Alex Fees: I’m Alex Fees on SBTV.com here at the IFA Conference in Orlando, Florida. And joining me here now is Bill Wagner; Bill, good to meet you, sir.
Bill Wagner: Alex, thank you so much.
Alex Fees: Bill is the CEO and Co- founder of Accord Management Systems Inc.
Bill Wagner: Exactly.
Alex Fees: And Bill described that to me as a behavioral consultancy.
Bill Wagner: We are a boutique behavioral consultancy. We help franchise ors, franchise is. Get the people side on the business right by using various forms of test surveys assessments. If you can measure it, we can help you manage it.
Alex Fees: So do you get into the minds of the customer-employee relationship here or what?
Bill Wagner: I think not so much in the minds but maybe that’s part of it. What we really want to do is for one thing we want to ascertain ones personality and of course measure in benchmark what are the ideal qualities that would make one for a great franchise E. and typically, everybody in the market they want the same person. They want a person who is assertive, results-oriented, marketing-oriented, and sales-oriented. A person has strive and independent and enough sociability to mitigate through edges in to close deals, which is the good news. The bad news is maybe only about fifteen to twenty percent of the population has those qualities. Now it doesn’t preclude someone from becoming an ideal franchisee but the franchisor can find someone close qualities, they perform on a higher level, they generate greater royalties and you put money in somebody’s pocket. And that’s where the bottom-line is all about.
Alex Fees: Now what’s your background? Are you at mental health?
Bill Wagner: well, my wife will probably believe I’m in mental health. She was a teacher for twelve years. Such a life she probably saw attracted the dating process. No I’m not mental health. But I do have a therapist that I see regularly that qualifies me for anything we’re talking about. My background is primarily sales, sales and marketing. I have a Xerox background. I have a Pepsi Co. background. I have a Mid- Western values, morals and ethics. But originally I was a purveyor before I became a purveyor I was in unuser of these systems. And I was responsible for the OD or Organizational Development of A Pre-Ideal Company and my job was to make sure that we got the people side of the business right. And we did that by figuring out what do we need versus who do we have and what do we change or mitigate.
Alex Fees: You got a couple of books here. Show me those.
Bill Wagner: Well, personally I am the author of the book called the “Entrepreneur Next Door”
Alex Fees: The “Entrepreneur Next Door”
Bill Wagner: And in this, we survey the personalities of one thousand five hundred and nine, not ten, not eight but one thousand five hundred nine successful entrepreneurs. If you compare their results to that of those who were in “The Millionaire Next Door”, which is about twelve, fourteen years ago. Their typical millionaire had a net worth about $3.7 million; they were fifty seven years old. Our study group was thirty one with a net worth of $3.4 million. So they have accomplished roughly the same thing in twenty five fewer years. They did so because one, seventy nine percent of them were perfect for what they are doing which was not the great part. The great part was at twenty one percent that weren’t. And what they develop and had is they have self- awareness and of capacity can manage the gap between requirements of the job versus who they were and everyday they came to work and they stretched and they became someone they weren’t and that’s where the success came from. So, when we’re working with new franchises, obviously we want to bring someone and have the right set of traits. Whether we’re working with incumbent or just a Franchise E that maybe struggling, they’re struggling not because they don’t understand the program, they’re struggling because they don’t understand the right behaviors to implement the program so if we can show them who they need to be, we get a whole lot more accomplished.
Alex Fees: Here is “The Entrepreneur Next Door” available.
Bill Wagner: It’s available in couple of places. One, you can still go in the Amazon. It came about two years ago. So it’s not one the main shelves at your bookstores you can still get it in the Amazon. If you really want to get the same deal, you can get if from our website which is the entrepreneurnextdoor.com, plus you got to take about five different types of test. You can take a personality test for free, and you can take an IQ and EQ, DQ, whatever that might be. but you cam take a different bunch of assessments and get a sense as to what makes you tick and what ticks you off.
Alex Fees: Okay another pamphlet or something down here right?
Bill Wagner: Actually what we did is this is something we’re handing out and you can actually get the software from our website, its accordsyst.com and click on franchise. Study white paper and in this, we surveyed sic different studies and we surveyed everything where we can determine the relationship between a franchise engagements their personality and their generation of royalties. We’ve been able to measure a franchise either health in their company or the potential dysfunction. We did a program two years ago for Ace Hardware they’re giving away a million dollar location. They came to us, we designed a survey for them and in thirty days we surveyed almost twenty thousand applicants for the position of a free franchise and we gave them the top fifty people, one in each state and then they chose from there. So if you can measure it, we can manage it.
Alex Fees: How did that worked out for them?
Bill Wagner: It worked out normally well. Which is the good news and the locations usually didn’t failed and so the good news is they found that ideal person, the bad news he’s from Portland and I can’t imagine what the culture shot must be going from Portland to Houston.
Alex Fees: What about your participation here at IFA Bill? Are you presenting?
Bill Wagner: When I presented yesterday a program called, “The Search and Reward for Talent” to we are actually sponsors for the Board of Directors Dinner which is on Friday night. We have an exhibit here. We’ve been working with the IFA now for over seven years and it has been a phenomenal home for us. They’ve been tremendously supportive and we enjoy giving back.
Alex Fees: All right. Bill Wagner, thank you very much. Appreciate you being here. Again, he is Bill Wagner the CEO and Co- founder of Accord Management Systems, safe to say what? Getting in to the saki of business if you will.
Bill Wagner: We’re getting the people side of the business right and at the franchiser level, their employee level and we do it all.
Alex Fees: All right Bill, thank you very much.
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