How Josh Orzech Uses Value and Introductions to Win Business Partnerships

Host1 00:00

I work for the largest HVAC company in Alberta as well as the largest duck cleaning company in Calgary. How do you ruin a relationship? How do you burn a bridge? And you're totally right. When I was in politics, I didn't know who these people were. That's the game.

Host 00:13

That is politics, right? Is it really important to make sure you have something of value?

Host1 00:18

If you're not offering value, then what really are you offering?

Host 00:21

What are some of the things to avoid to make sure that you don't sabotage your success when you're building relationships?

Host1 00:25

If you oversell, then underdeliver, that's the biggest thing you're going to do to ruin it.

Host 00:30

Hey, what's up, everybody? Grant Wise here. Welcome back to the Partner and Profit Podcast, the show where we teach you how to turn your relationships into revenue. Excited to uh have a conversation today with Josh Orzek, one of uh our good friends in Canada. It's doing some great work. Josh, man, thanks for jumping in here and chatting with me today.

Host1 00:48

Happy to do it.

Host 00:50

Absolutely. So for the people that are listening to this and maybe don't know much about you, give us a bit of the backstory. How'd you get to where you are today?

Host1 00:56

Sure, I have a very interesting path to where I am. Grant, my current title is Regional Operations Director for Enner Care. And I manage a business in Calgary as well as one in Winnipeg under the brand name A1 Chesney in Calgary and under Winnipeg Supply in Winnipeg. Both businesses focus on retrofitting homes with HVAC equipment as well as anything to do with plumbing, water, water treatment. And so in total, I've been with EnnerCare and its predecessor companies, Direct Energy, for 23 years. And what's interesting about me is that I did take a three-year break in the middle. Direct Energy asked me to move out to Alberta from Toronto and run their Alberta businesses. They had one in Calgary, one in Edmonton. And that was my first experience running as the general manager in HVAC business. My background is business school, but then I loved politics. So I worked on Parliament Hill, so Canada's version of Capitol Hill. I worked for an MP, kind of equivalent to a congressman. And I it was a tremendous experience. And so then the short version of the story is I eventually got into marketing and I worked at Direct Energy in Ontario, and that was going really well. They asked me if my family wanted to move to Alberta, and I desperately did. So we moved out here in 2014. Uh, for those listening, working at one company for a long time is a great way to go and build a career. I was fortunate enough within Direct Energy to do multiple roles. But leaving for the three years that I did really gave me the opportunity to see how other companies work within the HVAC space. I work for the largest HVAC company in Alberta as well as the largest duck cleaning company in Calgary, Alberta's biggest city. And then I came back and used that knowledge to grow uh the Calgary business and now grow the Winnipeg business. So that's kind of a bit about me.

Host 02:56

That's awesome. I had no idea you took a stop off into politics. I'm sure that was very, very interesting.

Host1 03:02

Yes.

Host 03:03

That is something that's always intrigued me. Not necessarily sure I would want to go be in politics, but it's definitely something that is interesting.

Host1 03:12

Yeah. And it really, I mean, I know we're going to talk later about building relationships, but at the end of the day, what is a politician? A politician is a someone who is asking for someone's vote at the end of the day. And to get that vote, you are demonstrating a lot of what we're going to talk about today, about convincing the voter that they that they he or she is going to be able to deliver on what the voter would like you to do. And so that's that's part of building a relationship. And then the other part of politics, unfortunately, you in the US know this very well. Politics to the US in many extents, but a tiny bit in Canada is money driven. And so you need to be asking a lot of people for a lot of money in order to get elected. Uh, not as not you don't need as much money in Canada, but you do need some. And so it also comes to building relationships and demonstrating value. So we'll get into that as well before that I've learned.

Host 04:08

Well, let's just dive right into it. You know, when we talk about building relationships and building trust, how do you guys go about it? What are what are some of the things that you've learned about relationship development as it pertains to business?

Host1 04:20

So the biggest thing, Grant, that I think about in relationships is that at it has to be a win-win. You cannot be a leech onto someone and expect them to work with you in a partnership for a long time. You know, that may be something that you do in the short term. It will not be a relationship. And the person you're sucking from will eventually figure out, huh, this person's just leeching off of me. They have to demonstrate value. And I like to think the old classic win-win relationship. And ideally, it's a win-win-win, which is the trifecto, where you, as the service provider, are winning and getting a result. The partner is getting a result, and your end user, in many, in my instance, the homeowner, is getting a win out of that as well. And so, how do you do that? I mean, the biggest thing you've kind of hinted at it is demonstrating value at all times. And so in the home services business, customers really will pay a premium and the partners will work with you if you are responsive and demonstrating value to their customers. And so, one of my most productive relationships is with a real estate company, and they're real, there are realtors, and there's 80 realtors in the Calgary office. And my commitment to them, and the reason why it's my phone number. And you may say, well, freak, you're the director. You don't have other people to do it. It's like, no, they have my cell phone number, and my commitment to them is that with I will get back to your homeowner, I don't think I've ever been less than 10 minutes, which seems ridiculous considering how many meetings I'm in and so on, but I prioritize these customers because there are a lot of options in Calgary. And and when you understand that the realtor's business is all about transacting, any impediment to them completing the transaction uh is someone that they don't want to deal with. So if I can solve a customer, a new buyer's or a seller's problems quickly, and my team can get out to the house quickly and solve the problem. Well, that just adds value to the real estate agent because they believe, well, I can get things solved quickly. And so that's how I'm trying to demonstrate to them. And in return, they now have trust in me and they're calling, their customers are calling me. Their customers are reaching out through our online portal because they trust the A1 A1 Chesney to be there in the same way as the director is there for the agent. So I think when I think about building relationships, it's the win-win, it's demonstrating value every day and being responsive, particularly in that space when it comes to real estate agents.

Host 06:59

That's really good. It's it sounds like, you know, we talk about building a relationship, but also maintaining relationship, just craft win-win partnerships and then keep showing up, keep adding value and keep doing what you say. It sounds like a pretty simple formula for doing that. I'm curious, and I would imagine your time in politics maybe uh maybe showed you a little bit more, but how do you how do you know who you want to get in a relationship with? Because I, you know, I can imagine politics as an example, you know, it's like, okay, we need to go get connected to that person, but maybe they don't want to talk to us. So how do you how do you kickstart a relationship and how do you identify who are the best people to partner with?

Host1 07:35

There's an old philosophy in business, which I remember learning in school, which is your top 20. So identify who your top 20 clients are going to be. So in the home services business, we kind of think about it as an avatar. Okay, describe my top, what does my perfect client look like? And how do I get introduced? How do I meet these clients? Right. So that's that's why this relationship with a real estate agent makes so much sense. I mean, in our business, we want to get into as many homes as possible. And I've trained the team, and the team knows that when once you get into a house, you're demonstrating value to the homeowner, but you're also what we like to call it's called best advice. We give best advice to every home that we enter. And best advice could be everything is perfect, keep going with what you're doing. We'll be back in a year to do a tune-up. On the other hand, it could be your furnace is really old, your air conditioner is really old. This is why you should replace it today. This is why you might need to replace it tomorrow. And we call that best advice. And we preface it by saying, you know, if I find something wrong today, would you like me to give you some recommendations? And most people will say yes. And so when you think about, well, how am I going to get to these avatars? Yes, the real estate agent is one way, is one way to do it. But I also think about all the other partnerships that are out there between property managers, condo associations in Calgary. We have community associations. And so it's with that same attitude of trying to figure out how to build relationships with these people. And you're totally right. When I was in politics, I don't, I didn't know who these people were. How do I how do I get my member of parliament in in front of these people? Now, obviously, he has positional power because hey, you're the member of parliament, so that opens doors for you for sure. But if you're in the wrong party, that's a problem. And so you're you're just trying to find an advocate or someone who you've done good work for who might know someone within the community you're trying to reach and trying to get you an introduction. And, you know, when I think about a perfect example, I think about when I started the relationship with the real estate company here in Calgary, one of the first things I did is I offered all of their leadership team free tune-ups. I said, You don't know me, I don't know you, but I have confidence in my team. So for free, we'll come show you what we do. And the first person who sought who took me up on it was the VP of marketing. And he loved the service. And unfortunately, we went into his house and told him you need $300 in repairs. And he wasn't overly pleased with that. But we explained to him what was wrong. We showed him what was wrong, and then we offered him, you know, the discount because you're part of hopefully this new partnership. And then he he paid and was very satisfied with the service, understood what we did, obviously disappointed he had to pay anything. He became an advocate within the team. So that's you know, that's one way to get in there with people you're trying to pursue when you're thinking about who are my top 20 prospects, what is my avatar, how do I reach them. Well, if you're really confident in what you do, then offer the service for free or offer the service for a tremendous discount. And that will get you into the door. The other thing that I've done, which is something to keep in mind, is when you do have an opportunity, don't just let it go. Like be in their face. We're fortunate with this real estate company that they have meetings every week. I try and go every week. And to be even more crazy, I basically wear the same outfit every week. Now they only meet once a week, so I do wash my clothes, but I wear the same thing every week. They know the guy from A1 Chesney is wearing the red sweater or the red jacket, and I wear the same, I'm always wearing red when I go to their office. And that does that make a difference? I have absolutely no idea, but they know the that red guy is A1 Chesney. It just so happens that A1 Chesney's logo is red and black, so it works out that I wear red. So, you know, that's some of the things that I've done. Kind of, I guess get into meet people that I have no business meeting and I try and ask for introductions. The other thing that I think is important is again when you know who you're trying to reach out to, when you get in that community, ask for recommendations, ask for hi, do you know someone else that I could talk to? Okay, maybe you're not a buyer, but do you know somebody else who might be interested in my services? Do you know somebody else who, you know, that in your is in your circle who may be an opportunity for me? Because at the end of the day, most people are friendly and they want people to succeed. If you've done well in your pitch to them and they can see the value, but maybe they're not interested today. Well, maybe there's someone else in their circle who might need the help.

Host 12:26

What you're talking about reminds me of the six degrees of separation, which is philosophy. I don't know if you've heard of it before, but it's the theory that two people are connected by a maximum of six social intermediaries or six friends, basically. So, like, you know, I would be connected to all of these people across the world that I, you know, would never even know because of a maximum of six of the people that I know. So I think it's interesting that you kind of like your first action was who do I know that might be able to introduce me to these people? Why go that path? Is it the trust transference that you get when somebody else makes an introduction? Why not just go directly at people?

Host1 13:05

Yeah, absolutely. It is the trust transference. I mean, that's where LinkedIn is. I mean, that is the business of LinkedIn, right? So it is the trust transference. It's also once you get to a senior level of business, you're constantly bombarded by cold calls of suppliers and partners and so on. And so you just get used to delete, delete, delete, delete, unless something really jumps off the page, which is pretty rare. So that's where, hey, some friend recommend, hey, I rec John recommended that I reach out to you, or you even have John phone this person and say, hey, this Josh Orzak's going to give you a call. That works. I will also say, I mean, I recognize I might be, well, I might, I'm in the older part. I've been doing this for a long time. But I have hired some incredible people who literally walked into the building. So don't underestimate the power of just walking in. And don't underestimate the power of walking in with a box of donuts or flowers or something and just saying, hi, here's who I am, here's what I do, and these are for you. And literally going door to door, but obviously being strategic about it because you're going to follow your avatar and follow who you're trying to get. I've done that as well, where I I didn't have the introduction, but I really wanted this client. And so I figured out, I mean, here's the example. I phoned the receptionist and said, What day are your team meetings? I found out it was Wednesday and Wednesday morning at seven in the morning. I walked in there and I said, Here is, I don't even what it was, three dozen donuts and coffee. I didn't even stay for the meeting. I didn't get invited to the meeting. All I said was, here's a card, we'd love to do business together. I know you have a team meeting. I know you have a team meeting in half an hour. Food's on us. And let me tell you, I got a call back from that company and we we've formed a partnership.

Host 14:56

That's awesome.

Host1 14:57

Yeah.

Host 14:57

Is it really important to make sure you have something of value to offer somebody before or when you go to form a relationship?

Host1 15:05

Always. I mean, you're for sure you have to have value. I mean, it's back to what we talked about, a win-win. And if you're not offering value, then what really are you offering? You know, I think the other part is let's say you're uh a startup and you don't you don't even have a product, you just have an idea. Well, at the end of the day, humans want to talk to other humans and they want to share their expertise. And maybe you went to the same university as them. Maybe you know someone who went to the same university as them. And so you're often going to get someone who will just sit down and you ask for 15 minutes, and the 15 minutes could turn turn into half an hour. But yeah, having that discussion is where you can drive value.

Host 15:42

Yeah. What are some of the ways? Uh this is may even sound like a silly question, but how do you ruin a relationship? How do you burn a bridge? You know, what are some of the things to avoid to make sure that you don't sabotage your success when you're building relationships?

Host1 15:55

Yeah, I mean, the biggest thing is just to uh I mean the classic saying of undersell and over-deliver, right? If you oversell, then underdeliver, that's the biggest thing you're going to do to ruin it. And depending on what it is, I mean, I I think about the real estate company. We didn't do a great job at one of the agents' customers' houses. So we gave a full we gave a full refund. Right? So it's how you recover from mistakes. That's a big one. Demonstrating value, if you've stopped demonstrating value, if you start to take take the relationship for granted and don't demonstrate, you know, don't say thank you and don't offer return to the client. That is how you ruin them. And I think a big one is I mean, they say it in marriage as well as in life, communication. So a touch base in the relationship to say, well, how's it going? Are you happy with how I'm doing? Because I'm happy. Are you happy? Yeah, I'm happy. Okay, well, good. Let's go for dinner.

Host 16:49

And and I think, you know, a lot of people make the mistake about being so transactional in their relationships because everybody's just, we're all busy. We all have an agenda, we all have something we want to sell for the most part. And so I think sometimes people get into this and it's like, well, I got to touch as many people as I possibly can in a day, and I got to sell as many of my things as I can in a day. But on the flip side of that, I see some of the most successful people I know spend most of their time just trying to help other people without any expectations of getting anything in return. Have you have you seen these things in politics or in home services?

Host1 17:22

Well, sure. I mean, obviously in politics, that's that's the game in politics, right? Politics is is having chits. You know, hey, I helped you do this, now you got to help me do this. I mean, it's a constant barter system of yeah, of having chips that you play when you need them. So, yeah, for sure, in politics and in and in business, that's also very true. It uh it depends on your business. I mean, for me, I'm focused on B to C, but we, you know, our business is okay, well, how do we get referrals from each homeowner? You need to do an exceptional job for the homeowner so that they'll recommend you, so they'll give you a Google review, so they'll put a lawn sign in front of their house and leave, you know, leave it as opposed to take it down the moment you leave the house. So that's all part of that relationship and demonstrating value and yeah.

Host 18:10

Man, this has been an awesome conversation. I know you're busy. I really appreciate you taking the time to add value to the listeners. What would be the number one way that the listeners of the podcast could partner with you? How could anybody listen to this support your business?

Host1 18:23

I mean, I don't I don't know if my phone number and contact information will be in the show notes, but we could certainly do that. That's a great way to do it. A1CHI is my company in Calgary, Winnipeg Supply is the name of my company in Winnipeg. We're owned by Enercare, which is all over Canada, operations in Quebec, in Ontario, in Manitoba, Alberta, and in BC. And then we also own, we're partnered with a company called Service Experts in the US, which is all over the United States. And so, yeah, and all companies are basically doing what we're trying to do, which is help homeowners make their home more energy efficient, have peace of mind of their equipment, and reduce the environmental impact by reducing water bottles and being healthy. So, anyone who wants to partner with companies who are focused on that, we would love to hear from you. And I'm happy to be a conduit for anyone who wants to work with us in Canada, across all the provinces I lifted, listed, or in the US with my partners and service experts. Happy to facilitate those introductions and uh hopefully we can do something win-win together.

Host 19:28

That sounds awesome. We'll make sure that we link up the ways people can connect with you in the show notes. And uh again, just appreciate you taking the time today. This was an awesome conversation.

Host1 19:35

No problem. Happy to do it, Grant. Talk soon. Thanks, Josh.

Host 19:39

Thank you guys for continuing to listen to the Partner Profit Podcast. This has been another awesome conversation. I can't wait to see you on the next one. Peace.