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Adams: What made you want to start working again? using. The third thing is we negotiate, typically we know what your margin is and what a fair price
Schneider: I ended up in Charleston, SC, with their current vendors. We look at the vendor’s is, why don’t we just settle on a fair price? The
because the kite boarding was good and I had margin and what people across the street pay. It’s vendor knows they may be lowering their margin a
some childhood friends here. I hadn’t worked in two a little different from just wanting a better deal. little but retaining the business for a longer time.
years and I felt like I had to do something other
than having fun. I wanted to think and solve Adams: But isn’t the bottom line that you’re trying Adams: How often do you fail to come up with
problems. I got an office and started going to work to get more favorable contracts with vendors? cost savings?
every day. Schneider: Let’s say you pay $100 for something Schneider: We have a 98% success rate.
and you call up your vendor and say, I want a Typically we find 10%-40% of savings.
Adams: How did that lead to SIB? better deal and they say, OK I’ll give you $90. You
Schneider: It was November 2008 and the don’t know if the person down the street is paying Adams: You call yourself a “corporate
economy wasn’t good. I had this cost-saving $60 because you don’t have anything to five-year-old.” Why?
consulting model in the back of my head. benchmark it against. We come in and say, what Schneider: If you tell a five-year-old, “Because I
are the people in your area paying for the same said so,” they’re going to keep asking you why
Adams: How did you finance the business when type of service? What is the vendor’s margin? Do until you give them a real reason. We do the same
you started? they have a 10% margin or a 20% margin? We thing. Until someone gives a logical reason, we
Schneider: I self-funded it. Over the course of work with the vendor closely and come up with a keep asking why. The response in the corporate
time I spent more than $500,000. I kept fair contract going forward. world is, we’ve always done it that way. We ask,
re-investing in the company. We became then why are there 10 line items that the client
profitable two-and-a-half years ago. Adams: Can you give me a concrete example isn’t using but still being billed for?
of that?
Adams: How do you find clients? Schneider: We do a lot of work for senior living Adams: Why wouldn’t a company want to be
Schneider: It’s a mix. Traditional cold-calling, and facilities and we also do a lot of work for hotels. A your client?
we have partnerships with trade organizations like senior living facility isn’t going to say, what do I Schneider: People either think it’s not going to be
a Burger King national franchise association, a pay for elevator services compared to a hotel? But worth their time, we won’t save them money, or
Little Caesars national franchise association. We an elevator is an elevator, it goes up and down, they think it might make them look bad. There’s a
have referral partners who are retired executives and we know that health care companies get pride thing. People are like, listen, we have great
who can kick open doors for us. They usually get charged more than hotels for elevators. deals, we don’t care about what you’re offering.
5%-10% of what we’re billing. We even have some Landscaping is another good example. When it It’s the same mentality of someone who never
retired athletes who do that for us, like Brian Propp, comes to landscaping, a Burger King and a bank goes to the doctor because they feel healthy.
who used to play for the Philadelphia Flyers. are the same thing. There’s a freestanding
building and some plants and grass. But a bank Adams: You say you rarely get referrals. If I were
Adams: What’s your pitch to companies? pays more because it’s a bank. a client and you’d saved me a lot of money, I’d
Schneider: We want to look at their monthly want to recommend you to my friends.
recurring expenses and we do three things. We Adams: What do you do about the landscaper who’s Schneider: If you’re golfing with a friend, you’re
audit to see if they’ve ever been overcharged. charging the bank too much? not going to say, “I have a great proctologist.”
We look at contract compliance to make sure they Schneider: We just expose that. We go to the You’d be saying that this company came in and
aren’t due any refunds. Then we look for service landscaper and say, this is what’s going on. found that you’d been overspending by hundreds
standardization, like whether they’re charged for of thousands of dollars. Nobody wants to brag
phone lines that don’t even come into the building, Adams: Vendors must hate you. about that, or about their proctologist.
or dumpsters that are half-filled. We look at Schneider: Our clients could go to a different
whether they’re paying for services they’re not vendor. But we go to the current vendor and say,
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