As business owners, we often spend months of effort and thousands of dollars to land a new client, but then do almost nothing to retain our current clients by showing them the slightest amount of appreciation.
“Studies have shown that 68% of customers leave because of a perceived attitude of indifference on the part of the company. Perception is everything.” Forbes
My guest this week, Joe Kenemore, CEO of Mailbox Power, says that is an absolute shame. Especially when his company makes it so easy and inexpensive to show your best clients a little love once or twice a year.
Tune in to this week’s Radio Free Enterprise episode to learn how you can easily and consistently show your customers, employees, vendors, and partners how much they mean to you – right from your computer or mobile device.
Learn more about Mailbox Power: https://bit.ly/3iFHNYo
What follows is a computer-generated transcript of our entire conversation. Please excused any typos!
Frank Felker 00:23
Thank you, Dude Walker. Yes, indeed. I am Frank Felker. Welcome back to Radio Free Enterprise.
My guest today is Joe Kenmore Joe, CEO of Mailbox Power. And he’s calling in from Lehi, Utah. Joe Kenmore, welcome to Radio Free Enterprise.
Joe Kenemore 00:41
Awesome. I am excited to be here, Frank, let’s do this thing. You know, I show a lot of energy. So sorry, I hope your audience is ready.
Frank Felker 00:49
Well, ready or not, here we come. And, yeah, I’m aware of your energy level. And it’s one of the many reasons I’m so glad you’re here today, Joe, really appreciate you taking the time to do this. Okay, so we got a lot of ground to cover, I want to start with this. When I first saw a Mailbox Power, I got it immediately. And I signed right up, I was two or three or four months ago. And I’ve been using it in a number of creative ways. But I got to assume that most people watching or listening, are not aware of Mailbox Power, and so they don’t get it. What, what is the elevator speech you share with people?
Joe Kenemore 01:22
Well, I don’t know if I have an elevator speech. But boy, I can tell you what Mailbox Power is all about. So let’s do this. Listen, Mailbox Power is a customer engagement platform. And what we really do is it’s relationships, it’s retention, it’s referrals. It’s really result oriented, result oriented marketing. And we use the mailbox and not the inbox. And I’m not saying don’t use the inbox, what I’m saying is, is the mailbox is a very effective tool, when you really take a look at our technology and how it functions.
We turn bystanders into customers, and we take existing customers, and we create kick ass customer experiences for companies. So customers don’t feel like another number, they actually feel important to the company, they feel important to that company that they’re buying a good or service from, let’s take an insurance agent, for instance, an insurance agent, you know, all they do really is their hands out all the time for premium, it’s here’s my premium notes, premium notice premium notes, you know, pay me 80. Right, right. And that’s typical for that space, they didn’t create a relationship, something that that was stands the test of time.
And we look at people who are in a commission-based business, what they’re really, really trying to do is create a long term or forever relationship. And that is the expertise that we deliver here at Mailbox Power through an automated system, that we’ve also realized that folks don’t want to sit down and pound out on you know, a handwritten card every day, well, hold on 2% of the population will do it. But the other 98%, we are here to help you. You know, our system is very automated, where you can click on a link and somebody’s name somewhere and it automatically fires off an order for you just a done deal.
Frank Felker 03:14
Well, and it is highly automated. And there’s all kinds of incredibly interconnected aspects to it. It also integrates with a lot of third-party apps, I don’t think we’re going to be able to cover all that ground Joe. So I want to start at sort of a 40 or stay at a 40,000-foot level. Okay, Mailbox Power, you’re engaging with clients and prospects, retention, recognition, etc, etc. What kind of great stuff are we able to put in these people’s mailboxes?
Joe Kenemore 03:43
Oh, my goodness. Are you kidding me? Wow, dad, that was a softball, Frank. But thank you. I appreciate that. I’ve got my bat out and I’m ready. All right.
Frank Felker 03:53
Well, hit it out of the park.
Joe Kenemore 03:55
Well listen, let’s start out with just greeting cards. I probably have. There are seven offerings in our greeting card category alone, regular five by seven greeting card with a regular envelope. And then we move on to three other options that include the option to print right on the envelope one at a time, you don’t have to order 30,000 or 10,000 or even 1001 at a time. And having control that envelope is a big deal. I have what’s called a Giga gram. It’s an 8 x 11. A greeting card it is huge, and it makes an impact, and you get control of that envelope as well.
And then our postcard offerings and our postcard offerings are absolutely amazing. four by six and two other larger sizes. I mentioned the four by six for a reason. because it brings us a lot of customers around one thing our pro members don’t pay for the four by six postcards, they just pay for the postage, so free four by six postcards. For our you no group of pro members, no other products. Oh my gosh,
Frank Felker 04:53
if I may want to stop you there because I just want to stick with the printing for a minute. Because as you and I discussed it previously. In a previous life, I was Johnny Digital Printing. And I am amazed. In particular, the Custom Printed exterior envelopes on the baronial cards. I just I just, that just blows my mind. And it is powerful in terms of open rates and impact on the recipient. So we get notecards beautifully printed full color inside now you name it, folded, stuffed, sealed address stamped, yeah, yeah. And then yeah,
Joe Kenemore 05:29
I’ve got a couple of examples here, too. And I’d really Frank, if you don’t mind, I’d like to talk about some technology that we have that no one else has, right. And I also want to talk about the psychology of somebody’s going to their mailbox. And why. Why do people that are using Mailbox Power have the conversion rate that they do, and there’s a lot of reasons behind it. But let me start here. This is a postcard simple postcard, right?
But as you can see at the top, that’s my name in the headline, Joe, we can make your problems go away, and my name isn’t headline. Now, I’m going to stop right there. And I’m going to talk about the psychology of a human that goes to the mailbox. Now. I’m going to admit my age, I’m 56 years old, I’m going to I’m going to say a couple things here really quick, Frank, and hopefully your audience will understand. When I go to the mailbox, you know, when you go to the mailbox, what are you looking for, you’re looking for your name, that’s what you’re looking for, you’re not looking for your spouse’s name, your children’s name, your neighbor’s name, you’re looking for your name. And some of us at my age, I’m still looking for checks with my name on it, but they’re not their deposit.
So anyway, that’s all that’s all good. But the truth is, when I get something like this in the mail, and it’s got my name, right on the top of it, the very first thing I ask is, who knows me? Why did they send me something? Now this card, this card went out and did a dance for a handyman service. And they sent out I don’t know, I think 900 of these things, and it brought them back $19,000 in business. Now, I have to say this as well. $19,000. Do you know what the number one question they got was? How did I get my name? Oh, how did you get my name? That was the number one question.
Now. With that being said, I got it. I’m going to show you a couple of, you know another example here. What about this one? Right in the headline, Larry, you deserve the best Indian cuisine in Las Vegas for dinner tonight. Okay, back of the card, ah, a QR code. It takes them to the menu. It converts them from a physical piece of mail to a digital customer of some kind. We’ve connected the dots between the mailbox and the digital world. And that’s one of the things we’re doing now. I want to just take a peek at this really, this is one of those Giga gram envelopes. And I want you to pay attention to something really quick. What does it say right there? Nice Kelly. Right? Is the homeowner. And that is Kelly’s home right there on the envelope. Hey, I
Frank Felker 07:59
Hey, I agree, nice Kelly.
Joe Kenemore 08:00
There is no way that Kelly will not will be able to leave this envelope or throw in the trash. He is opening this sucker up guaranteed 100% open rate. And that’s kind of what we’re after. We’re after that open rate as marketers, you know, Frank, I think a lot of the marketers if you’re a marketer, and you’re listening to my voice right now, I have a I have things that have 100% open rates. Unlike email 100% open rates, if you send a package to somebody, it’s a 100% open rate, they are going to open it, their eyeballs are going to be on your message. And that’s really what counts in this whole thing.
Frank Felker 08:37
A couple of things I’d like to pick up on that you just talked about. One was the handyman and you said they sent out 900. But I want to make sure people understand they could have sent just one that’s crazy, customized full color with all the impact 1000 100 million they could have sent.
The next thing is with the QR code, one of the things that I put in the card is a QR code that goes to a video. So it’s like a video postcard a video note card. And of course that’s a personalized video for that person. And which brings us to you know how much time and effort should be put into the customization and so forth. And I’d like to just touch on that. Let’s if we could have your thoughts about what is the worth of retaining or acquiring a really great A-List customer.
Joe Kenemore 09:34
I couldn’t agree more. And maybe it’s not even A-List Frank, you know, when you really talk about retaining a customer. What we like to talk about is what is the lifetime value of a customer to your company and to you. And again, I’m going to go back to commission sales folks. And let’s talk about an insurance agent who’s selling a policy. And that policy is worth $250 annually to that insurance agent $250 annually. For a 10-year period of time is 20 $500. Would any of you that are receiving $250 a year for in commissions from somebody be willing to take a small amount of that and invest it into the retention of that customer?
You know, my understanding is, is that it’s relationships is what makes people stick around. It’s what make people stick to a business, it’s what the, it’s the sticky binding glue is that I have a relationship with somebody, I can pick up the phone and call somebody, there’s a warm voice. On the other side, there’s somebody there that cares about me, there’s somebody over there that was willing to send me a gift, there was somebody over there at that company, who recognized and acknowledged how important my business was to that business. It made me feel good, it made me feel important as the customer, those customers, they don’t cheat on you, they don’t leave on you, they will call you and add more business to your to the line of business that you sell. And that is pretty much the whole deal around everything that we’re speaking to Frank.
We’re in a Thank You Economy right now, literally a Thank You Economy, things have changed. If you are not thinking your customers, somebody else will. And I can promise this, they will eventually hear my voice and my message. And I think take advantage of my voice and my message and Mailbox Power, you are going to be at a complete disadvantage at that point. Because I’m going to tell you right now, people will switch for $1 in a second. But they will not switch if there’s a relationship involved, they will not cheat on you, they will not leave you.
And I’m speaking to every person in sales and every business out there. I’m even speaking to the HR person at a company. It’s a tough deal right now to get new employees, it’s a tough deal even keep the employees. And you know why? Because they don’t feel valued. They don’t feel appreciated,
Frank Felker 11:51
if you would just speak to that the recognition, employee recognition, impact that Mailbox Power can have for a company of any size.
Joe Kenemore 11:59
Oh, my goodness, recognition is such a big deal, I got to tell you, about a third of the conversations I’m engaged with on a weekly basis right now have to do with employee retention. And it’s not just employee retention, where we talk about recognition, but employee retention is a big deal right now, recognize an employee, a brand-new employee, imagine they’re in an onboarding. They’re onboarding into a new company.
And let’s say they got hired on a Friday, and they show up at you know, the first day of work on Monday. Well, by that following Friday, they get a greeting card in the mail with a gift from the owner or CEO of the company that just says, Hey, I appreciate you being a part of our family. I’ve heard great things about you. And I really, really look forward to meeting you someday soon. And I wish you all the best on your journey with our company. Imagine how that employee is going to feel right out of the gate. from on high, they get a message and a gift, you know, from an owner.
And maybe the following week, they get a message and a gift from the person they directly report to. And then on their birthday, they get a birthday card and a gift. And guess what the folks in HR don’t have to remember, we do we remember for you, we’re the ones who take care of all that all that stuff. We package it, personalize it, send it out, it doesn’t have our brand on anything, it looks like a glove that, for me, this is the deal.
And let’s talk recognition for a minute in other spaces, direct sales, direct sales, we are so perfectly fit for direct sales, it is incredible. You know what they say in direct sales that behavior recognized and rewarded is a behavior that will be repeated. I’ll say it again, a behavior that is recognized and rewarded will be repeated. And that’s one of those things in direct sales. Somebody signs up their first customer. And all of a sudden in the mail, what do they get? They get a greeting card saying wow, what a great job. I wasn’t expecting this. This is wonderful. I can’t believe you’re that this into your business.
But what are they going to do? They’re going to repeat that behavior because they were just rewarded for something that they went well, I’m going to go do that again. And what about who signed up their first business partner? I mean, boom, let’s reward them. What about their first customer? What about you know, they rank advance they did whatever it is that they did, you know, recognition, what do they say? babies cry for it and grown men die for it. I it’s the truth. You know, I mean, it’s the truth, it’s recognition. And we all want to be recognized for the great job that we do, and the communities that we serve.
Frank Felker 14:36
I’m so happy I’m already a customer. Because I’m getting fired up.
Joe Kenemore 14:42
Good friend. Good. I’m glad to hear it. I hope your audience is listening in they understand. You know, what we’re speaking to the mailbox is a very, very powerful mechanism to communicate with your employees, your customers, the customers that you don’t know Frank, I’d love to talk about that for a minute prospecting. No need to prospect Through the mailbox. Yeah. And can I talk about that for a minute?
Frank Felker 15:03
I wish you would.
Joe Kenemore 15:04
Okay, awesome. Here’s the deal. In mailbox pal, we have a couple of things going on. And I’m going to talk about two things. I’m going to talk about a prospecting campaign. And I’m going to talk about our list builder. And I’m going to start by talking about our list builder. Imagine you’re a realtor. And the one thing you want to do, you’ve just listed a home for sale, and you represent the seller. And you want to find the buyer because you love commission so much, which is why I love you, right? This is why I really like them, we should vote, they want to double dip on the Commission’s because and I want them to win this, I want them to win. so desperately, I wanted to double dip on the Commission’s all day long, I want to represent the seller and the buyer.
Now how would I find that buyer, the perfect buyer, the laser targeted lead, and you don’t have to get on the phone and start cold calling and you don’t have to door knock, that those days are over folks don’t have to do that. So what my recommendation is this, you get into our list builder. And what you do is you go to the area code or the address of the home you’re selling, that you’re representing. And you create a list. And when you create a list, you can identify who you want to work with, by their income, by their credit score, by their net worth, can they write a check for a down payment?
I mean, these are just three items of probably hundreds of things you can actually choose from, do they rent right now you could find that out. So I could do renters that have an income that have a credit score and a net worth, or they can write a check for down payment. Now, how would you like to talk to those people and those people alone, and those leads, by the way, are less than 10 cents apiece, less than 10 cents apiece, and you get those names and those addresses. And you could keep reaching out to those folks at will whenever you want.
And realtors I’m speaking to you right now directly. You guys are crushing it right now. You can list a home and you’ll have 20 offers. I mean, it’s crazy. It’s going to adjust. Yeah. And when it does, tell me what your customer experience is like. Tell me those folks you sold homes to? Are they giving you referrals right now because you did such a great job. Probably not, doesn’t happen often.
I got to tell you, for the realtors out there. I have a campaign. And it’s called the ultimate closing gift. When you engage this ultimate closing gift sends a gift every 90 days for two and half years to that homeowner. And it’s not just any gift, the third gift that goes out, we help us by start asking for referrals. It’s a tape measure, an actual full blown yellow tape measure, right? With the realtor’s logo and the homeowners name on it. And the greeting card says how do we measure up? If we measure up to expectations? We love referrals. That’s the deal? Yeah. Do you have a company you’re working with? That’s actually helping you engage with your customers ask for referrals.
And I like to put it like this. Frank, are you ready? This is what I like to tell everybody. I want to put helium in the hands of every one of your customers helium. So when somebody in a circle says hey, do you know a good realtor? Oh, I got the best realtor on the planet. So fast because there’s helium in it that we help you put in that hand. They cannot help but to give you that referral because you have treated them like no one else has ever treated them before. What happens with realtors, I get this crappy basket of dried crackers, bad cheese and maybe a bad bottle of wine is the typical $40 closing basket. And in today’s day and age with a home selling average home selling price of $300,000, $400,000. That’s all I get?
Frank Felker 18:39
Yeah, that’s it, they’re getting a five-figure commission and you’re getting a crappy basket.
Joe Kenemore 18:43
Right. And for a couple hundred bucks, they can engage this ultimate closing gift. And they don’t have to think about it.
Frank Felker 18:49
This is the perfect place for me to interject and try to transition. So real quick, because I’ve seen your training on this ultimate closing gift over the course of two and a half years. All the great stuff. And we’ll come back to all the great stuff that you send them. What’s the total budget on that as I recall, it was like $200 or something like that?
Joe Kenemore 19:09
That’s about it. It’s about 200 bucks. And you can make adjustments to it. You could send different things. It could be $500. could be it could be $1,000. Or it could be 100 bucks, depending on what you want.
Frank Felker 19:18
Let’s use that as an example, a $200 investment spread out over two and a half years – and you only pay as you go – to keep a client that was worth five figures in commissions and could be worth their weight in gold and referrals and repeat business. So anyway, let me let me I know that gets you fired up, but I got to stop you for a second.
Joe Kenemore 19:38
Yeah, yeah. I missed another piece too. Oh my gosh, Frank, but keep going. Let’s go.
Frank Felker 19:43
Oh, I’m sorry. I might want to take a note. But here’s what I’m driving at. A lot of people – I always try to put myself in the seat of the viewer or the listener – “Yeah, yeah, yeah, Joe, this sounds great, but it sounds expensive. And you know, I don’t know whether I can afford this!” So we touched on the value of acquiring and retaining a client And we’re talking about it’s not as much as you think. So let’s just start here because I also want to transition from the printing gifts to the more elaborate gifts.
A pro membership and Mailbox Power is $49 a month, and it includes up to 50 free – included notecards. Postage is always extra, we got to pay the USPS, we can’t expect Joe to handle that for us. No unlimited four by six postcards. And I’ve seen you throw down the gauntlet and tell people go ahead order 100,000 postcards, see what happens. And so there’s all that stuff, plus that we can use the tool to build lists, there’s a separate tool, people finder where you can find an individual person that you want to send all kinds of stuff, $49 a month.
Now, if you want to put together and you could put together this program you just spoke of if it was all just notecards, there would be no additional cost other than the postage over the two and a half years. But then you also have some unbelievable gifts that are so cool. And some of them are so clever, and some of them are so funny. So if you would, you can certainly go in with whatever it was you were about to say. But the next place I’d like to go is for you to talk about the gifts. I mean, they’re amazing.
Joe Kenemore 21:21
Perfect, perfect. So the one thing I missed. So we talked about building a list. And I missed this piece. And this just is a great segue. So thank you, Frank. So the one thing I didn’t talk about, do you know the name of that big customer that you want to talk to that potential big customer, and you know who you want to talk to, you know who it is that signs the decision maker, on whatever it is that you’re selling the goods or services that you’re selling, and you just don’t know how to get ahold of them. You don’t have that inroad. That’s what else we kind of specialize in. It’s called a prospecting campaign. I have several of them.
We have one we used to communicate to realtors, it’s 10 touches. It puts something in their mailbox every four days, for 40 days. You think there’s a way anyway, anyhow, that that person wouldn’t know exactly who I am 40 days, Not a chance. And this prospecting campaign cost about 50 bucks, but it’s almost bulletproof. Like every single if you know what to say, that person is going to call you even if they don’t know you. They’re going to call you eventually. Right?
I have a prospecting campaign for myself right here at Mailbox Power. And what I use this prospecting campaign for is this. It’s seven touches every four days for 28 days, it’s seven touches, and every single touch is a package. And this was designed for me to communicate to chief marketing officers to VPS of sales to offer in a position that might be able to go Oh yeah, I really like that. Now here’s where this transitions into the gift thing because if you think this is just about greeting cards and postcards, you would be extremely disappointed because that’s only one section of nine that we have and all of our gifts are personalized.
We can go right into gourmet foods, gourmet foods that are actually personalized. The brownie label is personalized. It has you can put whatever you want on the label that goes on the brownies or the cake bites or the Belgian mint truffles, or whatever it is in our section of gourmet foods. Almost everybody loves chocolate. The statistics are out there it’s 99% of the population they’ll eat it for sure there’s sugar in it’s like crack cocaine is really good stuff that bread the brownies are a no brainer. I got to tell you, I There are over 10,000 of them in my freezer in the back. You know what I mean? That is the deal is those brownies.
But then we move along to drink where a personalized coffee mug for $10.99 for our pro members $10.99 one mug, printed and shipped the next business day. There is no other place you can buy that no other place. But then we start talking about laser engraved gifts, leather wine boxes with all the tools and the top charcuterie boards. I mean all kinds of just great, great gifts that could really fit any customer.
We have prints. We have pet gifts we have. We have gifts that are just amazing. And when I say personalized, everything’s personalized. I just want you to imagine this. As a matter of fact, I’m going to grab this box that I have right here. This is the box, and it says trying to earn brownie points. No. I ordered this for my friend Susan. And it says prepared especially for right here. Susan Thomas. There it is prepared especially for Susan Thomas.
Now inside of the box. I just want you to pay special attention to a couple things. laughter is the best medicine is what the card on the outside. It has my picture on the inside. All right. And it says dear Susan, they say that laughter is the best medicine they lied. It’s brownies. Please enjoy your friend girl. Okay, on the back, it says brownies alamode put one of these things in the microwave. But what I want you to look at is this. Imagine this the brownie that shows up trying to earn brownie points bait, especially for Susan. Right? There’s a foldable phone holder in here as well. But what I wanted to share is, it’s the foldable phone holder actually is personalized as well. And it would have their name right on the bottom of it laser engraved. So it’s a gift set. And you can’t tell me a customer wouldn’t think you just went to the end of the earth to get the gift set like that for them. That is all personalized as well.
Frank Felker 25:35
And I want the people to understand because I have not sent the phone holder. But I have sent that set with the brownies and the customized gift box and the note card and inserted. And then it ships out two-day express. And the whole schmear is $17, including the shipping. The shipping cost more than the product. And the impact that it has on people is astounding.
Joe Kenemore 26:03
It is if you want your phone to ring. It’s what we do. If you want your phone to ring from existing customers giving you referrals, if you want your phone to ring with new people that you don’t know, you need some new prospecting, you want to take control of your leads, and stop guessing this is the spot. I mean, this really works that mailbox is a phenomenal place for engagement in 2021 and beyond. I think that all the millennials, the United States Postal Service to a survey that really clearly identified that millennials love getting things in the mail. They love seeing their name on it,
Frank Felker 26:40
about that survey
Joe Kenemore 26:42
is just that I’m being you know, you look at the survey, and it’s like, wow, they not only do they love it, but the engagement, the actual engagement. I am willing to bet everybody hearing my voice right now, Frank, are you ready for this? Every single person that’s hearing my voice right now has probably gone to a business or a service from something they got in their mailbox. I almost guarantee. I’m sure statistics are so high. All I got to say is Pizza Pizza. It’s going to show your mailbox, you know, it is you’ve probably bought from it before.
And if you didn’t buy from it You were reminded to buy. And that’s kind of the key is that did you know everybody has a place in their home for a meal for their male friend. That’s another citizen from the United States. But I know you just thought What? Oh, yeah, I’ve got I know where I put my mail.
Did you know that mail stays in the home for an average of 17 days? Why did you know that? The average email last point seven seconds. Let’s figure this out. So it’s really a big deal. And the other thing is this the engagement 135% engagement when you have somebody’s name on the piece of direct mail 135%, which means they engage with it probably more than once the first time they see their name and go, who is it and what’s going on? Well, I’m going to keep that this goes over in the keep stack because they had my name on the track. Right? You know the deal?
Frank Felker 28:04
Well, there’s usually you know, left-hand right-hand trashcan. But when your name is on there, what do you throw in your own name away? No, you know? No, sir. No, sir. Not at all. Well, I wanted to ask you about a couple of specific success stories. One way turns out I don’t know, I just realized is Steve Angeline. His office is like in the same zip code where I’m sitting right now. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Isn’t that something but anyway, Oh, my goodness. I see all of his videos.
So he has a he’s a real estate agent. And one of his specialties is getting listings from FSBOs for sale by owners. And I’ve been marketing to or helping real estate agents’ market for so long. That FSBO was practically tattooed on the back of my head. And it’s a seems like great hunting grounds. But those FSBOs are hard to turn. And yet Steve’s using Mailbox Power to turn an amazing number of those for sale by owners into listings. What’s the story he’s told you that you’d like to share?
Joe Kenemore 29:05
Why it’s not just a story. I’ve dug in his account. He shared it with me. I’ve watched him I know exactly what he’s doing. And clearly for me in the word FSBO I thought it was a frisbee I figured out it wasn’t last year and went Oh, for sale by owner got it check. Anyway. It Steve Angeline is you know, he’s an amazing you know, businessman and he found us and what he figured out is if you will put the FSBO home on the front of the postcard. The homeowner will engage with that piece of direct mail.
So what he figured out is that he put together a system to send these free postcards out to these for sale by owners. And what happens is people collect these postcards and he sold I believe it was $7 million in sales last year. Just because of the postcards, and the Mailbox Power system, no more cold calls, no more door knocking none of that stuff. It’s all gone. And its cost for that business was about $2,200 only reasons total cost.
Now I’m staring right now. And I have a postcard that he sent out. And he sent 14 of them. His cost was $8.53. His return on investment was $1.2 million in sales, and a pending sale for $600,000 on these postcards. Well, that ROI is almost unheard of. And in this world, in that FSBO world, Steve is just crushing it and doing a great job. He gets it. We have a realtor group on Facebook, that where if you’re a realtor, and you’re a Mailbox Power user, you’re invited. We’d love to have you there. And this is where you can learn the successes of other realtors who have been using our platform for two years. It’s you know, I mean, we have some rank, you know, not just rank and file, but we have some absolute experts.
So Steve Angeline is an absolute expert Brendon Moe Brennan, absolute expert, Kelly Wheeler, absolute expert, Jim McCord, absolute expert and author. We even have his book here on you know, how to get the job done. I’ve seen that Yeah, and the crazy, I mean, these people are with us. And they’re using our platform, they understand it. And they’re trying to tell the whole world that it’s like this, like no, listen, you know, if you want you don’t let’s talk about farming your area and a realtor, right?
You know, most of the time No, please don’t laugh too hard about this. But most of the postcards you get from a realtor kind of look like this. Hi, my on the planet. Here’s all my attributes as a realtor call me. Well, why am I going to call you you’re trying to sell to me, what we teach our realtors is this, we teach you to pour value into your potential customers lives. Imagine if that same postcard showed up. But it didn’t have the picture of the realtor on it. Maybe it was on the back of the card, it was much smaller, but the value you pour into that customer’s life, his curb appeal, how it can affect the value of your home. This is what we’re going to talk about on this postcard, and it calls them out right on the front.
You know, Frank, did you know that curb appeal can add the raise the value of your home by 10%. And on the back of the card it talks about how they could use curb appeal what they could do to have a better curb appeal that all of a sudden changes the game and pouring value not taking. Don’t be a taker give Yeah, stop low going up. Stop putting your picture on everybody,
Frank Felker 32:42
Stop telling me you’re a member of the chairman’s club, I doesn’t matter for me. Right? what you’re talking about. There is something I try to encourage clients to do, which is to switch from salesman to the generous educator and sincere advocate for the success and trusted authority on the topic that you can turn to for answers to your questions without obligation. And that’s exactly the way Steve positions himself in those FSBO cards, which is nice. It’s 180-degree mirror image of the other agents that are trying to call these FSBO.
So it’s it really that’s the thing is the creative use of it is where the real power is in your system. And I just want to say one more thing about Steve. Steve hasn’t been a realtor that long. When I first became aware of yours in a totally different business, not even two years. Is that right? I didn’t realize that. Yeah, it’s crazy, isn’t it? Well, so it’s a natural Mailbox Power natural for real estate agents who can use it correctly or get themselves in the right mindset? What about some other vertical industries that you’ve seen success with?
Joe Kenemore 33:56
So realtors, insurance agents, direct sellers, it’s any business really. But those three have really crushed it. And really, the service businesses are really just cranking it up there right now. They’re showing up on the scene, the handyman, the pool cleaners, the landscapers, those types of services that involve that home, where they can use our list builder and connect directly to the homeowner, that homeowner in an area where, you know, maybe that pool cleaner knows that this air, every home has a pool in this area, and this is a rich target environment for them. And then they go out and find those people with a good credit score.
And you know, they find out the end you can even find out if somebody even has a pool or not or whether they have a pet or not. There’s so many reasons and ways that you can use it. But definitely, you know, those marketplaces are going gangbusters and truthfully, Frank, I mean, what I’m doing right now to grow this business is find new vertical markets that we can support and serve and we’re going out And finding thought leaders there and getting the information we need to create the campaigns, the automated, you know, things that need to be used in those arenas, creating them. And then you know, giving it to that marketplace.
Frank Felker 35:14
Well, here’s an unusual niche podcast. So I use, I send out a gift to people after the show, which is going to be really difficult in your case, Joe, because obviously, you probably have every gift that Mailbox Power offers in spades already, so I’m creative. But I have found that it has a big impact on people. And one of the things that I do is use the graphics, that one of the graphics that I create for their appearance, and put it on a ceramic mug, that’s a real winner. And also, you know, putting their face on the label of the brownies is always a good one. But I’ll think of something it’s going to it’ll have to probably be a gag gift is what I’m going to do. Well, I’m not too worried about it. You’re pretty creative creature. So yeah, I think you’re fine.
All right now let’s talk about speaking of creative, creative reasons to connect. You know, one of the reasons people I don’t know slow down or get back up is, well, I don’t know what to send or when to send something to somebody. So it’s some training recently, that you and Vanessa done back in March, that talked about creative times to connect, like half birthdays. And other times, would you tell us I know, birthdays and happy birthdays are very near and dear to you. You maybe tell us a little bit about that. And then other times we could reach out that would impact me.
Joe Kenemore 36:39
Okay, I’m going to start here, Frank, with the basics. If every single company would do two things, just two things with Mailbox Power, I promise your business will increase. And these are the two things number one, when you get a new customer, the very first thing you’re going to do is you’re going to send them a gift and profusely thank them for becoming a customer, you’re going to let them know how important they are to your business, and how important they will be to your future business. And really just profusely thank them with a gift, not just a greeting card, a greeting card and a gift. Now most transactions will support, you know, somewhere between seven and $10, which is pretty much what it would cost you to send a greeting card and a gift to somebody and profusely thank them for their business. That was number one.
Number two, I want you to recognize them on their birthday, and their half birthday. And this can just be a greeting card, their birthday and their half birthday. Now I know some of you are out there snickering at me right now. Half birthday, Joe. Nobody’s sober there have partitions. We were 12. What are you talking about? Well, here’s what I’m talking about. I’m talking about getting into your customers mailbox and letting them know how important they are to you. I’ve asked this question often. And I asked it every week of somebody, how many birthday cards Did you get on your birthday? And you know what the answer typically is? One, I often get a lot of zeros and twos, and maybe a three. But it’s one is the typical. Imagine if you were that one.
Your customers see the birthday card from you. from you. You were the unique one that celebrated their life. You celebrated their birthday. you celebrate the lives of your customers on their birthday, and their half birthday and let’s talk about that half birthday thing really quick because a lot of people have kind of joke that’s crazy talk. I would never want you to think about this.
Your customer doesn’t even know when their half birthday is. They have no idea. But our system knows and it’s automatic here. We send that card out that that my half birthday card gets more action than any other card I send out. No Kid it is strangest thing. I get more responses on my Haha, it’s my half birthday. Thank you so much for the card. It’s just one of those things that people are just like, unexpected. you’re reaching out in kindness, you’re not selling anything. Sure, put your logo on the back of the card, no big deal. You definitely want him to know who it came from. Just don’t over blow that up. You know what I mean? Just, you know, understate your brand is typically what I say but just to it’s two things. You should be thanking your customers profusely for their business anyway. Right?
And number two, if you recognize them their birthday and Happy birthday, you are in a winning position. Just right there, done, done deal. Now you could start thinking about some other things. What about their anniversary of the first day you did business with them? And you let them know that hey, you know, this is the anniversary of us getting together and doing business. I’m so happy to be in business with you, you know for another year. I hope this continues for the rest of our lives. How are you going to say no to and cut that person off and stop doing business with them unless they completely screw something up.
Frank Felker 39:58
They’re not. I’ve helped a number of people become first time authors and bestselling authors. And I send them cards on the anniversary of their published date or their bestseller date and that kind of thing. And I know that has a really big impact.
Joe Kenemore 40:14
It’s massive. I mean, it’s so crazy that, you know, it’s such a small thing. It’s not even the greeting card, it’s the message that’s on the greeting card. Unfortunately, in this digital world we’re in right now. You don’t get the chance to have everybody read that message in an email, but you do in the mailbox. And that’s kind of the key here, that really just letting people know, they’re important to you, letting your customers know, they’re important to you, and doing it in so many different ways that, you know, it just gets creative, you know, at that time.
You know, when there’s other times, you know, when they lose some, they lose their dog, they lose a loved one, the spouse, I mean, you know, there are many reasons to reach out many, many reasons, you know, people get married and have babies, there’s all just all kinds of stuff. And, you know, to send a greeting card for 50 cents plus postage, are you kidding me? like you’d miss that opportunity?
Frank Felker 41:05
I have a little campaign queued up for August 20, which national radio day. I’m going to put a picture of an old radio on the front and make sure it’s personalized, like you should. But I’ll get a few yucks out of that.
We’re starting to run out of time here. If somebody wants more information about Mailbox Power. In fact, I want to in sake of transparency, let people know that I am an affiliate partner of Mailbox Power, but it’s only because I believe in it so much. And I like to share it with people. But people can go directly to Mailbox Power comm if you’d like to help support Radio Free Enterprise, you can go to https://MailboxPower.com/frankfelker Is there any place else that people should go, if they’re looking for more information about your company?
Joe Kenemore 42:02
Sure, you know, they can go to our YouTube page, there’s tons of information there, right on our website. If you pay attention, when you’re there, you can just click on you know, what can I send, and it’ll show you the pricing and all the products that you can choose all kinds of things there. But frank, I want to add one more thing. You know, we have a 14-day free trial. And in that 14-day free trial of our pro account, you get everything, all the bells and whistles, all the technology, you go build a list, you can send stuff out, you can send free postcards out even on this 14-day free trial, the only thing you don’t get is the 50, free greeting cards. And that’s okay. If you want them, you can skip the trial and get going right now.
But the truth is, we put that trial in place. So you could bounce around in our system, you could figure out what it is you may want to send before you commit to that, you know, before you commit to the account. And by the way, we do charge your card 10 bucks, that’s so you can send something out of our system. And if you don’t want it, you don’t have to sit on hold, there’s a big yellow Cancel button, you’ll be able to find it really easily. We’re one of those types of companies, you know, if you can start the account yourself, you can finish it yourself. You can cancel, right, so you can cancel at any time.
Frank Felker 43:08
And also there’s no obligation to become an affiliate? No excuse.
Joe Kenemore 43:19
No. And yeah, absolutely, you can become an affiliate for free as well. There’s no charge for you to become an affiliate. It’s a great program. You know, we just want folks to share, you know, share and share alike. You know, I mean three people, you know, that you know, encourage to use Mailbox Power in your accounts paid for that’s kind of the deal. It’s really, really simple. But we just love our platform. And most mostly what we love is we’re out celebrating people’s lives every day and we’re helping others, you know, do that we’re helping businesses understand that they have to celebrate the lives of their customers and have to let them know how important they are.
Frank Felker 43:52
We’re just about out of time, as I say, but there’s something that you share frequently. that I think would make for a great closing thought, which has to do with the quotation from Mary Kay Ash of Mary Kay cosmetics. Could you share that with us?
Joe Kenemore 44:07
Yes, Mary Kay Ash, Mary Kay Ash was the founder and CEO of Mary Kay cosmetics, think pink Cadillacs. Here’s what she said. She said everyone is walking around with a sign an invisible sign hanging around their neck that says make me feel important. And if you remember this message when working with people at all times you’ll do well. So it is a simple message. Think about your customers. They want to feel important. They want to feel important to you. That’s why customers stay with companies because they feel important.
And that message just couldn’t resonate any higher with me and with most of the people that we work with. She was brilliant. And the company she built stands as withstood the test of time. And I can tell you that every single Mary Kay rep today still on stands that message to a tee. Because they use our system as well. They know that it makes people feel important. And that is the key. That’s what we’re doing here. Frank, we’re making people feel important. Such a simple message, isn’t it?
Frank Felker 45:13
It really is. And yet, it seems like so many people have a hard time getting their arms around it. Yeah, not only simple but effective. Yes, absolutely. Yes, no doubt. Joe Khanna more. Thank you so much for being on Radio Free Enterprise today.
Joe Kenemore 45:29
I couldn’t be happier to be here. I’m so thankful you’ve given me this audience to share my message with. I really hope that that you just give it a try. Just try the 14-day trial, send a few things out. And here’s the deal. You’re ready, Frank, if you’re on if you’re listening to me, go there. Do a 14-day free trial. And what I want you to do is I want you to send a gift to your significant other. Don’t tell them it’s coming. You tell me what happened when it gets there. Okay. Get a card, and I want you to tell me what happens. But that’s the challenge I have for you today. Do that. send that to your significant other and tell me what happens. Hmm,
Frank Felker 46:04
That’s a great idea, Joe. Thanks again.
Joe Kenemore
All right. Thanks, everybody. I appreciate it.
Frank Felker
Thanks again to Joe and thank you for joining us. Until next time, I’m Frank Felker saying I’ll see you on the radio.
Dude Walker 46:18
And now a man who maintains a shrine to Mark Cuban in the basement of his suburban home. Frank Felker, and Radio Free Enterprise
