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"Dustings" 2-29: How to Sell Your Services to Property Managers
1 Playsin 18 hours
The guys welcome back Jordan Smith to the show to expand upon the last Dustings Episode in which we covered the market reset winter most of the country just came out of. In this episode we lay out the ways in which to get your company in front of the property managers who make the decisions, and how to sell your services to them
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Transcript
Introduction and Personal Experiences
00:00:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Here we go, Snow Jobs Nation. We are back again bringing you another dustings episode on the Snow Jobs Podcast. As always, I'm Steve. And you know who's with me?
00:00:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
Steve and Jeremy, and if we're doing dustings, you know who's also here with us? Mr. Jordan Smith, the storm equipment.
00:00:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
Jordan, how we doing?
00:01:01
Jordan Smith
That intro never gets old, guys. Appreciate it. I'm doing good.
00:01:05
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:01:05
Jordan Smith
Doing good.
00:01:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
How's everything?
00:01:07
Jordan Smith
I'm going to try to keep the energy up. i I didn't tell you this pre-show, but I'm like five and a half days into a fast right now, so haven't eaten for for a while here.
00:01:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh my God. How do you do it?
00:01:17
Jordan Smith
Yeah, I went on ah went on a fishing trip ah last week, and let's just say I ate a little more than normal, so trying to you know get back to baseline here.
00:01:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
So now you're starving yourself.
00:01:30
Jordan Smith
Yeah, I do a fast every quarter.
00:01:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
It doesn't sound healthy.
00:01:32
Jordan Smith
It's something I do. I just don't normally do i don't normally do seven days. i'm I'm pushing it this time. I've ever done is five. so
00:01:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
What do you do? Just drink water the whole time?
00:01:40
Jordan Smith
And electrolytes, yeah.
00:01:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
I could not do that.
00:01:43
RICK JAMES
Hmm.
00:01:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
I couldn't do it.
00:01:45
Jordan Smith
I don't like doing it, but I'm i'm doing it.
00:01:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
wouldn't I wouldn't make it through two days.
00:01:47
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:01:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
I honestly couldn't do it with the other job, with the A job. I couldn't do it. I need certain things.
00:01:54
Jordan Smith
The first two days are the hardest and then your body just thinks it's dying and it it just shuts off your appetite.
00:02:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, okay.
00:02:00
Jordan Smith
So yeah.
00:02:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay. ah ah My body might not notice. I've been dying for years. Pretty much status is a quo.
00:02:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, man. How was the fishing trip? Good fishing?
00:02:14
Jordan Smith
It was great. Yeah, it was really cool. It was up in middle of nowhere, Ontario, and we ended up getting a snowstorm when we were up there. I was up there with Smythe and my dad and a couple other older guys that that go on this trip every year.
00:02:23
RICK JAMES
boy
00:02:29
Jordan Smith
was my first time going. Steve's first time doing a fly-in fishing trip too. It was really neat. And then the fact that we got snow was kind of icing on the cake.
00:02:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good fish? We going to catch a lot of fish or no?
00:02:41
Jordan Smith
We did. Yeah, it was apparently, according to the guys that go up there every year, it was really slow fishing because the water was so cold because it was cold.
00:02:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good.
00:02:47
Jordan Smith
Obviously, was snowing and ice came out the day we flew in. But to me, I caught a couple hundred fish. I was pretty happy with that.
00:02:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow. All right.
00:02:55
RICK JAMES
is
00:02:56
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:02:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, if that's slow, I'd hate to see when they're biting.
00:02:59
RICK JAMES
Yeah, wow.
00:03:00
Jordan Smith
Well, it's, you know, these, these lake systems are huge and, uh, no one fishes them because you can't get to them. They're, you know, so far from civilization, there's no roads. There's no way to get there unless you have a float plane. So they don't get fished. And because they don't get fish, there's no pressure and the ecosystem's good. So there's just plenty of fish there.
00:03:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
Is that what you did? You float plane?
00:03:21
Jordan Smith
Yeah. Yep.
00:03:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh.
00:03:22
Jordan Smith
Yeah. So we, we drove up to Sioux Lookout, Ontario and then got on a float plane and and flew in like another hour flight from, from Sioux Lookout. So it was a hike away from civilization.
00:03:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
Now, in tip in typical Jordan Smith fashion, though, next year you got to kick it up a notch. You got to airdrop. You got to parachute in.
00:03:37
Jordan Smith
Yeah. Yeah.
00:03:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Get smithed with a parachute.
00:03:39
Jordan Smith
That'd be something. That'd be something.
00:03:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
That'd be great. I'd love to see that.
00:03:42
RICK JAMES
Huh.
00:03:43
Jordan Smith
But yeah, it was pretty cool. I got, I got a lot of cool, lot of cool pictures of, uh, You know, it's pretty weird to be fishing in a boat while it's snowing. Not ah not a real normal thing to do, but that was what we were doing. It was pretty neat.
00:03:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's pretty cool. I mean, who expects snow in the middle of May or end May, actually?
00:03:56
RICK JAMES
Uh-oh.
00:03:59
Jordan Smith
Yeah, not not many. It's not even up there. It's not normal. I mean, you know, we're we're a ways north, but not like we're in the Arctic Circle. So snow is not normal up there. I think actually this week up there, it's 80 degrees, which is a little warmer than normal, but it was definitely below average temperature when we were up there.
00:04:14
Jordan Smith
It was really good time though.
00:04:15
RICK JAMES
Wow.
00:04:15
Jordan Smith
Super fun.
00:04:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cool.
00:04:17
Jordan Smith
my might take Might take my boys up next year.
00:04:17
RICK JAMES
That
00:04:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
Very cool.
00:04:19
Jordan Smith
I i wanted to test it out before I ah bring kids along and I think they can handle it.
00:04:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
That'll be cool.
00:04:24
Jordan Smith
So yeah, they would.
00:04:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, they'd enjoy that, I'm sure.
00:04:26
RICK JAMES
would be cool.
00:04:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah Your kids seem like they're up for anything, so.
00:04:29
Jordan Smith
They are.
00:04:29
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:04:30
Jordan Smith
Yeah, they definitely are.
00:04:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
Very cool.
Evolution of the Snow Industry
00:04:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, so what are we doing tonight? On the heels of the last Dustings episode, we dropped that right before Storks, I believe it was, and that was all about us talking about the market reset winner we just had for most of the country.
00:04:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
We're back, and we're going to take it a step further for guys tonight. Now that the market is reset, customers and property managers you know are now remembering that they still need high-quality snow contractors, and they're actively looking to make changes for for their snow contractors where they had failures so uh that's what gonna tonight jordan's here with us and we're gonna talk about how to go about selling to these property managers that are looking for for new blood so on that jordan we'll get us started bud
00:05:15
Jordan Smith
Yeah, i thought it was thought it was cool. You know, obviously the the main point of the last episode was just to kind of talk through what changes in the snow economy when we actually get a good winter.
00:05:26
Jordan Smith
And it affects a lot of things, obviously, based on the entire last episode being about that. But it was cool. i had a bunch of people reach out after the episode and, you know,
00:05:32
RICK JAMES
Thank you.
00:05:36
Jordan Smith
lot of younger guys, guys just starting out, or maybe guys that have done mostly residential. And they said, Hey, love the episode. Really cool. You talk about, you know, pushing your renewals right now, but how do I even start to get an account? You know, how do I even start breaking into the commercial space? I've never sold to commercial you know client.
00:05:54
Jordan Smith
Um, you know they they All they hear about is all the brokers and and how you can't get accounts locally. and And really, that's just mostly the big box stores and the national chains. It's it's more it's more the locally owned properties or the properties that are managed by what I would say like highly highly legitimate property management companies that are the ones that make sense to target. Yeah.
00:06:17
Jordan Smith
you know to To be honest, the easiest thing to break into if you're just starting out is going to be locally owned properties. There's tons of locally owned businesses in every town, every market.
00:06:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cool.
00:06:26
Jordan Smith
That's what this country's founded on. Network with those owners and find them. But um I'm going to just run through kind of some of the things that we do with our team when we're prospecting. And then also some things that other contractors I've worked with have done to to make the the right points of contact. And then we'll talk through how to actually catch their attention in a positive way and hopefully actually get a chance to, you know, bid the account.
Networking and Relationship Building
00:06:51
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:06:51
Jordan Smith
So one tool that I really like that maybe not everyone's on or a part of, and it takes a while to to build up competency with it because it's different than the other social media networks, but there's a social media network called LinkedIn. I think you guys are both on there.
00:07:06
Jordan Smith
A lot of guys in the industry are, but a lot aren't too.
00:07:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:07:09
Jordan Smith
a a few of the guys I talked to, they they didn't think LinkedIn was worth it for and our our industry. Now, while I will say not a large majority of the snow industry is on LinkedIn,
00:07:20
Jordan Smith
a large majority of the real estate management industry is on LinkedIn. So if you're looking for property managers and business owners, LinkedIn is a really good place to do that. And LinkedIn search is pretty powerful. Like you can search for specific job titles in specific markets. You can search for specific property management companies.
00:07:40
Jordan Smith
And the cool thing about LinkedIn too, is when you find someone that has an interesting connection in your town or in your market or a property that they manage, they're also gonna be connected.
00:07:52
Jordan Smith
It's gonna show you who their other connections are. you can start going through their other connection list and start building a chain of like, you know this person manages this property, they're friends with this person, oh, they manage this other property in my town or my market.
00:08:04
Jordan Smith
And that can be a really good way to at least kick off knowing who the players are. Now I will say sending a cold message on LinkedIn is not always going to be the most effective way to actually get the business, but at least having an understanding of who's managing the properties and who these these managers are is a really good place to start.
00:08:23
Jordan Smith
So if you are going for some of the bigger properties, you know, if you're if you had dreams of doing you know bigger industrial stuff, big malls and that kind of thing. Some of the main companies that you're probably going to be looking for um biggest in the world is Cushman and Wakefield.
00:08:38
Jordan Smith
So Cushman and Wakefield manages, I think, like eight billion square feet or something ridiculous like that. I could be it could be wrong on that, but I think that's the stat I saw. Just below them is JLL, which stands for Jones Lang LaSalle.
00:08:52
Jordan Smith
Next is CBRE and then number four is Collier's. So there's a lot of other property management companies out there, but those are four of the biggest and they manage a lot of the buildings and pavement that are interesting to snow contractors.
00:09:07
Jordan Smith
So if you're gonna go you know outside of just the locally owned angle, that's a good angle to go at.
00:09:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
you
00:09:13
Jordan Smith
And and honestly, even if you don't get a response on ah a cold email, if you can at least get them to connect with you on LinkedIn, you can you can keep an eye on what kind of events they're going to. A lot of these Property managers will go to trade shows, they'll go to industry events. You know, there's a bunch of different, you know, just like the snow industry has Syma, there's associations for all these property managers that they're part of.
00:09:36
Jordan Smith
I don't know all of them. the four I'm familiar with, and I don't even remember what the acronyms stand for, so don't ask. Well, you can look them up on Google.
00:09:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Thank you.
00:09:45
Jordan Smith
There's BOMA, IFMA, so B-O-M-A, I-R-E-M, and then N-A-I-O-P. And they all specialize in a little bit different type of property. Like I know N-A-I-O-P is gonna be more your industrial type property management. management Um, the other three are more similar to one another, but those associations, they put on events.
00:10:11
Jordan Smith
So just like we put on events in the snow industry, these associations put on events. Um, you can exhibit at these events. If you're a service provider, you can set up a booth and, you know, talk about your services there.
00:10:22
Jordan Smith
Otherwise it's a good place to just network and meet people.
00:10:26
Jordan Smith
Another good way, and honestly the way that I did most of mine early in my snow career, is local commercial real estate agents and brokers.
00:10:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. Absolutely.
00:10:35
Jordan Smith
So you see most of these buildings have signs out front with a lease, you know, for lease on them, there's a name on there and a phone number. You can call those people and and they are typically going to be more receptive to cold calls because They are sort of ah a layer separated from the actual building owners and property managers. And they, you can build a good rapport and good connection with them, they're associated with a lot of different properties, right?
00:11:01
Jordan Smith
And they're also always looking to provide value to the property owners that they manage for. And one of the ways they provide value is by giving referrals to service providers for all different types of services.
00:11:13
Jordan Smith
So if you if you can find a way to network with those agents, again, cold call is an option.
00:11:14
RICK JAMES
All.
00:11:18
Jordan Smith
Typically agents do answer the phone because their phone rings with random phone numbers a lot because they manage properties, right? It could be a tenant, it could be a prospect prospective client, whatever the case may be. Most of time you're gonna get them on the phone and that can be a good good strategy to get in. The other way is, you know if you have a local business or chamber of commerce,
00:11:41
Jordan Smith
There's a thing called BNI, Business Networking Incorporated, I think is what it stands for, but BNI groups or other chamber groups, a lot of the real estate agents and brokers will go to those events as well.
00:11:53
Jordan Smith
And they're typically very social people and they'll sit there and chat for hours.
00:11:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, is it the same way out out in Minnesota as it is here, Jordan, where most of the commercial real estate um houses are also have property management arms? Like they do both.
00:12:09
Jordan Smith
Yeah, yeah.
00:12:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
they They're separate companies, but they do both. Like we have here we have like McGrath Realty is also McGrath property management. um You know, Berkshire Hathaway has a property management arm. ah So all these all these realtors are also the ones managing the property. So that that is definitely something we do.
00:12:27
Jordan Smith
Yeah, yeah.
00:12:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
Definitely take care of the the real estate agents.
00:12:30
Jordan Smith
Yes, I would say on a local level, that is almost universally true. When we talk about like the Cushman and Wakefields and the JLLs, they're doing national portfolios.
00:12:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure. Mm-hmm.
00:12:43
Jordan Smith
So like, um the the the the bigger property management companies will work with a you know a real estate investment firm that's building industrial real estate all over the country and they'll they'll take the whole portfolio. Now, the difference between them and and like brokers in the snow industry is they typically procure, almost always procure services on a local level because every market is so different and every market has nuance, the type of tenants, the type of rent rates.
00:13:11
Jordan Smith
Like brokering on a national scale when it comes to to leasing out real estate doesn't work like it does in snow. and It doesn't work in snow either, right? We've proven that over and over.
00:13:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. Yep. yep
00:13:20
Jordan Smith
But the real estate industry is smart enough to know there's enough nuance to every market that they have to break that up.
00:13:21
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:13:27
Jordan Smith
So a lot of times if you get in touch with even the these huge companies that seem untouchable, like it's a local person that is working for them. And when I say local, they might be an hour and a half away or something, but You're not typically going to have a property manager in Kansas City managing a property in Minneapolis.
00:13:41
Jordan Smith
They're typically going to be local. But Steve, yeah, you're right. When it comes to non-national portfolios, locally owned companies, regional chains and that kind of thing, it it is typically going to be, you know, Berkshire Hathaway is a big company, but they have local agents.
00:13:58
Jordan Smith
Remax is another one.
00:14:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, I would. I mean, if you're talking about smaller guys that are looking to maybe they just starting to get into commercial or they they just they want to expand a little bit.
00:14:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
That is number one where I would go. Go to the commercial real estate that also does the property management and. you know, introduce yourself, ah you know, whatever, find out if they need anything from you as far as, ah you know, your capabilities or anything.
00:14:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
We'll drop off a packet to them if need be. But, you know, when we first started out, that's how we did it. And we just gotten good and did right by the realtors and, And they remember that. And they also they'll also usually ask you, like, we're around here.
00:14:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
What I've seen some of your work, like what properties do you currently do? And you tell them and OK, you know, I've seen that you you do good work, you know, and that it's kind of like a vetting process for them.
00:14:50
RICK JAMES
Thank you.
00:14:55
Jordan Smith
Yeah, exactly right. and that And that was kind of my last thing on the list of where to find the right people is if you do have existing commercial clients, use them as a reference, ask them if they know any other business owners in town.
00:15:07
Jordan Smith
Like if you're doing a good job for them, they're going to be excited to give your information out or to give you information for other business owners.
00:15:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, absolutely.
00:15:14
Jordan Smith
Jeremy, I'm curious, what's it what's it like up in Fargo?
00:15:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
I've,
00:15:17
Jordan Smith
It's kind of, you know, with Fargo being in the middle of nowhere, no offense, but it's probably a little different than it is in in like Minneapolis or New York bigger markets.
00:15:28
RICK JAMES
I mean, we obviously have our big national companies like most towns do for the chain stores and stuff like that. But we got some pretty big property management groups around here that, you know, we'll do quite a bit of work for one you know, so it's kind of the same.
00:15:45
RICK JAMES
I think it's by the same as what you're talking. I mean, we we have
00:15:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:15:49
RICK JAMES
mean Obviously, we have some local local local people too as well. So we got a mix of everything going on here. Same as you, I but i think. So it's pretty similar, even though we're in the middle nowhere, which no offense taken.
00:15:57
Jordan Smith
Yeah. yeah Yeah. Yeah.
00:16:03
RICK JAMES
It's just the way it is.
00:16:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
I will say referrals from existing customers that you have, like business owners talk, and those have been by far the the site. The ones we take off a referral where we get a phone call and they're saying, um Fox Ridge called us. you know We called Fox Ridge, said, who did you just know? They gave us you. have...
00:16:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
those have absolutely been our most profitable contracts because now we know they're already coming to us they were looking they were already told by whoever you know recommended us that has us that we are not going to be the cheapest in the room to expect to pay more and they have been by far a most profitable contracts
00:16:48
Jordan Smith
Yeah, that's that's how it goes a lot of times.
00:16:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
i always go in higher on those
00:16:51
Jordan Smith
Yep, absolutely. any Anytime you get a referral, I mean, not only is it gonna be a ah probably, ah especially if you're pricing all your work correctly now, they're gonna refer you to people who they know are willing to pay.
00:17:04
Jordan Smith
Because business owners and property owners, they know who the cheap people are.
00:17:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:17:05
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:17:07
Jordan Smith
And if you're not cheap, they're not gonna send them your info. um But the other thing with the referral is, you know, you just have such a higher likelihood of actually closing a deal because you're it's a warm lead at that point instead of a cold lead.
00:17:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely.
00:17:17
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:17:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep, 100%.
00:17:18
Jordan Smith
Right.
00:17:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Basically, if you can say you can take them on, you're going to get them. it's so
00:17:24
Jordan Smith
Right.
00:17:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's pretty good. But, yeah, that's been our most profitable by far.
00:17:30
Jordan Smith
The only other thing I'd say on this topic, and I know for a lot of the listeners, some of this stuff is obvious with, you know, the ways to find property managers, but, you know, some of the listeners here are just starting out. And that was some of the people that reached out to me is like, you know, people that have only ever done driveways. You know, one one guy that reached out, he he just started even plowing with equipment or with ah with trucks last year. Before that, it was like snowblowers. You know, it was he's really just starting up.
00:17:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:17:54
Jordan Smith
And some of the stuff that seems obvious is is not. And the thing I would say to anyone, whether you're established or not, like I'll guarantee you there's some highly established companies that probably could scale more, but they're probably not doing most of this stuff.
00:18:09
Jordan Smith
They're probably waiting for leads to come in. You know, a lot of, lot of companies in our industry are what I would call like inbound sales companies.
00:18:14
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:18:15
Jordan Smith
They wait for people to call them to go bid stuff.
00:18:16
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:18:19
Jordan Smith
You'd be amazed at how well you can do by being proactive because most contractors are not proactive. Like, Usually cold calling has a negative connotation, but um it's hard to find good contractors and ones that actually reach out and are proactive and provide solid pricing with solid structure on a short timeline.
00:18:39
Jordan Smith
it Like that differentiates you a lot cause a lot of these places don't even answer the phone lot of contractors don't answer the phone, you know? So it is a problem.
00:18:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's a problem.
00:18:46
RICK JAMES
Right.
00:18:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
That is rule number one. Always answer the phone.
00:18:50
Jordan Smith
Yeah. I tell people that all the time. I ah attribute a lot of my early success in contracting to the main feedback I got from customers is we hired you because you answered the phone and no one else did.
00:19:03
Jordan Smith
Like, it's as simple as that.
00:19:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm. Simple. It is.
00:19:05
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:19:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
a lot of times it is as simple as you answered the phone and we can't get anybody else on the phone.
00:19:06
Jordan Smith
and
00:19:12
Jordan Smith
Yeah. So then the the next question to me is, you know, once you get...
00:19:15
RICK JAMES
Thank you.
00:19:19
Jordan Smith
in the door or in the room or whatever the case may be or on the phone, ah what is the next step? you know How do you approach this thing? The last thing you wanna is in my opinion, it's just my opinion and I think it's right, but open to discussion. i think the last thing you wanna do is just start bragging about how good you ya are and selling yourself.
00:19:37
Jordan Smith
I think one of the best things you can do is to educate the ah potential customer on
00:19:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
hundred percent
00:19:48
Jordan Smith
how they should be considering procuring
Educating Property Managers
00:19:51
Jordan Smith
their services. You know, it's a lot of what we talk about on these dustings episodes, but what differentiates your company, why you're going to, you know, provide them the best service.
00:20:00
Jordan Smith
And I think one thing that people miss is that like one reason this podcast is great. One reason we have storm chase reason we have storm Academy is People outside of our industry don't really know what it takes to do the work we do, and they don't understand what it takes to do the work we do, and they don't know what good looks like.
00:20:19
Jordan Smith
And if they've never hired a good contractor, they've probably never seen what good quality work looks like. You would be amazed at how if you just spend some time, instead of selling, if you just spend some time educating a property manager or property owner on the benefits of best practices and why it makes sense for them to spend a little bit more money to to do things the right way.
00:20:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
hundred percent
00:20:43
Jordan Smith
You'd be amazed how receptive they are to that.
00:20:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
um percent
00:20:48
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:20:48
Jordan Smith
And, you know, for for me, one of the main angles in the early years was was liquids.
00:20:52
Jordan Smith
Obviously we're talking about chloride reduction and lessening property damage and all this stuff that that I've talked about on here before. That was a nice differentiator for us, but but even just something as simple as communication in storm and or or pre-storm or whatever the case may be um and transparency on, you know, how long it's gonna take to do their site and what type of equipment you're gonna put on their site and why you're gonna put that kind of equipment on their site.
00:21:18
Jordan Smith
Maybe you might think in your head some of these details, you don't you don't think these matter matter to property managers, but if you go in assuming they know nothing, not in a negative way, but if you go in assuming they know nothing and you start educating that way, and then you ramp your way up to you know the ultimate service level that you wanna offer them, you'd be surprised how many people say like, wow, no one's ever explained it to me that way before. And that is another very simple differentiator.
00:21:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely. no Education is the key. And a lot of these places, you'd be surprised, especially the local ones. A lot of these management companies are transient. The people don't last.
00:22:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
They burn out. They're managing too many different sites at once. And you I mean, we have one contract that... we've had for five years and we're on our sixth rep for the property management company.
00:22:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
We've never had one, a rep last two two winters in the place. So you know that they're not coming from a place of snow. They're making, you know, 25 bucks an hour maybe to manage properties.
00:22:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
They don't know the industry. They don't know what they're doing, but yet they're making decisions on what contractors to recommend to owners and boards. How are they, you know, how are they capable of doing that?
00:22:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
And I've found if I spend some time and say, hey, listen, you're new. Great. Let's go out to lunch. let I don't care about the grass. I don't care about the green stuff. I want to help you with snow.
00:22:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
What do you know? what What do you need to know? What do you want to know? And I don't put them down, but I'm like, this is more complicated than hiring a guy with a plow truck. You know, like you you mentioned RFP and they get a you get a blank stare.
00:23:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's, you know, okay. There's ah there's exhibit a This guy has no clue. Spend some time educating. That will work wonders for you. if you start telling them things that are going to make them smarter in their own circles, yeah that's that's ah that's a big one, like Jordan said. be ah Be very proactive with helping them educate, and you will forever be that guy. If they tell you...
00:23:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, i ask them what their pain points were last year. How did how did your contractors do? How did your snow guys do that you have and on your sites? What were they? oh Oh, well, we had a lot of shrub damage.
00:23:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
We had a lot of grass damage.
00:23:41
Jordan Smith
Yep.
00:23:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, was your guy not using treated salt? Like, oh, he was just, you know, you don't have to have that, right? You know, like, boom, there's our end. We use, you know, IBG magic. It's vegetation safe. It doesn't kill the the bushes. it doesn't kill the the first two feet of grass.
00:23:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
oh Oh, okay. Stuff like that. That just gets you in the door and gets them thinking. You know? That kind of thing.
00:24:05
Jordan Smith
Yeah. Well, and I think the other thing is if you can find a way, like maybe maybe one of the punchlines to this focusing on education and educating and and and teaching is is the the more value you can provide before you ask for anything, the higher likelihood you have of of landing that account.
00:24:26
Jordan Smith
And one thing that I've seen in my own company and and and others over the years is like a salesperson's natural instinct is just to to go in selling.
00:24:37
Jordan Smith
And what I've actually found is that the the less time you talk about anything related to selling, the better chance you have landing the account. If you like what the property manager or property owner cares about is their property.
00:24:50
Jordan Smith
They don't care about your company, at least not yet. They will once you work with them, but like they care about their property.
00:24:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
Amen. 100%.
00:24:56
Jordan Smith
They care about the value of their building, the the longevity their building, the safety around their building. So if you make it all about them and about their property, the the other stuff will naturally come.
00:25:08
Jordan Smith
And another thing, you kind already said it, Steve, but I think another thing that I hear from contractors, like ones that are using liquids or or ah using sectional plows or whatever the case may be, it's almost like they're scared to give away their secrets, their secret sauce.
00:25:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
um percent
00:25:25
Jordan Smith
Like, oh, what if I tell them and they tell other, you know, what if they tell their current contractor like, hey you should switch to liquids and sectional plows. like there's enough information out there between the internet and podcasts and AI and YouTube.
00:25:35
RICK JAMES
Thank you.
00:25:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
h
00:25:37
Jordan Smith
Like people know this stuff or they're going to know this stuff. So don't don't keep trade secrets thinking that it's gonna help you. Actually, the more detailed information you share, in my opinion, the more value you drive and the more likely you are to land the account.
00:25:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
No. 100%.
00:25:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
hundred percent Yeah, we tell them that.
00:25:52
Jordan Smith
And sure, maybe some property manager will tell their current contractor like, hey, I'm gonna keep you, but I talked to this other guy and he uses sectional plows and liquids and I want you to do that too. That's fine.
00:26:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
we We tell them you you need your contractor in this day and age. If you are looking for top top level service, they should be using live edge technology plows, which is going to put a lot less infrastructure damage because it's going to require a lot less salt be put down on your properties.
00:26:15
Jordan Smith
Yep. Yep.
00:26:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
So if that's what you're if if you're striving for the highest level of service possible, there's no debate like this is what your contractor should have. And a lot of guys aren't going to go out and do that because they're trying to do it cheap.
00:26:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
you know they're They're trying to cut corners, so I'm not worried about that.
00:26:29
RICK JAMES
Right. Yep.
00:26:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
you know that's that I can't influence anybody else's game. I just know that you know we're going to do it the right way, and you know a lot of guys in this area, though, are coming around, especially the younger ones that are that are seeing seeing the results.
00:26:45
Jordan Smith
Well, and the other thing is like the more the more educated the property managers are, the better it is for everyone because then they are going to ask the right questions when they're hiring people.
00:27:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:27:01
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:27:01
Jordan Smith
And when they ask the right questions, they're going to more likely hire a good contractor, even if it's not you.
00:27:01
RICK JAMES
yep
00:27:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
h
00:27:08
Jordan Smith
If they hire company B who is as good as you or almost as good as you, like that's good for you because now the bar is getting raised and the standards are getting raised. And then contractor Z who does not do a good job and is not legitimate, they're not gonna have a shot at that account in the future, which means you're in the running because it's in the right price range, right?
00:27:27
Jordan Smith
So there's just, I think this is an underrated and understated part of the process. and And I do think we take for granted how much we know about snow because we're in it and we live it and it's what we do.
00:27:40
Jordan Smith
I mean, these these people literally, most of them, and I'm not knocking them, like they're they're mostly smart people, but like they they have no idea. they Like they don't know a single thing about it.
00:27:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
No, they have no clue.
00:27:50
Jordan Smith
They just want their pavement cleared.
00:27:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nope.
00:27:52
Jordan Smith
But they don't know what good looks like. Like a lot of them drive on the site. I think it looks horrible. they're like, oh, guy showed up and did snow at five o'clock this morning. Sweet. I'm like, boy, it all the curbs are a mess. Like they didn't they didn't clean up after any cars left. The sidewalks still have ice on them. Like this is not acceptable. in prefer Well, they showed up and they did it. That's that's not what good looks like.
00:28:13
Jordan Smith
You got to help help them understand what good looks like.
00:28:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. 100%. hundred percent
00:28:16
RICK JAMES
I'm going to...
00:28:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely. But it's also what is the level of service on that property? Like what what was the RFP stating? yeah you know that's if you don't And that's one of the things we talked about on last week's episode with Billy and Mike was if you don't have, help them develop an RFP if they don't have one for a site. Help them develop an airtight. That's going to...
00:28:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
really that's going to really limit the low ballers because they're going to have a clear set of what they have to bid on and what the expectation is and it's going to hopefully keep three three or four contractors within 10 of each other so you you shouldn't have such big swings because you're apples to apples if you have a strong ah rfp and it's just it's better for everything but they didn't have an rfp then that level of service is open to interpretation
00:29:06
Jordan Smith
Totally.
00:29:08
RICK JAMES
All
00:29:08
Jordan Smith
Yeah. i mean, it's one of the best offer
00:29:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
You just said clear the snow. You didn't say when, where, how, you know?
00:29:12
Jordan Smith
yeah
00:29:14
RICK JAMES
right.
00:29:16
Jordan Smith
it's one of the best opportunities you can get as a contractor is to help develop an ah RFP.
00:29:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:29:24
Jordan Smith
Partially because you can probably position it to favor the type of service you offer. I know we had a lot of success in early years writing ah RFPs that required liquid pretreatment. That was a differentiator for us because in for a while, no one else in our market did liquid.
00:29:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
00:29:37
Jordan Smith
And that was ah that was a win for us. i mean Adam Hansen will tell you a hilarious story that happened one time. There was a ah ah company called Southern Energy.
00:29:48
Jordan Smith
I think they're based out of Georgia and they had a facility here in Mankato. When I say they had it, I think they sold it to someone else. So Southern Energy buys this facility from XL Energy and they're from Georgia. They come up here to hire a snow contractor and and we happened to get first shot at talking to them.
00:30:06
Jordan Smith
And, uh, They're like, well you know big company, we gotta take it to bid, but we have no idea what to even ask for. Can you guys help us? so we So we drafted the RFP and said, like you know we're gonna require live edge plows, we're gonna require liquids.
00:30:20
Jordan Smith
So when we actually go, Adam goes to sit down at this ah RFP meeting and the guy from Georgia's you know Southern twang, all right, first thing is we require liquid de-icing and live edge plows. And everyone in the room's like,
00:30:36
Jordan Smith
okay, I guess we're out then. And and we got the account, you know?
00:30:38
RICK JAMES
Yeah. so
00:30:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah Well, I mean, there's nothing wrong with that.
00:30:41
Jordan Smith
um Yeah, it's pretty pretty pretty awesome when you when you can get that opportunity. but But it's also, again, it's impactful. Even if you don't ah end up getting the account, that property manager will always remember like, oh this is a guy that helped me, you know, write a good contract so i can or write a good ah RFP so I can hire a good contractor.
00:30:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:31:00
Jordan Smith
And again, it it just raises the bar.
00:31:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
We're doing that right now for a customer that we're exiting. We're, you know, we're moving on from a site and they are, you know, obviously extremely happy with us. They're very upset that we're, we're leaving. But we did give them the 60 days notice a couple of weeks back and they actually asked us basically to hire their next contractor.
00:31:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
They want us to do the, yeah, they want us to do the interviews.
00:31:22
Jordan Smith
really
00:31:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
I said, I will i will not leave you hanging. Like, we will work with, you know, whoever to to make sure they hit the ground running and have all their their T's crossed and I's dotted and know what the marching orders are. But, yeah, they're like, we want you to be in on the interviews. We want you to recommend, you know, four contractors that, you know, we should have come in and sit down. And I told them, I'm like, the first thing I want to do with you guys, though, going forward,
00:31:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
um do this on you know do this three-year deal but we're gonna put it right in the rfp that you can you can fire for cause you know we can get out of this after a year um just in case they they're not up to the mustard but they don't have any of this in an ah rfp so i'm like we need to sit down for two or three hours and get all your people there and hammer out exactly what we want to say in an rfp as far as your scope of work your level of service And we get that hammered out for you before we leave. And that way you're in good hands going forward for the next 30 years. You don't have to worry about who your contractor is. You have everything spelled out.
00:32:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
You should be getting top quality guys looking at this.
00:32:30
Jordan Smith
Yep. Oh, that's exactly right. And that's the whole, that is the whole goal is to get there. And it it doesn't always happen on the first shot. But again, if you lead with, lead with educating and present yourself as an expert in the space.
00:32:44
Jordan Smith
um
00:32:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Answer the phone, do what you say you're going to do, and show up early. You know, we've never been late for an event there.
00:32:48
Jordan Smith
Yep.
00:32:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
We've handled everything for them be beyond a shadow of a doubt. and the They've been there 30 years, and there have been people that have been there the entire 30 years, and they said they've said multiple times, like,
00:33:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
we thought we had good snow contractors in here over the years until you guys got here. And then it opened a whole new world. Like, holy crap. Like they these guys have serious attention to detail.
00:33:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
And, uh, yeah, you know, it's great to hear it's a feather in the guy's cap, but you know, now they're not happy that we're leaving, but we're going to try and, you know, like we would for any customer we're going to do right by them.
00:33:15
Jordan Smith
Yep.
00:33:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
And, you know, we're going to make sure that the reputator, Hey, listen, they were great when they were here. they They changed gears a little bit. They left us, but they put us in great hands. They saw every step through their very professional company. They didn't just say, hey, see you later.
00:33:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
We're out.
00:33:41
Jordan Smith
yep
00:33:41
RICK JAMES
Right.
00:33:42
Jordan Smith
want And I think, you know, some of the specifics, I won't spend a ton of time on them because we already actually covered a few of them. But if if you can then get to a point in the conversation where if they start asking for specifics, like, you know, what kinds of things are we maybe not thinking about that we need to, I think an obvious one that most of them probably do know about a slip and fall liability. They're all pretty liability conscious. But
00:34:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm. Yep. Oh. Yep.
00:34:08
Jordan Smith
but What they maybe don't know is what it actually takes to help reduce the likelihood of that to the highest level. ah You can never prevent it completely.
00:34:19
Jordan Smith
It's not possible, but you can do things to help prevent it like pre-treating or pre-salting is one way.
00:34:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
yep
00:34:26
Jordan Smith
Being proactive, being on site, on time, on on a low trigger, zero tolerance type contract, which that goes back to the you know RFP. Like if if they put out an RFP saying they want a two inch trigger,
00:34:39
Jordan Smith
Well, then they're going to have two inches of snow on the lot. and And that just is what it is. Like they have to know what it means when they're asking for something. There's been so many times over the years that I look at a ah ah RFP and it says two inch trigger.
00:34:51
Jordan Smith
And I'm like, do you actually know what that means? Like, do you actually understand how much snow two inches is and how much snowpack that's going to turn into when we don't plow it?
00:34:53
RICK JAMES
Right.
00:34:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
but They got that two-inch, that ambiguous two inches, because 20 years ago they asked some guy with a plow truck, how many inches it has to be down before you can really drop a plow and plow?
00:35:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah Probably two inches. I'm telling you, that's where it came from.
00:35:13
RICK JAMES
Yeah, pretty much. Yeah.
00:35:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's got to be it.
00:35:17
Jordan Smith
And you still see it a lot, right? I mean, we we basically, not basically, we have completely adopted a policy at our company. If it says two inch trigger, we will either counter that and say, we don't offer that, or we just won't bid the property because it's not the type of property we're interested working on because By telling us two inch trigger, that basically means they're dictating our workflow too.
00:35:38
Jordan Smith
Because when we go through, we we do mostly route work, just like you guys, Jeremy.
00:35:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
00:35:41
Jordan Smith
Like if we have to skip past an account because we haven't hit two inches yet, that's really annoying and really inefficient.
00:35:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:35:47
Jordan Smith
And then guess what happens 10 minutes later after you pass their site? Hey, is there two inches yet? Can you plow now? Like, no, we're not doing that.
00:35:53
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:35:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yes.
00:35:54
RICK JAMES
Yep. Yep. They expect you to be there on two inches. Like we just got shit sitting around for them. No, you're on the bottom of the list if you're even on our list.
00:35:59
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:36:03
Jordan Smith
The same thing with clients who want to be de-icing on call. Like I only want you to de-ice when I call you for it.
00:36:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
yes
00:36:09
Jordan Smith
It's like, oh great. Now everyone's gone home for the night. Everything else is done. Now you're calling me at 10 AM asking me to salt.
00:36:13
RICK JAMES
Ah.
00:36:15
Jordan Smith
Like, no, we're, we, we dictate when we service and that's for your safety and the wellbeing of your property.
00:36:17
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:36:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
100%.
00:36:19
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:36:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
And just a liability aspect.
00:36:22
RICK JAMES
Great professionals. Okay.
00:36:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like, your ear you're letting somebody else dictate how and when you de-ice?
00:36:30
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:36:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like, what if they don't come in, you know, and they didn't get there for six hours and somebody's there, you know, two hours before them and slips? Like, who's who's taking the liability on that?
00:36:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
You better be real clear in the contract that it's on them somehow, and hopefully you're in a state that is rational in the court system.
00:36:41
Jordan Smith
Yep. Right.
00:36:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
We'll understand that. Because in New York, that going fly.
00:36:54
Jordan Smith
Another big one that we've had good feedback and traction from, and again, I just assumed that this was normal, but it's not, and that is explaining to property managers your your procedure for documenting property damage. So like pre-season inspection of the site,
00:37:13
Jordan Smith
offer to walk the site with the property manager, document any broken curbs, document any cracks in the, in the or cracks or chips in the concrete. and ah And of course we can never guarantee no damage, right? But we can have a policy in place and we can be proactive in a way where we help them understand like, hey, we do a pre-season walkthrough and then we do a post-season walkthrough.
00:37:35
Jordan Smith
Those pre and post-season walkthroughs are also really good opportunities to deepen the relationship with the property manager too. But you'd you'd be amazed how many you appreciate like, oh man, why have we never done that before?
00:37:42
RICK JAMES
Yep. yep
00:37:48
Jordan Smith
Because no one has ever told them that's what they should do. And then another one that we have good success with is documentation. You know, like we use software to track stuff. And so we have documentation of when we were there, how long we were there, what services we provided at exact dates, times, and GPS timestamps.
00:38:08
Jordan Smith
Not every company has that. And I'm not saying you have to have that to be successful, but letting a property manager know that that's an option,
Tech and Documentation in Snow Services
00:38:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh,
00:38:16
Jordan Smith
that can be a really good differentiator.
00:38:19
Jordan Smith
The other thing is,
00:38:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
absolutely.
00:38:21
Jordan Smith
They might like the idea so much that they'll pay for it too. and And it should be built in your pricing if you're providing it. But you know you might you might catch the attention of a property manager who's never had that before. They're like, I'd really love to have this documentation, you know get an export of this every every month. And like if you have the right stuff, you can do that. And you can charge them for that because they're they're paying for a premium service and for premium information.
00:38:46
Jordan Smith
lot of them don't actually want to see it, but it is nice for them to know, or they they feel good about knowing that you have all of that in case they ever do need it, in case there's an issue.
00:38:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely.
00:38:59
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:39:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
I think, you know, the other, it sounds so simple and it doesn't even seem like it's worth mentioning, but it's been a differentiator for us in years past.
00:39:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
um Having your own weather company, like saying, hey, we're going to provide you with weather updates 10 days out, five days out, you know, 24 hours out. You're going to get those texts as a customer so you know what's coming. And they are also going to certify updates third party certify the snow totals so you know if you're going that route per inch then oh you guys have a weather company like that's pretty good and it only takes like god it only takes a couple storms before they start seeing like oh yeah the local news sucks
00:39:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like these guys, as much as we break their balls, the, you know, the weather pros and, and true weather and stuff. And, you know, those guys, weather works, they're better than, they're better than anything you're going to get on TV, especially for our area.
00:40:02
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:40:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
So it takes a couple of storms like, oh, you know, it's one more thing that makes you look professional and, you know, that you can use to differentiate yourself because a lot of people still don't use weather companies.
00:40:16
Jordan Smith
Yep.
00:40:16
RICK JAMES
Great.
00:40:19
Jordan Smith
I think the next...
00:40:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
And you can also tell the property manager, I'm sorry, Jordan, you can also tell that property manager, hey, here's the deal.
00:40:22
Jordan Smith
You're
00:40:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
If, God forbid, something ever happens, we have a slip fall, we have something we have to defend two, three years from now, We can go back to our weather company and we can pull those records.
00:40:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
They have the records. They can show what the temperature was at what time. They can show what what snow fell at what times. You know, you can you can basically paint that picture now in court five years later if you need to.
00:40:50
Jordan Smith
Totally.
00:40:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
So and that's huge.
00:40:52
Jordan Smith
It is huge. and And I think it actually leads perfectly into the next topic
Contracts and Industry Stability
00:40:57
Jordan Smith
of education.
00:40:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
damn i'm good
00:40:58
Jordan Smith
Perfect, right? and and And that is contract structures. So we talk about this a lot on Dustin's episodes because I still genuinely believe that good contract structure is is what makes or breaks this industry going forward.
00:41:15
Jordan Smith
like
00:41:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely.
00:41:17
Jordan Smith
well-structured contracts that are good for the contractor, priced correctly, and also fair for the customer. That's what makes this industry go from fragile to enduring.
00:41:30
Jordan Smith
And think I mentioned this on the last episode, but like when we started doing snow and in Mankato, Minnesota, every single property manager, property owner,
00:41:44
Jordan Smith
all they All they had ever seen before is hourly time and materials pricing. So it's all they knew.
00:41:48
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:41:49
Jordan Smith
All they knew was they get a price list at the beginning of the year. People show up and do work and they get an invoice saying, you know, eight hours with a two yard loader and two hours of the truck and one hour with the salt or four ton of salt, whatever.
00:41:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:42:03
Jordan Smith
and that And that's what they got billed. And they didn't know any different. And TNM is a lot of administrative work. It's a ton of risk for the client because who knows if the information who knows if the invoices are accurate, because a lot of contractors are not honest on those type of invoices.
00:42:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
yep
00:42:25
Jordan Smith
There's been some of our industry that have have gone to jail for that kind of thing. Search it on Google, but it's ah there's some pretty big cases of fraud when it comes to time and materials type contracts.
00:42:36
Jordan Smith
And just just educating them on the the fact that there's a better way, something that that they can budget on more easily, something that is durable for you as a contractor.
00:42:36
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:42:46
Jordan Smith
Because that's the other thing here too, guys, is like, it might sound counterintuitive, but when you're open and transparent with a prospective client that you have to have a durable contract to protect your own business so that you can keep your staff paid, so you can keep your equipment paid for, so you can keep your stuff maintained properly so you can do good work.
00:43:07
Jordan Smith
They appreciate that because it's just the truth, right? I feel like too too many times in this industry, contractors are like, oh, i don't want I don't want the customer to think I'm making money.
00:43:11
RICK JAMES
Right.
00:43:18
Jordan Smith
It's like, no, you you actually want to get to a point of of trust with them where it's like, yeah, of course we have to make money. If we're not making money, we can't continue providing good service for you.
00:43:26
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:43:29
RICK JAMES
All right.
00:43:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
Win-win. We said that too. we want I want a win-win. I want to make a good amount of money, and I want my customer to feel like they got their money's worth. Everybody wins.
00:43:39
Jordan Smith
Exactly.
00:43:39
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:43:41
Jordan Smith
And and
00:43:41
RICK JAMES
hundred percent
00:43:43
Jordan Smith
and And I think that to be honest, if you wanna look for red flags, a great red flag would be is if you say something like that to a property manager and they're like, oh, you wanna make money? Like you're out.
00:43:56
Jordan Smith
Well, you don't want to work for them anyway, right?
00:43:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:43:57
RICK JAMES
Yeah, no.
00:43:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:43:59
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:43:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nope. 100%.
00:44:00
Jordan Smith
If they say, I'm just looking for the cheapest bid, then just leave, just go.
00:44:00
RICK JAMES
Nope.
00:44:03
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Good sleeve.
00:44:05
Jordan Smith
Because there are some, and and to be fair, like I actually appreciate property managers that are transparent, like, hey, we're just going to take the lowest bid. It's like, thank you for saving me a lot of time.
00:44:14
RICK JAMES
Long time, yup.
00:44:15
Jordan Smith
Because we're not going to be that.
00:44:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
hundred percent
00:44:18
Jordan Smith
and And that's, I mean, but again, that's that part of the point of all this stuff we're talking about it with education is,
00:44:18
RICK JAMES
Nope.
00:44:27
Jordan Smith
the The more in depth of a conversation you can have, the more you can understand a property manager's needs and desires, and the more transparent they're gonna be with you about what they're really looking for and what they really want, if they know. And if they don't know, you're the one educating them ah on what they need and want.
00:44:43
Jordan Smith
But you'll also have property manager say like, hey, we're you know we're getting multiple bids, but we're looking for the most thorough explanation of what's included and what it looks like and and why the cost is what it is.
00:44:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah.
00:44:56
Jordan Smith
No, that doesn't mean you have to give them a P&L and show them you know profit and loss statement on your account or on your company. But it does mean you can say like, hey, we're gonna put, you know we're we're gonna send three loaders to this site.
00:45:06
RICK JAMES
I just said this one.
00:45:08
Jordan Smith
They're all modern machines, are all well maintained. They're gonna be reliable. They're gonna start and run at two in the morning when it's negative 20. We're gonna have new sectional boxes on these on these plows. They're gonna scrape your lot really clean. They're gonna do a great job. They're not gonna damage your property because they have a you know a system that protects any any obstacle that ah inadvertently gets hit.
00:45:28
Jordan Smith
And in order to maintain that level of fleet, like or we're a premium service and we we charge a premium price, but we're gonna give you great value for that. and A good property manager really appreciates that. And again, it doesn't mean you'll get the site, but what it does mean is they're gonna put you in the Rolodex and say, good snow contractor option for the future. Like they're going to make note of how this conversation or how these conversations go.
00:45:54
Jordan Smith
And even if you don't get it now, you will have a shot in the future. like We have so many accounts that we've prospected for three, four or five years and we're not gonna be the pest that calls on a calendar reminder every month like, hey, just checking in on your snow service. We're not that.
00:46:13
Jordan Smith
But what we do is we have those impactful conversations.
00:46:13
RICK JAMES
But
00:46:17
Jordan Smith
We build some rapport. we we do remind company or customer, but prospective customers to look at the adjacent property that we service and just like compare the difference for yourself and does it look better?
00:46:30
Jordan Smith
If it does, maybe you want to consider looking at our stuff again. Like that's maybe the one thing we'll do interseason just to say like, hey, we're bare pavement, you got ice. So there's there's a difference here and here's what we provide and and we've gotten a number of accounts that way.
00:46:46
Jordan Smith
But a lot of this is getting to know, you know, what the property managers want. But some of it again is also telling them the art of what's possible. So to me, the old school way of pricing work, and I know it's still strong in some markets or or pervasive in some markets, I should say, is per push or hourly. I think that's the old school way to do snow.
00:47:08
Jordan Smith
I think it's really difficult for property managers to budget on per push and hourly because the weather's unpredictable.
00:47:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
and percent
00:47:15
Jordan Smith
um Maybe in some markets like Fargo and you know Minneapolis, it's a little more consistent than it is in in some areas of the mid Atlantic and the East coast, but I still don't think it's consistent enough to protect the contractor or the property manager.
00:47:30
Jordan Smith
right
00:47:32
RICK JAMES
as As a contractor, I feel like you just get penalized doing, you know, because we're so efficient now in what we do.
00:47:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
You do.
00:47:41
RICK JAMES
You know, the technologies came a long ways. and And what do you want you guys just to make circles around the lot to, you know, rack up the hour meter? And that's not, doesn't doesn't do anybody any good.
00:47:52
RICK JAMES
i mean
00:47:52
Jordan Smith
Right.
00:47:53
RICK JAMES
I mean, that should be out the window, to be to be honest.
00:47:56
Jordan Smith
Yep. Well, and and that's and that's part of, again, just explaining to them why ah seasonal contract and, you know, whether you want to get into, you know, deep with it and say it's a seasonal contract with the floor and a ceiling.
00:48:08
Jordan Smith
To me, that's still the ultimate contract structure because it's good for the contractor.
00:48:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
It is.
00:48:11
RICK JAMES
Thank you.
00:48:13
Jordan Smith
It's fair for the customer. And you can explain exactly why and how. we've seen a lot of light bulb moments happen with that structure for property managers. Cause I've had some property managers give us feedback and I've had customers I work with tell me that they're, you know, property managers said like, well, contract sounds okay, but what if we don't get any snow?
00:48:31
Jordan Smith
It's like, well, Hey, good news. There's a floor. And yes, we still need to get paid because we need to maintain staff and equipment just like we talked about, but we are going to give you some credit back.
00:48:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
yep
00:48:41
Jordan Smith
And you know like in the case of our company, like we give credit back for the next season.
00:48:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:48:47
Jordan Smith
Part of that is is an incentive for them to stay with us after a low winter. um Some people like to give the credit on the last bill of that year. you know It just depends on how you do your business. Again, I like doing it on the next season because they're still getting the money back. It's just pushing forward.
00:49:03
Jordan Smith
um
00:49:03
RICK JAMES
And you get them another year.
00:49:05
Jordan Smith
Exactly. Well, and then they can they can plan the budget accordingly.
00:49:06
RICK JAMES
Hopefully. Yep.
00:49:09
Jordan Smith
And then if you hit the ceiling, you know Like, yep, we gotta get paid more because we hit higher than average snowfall substantially. And it's fair for us because we did a lot more work than we planned. So it's fair on both sides. And and when you explain that to a property manager, it goes a long ways.
00:49:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's a, I mean, I, ever we've been, we've been hammering on this caps and floors thing for what, three years now, Jeremy on the show.
00:49:33
RICK JAMES
Yeah. You
00:49:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
And we've been talking, and like Jordan said, it is the the best way to do it.
00:49:34
RICK JAMES
you know
00:49:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
And you use my area, for example, we doubled up on snow and we doubled up on events this year. I know two guys that are 80% seasonal contracts that are barely staying afloat coming out of last winter.
00:49:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
They should have been making money hand over fist, but they honored to their credit. They honored their contracts fully, even though they were losing money on them because they did not have a ah ceiling.
00:50:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, they they took it in the ass, but they they did the right thing. They kept servicing at a high level, um but they're not doing well because they took a fucking bath.
00:50:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
last winter you gotta have the floor in the ceiling now and I think I told you this Jordan I think I said it on a show maybe a couple years ago when we first started the floor in the ceiling in our contracts we went into a complex that the property manager that was managing that complex did not want us to get he owed a favor to a company so he's trying to push the the company in there and he looked at the contract and he said you can't do this
00:50:17
Jordan Smith
Yep.
00:50:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
with the floor and the ceiling. I said, why not? He said, because this is completely unfair to any other contractor. You're going to give money back if you didn't get if you don't get snow?
00:50:55
RICK JAMES
Let's go.
00:50:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. It's not my job to be fair to any other contractor. like They can do the same shit I am. He's like, it's not fair. But every property manager we deal with now and every customer...
00:51:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
We've had zero pushback on that because we're keeping it fair. Like, here's your spelled out floor. Here's what you're going to get back if we don't get in. I think that's everybody's biggest fear.
00:51:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
I think every customer wants to have the best snow, you know, snow work possible. Their biggest fear is just, you know, deviation. If we don't get any snow, I'm paying a lot of money for nothing.
00:51:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
So I think the floor and the ceiling is the the only way to go to keep it fair for everybody involved. I think it's it's the necessary future um if you're going to stay afloat in this business.
00:51:44
Jordan Smith
Yeah, no, 100% agree.
00:51:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
The that makes sense.
00:51:47
Jordan Smith
hundred percent agree
00:51:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like I said, technology technology advances, efficiency advances have basically eliminated hourly.
00:51:49
RICK JAMES
He's got to read.
00:51:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
You can't do hourly unless you adjust your rates so high that it's going to blow you out of the water when they're looking at, whoa, $1,000 an hour. you know We can't pay that. There's there's a guy here for $125 an hour.
00:52:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
But the efficiency is blown hourly completely out of the water. You shouldn't even use it anymore.
00:52:10
RICK JAMES
Yeah. No.
00:52:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like Jeremy said, you're getting penalized. You're penalizing yourself if you use hourly. So, I don't know.
00:52:16
Jordan Smith
Yeah, absolutely. i think the the other thing is that this wouldn't necessarily be ah ah maybe a strong strategy for a a new prospect, but for those that have customers in place and are doing renewals, we spent a lot of time in the last episode talking about renewals and pushing renewals, especially after a strong winter.
00:52:36
Jordan Smith
But if they're really happy with your service, it is absolutely mutually beneficial to join into multi-year agreements.
00:52:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh yeah.
00:52:46
Jordan Smith
Because number one, they have stability. They don't have to re-procure service. They don't have to go back out to bid. If they're already happy with you, that's an easier sell. I'm not saying you have to do this, but in some cases, if you can get a three or five year agreement, you can offer a minor discount for a long-term lock-in because you can plan fleet and you can probably procure fleet at a better rate. you know Maybe you you purchase finance it instead of lease it because or or vice versa because you know the exact length of the agreement.
00:53:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
sure you know what you got coming
00:53:17
Jordan Smith
Now, if you do long-term agreements, don't fall into the trap of keeping the price the same for five years, unless you overprice it the first year so that by year five, you're at the right price. But inflation's a real thing.
00:53:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
even then it with the increaser because then if you don't have increases you're telling them that you overpriced it off the bat like everybody expects to have increasers
00:53:29
Jordan Smith
especially Yeah, you gotta have,
00:53:35
Jordan Smith
yeah, yeah, yep.
00:53:39
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:53:40
Jordan Smith
So you build in a fair modifier, typically it's gonna be between three and 5% in most markets, that's gonna cover inflationary changes. um One thing I would caution people on with that, if you're locking into a a long-term arrangement is you probably wanna leave yourself some flexibility based on fuel prices and salt prices, because those can fluctuate a lot.
00:54:05
Jordan Smith
I mean, right right now with five to $6 diesel fuel, You're going to feel that if you're running heavy equipment, like that's noticeable going from three bucks to five or six is a big deal.
00:54:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, yeah.
00:54:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, you need the surcharges.
00:54:16
Jordan Smith
So you probably, yeah, put surcharges in there for for that. And then we had a salt shortage last year, right? Salt went to two or three, 400 bucks a ton for some people. You can't you can't eat that.
00:54:27
Jordan Smith
You can't eat that as part of a contract. And that's outside of your control. You know, we don't control commodity pricing. So if you're going to lock in to a multi-year with a flat rate increase, which I think everyone should strive for, you do need to protect yourself against some of those uncontrollable uncontrollable commodity prices like primarily salt and fuel.
00:54:50
Jordan Smith
What I think you probably can't do is say like, oh, if you know if case loaders go up 30%, I'm doing a ah case surcharge. like you You probably can't do that. That's probably something that, again, you just you need to plan ahead for. going to lock into a three to five year contract, lock in your equipment for three to five years, whatever the case may be. Try to try to match your equipment to the contracts. I know that's not always possible. It's a little bit utopian, but...
00:55:12
Jordan Smith
um So some of those extremely fast changing and adjusting prices like salt and fuel are are good things to protect yourself on on that type of contract.
00:55:25
Jordan Smith
You guys got anything else on that before I move on?
00:55:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
no i think we covered it i think that uh
00:55:29
RICK JAMES
i just so I just think on your floors and ceilings, you gotta when you set them, you got to be smart when you how you set those.
00:55:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely.
00:55:37
RICK JAMES
just
00:55:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Climatology. No.
00:55:39
RICK JAMES
i I don't I've just i'd seen some words. They almost put like their floor is like half. half You can't go that high.
00:55:48
Jordan Smith
Right.
00:55:49
RICK JAMES
think.
00:55:49
Jordan Smith
Yeah. and And I'm glad you said that because I actually left left that punchline out. Steve, when I said perfect transition weather service into contracts, what I meant to say or what I intended to include was was another great value thing you can add to your clients is you can get the 10-year climatology report from wherever your weather service is.
00:56:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep, 100%. Yeah.
00:56:10
Jordan Smith
And you can share it transparently. Like, here's the last 10 years. Here's why we're pricing the work the way we are. Sure, maybe you were paying per inch, per push, or per hour earlier, but like, I'm doing the same thing. I'm just making it very repeatable and consistent with the contract so you know what your bill is every month.
00:56:28
Jordan Smith
with the exception of the floor or ceiling, which based on the 10 years, typically a floor is gonna hit once and a ceiling is gonna hit once or twice. And like, that's usually how you structure these things.
00:56:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. Then the first year we did the floors, the ceilings, we had the question. Well, how many times one, one board asked how many times do you hit the ceiling in the last 20 years? Oh, okay.
00:56:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
How many times you hit the floor in last 20 years from that point on, we had 20 year climatology included in all the portfolios. So when we get that question, okay, guys, open your packets so you can see. So three years in the last 20, we've hit the floor.
00:57:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
Um, three years in the past 20 we've hit the ceiling um you know so everything everything else is between in that 36 to 44 inch range you know that's that's what our norm is without much deviation that's it's not that big a deal but uh you know at least then they know okay you know we're looking like once every seven eight years we're gonna have a an abnormal either abnormally high or abnormally low
00:57:32
Jordan Smith
Yeah. Well, and again, even just providing that report is more than they've ever seen from anyone else.
00:57:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
oh absolutely absolutely dazzle them with bullshit yeah absolutely i mean it's not bullshit but you know what i'm saying like we we see when when they open our packets we see their faces like holy shit like last guy came in on some fucking yellow construction paper and you know these guys have everything laid out soup to nuts so
00:57:42
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:57:42
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:57:45
Jordan Smith
Yeah. Yep.
00:58:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
And that if you have all that, it doesn't leave much open for interpretation. There's not a lot of questions there. The only question is, where do we sign? but Because not a lot of people are putting that kind of, i don't know, attention to the the packets.
00:58:11
Jordan Smith
Yep.
00:58:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
But if you like we had one, one guy didn't even want us.
00:58:19
Jordan Smith
Yep.
00:58:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
And he said, flat out, if you guys put this much into the presentation packets, I can't wait to see what the fuck you guys do for snow. I said, okay, good.
00:58:35
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:58:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, prepare to be amazed.
00:58:39
Jordan Smith
um And what a lot of this, like all the stuff we just talked about when it comes to making an intro to a property manager, focusing on education, um educating them on on contract structure and different areas of of liability and and benefits to their property and showing you truly care about their property.
00:59:01
Jordan Smith
A lot of that just comes down to if you can prove as a contractor in every single way that you're proactive instead of reactive, that's a huge benefit. And you can even use those words because
00:59:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
hundred percent
00:59:14
Jordan Smith
Contracting is generally a pretty reactive industry and these property managers are used to being, well, some of the property managers are reactive, right? Some of them wait until the first snow is in the forecast to hire. Like we got to break that cycle too, that's part of this.
00:59:28
Jordan Smith
But as a contractor, if you can prove you're proactive in the way you plan, in the way you communicate, in the way you educate, in the way that you set your contract structure, in the way you physically do the work when you're on site,
00:59:42
Jordan Smith
if you can not only say, but prove you're proactive, like you're gonna lock yourself in for a long time because property managers do, even if they don't appreciate it yet, once you do it, they're they're going to appreciate it.
00:59:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:59:51
Jordan Smith
and They're gonna understand the value of it.
00:59:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. 100%.
00:59:55
Jordan Smith
And that's kind of the last thing is is like, one of the things I talk to guys about a lot
00:59:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Amen. No. No.
01:00:02
Jordan Smith
is you know they're always so worried like, ah, but you know my price, my price, my price. like Leave the word price out of it. It's value. It is value. And like and that's not bullshit either.
01:00:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
ahmen
01:00:12
Jordan Smith
like It is actually what matters.
01:00:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
no
01:00:15
Jordan Smith
And I get it. Not all property managers see that.
01:00:16
RICK JAMES
I
01:00:19
Jordan Smith
But like all the stuff we just talked about, if you actually do all that stuff, if if you even do half of that stuff, you're providing value beyond most of the industry. And that value,
Value Over Price Discussion
01:00:28
Jordan Smith
comes with a fair price that's fair for everyone and it keeps you in business and keeps you providing good service.
01:00:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
Comes with a price tag.
01:00:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely.
01:00:36
Jordan Smith
So that was my mic drop, that was it.
01:00:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
100%. I mean, that's, but that's, yeah you nailed it.
01:00:39
Jordan Smith
yeah
01:00:40
RICK JAMES
like it. I like it.
01:00:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
You nailed it though. I mean, in this day and age, you have to be professional in snow. You have to be proactive. If you're reactive, you're going to get sued. You're going to be out of business. I don't think there's, I don't honestly don't think there's room for reactive.
01:00:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
anymore think you have to be proactive as a contractor now in snow there's no choice
01:01:04
Jordan Smith
I agree, but I'm still amazed at how not proactive but the unfortunately majority the industry is.
01:01:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
oh yeah
01:01:13
Jordan Smith
Like there's obviously the guys that are consuming education, like guys that are listening to this show. Like I think it's super cool that guys reached out and said, I've never been a commercial property.
01:01:24
Jordan Smith
I don't even know who to talk to. Like, I think that's awesome because they're being proactive about figuring out how to scale or grow their business.
01:01:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
It is.
01:01:32
Jordan Smith
um Some people just never ask the question. So like it's cool.
01:01:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
Don't let it surprise you, though. There's still guys out there saying some years we win, some years we lose.
01:01:40
Jordan Smith
Right.
01:01:42
Jordan Smith
Yeah, you can't lose.
01:01:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Where's that T-shirt? We got to get that T-shirt. We always win.
01:01:46
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:01:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
And they always win. That's it.
01:01:50
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
01:01:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
We always win as as contractors, and the customer should always win feeling like they got what they deserved and what their money's worth.
01:01:58
Jordan Smith
Yep.
01:01:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's it. and ah And we always tell them. We tell him point blank, like, we are going to be the most expensive one in the room.
01:02:06
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
01:02:07
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:02:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
100%. And we're not for everybody.
01:02:08
Jordan Smith
Yep.
01:02:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
But
01:02:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
what are you going to do? You want the best. You're going to pay for it.
01:02:17
Jordan Smith
but i think I think the other thing too, this I didn't have this in the in the prep notes, but it just made me think of it when you said that is is you are so much better off with two really well-priced accounts than 10 really crappy priced accounts.
01:02:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely. Absolutely.
01:02:33
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:02:35
Jordan Smith
I think people go after volume, whether it's, whether it's ego or whether it's, they just don't know their numbers or what, but like volume is not it.
01:02:38
RICK JAMES
Volume. Yep.
01:02:47
Jordan Smith
Now there, there is something to scale. Like when you, when you get to like, to be like a glacier and you're doing everything on the entire, you know, part of the top, that part of town, it is way more efficient when you can take a convoy of loaders and just hit every site like that is more efficient, but
01:02:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
sure
01:03:04
Jordan Smith
it's, you don't get there overnight, right? So you're in the short term, you're better off with, you are better off with two accounts at the right price, even if they're a across town from each other than two accounts next door to each other at the wrong price, just because they're next door to each other.
01:03:19
Jordan Smith
It's a pretty, pretty common, pretty common mistake that, that i I hear and see. And I've made it too. Like I'm admitting I've made the same mistake. Like, oh, we do the place next door. you know, we can, we can be a little cheaper, I guess.
01:03:29
RICK JAMES
I hate that.
01:03:30
Jordan Smith
It is stupid.
01:03:31
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:03:31
Jordan Smith
It's stupid.
01:03:32
RICK JAMES
Because all you do is set it back. So like we've talked about it over and over, we just just set the price back, give them a deal.
01:03:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, I mean, it's, yeah, ah I have always, always felt that.
01:03:39
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:03:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
And I think a lot of that has to do with my father. My father's very good financially, very smart man. And he just lays stuff out where it makes sense to me. And I'm not a, I'm not a financial whiz by any means.
01:03:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
But when he lays stuff out, he's like, well, why would you do that? Why wouldn't you know, going to have more expenditure if you got to have more equipment out there. You to have more dudes out there. You got more chance for accidents.
01:04:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Why wouldn't you just keep it tight and get max money from five sites instead of trying to do 12 right there?
01:04:14
Jordan Smith
Yep. yep
01:04:15
RICK JAMES
right
01:04:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. OK, that makes sense. And. That's, I mean, that's one of the reasons we're streamlining this year. Like we've never lost a site once we've had it and we are giving up two sites because my number two proved with numbers that, Hey, we, we basically have a full dance card with property managers saying, you know, blank check. We need you to take these two sites in the village.
01:04:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay, great. He said, look, we can We can staff three less machines. We can take off, you know, I think it was like some ridiculous 32 man hours per storm on average by giving up two sites and we're taking two sites on to replace them that we're making literally more profit on.
01:05:00
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
01:05:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
So it's a no-brainer.
01:05:01
Jordan Smith
Yeah, for sure.
01:05:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
Streamline it.
01:05:05
Jordan Smith
Well, maybe someday dusting episode will actually be 30 minutes like it's supposed to, but today we're a little more double that.
01:05:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nah, listen, it's it's information needs to go.
01:05:12
RICK JAMES
Uh...
01:05:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
It needs to get out there.
01:05:13
Jordan Smith
ah
01:05:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
i'm the I'm the last one to stop a conversation when it's good information.
01:05:20
Jordan Smith
Yeah. And I would just encourage, you know, i love when people reach out. It's one of my favorite parts about doing this show, especially since it's always new people. You know, you get, you get the, ah the OGs have been listening from day one that they reach out. Like, Hey, I love the episode, but any, any new guys listening, please reach out. I love, I love it. Like it's, it inspired the whole episode. So you guys know who you are reached out. And if you got questions, you know there's no dumb ones. Like,
01:05:47
Jordan Smith
first guy that messaged, like, I'm embarrassed to ask this, but how do I even start getting a commercial account? Like, that's what inspired the whole episode.
01:05:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Don't be embarrassed. Don't be embarrassed to ask that.
01:05:53
Jordan Smith
No.
01:05:54
RICK JAMES
i love the I love the questions. We get them all the time.
01:05:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely.
01:05:57
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
01:05:57
RICK JAMES
I mean, like, we don't know all the answers. We don't. We find the answers for them from whoever, you yourself or somebody else in the group.
01:06:03
Jordan Smith
Yep.
01:06:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
That is the most valuable thing about the Snow Jobs podcast is literally the nexus where you you send a question in and we can direct you to 10 to 15 different people that will be able to answer it for you in different ways.
01:06:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
So it's the community as a whole.
01:06:22
Jordan Smith
Yeah. 100%.
01:06:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's the valuable part of the podcast.
01:06:27
Jordan Smith
hundred percent
01:06:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
So don't ever be, everybody out there, don't ever be embarrassed to ask a question. There is no stupid questions. You know, you're stupid if you don't ask because you're going to learn the hard way. So just, you know, feel free to throw it out there. We've all been there.
01:06:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
And use what you got.
01:06:45
RICK JAMES
And now it is it's easier now than ever. so
01:06:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, that we've we just said that last week. Like, I would have killed for this 30 years ago, starting out You know, there was no education. You learn by making fucking financial mistakes. You took hits.
01:07:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
You, you know, you hopefully made it through those hits. But now you have no reason to not have, not be armed with all the information you need to do things the right way.
01:07:12
Jordan Smith
Yep. You got it.
01:07:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
We good? We
01:07:16
Jordan Smith
We're good.
01:07:16
RICK JAMES
good
01:07:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right. Well, then we'll wrap it there. Jordan is always awesome to have you on. Thanks for doing that.
01:07:24
RICK JAMES
Thank you.
01:07:24
Jordan Smith
Appreciate it.
01:07:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
And yeah, we'll wrap it there. Everybody, you guys out there have a great weekend. Everybody be safe. We will see all Monday back for our regularly scheduled programming. But that's it, guys.
01:07:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
Everybody have a good one. Keep pushing.