3 ways to be more referable
We're looking at another important lesson from Mike's book and it's all about being more referable!
If you want to reach Mike or have a question for him, contact us at hello@coachblueprint.com
Transcript
Hi, this is Mike Crow and I run a home inspection business.
Speaker:In fact, I've run a couple of home inspection businesses.
Speaker:You true joy for me though, has been helping literally thousands of
Speaker:home inspectors build really solid home inspection business as well.
Speaker:We can help a single man operation be able to do over $300,000 a year.
Speaker:Maybe all the way up to $400,000 a year as a single inspector.
Speaker:Even better for me is the 80 plus companies that we have helped
Speaker:be able to build million dollar home inspection businesses.
Speaker:I would like to help you be able to do the same thing.
Speaker:Hey guys, this is Mike Crow.
Speaker:I am the father of home inspector marketing.
Speaker:I've been doing this business for, gosh, I don't know how long 30 plus years.
Speaker:And it has just been exciting.
Speaker:Somebody, the other day was talking with me and we were having this long
Speaker:discussion about my book home inspector marketing secrets, which by the
Speaker:way, I think is still out on Amazon.
Speaker:Think you can still get it.
Speaker:It has a couple of website references that are outta date,
Speaker:but the information is rock solid.
Speaker:As we were going through the book we focused in on page 59 and this was
Speaker:chapter 10 and system number six.
Speaker:And it talked about making yourself more
Speaker:referable.
Speaker:Uh, The more referable you are, well, the more business
Speaker:you have come your direction.
Speaker:And there were three things, three things that I wrote down that
Speaker:you must do to be more referable.
Speaker:When I tell 'em to you, you're gonna go, well, duh, of course.
Speaker:and then you're gonna look around and you're gonna realize that as obvious as
Speaker:that this is, or like Davy the gentleman that runs coach blueprint here for
Speaker:me, likes to say, you know, is that common sense is not common practice.
Speaker:And I love that saying, I love that saying.
Speaker:And so what you're gonna realize is that this is common sense.
Speaker:And then you're gonna realize that this is not common practice.
Speaker:In fact I'm gonna tell you that At some level, these are fireable
Speaker:offenses for one of our inspectors.
Speaker:I mean, if our inspectors can't do these things, not only are they not referable
Speaker:after a certain point, we go, you know, we just don't need this here anymore.
Speaker:And we let, 'em go.
Speaker:As one person said, we let them go find their happiness elsewhere.
Speaker:I got that from a Disney person and of course, you know, I love Disney
Speaker:backwards and forwards and sideways.
Speaker:The reason being more referable is important is because you are a direct
Speaker:reflection on whoever refers you.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And we know that there are about 15 mavens out there, mavens being person
Speaker:that has an influence on a group of people and they can refer you.
Speaker:And of course, there's real estate agents and title companies and mortgage companies
Speaker:and insurance companies and builders.
Speaker:And the list just goes on and on, on there's about 15 mavens or 15 referral
Speaker:sources that you can do out there.
Speaker:Real estate attorneys is a real good one, by the way.
Speaker:And one of the things that you discover is that you need to
Speaker:make sure that you're referable.
Speaker:You know, here's one of those little secrets that I'm gonna tell you, you
Speaker:know, I hear inspectors sometimes go, you know, agents, they never refer me.
Speaker:They never refer me, but you know, when their daughter's buying a house
Speaker:or when they're buying a house, they go, oh, Hey you know, Hey Joe, can
Speaker:you come do this inspection for me?
Speaker:You know, you're one of the best inspectors I know.
Speaker:And I'm sitting there thinking, yeah, I'm one of the best inspectors, you
Speaker:know, but you won't even refer me.
Speaker:Now here's what you need to know.
Speaker:I know that he may be a great inspector, but there may be also some
Speaker:things that make him UN referable.
Speaker:So let's tackle some of those real quick.
Speaker:Here's number one be on time.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And let me explain this really simple.
Speaker:I'm sure I've got it written here somewhere.
Speaker:But what I like to say is early is on.
Speaker:On time is late and late is not acceptable.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:We have fired inspectors before because we just can't get them for some reason to
Speaker:show up to the inspection on time early.
Speaker:You get that.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So one of the things that I discovered and keep in mind that my company's
Speaker:done well over a hundred thousand inspections, I've done over 10,000
Speaker:plus inspections myself in the 30 plus years that I've been in this business.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:You know, I tried getting there 15 minutes early and that was okay.
Speaker:I tried getting there 30 minutes early.
Speaker:That was pretty darn good.
Speaker:I tried getting there 45 minutes or even an hour early.
Speaker:That was too much.
Speaker:So I went back to the 30 minutes.
Speaker:So we teach all of our inspectors to get there 30 minutes early.
Speaker:And by the way, here's the cool part.
Speaker:During that 30 minutes, we take a look at the roof.
Speaker:We take a look at the foundation.
Speaker:Now we do termite inspections.
Speaker:So we're looking for termites.
Speaker:We get all of our paperwork ready, we get our toolbox and everything
Speaker:set up on the front porch.
Speaker:We're ready to go.
Speaker:So in the 30 minutes I've looked at three of the top things that we
Speaker:know can cost us the most money.
Speaker:If we miss them during an inspection.
Speaker:So we have no pressure or anybody, you know, giving us a kind of a time pressure
Speaker:thing, because we're on the roof or walking the foundation and we can look
Speaker:at things and prod things and maybe move things away to see things a little better.
Speaker:without creating a lot of disruption in the thought process for people
Speaker:because they're simply not there.
Speaker:So very simple number one be on time.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And again, remember the adage to be early is to be on time to be on time is
Speaker:to be late and late is not acceptable.
Speaker:It's one of my favorite sayings.
Speaker:So number two do what you say you will do.
Speaker:Do what you say you will do.
Speaker:You know, again, this may seem simple and we say, or do things without realizing
Speaker:how much sometimes we promise people, anything you tell someone is a promise.
Speaker:Don't forget that anything you tell somebody is a promise.
Speaker:So don't forget that.
Speaker:So when you tell the agent who shows up at the house, you'll
Speaker:deliver the report to her office.
Speaker:She's probably expecting that report right after the inspection.
Speaker:Not the next morning.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:And by the way, you could tell people, oh, we'll deliver that report this evening.
Speaker:Oh, we'll deliver that report the next morning.
Speaker:And at least you told them, but even then, that's not the best thing that you can do.
Speaker:We'll talk about that more at some point.
Speaker:So I was up in Chicago and I was working with an inspector and he
Speaker:was saying, Mike your marketing doesn't really work that well.
Speaker:And I was going really what?
Speaker:And so we went out on some of his marketing routes.
Speaker:He was making several basic mistakes there.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:You know, for the fun of it, I decided, Hey, I got time.
Speaker:Let's go ride with him on an inspection.
Speaker:And we went to ride out on an inspection and the buyer arrived
Speaker:and he welcomed them and he said, Hey, you can follow me around.
Speaker:We'll do a great job.
Speaker:And and I was thinking, man, this is going well.
Speaker:And he did the inspection in a different routine than I would
Speaker:have done it, but you know, I get that, that's the old style routine.
Speaker:I created a new routine that it generates a better relationship with your buyer and
Speaker:with other people and helps make things a little more obvious during the inspection.
Speaker:So my routine's very unique in that respect.
Speaker:And then the agent arrived, then the agent arrived and he like snubbed the agent.
Speaker:Oh, wasn't expecting you to be here.
Speaker:You know, we'll be done with the inspection in about, I don't remember, 30
Speaker:minutes, 45 minutes, the agent went great.
Speaker:I'll hang around.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And then we did the whole inspection and then he looked at the buyer and said,
Speaker:Hey, why don't we go out to your car and we'll talk over the inspection report?
Speaker:He turned to the agent and said, I'll get the report to you as soon as possible.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And and then we walked off and we sat in the car and went over everything on
Speaker:the inspection report with the buyer and left the agent, standing in the house.
Speaker:I was like, you don't do that man and ever get referred again.
Speaker:And then it got worse.
Speaker:It got worse about one o'clock.
Speaker:This was, we did the inspection.
Speaker:Oh, I don't know, 10, 11 10 o'clock and nine o'clock or something like that.
Speaker:We finished the inspection around 12 o'clock or so around one
Speaker:o'clock I went you know, he went back, he finished up the report.
Speaker:We talked about some of the stuff he put in the report.
Speaker:He did a great job.
Speaker:I said, okay we gonna run this over to the agent.
Speaker:How are we gonna handle that?
Speaker:We're gonna email it to him.
Speaker:He went no.
Speaker:I sent it out at night.
Speaker:All the agents know that.
Speaker:I said, you really believe that the agent thinks you're gonna deliver this report
Speaker:tonight and not as soon as you're done.
Speaker:And he went, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Everybody understands that.
Speaker:And nobody delivers on, you know, a site or delivers you
Speaker:know, right after the inspection.
Speaker:And I went, wow.
Speaker:You're sure?
Speaker:And he went, yep.
Speaker:I went okay.
Speaker:And I let it go.
Speaker:Well, that was about one o'clock.
Speaker:And then about three o'clock the phone rings and it's the agent and she's
Speaker:going I, I thought you were gonna send me the report as soon as you were done.
Speaker:Are you not done yet?
Speaker:He went, oh yeah, I finished the report, but I'll deliver it to you tonight.
Speaker:No wonder the marketing's not working this dude's not referable.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So she might use him for her inspection, you know, or maybe her daughters, but
Speaker:the last thing she wants is this guy doing an inspection for one of her
Speaker:clients and making her look like a dufus.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And so you just gotta be really careful about that.
Speaker:So do what you say you'll do.
Speaker:He said he was gonna get the report.
Speaker:Everything else was still garbage.
Speaker:I couldn't believe how he treated her, but then he said, Hey, I'll get
Speaker:you the report as soon as possible.
Speaker:And then he didn't.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:He wonders why he is not referable by the way that guy's long out of business.
Speaker:So, you know, sometimes you can't help some people, they just, they won't listen.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:The third thing, and the final thing is finish what you
Speaker:start, finish what you start.
Speaker:It's incredible to finish what you start, it's even more important for
Speaker:everyone who works with you to know that you finish what you start.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:And I wanna give you two specific examples.
Speaker:The first one applies to every inspector every day, when you do
Speaker:an inspection, you need to make sure you finish it completely.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:And as far as the client and agent are concerned, the sooner the better.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I like to talk about what I call speed and accuracy, right?
Speaker:The faster you get the inspection done, the more accurate
Speaker:it's done every single time.
Speaker:The more referable you are, you just need to know that.
Speaker:So get the report done and leave the house the way you found it.
Speaker:So, I made this mistake once and several of our inspectors
Speaker:have made this mistake as well.
Speaker:And I have worked hard now to build a system to address this.
Speaker:And so I call it a tent card.
Speaker:I call it a tent card.
Speaker:So the first time I realized it was a problem was when my dad and I were
Speaker:sitting in a chair in front of a house after an inspection, it was drizzling
Speaker:rain and I noticed that the agent was sitting in his car facing us.
Speaker:And my dad was looking through the maps go.
Speaker:And for you younger guys, that's a book that had a map teaching you how
Speaker:to go from one point to the other GPS didn't exist yet at that time.
Speaker:Anyway I know I'm showing my age, but anyway, dad was working on how
Speaker:do we get to the next inspection?
Speaker:Now I noticed the agent looked at us and I said, dad, the the
Speaker:agent's kind of staring at us.
Speaker:dad looked up and he said, yeah, he's probably waiting for us to leave.
Speaker:You know, that kind of made sense.
Speaker:And so I didn't worry about it much, but then I looked at him again and I could see
Speaker:he was looking at us and then he looked at the house and he did that several times.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And I will never forget.
Speaker:You know how you could see somebody do a body motion and you know, you could
Speaker:hear the sound that goes with that.
Speaker:So here's what I heard just by watching him.
Speaker:I saw his shoulders rise.
Speaker:I saw the shoulders, you know, go down.
Speaker:I heard the, I could hear the sound and I was going, what the heck?
Speaker:And I heard the agent sigh, you know, metaphorically.
Speaker:And he got out of his car.
Speaker:He walked up the side yard through the wet grass and he closed
Speaker:the gate that I had left open.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And you know what?
Speaker:We never saw that agent again.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So we didn't finish what we started.
Speaker:We didn't put the house back exactly the way it was when we started.
Speaker:And if the fence had been open, when we started, I should have told the agent,
Speaker:by the way, the fence was wide open.
Speaker:When we got here.
Speaker:I don't know if they have reason, but I'm leaving it that way
Speaker:because that's the way we found it.
Speaker:I should have told them.
Speaker:So they would've known.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Now I'm gonna give you another experience.
Speaker:As I grew my business and I had multiple inspectors, most inspectors
Speaker:probably never have this problem.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And maybe you won't ever have to deal with it.
Speaker:If you're in business long enough and do enough inspections, I guarantee
Speaker:you, this will happen to you at least once, if not 3, 4, 5, 6 times.
Speaker:So you start the inspection and the buyer's working with you and you look
Speaker:around the outside of the house and there's obvious foundation problems.
Speaker:And you could walk around the outside of the house and you see the
Speaker:roof and there's shingles missing.
Speaker:It's very obvious.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And then you start on the inside and you can't get the air conditioning
Speaker:to come on and it's a hot day.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And the buyers are following.
Speaker:Every step of the way.
Speaker:And then you open up the main electrical panel and there's
Speaker:aluminum wiring throughout it.
Speaker:And it's the last straw for the buyers.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So the buyer, a lot of times will say, you know, you've done a
Speaker:great job, but I've seen enough.
Speaker:I'm kind of done here.
Speaker:Maybe you can gimme a discount on this inspection and maybe
Speaker:the next one, I don't know.
Speaker:But I'm done.
Speaker:You don't need to write me a report.
Speaker:I don't need anything.
Speaker:Just tell me how much owe you and I'll write you a check, right?
Speaker:And you're going, wow, well, bummer.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:By the way, here's the secret.
Speaker:My dad learned never open the main electrical panel first, never open
Speaker:the main electrical panel first.
Speaker:It should be one of the last things you.
Speaker:So that this doesn't happen to you if there's aluminum wiring okay.
Speaker:So there's a little bit of routine secret there.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So keep in this mind, you know, they insist they're done.
Speaker:You need to go no further.
Speaker:They need no report.
Speaker:The buyers are holding their keys and they're ready to leave and they just
Speaker:wanna know how much they owe you.
Speaker:If anything, you know, And maybe you give 'em a discount.
Speaker:Maybe you don't, maybe you promise 'em a discount on their next inspection.
Speaker:I'm fine with all of that.
Speaker:And then what you do next though, is the most important thing.
Speaker:So some inspectors think to call the agent and let 'em know, Hey, your
Speaker:buyer saw that there was foundation problems and roof problems.
Speaker:And then they discovered the house had aluminum wiring.
Speaker:And they said they were done.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Well, here's the most important part of all.
Speaker:You are not done yet.
Speaker:You might think you're done.
Speaker:You might even convince yourself done.
Speaker:Somebody else might tell you.
Speaker:Well, yeah, you were done buddy, but you're not done until you
Speaker:produce some kind of report.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You're not done until a report has been produced, you might
Speaker:say, but the home buyer said he didn't need or even want a report.
Speaker:And, you know, I, I kind of got.
Speaker:So when I first recognized this problem, most inspectors gave me a dozen reasons
Speaker:why a report was no longer needed and I'm here to tell you it is needed.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You're leaving the agent hanging and in the long run you're causing the
Speaker:buyer a potential problem as well.
Speaker:When it hits the seller side of the equation
Speaker:well, let's say they have a lot of questions and no real
Speaker:answers and nothing to back it up because they don't have a report.
Speaker:And if there's not a report well or not a complete report, maybe that's
Speaker:fine, but mark everything you didn't inspect and say not inspected.
Speaker:And then make a note that reads something along this line, the
Speaker:inspection was canceled prematurely
Speaker:at the request of the buyer.
Speaker:Now you put that on your report, so they understand it wasn't
Speaker:you that canceled the report.
Speaker:It was somebody else.
Speaker:And the last statement is really you're there for your protection.
Speaker:Otherwise the rumors will fly in it'll sound, something like
Speaker:this, man, the inspector talked the buyer outta the house.
Speaker:Get the picture.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So all of this can be avoided if you simply finish what you start.
Speaker:So there's a lot of simple little things here that I need to make, you know.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So most agents will use you for their own home and maybe even their daughters,
Speaker:but they won't recommend you to their buyers because, well, you're too thorough.
Speaker:Nonsense it's because you're not referable.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Maybe it's cuz you don't show up on time.
Speaker:And they don't wanna recommend somebody that doesn't show up on time.
Speaker:Maybe it's cuz you don't do what you say you will do.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Or maybe it's cuz you don't finish what you start.
Speaker:Those are just three of about seven or more items that you
Speaker:need to know at some point.
Speaker:And you know, here's what the agents tell me, cuz I ask the agents,
Speaker:Hey, I have a great inspector in my area and I like him, but.
Speaker:he's regularly late and he leaves me hanging one way or another and
Speaker:he doesn't leave the house in the way he finds it and on and on.
Speaker:And I, and so I've sat in, I'm more real estate agent circles than probably
Speaker:anybody, you know, in this industry.
Speaker:And they say, oh, I don't mind using it for myself, you
Speaker:know, but I'm not comfortable recommending em to my clients.
Speaker:It makes me look bad.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So there's two sides to every story.
Speaker:And I thought you might like to know that one.
Speaker:So ask yourself this question, which one of these is an area in
Speaker:which you could do some improvement?
Speaker:So one of the things I try to do with my inspectors for instance, is make
Speaker:sure they all arrive 30 minutes early.
Speaker:You ask any amount of questions?
Speaker:In fact we used to call it Crow time and then in our business, we now call
Speaker:it Texinspec time cuz the name of our home inspection business is Texinspec.
Speaker:So this is important if you are not on top of all, three of these, be on time,
Speaker:do what you say and finish what you start.
Speaker:Maybe a few more, then you're not referable.
Speaker:You're absolutely not referable.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And so I wanna make sure that you realize that, well, there's the three
Speaker:must to making sure that you are referable, because if you get those
Speaker:wrong and your marketing might get you started, but it won't sustain.
Speaker:You, you have to put a good inspection behind it.
Speaker:You have to make sure that you do the things that make you referable.
Speaker:And if you don't do those.
Speaker:Don't expect people to use you a second, third, fourth, fifth time.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:And that makes it really hard to grow a business.
Speaker:Now I'm very fortunate.
Speaker:We work on doing all of these things and so we have agents that use us
Speaker:20, 30, 40, 50, 60 times a year.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:And They know that we understand.
Speaker:In fact, one of the things I tell 'em at meetings a lot of times is I understand
Speaker:that we are a direct reflection of you on each and every inspection.
Speaker:It's one of the reasons we wear professional uniforms.
Speaker:It's one of the reasons we show up early.
Speaker:It's one of the reasons that even if the inspection, some reason gets
Speaker:canceled halfway through the inspection, we still produce a report for you.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And they all go, wow.
Speaker:Because we wanna make sure that we take care of the home buyer, the client,
Speaker:absolutely over the top, but we don't wanna leave the real estate agent or any
Speaker:of our mavens that could refer us hanging.
Speaker:Well guys, this is Mike Crow.
Speaker:And we'll talk about another situation like this recently,
Speaker:probably outta my book, cuz I've been talking with a lot of people.
Speaker:So I have four magic words.
Speaker:I have the three letter word that will make you more powerful
Speaker:than anything else out there.
Speaker:And then we'll talk about some other fun stuff too.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:It's a lot of fun.
Speaker:I will tell you that currently I am in the process of meeting with some
Speaker:top inspectors three times a year for mastermind events and every now
Speaker:and then I will invite people to come and sit like a fly on the wall.
Speaker:Can you imagine sitting around some of the top top home inspectors from across
Speaker:the nation and sitting around the table with them and watching what they've done
Speaker:and being able to have lunch with them and dinner with them and figuring out how they
Speaker:grew million dollar businesses in some cases, multimillion dollar businesses.
Speaker:And of course we run a multimillion dollar business.
Speaker:So when you come, you get to walk our business and see it
Speaker:and understand some of that.
Speaker:You can learn more about that by going out to I think our current
Speaker:website is MikeCrowReturns.com.
Speaker:Mike, M I K E Crow, C R O W returns.com.
Speaker:I am ramping back up on my coaching business.
Speaker:I'm having a lot of fun.
Speaker:I've been helping people and they've been having great successes.
Speaker:I wanna see how many people I can help now.
Speaker:And my prayer to some degree is Lord, let me help one more.
Speaker:Let me help one more.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And so with that said, the way I do that is by this simple
Speaker:phrase here, be successful.
Speaker:And be around those that are successful because the more money you make, the more
Speaker:people you can help have a great day.
