Last year, I was invited to join a group of other pest control company owners at the Pest Control Academy.
What is this I hear you say? Well what happens is you get invited to join a 2 day session which gives you tips and guidance on how to grow your business, deal with your marketing and basically stand out from the crowd of other pest control companies.
Only those looking to make their business a success are approached to join this Pest Control Academy – its free of charge and the only expectation is that you have the drive to make changes and want your business to be a success.
Killgerm Chemicals is one of the leading providers of pest control products to the industry and they work with a few sponsors to make this annual event happen. They employ the skills of a top flight marketing and branding consultant – Ross Smith of Mindshelf to facilitate and deliver this two day workshop.
If you are thinking this will be a boring lecture type scenario….you are very mistaken! Ross Smith of Mindshelf delivers the messages in his own unique way..those of you who have been on the Pest Control Academy will know what I mean! Interaction is expected!
The first day goes through some basic principles of how to become that leading light, examines your current marketing strategy and techniques and goes into great depth of new media methods of attracting the right clients and also retaining them…it is a very enlightening day and very thought provoking. That evening, you get a chance to network and chat to fellow attendees at a dinner event provided by Killgerm, making this much more informal….leading off to the bar to form new friendships!
The second day sees Ross analysing some volunteer’s websites, then coming up with new design ideas, website marketing strategies and how to move from where you are now to where you need to be to stand out from the crowd.
This year was slightly different for me as I was asked to come up to the Academy and speak about what had happened to me and Rapid Pest Control since my turn at the Academy – which I have to say was a great honour and privilege. Since I attended the academy, my business has made massive leaps forward. I took on board what Ross had said, and just simply did the changes and made it happen – all in about a week! We then completely changed the look and feel of the website, got the business focussed on delivering exactly what was required, grew the business by merging with another company, opened 4 satellite offices and sorted out our marketing strategy….not bad for a years work really.
I arrived midday on the first day – I wanted to see the reactions of the new recruits to what Ross was saying, but also to get to know some of the guys a bit better before presenting to them the next day. Meeting at the bar before dinner, I met some really interesting characters who were suitably fired up to make things happen after a full day with Ross. Interestingly, most of the guys have worked for larger national companies but became disillusioned with their policies and there method of delivery – something we find all the time with clients who want to move away from the “big boys” to go with a smaller more responsive business.
Anyway, the evening event was a great success and many new alliances and friendships were formed sitting around the bar. One of the guys, who shall remain nameless, was found asleep in the corridor and 3am…I could see it going that way so decided to duck out of that session and retire long before that!
Next morning, I was asked to tell the group what changed my approach, how did I do it, what the effects were and what the plans are now moving forward – a very lively session with tons of questions from the floor – the session was stopped after about and hour and 45 mins…but I am sure it could have gone on for ages!
The rest of the session was very informative and everybody left with lots of ideas and thoughts of how to change things for the better. The feedback was very positive from the delegates.
I have now been asked to travel to Amsterdam to speak at the European Pest Control Academy as well – which is great as I do believe that the pest control industry will change over the coming years and everybody serious about it will be delivering better and safer services in a more streamlined and effective manner – which has got to be good for all concerned.
I would like to say a big thanks to Killgerm and Ross Smith of Mindshelf, without them the Pest Control Academy would not happen.
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