.
[Rod:] And so I went back two months after. In fact I'd come off the road. I was already doing this job and so I went back because there they were going there there's a solicitor going to earn me erm er somewhere in the region of a hundred and seventy pound commission. So I
[Richard:] Mm.
[Rod:] I went back. It wasn't very much to go back. So you can do that but in the main we try not to have any loose ends on er an assignment. But that's really in the hands of the individuals that er are selling the advertising.
[Richard:] Mm.
[Rod:] Erm er and it's the way that we do it that's made it made it very comfortable to go into something, like most of the people that come to see us and work with us, they've never sold never been involved in advertising let alone sold it because erm
[Richard:] I've been on the other end I've had people come sell it for to me.
[Rod:] Sure. And so have I. I mean if I look back over my career with American corporates where I've bought advertising it actually runs into millions of pounds. Where I've been involved with the marketing groups to to bring advertising. You see
[Richard:] Well I've done I I've sold advertising I suppose but by blackmail. [LAUGHTER]
[Rod:] [LAUGHTER] That's it. [] What in your buying and selling guide?
[Richard:] When I yeah when I was commercial manager for er one of the things that I was given the job to do was to sort out the company's buying. Because when I joined them they had eight branches
[Rod:] Right.
[Richard:] and when we parted company they had forty. But they had gone up to forty eight through acquisitions. Er my biggest downfall was that the guy that employed me who was the eldest brother of the two that owned the company got killed in a bloody erm riding accident
[Rod:] Oh right yeah.
[Richard:] and his younger brother had always hated me because Tom had always ranted down his throat, Why can't you sell and organize things like Richard does?
[Rod:] [LAUGHTER] Oh dear me. []
[Richard:] [LAUGHTER] It's all very well when he's alive. []
[Rod:] It doesn't it's not good for building up relationships.
[Richard:] No. So erm but of course we had er a buying and selling guide if you like.
[Rod:] Mm.
[Richard:] Now the selling guide er was an innovation to Tom [phone rings] bring some, all right carry on
[Rod:] Hello... All right I wonder if you could ask him if he'd like a coffee or tea and erm er er just wait for me. Thanks... Oh Mike okay yeah.... Oh wonderful that's good news thanks very much good bye.
[Richard:] And one of the things we set out to do was to bring some stability to the industry because everyone was trying to carve prices up.
[Rod:] All right.
[Richard:] And to be honest the cheapest price doesn't necessarily win
[Rod:] No.
[Richard:] er business anyway. So because we were the largest we took we in conjunction with people like Redland Roof Tiles and er
[Rod:] Sure.
[Richard:] the majors
[Rod:] Another my clients [LAUGHTER] as well.
[Richard:] We said look we'll bring out a price guide
[Rod:] Mm.
[Richard:] but we ain't gonna pay for it.
[Rod:] Oh no no.
[Richard:] So you guys
[Rod:] Get it sponsored by the
[Richard:] Yeah. You guys are gonna sponsor this but it will bring the the trade buying price, not the retail because that's there isn't there's no such thing in in as a retail price for that sort of industry. Erm up then you can turn round when the smaller people come and say are carving up the price, you can turn round and say, Oh no they're not that's the price and that's the price.
[Rod:] Yeah right okay.
[Richard:] And that you know so er but it's only well blackmail.
[Rod:] Yes er I think we've all er sold something er in advertising er er remotely related to selling er at some time or other in our careers. So let's er let's er er get er the proceedings on a on a not formal footing but laid out what we're trying to do today. Erm I suppose you could say almost fifty percent of the erm er discussions took place on the phone. Because if if we er if we don't hear a bit in the background and we don't hear the style in the individual er on the phone then we won't invite them to to come and have discussions with us. The reason for that is that we do all our selling on the phone. In in
[Richard:] Of course.
[Rod:] that respect. Er I I emphasize that very quickly because a lot of people have been involved in all sorts of sales environments and market places erm still have their traditional habits. And that is you don't mention the price or anything else until the last possible minute. Here we tell them absolutely everything on on the phone. Because if you leave anything to chance they'll blow you out when you get face to face. And you can chase your tail an awful lot
[Richard:] Oh people are very wary of advertising
[Rod:] Sure.
[Richard:] selling so they wanna know exactly what they're letting themselves in for.
[Rod:] So well no yeah, is it worth seeing this guy? Is the product you know even a description of the product that we're that they're going into er will be suffice on the telephone, they don't have to see these these these er items if they're described in in er in enough detail. Er so I get that out of the way er fairly early on. But what we're trying to do today here Richard is three er er three things. First of all you and I have to agree that is the sort of company that er er you could be involved with er and the other way around. Er seco and once that sort of I suppose the biggest hurdle's out of the way once that the other two become fairly simple. Erm that is er we agree on which company we might feel er you're going to be happiest in environmentally terms. Because whatever er product area you work in then you're doing the same thing as everybody else is.
[Richard:] Mm.
[Rod:] Er the sl the pitch is slightly different because you're describing a different product and what the benefits are. But in essence we're selling advertising to all of those products. And we now have somewhere in the region of abo about a hundred and seventy five to a hundred eighty sales consultants throughout the U K. All doing the same thing with all with the same earning potential. And the after that er second decision's made is when. And as far as we're concerned we're happy to er for people to start immediately they think they are available. And that's the sort of decision we make er here. I don't hide behind a regret letter. Nobody walks out of there without me saying, Yes it's good for you and er here's a date erm you know for where where the training course starts. Okay?
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] So erm first of all for for we've had a cha chat for about ten minutes erm I have no problem in thinking you can do this job. Because we do send people erm er sorry send, we ask people to come on to a training course which we fully expense.
[Richard:] Mhm. Which
[Rod:] So
[Richard:] is held where?
[Rod:] At.
[Richard:] Right.
[Rod:] Whichever depending on which company you go in sometimes there are a couple of days out in the field plus three days in head office. Some are just three days in head office and straight into assignments because they feel that er we have selected individuals for the right environment. Er and but others just feel they want to do it that way, other companies. But all have a fully expensed training course. Some are held every other week and some are held every week depending on the size of the company. So er I I have no problem with that. Erm having er decided that, let me ask you if you of what you've seen so far, and I haven't gone into er whichever product er do you thing this is do you think you could erm get into the habit of selling advertising and earning fairly substantial commission. Because in our field we're we're by far the biggest and the best in in terms of support and finance.
[Richard:] I'd have to ask one well I'd like to ask one question first. I I feel
[Rod:] Well ask
[Richard:] I can do
[Rod:] Okay.
[Richard:] like. Where so far have you got to in, not recruiting at this time, but actually attempting to sell advertising in this particular area. And the reason I ask that obviously I don't want to go knocking on doors where somebody's already tried
[Rod:] Oh
[Richard:] er without having prior knowledge of the fact that somebody's
[Rod:] We've
[Richard:] failed.
[Rod:] yeah we've bri er Howard when he started this company gradually expanded from Blackpool. He he or I should say. Er what he didn't do which is which is very sensible and what has failed for other companies is that he didn't decide this is a good idea I'll have somebody in Newcastle and somebody in Edinburgh and I'll have somebody, in other words he gradually built the whole of the business out until he reached London by which time he he'd a hell of exp er a lot of experience and knowledge about this thing's going. We've been selling in this area fairly consistently across estate agents
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] cos that's the only the only companies that we dealt with er up to four years ago. Er and there're certain categories that'll always go into estate agents won't go in medical practices won't go go on golf courses and won't go in schools.
[Richard:] Yeah.
[Rod:] So they all have their own niche of advertisers. Some legitimately if they wanted to could gain business from going in all of them. There are cert certain categories of business that we've built up over the year. A builder could go in all of those.
[Richard:] Possibly a solicitor now they're allowed to advertise.
[Rod:] And a solicitor. Erm er accountants can all legitimately go in all of those products. So there are certain categories we know. And this area is a gold mine for us. We got we've got I could have twenty five sales execs sitting er in the Newca Tyne and Wear area put it that way on on across those products and they wouldn't even bump into each other. Because they all have if you like every location business location will have their own favourites who they're going to recommend that we approach. The golf course is very selective. I mean there's only five ads can go on on er each of their products. Fourteen ads in estates er same for schools about average of fourteen in medical practices. So we're only looking for fourteen businesses on each assignment. Somewhere in that region. Less on on er less unless unless we split full pages and go into halves and that brings in the same sort of revenue thereabouts but just happens to spread
[Richard:] and
[Rod:] so to answer your question I would there's no problem
[Richard:] Right.
[Rod:] of how many people
[Richard:] and and and the second part to that then is
[Rod:] Yes.
[Richard:] in each of those categories how often does it get repeated?
[Rod:] Er the product is resold every two years.
[Richard:] Right. So you go into the guy you sell it to him and then you've lost you've got for two years you can do nothing with that person.
[Rod:] Oh in fact you're not even you could never have to go back to that same place but depends on where what you're doing at the time that assignment comes up for reselling. If you're if you're available erm then coincidentally you would go into that, er but no. The relationships you build up with our clients and the advertisers, with the clients you're working in their own er their offices for three weeks so you get to know people.
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] With the advertiser you meet him once never see him again. Because literally you're only going in to get his contract his money and his copy and off you go. Thanks very much I've just earned my commission. It's the relationship between the client and the advertiser which goes on for the next two years.
[Richard:] Yeah. When he says
[Rod:] But for the sales
[Richard:] bloody waste of time this was I didn't get any business out of it or er I did well out of this
[Rod:] No er well well if he's got any sense I I always tell the advertiser I said now the adv I said you as the advertiser have got to keep worrying you may have to chivvy them up. What am I gonna get out of this. But in essence what we're doing is putting your business card in front of somebody for two years.
[Richard:] Mm.
[Rod:] But I'm I'm not here to teach you how to to do [LAUGHTER] the pitch []. The training course would certainly do that.
[Richard:] Right.
[Rod:] Erm I mean if you're if you feel that I don't I don't think you'd have any problem doing this it's your it's your it's the
[Richard:] No I just thought
[Rod:] where you come from as well.
[Richard:] Pardon?
[Rod:] Where you come from can sell just about anything in the home counties. If you're a home counties man you can sell anywhere in the country.
[Richard:] Oh I see yeah. [LAUGHTER]
[Rod:] If you get my [LAUGHTER] if you get my drift [].
[Richard:] Funnily enough we always say erm that within the structure of when I was a regional manager and there were four of us erm Andrew who lives in Manchester
[Rod:] Mm.
[Richard:] said Richard he said, I don't know how you do it in London he said, if they ever asked me to come down here he said I would die.
[Rod:] Yeah.
[Richard:] He said I would I would not be accepted.
[Rod:] Home home counties people like me could go anywhere.
[Richard:] Mm.
[Rod:] Richard erm if I now got to the stage of saying if if you had a choice, cos I have a luxury here of six companies er most recruiters just have one job for one company.
[Richard:] Mm.
[Rod:] I've got number of jobs for a number of companies. So it's unusual and I get told off for giving you a choice but what do you think? I I what I want to do is make, if people going into selling advertising for the first time and most people are let's face it
[Richard:] Mm.
[Rod:] er it is important for me to get the environment right. Now I I've got I've got two or three in my own mind but erm that could you know
[Richard:] At at first glance I would probably decide I'd I'd actually enjoy the golf club one but I'm sure it doesn't pay as much money. And I'm sure I wouldn't get as good a rewards out of that personally and satisfaction as I perhaps would I don't know.
[Rod:] Well there there are three there are three organizations or companies there that I think you'd be er happier in especially going out for the first time and also er your style.
[Richard:] Mhm go on.
[Rod:] Well
[Richard:] Let let me
[Rod:] certainly golf clubs would be one of them
[Richard:] Mhm
[Rod:] er schools and medical. I wouldn't put you in er around and even though you've had experience strangely enough in the roofing industry and we get a lot of roofers in advertis er er how how do you which would you have chosen.
[Richard:] Erm
[Rod:] Strangely enough golf clubs actually you you can earn more money.
[Richard:] Can you?
[Rod:] Yeah. It's probably a harder sell because it's four colour and it's nine hundred pound for a little space like that but they're doing quite well. But the schools
[Richard:] But is that because a new innovation you see. I mean I have
[Rod:] Yeah we've we've had six months
[Richard:] you're breaking new ground.
[Rod:] We are breaking new ground here.
[Richard:] Because they've always let's be fair they've always been around so somebody else has been doing them.
[Rod:] Eagle Golf Promotions is the is the largest er a sales consultant has just er finished er my club off. You know finished their done their card and he did that in about er four da er five days it was. The card.
[Richard:] What from Eagle or?
[Rod:] No no no Eagle you see Eagle Prom er Eagle Promotions charge clubs for their cards as well as keeping the advertising money.
[Richard:] Oh I see.
[Rod:] We keep the advertising money and the cards are free of charge. Well
[Richard:] So
[Rod:] in fact all of that product there is free of charge. But I what I need is any anybody
[Richard:] So on there you've got er oh I wouldn't know what that adverts to do with
[Rod:] What's that one? Oh the cards. But that was if I remember rightly that was a mock-up.
[Richard:] Oh [LAUGHTER]
[Rod:] [LAUGHTER] If you take the real thing. []
[Richard:] I was going to say I
[Rod:] Yes that's that's
[Richard:] where to buy a ball.
[Rod:] Those those are nine hundred pound page per year for two years.
[Richard:] Nine hundred pounds per year?
[Rod:] Yep.
[Richard:] And if you sign them up do we get the commission for the
[Rod:] For the first year only.
[Richard:] For the for the first year. We don't get any paid anything in the second year?
[Rod:] No. Because all our production costs all our commissions come out of the first year. Second year is actually where we make money.
[Richard:] So you do an three hundred pounds. That's nine hundred
[Rod:] Yeah.
[Richard:] You'd get thirty percent.
[Rod:] Nine hundred and you would get thirty percent. So you can work out that for for erm for that card which has got three full pages. Then he was doing that's the planner he was doing the card at the same time erm Anyway that's the there's the that's the the, but I need to make a decision
[Richard:] I'd I'd quite I'd quite enjoy the golf club one.
[Rod:] Right.
[Richard:] Er I just wondered what satura saturation you've had golf clubs
[Rod:] Oh we've only just started them.
[Richard:] up here.
[Rod:] Yeah.
[Richard:] So you'd be against Eagle as the main competitor if if they've got them already
[Rod:] Oh yes we're we're knocking we're we're knocking Eagle.
[Richard:] Because I would've thought most golf
[Rod:] We we would concern
[Richard:] clubs have already got them.
[Rod:] Yes they have but they haven't got them for free. They've saved my club four and a half thousand pound a year.
[Richard:] In the cost of their cards.
[Rod:] Yes. And they they can soon put that somewhere else to er good use.
[Richard:] And what area would I be restricted to?
[Rod:] Okay what I what I need before
[Richard:] All right okay
[Rod:] I go into any more detail are we fixed on the golf club area? You only go in one you see. But the other one I would've er suggested would've been the schools.
[Richard:] I must admit I've never seen anything like that on schools.
[Rod:] No but that's
[Richard:] But before
[Rod:] also new.
[Richard:] be before we go into that though
[Rod:] Mm.
[Richard:] you would give the leads is that right as I read this?
[Rod:] Yes we we s
[Richard:] You say you got to go to that golf club or you've got to go to that school.
[Rod:] That's right. Yeah you have no
[Richard:] Because we've set up a deal with that school
[Rod:] Yeah.
[Richard:] for a brochure.
[Rod:] Our marketing our marketing er group has gone around to all the erm er the clients within that market place erm, well not all of them at least they're gradually going round signing the contract to take the product. That's that's done already. We you just get a phone call from us that says, Here's here's your next assignment. We guarantee continuity of assignment.
[Richard:] Within within which area would that be? How
[Rod:] Well
[Richard:] large an area?
[Rod:] well erm we we pay thirty percent commission up to a hundred miles away from home.
[Richard:] Right.
[Rod:] We pay thirty five percent if it's more than a hundred miles away from home. But the whole point of recruiting in a geographical area like this is we don't want we don't want to send people erm er miles away from their home if we can avoid it.
[Richard:] Mm.
[Rod:] Erm I
[Richard:] I just I just try to work out whether there must be a bigger concentration of schools in this area than than golf clubs. But whether you'd manage to sign all schools [LAUGHTER] I'm not so sure [].
[Rod:] Oh we we've just sent out a six thousand mailer. Six thou a mailer to six thousand schools in addition to the ones we've already got signed up. That would not be a problem. Let me tell you you do not have to worry about continuity of assignment. And all we say is that we pay extra commission if we send you away but it is against er [LAUGHTER] against [] our principle and even er economics to send people that far away.
[Richard:] Right okay.
[Rod:] I I have to say the top earners of course ask for those further away. That's where they make their money.
[Richard:] Yes.
[Rod:] Or make their extra money.
[Richard:] Mm.
[Rod:] Two things that make a people a top earner here of course is one of them one of them in addition to graft, is that they won't sit back and sign up one deal and be very satisfied in a day.
[Richard:] Mm.
[Rod:] They will want to go on and do two or three.
[Richard:] Mm.
[Rod:] They'll also have no compunction whatsoever in taking
[Richard:] Well let's fair on the golf
[Rod:] the thirty five percent deals.
[Richard:] On the golf club one if you've really got your finger out and you're known
[Rod:] Oh
[Richard:] well enough you could you could do one in day.
[Rod:] I'm a I I I'm an er avid golfer, you I didn't say a golfer because that meant I could play, erm but I wouldn't put me on the golf clubs.
[Richard:] You wouldn't?
[Rod:] No. I could s I I even though it might make me a lot of money because I know that if I got if I made a dozen phone calls and didn't get any deals I'd be out there wanting play the er I wouldn't trust myself.
[Richard:] I wouldn't take no no I wouldn't take the golf clubs with me. [LAUGHTER]
[Rod:] Right okay. But I need to sorry I need to make. Are we are we going for schools or colleges? Now if if the management at home heard me doing this of course er giving you a choice but I believe in it.
[Richard:] And you eat the tape afterwards. Erm... you've put me on the spot I don't I don't I've really I've really got no preference on them.
[Rod:] Right well I let's I I I would go for schools if I were you.
[Richard:] Mm okay fair enough.
[Rod:] I mean cos it makes a difference the pack I bring out.
[Richard:] Yes sure.
[Rod:] That's that's why I'm putting you under pressure.... Right this is for you to take away. I'm going to ver the well the information I impart now is in brief Richard because they will certainly cover it in a lot more detail when you get to the er training.
[Richard:] Okay.
[Rod:] Let's get some samples er in front of you all right? I have to say once again that this, once again sorry I told somebody else this, this is the most attractive product we do I believe. The schools are seem to be able to make them look attractive because of the photography and things like that. And they are used to get bums on seats. Since the parents choice charter came out it is it is essential for all school, state opt-out grant maintained independent, to promote themselves. And that's why this has been so successful. Every assignment has a certain amount of documentation attached to it. Certainly when you arrive at the school they are committed by their contract to provide you with a desk office and and telephone facilities for two to three week or the duration of the assignment. But we we agree that after three weeks we should be should have completed it. Erm the advantage that schools has er have sorry, over the other products, is that if you went to a medical practice you may have four or five doctors to help you out. If you went to an estate agent you may if they're willing to er have one or two estate agent staff to help you out and if you went to a golf club you would be likely to have the pro or the secretary help you out. In a school you may have fifty to sixty teachers to help you out. And what I mean by help out is that one of the documents that we leave er when we sign them up to take the product is a list that so that looks something like this. And we ask them to bring together er list of the businesses which they are happy for us to approach on their behalf
[Richard:] Mm.
[Rod:] to support this folder. So all of those people there or most of them are likely to have been on a list that the school have recommended. They will form all sorts of categories too and the worst thing you can do in sa in er negotiating advertising er Richard is to prejudge anybody
[Richard:] Oh I can
[Rod:] who might come in.
[Richard:] Be completely wrong.
[Rod:] You'd be completely. I've done it myself I've said no that guy what would that guy want to go in there for. Except that, it was a butcher right? People moving in, this was in the medical practice, people moving in new er new er new first things you do is register with a doctor.
[Richard:] Mm.
[Rod:] And the the butcher was gaining a lot of business out of it. Because they said, Ah fine I know where to go for my meat. And they are associated with the with the doctor. So I prejudged.
[Richard:] we did that with the with the chemist. We phoned the chemist to find where the nearest and best doctor was when we moved to [LAUGHTER] Preston [].
[Rod:] [LAUGHTER] There you go you see. [] And that chemist er would've recommended probably
[Richard:] The one that gets his scripts. [LAUGHTER]
[Rod:] Absolutely right. Okay so this list will be waiting for you when you arrive at the the assignment. The important thing about that Richard is you still have to sit down and talk to them about these businesses. Get as much information as to why they have been put on that list. Because you'll use that when you contact.
[Richard:] Yes.
[Rod:] So don't ex just don't go straight into that list.
[Richard:] No no.
[Rod:] Okay. Other documentation you receive and certainly is this one and you can't do your job without that and that's a blank of of the layout. Okay? So that as you sell the the slots, first of all you want you want to be able to point out where which the slot is when you've er er finally sign the contract. You also need to cross off as you sell them.
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] Once again they will tell you precisely what you've gotta do on the er training course. But let me show you er just while we've got that open how prices relate to those slots. And also have got an example here of what the earnings are. Every assignment on schools has a basic target of five thousand pounds all right? And that's what you have to have up in your mind. It also relates to once you know that you've reached that five thousand pound, that you've got your thirty percent commission on all sales. Over five thousand pound we pay you another fifteen percent. There's a small one before that but I would concentrate on fifteen percent.
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] All commission er bonuses are paid at proof stage and I'll explain why in a minute. If you just look at some the er numbers here. One po er positions one to four are nearly five hun well say five hundred pound each. They're premium slots. Okay? And then we have two other erm pricing erm areas for those slots there. Okay I'll let you study this when you when you've gone all right?
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] Now some of the schools have asked for this spa, this by the way is belongs to the school. Some schools have asked for that to be kept for the sch er you know for them as well. If they take up that space you must offer up the back page. That's which is traditionally theirs.
[Richard:] Yep.
[Rod:] In fact I think I not sure whether it's this one. That's an example. And also the school got that company for us. But that's a two thousand two hundred page. The commission on that is a third. You can work that out for yourself.
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] You can't do the job without that.
[Richard:] No.
[Rod:] You get one of those for every assignment.
[Richard:] Okay.
[Rod:] Er a quick example down here. If you sold the whole of that product at non-discounted prices that's the revenue. And with schools it's very achievable. That is the earning in your two to three week period.
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] So if you took a six week period then you're looking at somewhere around four and a half thousand pounds worth of income. Very achievable. I emphasized just now about the extra five percent. I've put that in bold down there so that people understand that.
[Richard:] Right.
[Rod:] And of course that's substan makes that compounded up that makes it even more.
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] Okay? That's for
[Richard:] Yep okay.
[Rod:] you to take away. We will pay all commissions the following week. All right? Now we're one of the very few companies that will pay weekly commissions on a commission only basis. And the reason for that is that we ask you to do three things when you get in front of the advertiser having got his commitment. And I'll show you very quickly the documentation. All six companies have exactly the same contract. The only difference is and I hope you're not colour blind
[Richard:] Yes.
[Rod:] [LAUGHTER] Are you? Are you really? []
[Richard:] [LAUGHTER] Yeah. []
[Rod:] [LAUGHTER] Oh dear. [] What colour's that to you?
[Richard:] Oh no that's green you're okay.
[Rod:] I might have known.
[Richard:] No it's just the different different shades of green.
[Rod:] You're the first person I've said that to who said come back to me and said yes.
[Richard:] Yeah I am actually.
[Rod:] Those are both white I can assure you. But it what I'm saying is that they're all shades of colour anyway.
[Richard:] Yes.
[Rod:] But erm they they're they're erm colour coded.
[Richard:] But but I'll only have one anyway.
[Rod:] That's right.
[Richard:] So what whatever colour
[Rod:] I wanted to make sure that you see if if er at some stage, and people ask me this, if if we needed to transfer people
[Richard:] Oh I see.
[Rod:] between companies we don't have to retrain them on on
[Richard:] No.
[Rod:] the admin which does help. Only on the pitch.
[Richard:] Well my my problem only is is when the blues run into greens and the reds run into browns.
[Rod:] Oh when you get bleeds that's what we call
[Richard:] Erm I have been known to go out with one black sock on and blue sock on.
[Rod:] Oh have you really oh well.
[Richard:] [LAUGHTER]
[Rod:] I think I think we've all done that at some time or other. Certainly odd socks. Erm so but I wanted to point out two or three things on this contract that if you don't tell them on the phone about them before you get round there they they'll use it
[Richard:] They'll frighten they use it
[Rod:] The system tells us they'll use you'll frighten them off. And this is these are the sorts of things. You must tell them that you want to pick up a thirty five percent of the first year's payment. Whatever the payment is agreed. That is significant because that covers us for paying you commission. So we've already got that.
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] So we've got that so you deserve to have it as soon as possible after banking it. Er we need to tell them that we'll take the balance of the first year's payment through er er on proof, when we when they've got their proof on on the desk we will take the next the balance of the first year's payment through a banker's order. Banker's order they'll use if if you haven't told them that we want a banker's order signed. If there are two signatories on the cheque you've gotta have two signatories on the er banker's order. So you have to make sure both sure tho both of those people are there when you call. If you left this anywhere left it behind and came away it would be lost in the system you'd never see it again.
[Richard:] No.
[Rod:] And we take the second year's, this is a sales pitch, we take the second year's payment a year later. So if they say, Oh I can't afford that. Then you say no it's a three stage payment in effect.
[Richard:] Mm.
[Rod:] Deposit first year second year a year later.
[Richard:] So it would be a deposit balance of first year at proof stage and then erm
[Rod:] But obviously there's somebody at head office you will be going through that in much more detail.
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] Er one of the other things that we want of course. Now that's two things, contract and the cheque. The third thing we want to complete the deal is copy. Now most people that come to see us have never been involved in designing or writing ads. We you don't er nobody has to worry about that. If they had wonderful. I mean I had so I it did help. We will take whatever copy they have in existence all ready where they've advertised somewhere else. If they want us to juggle it around we will do it. If they want us to design a brand new one we will do it at no extra cost.
[Richard:] So the artwork is not a problem you have to get involved in.
[Rod:] Is not a problem.
[Richard:] Right.
[Rod:] If they say we've got co I haven't got copy. What's that gonna cost me? Nothing. I'll come round when we sign the deal after we've signed the deal I'll sit down with you for er er fifteen minutes however long it takes to decide on the copy. Then we will compose it as long as we've got some detail.
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] If you send all those er bits and pieces in at the end of the week we just ask you and you most people don't get this wrong. Is the commission claim sheet. Representative oh well there you go, consultant number every assignment has a unique number. We list the advertisers put all this detail down which once again will be er will be gone through. Er if people have registered for V A T there's a special V A T er sheet. Because some of course are they they reach the thirty six thousand threshold without any problem at all. I mentioned bonuses being paid at proof stage. Every two months a list comes out to the sales consultants to say these assignments have been proofed. All you have to do is look for your own number er if you if you have hopefully you've kept a record of the assignments where you've earned bonus and you can claim it as soon as that number is published. A lot of people leave it in
[Richard:] Can you can you just explain that bit again
[Rod:] Okay.
[Richard:] the bonus.
[Rod:] Right. Bonus all er all your thirty percent is are are paid as you declare it during the assignment week after
[Richard:] Ah sorry yeah so the fif the the five percent or the fifteen point seven and a half or whatever it is
[Rod:] Fifteen percent fifteen percent you claim only at proof stage. Because that's the next stage at which we get money.
[Richard:] Right okay.
[Rod:] That's the way you do it.
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] Okay. That's a fairly average week for a lot of people. That was this is one of mine. Er my last but one. Er that's the sort of figure that we're we need to be looking at.
[Richard:] Right.
[Rod:] Okay?
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] Just to show you. Er everything's colour coded.
[Richard:] Oh I see this is just for different names of the different in-house companies
[Rod:] that's golf that's schools, that's the one that you would use obviously. Same thing just the headings change a bit okay?
[Richard:] Yes.
[Rod:] That's all we ask you to do. The advertising the paperwork and that's how easy it is to make money. It's available to you. Is that for you?
[Richard:] Sounds very interesting I must admit.
[Rod:] Mm. Yeah well I I I obviously I would say this but er I think it's the best opportunity that people have for a career direction because we we've redirected a lot of people's careers in this aspect. And also we've I suppose re-launched people's er especially in the older bracket
[Richard:] Yes unfortunately
[Rod:] who who erm are consistently being told they're too old for things. We have no problem with that at all. In fact the more mature the better as far as I'm concerned. I would trust er you much more than er erm a twenty five or thirty year old out there to get on and do the job.
[Richard:] Yeah. I think er with experience becomes the the self-motivating part is something that er
[Rod:] Yes.
[Richard:] becomes inherent I think. Er there don't seem to be quite a lot of that any more.
[Rod:] No.
[Richard:] They've had it a bit too easy I think. [LAUGHTER]
[Rod:] Absolutely. Well the only thing that as far as I'm concerned erm er Richard is is when would you like to come on the training course?
[Richard:] Right. Erm I have as I say one other if you like self-employed business opportunity that I have been pursuing erm which erm I shall know after Tuesday of next week.
[Rod:] Right.
[Richard:] Erm which also sounds very interesting.
[Rod:] Yes. What market is it in can I ask?
[Richard:] Yeah it's erm er consultancy in er business travel.
[Rod:] Is that a franchise or or what?
[Richard:] No no no no you basically the company is pulled out of the ordinary high street travel business and set up a new concept in business travel.
[Rod:] Mm.
[Richard:] Therefore with no overheads.
[Rod:] Is this a new venture?
[Richard:] It was been going for two years.
[Rod:] Mm.
[Richard:] Erm but they er have only done it on a localized basis. Erm you earn commission by taking clients who might spend say a hundred thousand pounds on business travel, whether it be flights trains
[Rod:] Yes.
[Richard:] hotels whatever. And you sign them up or when I say sign them up they're er an account is opened
[Rod:] Mhm.
[Richard:] for them.
[Rod:] Right.
[Richard:] And you can show them of between an eighteen and twenty four percent saving on their business travel. [phone rings]
[Rod:] Oh I've got a suspicion I'm getting. Hello. Yep. Right. Thank you.
[Richard:] And erm obviously I've got a lot of contacts in the industry. Erm
[Rod:] Right.
[Richard:] and it's something that I I I like the idea of
[Rod:] Mm.
[Richard:] but again like this one I need to get to know the a bit more of the ins and outs of it. I've had a preliminary meeting with them and they've asked me to go back because they're interested in me.
[Rod:] Okay.
[Richard:] Er and that's been fixed up to go to Wilmslow in Cheshire next Tuesday.
[Rod:] Right.
[Richard:] I would like the opportunity of saying yes I am very interested. Er but I would like to reserve making er a decision until after Tuesday. Now whether that's a problem to you I don't know.
[Rod:] It would be a problem with certain people. I would say sorry in that case er you know I wouldn't you know. But with you I I'm happy to
[Richard:] It's not I'm I'm not pursuing any other P A Y E
[Rod:] cos I know I know which the safer bet is and that's all I'm going to say.
[Richard:] Sure.
[Rod:] I will make er er provisional with you.
[Richard:] Okay.
[Rod:] So that you can come. I will go through all the the bits and pieces here now and then it's all done.
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] If you phone me up and say, Yes I want to come it's all done.
[Richard:] Well that's what I was going to say if if we could make it that the training course came after next week and not next week then
[Rod:] No I'll tell you when the next course is for erm schools... seventh the week commencing the seventh of February. In fact which is just right isn't it?
[Richard:] Yes.
[Rod:] Yes?
[Richard:] Yeah.
[Rod:] Okay. So I'm gonna go through... right
[Richard:] And is that three or five days?
[Rod:] I've done I'll just go
[Richard:] Okay.
[Rod:] through in a minute it's three days. Yeah. Date is the twenty sixth yes?
[Richard:] Yes.
[Rod:] It is isn't it yes. Okay on Friday the seventh. This is on the assumption that everything is going ahead all right? Friday the six fourth that would be won't it?
[Richard:] Yes.
[Rod:] All right. Prior to this you would have given us a phone call okay?
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] But on Friday the fourth erm I'd like you to er if ev the best thing is to read through this
[Richard:] Okay.
[Rod:] Tells you all about where we do our erm oh er beg your pardon four day training of course I should've
[Richard:] Four days.
[Rod:] Four beg your pardon.
[Richard:] Okay.
[Rod:] Yes that's the trouble with having six companies. They all have slightly different er variations. Okay it's er this goes all into the detail. Erm the Fernlea I'll tell you what I've got here the Fernlea Hotel is where the course is held and you stay and the Fernlea is somewhere around here. There's a pier here which we've put on the new map erm and this is south promenade. Okay? Fernlea's somewhere around there if that helps you. We pick up, there's the details there. If you read that we need you to phone into that lady and it's Vivienne.
[Richard:] No.
[Rod:] Okay. I can you can't.
[Richard:] [LAUGHTER] I can't. []
[Rod:] Not yet. You come over on the Sunday evening because we do start prompt at eight thirty on the Monday morning.
[Richard:] Okay.
[Rod:] That's the hotel.
[Richard:] Right.
[Rod:] Okay. This is all for you to take away. If you please read that.
[Richard:] I will.
[Rod:] You phone me erm whatever your commitment is er to either us or the other people.
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] And then if you follow that procedure I'd be grateful.
[Richard:] Okay.
[Rod:] We'll pay your travel costs.
[Richard:] Right.
[Rod:] To we'll pick up all your tab but er we'll pay this separately.
[Richard:] Mhm.
[Rod:] Just need you to sign
[Richard:] Oh you want me to sign.
[Rod:] Yes just sign to say you know about that. There's a copy there for you.... The other thing I've got to do is take a photograph.
[Richard:] Oh god is my hair okay I've been out [LAUGHTER] in the wind you know [].
[Rod:] No it's all right. All I all I ask you to do is smile. [noise of camera] We get some great glum looking photographs.
[Richard:] Oh I I'm going to vet that [LAUGHTER]. [recording ends]