In this episode, Tom and Brent discuss:

• How technology changes between being introduced and being widely adopted.
• A great product or service without a good culture does not always equal success.
• A good company culture does NOT just mean good benefits.
• How employees choose your company because of the culture, whether you/they realize it or not.

Key Takeaways:

• As a leader, it’s important to make your company as accessible as possible to consumers.
• Modern technology should be used to both protect a company AND its’ customers.
• A good internal company culture will end up affecting consumers positively too.
• Your company culture is made up of your employees.

Connect with Brent Chapman, CIO , RoundPoint Mortgage Servicing:

Website: www.RPMServicing.com

Twitter: @BrentRChapman

Check out his new book at: www.BrungardtChapman.com

Connect with Tom Niesen Owner & CEO, Acuity Systems, Inc:

Phone: 972-860-8695 x223

Website: www.SalesMadeEasy.com

Email: [email protected]

Delivering Success

In this episode, Tom and Kyle discuss:

• How to differentiate yourself from the competition.
• How to be more service-oriented.
• Why your employees are so important.
• How to take a simple business concept and improve upon it.

Key Takeaways:

• Having a solid management team can make or break your business.
• Some of the best business solutions come from everyday struggles.
• If you treat your customers with respect, you can expect it in return.
• It's important to differentiate yourself up-front when starting a business.

"Do you save your customers time, do you save them money, and do you make their lives easier? If you can do those three things, then I think you have a nice opportunity." -Kyle Bainter

Connect with Kyle Bainter, CEO & Founder, CallBox Storage:

Website:  www.callboxstorage.com

Phone: (833) 937-8673

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/callboxstorage

Connect with Tom Niesen Owner & CEO, Acuity Systems, Inc:

Phone: 972-860-8695 x223

Website: www.SalesMadeEasy.com

Email: [email protected]

Clean Up Your Business

In this episode, Tom and Greg discuss:

• How to use SEO tools to increase your reach.
• How to expand your business.
• The importance of finding quality employees.
• Simple steps to build your business from the ground up.

Key Takeaways:

• Treat your employees with respect and reward their services.
• Don't be afraid to go for the "dull" business idea.
• Your people are your biggest asset.
• Expect to pay more for mistakes early on when starting your business.

"Try to figure out all of your costs of starting and maintaining your business for the first year...once you figure out all of the costs, write that number down, then multiply that by two- that'll be your REAL cost- and then add a quarter for your mistakes." - Greg Shepard

In 2004 Greg left the high tech world to start a maid service. 

Why a Maid Service?

A question he is often asked. After all, he had an amazing career in high tech working at fortune 500 companies. What was he thinking?… A thought that often crossed his mind those first couples of years after starting Dallas Maids. Anyway, to answer that question… Building a business was what Greg wanted to do. He wanted to create something of value. And he wanted to see people, both customers and employees, benefit from that value. This was much more fulfilling than hacking away behind a glowing computer screen all day.

And it was the best business decision he ever made.

Greg's programming skills easily transferred to starting a cleaning service company: Building a business is like writing code: You write the code (i.e. business’s operation manual) then continually debug it until you have a program (cleaning service system) that produces the same quality results (housecleaning) for the user (customer). And it worked well...

Today Dallas Maids is not only one of the largest maid services in Dallas, but no other services have won as many awards as Dallas Maids have for their cleaning service.

Connect with Greg Shepard, CEO & Founder, Dallas Maids:

Website:  www.dallasmaids.com

Connect with Tom Niesen Owner & CEO, Acuity Systems, Inc:

Phone: 972-860-8695 x223

Website: www.SalesMadeEasy.com

Email: [email protected]

Educating the Workforce

In this episode, Tom and Sean discuss:

• The importance of hands-on, accessible learning.
• How engineering is similar to sales.
• How businesses can benefit from an educated workforce.
• Why having a sales process can make or break your company.

Key Takeaways:

• Don't try to trick the magician.
• Things are never as bad or as good as they may seem.
• Separate your own self worth from your company's.
• Will a present failure matter down the road?

"Don’t trick the magician…that’s so important in sales. When you’re working with other salespeople or just other people who’ve been in the industry for years…don’t try to use a sales tactic that’s in all the books that they’re also reading. Just be authentic and sell a product you believe in." - Sean Maroni

After studying mechanical engineering at NC State, Sean decided to leave the path of the standard engineering job and start Betabox. As a kid, he was constantly learning by doing and working on projects of all types. Sean realized that he learned the most when he took his education into his own hands and figured things out in order to make progress in projects. But he was also fortunate, having a Dad that exposed him to concepts or engineering, buying him rockets and legos, etc. He started Betabox to bring the power of guided hands on learning to young people everywhere, regardless of geography.

Connect with Sean Maroni, Founder & CEO Betabox Labs:

Linkedin:  www.Linkedin.com/in/seannewmanmaroni

Website:  https://betaboxlabs.com/

Connect with Tom Niesen Owner & CEO, Acuity Systems, Inc:

Phone: 972-860-8695 x223

Website: www.SalesMadeEasy.com

Email: [email protected]

Building an Iconic Brand

In this episode, Tom and Paul discuss:

• How to "revive" a previously popular brand.
• Why training can make or break your team.
• How important it is to have a company culture.
• Catering to your customer.

Key Takeaways:

• Just because a brand may have lost popularity doesn't mean it's "dead".
• Building a relationship with customers means more than just having good service.
• Would you rather have a well-trained, successful team that MIGHT leave or an unsuccessful team that WILL stay?
• When building a company through franchising, you'll need to find owners who buy into your culture.

Paul is the passionate Chairman and CEO of Legendary Restaurants Brands and is leading Bennigans, Bennigan’s On the Fly and Steak and Ale to an exciting new era. Paul was formerly the President and CEO of Salsarita’s Fresh Cantina, an award-winning fast-casual Mexican chain and is also the author of Bennigan’s Return to Relevance…Bleeding Green 25/8.

Connect with Paul Mangiamele:

Twitter:  @Paulmangiamele

Website:  https://bennigans.com/

Connect with Tom Niesen Owner & CEO, Acuity Systems, Inc:

Phone: 972-860-8695 x223

Website: www.SalesMadeEasy.com

Email: [email protected]

Pick Up The Phone and Build Your Business

In this episode, Tom and Don Williams discuss:

• Why it’s so important to have salespeople who are successful over the phone.
• The types of businesses that are attracted to DFW.
• The importance of sales when it comes to growing a company.
• Why it's important to always try and grow your business.

Key Takeaways:

• Your tonality and body language are both very important, even over the phone.
• Would YOU buy from you? Always assess yourself before looking outside your company.
• If you’re going to grow your company, you’re going to have to make sales.
• Don’t be afraid to get help… you don’t have to build your business on your own.

“How many companies in the Fortune 500 use the telephone to drive business or better service customers? …the accurate answer of course is all 500 do, because the telephone is the 2nd best form of communication behind face-to-face.” - Don Williams

Connect with Don Williams: 

Website:  www.AllianceDMS.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/don-williams-a63375a

Connect with Tom Niesen Owner & CEO, Acuity Systems, Inc:  

Phone: 972-860-8695 x223 
Website: www.SalesMadeEasy.com 
Email: [email protected] 

Retaining and Leading a Great Business 

In this episode, Tom and Melanie Shaffer discuss: 

• What Talent Suit is and what they do as a company. 
•  Having and talking about retention with clients. 
• Having a coach and who your coach should be. 
• Looking at your business from an outside perspective to see if it's good enough for another company to buy it. 

Key Takeaways: 

• For your business to survive you need good talent in your company. 
• Training and development is essential for retaining your goals. 
• Recruit people who can resolve conflict easily. 
• Never promote your best sales person to a sales manager. 

"I got to a point where I wanted to do something new, and learn something new." - Melanie Shaffer 

Connect with Melanie Shaffer: 

Website:  www.talentsuitellc.com 

Email:  [email protected] 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanieshafferts/ 

Connect with Tom Niesen Owner & CEO, Acuity Systems, Inc:  

Phone: 972-860-8695 x223 

Website: www.SalesMadeEasy.com 

Email: [email protected] 

Connect with Brisa Castillo:  

Phone: 972.960.8695 x227 

Website: www.SalesMadeEasy.com 

Email: [email protected] 

Show Notes by Show Producer: Jessie Taylor 

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it. 

Building a Successful Company

In this episode, Tom and Mark Borge discuss:

• How Mark started his company and the evolution of it.
• The pros and cons of major companies existing.
• Which companies rise up, and why.
• How to make your employees feel a part of the success and leadership.
• Book: www.texasgotitright.com

Key Takeaways:

• Other companies create opportunity.
• Talk to other people, and follow up on them.
• You learn more from negative experiences than positive experiences.
• Building the right culture is so important in your company.

"If I ever have a negative experience I can always learn from it." - Mark Borge

Connect with Mark Borge:

Email:  [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-borge-b198426

Connect with Tom Niesen Owner & CEO, Acuity Systems, Inc:

Phone: 972-860-8695 x223

Website: www.SalesMadeEasy.com

Email: [email protected]

Connect with Brisa Castillo:

Phone: 972.960.8695 x227

Website: www.SalesMadeEasy.com

Email: [email protected]

Show Notes by Show Producer: Jessie Taylor

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it. 

Creating Solutions for Salespeople

In this episode, Tom and Steve Benson discuss:

• How to be a more efficient sales person
• Sales people spend too much time doing busy work instead of actually selling
• How the world of sales is going to change in the next few years
• Disruptions in a business, and how to deal with it

Key Takeaways:

• Plan out what you need to accomplish
• Sales people provide a tremendous value in helping the people make a decision, unlike technology
• You have to be adaptable
• People need lots of help with technology

"We find there's a huge uptake in productivity if people plan things out and create a schedule." - Steve Benson

Connect with Steven Benson:

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/badgermaps?lang=en

 https://twitter.com/stevebenson?lang=en

Website:  https://www.badgermapping.com/

 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenbenson/

Connect with Tom Niesen Owner & CEO, Acuity Systems, Inc:

Phone: 972-860-8695 x223

Website: www.SalesMadeEasy.com

Email: [email protected]

Connect with Brisa Castillo:

Phone: 972.960.8695 x227

Website: www.SalesMadeEasy.com

Email: [email protected]

Show Notes by Show Producer: Jessie Taylor

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it. 

Business Owners Learn From Improv

In this episode, Tom and Frank Ford discuss:

• What improv teaches you
• The yes and philosophy
• Collaborating with each other
• Listen to everyone's ideas

Key Takeaways:

• You need to have a good culture
• Don't be scared of change
• Don't lose other people's trust
• Everyone has different perspectives

"No gives you the illusion of control, and shuts the door to all possibilities.." - Frank Ford

Connect with Frank Ford:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankjford/

Connect with Tom Niesen Owner & CEO, Acuity Systems, Inc:

Phone: 972-860-8695 x223

Website: www.SalesMadeEasy.com

Email: [email protected]

Connect with Brisa Castillo:

Phone: 972.960.8695 x227

Website: www.SalesMadeEasy.com

Email: [email protected]

Show Notes by Show Producer: Danielle Taylor

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.