How Eric Got Roped Into Pest Control

Right out of high school Eric was 18 and his brother-in-law asked what are you going to do for work this summer? His brother-in-law said dude you should go sell pest control.

Eric was like what's that all about? He convinced Eric to go to Bakersfield, California and sell that summer. Horribly hot, crazy.

Eric put on maybe a hundred accounts, nothing phenomenal. But he made great money and was like I love the cash, I am never going to be involved in pest control again because that was horrible.

The very next summer his brother-in-law found a company in Boise. Eric got roped back into it. The golden handcuffs. Made good money and worked for that company for a few seasons.

In between summers, Eric managed for a DirecTV call center. Eventually the pest control company owners said hey, the new cool thing is an inside sales team. We're going to put money into Google and people will call us. We need a team to close these sales over the phone. This was back in 2010.

Eric said yeah sounds good, let's do this. He helped them get their inside sales department off the ground, eventually worked into inside sales manager, director of sales, and that was right before they got bought out by Rentokil in 2016.

Eric joined Rentokil's team managing the Pacific Northwest, traveling around helping teach and train inside sales reps.

That same brother-in-law who got Eric into pest control is his co-host on the Bug Bucks podcast, Jay Clouse. Jay said hey, we're running this Nutura branch in the Pacific Northwest, why don't we join forces?

Eric joined Nutura in 2018. Then the next year one of their business partners wanted to exit and Eric sold off some real estate and investments to buy out that partner and bought into the company.

The Pros and Cons of Door-to-Door

Eric spent a lot of time doing door-to-door, so I wanted to know his thoughts. Do companies should still be doing it?

First of all, door-to-door pest control can be a very effective growth tool if used effectively.

Some of the pros are that you can have really good route density. You can also set concrete goals and achieve them. From a direct sales standpoint, as long as you bring in enough reps and they do what they're supposed to, if you set a goal to put on a thousand accounts you can put on a thousand accounts in a season.

It's kind of its own way of marketing. Even if the guy knocks on the door and doesn't close a sale, that person still saw your brand which is really effective.

The downside is when people don't use it effectively and the door-to-door guys what Eric calls burn through area. They're not trained very well and just knock on doors like oh hey you don't want pest control do you, okay great bye. Eric's like dude what are you doing?

The other problem is that companies that don't get fully licensed. Sometimes they're required to get solicitation permits that they don't get. Sometimes they cause drama, cops get called. There are actual municipalities that have basically outlawed or tried to outlaw door-to-door.

Most of that is due to door-to-door people who just don't care. They just want to go make a quick buck, they don't live here, they're Fly by Night type companies.

So if you're going to use door-to-door as a growth method, do your research, train your team really well, and understand that they are representing your brand to everybody they talk to.

If they make a sale that's great. If they don't make the sale, make sure they don't burn any bridges. If they flip some guy the bird on their way out, that's the reputation of your business.

Eric told me, "I'm sure that everybody listening, if you are a pest control owner or small business owner, you might be aware of some of these other bigger companies that have door-to-door reps that might not have the best reputation."

Door-to-door sales is like the refiner fire. It will expose things you need to work on so fast. It teaches you to self-evaluate. That might be the most important thing Eric learned. Every single day he would go out and talk to people and in between doors he would think okay, what if I changed my pitch like this or what if I asked this question?

It also shows you how much your time is worth. If you're willing to put in the work and push yourself outside your comfort zone, you can make really good money and create a value trade for your time that is significantly higher than typical hourly jobs.

How to Train Technicians to Door-to-Door Properly

I asked Eric for advice to technicians or pest control company owners coaching up technicians on how to do door-to-door properly.

The first thing is understanding that if you're using technicians to clover leaf and do door-to-door sales, you need to make sure you don't run into competing priorities. If you have goals for technicians to have a certain number of sales, you have to consider that getting those sales takes time.

Eric thinks a lot of people who haven't been involved in door-to-door will think okay so if a technician knocks on three doors and talks to two people he'll sell one. The numbers don't work out that way.

Depending on the time of day, you could knock on 25 doors, talk to two people, and sell neither of them. It's this big numbers game.

A technician's typical schedule is 7-8 a.m. until 5-6 p.m., where prime time for knocking is 4 to 8 p.m. or later. So the schedules with technicians and knocking can get tricky. Make sure you build in the time.

The second part is make sure you give them the tools. If the technician knocks and all he says is hi, my name's Eric from Nutura Pest Control, do you have ants, the person's going to be like um no I think we're good. The whole situation is uncomfortable and all he wants to do is leave.

But if you teach him: explain that you're servicing the neighbor's house, they've been dealing with an ant issue, you wanted to come introduce yourself and the company, and then ask them where they've been seeing their own pest issues. You ask open-ended questions that gets them engaged because everybody has some pest issue especially in summertime.

It's hey, what pest issues have you guys been seeing? Oh it's ants, where you been seeing those? Oh back patio, hey while I'm here I'd be happy to take a look, tell you where they're coming from, what kind of conducive conditions you have.

If you give them those tools that allows them to redirect attention to the source of the issue and give them opportunities to showcase their expertise, they'll be way more confident.

Another thing is role playing in the office. Nutura does training with technicians about once a week, every Wednesday morning. They talk about labels, pest issues, customer communication. If they want them to clover leaf and do door-to-door, they have to role play pitches, door approaches, overcoming objections.

If you give somebody a goal without providing the tools, it's just never going to happen.

Make sure you got the time, make sure you give them the tools, make sure you give them the training. And you have to remind them: you are representing our brand, so no matter what happens, make sure you leave on a good note.

I love that angle of coming from the neighbor's house because now it feels a lot more personalized. Oh I was just at Cindy's house and she was having an ant problem, are you guys dealing with this? That's a really good approach because now it's like well if they're doing it then I should probably do it.

The Weekly Wednesday Training Meeting

The meeting is run by Eric's service manager.

As technicians it can be a lonely job. Nowadays, technicians take their trucks home, have an iPad or tablet, everything is digital. You don't have to stop by the office unless you need product. You can go a significant amount of time without seeing anybody.

It's funny because in interviews you ask are you comfortable talking to people? They say yeah. Then you put them in a role where they only engage with customers but never fellow employees.

Nutura wanted to give them camaraderie. Sit down with other technicians, have face-to-face time with managers. And then you have the technical training aspect.

They alternate who provides training. Sometimes it's the service manager, other times it's the technicians.

They've got a big 75-inch TV that they throw up presentations on carpenter ants, non-repellent products, WDI inspections, or simple stuff like ladder safety, product safety, reading labels.

And then they highlight top performers. They look at leaderboards, see who's killing it, give them credit, encourage guys on the low end to pick up the pace.

It's a way for them to feel engaged with one another and for Nutura to deliver tools so they have confidence in the field.

How to Get 2,000+ Google Reviews

I asked Eric about their review strategy because they have amazing reviews.

Right now they use Applause to help streamline that process.

Before Applause they incentivized technicians and had a whole process. You go out and perform the service and the first thing is check in with the customer before you even get working and say hey, this is what I'm going to be focusing on today, what else can I do to make sure your service is exactly what you're looking for? You get the customer's buy-in and then you do that.

After the service you come back and say hey, I was able to accomplish X, Y, and Z today, these are going to be the benefits, I made sure to pay special attention to these things you told me you wanted. You make sure you let them know you hit on those value points.

And then the last thing Eric does is say hey, is there anything else you would like me to take care of? They usually say no and you say perfect, would you feel like I was able to deliver a five-star service today? It's priming that customer and then they say yes yeah you were great and you say that's wonderful, have you been able to give us a review on Google or Facebook or Yelp?

If they say no, at the time they had QR codes on the back of the technician's badge and he'd say hey it's super easy, go ahead and just scan this code. They would scan it, it would take them to their GMB profile, and then he'd say if you just want to leave me a review I strive for five stars and it'll also help me with this competition I have at work.

People, the customers like to know they're providing a direct benefit to the technician, not just the company. They would leave a review, mention them by name, and then Nutura would give the guys five bucks per review plus milestones if they hit a certain number during the month.

That was their format for years. Eric thinks that probably got them to 1,500 or so reviews over the course of a few years or longer.

The bigger they got, the harder it was to keep that rolling. It was trying to pull numbers and gather data and figure out who was doing well.

Eventually Eric's business partner and sister was like hey have you heard of this Applause thing? Eric was like I don't really know, what's it all about? She said it's this whole review platform that tracks all your data but also offers customers the option to tip your technicians.

Eric was like really that sounds awesome. So they did a demo and it definitely streamlines the whole process.

The same process they had before was the same. You ask the customer, you engage, and then instead of them having to scan anything you just say hey after I get out of here you're going to receive a text message that has a little link in it, you can go in and leave me a review, provide any feedback.

They pull up the link and right away it asks them: on a scale of 1 to 10 based on the work your technician did, how likely are you to recommend this technician to your friends and family? It's a net promoter score tracker. You can customize this fully.

If they give eights, nines, and tens, it'll ask: thank you so much, would love for your feedback on Google. You can customize what platform you want the customer to go to. Customer can go to Google, leave a five-star review, and then it also asks if they want to leave a tip. You can customize how many customers it asks for tips, you can customize the tip amounts. Eric thinks they have it in there for zero, 10, and 20 bucks.

Then you can also customize if a customer leaves a review that you send bonus money to that technician. You don't have to manage anything, it just does it automatically.

They have leaderboards the technicians can see through the app where they compete with one another and they can create custom bonuses.

Eric feels like he's giving Applause a crazy plug, but they've been able to generate significantly more reviews at a very faster pace because they have a streamlined process.

Why Nutura Focuses Only on Google Reviews

I asked Eric about getting reviews on other platforms.

Most of the time reviews for them is a marketing strategy. So they funnel most customers into Google because they're trying to leverage their GMB and Google Ads.

If Eric was a company trying to leverage Facebook ads then he definitely would push for Facebook reviews. Same thing with Yelp.

Eric has a mixed history with Yelp. He goes in circles every season between all these different marketing and lead sharing platforms, whether it's Yelp and Facebook and Angie and Thumbtack.

But long story short, they want to put as much focus as they can into whichever platform they feel is going to deliver the most leads. Having reviews is a huge part of the social proofing process which drives lead volume and referrals. That's why they focus on Google.

I would recommend that as well. Any company just pick one platform and go all in. I've seen Yelp work for companies, I've seen Thumbtack work for companies, but you have to be all in. It's only going to work if you have like a few hundred reviews and you have built up on that platform.

The 85% Employee Referral Hiring Strategy

Hiring has been interesting. Sometimes you put an ad out and a hundred people are clamoring. Sometimes it's crickets. Or you schedule 10 interviews and one guy shows up.

You have to understand that getting the right people in the right seats is difficult. For every all-star you hire there is at least three or four guys who are mediocre or just not going to work out.

Eric reminds business owners it's like fishing. You put bait on the hook, send it out, and that bait attracts all kinds of fish. Sometimes you catch the fish you want, most of the time you don't.

Accountability is a huge turn-on for Eric. If he can tell someone has a high level of accountability and holds himself to a very high standard, Eric has a hard time not giving him a job offer.

The turnoff is if Eric can tell someone's entitled, like they believe things are owed without working for them.

Eric will ask about previous work history. Hey talk to me about your relationship with your manager. And they'll go off. Oh he was a jerk. Eric asks about another company and it's the same thing. Pretty soon Eric's thinking the common denominator is this guy.

Recently they've been asking more fulfillment and purpose-driven questions. Every employee wants good compensation. But the other thing that provides a good working environment is when they are fulfilled by the job outside of just being good at it.

They ask: do you like talking and engaging in problem solving with customers? Does that make you happy or are you going to be avoidant? They try to find a trajectory that aligns with their goals.

The last thing is relationships. One key element for people who do well at Nutura versus people who don't is: did they have strong bonds with coworkers? Were they friends? Could they talk openly about struggles?

Before they even put an ad on Indeed, they go to all departments and say we want to hire for this position, who do you know that would be a good fit?

About 85 to 90 percent of their employees are referrals from other employees.

Eric provides incentives: I'll pay you $500 bonus when that employee hits their 90-day mark and another $500 when they hit their 180-day mark.

That way employees are on the hunt for other good employees but they're incentivized by those employees lasting a long time. They make sure the person they're bringing in is going to fit the bill long term, otherwise they don't make a dime on that referral.

My Main Takeaway

1. The biggest thing I learned from Eric is that door-to-door can be incredibly effective or incredibly damaging depending on how you train your reps and represent your brand. Door-to-door can be very effective if used effectively. The pros are good route density and concrete goals. The downside is when door-to-door guys burn through areas. They're not trained well and just knock saying oh hey you don't want pest control, okay bye. Even worse, companies that don't get proper solicitation permits cause drama, cops get called, and municipalities try to outlaw door-to-door because of Fly by Night companies. If you're going to use door-to-door, train your team really well and understand they are representing your brand. If they flip some guy the bird on their way out, that's the reputation of your business.

2. The second takeaway is Eric's exact process for getting 2,000+ Google reviews through intentional customer interaction and technology. Before the service, check in and ask what else can I do to make sure your service is exactly what you're looking for. After the service, say I was able to accomplish X, Y, and Z, I made sure to pay special attention to these things you wanted. Then ask is there anything else? They say no. You say perfect, would you feel like I delivered a five-star service today? You're priming that customer. Then ask have you been able to give us a review? Now they use Applause which sends a text with a net promoter score tracker. If customers give eights, nines, tens it asks for a Google review and offers option to tip the technician. You can customize tip amounts and automatically send bonus money to technicians for reviews.

3. The third insight is that 85-90% of Nutura's employees come from referrals and Eric incentivizes this with a $1,000 total bonus structure. Before they even put an ad on Indeed, they go to all departments and say we want to hire for this position, who do you know that would be a good fit? Then Eric provides incentives: I'll pay you $500 bonus when that employee hits their 90-day mark and another $500 when they hit their 180-day mark. That way employees are on the hunt for other good employees but they're incentivized by those employees lasting a long time. They make sure the person they're bringing in is actually going to fit the bill long term, otherwise they don't make a dime on that referral.

4. The fourth takeaway is Eric's three-part interview framework: pay, fulfillment, and relationships. Every employee wants good compensation, that's simple. But the other thing that provides a good working environment is when they are fulfilled by the job outside of just being good at it. You can be good at a task and have it not be fulfilling and that's a tough place to be. So Eric asks purpose and fulfillment-driven questions: do you like talking and engaging in problem solving with customers? Does that make you happy or are you going to be avoidant? They try to find a trajectory within the business that aligns with their goals. The last thing is relationships. One key element for people who do well at Nutura versus people who don't is: did they have strong bonds with coworkers? Were they friends? Could they talk openly about struggles? The people who could do that do well. The people who can't eventually weed themselves out.

5. The fifth insight is about Eric's marketing approach where he gives his agency free range as long as they hit cost per qualified lead goals. Since 2018 Nutura has had a third-party marketing partner. Eric gives them parameters: this is how much money I want to spend for a given month and I would like to receive this number of qualified leads (guys within my service area, pests I can treat, actual decision maker who picks up the phone). Eric tells them: I don't care how much your management fee is, it doesn't matter where you put the money or what campaigns you push. What matters most is that I get the number of qualified leads I want and the quality of qualified leads I want. The vast majority goes to Google AdWords and campaigns, a little bit into LSA when it's biting.

Eric is on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can check out the Bug Bux podcast and the Bug Bux Plus training platform at bugbuxplus.com. The Bug Bux Plus Facebook group has 4,200 pest control owners and is a great community.