Building Your Business Ep. 25: Ian Dolby on Turning Proposals into Profits

CCPIA (00:01.144)
Ian, thanks for taking the time this morning, this afternoon, whenever you’re watching this to speak with us. Today we’ve got Ian Dolby, not any relation to Thomas Dolby, are you? That’d be kind of nice. Have a little bit of sound money in your pocket. So I guess let’s begin with, you’re located in Southwestern Michigan, correct?

Ian Dolby (00:13.922)
Nope. No. Wish I was.

Ian Dolby (00:19.948)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ian Dolby (00:30.158)
Correct.

CCPIA (00:30.92)
Where are you servicing?

Ian Dolby (00:33.656)
So where do I service? So I typically try to stay within about an hour of St. Joseph, Michigan, which is just off of the lake, about 30 minutes north of the Indiana border. But then I will also go further out depending on the project basically. So I’ll go to Detroit and Indianapolis and so forth. yeah.

CCPIA (00:52.328)
That’s, it’s interesting. So how long have you been an inspector?

Ian Dolby (00:57.772)
I think it’s got to be about five, four or five years, something like that. Yeah.

CCPIA (01:00.988)
Okay. So, so, so why, why I like, and I chose this conversation because you came to one of our, our three day introduction to commercial classes and, you had a story of your, your background’s not construction and your background is not inspections, correct?

Ian Dolby (01:12.662)
Yeah. Yep.

Ian Dolby (01:24.194)
Well, it’s not inspections, but if you go back far enough, there’s lots of construction in there. There’s lots of real estate. There’s lots of everything in there. Yeah. Isn’t it? Also, if you go back to the probably the late nineties, I had a GC license in in construction. had a broker’s license in real estate when you had to be in real estate for at least I think it was two to three years before you were even allowed to apply for a broker’s license. So I had those.

CCPIA (01:31.688)
That’s the trouble with gray hair, right?

Ian Dolby (01:54.242)
things in order to well before flipping it was renovating right and so I was renovating my own houses you know first of all I got into real estate then realized I didn’t enjoy the real estate aspect of it as much as far as the you know just the general public aspect and so I started to renovate my own houses in order to do that I could do more on my own if I got a GC license so got a GC license so I could meet with whatever

permitting approval type processes and stuff like that. And so, so I had that in, the nineties from being in the States before that in the UK, of course, messing around ever since I was a kid in construction and ground works, mainline sewers, just everything. Yeah. So,

CCPIA (02:41.392)
Okay. So, so, so, you know, know we’re going to bounce around a little bit. So you mentioned the UK, obviously let’s, let’s, let’s throw the, let’s open up the, the, that cat of, or bag of cats. Your accent is not Southwest Michigan. How long have you been in the States?

Ian Dolby (02:54.657)
Yeah.

Ian Dolby (02:59.403)
No, but closer to Boston. So I’ve been in the States since 92. Yeah.

CCPIA (03:06.408)
92 92 and and and and you you talked about your your GC license and you talked about About your real estate license But you came to me of a year a few years ago said you had a different background that would be beneficial to to our members What was that?

Ian Dolby (03:26.925)
So let’s see, had been, this is probably, I had been a senior managing director for an investment bank that dealt with mergers and acquisitions and capital raises. And so from that aspect, I understood on the commercial side of things, I understood the client base a little different, at least on the larger type of commercial type projects. So where I think,

The people that I was traditionally seeing in the inspection side on the residential or the commercial side, typically most had some form of construction background. And then when I was sitting in one of the classes, I think it was with Lance on cost to cure where it was getting into more of the financial planning aspects and so forth. My background, made perfect sense to me as far as the language and just the conversations about the how and the what and the whys.

that somebody would be using the financial data and analysis versus just looking at the construction, you know, because one without the other on a large commercial basis anyway doesn’t really mean anything, know.

CCPIA (04:34.596)
So what’s been your experience then since having that secret language? What’s been your experience so far with translating that into the commercial side?

Ian Dolby (04:47.519)
It’s, it, it doesn’t really, so it’s my language with the clients. what I will find is that I can talk to any member of a commercial project in their language. So that, that helps me, but because it’s a natural thing for me to do, I don’t even notice that I’m doing it. It’s not a deliberate conversation. It’s just, you know, if we have a financial guy, I can talk to him about the financial aspects. If I have a construction guy or a project manager, I can talk to them.

CCPIA (05:07.442)
Okay.

Ian Dolby (05:17.459)
in that manner. it’s not something that’s deliberate. It’s just another normal conversation from my side.

CCPIA (05:25.128)
It’s just, I guess it’s another arrow in your quiver, right? It’s another, and for so many of our colleagues, that’s a tough, that’s a tough muscle because so many of the inspectors that I have met come from the trades background and not from the,

Ian Dolby (05:29.32)
It is. That’s all it is.

Ian Dolby (05:48.737)
Yeah, sure. Yeah.

CCPIA (05:51.368)
I don’t want to say cerebral background, it’s more the analytical and the financial background that they kind of lose the client at that point.

Ian Dolby (06:04.16)
Yeah, and so and there’s also another quiver, right? So because of the history that I’ve had in in many different industries and so forth, which then played well for me when I was in the investment banking world, as a as also as basically consulting with CEOs and so forth about their various business models. So when I’m also on a commercial project,

I also understand with some level of instinct, but I can have a conversation with them about what it is they’re trying to achieve with the building. And so I understand how that building fits into what it is that they’re actually doing, where this fits into their business plan or whatever it is. And so from that aspect, then I can also tailor the inspection very easily to fit what they’re trying to do next with this building.

So that also helps. So I’m never looking at a commercial project just based on going and standing there and looking at the building. That’s never a thing. Yeah.

CCPIA (06:59.378)
So are you finding?

CCPIA (07:05.084)
Yeah. So are you finding it’s been easier for you to create the phone call into victory because you have that language or do you think it’s just been a neutral case?

Ian Dolby (07:13.91)
Yeah.

Yes.

No, it’s definitely. so I, I will win probably 80 plus percent of the, of the things that I quote. And, I know that a large portion of that has to do with, I’m always talking to whether it’s the commercial realtor broker, or the actual direct individual that’s running the project.

I said, I’m always having a conversation with them. It’s always a very laid back conversation, just as we’re having right now about time. And one of the first things I asked them is, well, tell me what you’re trying to do. What are you trying to do with the building? And that’s just over the phone in the first conversation. And so I can have that conversation with them upfront. And that helps me for sure, because it’s just a rounded conversation. And they can tell me that they’ve spoken to other commercial or other inspectors.

And then I will typically I will win that win that scenario. So, yeah.

CCPIA (08:20.04)
So many of us forget that that interpersonal skill of listening and tailoring to their needs is how you get the win.

Ian Dolby (08:34.678)
Yeah, so I actually, there was a moment when I started to actually, so I was winning more jobs that I was going to high percentage of the jobs that I would quote. And then as I’m going to say, the market started to dilute a little bit. Then I was starting to lose more jobs than I was quoting because you know, like in any market, there are people that will do things for less and so forth.

so I started to lose more than I was quoting. And so then I had to actually think and basically come up with a different model for how I was actually quoting things. And then it’s turned me right back into that and winning more than, I would lose and stuff. so yeah. I get, well, I give people options basically. So yeah, I give people options and I have, I have standard options that I will do because I know that I have typically.

CCPIA (09:17.16)
Do you want to share what that model is? Or are you keeping that in your pocket? good.

Ian Dolby (09:31.687)
I typically clients fall into just a small number of baskets. No matter what the size of the project is, they fall into a small number of baskets. And you know, because they have no idea what, what it costs to have a commercial inspection, because most of the clients will maybe do a commercial inspection once in their, once in their lifetime. And a handful of them over the period of years will do many, right? Those are the large commercial type clients. And so because they don’t have.

don’t have any idea about what it costs. They can also get, you know, stick a shock on what it actually would cost to go out there and do it. So in the conversation about tell me what you’re, what you’re trying to do and it, they always fit into about one of four baskets. So, so I’ll give them each, I’ll quote them all for and let them choose. And so from that aspect, instead of just sending that here’s what it costs to inspect the building and you must need it all inspected because everybody does know. So.

Either way i win based on whichever basket they will will quote into.

CCPIA (10:33.936)
I think that’s brilliant. think I have been around the country teaching and talking to commercial and property inspectors. And I think you’re right. I think so often, first, we’re such an emerging industry, correct? That our clients don’t really understand what great service we have. And then second, it’s people like choices.

Ian Dolby (10:49.708)
Yeah, yeah.

Ian Dolby (11:01.228)
They love choices. So that goes back again to my prior worlds, right? And so, you know, I, I, you know, everything I do on the commercial side, or on any, anything to do with the residential commercial, cause the model is, the same in, in a lot of respects, the whole company, my whole footprint has been based upon understanding a sales model. So, you know, from notepad to website to

templates to software to the absolutely everything to the shirt that I wear to the pants that I wear to every tool in my bag. Everything has been based around a sales model. So understanding that people like options just is another piece of fitting into that sales model. Yeah. So yeah.

CCPIA (11:47.176)
You have to think linearly in any business because if you don’t you’re putting up your own personal firewalls that you almost can’t hurdle over. Now that’s terrific. I love that idea. I want to go back to a call you gave me or I don’t know maybe it was an Insta whatever

Ian Dolby (11:56.682)
Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah.

CCPIA (12:16.292)
Instachat or text you sent was that last year you had an enormous success with work coming from our website.

Ian Dolby (12:28.395)
So I was actually, so it doesn’t get any better than this. So I was actually sitting in the, think this was again, I think it was in the cost of cure class. And I was sitting in there and a lead came in on my phone and Lance was teaching it. You were there though at the class in the back and a lead comes into my phone during that class from the CCPIA website.

CCPIA (12:37.68)
Okay.

Ian Dolby (12:56.959)
And it was for an inspection in, I think it was Indiana. It was on a steel mill of some kind or yeah, yeah, steel mill. And so I believe if I remember rightly, I quoted it while I was there in the class using again, my system and got the approval while I was in the class for it was, think it was an $18,000 inspection and it took me, I’m gonna say three days, three, three days.

Yeah, a little bit. But yeah, so yeah, that was that was, that was, you know, great. The system works right. So CP, CCP is is is awesome. So you know, if again, if we go back to the beginnings, you know, to me, commercial inspections is, just another tool in my bag, just like septic inspections, radar mold, every single thing, you know, I want to

I do everything I can do to get my phone to ring, right? When it rings, I don’t want to have to say, no, I don’t do that. So for everything that makes sense, I make sure I am, you know, both qualified and capable of doing that. So CCPIA basically took that, you know, large portion then on the commercial side, right? And it took it and took it from being a non-starter to not only is it a starter, it’s like, I don’t worry about it. I don’t think about it.

because you were fantastic from the beginning, right? You turn around and would take phone calls and do anything, anything, right? Anything, and I hear that still. But the organization as a teaching tool, as a support tool, it just allows me to go out and add this really big piece to my tool bag. And again, I don’t think about it. I mentor, as you probably know, right, to…

CCPIA (14:53.416)
Yeah, I absolutely do. And I hear wonderful things about it. So for those that are listening or watching to this that don’t know where St. Joe, Michigan is, it’s down there at the seven o’clock hour of Michigan. Yeah, it’s over here in the heel of the wrist portion of the mitten. And you’re what?

Ian Dolby (14:54.388)
to.

Ian Dolby (15:10.44)
huh. Yes, you’re going back to the myth.

CCPIA (15:23.144)
35, 40 minutes north of the Indiana border on a traffic day.

Ian Dolby (15:27.403)
30 minutes, oh yeah, on a traffic day, it’s yeah, 45, whatever. But we are like an hour and a half out of Chicago, right? If you drive around the lake, an hour and a half out of Chicago. Yeah.

CCPIA (15:33.447)
Yeah.

CCPIA (15:39.014)
Yeah. Yep. Or if you got a fast boat, it’s 45 minutes across the lake and you’re, yeah. You gotta get a fast boat. I know I can see it from up in the tower. I can see across that. So Mike, I think you’re a very good example of the opportunities commercial has because in Michigan,

Ian Dolby (15:46.311)
Is it? It’s 60 miles across, you know. Yeah, yeah, you’re moving.

Ian Dolby (15:55.87)
Yeah.

CCPIA (16:08.582)
There’s no license, correct, for home inspections. No, no radon, no home. It’s pretty much wide open print a business card you is one.

Ian Dolby (16:12.139)
There’s no licenses at all. No, which I’m not a fan of. No.

Ian Dolby (16:22.537)
You don’t need the business card. You just are one. And that is, that’s the standard here. And it’s not, I don’t believe it’s a healthy thing.

CCPIA (16:33.188)
Yeah, that’s a conversation for big brain people. I’m a small brain guy. But Indiana’s got a fairly rigorous home inspection license.

Ian Dolby (16:47.187)
Yeah, so actually, Indiana is about the same as it is in Illinois. It’s they kind of mirror each other. And sometimes there’s reciprocity and sometimes there isn’t depending on what the political situation is. And so, so yes, Indiana is got a good solid base to in order to become a home inspector. And you have to be licensed in radon.

as well there and that’s again another actually good kind of program that they have over there. So yeah, so I was licensed in Illinois initially. I’m still licensed in Indiana in both Radon and home and so forth. But again, there’s nothing here.

CCPIA (17:15.133)
Yep.

CCPIA (17:20.924)
Now are you licensed in Indiana?

CCPIA (17:31.952)
Okay.

Yeah, so, but you are crossing borders routinely.

Ian Dolby (17:41.161)
Yeah, absolutely, every day.

CCPIA (17:43.826)
Yeah, I think that’s, I think, cause that’s our biggest opportunity I see in commercial with, with, having this opportunity to, to, to work where we want to work. We get to follow that educated client, that client that you worked with in St. Joe, Benton Harbor, Harbor, that whole area there, you cultivated a client and if they want to buy a building in, in South Bend, you’re going to go do it.

Ian Dolby (17:59.989)
Sure. Yep.

Ian Dolby (18:12.242)
Yep, absolutely. Yep. Yeah. And, and of course that happens. And if it’s even if it’s on a, let’s say a small, whether it’s a, on the residential side or a smaller commercial project, if it is a ways further than I would typically want to drive, I will tell them upfront and I will bid it in, you know, I will quote it into my, my numbers and I will tell them upfront that that’s what I got to do because,

But honestly, God, they will respect your time. If they want you to come there, they’ll turn around and say, I don’t care. I want you to do it.

CCPIA (18:43.718)
And that’s the difference between residential and commercial.

Ian Dolby (18:47.772)
I actually get that on the residential as well. Yeah.

CCPIA (18:49.896)
Good for you. Good for you, because I have found on commercial it’s far less transactional. It’s very much relationship.

Ian Dolby (18:59.262)
On the commercial? Yeah. I don’t know. Obviously I can disagree with you, for me, it’s no, because I don’t have a basis to disagree on. But what I would tell you is that the commercial jobs that I get literally will come in in the same type of manner as my residential. I know that for a number of the guys that I

CCPIA (19:00.199)
Yes.

CCPIA (19:08.392)
Or you can.

Ian Dolby (19:27.7)
talked to you on a mentor side on CCPIA, I talked to them on InterNACHI as well. But on the CCPIA, a number of them are moving into the commercial space or want to be in the commercial space because there is some failure or things are not working out for them on on the residential side. So and some of the conversations I have with them about is, know, whatever problems you have over there are very likely to follow you over here. So let’s figure out how to fix those first, you know. But

CCPIA (19:44.944)
interesting.

CCPIA (19:55.997)
Yeah.

Ian Dolby (19:57.235)
So when it comes, so my relationships on it, really they’re, they’re, pretty much the same. in, that sense, there’s, there’s not a great deal of difference. There is when you get into the, so there’s also a couple of different types of commercial clients as far as you have main street, main street America, clients, which are smaller and a lot of them are very similar in a sense to residential systems and so forth.

But then when you get into the larger commercial, the firms basically that actually have, they have a chief financial officer and they have a controller and they have all these other peoples, that’s when it becomes transactional because they are in the business of hiring people to take care of problems for them.

And so you’re just another person to come and take care of a problem. Now, do they like being able to call the same person because you took care of it last time, you’ll probably take care of it again. Yes. but they are transactional because they are numbers based, you know, so it’s not an emotional decision until you get to the owner of the company. And then you can go back to, then you can go back to this level of emotion, bought into it, you know, because it’s typically their dream and stuff.

CCPIA (21:15.016)
So it’s kind of funny then, it kind of arcs up and then it arcs back down again. And if you can break that barrier between the CFO and the chairman of the board.

Ian Dolby (21:18.451)
Yeah.

Ian Dolby (21:31.262)
Yep. Yep.

CCPIA (21:32.968)
It’s really a fine line. And I like the way you put it. The Main Street client versus the corporate or portfolio client. I think of, I’ve got the one or two bay repair garage that’s run by this person or this family. Then they make the jump to the five or six bay.

Ian Dolby (21:36.05)
Yeah. Yeah.

CCPIA (22:01.922)
And then it’s the, I’ve got nine bays and 27 stores around the country type of place. And each one of those has a different mindset, a different, you said it, a different goal, a different thing they’re gonna get out of the inspection.

Ian Dolby (22:18.449)
Yeah, for sure. if you again think about the size and scope of the average business or businesses going back to my days in the investment banking world, you had what we’d call the mom and pop stores and so forth in whatever industry and the type of thinking and the control systems and so forth that they had in place, they would manage typically out of the checkbook and so forth, balance out of the checkbook.

But that was a million dollar less in revenue. then between about between three and five million, there was a huge change in how a company was structured and that they needed then to bring in other minds in order to become experts in various aspects, production or whatever it is, financial. You go above that and then it changes the whole client types of changes and stuff. yeah.

CCPIA (23:09.64)
It’s a little bit like that book Good to Great by, you know, that, now my brain, James Collins, Jim Collins wrote that really talks about those dynamics of what separates.

Ian Dolby (23:12.627)
That’s a great book.

Yeah, yeah, I can never remember authors, but yeah, but it is a great book.

CCPIA (23:26.458)
something that’s good versus something that’s great. My P brain has a lot of cobwebs in it, but I’ve read that several times and used that in many classes. So I guess that brings me to your mentoring. And I found that interesting what you just said of some of the mentees that you’ve talked to.

Ian Dolby (23:28.829)
Yeah.

Ian Dolby (23:39.986)
Yeah.

CCPIA (23:55.46)
are entering commercial because maybe they’re having a fallen out or a distaste or a lack of passion with residential. And so this becomes their parachute. Well, that wasn’t the case with you. You decided you wanted to make commercial an and, not an or.

Ian Dolby (24:10.195)
For sure.

Ian Dolby (24:18.704)
No.

Ian Dolby (24:22.855)
Yep. Yeah, correct.

CCPIA (24:25.804)
And I found it interesting what you just said of, we don’t fix your roots of your conditions, they’re likely going to manifest or bloom again. It’s like picking weeds. So what advice have you been given some of your mentees about change or about adapting?

Ian Dolby (24:39.753)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Ian Dolby (24:52.179)
So I’ll end up talking to them about their residential experience and what’s the problems, the failures that are going on over there, what’s not working for them. And I will say that there are some consistent types of challenges, These people are not knowing how to market themselves. And one thing I keep coming back to and I tell people, if everybody is turning left,

Go right. That’s what I’ve done, you know, my whole life, basically, which doesn’t mean it’s the easiest path, but it is often, you know, the most rewarding path. Right. So, and I tell people up front too, I said, listen, I love whether it’s international CCP, I absolutely love them, but it doesn’t mean to say I’m going to follow every piece of advice that they give me. Right. Because they’re talking to the masses. I said, and so, you know, if you have the 80 20 rule,

80 % are going over here if 80 % still think you have to go and knock on realtors doors and you have to you know do everything to go and bring you know romance a realtor and so forth and then they’re looking at which list of this and which list of that i said well the 20 % is figuring out the technology that exists today and google is your biggest friend and so you have to be able to again understanding the sales

side of life, everything is sales, absolutely everything is sales. And so you need to be able to present yourself according to that sales thing, which means that, you know, if you want to get into the, you know, paper click, you can’t do any one of these things on their own. You have to do them all right. So you can, you can spend, you know, however much money you want on advertising on Google, if that’s what you want to do. But if you don’t have the other components in place, you’re going to lose your money.

If you drive around and you look like you’re still in the trades, you will be treated like you’re still in the trades, but you don’t want to be treated like you’re in the trades. You want to be treated like you’re the advisor, the trusted advisor type thing. So I talked to guys about the fact that they have to be competent in all these things. And I often have a conversation with them about, what does your website look like? Well, I don’t have one yet.

Ian Dolby (27:19.141)
or how are you going to do this then? And I’ll have an honest conversation, respectful conversation with them. but they, yeah, they struggle on some of the basics. They’ve got to be entrepreneurs and then not necessarily entrepreneurial, you know.

CCPIA (27:34.82)
I think that’s a good point. I came from the franchise world. I worked for a franchisor and sold a lot of franchises through the years. And every franchise that’s ever sat in my office, I’ve always told them the same thing. I nobody is driving down the road and sees your sign and go, huh, I think I want an inspection today.

Ian Dolby (27:40.456)
Yeah.

Ian Dolby (28:01.393)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

CCPIA (28:01.89)
You know, it’s not like it’s, and I’ll pick Dairy Queen with the kiss. I think I want ice cream. You said it perfectly. If you’re gonna do Google, which is the big dog.

Ian Dolby (28:09.01)
Yeah.

CCPIA (28:21.22)
If you don’t have a website that Google drives them to, why spend the money? And if you’re going to have pay-per-click and you don’t have this in place, then you’re right. If you don’t have everything in line, you have nothing in line.

Ian Dolby (28:21.426)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Dolby (28:26.279)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Dolby (28:36.014)
Everything. Yeah, yeah, you’re just figuring out how to lose money in every way there is. And I don’t mean just on Google. mean, literally sitting at home, losing money and so forth. You got it. You got to be able you have to be entrepreneurial. And so so many people don’t put in the time and the effort to figure out all those other skills.

They’ll take every class there is on CCPIA and figure that out, but they won’t take any of the classes or go find answers to the questions on the other side of the business, know, the business of the business.

CCPIA (29:18.004)
Yeah, they’ll have the sharpest spear or the sharpest knife, but they won’t have the skillset to go out and hunt. And I had a slide years ago, it made me, my ADHD was popping in. I had a slide years ago that I’d show in my first day of franchise class that said, so here’s the history of the inspection business. Build a company, make a business card.

Ian Dolby (29:26.138)
Right. Yeah, no idea.

CCPIA (29:45.85)
sit at home, wait for the phone to ring and get a job at Home Depot. Is if you don’t engage, if you don’t do it, if you don’t have the total package, I love what you said at the very beginning. Everything I do is based on sales. How you look, what you drive, what your tools look like, how I approach. And you just said a minute ago, if I look like a technician, then I am one.

Ian Dolby (29:49.52)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, that’s not wrong.

Ian Dolby (30:03.453)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Dolby (30:15.474)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

CCPIA (30:16.424)
And if I want to get paid like a commercial inspector and we won’t talk about pricing but if I want to get paid like a commercial inspector which is a very fair pay for per job then I want to look like a consultant.

Ian Dolby (30:26.874)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Ian Dolby (30:34.152)
Yeah, we’ll take it even one step further. If you want to be paid like again, the 80, 20%, right? If you want to be paid like you’re in the top 20 % of commercial inspectors, then you need to basically look, act and perform like you are in that 20%. Nobody’s going to pay you for something that they, you know, they don’t think you are, right? So, so yeah, it is. It’s, it’s absolutely everything. Yeah.

CCPIA (30:48.68)
Yes.

CCPIA (30:59.944)
I couldn’t agree more. So I’m trying to go through and in my mind think about what we haven’t talked about because this has just been eye opening on, I mean, I love the ideas Ian of having multiple options for your clients.

You can run a commercial inspection company with 85, 90 % successes by just having a good, solid attitude. Are you using proposals on most of your jobs or are these mostly all phone quotes, Ian?

Ian Dolby (31:22.631)
in

Ian Dolby (31:44.487)
No, I will always do a written one pager. And it’s a canned thing for me. I just go out and change out very small amount of information and so forth. But I will never try to close on a phone. Never. No. So again, going back to my sales type world and stuff like that. No, that’s not a thing. So no, I want to make sure.

CCPIA (32:01.97)
Good. Good.

Ian Dolby (32:11.93)
that they have the information and quite often on the commercial projects, it’s more than one person involved in making the decision. It’s not necessarily the person that’s on the phone with you and you can go through the, well, you know, we can go to be in the sales person, which is terrible. You know, I want to talk to the decision maker. Who’s the decision maker? You know, you can go through all of that. But what I do is put it down on paper.

It becomes somewhat of a, you know, my sales piece is that piece of paper. And I even point them to the option that most people choose. Why? Because that’s the option I want them to choose. And most people then choose that option. But even if they take the lowest option based upon the amount of time it will take me to perform that option. It’s still a winner for me, you know, and so, and when, what I find has happened is that when,

You know, I think when people would compare, they, if somebody was looking to book a commercial inspection and they would go online or whatever and basically find or go to CCPIA website and then they’re just scrolling through whatever names they have, they have nothing other to compare anybody to other than on price. They have nothing else. And so, you know, a lot of the time when I went through that moment there where I was losing them, I was losing on,

price because as things started to, you know, more people got into this side of the business, I would start to lose on price. So I don’t lose on price anymore because people would tell me, well, I really like you. I like your approach and everything, but can you, can you come down to this? And I’m like, no, I can’t because one, my schedule is going to be full no matter what. So I’m either going to take this well paying job or I’m going to take this well paying job. So

So I don’t lose on price anymore because even if they don’t want what somebody else was quoting them for a full inspection, and they don’t necessarily need the full inspection. They will come down and pay, you know, whatever fits their budget and take the inspection that that meets up with that. so, so, you know, it has just been working well. But again, that’s just nothing more than another piece of the sales, you know, model.

CCPIA (34:35.464)
So what you’re saying in kind of a roundabout summary way is you have to use all the tools at your disposal and you have to have the mindset of a winner.

Ian Dolby (34:46.075)
Yeah, everyone.

Ian Dolby (34:50.117)
Yeah, you, yeah, you, yes, right, you have to be head down, push, push through. And like my wife says, you know, well, you’ve got you’re absolutely the most disciplined person and the most tenacious person. I don’t know any other way because there is no nobody’s given me a safety blanket, just like I’m sure they’re not giving many people, you know, a safety blanket. So I’m in charge of I’m in charge of where I end up period, you know, so

I have to find the answers to stuff. One of the things when I’m on the mentoring calls, I find a number of people, a number of people are still looking for, they’re looking for somebody to give them all of the answers. And I mean every answer. And it’s like, okay, you you have to actually start to turn the head on and, you know.

come up with the answers. When I was building my website, you know, I’m not a website designer, but I had to go and find out, learn enough to know whether or not somebody was going to do something correctly or it was going to do what I needed it to do or not. I had to go out and learn how to manage pay-per-click because I didn’t have the money and wasn’t going to pay somebody else just to spend my money. You know, so you have to become the, you have to become

expert enough in absolutely everything to know whether or not somebody is treating you correctly or doing something correctly or not, you know, so, so yeah.

CCPIA (36:24.232)
I couldn’t agree more. mean, my transition from residential to commercial was a master class of having to learn everything. on the residential side, it’s the household name. Everybody knows it. Everybody has it. It’s an 80, 90 % client pool of transactions, get inspections.

Ian Dolby (36:35.035)
Yeah.

CCPIA (36:53.628)
done and now we’re inventing an entire new industry in the commercial side and so if you don’t if you don’t embrace that and you just want to be a technician then you’re not going to be an entrepreneur and I don’t think you’re going to be successful.

Ian Dolby (36:54.726)
Yep.

Ian Dolby (37:10.681)
No, but if you just want to be a technician, right? We’re not all born to be business owners. And some of us, you know, we are great employees and there’s nothing wrong with that, but you have to know where you best fit. You know, you just, have to know where you best fit. And, and in some of the phone calls that I have with people, I think there are some people that literally will be figuring this out while they’re.

CCPIA (37:15.592)
Hmm?

Ian Dolby (37:36.935)
while they’re on the phone with me, you know, I mean, I’ll spend an hour on the phone with them as I’m driving around and so forth, you know, and, and they will come to their own realization because they’ll ask me, well, what do think I should do? said, well, you know, you better than I do. What do you think you should do? And then, you know, some of them are literally were, you know, yeah, maybe it’s, it’s not as, you know, maybe I should go and work for somebody.

CCPIA (37:57.544)
Well, that’s an interesting point, Ian, because when you think about commercial, there’s so much geographical opportunity to be a 1099 technician for a few dozen different commercial inspector entrepreneurs. I know you work alone. I know you don’t have staff.

Ian Dolby (38:11.674)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ian Dolby (38:18.544)
Yeah.

CCPIA (38:23.164)
But I would imagine if you had a big building in Kalamazoo for Kellogg or Battle Creek, should say, for Kellogg, you would need some help. It would be good for you to have a pool and say,

Ian Dolby (38:31.312)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Dolby (38:36.944)
Yeah.

Ian Dolby (38:40.506)
Yeah, but guess what? We have that pool, don’t we? Through CCPIA, right? I know, yeah, if I needed an inspector, I know people that I can call across the country and say, hey, hey, can you come and help me out with this? And it’ll be like, yes, count me in, I’m there. So.

CCPIA (38:43.11)
Yes, we do. I’m an inspector. Here we go.

CCPIA (38:53.244)
Yes.

CCPIA (38:57.181)
Yes.

CCPIA (39:01.872)
Yep. have a, we’re, we’re, we’re, have a project coming up, a field training in Arizona and it’s got a large precast concrete parking structure. And, and I went right to my Rolodex. have a, I have a, I have a deer inspection friend of mine who’s, who erected them for a couple decades. I’m going to bring him in and let him lead that portion of the class because he’s, he’s an expert.

Ian Dolby (39:12.186)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ian Dolby (39:23.663)
Yeah.

Ian Dolby (39:27.6)
Yeah.

Ian Dolby (39:31.067)
Yeah, yeah. So when it comes to, you know, so I work on my own. I love that. And people keep saying, well, you you should you should take somebody on my schedules always. So typically 90 something percent, it is full out the window. And so they’re like, well, you should take somebody on. Well, I already I’ve done the numbers and I know what it would take and it would change my life. And I’ve already been there, done that. And I don’t need to because life is life is fantastic as it is. But

In the event, instance, you you go into a commercial project and you need somebody. it’s, it’s the easiest thing, you know, for on a precast concrete building, for instance, it was a large, like 400,000 square foot, commercial building. was less than 12 months old and the owner had basically gone online and read, all kinds of horror stories about precast concrete buildings failing and so forth. And so now he was.

he was paranoid because there were hairline cracks turning up everywhere and stuff. So he wanted a structural steel inspection or evaluation as part of everything. Well, of course I’m not a structural steel guy. So you get out your phone book or whatever you search, you go online, you start to research and find something. So of course then I had a welding instructor.

that did all and was he was in the field as well. I had been for like 30 years. And of course, you know, you just portion that out. You just 10 99. I’m out to go take care of that. So I don’t need to hire people as employees or anything. Nobody else does either. But, you know, depending on your business model, but there are so many people available. You just go fill that. So there’s no waiting till, you know, I have to build this just in case somebody calls me.

because they’re going to need this. No, no, no, no, no, no, You go out and build your sales model so that you actually, when that phone rings and they ask you, the answer is yes. And then you go figure out how to solve that with it. We’re the professional, you know? So yeah, and that works.

CCPIA (41:44.072)
We use that big thinkin’ meat as much as we can.

Ian Dolby (41:47.108)
Yeah, try to.

CCPIA (41:49.51)
Yeah. So, so thank you for your time today, Ian. I know you said 90, 90 plus percent. This has taken us a little while to schedule because you are swamped. You’re also a newlywed, but you know, so, so that takes up your time too. But,

Ian Dolby (42:04.698)
Yeah. yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. with her for a very long time, but we just decided to get married last year. Yeah. Yeah.

CCPIA (42:15.452)
But you are swamped and so I do appreciate this. You don’t know how much for all of you members that are, or even prospective members know that Ian is on our mentor list. You can find that on our website. He just said he loves talking to you and helping. And so thank you for helping me.

Ian Dolby (42:43.92)
No, no, no, it’s the other way around. It’s absolutely the other way around. No.

CCPIA (42:46.056)
No, no, I enjoy every conversation we’ve ever had and thank you for taking the time this morning. And I look forward to watching and hearing about your successes and everything you’re doing in the world of commercial inspections.

Ian Dolby (43:05.594)
Yeah, I appreciate it, but you’re absolutely a rock both to this organization and you just take this. You just make it simple. I’ll put it that way. You make it real simple. So now it’s earned.

CCPIA (43:15.976)
You’re too kindy and… Yep. Thank you so much and stay safe and remember to follow the ComSop when you’re out there.

Ian Dolby (43:22.726)
Thanks mate.

Ian Dolby (43:27.224)
All right, thanks, Mate. Appreciate it.