5 Questions with Harvey Goldglantz

Harvey Goldglantz

This month, my back-page column features a question-and-answer session with Harvey Goldglantz, owner of Elkins Park, Pa.-based Pest Control Marketing Co. Goldglantz is a regular Pest Management Professional (PMP) columnist and the author of Marketing Matters — The Ultimate Reference Guide to Making the Most of Your Marketing Money (sold on mypmp.net).

1. Before you launched your consulting company, for decades you were controlling pests on the other side of the table. Is it true you provided pest management services before you had a driver’s license?
Yes. I began working for my cousin’s company, performing general pest control, when I was 15 years old. I rode shotgun, as his sidekick. This was during the early 1960s, well before applicator licensing requirements. After working for one year, on Saturdays at first, then six days a week during the summer, I realized there’s gold in them hills. By the next summer, I began my independent pest control career: I rode the subway to my accounts with a B&G sprayer in one hand, bottles of Baygon stuffed in my front pockets and plastic bags filled with rodenticide in my vest.

2. Having “been there, done that,” do you find it easier to convince pest management professionals (PMPs) to buy into your business suggestions?
Absolutely. The fact that I possess decades of practical experience running my own successful pest management company gives consulting clients a higher degree of trust and confidence. It also requires less effort on my part to attain buy-in. What makes a consultant particularly valuable is hands-on experience in his or her chosen field.

3. What are the Top 3 ways you help companies enhance their revenue?
Helping companies enhance their sales is a process that includes:
⦁ Conducting an in-depth analysis of the demographics, geographics and psychographics of clients.
⦁ Creating an ongoing in-house training program for sales and customer service staff.
⦁ Developing a comprehensive sales and marketing plan, which includes — among dozens of other strategies and tactics — effective online marketing, such as search-engine-optimized Web content and social networking that pays measurable dividends; sensible sales incentives; and add-on business and referral programs.

4. What are the Top 3 ways you help companies improve their bottom lines?
First, I conduct a historical analysis of each company’s financials, including profit-and-loss statements and balance sheets for the previous three years. I compare them with industry averages. Then I break down products and services provided by revenue, expenses, margins, service frequencies, customer attrition, etc. Finally, I create bundled service packages, add-on service programs and referral incentives, and make recommendations to contain costs and increase profitability.

5. What’s the bottom line?
I’ve helped dozens of companies increase their annual revenue more than 20 percent in one year. Quite a few also doubled their net profits year-over-year by seeking outside help, planning the work and working the plan.

You can reach PMP Publisher and Editorial Director Marty Whitford at mwhitford@northcoastmedia.net or 216-706-3766.