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Sam Taggart 00:47
Hey everybody, this is Sam Taggart the D2Dpodcast. I’m here with Andrew Mackay . He is one of the corporate sales representatives and helps with a lot of the business development for a company called Pronto but also has five years in pest control, you know door to doors, his roots is where it came from. They got into the tech sales. There’s probably a lot of people on here that are listening. They’re like I want to transition into tech sales and they’re all curious about that. So maybe we talk a little bit about difference of knocking doors versus business door to door. But Amy pronto is a vendor of ours that is coming at door to door con and this is going to be your first year I adore growing so they are a texting app similar to GroupMe, Slack, WhatsApp, there’s a lot kind of out there and they’ve you’ve kind of niched into the door to door space. And there’s been a lot of these big door to door companies that have been adapting group communication tool like pronto. So tell me about kind of where that started. And kind of what you guys do at pronto?

Andrew Mackay 01:48
Yeah, so Pronto, we built it originally for the consumer space to compete with the free stuff like GroupMe, or what’s out. There was called bubble. And we realized pretty quickly as we were dissecting our data on downloads and users, it was being used for business and for schools. For you know, teaming, group communication. So we started from there, we started branching into reengineering the product to fit more of the needs in those spaces. And it turned into pronto, that’s cool. Yeah.

Sam Taggart 02:25
So then, my, my one of my close, like, childhood friends growing up Peter Johnson, yeah. And he hits me up, and he’s like, Hey, we really think this would be a good tool for door to door. And this was like, three years ago, this was back in the day. And it was like, little, like 5 million company, you know? Anyway, so it’s obviously adapted much. But since then, you guys have really kind of said, How do we cater this to door to door as well? And where have you seen the app like really effective for direct sales,

Andrew Mackay 02:57
In a lot of ways. So I came in a year, a little over a year ago to help launch the corporate side of our business. And I saw the same thing Pete did, I was like, Oh, I would have loved having this when I managed teams door to door. So that’s been the the key area it serves, it’s it’s great for the end user, you know, any of the reps that are using it to communicate with their team leaders or their managers or whoever. But the biggest value comes to the regionals, the divisionals, the people managing their large teams, it’s organization capabilities, it’s got a lot of security and privacy. So you can eliminate a lot of the cross recruiting that happens from these other apps. And and then just with the management capabilities, you know, you can set a different user preferences and settings there. And then from a lot of the file sharing the video conferencing, you can do in it, we see a lot of training being done and in a lot of teams are able to strengthen the training, and the recruiting before the summer, and then magnify a lot of that training during the summer through project.

Sam Taggart 04:09
That’s awesome. So let’s talk through kind of some basic concepts of communication and why, you know, group knees and prawn toes and why these apps are so vital to any direct sales organization. And so, you know, a lot of people out there, I mean, when we consult, like, I’ll go to a company, I was like, what’s your group texting? Like? How do you guys communicate? And some of them, there’s just like, Oh, you know, we all have iPhones. I’m like, so I come in your organization. I’m because I got an Android. They’re gonna kick me out for having me around the green little bubble. And what happens when a new guy gets added? Or you know what I mean? And you have other groups and teams as well. We just have like, FM like, Oh, you need a system Dude, that’s like more sophisticated. This is 2020. So you’ve obviously sold for years you manage teams. It’s what makes it really relatable. Let’s talk through like one how group messaging motivates during the day. Right? Like, yeah. What have you seen, as far as you’re out there with a big team?

Andrew Mackay 05:12
Why is the group thread so vital? It is a big reason, like a big part of that recruiting process for any person that’s never sold before. It’s their first time kind of getting into it, is the camaraderie. It’s the team, you know, they, any good recruiter knows he try to integrate those new members into the team as fast as possible. And you focus a lot on culture. And so in a virtual world, where a lot of interaction is done virtually, or through text or email, probably not email, but you know, video conferencing, you have to find the best way possible to get someone involved. Even when you’re not physically together in so

Sam Taggart 05:55
yeah, it’s a lonely on the streets to like you think about it. It’s like, yeah, a lot of times are spread out all over the country. But sometimes you’re even, like, 10 minutes apart. But you’re still by yourself. Like, yeah, in the streets.

Andrew Mackay 06:08
Yeah. So when you’re walking a street, you know, as a sales rep, and you’re likely to face a lot of rejection, that’s a big part of the job. Getting one of those encouragement tags or a message, you know, just something funny that happened or a when, you know, seeing seeing someone else when it’s easy to spark that, you know, adrenaline that that excitement, that motivation to get back out and just keep going.

Sam Taggart 06:35
Yeah, cuz easiest time to get a sales right after so but sometimes it’s right after somebody else. Exactly. You know what I mean? You’re sitting there, zero till six o’clock, seven o’clock, eight o’clock, you’re like, freaking blown up, you’re like, I’m going to give one where if it’s crickets on the group? Me? It’s kind of like, was anybody out here today? Has anybody shown up like, you know, you’ve had those days where like, I almost don’t want to post because I’m not working as hard, either, you know, and there’s a natural energy that’s unseen. And it’s very prevalent on the group may, or the Toronto or the United minutes on that group is seen a, that is how the team’s doing. So what about accountability? Like Where have you seen these group apps pronto been effective for creating accountability within a sales team?

Andrew Mackay 07:24
I think it depends on which one you’re using, to be honest. I think the in a simple way, being able like knowing that your whole team’s on there. And then knowing that they’re part of this group thread, or, you know, this, this team, communication, and whatever form it is, I think naturally, it’s it pushes accountability, and it weeds out people that don’t like accountability. A good sales door to door leader knows that accountability is key. Not to micromanage, but just to push each other and create that competitive spirit in you know, if you’re, if you’re contracting to be out there and to win, like, be out there and win. And so in those group threads, you can check up on each other, you can push each other, motivate each other. And then you also know, individually who’s out there, so you can shoot a direct message over.

Sam Taggart 08:18
So yeah, yeah. No, because I think there’s even like, like I was thinking, all the little things that I would meet my guys do. And let you said something was really important. It was the people that don’t like accountability will naturally start to weed themselves out. Oh, I’m like, why would I need to text a picture of myself when I’m on the doors? It’s like, I don’t know if it was that hard. Like, if it was, if you were actually doing it, don’t you think it would be pretty easy? Yeah. You know, or like last text on the door, like, hey, send us a selfie of you at 930 on a door. It’s like, How do I know that you didn’t like I’m not trying to micromanage I’m just trying to help you. If you’re out there, then it’s not gonna hurt. Yeah, if you’re not out there, you’re going to try to cover it up with something like, Oh, I know, I shouldn’t be doing this. And the other one is just like people’s numbers. Some people don’t have robust CRM, so people don’t have, you know, the tracking apps and all that kind of stuff. And I’m like, you could keep it as simple as pronto. Just I got one. I got to I got three. You know, I’ve seen little emojis used quite a bit like, you know, I you know, 15 inspections and seven claims filed and you know, at the end of the day, there’s like a big list, but also what, what’s cool is having somebody in the back end, have you ever seen it where people a corporate person sitting in the back and looking at the CRM and then they’re shooting out? Yeah, disseminating information.

Andrew Mackay 09:39
I was gonna say when when you asked about like, what’s motivating about group messaging, that’s that was what for me individually as a rep before he’s even leading teams. That was huge for me and I, I keep my phone is buzzing. It is just gonna bug it. No worries. So yeah, anyway, Anyone knows that you can mostly, you know, any company has been around a while has the scoreboard of some sort, yeah. visible or available to see. And it’s one thing to take a look at the scoreboard and another thing to then have a message about the scoreboard. Everyone wants to participate that in that, and it can be discouraging for someone that’s having a rough day or a rough time in general out there on the doors. But the best part is when you can get in really easy way, send a message to the leader and say, What are you doing up there? Like what’s working for you? And pronto, you you can do that. But you can also hop on a quick, you know, almost like a FaceTime, and record it and you can hop on, I can hop on with you and say, Sam, you’re killing it out there. What are you doing, dude? Like what’s working for you? Yeah. And in real quick and a little chat, we can talk you can kind of give me a simple training in a way. Yeah. And then that records to our dm conversation. And now I can access that for the rest of the day. And

Sam Taggart 11:06
what little hits like that, like, even just the fact that I’m calling you, like, let’s say you’re having a big day, and it’s six o’clock already having your best day. And a regional or the owner reaches out and says, Hey, Andrew, you’re killing it. And I want to give you some love. Can you make a quick little video and send it to everybody? And all of a sudden he’s like, Oh, I got asked to be on the like, that’s like a privilege. That’s like an honor. It’s a dopamine hit in and of itself, like for somebody to be highlighted somebody to be able to post and get validated. We’re all wired that way. I mean, that’s how social media bill. And so it’s like, you know, a lot of people are asking, like, how do you motivate the millennial and the Gen Z generation. They’re like, Oh, the younger generation is just lazy. None of them are work are like they don’t work hard. And I found it’s like, well, you just have to know what buttons to press that they’re used to listening to they don’t respond well to military like, dictator anymore. Because that stuff doesn’t exist. Were back in the day. That’s like, how people work. Yeah, that’s how they grew up. That’s like how things were managed in I think, you know, there used to just reading stuff on an app or seeing a little video and liking it and sharing it. And you know, yeah. So what about, like, updates and communication that way? Like, how is it effective? You know, what are some best practices for? I’m an owner, and let’s say I have an announcement, or you know, a lot of the times people struggle, disseminating information down to the bottom, we have a product change, we have an event or something like that, like, what are some best practices you’ve seen within organizations there?

Andrew Mackay 12:44
Yeah. And one of the best practices is find a tool that can do it. Yeah. and have it be where they’re already communicating. They’re already seeing information with each other. And for that, I mean, not to go on the pronto out here. But like, that’s why we created that feature inside of pronto, is because we learned pretty quickly, like it didn’t exist,

Sam Taggart 13:06
you know, there was like a newsletter piece or something like that. Yeah. So

Andrew Mackay 13:09
Yeah, some some most companies out there were pushing out updates and announcements through SMS blast through like a texting platform, but then communication was happening in GroupMe, or in imessages, or, you know, whatever was available for the the teams to use or email. And then we started seeing people leverage, like, different app tools that, you know, you could get a like an update feed going, but it wasn’t where other communication was happening. So it was it was disruptive and there wasn’t a streamline, you know, there’s a lot of friction in the company trying to push out these updates are a leader. And so with pronto, we it in the same place, you’re doing all your group messages, your direct messages, your video conferencing, you also have an announcements feature, where a leader or whoever has that responsibility to push out an update or an announcement can do that it can’t be responded to so it doesn’t get watered down to the thread.

Sam Taggart 14:10
That’s what I was gonna say the biggest problem I see with group messaging and and I remember I had to create rules. Here’s the law of group. Do not give a Yeah, man, high five emoji emoji. You’re just like, no one’s gonna read this anymore. Yeah, 60 seconds just ruined your update. Like no one knows where it is. Yeah, it’s gone. It’s just in the abyss of like, the thread that no one wants to just rewind and play. Yeah.

Andrew Mackay 14:36
So yeah, the you have that ability to do updates announcements on a group level, set a team to team or to a region or whatever, but also to an entire organization. So with some of these companies, you’re covering all 50 states or you know, most of the 50 states, yet teams everywhere. What if you want to do a big update or announcement especially like this last year with COVID You know, there’s all these change policies, procedures, whatever. And I mean, I all I heard this last summer was how difficult it was to keep up with the changes and

Sam Taggart 15:09
I can’t go to the state anymore. We got to move our team out to Alaska. Exactly. Yeah. So, so that’s so communication. This is what this is why I want to jam on this was it’s like, the biggest problem in business most of the time is the managers or leaders ability to cast and communicate a vision down to their bottom people. And what’s made it so nice is technology these days, but I’ve also seen technology being misused. For example, the gifts and the emojis, you know, that people, maybe even posting at the wrong times later on, like not posting enough? The engagement, you know, I mean, like, a lot of times, it’s that enrollment, like, Hey, guys, like, I need you. Like, there’s times where I remember calling my top reps. And I’d be like, I know, you’re not posting in the app, like, I need you to post for the benefit of everyone else. Yeah, like, why would I do that? Like, I’m just selling, I’m doing my thing. Like, I did that. I’m not mad that you’re selling. I’m just saying, I need you for the benefit of everyone else to communicate the fact that someone is winning. Yeah, it’s like, there has to be a scoreboard in front of people’s faces, constantly reminding them that they either suck, or they’re good. And one of the two, like, it’s so funny, I was with this friend. And he was just like me, and my parents didn’t like to play sports growing up, they didn’t like me to, you know, be in anything that or board games ahead of board games. And I was like, What the heck. And he’s, I was like, why? And he’s like, simply because they didn’t want to see someone lose. And I was like, Oh, that’s the opposite of what it’s like, that is not in my DNA. And I’m like, in sales there is winning and losing you walk home and not selling that day. You’re not getting a participation bonus. It’s like, well, you were there. You know, you made no money. You made no money. Yeah, like, it’s my job as a leader to ensure that you make money. And so it’s like, I’ve got to condition you to be a winner. And a lot of the conditioning happens through the communication ability. Yeah. Anyway, so I guess kind of shifting gears. So you’ve ran teams, you’ve been in pest control? What were some of the things that you did as a team in this offseason and something that, you know, like for the seasonal guys, like you were in pest control? Some of these guys do roofing, maybe they have blitzes in the offseason, but, you know, like, it’s pretty, we’re coming into the holidays, we’re coming into the law, right? What are some best practices you or the company saw to keep the culture alive? During the next three, four months,

17:41
this is the best time to run recruiting incentives for your team. It’s also a great time to just share some love and and, you know, check in with each other and make sure everyone’s got something to look forward to in the holiday season. Not everyone’s got, like, you know, the ideal family situation are cool plans, especially right now during quarantining and pandemic times, like I’ve, I’ve heard more than, more often than not lately that, you know, our, we’re just staying home, you know, can’t can’t really go see any family. So I think it’s a good good idea right now, when it comes to communicating with your teams is to just share, share some love and, you know, do friendly outreach and, you know, share good message or something right now,

Sam Taggart 18:26
Because nobody I can’t I’m gonna say this. Nobody wants to be the guys. It’s like, I have no place for things. Yeah. Yeah. Like that’s almost an embarrassing thing to say, right? Nobody wants to be like, yeah, yeah, like, my Chris we’re gonna be great by myself sippin on someone in the back. Nobody want so it is a good opportunity as leaders, good recruiters. Just friends like building that culture. Yeah, I love that you said that,

Andrew Mackay 18:54
Because that was a big thing. And then another thing is, when it comes to there, there’s like a two sided approach to that. Another thing is like send a little gift. You know, if you’re if you’re leaving, it’s because you that’s a big part of your job is not necessarily like creating entitlement, but do some fun, do you have to do a team sweatshirt or a team beanie or something and send them off to your guyses as a surprise, or you know, just here’s a Christmas gift, you know, whatever that is, and involve their

Sam Taggart 19:23
wives and families. I remember my regional sent my wife like this little makeup kit for Christmas is all wrapped and it was just like that was that was thoughtful. That was like it was a long one. Yeah, like there was a loyalty building element to that there was a man who took some time to think about it. I think with your key people something a little bit more custom for them. Like you’ve got to think through it and be like, I know they really like this. They’ve been talking about this and it’s like boom, you show up with something. huge value add.

Andrew Mackay 19:54
Yeah, even even our own company, I pronto last year, we had a like a surprise swag bag that was given to all of us right before Christmas, I believe. And it was simple you know, everyone right then in there put put on their practice sweat. Sure. And, and it was fun like, it just felt it felt like someone cared, you know, and they thought about you. And then yeah, absolutely involving the families that’s that’s always good for those that have families, you know, spouse kids, it always goes a long way makes you feel a little deeper rooted and loyal to, to that, you know, to what you’re doing and to your team and your leader. And the last thing is, during this time, people are around other people, friends, family, recruits, whatever team members do ever do recruiting activities, you know, share those blast those out. impromptu, you can forward a message to everyone you can post those announcements to different groups and individuals like, you know, do some fun, make it make it an exciting incentive to get new new recruits in the pipeline.

Sam Taggart 21:00
Yeah, and you think about it, like what an opportunity for recruiting during COVID. Because people are looking for something to do like, last weekend, I was like texting, like 12 friends. I’m like, Hey, what are you gonna do? Like, what are you doing this tonight? I was like, man, I like kids. Like, I haven’t been invited to anything. I do something. And I realized, like, how many people are out there looking for something cool to do. You are the instigator of a cool activity. What an opportunity for recruiting like people are like social gatherings. Like, no offense to anybody that is not socially gathering right now be responsible, but like, but be the catalyst to some fun, because everybody’s twiddling their thumbs being like everything else is shut down. So if you create some creativity of events, you’re going to pull some good,

Andrew Mackay 21:46
Good talent. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. And then I think, doing a sweet combination of those things you’re going to see, at the worst, your current group strengthened and locked in and more excited, ready to go. It’s not uncommon during this time to, to what I remember to get a lot of messages asking for training material, because they’ve got some time right now. They’re not in school. They’re they’re home chillin, you know, they’ve got your team’s got a lot of time on their hands a lot of the time during the season. So you know, it’s a great time to share some training content, maybe record some trainings, send them over and in practice, yeah,

Sam Taggart 22:27
I love that. I think so many. I mean, that’s what our company does our training platform, we go film with companies and film their trainings and edit it. I think, I see a lot of these offseason people miss, like, managing their time in the offseason and saying, like, oh, we’ll get to that, we’ll get to that. And then come summer, they’re like, hey, how’s your training coming? And they’re like, you know, it’s, we got, like, you know, this PDF, and I’m like, Oh, cool. That’s super excited. You know, and so training is a huge piece that, you know, we’re getting hit up, right mass of people, like, especially the summer programs, like a lot of alarm and pest control companies have been hitting us up. And it’s like, Okay, it’s time. Let’s, let’s like, put some text this morning from one of the major players. And he’s like, we’ve talked about training for a long time, like, yeah, talk is not going to deliver, like good stuff to your people. And then holding them accountable, like using the announcement saying, hey, this focus this week is, you know, let’s say objections. And I want everybody to video themselves, send it into the app, and say, Hey, here’s me overcoming this objection, or, you know, like having that group kind of feel and share virtually, through some type of technology is is a really powerful way to kind of collectively create training. Yeah, I think a lot of people think it’s, I’m going to record Sam, and he’s just gonna make all these cool videos, and then everyone’s gonna watch it like no, make it feel like it’s like a, like a virtual consistent workshop that’s happening.

Andrew Mackay 23:59
Yeah, yeah. Especially when you are out on the doors. For those that aren’t seasonal, that are out right now selling. With pronta you just go live, it’s recording, it’s going to your whole group. Just have someone there with you or film yourself doing it, put it in your pocket, just hear it you know, it’s real, that’s a real experience where someone that’s an expert or that knows what they’re doing can share their own the Dorje experience with the team and hear you know, those those reps that are learning are trying to get better they can hear objections being overcome, they can hear what a sale looks like, sounds like they can see it you know, and

Sam Taggart 24:40
yeah, it’s some people like hidden camera like yeah, your shadow and your guy just like sit there like with your phone, like kind of in your pocket or whatever. And like, film it and then send it to the group and be like, see what he did. Well see what he did bad like, we have DVD TV, and they have one of these shows. So the DVD critic, and I have people upload their door proaches like hidden camera and send it to me now. Like pick it apart, it’s actually really cool. And you know, what if you did that internally with your people, like, I found people aren’t getting creative enough, maybe due to just lack of bandwidth or, I don’t know, like, they don’t have the direction and a lot…

Andrew Mackay 25:15
A lot of it is enablement. Now, they just, they, they use what they know to use, you know, and so if they’re used to voxer, they’re going to use voxer. If they’re used to nothing, they’re not going to use anything, you know. And so when, when they’re enabled, they’re provided with the tool that they can get creative with great. And sometimes they have the tools and they don’t, they don’t leverage them. So being provided with with some, you know, best practice best tips, you know, or a leader knowing, hey, you can use this for, you know, this feature this tool for X, Y, and Z. A lot of times that just sparks the juices for people like that,

Sam Taggart 25:53
we kind of got to wrap up. So if you guys have been listening or watching, hopefully you’ve gotten some value out of just some ideas that you guys can leverage. So you can obviously better your team better yourself. So if somebody were to like be interested in this app where they find you.

Andrew Mackay 26:09
They could go to our website, we’ve got a try for free. Click the button, it’ll ask you for a little info and then it will come to our team. What’s the website, pronto? PR o n t o.io. Die. Cool. They could hit us up on our social media. You know, we’re not super strong in that game quite yet. But we’re getting there. And then you can also hit up Sam Sam’s got our contact info and we’ll be out door to door.

Sam Taggart 26:35
Make it January 8, the ninth we’ve got awesome workshops. Awesome speakers coming. It’s coming up right around the corner. So anyway, if you haven’t got your ticket, there is still a by window free going on right now. That that should end probably within the next couple of days. So appreciate you guys being on here. And much love. Thanks, Andrew. All right. Thank you.