Business Lessons from the Pizza Delivery Boy.

10X Business Letter
May 23rd, 2013
San Diego, Ca
Sunny 65 Degrees
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This last weekend we wrapped up yet another successful Influencing From the Front.  And yet again, I'm amazed at the quality and diversity of the people that attended.

Some of the major benefits I personally receive are…

…the life lessons and insights I'm taught when people open up and share their personal stories.

They tend to be great lessons and impactful reminders that we are all human, but are capable of having super human power.  Life lessons are never in short order over the weekend.

But this particular event, I was given some great business lessons from someone most people would think the less likely to teach you ANYTHING about business…

Our pizza delivery boy.

Here's what happened: every event we treat the attendees to a free lunch.  This event was no different; except for the fact that we decided we would do a working lunch.  

So I ordered pizza for the group.  

It was simple enough, I hopped online and ordered from the closest national pizza chain to us.

When I was going through the checkout process, I remember lamenting to myself, "geez these guys really upwell like crazy!"

 …would you like some cheese sticks?… No.

…how about a 2 liter of coke?… No.

…how about some side salads?… No.

…have you tried our wings?… No.

…for $5 more you can make them a large…

It felt like I was in one of those dreams where you are attached to strings and every time you cut the string another one re-attaches and you can't get away.

So when the pizza finally arrives, I tell the young kid that delivered them that we would be eating upstairs on the rooftop.  

We ordered quite of few pizzas and there were 3 flights of stairs, so I offered to help carry them in.

He insisted that I allow him to do it.  It was his job and his pleasure.

I should've know right then and there that this wasn't your average delivery boy.

He finishes setting up the pizzas and drinks and returns for me to sign the receipt.  Right as he hands me the credit card slip I ask him, "do you have any crushed red peppers and parmesan cheese?"

He says to me, "you have to order those things online with your order because they come in _____ (i can't remember the name he gave me; the small plastic cups that a side of ranch comes in), but you're in luck, come with me."

We proceed to walk to his car and he says, "If it had been any other driver you would have been out of luck, but I carry some with me in my car…"  He reached down and handed my some packets and I said, "I thought they only come in ______."  

His reply was, "yah, they do, but I bought these with my own money".

I was kinda impressed and said, "Really?! Why do you do that?"  and he said, "the last thing you want is for a customer to ask for something and you have to tell them no".

He then handed me his pen, unconsciously letting me know it was time for me to sign his credit card slip.

Let's just say, he drove off a happy pizza delivery boy!

Here are a few lessons that this guy taught me. 

Have an Intrapreneurship Mindset Even as an Employee.

An intrapreneur is an entrepreneur within an organization.  Ask any entrepreneur to narrow down their number one responsibility and a great majority will say, "Solve problems".

An intrapreneur doesn't sit around and wait for stuff to happen, they make it happen.  They take full responsibility for what is happening in their world.

They adopt a mantra of, "if it is to be, it's up to me."

While I working at The Anthony Robbins company, I used to get so frustrated because at the time (things are different now) they didn't have a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) for us in the field.

Having the intrapreneur mindset, I paid for one myself and the other person that was on my team.  I knew it was mission critical to the results I wanted to get and was willing to 'solve the problem' myself.

If you are currently an employee, if you can think and act as if you were the owner performing your job, your performance of that job will improve significantly — so will your advancement within the company.

Understand What's Important to the Customer.

This young man had a really deep understanding of what was really important to his customer — not hearing the word no.

He also knew that many customers don't remember to order those free items during the ordering process because they are too occupied declining up sells. This is a problem that he has little control over but it's one he has to deal with.  

It's a problem and he has taken ownership of fixing it.

To him it's not just about delivering pizzas, it's about delivery total customer satisfaction, about making sure the customer receives everything that he/she wanted. 

Do you understand what your customer really wants? 

Know Your Key Impact Points.

This is a big one.  Because he had the intrapreneur mindset, he understood what impacted his bottom line.  He knew his key leverage points.  Key leverage points are the critical areas/processes in your business that make an immediate and direct impact to your bottom line.  Every time he says no to a customer, they tipped less.  This impacts his profits so he did what any good owner would. 

He fixed it.

What are your one or two key leverage points that you can look at and they will be a predictable indicator of more or less profit.  One of ours is the number of presentations we deliver.  

What's your? Leads? Optins? Refunds? Articles written? Phone calls made?

I have a feeling this delivery boy won't be driving pizzas around for very long — with his instincts and natural understanding of customer's wants and desires — in a very short period of time he will be driving revenue for his own enterprise.

Living living giving large,

Jeff Paro
Publisher, The 10X Business Letter

PS – We just announced a new date for Influencing From the Front (25% of the seats are already sold) get yours today!

2 Comments

  1. Jeffrey on May 23, 2013 at 11:55 am

    Great article, bud!  Really hits on the key differentiators in service. At Four Seasons we used the same principles but slightly differently; they called it "seeing with Four Seasons Eyes". I think its a great rule to apply to all parts of one's life!  

     

    Nice work! 

    • Jeff Paro on May 23, 2013 at 2:41 pm

      Yah, 4 seasons really has customer service down to a science.  They are also huge advocates of storytelling.  They gather and share success stories company wide!  Thanks for stoping by and commenting!!

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