Client Case Study - Entropy Radiator's Sales Team Upgrade | Ep 37

Josh Long

00:00:00.720 - 00:01:25.000

This is episode 37, and on it, I interview Tony Duquick, owner of entropy Radiator, about the results he's experienced from having upgrade his sales team and shop manager with new top performers. This is the Bottleneck Breakthrough podcast.

I'm Josh Long, and this is all about helping you find and fix the biggest challenges in your business to unlock growth and profits that last. Hey there. I'm excited to dig in with my friend and client, Tony Duquick today. Tony has a very, very cool business.

We met back in 2021, and he was getting the crap beat out of him with shipping issues from China and logistics and all of that stuff going through Covid, and he came through it strong. And this year, in 2024, Tony finally reached out to me to help him with his sales team.

And we're just going to talk today about what that journey was like. A little bit about his business and some of the outcomes that he's experienced and things he's looking forward to with it.

But Tony, tell everybody a little bit about your radiator business and how you got in it. Give a quick little background and why it's working so well, because it is quite the niche business, in my opinion.

Tony DeQuick

00:01:25.500 - 00:03:58.828

Definitely. So my business is entropy radiator.

We have a couple of different brands, but essentially we build cooling products for expensive hot rods, and we cater to the difficult to cool situations.

So these days in hot rodding, or in the old days, you had a 350 hp small block Chevy with a carburetor on it that you would drive and you would smell like exhaust fumes for a week afterwards, and your wife would never get in the car. And it was just not a fun experience. It was cool to look at. And then after half hour, it was like, eh. So these days, hot rodding has evolved a lot.

So these are super high horsepower cars. Like a. For us, a low horsepower car would be 500 hp, but these are two, three $400,000 cars that are.

A lot of them are built from scratch these days with all brand new parts. So imagine your dream, 68 Camaro. But the reality is that under the sheet metal, 68 Camaro is actually a dinosaur relic that's outdated.

So these days, they build them with modern suspensions, a brand new chassis. You can buy these bodies brand new. The brand new 68 Camaro or 69 Camaro body. The sheet metal, it's a brand new piece.

And a lot of guys, they want their dream car.

And they've been through that period in the seventies, eighties, and even nineties where they had these cool cars that they would build and then they would sit and they would never drive them because they were just, you know, they were like rattle traps and didn't have air conditioning. The crank windows and interiors were like something out of a soviet era bus. So these days that's not the case.

They're beautiful leather interiors, expensive cars.

But the important thing is they have air conditioning, they have lots of horsepower, they have all of these things and they need something that will cool it and that's who we cater to. They just want something that is going to work. They don't want any hype.

So we build beautiful, beautiful cooling products that happen to be jewelry disguised as radiators that customers buy for their hot rods.

Josh Long

00:03:58.924 - 00:04:20.710

Yeah, that's a fantastic description.

You've done a brilliant job of building a great brand, having a great traffic flow and a lot of quality leads of people that trust you guys and they order custom radiators. What's the average transaction of something like this and how long does it take for you guys to make something for your clients?

Tony DeQuick

00:04:21.730 - 00:06:11.980

So on our made in Chicago brands, so everything's made in Chicago by hand. I would say average price out the door with shipping and everything is around 1800.

Lead time varies but I would say its three to four weeks on average. And we also cater to anything thats niche. Like for example, my RV that Im sitting right now.

This is a 2001 Winnebago and it's a freightliner underneath it with RV on top. And they discontinue the parts for the engines on these things after 15 years.

So great story is there's a youtuber I follow who drives around with his family and his rV. Beautiful rV. It's a 2002 or 2003 diesel pusher so the engine's in the back.

So when you're driving it you don't have to listen to this noisy diesel engine.

And he's in North Carolina, it breaks down, he takes it to the Cummins dealership and they say it needs a new charge air cooler intercooler, which is the device that cools the air that comes out of the turbocharger and it adds a lot of horsepower to a diesel engine. And the Cummins dealership said you're going to have to scrap your rig. We cant get a new one.

And I saw this and hes like hey, if anyone wants my rig, ill sign the title over to you just have to come down here and get it. And this is an rv thats worth $40,000 probably. And thats something we would make for like 2500. So we do lots of niche things, too.

Weve kind of gotten into the rv business since IM an rver and I know them pretty well.

Josh Long

00:06:12.140 - 00:06:13.040

Thats fun.

Tony DeQuick

00:06:13.360 - 00:06:19.440

So, yeah, anything that's unique, difficult to do, that's kind of our niche.

Josh Long

00:06:19.600 - 00:07:47.970

And so with an average transaction of $1,800, this isn't something that people are just clicking through to Amazon and getting shipped the next day.

So you've got a lot of care in your customer support, in your sales team, in your knowledge and expertise to be able to solve the problems and get the custom fit right. Because you're not sending somebody out on site to go inspect these vehicles. So there's some communication that has to happen.

You've got a complex sales process for the most part, um, to get people that are dealing with their baby right, their hot rod baby, that they want certainty. And so you've got to have a capable sales team.

And when we met back in 2021, and you're going through your logistical headaches of getting shipments over from China of raw materials and stuff that were backed up, we talked about your sales team, and you had a couple sales guys, and as I dug in with you, a couple things jumped out back then that they were pretty self contained, self directed, and you're a great boss. I think you've created a great environment where you treat your employees like adults and you respect them, and you don't drive them like slaves.

So they were a little independent, but their performance wasn't quite where I thought it could be. And when we talked about it seemed like there was also some temperament issues, and they were kind of finicky. Right.

Typical challenge of managing salespeople for a business owner, right?

Tony DeQuick

00:07:48.510 - 00:08:13.760

Yes, absolutely.

And going back to when we first met at our first roundtable event, actually, this was, you told me this, and it was, I walked out of the room that day and thought about it. I'm like, I just paid for my roundtable. That was worth my roundtable.

And at the time, I had one sales guy, and I was talking about some of the problems that was causing. And you and Robert.

Josh Long

00:08:15.620 - 00:08:16.956

Michaun. Yep.

Tony DeQuick

00:08:17.108 - 00:08:50.118

Yeah. Mikshan, you drove the conversation. But you said you need a second salesperson. Like that would immediately put numbers on the board for you.

And it did. I would say that change alone probably added 15% to revenue, adding the second salesperson.

But I hadn't hired another salesperson in six or seven years. And the guy I ended up hiring was formerly a bartender in New Orleans. That I'm good with people I could be.

Josh Long

00:08:50.134 - 00:08:54.320

Sales gets along with old guys slings a good drink to him.

Tony DeQuick

00:08:54.700 - 00:09:00.132

Exactly. I used to be in a band, you know, social, very social person.

Josh Long

00:09:00.276 - 00:09:01.680

Great human, great guy.

Tony DeQuick

00:09:02.100 - 00:10:41.660

But I think a lot of people that are like that think they can be a good salesperson just because they're social and they like to talk to people.

And I found out the hard way, even just having the second salesperson that was not good at what they were doing had put some decent numbers on the board. So after a year when his performance was just dismal, I decided it was time to make a change.

And I actually wanted to work with Josh to hire this person. But you were working on a consulting gig with a startup for a while. They'd hired you on full time, so you weren't available to do that.

And I went with somebody else, and I had reservations from the beginning, before I even hired this guy. And two years later, you know, same situation. And that's when I thought, no, this time I'm going to use Josh, and I don't care.

I don't care if he's busy right now, I'll wait a month. But I want to use Josh to hire somebody because I felt that you really understand salespeople, you understand sales process, and you keep it simple.

You don't have 500 spreadsheets and a whiteboard with lines drawn all over it about your sales process. And I really understand, as a seasoned business owner, that simplicity is beautiful.

And if you can deliver simple results that are highly effective, like, what more can you ask for? And I think, thanks.

Josh Long

00:10:41.700 - 00:10:42.280

Yeah.

Tony DeQuick

00:10:42.940 - 00:10:55.420

That's why I decided Josh is going to hire this guy. If I have to drive to your house and just annoy you for a week, I want you to hire this guy for me.

Josh Long

00:10:55.500 - 00:11:08.182

Thankfully, it didn't take that much, so I jumped in, and first thing we did was assess the guy you had, and we realized, yeah, there's some weak spots I would call his performance is what I classify a lot of salespeople. Like, they're customer support plus.

Tony DeQuick

00:11:08.286 - 00:11:09.254

Right, exactly.

Josh Long

00:11:09.302 - 00:11:43.762

Really friendly, build a lot of trust, but they're not closing, and they're not helping move people forward with certainty. And so when we did some coaching with him, really friendly guy, you like him a lot, but his performance didn't change.

So while we were recruiting, we were monitoring his performance, and you get enough calls, you get enough leads, and your sales cycle isn't 18 months, it's nothing. No, a hugely long sales cycle. So we could see his performance wasn't changing.

And so this is the unfortunate part for most small business owners is training typically doesn't help with poor performing salespeople.

Tony DeQuick

00:11:43.946 - 00:11:44.714

Absolutely.

Josh Long

00:11:44.802 - 00:12:30.250

Really doesn't help most employees that are poor performing. But it's hard because you're a kind guy. You don't want to let somebody go.

But we went ahead and recruited and we didn't let him go until we had the superstar candidate lined up. And when we were interviewing the top three candidates, it was obvious that this one guy just stood out.

And it was actually more obvious to you than it was to me. I wasn't quite sure who was going to be the perfect fit, but Tony saw him. It was crystal clear, no uncertainty after we did the final interviews.

And tell me, what was it that stood out for you with him that just made it so obvious that he was the right fit?

Tony DeQuick

00:12:31.230 - 00:12:37.590

Great question. So if you remember, the two candidates we narrowed it down to, both of them were actually in the same role.

Josh Long

00:12:37.710 - 00:12:40.374

Yep. Service providers at dealerships. Yep.

Tony DeQuick

00:12:40.502 - 00:13:09.780

Yep. So they were service underwriters at dealerships. So a service underwriter is essentially a salesperson for the service department.

At a dealership you bring your new Lexus in that you just paid $60,000 for, and they say, oh, you need the 5000 miles, recommended maintenance and that's going to be $7,000. That's that person. So the first candidate was a service underwriter at a flies.

Josh Long

00:13:11.600 - 00:13:13.248

At a Ferrari dealership in southern California.

Tony DeQuick

00:13:13.264 - 00:13:29.564

Ferrari dealership in Beverly Hills.

I mean, if you're going to be us, if you're going to work at any dealership in the US and you just want like location working in your favor with the wind at your back, I mean, I would take that any day. It's like the best gig you could possibly ever have for someone.

Josh Long

00:13:29.612 - 00:13:32.140

The oil change is $8,000. Yeah, no worries.

Tony DeQuick

00:13:32.180 - 00:14:02.636

Exactly. So candidate number two was a service underwriter at a Ferrari dealership in Beverly Hills and was making around 250 a year doing that.

And his reason for wanting to leave was his commute was like an hour and 15 minutes each way every day. And then candidate number one was a service underwriter at a jeep dealership in Santa Monica around when they were both in California.

Josh Long

00:14:02.708 - 00:14:05.320

It's so funny. I mean, they were 10 miles apart from each other.

Tony DeQuick

00:14:06.870 - 00:15:37.584

So when we were doing the interview, I know in that business a little bit because the salesperson that I had that we were looking to replace was also in that role. So I understood that role pretty well just from getting to know Joe, the former salesperson, pretty well.

So I asked the Ferrari guy, what's your average ticket for a guy that comes in with a Ferrari.

So if you're not familiar with Ferraris, like sometimes for some of the service, they have to fly a guy in from Italy, from the factory to do things, and they'll say, oh, it's going to be three weeks. We have to fly in Luigi, and he's in Tuscany with his family right now at their villa. And, you know, only he can change the clutch on your Ferrari.

And literally, that's literally the case. So on a Ferrari, like your 1st 5000 miles service could be 15 or 20,000 easily just for not fixing things. Just recommended service.

So he said his average ticket was $3,200, which I almost fell over. I couldn't believe that. That's way lower than I was expecting.

I was expecting, like ten to average guy with his Ferrari comes in, drops it off in the. With the service underwriter, and says, I'm gonna put on my smoking jacket, go outside and have a cigarette, and you tell me what I need for my baby.

And then Anthony was working at a jeep dealership in Santa Monica.

Josh Long

00:15:37.712 - 00:15:40.460

Jeeps. Yeah, jeeps, right? I mean, jeeps.

Tony DeQuick

00:15:40.800 - 00:16:04.630

Jeeps. You know, the Rubicon is probably the most expensive jeep. They're around 60,000, unless you get the a hemi one, which is over 100,000.

But anyway, we asked him the same question. Anthony, what's your average ticket? And he said, it's $5,700. Now, his average ticket is 10% of the vehicle cost.

Josh Long

00:16:08.130 - 00:16:09.830

Right? Yeah.

Tony DeQuick

00:16:10.690 - 00:17:26.392

So that really stood out to me. I was super impressed with that, because average person with a $60,000 vehicle does not want to spend $5,700 when they bring it in for service.

And Josh checked him out, and he was legit. Everything he said was true. He had doubled the sales numbers in that role compared to the previous person.

And the only detractor between number one and number two is number one was 34, and number two was in his fifties, I think late forties. And our clients tend to be older. Id say our average client is definitely over 40. So I was a little apprehensive about hiring somebody younger.

But Josh kind of talked me through the whole process of what I thought was a detractor and gave me the opposite case of what he thought would be a huge benefit of hiring candidate number one. And that turned out to be 100% the case.

So not only was I impressed with fact that he was selling $5,700 worth of service at a jeep dealership in Santa Monica, that he just, his attitude, everything was perfect for the role and that's been the case. He's turned into an absolute rock star.

Josh Long

00:17:26.536 - 00:18:58.180

Yeah. He's been there six months plus and done fantastic. Yeah, I think. I think that's, to me, like, the definition of a closer, right?

Like, you want somebody that has certainty to help people that are already motivated, already interested to take action and get over the line. And as you know, I mean, you and I have gone back a few years, and we've done a lot of consulting around all of this stuff.

Like, you know, I'm not a hard closer. I don't want to have anybody with buyer's remorse.

I don't recommend any of my clients, um, force people into packages or deals that aren't the absolute best interests of that client. So, to me, it's not to be a used car salesman or hard charging Glengarry Glen Ross, always be closing coffee's foreclosers, kind of b's.

It's like, let's find what's actually best for this client, this prospect, and let's give it to them and make them certain that we can deliver.

And I think that's probably one of the biggest things for business owners, is making sure that they have a product that they can stand behind and that the clients are thrilled with and that you have that in spades. Like, the testimonials that you have across all of North America and in Canada proves that point.

So that's the beauty of bringing somebody like Anthony in, is he's able to close with confidence, knowing that Tony and his team is going to fulfill on the back end. They're going to be able to deliver a product that Anthony knows inside and out and can close all day long confidently on.

Tony DeQuick

00:18:58.680 - 00:19:58.578

Yeah, yeah. And one of the upsides that you mentioned with Anthony is he's 34.

I thought that's kind of young, but Josh mentioned, you mentioned Josh, that this guy's going to have vigor and energy to do things that an older salesperson is not going to do. And that's the case. Um, for example, he's in, uh, he's in Florida, and I'm out here in the desert.

So he texted me last night at 10:00 west coast time, which would have been 01:00 a.m. 01:00 a.m. east coast time. Hey, man, um, just let you know I'm getting my, uh, making sure I got my modem set up in case the hurricane comes tomorrow.

So if the hurricane comes, I'm on it, because he knows the other sales guy lives in 45 minutes away from him and that he's not going to do that. If the hurricane comes and takes the power out and the phone's out. He's got a generator, he's got his hotspot.

Josh Long

00:19:58.674 - 00:19:59.154

That's great.

Tony DeQuick

00:19:59.202 - 00:20:40.452

And he's going to just. Yeah. So it's transitioning to the unexpected benefits that you don't know what you don't know.

And I'd say that's something I learned from age and experience and wisdom, is you have to understand you don't know what you don't know. And when it comes to sales people, I understand. I don't know what I don't know.

And that's why I trust Josh, because Josh knows that I don't know what I don't know. And with Anthony, one of the unintended huge positive benefits is I realized having someone like that on the team inspires me to step up my game.

Josh Long

00:20:40.516 - 00:20:42.920

How can I get lights of fire under you? Right?

Tony DeQuick

00:20:43.260 - 00:21:36.560

Yeah. And I joke with people when I'm living in Tulum that or Yana and Tulum that. I'm a Miana shaman. I teach white people the art of Mignana.

They come down here and they suffer from aura and they're all stressed out at first. I teach the marita and then mastarte and Mignana.

And through what Perry teaches, starting with the declutter, is I focus my time on renaissance time and get rid of all of my low dollar work.

And I've been busier with this business in the last six months than I've been in the last ten years because I have Anthony and I'm seeing a much bigger picture now of what we can get into and what we can sell.

Josh Long

00:21:37.260 - 00:21:44.080

You don't have to push, you don't have to drive. You don't have to be the one that forces it to happen. Right?

Tony DeQuick

00:21:45.780 - 00:23:59.052

Yes, to a degree. And I realized there's another bottleneck in the business is I have two engineers.

So I usually come up with an idea, like sketch it on a napkin with coffee spilled on it and take a picture of my phone and say, hey, turn this into a solidworks 3d model. But there's so much of that now because we have so many great new product ideas and new markets. We're going into that. I'm spent.

I've been working 50, 60 hours a week, and I realize I need to hire somebody to help us develop new products and just take some of this off of my plate so I can focus on other things I didn't realize that are restricted now because I have a sales guy that's just pushing it. He's killing it. He's inspiring me. I realized there's so many great new marketing things we can do.

We've have a, uh, this also came out of roundtable, and I think it was either you or Robert talked about, or maybe it was Perry. Um, you know, everyone is digital marketer these days. Uh, click, click, click.

But sending somebody a packet in the mail, like, no one really does that anymore.

Uh, so, uh, Anthony, or actually Joe, the previous sales guy, him and I had gone to the SeMA show, which is the biggest automotive car show in the galaxy, hand selected and vetted 150 really good shops, customers there. Like, either he or I had, like, checked them out, looked at what they do and say, these are the ideal clients for us.

And one of them is, like, the person in that game. Like, they're the shop in that game. They do cars for rockstars.

And actually had one of their employees for a while working in our shop, so I kind of understood more of their business, and I'd been trying to close them for three years, and I didn't want to let our veteran sales guy do it because I knew he just wouldn't have the vigor or the.

Josh Long

00:23:59.236 - 00:24:02.066

Tact diplomacy of the tactical.

Tony DeQuick

00:24:02.128 - 00:24:45.700

Yeah. So, Anthony, I said, I gave him this mission.

I said, if you close these guys, I don't think you understand the benefits, because if we land this customer, I think they have 270,000 followers on Instagram. So Anthony worked at it for about two or three weeks.

He landed them, and they started reposting our stories on their Instagram that Anthony's been doing. And because they did that, all of their customers that buy from them started reaching out to us. So I said, it's things like that.

You don't even know that that's possible.

Josh Long

00:24:46.480 - 00:25:29.770

This is a great example for any business owner of what top performers, how they behave, the things they push. They're constantly pushing, they're constantly innovating, coming up with new ideas, new ways to improve their role, improve the company.

And it's not because top performing salespeople are greedy and mercenaries that just want to get paid more. It's they have this insatiable drive to constantly improve and constantly improve things.

And so if you can make a space for them where they can continue to expand, continue to have more influence, continue to have more reach, continue to create more, and be rewarded financially for it, you've got a rocket ship strapped to the back of your engine now, so.

Tony DeQuick

00:25:30.510 - 00:25:31.570

Absolutely.

Josh Long

00:25:32.950 - 00:25:43.850

Yeah. And when we got in and Anthony got started, and then you started having some issues in the shop, and you're living remotely.

The shop's in Chicago, and talk a little bit about that experience.

Tony DeQuick

00:25:44.710 - 00:27:27.210

Yeah. So I live in Puerto Rico, and the shop is in Chicago. And when I made the transition to Puerto Rico in early 2023, I practiced for a year.

By practice, I was still living in Chicago, but I wouldn't physically go into the shop just so I could let go of that need to physically be there. And I realized that it really came down to trust.

I needed somebody that I could trust that was going to be honest and that wasn't working with the person that was in the role. They'd been great for about five years, but they were going through some personal things and just a bad spot for them in life.

And it was time to make a change. And I reached out to Josh again, and I know Josh, you know, his expertise as salespeople.

But I was so impressed and happy with Anthony, and it was a win win. It was a win for Josh, it was a win for me, it was a win for Anthony. And I thought, how can we make another win win win for everybody involved?

And not only is it a win for Josh when for me, a win for the person we're hiring, it's also a win for the other people that work at the business, because we're bringing in great people. It inspires them because they enjoy coming to work more.

They're more inspired with their work, knowing that there's a kick ass team in place everywhere. And then I decided it was time to hire. Go to Josh again and say, hey, can you hire me an operations person?

Josh Long

00:27:28.030 - 00:28:22.638

Yeah. Shop manager. And so we started that. And unfortunately, in the middle of the process, your current shop manager quit. Yep. Just, just.

And this happens all the time in so many circumstances. You just apply a little bit of accountability, a little bit of pressure, and the bad eggs, the people that aren't going to perform crack and leave.

And it was a blessing in disguise because you weren't without a shop manager for too long. It wasn't like the whole thing fell apart.

You could go back and cover, but it put more pressure on us to find somebody really great and really capable. And so we narrowed it down to two candidates again, like I do, and they both were really good.

The number two candidate, he was managing a Ford manufacturing plant. He was the crew manager, had, like, I don't know how many hundreds of employees under him. And they're building Ford Explorers in his facility.

Tony DeQuick

00:28:22.694 - 00:28:23.190

Yep.

Josh Long

00:28:23.310 - 00:28:29.024

So, like, this. This guy had been there, he'd risen up the ranks. He was a process guy, right?

Tony DeQuick

00:28:29.222 - 00:28:34.280

Yeah. Great fit, great candidate. Understood the role.

Josh Long

00:28:35.300 - 00:28:42.372

Reliable. Like, I mean, reliable like that guy. That guy's reliable, right? Like, that's. That was what I got out of him. Go ahead.

Tony DeQuick

00:28:42.556 - 00:29:00.390

Yeah. Very hands on, you know, hardworking, blue collar dude.

Covered head to toe in tattoos, was like six foot two and, like, 220 pounds and, like, 2% body fat and just not someone that you wanna mess with. Exactly. So he was intimidating.

Josh Long

00:29:00.510 - 00:29:01.890

You'd get instant respect.

Tony DeQuick

00:29:02.350 - 00:29:54.510

Instant respect. Which is great in that role. It can also be a handicap for some people.

Like the previous person, the person that left that we're replacing was the same way. Kind of intimidating. Covered head to toe in tattoos, had a neck tattoo.

And one day he was blasting heavy metal in the shop and the building called me. And it's a huge building. It's a million square feet and we have rent space in it.

And they said, hey, your employee is blasting slayer at like 5000 decibels. And it's like, the neighbors are upset. And I'm like, well, what is he doing? He's in some kind of flow. He's, like, working hard. He's doing something.

I said, well, can you just go tell him to turn it down? And, like, we're afraid to.

Josh Long

00:29:59.170 - 00:30:01.098

There are some downsides. Yeah.

Tony DeQuick

00:30:01.274 - 00:30:04.270

Yeah. So I know I didn't want that again because there was other.

Josh Long

00:30:07.050 - 00:30:08.738

Unintended consequences.

Tony DeQuick

00:30:08.914 - 00:31:03.090

Yeah, it sounds cool. Like, I got this kick ass person, but he had a similar situation with our mail, with the USP's.

The mail lady almost got into a fistfight with her in the parking lot. This is like a 300 pound woman that he's screaming and yelling at. So I knew what I didn't want.

And the candidate that we ended up hiring, Adam, was not that at all. He actually reminds me of Jack McBrayer from Dirty Rock. And I knew that the only downside to him would be that he's too timid.

He doesn't understand how that he's actually a rock star. And Josh mentioned that right away. He's like, this guy.

Josh Long

00:31:03.130 - 00:31:15.210

Yeah, it was obvious. It was obvious profile. Yep.

And I would classify, for those of you listening, like, I would classify that as somebody overly qualified, underperforming on their potential.

Tony DeQuick

00:31:15.950 - 00:31:36.422

Yeah. And I feel like it's my role as a business owner that I develop people to their highest potential possible.

And that means helping them overcome this in a way that's a win for them, a win for me.

Josh Long

00:31:36.566 - 00:31:44.490

It doesn't turn you into a nonprofit. You're not a charity, exactly, but it's a mutually beneficial development path. Right?

Tony DeQuick

00:31:44.790 - 00:32:44.970

Yeah. I like to feel like every person that's worked for me, they leave the campsite better than they found it.

I leave that campsite better than they found it. That was my only concern with this person. And Josh pointed out right away, even before I mentioned it, and I thought, it's not a deal killer.

It's something that I feel I can help him develop personally, and I'm sure it probably affects his personal life, too.

So it's like, how much of a gift can you give somebody to help them overcome their biggest achilles heel, not only in their business life, but in their personal life? And that's been my focus, and I've been giving him feedback where I feel he's ready to handle it in doses that are appropriate.

But I think over time, as he overcomes this, I would say it's a timidity. He's too timid.

Josh Long

00:32:45.270 - 00:33:12.420

Well, and so the fascinating thing was we made him an offer, and then he went back to his current employer is a big chain car service company, and they kind of threw the whole thing at him. They threw everything. They said, well, we've been meaning to promote you. Which is the very typical tactic of large companies.

They offered him significantly more pay than he was making. They offer so much so that Tony's like, he's full of it. He's lying. There's no way they offered him that much money.

Tony DeQuick

00:33:13.360 - 00:33:14.120

Yeah.

Josh Long

00:33:14.280 - 00:33:54.830

And so I had to do some follow up, and this is a very common problem with really good employees when they're leaving a company, is that company will then pull out all the stops to try to keep them there. And so I was talking with him, and he said, yeah, I'm not sure if Tony's really as great as you say he is.

I'm not sure if the company's as great as you say it is. And it was kind of like he'd rather deal with the devil he knew than the devil he didn't know. And so it was really fun that night.

It was probably, I don't know, 09:00 central time in Chicago. And I'm calling Tony and I'm calling Adam, and I'm like, you know what, adam? You need to talk to Anthony. And Anthony's in Florida.

It's 11:00 at night. And I text Anthony.

Tony DeQuick

00:33:55.570 - 00:33:58.818

So Anthony is the salesperson that Josh had hired a few months prior.

Josh Long

00:33:58.874 - 00:34:12.678

Yep. And so Anthony, I'm texting him, and I'm like, hey, you up for talking? And he says, yeah, give him my number.

And so Anthony and Adam talked and Anthony closed. Him not coming to work for Tony because that's what Anthony does, is Anthony closes.

Tony DeQuick

00:34:12.854 - 00:34:13.610

Yeah.

Josh Long

00:34:14.350 - 00:34:18.890

And the next day, Adam put in his notice at the other company and. Go ahead, tony.

Tony DeQuick

00:34:19.670 - 00:34:57.798

Yeah. And it was also one of some of the concerns that Adam had mentioned. I think we're valid.

At the time, I was like, I was a little upset because I don't like to do. I don't like to be a pawn in a bidding war for somebody by upon, I mean, oh, well, they offered me, you know, 20,000 more than you're offering.

So we counter, and then they take that counter to their current employer. And, of course, they countered your counter. So the. I've been in situations before like this where they're just, they don't actually want a new job.

They just want this leverage to get.

Josh Long

00:34:57.894 - 00:35:00.814

To negotiate a better role for better pay for where they're at.

Tony DeQuick

00:35:00.982 - 00:37:04.670

Yeah, exactly.

And when I've been in that position where early on, when I had no clue about how to be a good manager, a good boss, a good mentor to people, I been on that side of it where someone was going to leave and they want more money, and you realize that those people are going to leave anyway after you give them the money. It's something else, usually. So, point being, I was like, you know what? No, we're not going to get into this situation.

I'm not going to get into a bidding war. And Josh said, okay, calm down. So just let me give you my perspective on this. And I think this is totally. It's not a big deal.

I can solve this for you. I can sort it. And I would say, if you hadn't had done that, he would not be working for me.

And I was really upset because I felt like I was getting played. Getting played. And I went and checked out the salaries that this person makes, and I felt like I was correct. But I don't know what. I don't know.

So I didn't want to make a judgment or make a decision based on something that is speculation. So I went with Josh's advice, and it turned out to be correct.

And in retrospect, I think one of the things that turned Adam off was some of my verbiage in the bonus contracts about some things that were in place for the person he was replacing. And I realized that I should never have even put these things on the previous person's bonus requirements.

Like, these are the things you need to do to get your bonus. And they were like things you'd put in, like for your five year old to get like a Hershey's kiss at the end of the weekend.

So the epiphany I had of this whole process is I should never have started doing this three years ago. I should have just fired this person.

Josh Long

00:37:05.690 - 00:37:08.990

You were compensating, right. You're compensating for all this poor performance.

Tony DeQuick

00:37:09.650 - 00:37:17.736

Exactly. I had to put all these checks and balances in place, and I could see how, in retrospect, to see how off putting that was for Adam to.

Josh Long

00:37:17.768 - 00:37:21.980

See those as part of your management style for him to come into.

Tony DeQuick

00:37:22.480 - 00:38:51.890

Yeah. And when he came in to interview, just kind of give you the framework of what was happening. So I live in Puerto Rico.

The existing person kind of knew the end was coming. So on a Friday, he quit. Just quit. Said, I'm done, left his keys and walked out. And June, July, August are busiest times of the year.

So that's not a role that could go vacant for more than a week without some operational problems.

So I flew up to Chicago and I was now doing the operation manager role on top of supporting the new Rockstar Anthony, improving our sales process, developing new products, and being the operations manager. So I was fried. I was working 60, 70 hours a week. I would get to the shop at 09:00 in the morning.

I get back to my Airbnb at 10:00 at night and just wake up in my clothes on the couch the next morning. So I was a bit, was not on my A game, I would say, when Adam came in. So I was a bit terse with him.

And then combined with the verbiage that I had in the bonus requirements, I could see how off putting that was to him. And I totally get it now.

Josh Long

00:38:52.510 - 00:40:04.390

Yeah, no, and it was great. I'm glad he's worked out and I'm glad that.

I think the opportunity, when we looked at the two candidates for the, the shop manager was Adam's, another one of those smart guys that has great ideas.

And knowing Tony as well as I do, Tony will, I knew he would find value in that stimulation and that challenging and that pushing because Tony's a smart guy. Like Tony, Tony can run with the best of them in strategy and innovation and ideas.

And so that was, to me, the big tipping point for going with Adam, who maybe didn't have the operational background that the previous guy did, the other guy did, working at Ford. But he has a lot more upside mentally to challenge Tony and run with Anthony.

And so I see them as a really great three man team leading this company now. And so as you look at the last six months, what's the trajectory been? Where were you before, growth wise? What are you feeling going into 2025?

Tony DeQuick

00:40:05.210 - 00:43:09.408

So before I hired Anthony, our sales climate. So our strong selling season starts the second the Super bowl ends.

I think people in the north have cabin fever and like, okay, football's done, winter's over, it's time to start thinking about spring. So it's almost like what happened? Like, we went from getting x calls a day to four x calls per day.

So usually we see a big jump in sales, second half of February, and then March is. It's usually super strong all the way through the end of September. January was a good month. February was not a good month.

March was not a good month, and April turned out to be a good month. So time wise, we hired Anthony at the end of March. And immediately numbers improved. Immediately. Immediately they improved.

So January, February, March, not great months. Year over year was kind of flat. And actually it was down a little bit compared to year over year.

And the second we hired Anthony, April, May, and June were phenomenal months. Uh, like, there was an immediate improvement. You could see it. We hired Anthony this day, and sales went, like, up.

And then July and August were our best months ever. And not by, you know, it wasn't like we broke our previous sales record in a month by, like, 3%. Uh, we broke it by 15%.

Uh, and August was the same thing. And what is actually crazy is I've always run my Google Ads account myself.

That's actually how I started with planetary in 2010, is learning how to be a marketer and do marketing. And I've always done it myself, and I've managed a lot in ad spend. We spend a lot every month on ads. And in July, I finally hired a firm to do it.

And just kind of their approach is they take Perry's 80 20 approach to ads that people like me don't have the time to really dig into it at a deep level. And they kind of 80 20 your whole ad spend. And it sounded great on paper, and I knew it would take them a while to get up to speed. I.

They actually ended up increasing the cost per click by 20%. And then they came up with all these excuses. Oh, you know, you name it.

Josh Long

00:43:09.544 - 00:43:10.960

Politics, nothing political climate.

Tony DeQuick

00:43:11.000 - 00:44:00.420

Yeah, exactly. The cost per clicks are up year over year, but they just happened to go up 20% the day you guys took over the account.

So my point is, those July and August months were our best months ever. On the wind at our back with our online sales.

So our online conversions went down by 20% in those two months, but because of the Rockstar that counteracted that. So if I think of what could have been, had I not outsourced the Google account. Yeah. To some inept people, it might have been another 510 percent.

Josh Long

00:44:01.080 - 00:44:05.256

That's great. Yeah, that's exciting, man. I think.

Tony DeQuick

00:44:05.288 - 00:44:06.260

Yeah, it's exciting.

Josh Long

00:44:06.640 - 00:44:37.990

I think you've got a lot of opportunities now, like you said, having Anthony coming in, closing big deals, opening new opportunities, getting new channels, new verticals that you can expand into. Like you said, you've done rv. I mean, I know there's a whole lot of other opportunities in automotive. So, yeah, I'm excited for you. So glad.

Thanks for taking the time. Thanks for taking the time to talk through this, share your story.

I love celebrating with you and excited to help you keep adding to your team over time.

Tony DeQuick

00:44:38.410 - 00:44:47.290

Yeah, I have no doubt I'll be using Josh again in the near future. And once again, it's going to be a win win win for all parties involved.

Josh Long

00:44:48.070 - 00:44:49.130

Thanks, Tony.

Tony DeQuick

00:44:49.630 - 00:44:50.622

Thank you, Josh.

Josh Long

00:44:50.766 - 00:45:02.240

This podcast theme music is an excerpt from Triptych of Snippets by Septahelix. It's used under creative commonsense.