The Home Service Expert Podcast - Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

Sam Wakefield discusses the importance of continuous learning in sales, particularly in the HVAC industry. He emphasizes building strong relationships with clients, understanding their needs, and the ...emotional aspects of selling. Sam shares his journey in creating Close It Now, a sales training company, and highlights the need for a shift in the home service industry towards better pricing strategies and valuing quality over cost. He also addresses common pitfalls in sales processes and the importance of starting with sales training early in business development. Ultimately, Sam advocates for a service-oriented approach that prioritizes the customer's experience and satisfaction.   Don’t forget to register for Tommy’s event, Freedom 2025! This is the event where Tommy’s billion-dollar network will break down exactly how to accelerate your business and dominate your market in 2025.   For more details visit freedomevent.com   00:00 Sharpening the Ax: The Importance of Continuous Learning   02:14 The HVAC Industry: A Foundation for Sales Mastery   04:00 Building Relationships: The Key to Sales Success   09:57 The Birth of Close It Now: A New Approach to Sales Training   13:54 Upleveling the Home Service Industry: A Call to Action   19:04 Pricing Strategies: The Value of Quality Over Cost   27:03 Common Pitfalls in Sales Processes: Building from the Ground Up   32:50 The Value of Service and Pricing Integrity   35:01 Essential Sales Advice for New Professionals   38:06 Understanding Customer Needs vs. Wants   40:01 Restoring Trust in Sales and Home Services   42:00 The Importance of Consistent Training   47:05 NLP and Its Impact on Sales   51:36 The Art of Follow-Up in Sales   58:11 Recognizing Buying Signals in Sales Conversations  

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Starting point is 00:00:00 We sharpen our acts every single day. It's like we've forgotten that or never even learned that the in order to be that expert, we have to constantly be sharpening the axe. It's something you have to do daily. You can't do it on Sunday and expect it to last all week. Welcome to the Home Service Expert, where each week Tommy chats with world-class entrepreneurs and experts in various fields like marketing, sales, hiring, and leadership, to find out what's really behind their success in business.
Starting point is 00:00:30 Now, your host, the home service millionaire, Tommy Mello. Before we get started, I wanted to share two important things with you. First, I want you to implement what you learned today. To do that, you'll have to take a lot of notes, but I also want you to fully concentrate on the interview, so I asked the team to take notes for you. Just text NOTES, N-O-T-E-S, to 888-526-1299. That's 888-526-1299 and you'll receive a link to download the notes from today's episode. Also, if you haven't got your copy of my newest book, Elevate, please go check it out.
Starting point is 00:01:08 I'll share with you how I attracted and developed a winning team that helped me build the $200 million company in 22 States. Just go to elevateandwin.com forward slash podcast to get your copy. Now let's go back into the interview. All right, guys, today's going to be fun. I got Sam Wakefield here. He's based out of round Rock, Texas. He's a sales and business expert. He's the founder of Close It Now, sales training and Close It Now podcast. The dynamic founder of Close It Now stands
Starting point is 00:01:38 at the forefront of HX sales training, known for his high octane approach and deep industry expertise, a master in transforming the sales landscape, Sam's career is a testament to his innovative strategies and motivational prowess. His popular podcast, Closet, now mirrors his passion, blending actionable advice to real world examples that resonate with HVAC professionals. And by the way, HVAC is the godfather of all sales. I believe that I learned everything I know from HVAC plumbing electrical. If you think back in the day HX spells wealth
Starting point is 00:02:13 round Ron Smith paved the way for guys like George Brazil and Frank Blau in the late 80s and who else Jim what's another one Jim trying to think of Jim I never met him but I'm trying to brain farting his name but I'll tell you it HVAC is like if you know HVAC sales you know how to do chimneys and roofing and landscaping and I do believe you get good at HVAC sales, you can do anything in life. So, Sam, it's a pleasure to have you on. Thank you, man. It's such an awesome pleasure to be here. I love that you mentioned HVAC Spells Wealth. That was one of my very first books that I ever read in the industry. And it was just incredibly powerful to read through that book and learn that, you know,
Starting point is 00:03:05 our goal is not to just get customers to keep them as well. I feel like that's something a lot of people have forgotten nowadays. Yeah, that's the thing he said is that, you know, I got that in my bathrooms here, get customers and keep customers. And I put that when I read that book, I get more customers. And the guy I was thinking of was Jim Abraham. Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So tell me a little bit about yourself, man. Where did you start? What are you working on? What's new? What's good? What's your passions? Yeah. So, you know, I've been doing this in the, in the trades almost 20 years now. So
Starting point is 00:03:40 April is actually the sixth year anniversary for The Close It Now as a sales training company in the podcast. One of the big things I've been working on, especially this last few months, is really deep diving into the internal workings of really just people. One of the ways that we close the show is you know work to become someone worth buying from and As we go internal we you know really get to up level ourselves first And as you know we put on our own oxygen mask then we can help everybody else around us in fact a podcast I just recorded earlier today for my show was the kind of the sales bear
Starting point is 00:04:22 You know what we've really been talking about on our show lately is, you know, when it seems like those objections kind of follow us around, the common denominator could be us. We attract who we are. So if, you know, we get, I want to think about it a lot or IED three bids, it's time for us to examine our own buying habits and realize, oh, wait a minute, maybe I'm attracting this. Do I have these things in my life that's causing that to mirror our clients when we go into our appointments? So that's what I've been working on lately. It's been a thought journey that's a lot of fun.
Starting point is 00:04:56 Dan Martell sat right next to me in this very room and said, when I started buying how I wanna be bought from, everything changed. When I was indecisive and I want to be bought from, everything changed. When I was indecisive and I had to make a deal with everybody and make sure I got the deepest discounted price, I was actually saying I'm not worth the full experience. I want you to give me discounted service.
Starting point is 00:05:19 And when that all changes, the perspective of your self-worth goes up. And I tell my people all the time during orientation, I just told them today, I'm like, you're going to really understand very soon. Like here's the thing that people, we've always heard they need to know, like and trust you, right? People need to know, like and trust you. The other thing is they need to know, like and trust the company.
Starting point is 00:05:42 And the third thing that everybody fails at is they need to feel loved. Mm-hmm. So, how does a client feel loved? I asked them. Well, how do you guys think a client feels loved? If you actively listen and you bring up things that they mentioned. Oh, you said your kid named Tommy that's five years old, and he sleeps upstairs, right? You actually care,
Starting point is 00:06:01 and you're actively listening. You're going, uh-huh. Wow, that's interesting. Tell me more. when did you know that she was gonna be your wife that's crazy and I miss being in the garage and and for those in a track you know on the roofs or whatever I missed the experience of just the client the intimacy and just talking to them learning about them I was with a World War two of that he told me his story. I canceled my next two jobs. This was years and years back but enjoying to getting to know the clients. If you don't do that, then you shouldn't be in sales. 100%. Absolutely agree with that. You know, when I'm coaching, I actually had somebody earlier, we were coaching on his,
Starting point is 00:06:42 you know, service appointment and I was like well how many people live in the house well how many pets do they have do you know the pets names do you know the kids names do you remember the wife's name nope nope nope I was like do you see before even get into the sales appointment can you see where we might have a problem because no wonder they didn't want to buy from you didn't they gave you the think about it because they didn't even know who you were. You didn't know who they were. Yeah, 100%. And that's the most important thing is you should know
Starting point is 00:07:11 exactly what the wife does for a living, the husband does for a living. You should know exactly where the kids go to school, the pets' names. Another thing I think you should do, and you'll like this one, is really, really, really spend a lot of time building your profile if you're if you're using software like service Titan is send a great picture send your pets Send send your motorcycle and your wife and your kids and talk about how like you made it through an obstacle like Training was tough and when you got trained and how you fell in love with the industry and and spend time for let the client get to
Starting point is 00:07:43 know you And then offer something on the way. If you just do these little things, you're like, I told my team, I said, you ever go to those classes, Sam, you probably had a class like this, where the teacher says, I'm giving everybody an A. That you just sat down, your first grade is an A. All you got to do is keep it. Well, when you set the right profile and you offer the right stuff on the way
Starting point is 00:08:05 and you knock the door and you're smiling, you've already got an A, and you're very considerate, and you say, yes, sir, absolutely, sir. I appreciate that, sir. Would you like a glass of water? Absolutely, sir. Thank you so much, sir.
Starting point is 00:08:17 And you just show this like, you're winning already. What? Yeah. Go ahead. It was because I love this so much too. That's funny. I saw a post earlier in social media. It was just asking, it was Everett over at his sales tells group. He was asking, have you ever received or said yes to anybody offering you something to drink in a home? And of course, my comment was like, man, I couldn't count the
Starting point is 00:08:45 number of meals and drinks that I've had with people in their homes, you know, the number of dinners and lunches that they've served when you build a relationship with people over time. It's incredible what happens. It's not for obviously the free food, but just to be able to break bread with somebody builds a relationship. Like just, you know, you really can't otherwise. So it's such a powerful thing when that, you know, when that really starts to happen, that's how you know that you're effectively, authentically making relationship
Starting point is 00:09:13 instead of just trying to fake it. Yeah, I mean, I remember people would always ask me to go to church with them, invite me over for Thanksgiving dinner. I mean, very rarely, it's usually the Latter-day Saints invited me to their church. I'm in Arizona here, especially in the East Valley.
Starting point is 00:09:30 But yeah, no, I miss those days. I really do. I miss getting to know people and hearing their stories and whether they were talking about George Clooney or politics or religion or their family or their profession or their favorite things to do on the weekend. It didn't matter to me. I just love listening and learning. Some people had kegerators in their garage, and I'd be like, show me how that works. And it was just cool, man. And I really do miss it.
Starting point is 00:09:56 Yeah, I love it. Yeah, you get to meet the craziest, coolest people. And, you know, truly at the end of the day, we're changing lives too, and that's the important part. We literally can change the way somebody exists in their home with any type of home services, whatever we do, it's like they have a struggle, we're able to make their lives easier and better, and it's just so fulfilling. It is.
Starting point is 00:10:20 I'm curious, what caused you to start closing now and start this HX sales training? Yeah, that's a good question, Tommy. Thanks for that. Actually, so I was sales manager and sales trainer for a company here in Austin, Texas. And this was six years ago, 2019. I sent a couple people off to a sales training,
Starting point is 00:10:44 brought a couple new people onto the team, sent them off to a training and they came back after a week and, you know, several thousand dollars a piece with the exact same slide deck from a training that I had taken 10 years before that. And I was like, oh my gosh, throw that. They hadn't changed a single slide. I was like, throw that in the trash. Nobody buys like that anymore. And so I, that's what I start. I said, well, if we looked around, I couldn't find a training that was the right fit. So I decided to start it. And then the podcast started organically because back in, for everybody that
Starting point is 00:11:16 listens, drive time university, the first probably 30 of my podcasts, I'm literally driving between appointments, recording my podcast in a voice memo, because I just had this message to get out, I knew if my team needed to hear it, that other people did too. And so that's what was the impetus that started the company, because I was like the way people buying has changed so much, especially the second that the pandemic hit, and everything is so much more feeling and emotion driven.
Starting point is 00:11:44 And everybody was stuck in the old days of you know the ABC model always be closing and the hard sell and everything is logic logic logic and we've forgotten that people buy based on emotion they justify it with logic but they're gonna justify that logic decision with another emotion and there at the time I didn't find anybody that was was training like that. And so I said well you know somebody has to lead the charge so let's go. I do see a lot of people teaching the hard close. I do like the idea of like options when selling
Starting point is 00:12:18 and you know whether it's magic moments and that stuff. I still think all that exists but like you know I'm not I never was really a hard close. I just am like, you know, I just want to do what's right for you. And based on what you told me, I really feel like this is the decision I'd be doing for this for my mom's house. You know, I love my mom a lot. And just slowing down and listening and just being human with them and not telling them, look, I want to be your garage tour guide for life. If you're not keeping this house, I want you to come in the next house. Like, look, let's just do what's right for you
Starting point is 00:12:51 because my plan is when you leave here that you tell everybody, your friends, your neighbors, your family, this is the best home service experience you've ever had. 100%. Make eye contact the whole time and don't stutter and don't be afraid of no I just treat them like a human being and so many people are just afraid and I think they're afraid because they don't have any
Starting point is 00:13:11 Self-esteem I think a lot of people don't service industry. They're not happy with their smile, you know, they're not happy with their bodies They're not happy with their education and they know how to make great money in the home service base But they have to kind of fake it till they make it. They don't get to be in their true skin. Oh, that speaks to me so much. One of the things that I love to really emphasize that we talk about very, very often on the show is, and then every time I do, you know, coachings and trainings is, you know, with that whole idea of work to be someone worth buying from, we cover, you
Starting point is 00:13:45 know, so many different elements of life. You know, if you're not in integrity with yourself, with your own personal growth, with your own spiritual journey, you know, whatever that is, are you in alignment with doing what you know you should be doing? Your relationships at home, your nutrition, your fitness, all of these micro agreements that we keep with ourselves determine how we show up with our confidence, with our posture, with our certainty and you know proof that actually the sell skills is the least important of that.
Starting point is 00:14:17 You know, you can take anybody from any industry that's a top performer, pick them up out of that industry and drop them in another one and then ask them how long is it gonna be till you're on on top? And they're like, no, not very long. And they're on top of the leaderboard again, even though knowing nothing about the new industry, but there's someone that people want to do business with because they've just worked to become that level of person. And that's that man, that's, that's the heart cry of my, of my company and my passion is helping people up level. You know, I got tired of going to the conferences and you know, the guys hanging out in the bar after the conference being like almost like a score
Starting point is 00:14:49 card, like how many heart attacks you've had and how many wives have you had? And it just was gross. And I was like, there's got to be a better way. It's time to up level the end of all of the home service industries. I agree. It's not an easy well, I think the industry is getting better now. I think COVID was the best thing that happened to us. And I think with AI and everything going on, people are like, man, go learn a trade. That's kind of like no one, no AI, no machines, no robots, like learn a trade. It used to be when I was a kid, if you didn't go to college, you were like, you were shunned. It was like, Oh, here in
Starting point is 00:15:25 a check guy. You, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you fixed garage doors for a living. Now it's like, what do you do? You got $300,000 worth of debt and you're still in with your mom and you can't hold a job down. When look at us guys in the service space, you know? Yeah. We got paid to learn what we're doing and now we're continuing. We didn't have this crazy debt from school and all these things. Yeah, it's so much better and different
Starting point is 00:15:52 than how it used to be, I agree. I was at that same kind of era where, you know, for so long I was like, man, my wife has a master's degree and for so long I was like, ah, I just have my associates and I feel gross telling people what I did until until that started to happen until I realized that wait a minute, I make more than the optometrist down the road. And you know, this guy to other down the road that has another college degree and it's like, Oh my gosh, wow, wait a minute,
Starting point is 00:16:20 this is let's right size the right frame of mind around this. What do you think is a good wage to make if you're in a track industry? It depends on the position, of course, but I mean, if somebody is not making six figures, they're asleep. You know, they're just not in the right position at all. The six figure take home is kind of the minimum threshold. I would say for most positions unless you were a company that pays hourly and really hasn't figured out the pay people what they're worth. Correct. Correct. Absolutely. You know, obviously the startups and things, but you know, any good company that charges the right prices, you know, yeah, it should be easy to be six figures. What is the right price for a five-ton unit?
Starting point is 00:17:10 Well, before I answer that, Tommy, do you mind if I ask you a few more questions to make sure it's the right fit for your home? I'm going to tell you, I'd say the minimum is 12 to 20,000. And absolutely, there's a range there. It depends on where you live and the complications and the insulation. And a lot of different things are going to go into that, what kind of unit you want and what kind of warranty you want with it.
Starting point is 00:17:33 But, you know, I think some people think that's highway robbery. And I'm like, you know, I sat down with a bunch of garage owner, Sam. This is five, six, seven years ago now. I don't remember exactly. And they said, how could I sleep at night for what I was charging and I said how many of you guys have more than 20 billboards on the road when all the plumbers and a check guys do I said how many of you guys have PTO and for at least a month of PTO how many of you guys You know a normal pay rate for your technician installers as six figures
Starting point is 00:18:09 No hands no hands no hands wait a minute how many of you guys get brand new vehicles out to every one of your techs and installers How do you guys pay for the tools six thousand dollars for tools how many of you guys get minimum of? Ten weeks training before they actually practice on a client's house Wait a minute. There's not been any hands up for this So wait a minute you give your clients a really really good deal so you can F over your employees So you hold them down to making nothing but fifty thousand dollars a year and make sure they live in an apartment could drive an old Truck it could barely support their family so you could give your clients a great deal. I said, I want to be innovative. I want to have trademarks. I want to be able to market. I want to be able to keep the air conditioning cold in
Starting point is 00:18:50 the summer in our training center. I want to have new vehicles and I want to take them on vacations and buy them lunch and dinners. Like you don't do you guys do that stuff? And they're like, Sam, when I left there, and this was at this facility next door upstairs, every single owner said they're gonna raise their prices. I love it. So I needed to change, and I didn't do this. There was a lot of us that did, a lot of people before me. But we needed to change the garage door industry
Starting point is 00:19:18 in order to build what we built today. Because everybody's like, why do you share all your secrets, Tommy? Why do you invite other garage door companies in and show them what you're doing? I'm like, because our industry has to change. It needs to have, like I said, Frank Blount and Jim Abrams and Braun Smith, the guys that paved the way there,
Starting point is 00:19:33 they met up and they actually didn't hate each other and despise one another. They worked together and they said, hey, listen, you want to start charging fair prices? I'll start charging fair price. It wasn't like a monopoly that they just decided like collusion. It's just like, let's make sure we can pay our people more and give them better trucks.
Starting point is 00:19:47 Yeah, that's right. It's the standard. Yeah. And I think that there's a lot of people listening right now that maybe, just maybe, if you're the elite but everybody's complaining to you that you're that too high a price, invite them in and show them why. And hopefully, you don't have a Bentley and live in a mega mansion because, look, if you had an exit and you did great, show them why. And hopefully you don't have a Bentley and live in a mega mansion. Because look if you if you had an exit and you did great. Look, I never really took a whole lot
Starting point is 00:20:10 of draws. I put it all back in. And 25 people had an equity stake in the company that actually earned it but it was given. So, you know, I think it's okay for people to have an exit and make a lot of money. I think that should be the goal for every company. But in the process, your people make a lot of money, right? Absolutely. I actually had the privilege a few years back of seeing Sir Richard Branson at an event. And it was incredible to listen to him. Of course, I mean, it's Sir Richard Branson for one.
Starting point is 00:20:42 But his every answer in a 30 minute spot in every single question, it didn't matter what the question was to some degree, he always turned it back around to how well you take care of your people is how well they're going to take care of the client for you. And it was the coolest thing to really hear someone at that level just really talk about how we pour and it was story after story of how he's poured into his into his own people for that very reason. He's like, if you take care of the internal customers first, they will always take care of the rest. And it was definitely a privilege to to hear that. But
Starting point is 00:21:18 it just carries through. That is like first, you got to get the people like what I'm realizing if you get the right competitive people that love to win and actually are a little humble hungry and smart right and then you constantly remind them about their goals or why is their commitment and They discuss it with their family the important people whether that's their mom their wife or their kids and they're constantly Brought up instead of brought down and I'm gonna call people up instead of calling them out And that's done properly. They're going to go to war for you You know how many people and I'm just going to tell you this because we just got back from our pinnacle trip the top 5
Starting point is 00:21:53 Of the company is Either their wife Or they came up to me and said if you ever go anywhere other than a1 I mean i'm the founder of this company, but we're going with you Like we're going to follow you to the pits of hell, basically. And I'm like, well, you're stuck with me here for a long time. I got a question. So you chose to be a coach. And I got to tell you something. I've always wondered, I still am involved in my business. I love doing podcasting.
Starting point is 00:22:29 I use this to learn. I've got some coaching we do. I've got garage door freedom and home service freedom, but I don't take any money from that. I think I've seen the people that try to make it as a coach and man, it is like, it is so hard so hard man I can only imagine you got to have events and podcasts and email blasts and then there's people that just don't take the training seriously and if you don't charge them enough but then they won't sign up if you and it's all and it takes a decade and I worked with Al Levy and I paid I've paid more coaches than I know what to do with and I love the coaches I I've hired. But then you look at it and you can start a small business. And it's fairly easy if you understand the marketing side
Starting point is 00:23:11 and you're good at sales. So what made you? Because it's going to get hard. That's not going to be easy. I think you're starting to realize. I don't know how long you've been doing this, but it's not everybody's like they come up to me and some of my top guys like, what do you think if I start my podcast and become a coach and like I love that listen
Starting point is 00:23:29 But when I become an internal coach and I'll pay you a ton of money like like They're like what if I just they kind of want to get the fame or something and I'm like man I've been I've been doing podcasting for eight years and You know, I've been doing a lot of different programs for different people, and I still haven't taken a paycheck out of that stuff. So be prepared to put 10 years in before there's real money, you know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:23:54 Absolutely. You know, it's funny, every single one of the things that you mentioned happened to me today. So I made a podcast, I was a guest on a podcast, I had that client that's not doing anything. I mean, every single thing, it's like literally happened today. So I a hundred percent know what you're talking about.
Starting point is 00:24:12 But yeah, what drives me forward is really that the ability to change lives on a grander scale. You know, I could step out in the field and, you know, just be a toper scale. I could step out in the field and just be a top performer somewhere, and that's good, but the leverage point of being able to really dramatically impact lives really can only get that way through leverage. A book this last year hit some cool bestseller list. I've got actually one that I co-authored. I've got one coming out this next year. I'm going to be speaking at a few events. And the number of people that come up to me that truly have had that magical experience of like, holy cow, either through a podcast, it changed the way that I sell and everything's changed, or you said something in your talk that
Starting point is 00:25:03 just hit me to my core and I'm going to go back and immediately implement. That's the reason that I do it. Now, you're right, it is not the most lucrative, especially at the beginning. But it's okay. Because when you're in flow and you're doing what you're absolutely called to do, they say when you find what you love to do, you'll never work a day in your life. I actually think that's wrong. I think you work harder than you ever have because now you're internally inspired instead of just being externally motivated. And when, when that inspiration wakes you up before your alarm goes off, cause just cause you can't wait to get to the day.
Starting point is 00:25:42 I mean, that's the, that's the big difference there. Um, and yeah, it's the, uh, it's the game changer that, that the intention that keeps things moving forward is the, uh, is what it's all about. Well, you found a passion and it seems like you're motivated by the passion. And, and I agree that once you find a passion, although I used to tell people I love golfing, but I'm like Tiger Woods still has to hit a thousand balls a day, even though I know for a fact he doesn't want to and Kobe used to practice and Jordan and it goes on and on. But, but when you find out what you love, like I did my orientation and I just said, guys, don't take this the wrong
Starting point is 00:26:25 way, but I could retire 10 times over again. I'm here because I choose to be here. And they said, well, what's the point? And I said to change your lives. And I said, when you find out my true legacy and legacies are pretty common word these days, but my legacy is going to be that, you know, I hopefully if you guys stay on board for a couple of years that your life's changed in a positive direction. And I got a lot of work to do and I'm a work in progress and I can't promise you I wouldn't make all your dreams come true. But I'm going to try as a sales coach. What are some of the common pitfalls that you see HVAC and other sales professionals
Starting point is 00:27:00 fall into? Oh, geez, the you know, one of the big ones is the the everything's out of order in a lot of their process. You know, the the company itself usually builds out of order. So what I mean by that is they'll put, you know, they'll they'll buy their phone system and they'll buy their, tightener, home service, whatever their operating system is. They'll put all of these things in place. Yeah, they've got their CRM. They've got all the different stuff. They've got their marketing and all the rest. And then they come to me and they're like, man, all right, sales is the last piece.
Starting point is 00:27:44 We've got to get the sales piece plugged in. And I're like, man, all right, Cells is the last piece. We've got to get the Cells piece plugged in. And I'm like, guys, you built backwards. Because now you're at a place where you have all of this overhead, you have all these leads coming in because you're invested in all this other stuff, but nobody knows how to convert anything. And you're about to go broke. So now you're sending up this Hail Mary to me to come in and
Starting point is 00:28:04 save the day and turn everything around. It's like, let's build, let's build cells in a lot earlier in the process, because then you can have better conversion, you can have better margins, and you'll have the funds to be able to invest in the growth of the organization. So that's one of the things that I typically see is they're waiting way too late in the steps to, and of course the perfect time to do it if you didn't build Planet Tree 20 years ago, that you know the next second best time is now, but starting earlier in the process to learn how to sell stuff is
Starting point is 00:28:40 paramount. The classic Brian Tracy, you know nothing happens till something gets sold. And that's very true. So we have to have and be priced right from the beginning. And that's the other side of it is everybody starts and think, well, if I just am a little bit less then I can, I'll win all these deals from stealing from everybody else.
Starting point is 00:29:01 But then there's nothing left to be able to reinvest in. And so that's like getting priced from the beginning. You can pay better people. Better people will stick around. All of the things starts to happen when we can sell better and hire from the beginning. No one believes in the price of they don't spend any money. You have an event. I guarantee you, you give out a thousand free tickets.
Starting point is 00:29:21 You'll have 80 show up. You make sure they pay five thousand dollars a ticket. You'll get if you sell one hundred ninety nine, I'll show up. One person will have, you know, a kid get sick. Something really will happen to somebody. But there's actually money behind why they there's intent behind it. I mean, Alex Tremose talks about it. One hundred million offers.
Starting point is 00:29:39 I talk about this all the time, but like charge a higher price as you could. Alan Roar talks about it, too. It's like, let's frickin charge a higher price as you could. Alan Rohr talks about it too. He's like, let's freaking charge as much as we possibly can. And people think that's like immoral. And I'm like, wait a minute. The same people that say it's immoral are wearing Gucci's and wearing $400 shoes and $300 belt. And they bought a 200 bottle clone and they're wearing a necklace
Starting point is 00:30:06 that costs a thousand bucks. I'm like, look at you. See these. I got three plastic bracelets, rubber bracelets on my like, look, I'm wearing like this shirt. Like I, it's so funny how the people that talk about prices have the nicest like clothes. They drive the nicest car, but they still live in an apartment. Mm hmm. You know, I never want to hear anybody. What's that? They're just front in it. They're not.
Starting point is 00:30:33 They're not authentic in what they're doing and you can instantly tell. I have a price for everybody because I have options. And if I take for instance, there's a 10,000 cycle price. The door goes up and down. That's one cycle. We carry a 25,000 cycle price. We can't carry an 80,000 cycle spring. So 80,000 cycle.
Starting point is 00:30:55 Let's just say the normal guy charges 350 for a spring. No, 400 for even numbers. Mine is eight times that. So that means I should probably charge thirty two hundred. I'm charging a third of that for eight X the life. So you're getting a bargain. And I don't think people understand this. All I want I tell my clients, listen, you remember those May
Starting point is 00:31:18 tags from the 80s and the 70s, the washers and dryers, they're usually yellow or white and they're still going today. Like those may times last forever. They're just, they'll keep going forever. And when I started this business, I decided, why don't, why don't parts come like that anymore? So we engineered Max Life Springs. We've got our own trademark. We've got rollers. We've got the, the, a lot of the parts and people are like, oh, that's overkill. I'm like, but I've never seen one break. Right? You know what I mean? It's like, and people like all that's overkill like but I've never seen one break Right, you know what I mean? It's like and people are buying peace of mind with it, and I say here's the deal guys
Starting point is 00:31:52 I told all my team today do not join any garage door groups. It's only losers that hang out there They like to fix everything they don't like to ever offer anything new They'd rather fix it all for nothing and I'll fix stuff But at the end of the day if I got to fix it three times and kick the can down the road You know your garage door is 40% of your cripple pill the smell of your home like designers and architects They they request certain garage doors. It's not just a plain Jane. It dresses up your home So did you want this not insulated? You know, did you want me to fix this?
Starting point is 00:32:25 Or have you ever thought about like putting something on here that's going to actually, it's a 194% return on investment. Meaning you put a buck in, you take a buck 94 out. Like that's a no-brainer. Right. This is not insulated. No U factor, no R value. Like it's just, it's oxidized, the bottom rubber shot, it's dented.
Starting point is 00:32:47 You want me to fix this or did you ever think maybe we replace it? I think that to me, that is the best version of service. To give them the option to improve their life. It's not up to us to spend their money for them. You know, our price is our price. It's something that I talk about often is we completely divorce ourselves from the number.
Starting point is 00:33:07 When we're in the house, we're there to serve, we're there to care with compassion, with empathy and integrity and ethics. And, you know, the price is the price. Two things determine the price. One is the, you know, the size and condition of the home. And they decided that when they bought the house. And the second is what they want to include in the project. If the price is too high, then we'll pick something else.
Starting point is 00:33:28 We don't need to discount it. But at the end of the day, you know, the price happens to just come along with the things that they choose to serve them the best way possible. Yeah. Well, I agree with that. And, you know, you made an investment into your home, and most people have a mortgage. Why wouldn't you want to protect your mortgage in this home
Starting point is 00:33:50 by investing in it with the nicest, best things? And I just think if most people's best investment is usually their home, at least you want to protect your investment. 100%. Love it. Hey guys, real quick. I realized something the other day. We've mentioned it here and there, but a lot of people still don't know this. Kevin O'Leary from Shark Tank,
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Starting point is 00:34:46 go to freedomevent.com now. Early bird bonuses are still available. Over $5,240 in tools, trainings, and resources you can use today. That's freedomevent.com. All right, now back to the episode. What's one piece of advice you wish someone would have told you when you first started out?
Starting point is 00:35:06 Ooh, that's a good one. I think that the biggest one that I could, especially for all, especially all the new people in sales, or even technicians, it doesn't matter your role, in fear and home services, I think the biggest piece of advice I could, there are two pieces that kind of tie together. One is ask more questions.
Starting point is 00:35:29 Nobody asks enough questions. And then the second piece which goes with that is take more time than you've ever taken before in an appointment. So slow the heck down. Ask more questions and slow down. Those are the two things I think that everyone can immediately apply and totally change the outcome.
Starting point is 00:35:52 I really agree with both of those wholeheartedly. I'd add a third one is practice smiling more. And when you talk, look into their pupils. But the more you smile and you mean to smile and you're having fun. Like one day, my lead trainer at the time, she goes, that we had a guy in there from Albuquerque getting a kind of a retraining. And she goes, you're not having any fun. You look like you got a stick in your ass. Like smile more and have fun.
Starting point is 00:36:20 Like, dude, this job's fun. Like, talk to customers, get to know them. And he came back a month later and his sales had quadrupled because he started smiling And he just you're sitting there people love when you smile like if you took you looked at a baby You know six months old and you know somebody just constantly stared them No smile no frown and then everyone else you know the other person smiling the baby's gonna love the smile They're gonna laugh. They're gonna giggle. They're gonna appreciate it. They're gonna be excited to see them. And obviously, tonality matters. And when you smile, your tone changes. So yes, slow down. I mean, I tell my guys, the top guys in the company like to run one to two jobs a day. So they need. Yeah. And they do very, very well. They don't need to run four or five jobs. Yeah, no doubt. And I'm spending enough time to ask the questions and truly listen to what those people like need and what offer things
Starting point is 00:37:12 that could improve their life. Yeah, so I always say, you know, some people say they only sell things people need. I'm like, I never sell things people need. I don't need a new phone. I'm buying a new phone later today because I want one. I didn't need a second car, a DeLorean or a house as big as my size. I didn't need, you know, anything. I didn't need the tankless hot water heater. I'm glad they offered it to me. You know what I mean? I didn't need anything.
Starting point is 00:37:40 Like, all I need is water. I don't... When losers say this line, I only sell things people need. Like, well, what do you mean? I'm glad you don't work at a at Nordstrom's because people, you know, what do you mean? You only sell things people need. I always give options and say, look, I'm going to give you the options. You pick what you'd like, but I want to give you everything you might ever want. Anything of your heart's desire. You know, I found that a long time ago. People will pay more for what they want
Starting point is 00:38:09 than what they need. If everybody just had what they need, everybody drive a Prius and you know, live in a small, you know, tiny small house, but they don't and never will for this very same reason. It's a hundred percent. I mean, we gotta take this idea of sales that we're salesmen to out of, like because most people feel like sales are a bad thing, it's a huge car smell, it's a dirty tactic.
Starting point is 00:38:34 Well, sales is a good thing. You know, the priest and the pastor are in sales, like you're in sales when you talk to your kids about going to bed on time and making their bed. So sales, a lot of people, why do you think people think sales is so evil? Yeah, I think a lot of it's historical. And it's the same. So it depends on the historical part of it. Except for, you know, go back 30, 40 years and the most trusted person in
Starting point is 00:38:59 town was the trades guy. You know, hey, my heater's out. All right, put on another pot of coffee. I'll be right over. But the last probably, especially, you know, two, three decades, so many bad apples have run sales for a lot of people. You look at all the exposés on TV about, you know, these different companies taking advantage of homeowners and all these things. And it's just put such a bad taste in people's mouths that, I mean, that's a huge part of it. And then of course, we're working so diligently, people like yourself and the rest of us that are working to bring trust back to the trades,
Starting point is 00:39:37 be that person of integrity, have the code of ethics, the things that we refuse to compromise on for, just for profit. It doesn't mean we can't charge what we, you know, what we earn, but we're not going to compromise morals and ethics for it. And I think that's a big part of what has caused the bad sentiment about, you know, about sales and salespeople. You know, I'll tell you something that I've not told you know, and this was recent. I've never said this story yet. My mom asked me, she said I need my H rack coils
Starting point is 00:40:12 and heater cleaned and she asked me a company and I told her the most expensive company I know. I said, don't let them sell you a new unit though. But I said. I know some guys that will go out there for 50 bucks literally like I know them that and I know people that I could call it to do it for free because it's my mom. And I didn't even call this company and ask for a deal or anything like I didn't I just said here call this guy and I just forwarded the number and I want to explain something very interesting about this because I know they'll be there when they say. I know they're drug tested and background checked. I know they'll fix it right if something goes wrong.
Starting point is 00:40:52 I know that my mom does not need that air conditioning going out in the middle of a hundred twenty two degree day. So therefore, these other guys, sometimes a week out before they can get there, they'll stop by, they'll band-aid it, it'll break again. So, once again, we go back to buying like we want to be bought from. And I think most of the people that don't understand this, they're selling out of their own pocket and they don't own a house yet. And they might not even care that much because they're like, you know what, who cares if we got to sit a day without a garage? Because I just want it cheap.
Starting point is 00:41:25 And then they get the cheap stuff and then they complain when it breaks in a year. It's just amazing how that works. You know why I'm so proud? Is because so many people listen to this podcast. They call us up. They never contact me. They don't ask for a discount. They get it done right.
Starting point is 00:41:39 And I don't hear from them for a decade. I mean, of course, I see them at shows and stuff. They're like, oh, by the way, I wanted to show you this picture of your guy, he's amazing. I had him at my house six months ago. And I'm like, that's freaking awesome because we took, did we take care of you?
Starting point is 00:41:53 And 99.9% of the time, they're like, it was the best experience I've ever had. I think that that's important. It's crucial. You know, it's so interesting in the trades especially. The standard is, because it's so interesting in the trades especially. The standard is, because it's so easy for people to start a company in the in-home services and in the trades, that also means that the standard is really low. So it's not incredibly hard
Starting point is 00:42:18 to be exceptional, but it is difficult to stay there consistently day after day. And that's the big differentiator, I think is the consistency of training our people. And to your point, I've heard you say this before, you know, of course, Red Elevate, and you know, the train, one of the biggest missing pieces in home services and in the trades is training,
Starting point is 00:42:42 the internal training of our people. You know, because we'll bring them in and just, okay, fly little birds, services and in the trades is training the internal training of our people. Yeah. You know, cause we'll bring them in and just, okay, fly little birds. Here's your, you know, two hour session. And we're not inspecting what we expect for them to provide that, you know, Chick-fil-a a one garage door level service every single time. Well, it's every day. And one person that I continue to learn from every time I talk to him is Leland Smith out of Southern California with the service champions as he's like every day we train for two hours a morning our guys would role play before they'd go out that was just that was a must like
Starting point is 00:43:14 we'd initially like intentionally not schedule our first job till nine so they could come in from seven to nine and role play with each other we'd have a top couple guys with a couple not so top guys and they'd get better and better and better and better and better. Yeah, I'll say this is interesting that we're talking about this. I was talking to Doug Wyatt, I don't know if you know who that is, the other day,
Starting point is 00:43:38 with Synergy Learning Systems and we were having this conversation. We were talking about other industries outside the trades. Industries that are sales driven industries. Literally any other industry that sells is first. When we're, you know, we're, cause him and I, we've both done some trainings outside of our home services.
Starting point is 00:44:00 And the second you step into any other industry that is sales driven, we were like, okay, well, you know, when y' that is sales-driven, we're like, okay, well, you know, when y'all have your weekly meeting, and they're like, what do you mean, weekly meeting? Like, well, yeah, your weekly sales meeting. They're like, we do sales every day. What are you talking about? It's just the standard is we sharpen our axe every single day when you're a sales-driven organization. And then we step into the trades and it's a really unusual thing to train every day. And it's like, wait a minute, where's the disconnect? It's like, we've forgotten that, or never even learned that the, in order to be that
Starting point is 00:44:36 expert, a home service expert, just like the show's name, in order to be that expert, we have to constantly be sharpening the axe. It's like Zig Ziglar used to say about personal growth. You have to it's something you have to do daily. You can't do it on Sunday and expect it to last all week. I love this. You reminded me of some stuff right now. I think it's I used to be a busboy in a server and a bartender.
Starting point is 00:45:01 And when I was a server, they'd have the AM and PM, right? Chiffs. We'd have a 15 minute meeting just to make sure we knew the specials and offered this wine with the certain entrees and we knew the soup de jour, you know, soup, whatever soup. Like that's what serving tables at a fricking restaurant, but yet in home service where, oh no, no one of the guys want to meet up every day. I don't care what they want. Their paychecks and their wives want them to get better at their profession. And it's not only about sales, but some people, some of its operational, some of its technical, it's training to be well-rounded.
Starting point is 00:45:37 Some of its safety training and making sure you're wearing the right uniforms and making sure you got steel toed boots and you're wearing gloves to protect your phalanges. Like, I don't want to make this only about sales because it's all the above, but sales is the one thing that's the hardest that continuous improvement. Right. And I'll agree with you 100% too. I mean, we've got to be constantly working on all of the things to make that that well-rounded, you know, well-rounded person. You know, I have the similar background in, you know, restaurants. You know, I have the similar background in, in, you know, restaurants, you know, every time we'd start to shift the, they'd had the kitchen makeup,
Starting point is 00:46:10 the specialist for that survey could even try them to be able to describe them more accurately. It's like how, when's the last time we did that with our, you know, with, with what we do, everybody says, well, do you have one of these in your own home? Well, no wonder you're not selling it. You didn't even put it in your own house. Oh my gosh. I just talked about this. Put one in your own house. I said, you know, everybody that made our Pinnacle trip, they, every single one of them have a door from us and it's a really nice door and they show pictures. Here's what I got. Yeah, this is what I believe in. And I'm getting ready to replace my mom's door. And we're tape, we're tape, we're tape, we're video. You know, it's going to become a commercial.
Starting point is 00:46:50 Let's say my mom's door, five years old. Still not good enough for me. It's a builder's grade. I am going to make this stuff happen. These are good notes. So tell me a little bit about NLP and why it works so well for sales. You know, it's funny, if anybody wants to learn about NLP, that's a great place to start. But the you know, NLP is the fancy way of saying brain science. I like to break it down like that. But it's one of the there's a there's several different things involved with it.
Starting point is 00:47:20 Mainly, it's understanding how brains work, the psychology of how people make decisions. And then understanding if we can get the keys in the right order to unlock those. It's like a, almost like a padlock or something that has several places in their brain. If we, as long as we get them in the right order and we understand that those dynamics, then people will, in fact, it's really cool what happens. They start asking for the business versus us feeling like we're always pushing it on them. So some of the keys, of course, are especially in our current society is, you know, the power of the permission question.
Starting point is 00:47:59 You know, asking permission for everything is crucial in the process. asking permission for everything is crucial in the process. And so after that, some of the other things are just word substitutions that make the biggest difference. The biggest, the most famous one that I talk about is the difference in interested versus open, right? So in fact, you wanna role play with me real quick, Tom? Yeah, let's do it. And give an example for everybody?
Starting point is 00:48:24 Absolutely. So for everybody listening, this is the one, this is one thing I did this on the Waste No Day podcast on Wiser Wednesday when I was on there. Shout out to Brian and Nate. So interested versus open. This is really interesting. It's very interesting.
Starting point is 00:48:38 The reason it's interesting is no one wants to be perceived as closed minded. The other side of that is everyone wants to be perceived as open-minded. The other part of this, when it comes to interested, no one can be interested for anything that they don't know anything about. So until there's a level of education, no one will answer, yes, I'm interested. So what we're going to do is we're going to take something super easy, super basic and, you know, let's say garage doors, because that's what you do. And so you be my homeowner and we're going to take two super quick passes through this. One is ask me, hey, my, you know, garage door is kind of just basic question. My garage door is kind
Starting point is 00:49:23 of broken. Do you guys have any options to upgrade the door? So I'll answer how a lot of people traditionally answer a direct question like that. And then we'll time out. We'll go through it again and we'll talk about the difference with using interested versus open. Okay. And then permission question with that. So go ahead. The garage door seems like it's having a few issues.
Starting point is 00:49:46 It's shaky, it's noisy. Was wondering if you guys have any options to replace this thing. Oh yeah, man, we've got some options. We've got the basic door, which is just your single, it's not insulated, the single ply there. We've got the upgraded door from that, which is gonna be insulated.
Starting point is 00:50:03 Then we've got, and so I'm going to time out already because what happened? Nothing. Nothing really happened there. You stayed frozen and you're just kind of staring at me like, what the heck is this guy talking about? So let's do it again real quick. And I'm going to use open and also the permission question. And so you'll see how that works.
Starting point is 00:50:22 And I want you to feel the difference. Yeah. So I got this noisy garage door. It's given me a lot of works. And I want you to feel the difference. Yeah, so I got this noisy garage door. It's giving me a lot of issues. It has problems going up and down. Do you guys have any options for a replacement? Oh, absolutely, man. We've got some great options. Would you like to hear what they are? Yeah, I would. Okay, gotcha. Awesome. So before we get into that, one, do you
Starting point is 00:50:43 mind if I ask you a couple questions? And then, you know, if I can show you a way where, you know, it could improve the value of your home and basically show you how it would cause zero to actually do this door in the long run, would you be open to some more information? I would. Okay, great. So feel the difference. So for everybody that's not watching, what you didn't see is the first time through, Tommy didn't even flinch. No move, no nothing. The
Starting point is 00:51:12 second time through, you couldn't even help it. And this is role play. Physiology changed. You leaned in a little bit. You started smiling. You started nodding. Strictly with the permission question and now we're open to the information. And so it makes a massive shift in how people receive information and that's just kind of a tiny example of how NLP works in or brain science works in in cells. What do you think your favorite part of the sales process is? Is it initial contact, the follow up or maybe the sweet moment of closing the deal. I'm gonna, for personally, I'm gonna answer that different. My favorite part of that is the follow-up.
Starting point is 00:52:01 Most people hate follow-up, but it's so fun and it's so easy because we already did the work and I know that nobody else ever follows up hardly. And when I follow up, I get business because nobody else is calling them back. And so my, and it's conversations. They, every single time you get on the phone with somebody already did a project with or already did an appointment with the like, Oh yeah, hey, how's it going? I remember. And so my favorite is follow up. I love the follow up brother. You know, we use chirp so
Starting point is 00:52:33 effectively. And everybody's asking me, can I see your campaigns? Can I see your campaigns? I'm like, look, because I know the guys so well are chirp. Everybody thinks the secret is, I do have great campaigns, and I make great videos, and they're selfies. And I'm like, hey well at sure Everybody thinks the secret is I do have great campaigns and I make great videos and their selfies and I'm like hey Tommy here The founder day one garage or service just want to let you know You got some options here if you wanted to do something a little bit different I got these doors that are sitting here that kind of fit what you're looking for And I get the them in a better value if you want to discuss those options
Starting point is 00:53:03 But you know I make videos and I test different things. But the real deal is we respond in real time. So if we send you a message via text, we need to respond when you say, hey, yeah, I'd like to follow up with you. And like half the battle of studying what the best of the best at CHIRP do is it's just they follow up at every client and then they make sure they get back to them right away on their time, not my time. You see, it's the client's time that I care about.
Starting point is 00:53:31 It didn't break when it was convenient for them and it's never going to be convenient in home service. So if they say, yeah, can you get back to me tonight around 8 p.m.? I don't think anybody's wife would matter to close a $10,000 door or sell if they said, hey, I'll give you 15 minutes. Like, and the best of the best in my company, they're so good. They're relentless at the follow-up. Yeah, I 100% see the same thing. You know, of course, I train a lot of different language, and, you know, there's all the different trainers have language around follow-up,
Starting point is 00:53:58 and everybody wonders, well, what do I say? Well, the reason that we teach language around follow-up is not for the client necessarily. What do I say? Well, the reason that we teach language around follow-up is not for the client necessarily. It's for the salesperson to get them to actually do it. If we give them empowering language that makes them feel more confident to do follow-up instead of begging, like, oh, I'm just touching base,
Starting point is 00:54:18 circling back, all those things, well, they feel more empowered to actually do it. But at the end of the day, statistically, the customer does not care. They expect five to seven follow-ups every single appointment, and they expect two to three of those to be a legitimate phone call, not just an email or text. And that's statistics.
Starting point is 00:54:40 Every single time follow-up is studied in our society. And so the fact that we do it and stay in touch, doesn't matter what you say, just pick up the phone and call the people. Text them, and if they don't answer, double dial, double tap, then text, then email all at the same time, but just reach out and get in touch with people. You will close business. I had one of my guys that listens to my podcast, he's a big time fan. Every single January,
Starting point is 00:55:10 he spends the first week of January literally calling every single unclosed appointment from the previous year. This year, first week of January, he closed $200,000 in business strictly by calling back through last year's no new appointments just Talking to people. Hey, how's it going? Where are you in your decision process? That's it. That's all they do is just call back. Yeah, like look look listen I want to be your garage your provider for life and I want to figure out what this is gonna take and I want to make sure you feel good about us and we feel Like we give you a good shake if it's the money money, we've got different options. If it's the timing,
Starting point is 00:55:48 let me know. But we want to be your company. And I got to say, I'm asking you for your business. I really am. I really want to know. And look, if you need me to bring your wife flowers and give you tickets to the Lions game, I'll do it because that's how much we want your business. Like just show that you want it. So many people like, oh, I was just calling to see if you made it to the thing. Yeah, it's like, oh my gosh, dude, you like, and this is not even hard training. This is just common sense. Right? Yeah, it's really funny
Starting point is 00:56:21 because this is like it seems to us because we're so experienced with it. It's like, and this is like, it seems to us because we're so experienced with it that it's like, and this is entry level, but so many people don't do it. And I don't understand why, because they're literally sitting on millions of dollars of business and they're just not picking up the phone and calling them. So for everybody listening, pick up the phone. It's a gold mine. And if you don't, we will. We'll follow
Starting point is 00:56:45 up behind you and we'll close your business because that's what happens. You've educated on somebody else comes in and then has the intentional conversation and closes it. You could have closed it, but you didn't. So you set it up for somebody else and that's what happened so many times. You know, many times I hear you're the only one that got back to me. So we're definitely going to be doing business with you. And I don't know. Like you hear some people say I got to talk to three people.
Starting point is 00:57:11 That's not real. I've had so many people say before you get started, I want to talk with three people when I get done and we're laughing and I blow their mind and I educate them on a HS and the home service expert page on Facebook. I put I copied this and it said this guy said is a conversation. I just started reading through it. There's so many posts in there.
Starting point is 00:57:33 And this guy said I got three different window quotes and on the third one, the guy brought in all the samples. He educated me about this and the rebates and the energy efficiency and just showed me everything to feel like I actually understood Windows now. And that's why I chose that company because they educated me. And if you spend the time to educate clients, and give them options, and just tell them what you would do based on their situation, and say there's no wrong answer here. Listen, I'm going to do what's good for you. You're going to win the business a lot of the time, but they need to like you feel liked, and they need to like the company. That's it.
Starting point is 00:58:08 Absolutely. So powerful. What do you think? What do you think you do to spot the buying signals in a sale? Because I think some people talk past the buying signals of like, they burn the sale, you know? Oh, my gosh, this, this is a big one. You're touching on one of my hot buttons right now, especially. In fact, I'm working on some things that is about to completely change the way
Starting point is 00:58:33 that a lot of things are done when it comes to this topic. But the buying signals are smaller than most people think. In fact, the things that you truly are looking for, they come earlier in the conversation. So both buying signals and signals that something went sideways. So a lot of times they happen way earlier than we expect the big, oh, hey, that's exciting. We're not looking for the, you know, we don't want it to look like they just got dealt a pair of pocket aces and they're playing poker, you know, and can't hide a bluff. If that's the first place that we recognize a buying signal, we haven't been paying attention. So it's
Starting point is 00:59:15 further than that. It's a lot more subtle than that. So usually buying signals happen early in the appointment. The way, I mean, my sister, the way I train it, by the time we're done with our introductions, company intro, personal intro, and setting the agenda, they're sold, the buying signals start happening there. And then as we go through, it just reinforces it. In fact, I would be willing to, uh, to wager that if we set it up right, not just the bio and the, you know, the picture that we send ahead of time with Service Titan, there's something else that I train is actually sending an on-the-way video, which is, hey, I'm, you know, excited
Starting point is 00:59:56 for our appointment. Be there, you know, right at our scheduled time. If you would, take a minute and clear out anything that might be in the way where we're going to be working. Appreciate that. that way we can focus on what's important to you. The fact that we now have a video there also, ahead of time, that warms that client up because something called the living room effect. And then once we step foot on that on the premises, now they're so they're already warmed up that intros and agenda, man, they're, they're ready to buy if you've made a great first impression.
Starting point is 01:00:29 So just like it really reinforces, like what you were saying, we start off with the A, if we've made that great first impression, and then people will talk themselves out of it because they think they need to over explain things or need to dive in technical way more than people need or want. And so that's where the confused mind says no, but they start off with the yes. I love that. I can talk to you all day about sales, man. I'm sure we're going to get up here eventually. So people want to reach out to Sam. what's the best way to do that? Yeah, so yeah, so where we can get in touch with me is of course closeitnow.net. That's
Starting point is 01:01:11 the website. Email me directly, sam at closeitnow.net. Of course, the big Facebook group you can join as well. And yeah, that's that's the big thing. And then this end of last year, I co authored a book that hit international bestseller list. And so that was really exciting. So be on the lookout for at least one or two books coming out this year. I've got a co-author book that's under the radar. I'm working on actually have a patent I'm working on for sell for the sales process. And then also we've got my book will be coming out this next year as well. So lots going on. Cool. I'm writing a new book. I'm actually I bought a lot of books this week to help me with my book.
Starting point is 01:01:55 I've got the core of it, but it's called pay them what they're worth. And it talks a lot about just ways to reward employees and get them on page and make sure they're getting, you know, they got a stake in the outcome. So, um, we talked about a lot of stuff, Sam, I want to give you just a few minutes to close us out on anything that you feel like the audience needs to hear. Yeah. Thank you for that. And first, I appreciate you having me on the show. This has been a lot of fun. Yeah. I always enjoy it. Enjoy chopping it up with the every chance we get. And the, our, our episodes, I feel like never end up this kind of the same as a lot of other people. Yes, we're all over the map but yeah, you know the the one thing I could really emphasize to everybody is
Starting point is 01:02:34 You know when we're when we're working with homeowners when we're working with the sales not to forget that you know, and whatever Line of home services were in we're there serve. It is home services for a reason. So show up with heart, show up truly in, you know, in your best version of yourself. What I say is I'm not asking anybody to be somebody they're not, but I'm asking you to show up and be the very best version of yourself as possible. And then along with that,
Starting point is 01:03:04 the kind of technical thing to remember is remember what the homeowners problem is. Too many people try to sell to the house. The house doesn't write the check. Just because you found all of these code faults and all of these things that are quote-unquote wrong with the install or wrong with the house, it doesn't mean anything unless the people in the house see a problem with it. And what is their problem? So figure out what their problem is first. What are your concerns? All of these things. How can we improve your life? And then as it's our job as
Starting point is 01:03:41 professionals to connect the dots between what their problem is and the things that we do and show them how this will solve their problem. And the second that we get those things clear and understand that the fault we found is not the problem, it's causing their problem, that's where the magic starts to happen because then we start to speak in their terms of, hey this is the benefit to you, can you see how this will change in your life? And that's really where so much of that conversation moves forward because now we're there to serve and they feel it because we truly care about making their life better with no attachment to the
Starting point is 01:04:23 dollars on the back end. Because knowing that, you know, just like Zig Ziglar always said, if we take care of enough people, then we help other people get anything they want, then we can have anything we want. And so it'll the money will come, but it's not what it's about. It's about helping people truly with the heart and compassion from the beginning. I love it, Sam. This was a great podcast. And you know, when you said we go all over the place, if you listen to Joe Rogan talk for three hours and his podcast, I was talking about all over the place. So I just like to like sit back and like have fun. And I don't
Starting point is 01:04:56 like to do too much formatting and question like perfect. And you're going to know, I don't care if people know exactly what they're going to get, but it's going to be fun. It's going to be informative and it's going be hopefully useful something I could get started with today So I appreciate you being on here Sam and look forward to seeing you here soon Absolutely, man. I appreciate it. Thanks for your work. All right, my brother. Hey there. Thanks for tuning into the podcast today before I let you go I want to let everybody know that elevate is out and ready buy. I can share with you how I attracted a winning team of over 700 employees in over 20 states. The insights in this book are powerful
Starting point is 01:05:31 and can be applied to any business or organization. It's a real game changer for anyone looking to build and develop a high performing team, like over here at A1 Garage Door Service. So if you want to learn the secrets that help me transfer my team from stealing the toilet paper to a group of 700 plus employees rowing in the same direction, head over to elevateandwin.com forward slash podcast and
Starting point is 01:05:50 grab a copy of the book. Thanks again for listening and we'll catch up with you next time on the podcast.

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