Next Level Pros - #112: 4 Simple Ways to Transform Your Sales

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

Welcome to a new episode of The Founder Podcast! Today, we discuss the four principles of closing that can transform your sales approach. These principles, developed through years of sales experience, are designed to help you make more effective sales and achieve financial success. We’ll discuss how understanding and committing to these principles can make a significant impact on your sales performance. https://nextlevelhomepros.com/june25thworkshop  Highlights: "A principle is something that, if broken, always has a consequence." "The goal is to eliminate maybes and get a definite yes or no." "Buying is always an emotional experience backed by logic." "Truth is the only way that we can make change." Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction to the Four Principles 01:34 - Understanding Rules vs. Principles 04:06 - Principle #1: Yes or No, No Maybes 06:09 - The 10-80-10 Rule in Sales 10:57 - Handling Maybes and Respecting Time 13:23 - The Importance of Being Okay with a No 18:11 - Evaluating Your Own Decision-Making Process 20:30 - Principle #2: Strike When the Iron is Hot 27:03 - Emotional vs. Logical Buying Decisions 29:28 - Principle #3: 100% Deal Done 34:12 - Principle #4: Quit Lying to Yourself Looking to scale your business? Want to learn directly from the same team that helped me sell my last business for 9 figures? Click this link below to check out how you can work with us. https://nextlevelhomepros.com/grow-home-service-vsl  Join my community - Founder Acceleration ⁠https://www.founderacceleration.com  ⁠ Apply for our next Mastermind: h⁠ttps://www.thefoundermastermind.com ⁠  Golf with Chris: h⁠ttps://www.golfwithchris.com ⁠  Watch my latest Podcast Apple- ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-founder-podcast/id1687030281S ⁠ Spotify- ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1e0cL2vI1JAtQrojSOA7D2 ⁠ YouTube - @thefounderspodcast

Your sales team and sales numbers will continue to struggle until you start applying these four principles. Applying and committing to these principles has allowed me to train and sell billions of dollars in product and service sales. Want to change your financial life forever? You definitely won't want to miss today's episode of the Founder Podcast. All right, so now we're going to jump into the four principles of closing. And to give you an idea, I have developed these principles over my many years of a sales career. And a little bit of background on me, I don't know if you follow me on social media or those different type of things. Like I come from the door-to-door knocking sales space.

I have been selling end users, homeowners for literally almost 20 years. And so these are a lot of what I'm going to share with you today are a compilation of things that I've learned from mentors and experience and all these different type of things. But these are going to be the nuggets that are really going to help you really sell and close more deals. So the four principles of closing, we're going to jump over here to the iPad in which we are going to discuss the most important things. First of all, I want you to understand that there's a reason I call these principles, right? At one point, I actually

called them the rules of closing. But what I decided was that there is actually a huge difference between a rule, here we are, rules versus, oh my gosh, where is this thing coming from? Rules versus principles. So, a principle is something that is literally governed by the earth, I always say governed by God, right, like there is always a consequence when it comes to a principle, you can't break a principle without there being a consequence, a rule on the other hand can be, right, like I'll give you a perfect example, a rule that is man-made is a speed limit, if you're going, the speed limit is 60 miles an hour and you're going 75 miles an hour.

Is there a consequence? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Sometimes you can get in a wreck. Sometimes you can get a ticket. But other times you can just get there faster. There isn't necessarily a consequence associated with a man-made rule, but a principle is the big thing that once again, if you break it, there will always be a negative consequence. If you live by it, there will always

be a positive consequence. So as we dive in and we talk about the four principles of closing, understand and commit that I am going to live these principles. As a business owner, I'm going to teach it to my sales team. I'm going to get them all bought in because ultimately, if you want to go and make millions and millions and millions of dollars in sales, these are the principles that you have to stick with. All right, so principle number one. Now, typically when I present this to a new sales group or whatnot, I ask them a question.

Hey, how many of you guys want to be rich or want to go and be very financially successful in sales? Everyone raises their hand. Yeah, I want to do it. Okay. If I could share with you one thing that will ultimately, like if you live this, you will be more wealthy than beyond your wildest dreams. Would you commit to doing it right now before even knowing what it is? And everyone's like, I'm like, and don't worry. It's not going to require selling your soul. You're going to be able to keep your integrity. There's no dishonesty, anything like that. But it's literally one rule, one principle that if you committed

to for the rest of your life will make you uber wealthy. And then everyone's like, yeah, yeah. If, if it's not required to sell my soul, I'm in. Okay. And I'd be like, all right, this is the principle. And now let's jump over. Here we are to the, to the iPad. So principle number one, yes or no, no maybes. Okay, what does this mean? It ultimately means you are getting a decision every single time that you sit down with a potential customer. Like, you would not believe how much, like like flack I catch from potential sales guys that are like, well, you know, callbacks are good. You know, I want to be able to follow up with these people

and so on and so forth. Sure. That can be you. But if you want to be wealthy, be on your dreams, you have to commit to living this principle. 100%. You can't break the rules. Now, why do I need to commit to yes, no, no, maybe? So we have what's called the 10-80-10 rule. So over here on the iPad, we got 10-80-10. And essentially what this means, oop, that's a 12. Essentially what this means is if you were to break the whole population down

and you split them up in percentage groups, 10% of the population, no matter what you present to them, are going to say yes. I don't care who they are. They're going to say yes. 10% are going to say no, no matter what. You can show up with a bag of gold and be like, hey, it's free, no strings attached. They're going to be like, get out of here. It's a scam. No way. No way.

No how. And 80% every single time when given the opportunity and not forced to make a decision are going to say, yeah, I need to think about it. That's a strong maybe. It sounds really good. I'd really like to move forward with your product or service, but I need to go and get three quotes. I need to go this, that, or the other. Whatever Oprah recently told them on the most recent talk show or whatever

else, right? They're going to say maybe. Ultimately, what the goal here is, is that we can eliminate these two lines, right? And we can put a line down the sand and we can get people to either a yes or a no. We got to eliminate the maybes. Now, here's the interesting thing. So a lot of you guys are probably questioning the 10-80-10 rule. You're like, man, 10% doesn't say yes to anything, but yes, they do. And let me give you a little secret. That 10%, typically one, a lot of times they don't pass credit because they literally say yes to everything. And so they can't pay their bills. Or two, they're so busy. They're busy working because they're saying

yes to everything to keep up with their habits. They have two or three jobs. So a lot of times they aren't out there pursuing or finding your product or available when you knock on their door or scrolling on their phone when your ad pops up, right? So that 10% of the population, you find them through hard work, right? That just say yes every single time. The other 10%, you just got to be like ignore or whatever. So the goal is, is how do I access more of this maybe crowd? Now, I'm going to ask you a question right now and I want you to think about this. If I was committed to getting a yes or no, no maybes and all 80 actually ended up over here on the 10. So 80 plus 10. So 90% are saying, saying no. And 10% saying yes. Would you make more money? Think about that for a second.

If all 80 of the potential maybes said no, would you make more money? And you're like, no, Chris, of course I wouldn't make any more money. In fact, there's probably some maybes in there that would have told me yes down the road. The reality is you will make more money and here's why. Maybes, these guys right here,

time wasters, they will run you around. You'll follow up with them. They'll say, call me back. They'll say, get back to me after vacation. Come sit down with me one more time. Oh, I need to calculate. And they're going to hum and ha, and they're going to do all these different things. They are going to waste your time where if all that time was dedicated to just getting a decision, you would find more of these 10, these 10% home or able to make a decision. You'd be able to move on, present to more people or those types of things. So at the end of the day, I don't care if all the maybes say no, you still will make more money because you are spending time with those that will make decisions, right? So get out of the time wasters. But now you're thinking, but Chris, there are those people that they just need to say

maybe like, like I'll give you a perfect example. You know, somebody's like, hey, Chris, I love your product. It's absolutely phenomenal. Like, in fact, we are 99% sure we're going to move forward. But I made an oath with my wife, a promise when we were married that when we exchanged rings that we would always sleep on any decision over $5. So obviously I'm coming up with a pretty extreme example here. But yeah, what you need to do, Chris, just call me, call me in the morning, 6 a.m. Heck, even text me and I'll just text back a thumbs up. We'll be able to move forward. You can send over the documents and then we'll move forward at that point. How do you handle that situation? Now, if you've committed to always

getting a decision and never getting a maybe, you're going to push this person to a no, right? Because like you just can't work underneath these type of circumstances where somebody is like, oh, I have to call you back. It's based on a dream. Because here's the problem. Once you break the principle, and remember we talked about there is always a consequence with breaking a principle. Once you break the principle and you find an exception, right?

So you break the principle, and then the next day, he really does call you back and say, hey, Chris, I'm ready to move forward. I told you I was 99%. What's going to happen the next time somebody is just like, ah, I just really need to think about this. You're going to think about that one time that it worked out, that they called you back, that they maybe penciled out and ended up paying you money. And so you're going to let this one off the hook. The reality is, yes, you are going to miss on some people when you force a decision to be made. But when a line is drawn in the sand, there is more people that will just say yes than you would ever have sold allowing these people to stay in the maybe column.

You will always increase this number right here by getting a decision today than you ever will chasing your tail through the maybe circle. And that is the thing that you have to like be fully committed to. I will not break this principle because I do not one want to lie to myself that maybes work out. Maybes don't pay. And the fact is when you are committed to getting a decision, people respect you more. Now, the important thing to understand in this is like, you've got to be totally okay with a no. The reason why most people want a maybe is because they don't want to know. Like me personally, my life will never change if somebody tells me no. And I have to be willing to receive a no, no problem. Like you can tell me no. Hey, Mr. Customer, I don't care if it's a no. Like, I just need to help you get to a decision.

My job is to help you to make a decision so that I can help you save time, energy, and money, right? Money is just one aspect of this, but the time aspect is a real thing. You going out, having to hum and haw, and the energy that it's going to take to even think about this, think through this, discuss anything further down the line is so like, like that is going to be a waste. And I can't live with myself allowing you to waste all that time and energy, right? If a no is a no, like that's fine. I'm willing to walk away. And later in this module, we're going to talk about how a customer always will move forward as long as

there's trust and there's enough information. We'll talk more about that. But ultimately, you have to be committed to being okay with a no, because when you're okay with a no, you're going to get more yeses, right? Because it's like, hey, look, I have a rule. And it's the same way that you have rules. I have rules. I'm here to help you. Look, I will spend as much time as it takes for you to feel comfortable around making a decision. Even if that decision is no, I am committed to helping you thinking about it. Mr. Customer, frankly, between it and, and here's the thing.

And I teach all my salespeople this. Anytime you are frank with somebody, you always want to ask for permission first because you can actually hit them pretty hard when you ask for permission. You say, hey, Mr. Customer, is it right if I'm really frank with you? Right? Like, you're okay if I'm straightforward. Oh, yeah, Chris. No problem. Like, you're okay.

I'm not going to offend you if I hit you pretty straightforward. No, no, no, no. No, that's fine. Mr. Customer, I've been doing this for a long time. The reality is, is like when I leave the house or when I leave this meeting, nobody really thinks about it. It's just, they did not, like they did not feel like making a decision in the moment. So they told me they needed to think about it. Like most of the thinking that you're going to do that you're doing around this decision is made right now.

So either one, you don't have enough information or you don't feel comfortable. Like what else can I do to help you feel comfortable? What other questions you have? Typically when people want to think about it, it's because they don't have enough information or they still have questions. What other questions you have, Mr. Customer, that I can help with you? And it's, it's taking this type of direct approach of being perfectly okay with a no. And one of my other favorite sales lines is, hey, Mr. Customer, frankly, look, if you move forward with this or you don't move forward with this, my life's not going to change. You say no, look, I'm going to drive home, the same car, I'm going to eat the

same meal, I'm going to sleep next to the same woman, have my same kids, I'm going to drive home the same car. I'm going to eat the same meal. I'm going to sleep next to the same woman, have my same kids. I'm going to go in and I'm going to move forward with customers of other, other people. So frankly, your decision, like I'm just here to help you make a decision, whether you do it or not, like that will not impact my life. But Mr. Customer, a decision, guess, guess whose life that will impact. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. The decision to go with my product or not go with my product that will impact? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. The decision to go with my product or not go with my product,

that will impact your life. And I'm here just to help you get to that point of whether it's going to be a positive or a negative impact. And once again, there's no pressure here from me. My pressure is only that we get a decision. If you're dead set of like, you just can't move forward today, that's fine. It's a no. Look, there's plenty of other companies, plenty of other salespeople that are willing to deal with you. In fact, I'll give you phone numbers of people that

are happy to follow up with you over and over again. I just have a few rules that I just don't follow up. Now, I would be lying to you to say that you can't call me tomorrow. You're like, like, of course you can call me like this isn't a same day, like or die decision. It's just frankly, like, that is a disservice to both you and me, Mr. Customer, like, like, Like allowing you to call me back tomorrow when you already have everything you need to know to make a good decision to just like move forward. Like that is like, let's just make a decision. If it's a no, no problem. Look, and once again, if you change your mind down the road

and you want to call somebody else, please call somebody else. But for me, I need a decision today because I need to be able to spend the time tomorrow with additional customers that I can serve the same way that I am serving you right now. This is your time. This is the way that I can actually help you create value in your life with this new roof, with this new HVAC, with this new flooring, with this new bathroom remodel, right? Like I am here to give you all the information and get you the trust level that you need to be able to make

this decision. Okay. And so ultimately pushing towards a yes or a no and being totally happy with a no, this is the key to success, this is the key to getting more business, is you got to totally be okay with a no. So now is the time that you need to evaluate yourself. How often are you, as the business owner, accepting a maybe in your life or even giving the maybe in your life and being indecisive? One thing that I've found with decision making is that the more decisive I am in my personal life, the more decisive my customers

are because I'm living in integrity of what I preach. And so getting off that maybe mound as a business owner, either deciding yes or deciding no, so that my customers can either decide yes or they can decide no. So ask yourself, how decisive am I in my own personal decision making? How decisive are my customers? Am I allowing 80% of the population to tell me maybe? Am I in this constant follow-up of like, maybe I'm going to have this business. I might get this business. They really said that they were interested. Are you stuck in that rat race of constantly chasing the maybe? Ask yourself, how different would my life be if there was a decision made on every single decision-making process that

there was a yes or a no? How different would my sales be? How different would my organization be? How different would my life be, my family, my fitness? How different would it be if I lived this principle of yes or no and absolutely no maybes. Are you a home service business owner struggling to get your time back? Maybe you're feeling like you have to do everything yourself, or maybe you aren't able to break through that certain revenue plateau. You feel like owning your business isn't quite what you thought it would be. Am I right? I understand you more than you know. I've launched many businesses throughout my life and I was lucky enough to have built multiple businesses that scaled to two nine-figure exits. But more importantly, I have had even more businesses fail. Why would that be more important?

I learned a ton from each venture that I was a part of, each teaching me lessons about how to hire the right people, how to price my product, how to build out proper SOPs, and even building the right culture. These lessons are what led me to being able to sell my most recent business for nearly $200 million. Why am I sharing all this with you? Because I've been in your shoes, feeling the same exact feelings that you are. And if I knew back then what I know now, life might have been a lot easier for me. Unfortunately, I can't travel back in time, but I can help you so that you don't have to.

How? I package everything that I learned into over 150 videos all about my wins and mistakes that I've made in business over the years. And I want to give you access to these videos. But it's so much more than just a bunch of videos. I've created a community of home professionals just like you where people interact and share ideas with each other. Plus, we host live calls every single week where you get direct access to people like myself and my business partners that were a part of these different ventures who are experts in marketing, operations, software, and even more. All you have to do is book a free call with one

of our team members to see if this would be a good fit for you. That way I can help you take your business to the next level, making you a next level home pro. All right. Hopefully that previous principal got you fired up because nothing gets me more fired up than principal. Number one. So principal number two is equally as important, probably not as passionate, but this has to do with striking when the iron is hot. We're going to jump over here to the iPad, and we're going to talk about the second principle of closing. So principle number two is 24 to 48 hours.

And essentially what this means is when a customer expresses interest and you go and you set an appointment to be able to go and present a proposal for your product or your service, the follow-up appointment. So typically, this really depends. This really applies to higher ticket items, right? So you go out, you do an initial walkthrough, whether it's a service of their HVAC system, or you look at the roof, or you go and you take measurements of their flooring or whatnot. The follow-up close appointment has to take place in 24 to 48 hours. And typically I would say it within 24 hours is the best 48 hours is the exception. And here's the reason why is buying is emotional. Okay. I don't care who you are. You're going to say it's all logic. It just doesn't financially

make sense. Does it this, that, or that? Does it pencil out? Bull crap. It is emotional. When I go and I walk through a house, I start experiencing these different emotions. I see my kids in the kitchen or in the backyard. I see us playing games at the table. All these emotions run through, right? And so buying is always emotional experience that is backed by logic or justified by logic. But every single time, emotion trumps logic. Too often we try to close on logic rather than emotion. But the emotional side has to be capitalized on. And so this principle is tied to that. When someone gets measurements or they express interest or they say, yeah, give me a proposal. Let's see exactly what the numbers

are, right? Because they're going to say, oh, I'm going to make this decision based off of logic, right? There's an emotional side that has gotten them excited, right? They're seeing the new windows that are installed. They're feeling the new air conditioning on their skin mentally, right? There's an emotional aspect that they're already starting to experience when they expressed interest and they said, yes, bring me a proposal. So when we go and show up, it needs to be within 24 to 48 hours. We need to be very firm on this. And the way that you do that is when you go and you set the appointment, whether they're doing it digitally through Calendly or you're doing it over the phone or

in person, when you do these measurements, you've got to be very disciplined. You have to train your Salesforce that 24 to 48 hours is the next appointment. And look, they're going to have all excuses. I'm busy. I got this going on, this, that, and the other. You got to say, hey, look, we're busy. These are the options. I have tomorrow at two o'clock or I have tomorrow at six. And typically the way that you're going to do that is you're going to say, hey, Mr. Customer, do you typically work eight to five? Yeah. Okay. That same for tomorrow. Okay. Perfect. Well, I do have a during the workday one. We can show up to your office or we can do it at night.

So I have a 2 o'clock or a 6 o'clock. Which one works best for you? Give them options of what works for you as the salesperson, as the business owner. And then make them sacrifice a little bit. When somebody sacrifices as part of the buying process, they're a bought-in, right? You need some level of buy-in. If you guys remember the Burger Bug Killer case study, if you read through that, hopefully you did, they would get buy-in from their customers.

The customers would actually have to clean up before the service came and was done. The same thing goes when you actually get a customer to make a decision of showing up. This also is the precursor of getting a decision made, right? If you open it up and you're like, hey, I can come any time of the day. I can do this, that. You want tomorrow. You want next week, you want in three weeks, you're basically saying my time isn't valuable. That is the worst thing. My time isn't valuable. Never, ever, ever portray this to a customer. When you devalue your time, like that is going back to principle number one is like, how valuable do I really think my time is? We know that it is the most finite resource that we have. There's 168 hours in the week. You can't do more. You can't get less. It's just impossible. The only time you have less is when you die. 168 hours is allocated to Warren Buffett.

168 hours is allocated to Chris Lee. 168 hours is allocated to you. And so understanding that my, my time is finite. Whenever you express that my time isn't valuable, everything else falls by the wayside. People won't make a decision because, and so getting that decision of yes or no, no maybes from principle number one starts with this setting the appointment based on your terms, based on your time, based on the value that you put on your time. And so getting a customer to make a little bit of a sacrifice, understanding that their time is finite. Your time is finite. We're trying to work together. Let's make this happen. Let's strike when the iron's hot so that we can get you to a decision making process.

And so that way, when you show up, there's still an emotion burning. And so it's, it's interesting. If you look at like time, let's say this is time, and this is emotion, right? Initial time, when they are feeling that emotion, right, it's like this. And so the longer time goes, the less emotion that is going to be there. And so the further it is out, it's going to be more logical. Well, do the numbers make sense? Like, can I justify this? So going back to the house example, when I go through and I walk through a house, I'm like, oh yeah, my kids will be here, right? It's all these emotions like, yeah, I want to do this. Oh, and of course I can afford the $2,200

mortgage payment. Like, yeah, yeah, of course, of course I can make that work. I mean, that's a, that's a good logical decision. It's a, you know, of course I can make that work. I mean, that's a, that's a good logical decision. It's a, you know, it's going to pay towards my equity and this, that, and the other bull crap, right? Like the emotion is the reason why I made that decision. So understanding that these customers are making emotional decisions or making decisions based on emotion and they're justifying it with logic. So I need you to ask yourself, are we currently living the 24 to 48-hour rule? When somebody goes, gets measurements, when somebody goes and gathers information to present a proposal, are you or your salesperson or your sales manager coming back within 24 to 48 hours, sitting down and

capitalize on that emotion. I can tell you what I've found in the home improvement space. A lot of people just aren't taking it seriously, right? They're just like, yeah, we'll get to you when we get to you. We got to take care of this and the other. They're wearing too much hats. That's when we're going to, down below, we're going to be talking more about like accountability and the reason, and so that your salespeople can focus on being salespeople, being able to capitalize on this principle. So ask yourself, am I doing it? Two, what can I change about our process to make sure that we are capitalizing on principle two? All right, so principle number three when closing the deal is let's jump on over to the iPad.

It's 100% deal done. So you're asking yourself, what does that mean? So in sales, we love to lie to ourselves. We're like, man, that deal's done. I mean, I got this thing signed or they okayed for us to come out and do the survey or whatever it is, right? We start identifying deals as a deal before it's actually 100% done. We get it close to the finish line. Like for example, we get the contract signed, we get the survey scheduled, we get them on the calendar, whatever it may be to progress the project. But there's a little aspect of like

financing. Maybe we were supposed to collect the cash, 50% cash upfront. Maybe we were supposed to get them to sign the loan documents. And we're like, ah, I'll just take care of that later. You know, when it's, when it's more convenient right now, they need to rush out. They got, they got a life to live. You know, they've spent all this time with me already. I need, I'll just take care of that later. How often in sales or as an owner or a salesperson do our people make this mistake where they leave untied strings, right? Like we need to tie up all the loose ends every single time we do a deal. And so each of your companies defines what a deal done is. And so you need, they need to be asking themselves, is it complete? Is the financing complete? Is the scheduling

complete? Is the contract complete? Are all the items of information that I need to gather for us to be able to progress this to the next stage in our process of delivering their product or service? Are those things all complete? Is my responsibility done or am I leaving something to be able to follow up with on a call later or a visit later? That stuff has to be eliminated. And because, because the reality is, is salespeople and sometimes business owners, we are the worst liars in the world. And we lie to not people, but to ourselves, which we're going worst liars in the world and we lie to not people, but to ourselves, which we're going to talk about in the next principle, right?

So don't lie. Address what is done. Is it really a hundred percent done? So what I need you to do right now is think through your process. Three, think a little, think through your closing of a deal. What does that look like? What is the definition of a deal being 100% done for your product, your service, your company? That needs to be well-defined, well-trained on, and if you're right now identifying, oh, wow, there are some ways that I can improve this for definitions, for reporting. Because, you know, it's interesting.

People maybe will send out a text message, oh, I closed this deal. Okay, well, what does that mean? What does that mean? Does it mean that you actually got the financing done? a generalized definition of what a hundred percent deal is done for your sales reps, for you, for your organization, so that people can start buttoning up all the issues that are taking place. Now I get it. Sometimes the issues arise after a deal is a hundred percent buttoned up. And what I train my salespeople is that button it all the way up. And then if down the process, you run into a snag where there needs to be a change order or

something else and the button comes undone immediately button that thing up right never allow an unbuttoned deal to to progress or waiver or just hang out it is imperative especially in this business where we have high ticket items there's a lot of customers. A lot of things can be lost in the cracks. We may not manage our CRM properly or whatnot. Be a hundred percent deal done. Now to wrap up the four principles of closing is principle number four. We're going to jump over here to the iPad, but principle number four is quit lying to yourself. Now you're like, wait, what? It was funny. A few years ago, I sent a, a message to my management team and I just, and it was just quit lying to yourself. And one of my managers was like, what? You call me a liar? Started going off. And then I said,

dude, look, we all lie to ourselves. We all function off of things that aren't true. I want you to think about that for right now. What lies are you currently telling yourself about your weight, your relationships, your business, your spirituality, your economic livelihood like sometimes we like to lie to ourselves about our bank account like i know people that literally won't even look at their bank account because they're scared of the truth right like that is a form of a lie when you are scared of the truth you are lying right truth truth is like the most important thing that we can have. I'm going to underline this a lot right there. Truth is the only way that we can make change, right?

Only way to change is if we know what the truth is, right? If I don't know there's a problem in my business, I can't make a change. If I don't know that I'm overweight, I'm not going to be motivated to lose weight. If I don't know I have a bad relationship with my spouse, I'm not going to change anything. And so ultimately, everything revolves around truth. It's imperative that as salespeople, as business owners, we have to stop lying to ourselves. And this is, and I'm going to talk to you a little bit about how salespeople lie to themselves. And so in sales, we know that there is a lot of times a numbers game, right? So I know different things like it takes 10 leads,

and this is just an example, to equals one sale. I know that I have to get in front of 10 different people. I know that maybe out of 10 leads, only five are going to show and out of one in five are going to close. Okay. These are the numbers. These are the realities. And so first of all, it's important that your salespeople know the basic numbers. Okay. What, how many leads turn into appointments, how many appointments turn into closes and how many closes ended up, end up receiving their product. What's the cancellation rate after you do that? Like those are the realities. Those are the truths of your business and their effort. Your effort in sales has to be tied to the, that as the truth. What happens in sales is we like to all think, well, I'm the exception. I'm really good at what I do. I can close one and two. Or we even think,

not only can I close, I have closed one and two. And we use that one time, that one scenario where we closed all three in a day. And you're like, dude, my, my closing rate is a hundred percent. When the reality is that close rate is 20%. It's one in five actual shows, but I have to have 10 leads. So it's really one in one in 10. And so what has to happen with our salespeople and you need to do this thing the same is the effort needs to be designed around the truth and around the numbers and never, ever, ever think that somehow I am an exception to that rule. Like for example, if, if I know that I'm only going to close one in five and I'm setting goals for the week. All right. Well, what are your goals this week, Chris? Well, I want to have 10 appointments and I want to make three sales. That's a lie, right? We know that 10 appointments, which are our leads, would lead to five people showing and

one sale. I think that somehow I'm going to be three times better than what the numbers actually show. So if I want to work backwards as a salesperson and say, okay, I want three sales this week, how many people do I need to show up? Well, let's work backwards. That means I need to have 15. And how many appointments do I need to have? If I have to have 10 leads equals one sale, 30 appointments or leads equals three sales. Okay. I need to have three times the effort up front, three times the effort to actually match up with my goals. And too often, once again, salespeople, they get caught up in this lie that I'm the exception. I'm

better than this, this, that, and the other, Or they just don't even associate it with, right? They're not justifying their actual goals or what they're trying to create with an input strategy. And so this is like the premise of quit lying to yourself. Like what effort do you need to put in to actually obtain the goal that you would put out on the board? Now, here's the thing. If I do 30 appointments and I get a 15 show rate and I close five and then I do that one week, I'm like, oh, that's an exception. Okay. So next week I'm still going to do, I'm going to do 30 appointments, 15 show, man, this week I got six. And then I go and I do it again, 30, 15 show. And this week I get five. Now I've started to create a pattern and it's like, okay, I know that one in six leads are going to convert to a close.

Now I'm no longer basing this on my hope and my prayer. I'm basing it on reality, on the truth of what's been transpiring. Now, if I go and I'm like, okay, my goal is now five and I need to maintain 30. And so this week I go out and I do 30, I get 15 and I only close three. I'm like, oh crap. Is this really the rule? And then I go out and do 30, 15, and it goes back to three. I'm like, okay, now I need to reestablish my rule in order. If I really do want to get five and I know that only one in 10 of my appointments, one in 10 of my appointments is closing.

I know that I now need to bump that up to 50. So 50, 25 are going to show, and I'm going to close five because I've started to get used to closing five. That is how salespeople have to accurately judge their input and they have to stop lying to themselves. You are never going to be an exception to the rule. And this, this applies to you as the business owner, like quit coming up with things that like that somehow I'm going to be the exception. You got to think be the exception you got to think in decades you got to have the principles of success you have to live those every single day and then yes maybe you get lucky but luck is not part of the formula principles of success aren't

based in luck they are based in the truth based in the formulas that have been set before you that are currently being obtained. So ask yourself, what ways am I lying in my business? How are my salespeople lying? How are they lying in their goal setting, their actions, their input to achieve ultimately their output? Write those things down and let's make some changes today.