Make more internal apprehensions for theft.
Once you catch a supervisor or manager stealing… look at the people who work for the thief.
Many times what you’re going to find is a “culture” of theft in that manager’s team.
Committed to your success as a Private Detective,
-Larry-
Larry Kaye,
Private Investigator
This week I bought a car and I had to answer that tough question, “Who can I trust?”
I went out to buy a car and if you’ve ever done this you know it’s not the most fun thing in the world to shop for a car. Great to have one. It’s fun once you get one but, shopping for a car can be very challenging.
I went to three different dealerships, two different private individuals and drove a bunch of cars. But the most challenging part was trying to find somebody that I could trust. And this is the type of thing that you have to deal with in everyday life.
The internet has made almost everything go faster. You can purchase things faster, find things faster and search for things faster. But… the one thing that it has not sped up is how fast you can develop trust!
You cannot build trust with someone on the internet any faster than you could in the old days.
That’s the type of thing that I want you to keep in mind when you’re dealing with people online or even in real life. Who do you trust?
Now, I was fortunate enough to have a friend of mine turn to me on to a dealership. A very small corner lot type place. It wasn’t much to look at… but the guy was trustworthy.
I got into a great car at a great price. I’m very happy with it. But, the seller saw I was a little hesitant even though I had a referral to go there and I had heard good things about this guy.
The seller knew this was a big investment for me so he said, “I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you a 30 day guarantee on the engine and transmission.”
WOW! I’ve never had a corner lot guy do this for me before.
Part of it is because then they have to file a paper work with the state. (I believe the Attorney-General’s office here in my state.) And, of course no one wants to file more paperwork with the government than they have to!
But this guy made that offer and he put it in writing. And you know what? It was just another indicator to me that this was someone I could trust. I bought the car on the spot. Paid cash. I was a happy camper.
Of course, I’m selling The Investigator’s Ultimate Guide series. And just like the car guy, I have referrals for you (testimonials of happy purchasers) and I offer guarantees. In fact, my guarantees are so strong and generous – no one else can come close! But I can do that because… the content in my courses is the real-deal info we Private Investigators use in the real world everyday!
Plus, of course, you see me here every week. Every Tuesday I put out a new video and that mean you can get to know me a little better than some faceless course that’s just a bunch of pfd downloads!
And here’s an interesting thing you don’t know… every month, I talk at least one person out of buying one of these courses! They send me an email. They ask me questions and I’m happy to answer them. But, sometimes, I can just tell that this is not the resource that’s right for this person.
I’ll give you a perfect example. One woman contacted me and she lead off with, “I’ve already bought private investigator training from an online place. I still owe them $500. I’m not happy with what they did but, do you think your course is going to help me.” And the first thing I said was, “Do not go into debt to get more training. Do not hit up that VISA or MasterCard. If you still owe them 500 bucks, you need to pay down that debt before you go anywhere else. Don’t dig yourself into a hole for this.”
The more I talked with her, I could see that this really wasn’t going to solve her problem. She was having money problems and she thought that buying the right Private Detective training course would dig her out of the hole and really she was just digging deeper.
I’ve been selling investigator training since 2004 and I want to share with you exactly how to compare two courses to decide which one is better and which one is right for you. The trick is to buy them both. That’s how you can compare Private Investigator training courses.
Find training that offers a no-strings-attached money back guarantee (if you can find another one besides mine that has a money back guarantee) and try them both. Look at them. See which one is more your learning style. Which one has the better information. Then keep the one you know is better!
So, I bought a new car and I hope you’re happy for me but, it really reminds me of how much I have to serve you, take care of you and build that trust. Contact me if you have any questions.
Committed to your success as a Private Investigator,
-Larry-
Larry Kaye,
Private Investigator
How much should you charge for your private investigative services when you’re just starting out?
When you’re just starting out you say, “Well, I don’t have a lot of experience…” and you undercharge.
Now, you should know the job pretty well. Hopefully you’ve got some good training so you can do the job well. Still… one of your instincts is going to be to charge less than other Detective Agencies and try to pick up clients that way.
I’m completely opposed to that for a variety of reasons.
Think about it in terms of another industry. For example…
If you open a pizza shop you wouldn’t start out selling pies for a quarter each! You wouldn’t say, “Well I’m new. I’ve got to establish my business first. I’m going to sell them for a quarter a pie. Then, once I’ve been in business for a while, once I’ve been running it for a year, I’m going to raise it to $2 each. The really experienced pizza parlors can charge more but I’m just starting out. Maybe after five or six years I can start charging five dollars or ten dollars a pie.” No way!
You would never do that in a million years and I don’t want you to do that in your Private Investigation business. You perform a valuable service. You have a skill set that not everybody has. What I want you to do is charge what it’s worth!
If you’re providing them a service at $85 an hour but they’re getting $100 an hour, or $500 an hour worth of value out of it, then that’s worth what you’re charging and they will happily pay it.
I’ll give you a real world case study as an example…
The man I was working for, was paying $4,000 a month in spousal support. How much it is worth to him to stop doing that? If he paid me $4,000 to work his case just one time and he could stop paying $4,000 each month, That’s Worth It!
If I saved him the next 10 or 15 years is that worth it? Is it worth $4,000? Sure it is!
What if I only worked one day on the case? Is my time worth $4,000 a day? It would be to that man because he pays me one time four grand and he never has to pay that out again! (Just F.Y.I., I actually worked three days at my standard rate.)
You have clients who are hiring you and a lot of times they can put a financial number on why they’re hiring you. If the client needs you to help a repo guy find a car, and they’re $10,000 in the hole with that car, they’re certainly going to be willing to pay you $550 (my standard fee for that type of case) to have you skip trace and find the vehicle!
So if you get nothing else I’m saying here, I want you to understand…
You need to add value to the people that you’re serving.
I do that with the training materials that I have. They’re not cheap. We all know they’re not cheap but they’re worth it!
The Investigator’s Ultimate Guide to Process Serving retails at $400 but when you’re serving process you’re going to make that in a month or less!
If I could pay you $400 once and then make $500, $1,000, $1,200 a month over and over again would I do that? Absolutely! I would take that deal all day long. And that’s how you have to look at the investigative services that you offer your clients.
You should be charging enough to make it worth your while to take the time, energy, effort, and your expertise while, at the same time, the client should be getting way more value out of it than what they’re paying for.
That makes for a good business relationship and that’s exactly the way business should be run.
And remember, in each training course is information about marketing and selling to your clients. Very, very valuable information. A lot of experienced investigators get these materials just for the marketing things that are in them. It’s information that’s going to make you money over and over again.
Committed to your success as a Private Investigator,
-Larry-
Larry Kaye, Private Investigator
Should you tint the windows on your surveillance vehicle or does that make it look suspicious?
In this Tuesday’s video I answer a question from a viewer about exactly that.
My experienced opinion is, yes, you tint the windows and tint them heavily.
You need to be comfortable that you cannot be seen while your working so you can do the job right.
If you’re worried about people seeing you, then you aren’t concentrating on the subject of your investigation and not focusing on getting the information / video you need for your case!
That means you need to be well concealed, so use the tint.
Committed to your success in surveillance,
-Larry-
Larry Kaye,
Private Investigator