Welcome to Close it now, the podcast that's revolutionizing the H Vac and home improvement trades industries.

Get ready to dive deep into the world of heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

We're turning up the heat on industry standards and cooling down misconceptions.

And we're not just talking about fixing vents and adjusting thermostats.

It's about the transformative movement that's reshaping the very foundation of H Vac and home improvement.

We're the driving force, inspiring top performers who crave excellence not only in their professional endeavors, but also in fitness, nutrition, relationships and personal growth, proving that we can indeed have it all.

This is Close it now, where excellence meets excitement.

Let's get to work now.

Your host, Sam Wakefield.

Well, hey, welcome back to Close It Now.

Sam Wakefield here.

I am joined today by my special guest.

He has been around from the creation of Close It Now.

He's one of the actually one of the very first listeners that reached out and messaged me.

He has been in the industry, in our at industry for 25 years and he is on today because one, he brings just a wealth of knowledge.

He's a super top performer.

We've brainstormed over the last several years about his numbers and some different things, but there's one specific reason why he's on today.

He messaged me the other day and said, man, in the last two weeks I've had $26,000 in IAQ sales and it's all because of, well one, I'm going to give you a lot of credit.

A lot of it is because of your experience and your training and your ability.

But also he credits it to a really, really cool, affordable tool that we're going to talk about today as well.

Neither him or I get paid off of this.

We just found a really cool tool that he found a really cool tool that can help everybody.

And so you man, I'm so stoked to introduce this 25 year veteran in our industry.

This is Jason James.

How are you man?

Hey, I'm doing wonderful.

Thanks for having me.

Thank you for doing what you do.

Yeah, I've got a lot of information to share and it's all free.

And just for the record, I have not signed any type of promoting deals of any kind.

I'm just a working class Joe making for my way and my family.

But I'm very involved in just about anything to do with growth and I love Close It Now.

I've been a fan since he started and just I'm not affiliated with any marketing of this product we're going to talk about, I just want to be clear about it.

Yeah, no worries, man.

Before we do, give everybody a little bit of a highlight reel.

Right.

So, you know, you've, you've worn a lot of hats in the industry over the years.

You've, you know, you've been manager, you've been sales, you've been tech, you've had your own companies, all those kind of things.

Tell us a little bit about your history and, you know, include the parts that you, that you want us to know.

Right?

Well, do I include the parts that, you know, that we just talked about earlier?

Yeah, absolutely, man.

Okay.

Okay.

Share some inspiration for some people.

Yeah, it.

So my story is very inspiring because I never would have thought that I could be in this industry and be successful if that.

I started, I came from a very troubled drug and alcohol background.

Started when I was very young.

My family was heavy into that.

So it took a lot for me to get out and away from negative people.

So at some point, you know, I just had to get out.

So I got, I went to school for heating and cooling.

I had gotten a felony and I was a convicted felony for trafficking.

And I was just heartbroken.

I was pretty sure even if I graduated the heating and cooling course, I probably would never get a job.

Well, it was quite the opposite.

I pushed through, I was consistent.

I followed every step, you know, whatever step towards success.

As small as they were, I took them.

So I don't want to make this a 20 minute story, but I'll give you the 32nd version.

Fast forward from graduating.

First job was 20 bucks an hour.

Seven years there.

I was the service manager.

I hired and fired my own team.

That company went out of business.

The owner had some issues with his wife or his son Diane and his wife divorcing him.

Within like 30 days, everything shut down.

That was completely out of my control.

So I was back to square one.

A convicted felon with no money, just a service manager job that I had.

Within 30 days, I was out of the job.

So I either had to try to get hired somewhere else, start at the bottom and work my way back up.

And I didn't want to do that.

So being how this company just went out of business, I knew of a few accounts that were still open for grabs, if you know what I mean, because I managed those accounts.

So I called the IRS, got a tax ID number, I got some insurance, and boom, fast forward 10 years, I was a successful business owner.

I was pretty much a mom and pop store.

I Occasionally had, you know, one, two, three guys at a time, but mostly just me and my wife.

By 2018, I decided, you know, I'm.

My last year in business, I did about 370,000 by myself, but it took me 200,000 to do it in 80 hours a week.

It's a lot.

So I kind of was like, you know, I'm working my life away.

So I had an offer.

Somebody purchased my business.

They basically just bought my phone number.

You know, they wanted my customers to call them, whatever.

So I sold the company and I went and got a job.

And my first job was as a technician.

I thought I'd just go back to my roots, what I do best, because I'm a very good technician.

I bailed out of that job because I didn't like the owner there and I went to full time sales.

So by the time I went into full time sales, I was already pushing 20 years into business.

So in efforts to become better and close more deals, I sought many, many, many seminars of sales and self help.

And just I reached out a lot of places.

But then I stumbled on Close It Now.

Well, first of all, the name catches you when you're in this self.

You're trying to become a better person and you want to close more deals.

Kind of makes sense to re watch something called Close It Now.

So I picked up on the podcast, listen to every one of them, apologize to him.

I haven't listened to some of the more recent ones, but I promise you that I will.

There's always time to catch up.

So fast forward to now.

I get to send pictures from Jamaica, antigua, you know, St. Lucia, all the places I go every year because I save up.

I manage my money just like I manage my time.

So after selling my company in 2018, I was looking for the happy work life balance.

So sales, I found it.

I was.

I had a lot of control over my schedule, but I got an offer from the place I work now, which is.

Am I allowed to say their name?

Oh yeah, say whatever.

Yeah.

So it's Summer's Heating and Air out of Dayton, Ohio.

It's a.

We have 21 branches.

11 of those are employee owned.

I work at one of them and the pay is phenomenal.

They pay me very.

I can't say how much I make an hour.

I'll just say I'm not an entry level tech Pay.

I'm a 25 year H vac tech pay.

That's because of what I know and the tools I have.

I.

There's not one tool in My company truck that belongs to the company.

Let's just say that.

So when you can say that, maybe you can make a little more as a technician.

But on that note, I make more in commission on my sales than my hourly pay.

So let's just start with that.

And that's kind of what led us up to the day.

If you're ready, Sam, I can go into the microscope or.

Yeah.

One thing I'd like to cover first is, you know, you mentioned something.

This is a side note for everybody.

Earlier we talked about, especially when you've been, you know, manager, owner, that kind of thing is he's got a sign in his office that is about mindset.

So I want to take a second and talk about mindset.

Take us through the three T's and what you know, really, how you've been, how you use that to manage people and to more.

More than manage people, lead people.

That's different than being a boss.

A leader is different than a boss.

And so take us through that for us.

I agree.

I agree.

So like I said earlier, I have three different T's.

Which is tolerable, trainable or terminated.

Which one you want to be it?

I usually will never ask anybody to do something that I'm not willing to do myself.

So when you can get your.

See that your team wants to give you a hand because they know you, you're, you're over task or you're doing too much.

My boss, for example, he's about six years younger than me.

He's still in the management level of this industry.

I'm in the sales level, obviously, but he was in my shoes.

He was a sales guy.

He was this and that.

But he's proven to be somebody who's driven to be a leader.

He can make more.

I make more than my general manager does.

He's admitted it.

I already know it, but I' submitted it.

We all know this.

The, the guys that are willing to be the, the in the sales part of it.

Like you can be a tech, but if you're not a selling tech, you're not where I'm at.

You're not what I'm trying to get to.

But I do everything I can to help my leaders because I know how overtasked they are.

So just being aware of that is a whole nother perception.

And you know, for the guys working for whatever company you're working for, if you're perceiving you're there for a check and you're not there to be a part of the team, then you need to pick up the slack because we need team players.

Just.

And it's all about integrity.

You know, when somebody's not looking, what are you doing?

You know, are you really doing the right thing?

So I, I can kind of get lost on different philosophies and directions with this, but to try to bring it back on point, you know, any respect your leaders, they.

They got a lot going on.

And if you want to be a leader, be ready to take a big old bite of dedicating yourself to others.

And true.

It's not always a rewarding path.

I love it.

I heard something actually.

My.

The, the guy that's on the podcast that dropped today, Jimmy J.

He's my business coach.

I heard him say years ago that the best leaders are the best followers.

So that's like having that ability to always be coachable, always be trainable.

And yeah, everybody listening.

I am really excited about this episode because I know I'm about to learn something that I don't know.

So just putting this out there.

I'm not the best salesperson in the world.

I, you know, we're just sharing the best practices that we've learned across lots and lots of years of experience.

Experience and training.

And you're like me.

You've invested thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars into yourself to be able.

To get to the level you are.

It compresses.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

So let's start talking about IQ before we get to the tool specifically, take everyone through one around your mindset and actually, before this episode, we were talking a little bit.

You mentioned that you.

The hat that you wear for sales versus the hat that you wear as a, say, a technician changes a little bit.

So take everybody through those different lenses and the mindset around it and then we can start talking about the specifics, I think.

So.

Mindset is the 2 second version is how you do anything is how you do everything.

So if you got a.

If you got any ounce of lack of confidence, I don't want you to be overconfident, but I don't want you to have no confidence.

You've got to believe in what you're selling or you're not going to sell it for one.

You've got to believe that you are doing the right thing and helping somebody if they have biological growth, which a scientific fact would be to tell you.

You could put a microscope on anything in your office.

There's something there, something everywhere.

There's.

It's just like when they take a petri dish and put a drop of Water in it and stick it away for a week and you come back and it's full and mold.

It's a natural thing.

Nobody thinks about it because you can't see it.

So you know, if you were on a call and you were doing the right thing and taking care of problems and you see a lot of dirt somewhere, the odds are they're going to have something, some kind of problem that could use the solution.

So my mindset, my approach has always been to serve somebody else and to help somebody achieve solutions to problems.

So if you can't do that, then just swipe on or go on.

And this, this is not a scam concept.

This is a truly in my heart.

I sleep well, very well at night because I know if it's a 85 year old grandma, she's been a tough girl her whole life.

But when I see that my, my mindset goes right to what can I do to help her that would genuinely help her?

Well, first of all, I know that the facts are the older we get, our immune system gets weaker.

Right?

That's a fact.

That's not me selling you something, that's just me saying that's a fact.

So fast forward to helping her.

She's not aware that she could be losing her immune system at 85 years old.

You know, I'm 50 years old and I still think I can take the football team.

You know, I, I'm a, the reality is I'm a 50 year old dad bod kind of guy and I should probably work out more.

And admitting that admits my weakness is making me stronger.

So it makes me want to work out.

So my mindset on helping that old lady, you got to put yourself in check and see how you can help her.

So this is kind of where IAQ would come into play if I see any growth in her duck work.

You don't have to be a tech to know this.

You can be just a sales guy if you could just go and pop a register off the floor and look down in there.

Do you know how many people don't vacuum out where the register is at because they think air is blowing out, but when the air is not blowing, stuff's falling in.

So after 20 years, you can pull anybody's register and find a lot of stuff in there.

So it's a good visual.

So my mindset is her health and her well being.

Now if they've got five dogs and six kids and they don't clean their house, that you might want to recheck your mindset on how far are you willing to help this lady?

Because if she lives in a, a bad hygiene house then she's probably not going to care.

But like probably 80% of my customers, well, they have nice clean homes.

Right.

Like my home is.

My wife is a clean freak.

She's.

Everything's got to be clean.

Those homes, they care about what's in that register.

And if that's the 85 year old nice clean home lady, she's gonna, my mindset goes into.

Well, she's probably going to be interested in some of this stuff.

So picking and choosing your battles out there is all about doing the right thing will get you in the right situation, right?

Absolutely.

That's my mindset.

So people don't of course have to be 85.

That can be.

No, no, no.

Everybody can be 25.

But.

And you know, and true.

You're.

It's so interesting the people that are open to hear info about indoor air quality stuff and the ones that are not and sometimes it surprises us it could be that home, that homeowner that has, you know, the huge family and a bunch of pets and they've been crying for something to fix them, you know, help them out and they just didn't even know where to start.

So that's why it's always great that those curiosity questions are so important.

Oh absolutely.

So yeah.

So what's the process look like?

So you get to house and, and you're going through and this is especially timely, everybody listening because it's been so slow this last several months in our industry.

So you know, and then Jason is still out there, you know, crushing it, having you know what, $13,000 weeks in IAQ and it's like two weeks to do 26k and make 2100 dollars in commission.

I've told.

That's huge.

Right?

Yeah.

I've sold five grand in the last two days.

And this because my week starts, my new week starts today and yesterday and today.

So yeah, it's, it's, it's going to be another fifty thousand dollar month in IAQ for sure until, till the season picks back up.

Yeah.

So take everybody through it.

So take us through your process though.

So for everybody listening, that is not.

They want to sell iq just don't know how to get started or the people that are kind of dabbling in it.

So I get where's mindset?

And then what's this, this process go give us drop some nuggets there.

So answering that question pulls me in two different directions.

Me as an individual, the customer and what they're doing.

So.

And the process starts out with me basically, you know, your standard sales stuff.

You.

I do what we call a discovery.

Let's see why we're here.

You know, what we doing, what, what do the people do?

So this is where discovery and rapport goes hand in hand.

You don't come out and say, hi Mrs. Smith, I'm looking at this sea here and I need to know is there any allergies here?

They're going to tell you to piss off.

Like yeah, whatever.

Just the furnace is over there, you know that don't do that.

So there's who, how you're doing it is one thing, but my process and the way I do it is I just, I drop to the floor and I pet the dog and I love on the dog and I baby talk it and I try to get to know the customer.

You know, if the customer, a talkative person will start having a pow wow meeting right there and they won't know it.

But I'll be asking, I'll be, you know, picking out pieces of information to help them, not sell them, but help them, you know, in the way that they may not know.

And a lot of times when you deliver the information correctly and not in a sales weird person way.

Yeah.

Which I stole that from you stop.

Being weird and start selling.

Yeah, stop being weird and you know, just have a conversation.

And that's how I do it.

You know, as you can tell, I, I like to talk, I like to share information and I do the same thing with people may not be about the industry, might be about what they do.

So that's a 15 minute process.

Right.

So fast forward to the discovery part.

I've done some discovery while I was building rapport, but now I'm going by this point have already cleared up that I'm going to be scoping some stuff out, I'm going to be writing some stuff down, I'm going to be visually recording what we're doing today and, and making a mental note of what can I do to help you.

And that's what people want.

They want you to show them something they don't know that could affect them later.

Especially if it's a heating and cooling thing because that becomes a comfort factor and everybody likes to be comfortable at home.

So at the last word I'll say the customer, after we do our discovery and report, I'll say is if I find anything that you would like that that might affect the system, would you like to know about it?

Most people would say yes.

If they didn't, that's.

I don't know why you would say no to that question.

But it happens.

But 99% of the time, yeah, I.

Was going to say, I've asked a similar question for 15 years.

I've never gotten to know.

Right.

You're not going to hear a doctor say, hey, we're going to run some tests, but you want to know what we find?

You're going to tell the doctor, well, hell yeah, I want to know what's going on.

You know, of course.

So I get to the furnace.

99.9% of the time you're going to find some kind of dust in the ductwork, some kind of dust in the cold air returns.

Just any, Everybody's got dust.

You know why that is?

Because 70% of dust is human skin.

We shed a lot more than we give ourselves credit for.

And our duct cleaning crews, when they clean out the ductwork, average home is three to five pounds of dust.

So you can only imagine what that's like.

So becoming interested in and aware of those facts help you share that information in such a way where you don't sound like a sales guy and you're just saying, hey, by the way, did you know this?

And I hear you say that a lot, Sam, did you know.

Perfect way to introduce things without sounding like you're just telling them.

So.

Yeah.

Once you have figured out that you got permission to go and look at things, a lot of times the customer is either going to want to go with you or they're not.

Most of them want to go with me when they get done talking to me.

But when they get done talking to somebody learning this industry, it might be better for you to let them do whichever way they wish and let them either follow you or not.

If they don't, then you've got your time to discover the system without anybody disturbing you.

So depending on your skill set, it depends on how you handle that.

But for me, I love it when the customer comes along because I'll, I'll give them a play by play.

Some people are very interested in their home and they want to know what's going on.

So as soon as I get to my next level of discovery, I'll have a various amounts of information.

Not just stuff to do with dust and dirt, but you know, amps and volts and performance of a heat exchanger or you know, like I have a heat exchanger expert card that's like a two thousand dollar class to teach you where to look for micro cracks and Stuff to cause a furnace to fail.

You know, there's just so much I could get into.

But as, as, as I said before, you have to pick and choose your battles about the information that you're gathering.

So again, I would just put the moral compass in play and say, direct yourself to doing the right thing.

That's going to get you repeat customers.

And you know, there, there's a lot of opinions in this business.

And you know, if you read the reviews of just about any company, every company has that one bad review where the customer typed in on Google and said, oh, well, this company said we needed this, that, and that and blah, blah, blah.

But this company said we didn't.

So you're fired.

We're going over here, right?

That's a major.

The people shop by Google reviews these days.

So whatever company you're at, you're not focused in on how that customer is going to react online.

You know, with my company, we specifically send a text to the customer and they review you on what you did that day.

And that goes on Facebook, it goes on Google, it goes on a Better Business Bureau.

There's a lot of places that this stuff shows up.

And if you're going at this the wrong way and delivering the information in the wrong way, even though you may think you're doing the right thing, you have to make sure is the right information and the right customer that can absorb that information.

Because is, you spook the customer, you scare the customer or something, something ain't right.

It's.

The deal's dead in the water, you're not going to sell anything.

So if, be careful of the customer that just nods their head and smiles and says yes and no answers, because that's the one that's going to leave you a bad review because you said something or you did something.

So unpack that for us a little bit.

When you're talking about spooking the customer, scaring, scaring the clients, that kind of thing, what can that look like?

And what are we watching for there?

So this is where body language comes into play.

It would be no different if we were playing a game.

If you're interested in my next move, your eyebrows are raised and you're watching and you're interested.

But if you're not interested, you look over here, you look at your watch, you, you change the subject.

Those are the guys that are, that are that you're scaring and they're not.

Most people are too good a person to let you know that they don't like what you're saying, so the only way you can hear that is to see the body language.

And you're going to hear it in their tone.

You're gonna just like, if we were playing cards or we playing chess or checkers or something, you're.

The way we communicate is shows your interest.

And a lot of guys out there, I can't tell you how many meetings I've sat and I've talked to technicians and I've said, you know, I know you feel obligated to sell because the company is having meetings telling you guys we need to increase our income.

And that makes somebody who's not a selling tech very uncomfortable because they feel like they're pressured to make sales when they just want to be a fix it guy.

Yeah.

So my solution is to zone in on the fix it guy and teach him how to fix the way he communicates.

Because true sales is about communication.

True sales is about being aware.

Your body language, the customer's body language, asking the right questions, getting involved the right way.

And we say that nonchalantly, you and I, Sam.

But the, no, the weight of that simple statement, it runs so deep.

And that's the other problem I have with training sales, is because people feel like they're on the spot and they're trying to learn.

They get uncomfortable because there's something wrong with what they're doing, and they get unconfident.

And I just tell people to be themselves.

I'm not going to talk to a customer same way you do.

I'm not going to deliver the information the same way you do.

My boss, we just had a meeting last week.

We were reviewing, or I'm sorry, a couple days ago, we were reviewing March's numbers.

And all of March, I've been telling all the technicians, hey, this, this tool I got is so amazing.

You got to try this tool.

And, you know, a couple of guys bought into it, they ordered this tool and started using it.

But when the manager had the meeting, his perception of me was, well, I know Jason's been saying this tool is one of the reasons he sold all of these products, but it's.

I don't think it's Jason's tool.

I think it's Jason.

Jason is the one that's making these sales.

So, you know, that struck my ego chord a little bit.

But as you know, and you taught me, this ego is not your amigo.

But I can't help it when there's 30 people in the room and they're saying, I don't think it's because of this tool.

I think it's because of Jason.

Well, that was a constructive criticism comment is what I like to call it.

Yeah, it's nice to hear a compliment.

But it reminds me that my perception to my team and my boss is that I'm giving credit, all of this credit to this tool.

And it's not just a tool.

And that's that I think, you know, me and you've been talking for better part of three years now.

I think that you know what I mean when I say that.

But on the same token, I'm still very excited about this tool and how it works, and it opened my eyes to how customers perceive information, for sure.

So.

So great segue.

So.

So let's.

We'll recap the process real quick.

And then, you know, good segue to start talking about the.

About the microscope, about the tool.

So you, you go in, you, obviously we've done discovery, you've asked them about what their concerns and what their problems are and that kind of thing.

And then, you know, you.

You turn the corner, you go to inspect, you like to bring people with you.

And in either way, of course, it's fine.

It doesn't matter to me.

Yeah.

And then you get there.

And now let's talk about what you're.

You know, how you go about finding what you're looking for, you know, where you're looking and what the.

Like, go through this tool with everybody, because we've kind of kept it this little secret so far, but for everybody, I'm going to put a link to it in the show notes, so everybody listening, if you want to go grab yourself one.

They're not expensive, which is part of why it's so cool.

And you can just discover the most incredible stuff with it.

But more importantly, and this is the philosophy, this is the mindset around it.

And just like Jason was talking about, that one bad review where that homeowner says, well, you said this, and the other company said, I don't need this.

And the reason that that happens is because that homeowner didn't have the certainty of what you were showing them or telling them was the problem.

So when you can show them, you don't just tell them something.

When you can actually show them verifiable proof that they can't deny, you'll never get that review because they can't argue with facts.

So that's kind of where we're sitting right now.

So take it away and tell us about it.

What is it?

How do you use it?

Where do you look all those things.

Okay, so it's basically a Chinese product.

I just sent the link to you as you were describing it and all it says on Amazon is it's a visit the T Tacomly store.

It has a wireless digital microscope, handheld USB camera, up to 50 times a thousand magnification.

I'm not a scientist, but I'm guessing that's a lot because I've seen my hand and it's a lot.

So I, if you want to put, I just sent that to you, you could probably put it in your comments I.

Or later.

But we'll do that.

Okay, so.

So in fact, everybody, it's basically a, it's a digital microscope.

So imagine like high school level science class, right?

It's a microscope micro.

We're not talking about like the, you know, the curvy nose, like you know, heat exchanger inspection.

We're talking about an actual microscope to see it, a much smaller particle.

So.

And it's digital and it's usb.

So it's USB and it connects that way.

So there's.

Yeah.

So you turn your, you turn your, your iPhone, whatever, your tablet, laptop, anything can be turned into a microscope screen.

So focusing on IAQ this month and last month was because if you haven't, in Ohio, where I'm from, if you haven't fixed your furnace by March, you're probably not going to and you're definitely not turning their air conditioner on yet.

So system sales are the lowest in March and April in Ohio.

I know that's different for other states, but for us, furnaces are down and air conditioners are starting to creep in, but definitely they're just trickling in.

So Salesforce, I would say for the.

Most part across the country, I think everybody's experiencing this year, you know, so in most markets for sure, and other than a few outliers.

Yeah.

So as something else that is common in the industry is that most companies are doing a lot of sales training right now because they're trying to prep the guys, you know, how to handle things when, when it gets busy.

And that's where these sessions are.

I just call them, you know, self growth sessions.

Whether it's a sales or a maintenance or service, whatever meeting you're in, it's all about making everybody better.

So, you know, as soon as you get past that, instead of thinking it's some kind of, you know, we're going to yell at you session, you got to change your mindset for the, for one.

But given the season, we're focused on I IAQ right now.

And I couldn't figure out any way better to word it and try to sell it only because, you know, I'm one of the sales trainers.

So for me to get better and I have to, you know, become more efficient in the business.

So.

Hang on one second.

My boss is texting me.

Microscope is okay, go.

Okay.

So the microscope is really important to use it in the right way.

You don't just walk in and hold it up in the air and say, let's go.

Check this out.

You do your standard routine, you gather your same discovery information and you do what you got to do.

But when you come to the moment where you need to share any problems you found with the customer, that's when I asked the question, who in the house has, or I should say, does anyone, anybody in the house suffering from headaches or nausea right now, or anybody getting sick?

And I'll say it with a tone of I'm, I'm concerned for my well, well being, but I'm also concerned about your well being.

So when I say it in that, you know, caring way, they go, no, why do you ask?

And I said, well, I'm glad nobody's sick.

That, that makes me feel better.

But I do have something I want to show you.

So we walk down to the furnace.

Typically there's a door over the indoor coil for the air conditioner.

Sometimes there's not, but that's what drills and cameras are for.

But anyway, you get the door off, you take the microscope and you put it right on top of the coil.

There is some kind of growth there 100% of the time because it's a cold, wet, dark environment.

Dust is 70% human skin, which is organic.

You put organics in a cold, wet, dark environment, you get growth.

So long story short, use the microscope there or when you got the filter out, stick the camera back into the cold air return.

You're going to see something there.

So as soon as the customer sees it, this is what's so amazing to me about it, is because I never knew it would have this much impact.

So you take a very well rounded sales tech guy like me, put him in this right scenario, clean house, concerned customers, the right delivery of information, all that magic come beforehand.

But once the microscope comes out and I stick it on there, I, I try, I play a little game.

First I put it on my hand, I say, you see my little, how you can see the real fine print on my skin?

And then I'll ask them to hold their hand out and they're so quick to stick their hand out because I've got them in the game now.

They're curious.

They're like, oh, wow, that's so cool.

Yeah, they're engaged on their hand and their eyes.

I mean, it's like we're playing a game.

They're getting into it, and that makes them like you.

It makes them show that you care about their system.

They're just so many positives are happening here, and they think we're just looking at a microscope, but there's a lot going on.

So once they see it in their hand, I hand them my phone.

I say, here, hold this.

Don't touch the screen.

Just let it display.

And then I'll start putting it all over the place.

And they see all these little microscopic spores of growth.

And they'd only.

I would say I'm.

Right now, I'm at about a 40 to 50 close rate on my customers.

And anybody who's been in sales long, long enough to know we typically like to see 25, 30, but when you're in the 40, 50 range, I'm just killing it.

My.

My commission sheet, or I should say spiff sheet for last week, which I'll probably get paid for next week, is about $2,200 worth of spiffs from all this stuff and.

Right.

That's just amazing to me.

I. I was so impressed by this microscope that it has literally adding two.

Grand a week just strictly in spiffs by using being one.

Now, I love how you set it up, too.

You know, you're like, do you ask a question before you put it on?

And be like, okay, ready to see what we, you know, what we're going to find here on the coil.

I'm sorry, say that again.

So when you like.

So you've done, like, show them on your hand.

Show them, have them play the game on their hand.

You handle the screen?

Yes.

Have any kind of a setup question, be like, okay, are you ready to see what we find over here?

Or, you know, no, I just.

I just go right into the.

The mold and the growth and everything.

And you ask any tech that's opened up enough coils for install, or, you know, checking the install out and all that, there's always some kind of black specks on the drain pan because that's where the water sets dust magnetically sticks to water.

You know, it just grabs it right away.

It's called water tension.

And it just wants to grab that dust.

And then once the system shuts down, it starts drying out that dust just Stays there.

And the water seems like it just feeds it.

So the moisture in the air will keep it alive year round, but it'll really start growing when you run your air conditioner.

So just showing these pictures, but that initial, once I hand on the phone and I, I start going crazy with the microscope, I just start putting it all over the place.

And depending on their reactions and how some of them like the first couple of photos and then they don't want to see no more.

Some of them want me to keep going.

So depending on the situation will depend on how far into it I go.

But for the most part, these customs, if, even if they don't buy, they're just digging it that I'm showing it to them.

They're like, wow, nobody's done that before.

And I hear that all the time, not just with the microscope, but just in general.

As a service tech, I know I hear it so often people are like, nobody's done that before.

Right.

So I got a lot of those nobody's done that before kind of thing going for me.

But on the same token, this microscope is just really opening customers eyes.

It's convincing them that an I wave air purifier or a Remy halo UV light is a good fix for what we're finding.

Sure.

And the one that I sold yesterday, and this is a really funny story, the lady was 90 years old, she hurt, she has a roommate that's 80 years old.

And the 80 year old said, yeah, go ahead and put the, I wave in, go ahead and put the UV light in.

And then about 15 minutes later I'm putting this in, the old lady comes down and she's like, well, how much is the new furnace?

Just like out of the blue, right?

And I was like, well, I have a lot of prices.

Those numbers are just numbers.

Unless you give it.

Give me a minute to sit down at the table and I can give you a little bit of detail about what those numbers mean and what the different types of equipments are and how they affect you.

And so that's what we did.

We had a, you know, basically an estimate.

That's when I took my technician hat off and I put on my salesperson or, you know, consultant hat, if you will.

And we went through the systems.

And this is something that I always find amusing is that some people shop at the dollar store, some people never been in the dollar store.

Right.

And this lady does not go to the dollar store, if you know what I'm saying.

So she looks at the Cadillac, she looks at you Know the nicer things in life.

And so her first initial, I felt like I was just taking the order and I didn't really sell this.

This is one of those.

Here's the, here's your $20,000 install sale.

It was actually 23,000 and then some change.

But then I also solder the I wave and the readme halo UV light.

Sorry, on the same sale.

So I've got truck revenue over here, I've got install revenue over here.

And that's how most companies record the metrics on you is what's your truck revenue?

What's your sales?

So I'm, I'm killing two birds with one stone.

The first stone opened the door for the sale.

She just bought a modulating system, you know that top shelf stuff, and we're installing it.

She put half money down.

So I locked in the sale with half down.

And man, this, this microscope is not just selling iaq, it's selling systems.

It sounds to me like it's not even that it like at the base level what it's doing.

It's one, it's unique because you're doing something that nobody else is doing.

Also, it's proving to the people what you're saying is true.

So they talk about established trust because you're like, hey, listen, I'm not here to sell you anything.

I'm just showing you what's going on.

And that's right.

Builds that massive amount of trust.

So then, because we all know if you know, say a homeowner that has done two, three, four projects with you and everything turned out great, that person doesn't shop around.

They don't get three bids, they don't give you a price.

Objection.

There's like, hey, Jason, what are we doing next time?

Right?

So the quicker we can get to that level of trust.

Yes, this is, this, this is, man, it sounds like a serious ninja trick to shortcut that process and just speed us to there.

He's like, hey, they can argue with you, but they can't argue with the facts.

And they can clearly see it with their own eyes, right?

Absolutely.

I love this, man.

That is so powerful.

So I hope everybody.

So everybody go back and listen to the.

So actually, if you will do this for us again, because I know that is one of the biggest things that I get asked about to train technicians is how to have that conversation where it goes from service or IAQ or whatever into that system cell.

And you did that so gracefully and smoothly when we went right through it.

But I'd love to Go back and highlight that section for everybody because as you know, listening to the podcast, we love to give like those magic nuggets that people can implement.

But just talk through your mindset in that process a little bit when you're turning it into more of a flip or either sending it to somebody else or to yourself.

How do we change hats?

And so the homeowner doesn't get scared away, right?

Commission brand right away.

So the technician just has to use analogies like, you know, we all have trouble, we all drive cars, we all got to go get the oil change, we all know what they do.

Oh, you need wipers.

Oh, you, you want to go ahead and replace these bulbs or, oh, you know, by the way, this hundred dollar oil change is about to turn into 3, $400, right?

Easily.

And so, you know, as a customer, you're just like, I just, I just want to flip an oil change, you know, but the technicians have to have the right mindset.

They gotta be able to understand.

And, and I guess the short version would be I treat everybody like it was my mom and dad's house.

What would be my, you know, go to next step?

What we, what kind of problem are we creating a solution for and how, how far down this rabbit hole do you want to go?

So that, that's basically once a customer talks to somebody like me for a while, they start to see, you know, the directions that I'm going.

You know, you don't have to know anything about H Vac to know if somebody cares.

There's, I guess, you know, call it Southern hospitality or, you know, just that good old camaraderie that you'd give to a stranger.

You know, here you hold the door open.

That mentality goes through and through everything you do.

So if you're genuinely, you know, wearing different hats and you're making that smooth transition, it shouldn't be too hard for you.

If you're, if you genuinely care and you genuinely want to help, you're going to genuinely find problems that you can give genuine solutions to.

So it's, it's being truthful and helpful and have a real conversation and not be like, oh, Mr. Smith, my report says that this, you need new wiper blades.

Oh yeah, well, it's not raining right now, so just change my flipping oil, right?

So it's, it, you got to kind of see what, what your customer sees in you.

And, but like I say, if you know what you're doing and you're out to help it, it's not hard to make that Change from, you know, I'm going to be a technician now.

I'm going to be a sales guy.

I never really changed me as an individual.

I'm just the same guy through and through.

But when you're young and you're getting in the industry, you have to learn to make those transitions smoothly.

And you know, if you come out of the truck and you're like, hey, we got sale on furnaces.

They're going to say just do the tune up please and go away.

Exactly.

So just, it's what you lead out there.

I love it.

Well, that's, you know, for everybody listened.

I hope you really heard the message here, which is, you know, have a heart of service, lead with your heart.

Really true.

Be there to care and to help.

Don't try to create something that doesn't exist.

Don't invent a problem and try to convince them that it's there.

That is the opposite of integrity.

Right.

That, that's why, you know, our industry for the last 20 or 30 years has gotten such a black eye from companies going out and taking advantage of people by selling them things they don't need or want.

However, when you lead with that heart of service and remember, people buy what they want, not necessarily always what they need.

So it's our job to connect the dots with what they want and what they want to accomplish and what they want their life to feel like and experience to the things that we, that we do, that we can actually, that they actually do need.

So we've, we've got to help them connect those dots in their mind.

And the second that we can do that, like with this kind of a tool in this process, it's game over.

Right?

I mean, clearly your numbers don't lie.

Yeah, yeah, it's, it's been fantastic.

It really helps fill in the gap on the slow season.

You know, obviously when it gets hot, we need to focus on equipment sales moreover.

But it's pick and choose your battles, man.

You're, you're leading, you're out there by yourself.

It's up to you to do the right thing.

You got to pick and choose what you want to get into.

If you know, if it's a 10 year old system, there's nothing wrong with it.

I'll bet you there's some growth in there.

Right.

But you know, if it's a 15 year old system, it's 90 degrees out and you're there for a no.

Cool.

That's your opportunity to build that ticket and add in the micro microscope to your Report before you.

Exactly.

I was saying I could totally see those like you know, even if it's a, you know, it's 20 year old system slam dunk.

Right, Right.

Still being using that tool and show them, hey, this happened before.

Would you like to hear how we can prevent this from happening in the future and still either do it then or you can create those future cells for yourself.

Say that's July 4th, right.

You're on call and it's hot and they're down.

And so we do a system swap.

But still by showing them and taking them through the process, be like.

And then use social proof.

Be like.

So what if they don't want to do it right?

Then say okay, no problem.

What most people do is they go ahead and start to schedule these items on their maintenances and on their tune ups.

Can I go ahead put you make a note here to have it on my truck when I come out and you know in a few months in the fall to do your tune up for the fall and make sure everything's running good and go ahead and.

Absolutely then.

So now we're creating future, future business.

Yeah.

And that's establishes that lifelong value of a client.

But also we're still able to, if they can't do it right now, we can help, still help them and have opportunities to help for the future.

Oh yeah, yeah.

It's planting seeds called farming.

Yeah, you got it.

I love this man.

This has been such a good conversation.

Time to land this plane.

We're about the amount that we roll here and any last words for everybody.

Anything you want to golden nuggets to.

Impart or leave well and invite me back.

I've got so much more that I could share.

Lots of information that's real live, real live time stuff that's happening.

I am a full time senior service technician by choice.

Former business owner, former manager, former.

A lot of different hats I've worn throughout the years.

I'm the happiest in this position because I only have to worry about you, the customer.

So I take care of you and I can devote my heart and soul to that.

I get great results because the customers are happy with my service.

I get great reviews so customers request me.

So you know, I'm not just making sales, I'm building relationships, I am building a fan club.

I mean Sam is, I'm, I'm his fan but he's also a fan of me.

So it just goes hand in hand.

The right hand watches the left hand and I'm all about sales growth.

Sam has taught me so much.

It's been great to be part of it and you know it.

The other half of it is your own personal investment.

You know what, what are you going to do with your spare time?

What are you just going to learn at work?

Well, you're not going to learn much.

You're just going to be the mundane repeat service.

But yeah, my final words is just how you do everything and how you do anything.

Be kind, be in service.

And do you want to be trainable, tolerable or terminated?

Everybody falls in one of those three categories.

You have a choice to make.

Which one are you?

Yeah, there's no moving forward or moving backwards, right?

Yeah.

I love it, man.

Well, thanks for being on the podcast today.

It has been a pleasure to finally get to get this recorded, get connected.

And a couple quick announcements, everybody.

One is make sure that you can grab the online course for Close it now that goes through a lot of this process.

It's@h vacdoors.net it's called.

H vacu is the name of the course.

It's the cheapest course that you can get in our industry that has the full system that basically guarantees results if you implement.

Also, for everybody listening, I had stopped doing one on one coaching for a long time.

I've just opened up a handful of spots again which I haven't done one on one coaching in a good while.

And so that is something that the number of people who called me up before when that's all I was doing that went from, hey Sam, I'm about to get fired because my numbers are so bad to number one in their company in less than three months is incredible.

And so we've got a big, big testimony list there.

But I have opened up one on one coaching.

You can email me samoseitnow.net you can go to closeitnow.net there's a form on there you can fill out.

I'll reach out to you or join the Facebook group.

Jason's in there.

Tons and tons and tons of top performers are in there.

It's a really cool group there that stays positive and absolutely great place to go and ask questions and nobody will ridicule you like in some of the other Facebook groups for H Vac.

But that's basically it.

And man, everybody, I hope you've gotten some value from this podcast.

If you have, then jump on wherever you listen, Apple podcasts or Spotify, wherever, leave me a five star review.

I would greatly appreciate that and love you forever.

And if I mention you and Your review on an episode and you message me.

You hear it and message me, I will do a free one hour coaching session with you which is very high value because, yeah, I don't do that very often.

So definitely reach out for that.

We'll get you to the next level and otherwise, thanks for listening.

This has been a great ride, a great journey.

This is going to be episode 152.

Yeah, we passed that 150 mark and we are now.

So we're in top 2% of podcasts around the world.

So we're working on bumping up to the one and a half here pretty soon.

You can help do that by reviews and share this.

Share the podcast with people you know, like the people you know that could help, that could just get some value and make sure to invite people to the Facebook group.

We want to grow that community.

We passed the tipping point for engagement.

So we're at almost 22, 2300 people now and growing all the time.

So thank you everybody.

Thanks, Jason, for being here and we'll end it like we always do.

Everybody go save the world one heat stroke at a time.

You've been listening to the Close it now podcast.

Our passion is to dive head forward first into the transformative movement that's reshaping the very foundation of H Vac and home improvement and at the same time covering fitness, nutrition, relationships and personal growth, proving that we can indeed have it all.

We hope you enjoyed the show.

If you did, make sure to like, rate and review.

We'll be back soon, but in the meantime, find the website@closeitnow.net find us on Instagram at the real Close it now and on Facebook at Close It Now.

See you next time.