Chad Chancellor: I want to thank Research Consultants International for sponsoring today's podcast. They are a globally renowned lead generation firm that helps economic development organizations create real prospects. They've helped over five hundred economic development organizations. Let me tell you exactly what they do.
They facilitate one-on-one meetings for economic developers with corporate executives who have projects soon. They can facilitate these meetings to where you travel to the corporate executive’s office and meet them there or you meet them at a trade show or even have a conference call so you don't have to pay for travel.
They recently launched a service called FDI365 which provides you a lead a day of fast-growing companies that will be expanding soon. Their research has helped over $5 billion in projects get sighted since inception. I encourage you to go to www.researchfdi.com to learn more about Research Consultants.
As far as I'm concerned, they are absolutely the best lead generation firm in the business for economic development organizations. Call them now. They can help you create real prospects. [music]
Welcome to this episode of Next Move Group’s We Are Jobs podcast. This is Chad Chancellor, the co-founder of Next Move Group. I'm happy to be here with Bruce Takefman today, the owner of Research Consultants International and as far as I'm concerned, the best lead generation firm in the business for small to mid-sized communities.
Bruce, we met in New Orleans I guess four or five years ago in an elevator and here we are sitting in New Orleans today. Our company’s grown and your company's really grown. I know you guys are really on a growth track. Tell us a little bit about your company.
Bruce Takefman: Well, thanks for that wonderful welcome, Chad. It's great to be here in New Orleans with this wonderful event. What an event you've had! 140 people--
Chad Chancellor: Thank you.
Bruce Takefman: --high-level speakers. Congratulations on that. Yes, we did meet in an elevator in this very city in New Orleans. It was an IEDC leadership conference.
Chad Chancellor: Yes, that's right.
Bruce Takefman: We met for 30 seconds. I'm like who is this guy? I've never heard of this company before. You followed me up a couple of weeks later and you explained what you were doing, I explained what I was doing and from there our five-year friendship was formed.
I'm really happy for you, for the success of Next Move Group, for you and Alex. You do a great job for the companies from all round the world, so congratulations to you and it's a pleasure to collaborate and be your friend.
Chad Chancellor: Yes, well we actually did business with lead generation firms before we started this company. I did economic development in Paducah, Kentucky and we outsourced lead generation services to two different firms. So I had dealt with them before and when I say I think you're the best, I mean it. I'm not just saying that.
I knew what they did and the thing I like about what you all do is you don't over promise. I felt some of those services are over promised and under delivered. I feel you guys would rather under promise and over deliver when push comes to shove.
Bruce Takefman: I appreciate you saying that especially coming from you. We had the opportunity to collaborate with some of your clients, if I may say, with Delta Mississippi and we're excited that two projects got to land over there.
We appreciate your referrals obviously. To Chuck in Kentucky, we have been there. He’s found success. So, we're happy that we’ve had success with your clients and for you working together. It's been tremendous. It's been a win-win all around.
Chad Chancellor: Talk about kind of the geography you serve. How far east, west, north, south, probably all over. Where's your client base typically?
Bruce Takefman: Right now, 60% of our clients are based in the U.S., 30% are in Canada, and 10% are international. So, we're pretty U.S. centric right now, but we're looking to change that. In 2017, Wavteq became a minority shareholder in Research Consultants International, so now we're surely a global firm alongside them.
We’ve about a hundred employees around the world, 35 in North America. So, we're growing each and every day. Like you said, the most important thing is quality over quantity, making sure clients have that personal touch, check your customer service and not promising something that can't happen.
Chad Chancellor: You know it's interesting. We also do executive searches and we’re doing a search right now and in Canada, they were referred to us. I don't even know where the referral came from. When I asked him how did you find out about this search, it came to us a lady from London, England who's applying from one of our jobs in the States.
She grew up in the States and moved over there and just did a great job in her video interview and so the board we’re dealing with is like how in the world did you find this person? So, you can even give us leads for that. I know you're really excited about your FDI365 program you guys have launched. So why don't you talk a little bit about that?
Bruce Takefman: Yes, absolutely. Thanks, Chad. It's a business intelligence platform. It's really built for the busy economic developer. For one new company, they are providing selection rational why we chose a company really harnessing the power of business intelligence.
We created an algorithm base. We could go ahead and produce high-level business intelligence to marry with our client's target sectors. Our clients set the criteria and they find a new company that's a target for investment attraction. Either they could pursue the lead themselves or they could outsource it to a lead generation program. No matter what they choose, we're happy to accommodate.
Chad Chancellor: Great. Talk about your growth. You said 100 employees now with the partnership--
Bruce Takefman: Alongside when I took over 135 directly.
Chad Chancellor: How long have you been in business? I mean this has grown rapidly.
Bruce Takefman: Yes, it's been 9 years now.
Chad Chancellor: Time flies.
Bruce Takefman: Time flies.
Chad Chancellor: I remember when we met in Montreal I guess five-- after we met here then we came to Montreal because as you know Montreal's one of my favorite cities and I like to go--
Bruce Takefman: We had quite the nights on Saint Laurent Street. It's a PG podcast, so we've got to keep the details to ourselves.
Chad Chancellor: I haven’t been to Montreal lately. I need to get-- I love Montreal. I tell you it’s one of my favorites. I love San Diego. I love New Orleans. I love Montreal. New Orleans and Montreal have similarities. I don’t know about San Diego.
Bruce Takefman: Will you and Alex come up for our ten-year anniversary party?
Chad Chancellor: Yes, that's right. We’ll' have to do it. Well Bruce, thank you so much for everything you've done to help us grow and congratulations on all of your success. Tell these folks how to get a hold of you if they have interest in your services.
Bruce Takefman: Absolutely. Feel free to email me directly. bruce@searchfdi.com or check out the website www.researchfdi.com. Happy to answer any questions you may have. Chad, congrats on a great event and all your success. I'm looking forward to a great collaboration moving forward.
Chad Chancellor: Right, thank you. I want to thank the University of Southern Mississippi’s Masters of Economic Development program for sponsoring today's podcast. We work with Southern Miss a lot and they do tremendous research for us whether we're working with a site selection project and we need Southern Miss’s help to understand labor and the market around that area, transportation they do a lot of research in or whether we need talent from the University of Southern Mississippi.
We have hired-- their students actually work for us as both interns and full-time employees. So, you can get a Master’s degree in Economic Development from the university. They have two options to do that. One is mostly an online option where you go in a few weekends and one is the more traditional classroom option.
So, whether you run an organization and need talent or whether you run an organization and need research, you should really consider the University of Southern Mississippi’s Masters of Economic Development program. [music]
A special thank you to Younger Associates for recording, editing, and publishing this podcast for us. I encourage you to visit their website at younger-associates.com