Welcome to Close it now, an H Vac sales training podcast with Sam Wakefield.

Here we'll build your reputation in residential H Vac sales to be the expert influencer in your market.

You'll get insight into the top minds in the industry as they share their skills and hacks to help you on your journey.

This podcast isn't just about selling more.

It's about understanding your customers needs and building efficiencies behind the scenes so you can sell more but work less while being top of mind when people think H Vac.

Now let's get started with your host of the Close it now podcast.

This is Sam Wakefield.

All right, welcome back to Close It Now.

Sam Wakefield here.

We have a powerful sales psychology episode for you today that I am really excited about.

It actually evolved out of the coaching session I was doing just a little bit ago.

We're going to call it behind the Smokescreen.

So let's, we're going to dive into that.

And yeah, gosh, I'm so excited about everything that's going on this year with Close It Now.

This rattling you're hearing is actually how we're going to start the episode today.

So in our what's in your cup portion of the day, let's get started with that.

I was, me and my partner were at in Austin, Texas at this place called Easy Tiger, which is this incredible bake shop.

If you've never been there, if you come to Austin, you got to make it to Easy Tiger.

They have a huge beer garden as well as they are a bakery.

They have some incredible like sourdough breads and all kind of stuff.

They make full meals but they also have their own blend of coffee.

So the Easy Tiger coffee blend is actually made for them by Little City Coffee Roasters.

Little City Coffee Roasters.

And that is what is in my cup today.

It's littlecity.com if you want to give it a try.

This is one of the more complex beans that I've had in a long time.

I would call it a dark roast and it is definitely a complex nutty blend.

I love it.

You may like it too.

So go to the Easy Tiger website to order some Little City coffee roasters in Austin, Texas or if you're here, just swing out and grab some.

So go grab yourself a piece of roast, really good bread and if you're into bread and coffee, I think they do some like great charcuterie boards and that kind of thing too.

The adult lunchable, the charcuterie board.

So everybody, well let's take one collective Sip of what is in your cup today.

In three, two, one.

Ah.

All right.

If you have a suggestion for a coffee bean, let me know what it is.

Or if you want to send me some to try.

I'm always a happy recipient and you'll get a shout out on the show for sure.

If you send me some coffee to give it, give a try.

So I love it.

Before we dive in today, we've got a couple of announcements.

First is the Mastermind.

Not Mastermind, the sales training event that I'm hosting.

It's going to be March 21st and 22nd.

Get your ticket fast.

There's a couple things happening if you are.

I'm actually recording this the day after my birthday.

My birthday is February 5th.

I turned 44 this year in 2024.

I'm recording this the day after my birthday.

If you buy your ticket before and register for the March 21st and 22nd event.

If you buy your ticket and register before the end of February, by the end of February, you get entered into a drawing for the prize that I picked up in Central in Times Square in New York City, as well as a couple other benefits to buying your ticket early.

So if you buy your ticket before the end of February 2024 for the March 21st and 22nd event, you will get entered into the drawing, which we will draw your name and give this gift away live at the event in Austin, Texas.

So that is going to be a ton of fun.

And what is this masterclass you're talking about?

So all of the crazy numbers that I tell you gentlemen and ladies about all the time on this podcast basically comes out of the sales system that the close it now sells system that I've developed, that I've trained for several years now.

So where that system developed, so little bit of context how that system developed, you know, when I it's been from, you know, 15 plus years of being in the field selling thousands and thousands and thousands of homeowners, you know, millions and millions and millions of dollars worth of equipment.

And so the system really started to evolve here in Austin when I was sales manager and sales trainer for this small company that we wanted to grow, we wanted to do things right, we wanted to do things different.

And we were 80% marketed leads.

And this was 6, 7, you know, 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago.

And, you know, so mid.

It was like 2016, 2017, 2018, we really started developing in the system because we had a team of people who were out there just shooting from the hip.

They had no idea what they were doing.

So we needed a consistent system at that point.

I looked around and there was nothing out there that did what I wanted it to do.

Everything was super pushy.

Or it was training from 20 years ago that nobody buys like that anymore.

I mean, we all know the way that homeowner buys changed during the pandemic and the way that they buy now is so different than before.

You come in with these sales tactics and all this no is a perfectly acceptable answer kind of bullshit.

And their BS meter goes off a mile high.

Right.

We're not lowering resistance, we're cutting off our pipeline.

If you don't think that people call you back, that's a limiting belief in your mindset.

Me and my team can prove hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousand dollars worth of volume every single year from pipeline.

I don't want to hear people don't call you back or people don't buy after your follow up.

You don't have to be this hard nosed badass in the house to try to just close it right now.

Yes, the name of the company is Close it Now, but however, that's because we're serving at the highest level and we're helping them see the only logical conclusion to a well executed sales process with somebody worth buying from is to say yes and make the purchase.

Now.

That also means when you serve at the highest level like that, the people that don't buy right away because there are some.

I don't want to hear a single person say, I close every single person I see.

Well, no you don't.

But the ones that are closable, we close.

And the rest of them, we serve at the highest level, we follow up with purpose and intention and we close those too.

So that is probably one of the best follow up trainings that there is in the entire industry.

So all of that, the cell system, the psychology, every bit of this, everything you've heard in the podcast, we're going to go over March 21st and 22nd at the live event.

You've got to get registered right away.

Email me samoseitnow.net I'll send you the link for that.

Join the Facebook group.

There's a post up about it.

That's a pinned post that has the flyer that has the link.

You've got to get there.

I'm capping it at 40 people.

It's starting to fill up really fast.

So everyone who buys a ticket and registers before the end of February is you get entered into a drawing for some really cool extra stuff.

So that's the bonuses that you get for deciding and taking action.

Because remember, success happens at the speed of implementation.

In this case, implementation is buying your ticket and getting registered.

Clear your calendar for this two day event.

It's going to blow the freaking doors off of your numbers.

I can't guarantee you you're going to be the number one person in your state or your city.

But.

But what I can guarantee you is your numbers are going to go up dramatically.

Dramatically.

Just like my guy Eddie over in Kansas City, right?

He was a 40% close rate guy for years.

And the second this is, we're six months out now.

Now that we've trained, he is rocking right around 65 to 70% close rate and his average ticket went up about 30%.

So if that's the kind of numbers you want in your life, get registered for this event and text me 512-364-8559 or email me samoseitnow.net and also join the Facebook group and you can go to the brand new websites closeitnow.net it is about to launch.

If it's still got the old picture, just wait a couple days.

It's going live here any second.

So by the time you hear this, it will probably be live if not a couple days later.

So let's get into this.

So that's the first announcement is that event, it's going to be huge.

It's going to change the dynamics of your life.

So part two to that is the night before the event I am hosting a small whiteboard hot seat mastermind session where come prepared with your, your data and just the one thing in your business that you want to solve and we will solve it for you.

We're going to brainstorm, we're going to offer you resources, we're going to teach you exactly how to walk through that obstacle by experience.

Right?

We've got to have a mastermind.

So basically everyone in the room, everyone in the room are going to solve the problem, at least point you in the right direction and provide you with resources to solve that.

So if that is a valuable idea for you, also reach out about that because that's a small add on to the event.

If you're coming to the event, that mastermind hot seat section is going to be highly discounted.

So reach out to me about that.

All the same contact information.

So the 20th we're doing a mastermind whiteboard hot seat session and then 21st and 22nd we are going to be kicking ass with the training and taking names because it's time to uplevel.

It's time to raise the standard of this industry.

And it starts with every single one of us saving the world one heat stroke at a time.

Saving the world one frostbite at a time.

Table to table.

Kitchen table to kitchen table.

Helping homeowners make the right decisions.

So let's get into the content today because this is a crucial psychological concept to understand, because my whole goal is not to give you this huge ass rolodex of here's 85 different ways to handle objections.

Who can learn all that?

Come on, give me a break.

It looks impressive, but at the end of the day, it makes sales harder, not easier.

Let's make it simple, right?

Sales on easy is what I'm all about.

Let's make it easy.

So I'm not here to necessarily tell you the exact words to use.

While that's very powerful and you can implement it even better, is if I can help you learn how to think.

If I can help you learn how to think about how to handle objections and how to have this conversation, the sales conversation in the house, that is true mastery.

Because when you learn how to understand the questions, you learn how to think about it, then you can start to make real, true progress.

And no matter if the homeowner changes a word or two here and there, it doesn't matter anymore because now you're understanding how to think about the process and how to think about these questions.

And now raise your hand if you're like, what in the world do you mean, Sam, this is Drive Time University.

I don't know what you're talking about.

This is this crazy idea, but how do we actually put feet to this?

How do we implement it?

So success happens at the speed of implementation.

Here we go.

Let's cover this a little bit.

So in order to understand the in the conversation, Right?

So this is specifically, we're going to talk about some smoke screen objections that homeowners have.

And the two biggest smokescreen objections are.

One of them is I want to think about it.

Hey, we got to think about it.

Email this to us.

We got to think about it.

The next one that's a smokescreen, it's not a true objection is the three bids objection.

Now, if that three bids objection comes at the beginning or if it comes at the end, those mean two different things.

If you haven't done it, go back and listen to the three bids objection episode.

It's a three bids masterclass.

There's no reason anybody should be bullied by three bids anymore or Go into the Facebook group.

And actually that comes from a video training I did within the Facebook group.

So make sure to review the three bids, how to handle the three bids training first, and then come back to this episode.

Because really, it all comes down to this concept.

When we go through our process, you know, so much of what we do is built on the permission stack concept, with the permission stack being.

In fact, let me implement the permission stack.

Raise your hand if you would like to hear what the permission stack is.

Perfect.

I'm glad you do.

Step one is asking permission.

You know, it's just asking the permission question which opens their mind.

Step two is giving the data, which is what I'm doing right now.

Ask permission.

Now I'm giving the data.

The data is whatever information that you need to get.

Step three is checking in.

Does that make sense?

Do you follow me?

Do you understand any other questions?

Which do you think would be the best fit for you?

Those are check in points.

So again, it was asking permission, giving the data and checking in.

So with that concept, that is how we're going to handle these smokescreen objections.

But here's really the crux of it that I want you to get, because I'm going to go through it wrong the first time because this is what most people do.

And I can urge you, I can stress to you, you are not asking enough questions right now.

You think you are, because a lot of your statements are loosely framed as a question.

But then what happens is you start to move past that and just keep talking at.

At them instead of listening.

And what do I mean by that?

Is the way it sounds.

Most people do it like this.

So when it.

Especially when it comes time and towards the end, an objection comes up, most people, when that objection happens, most people do, they give them the let me ask you a question, and then they go straight into it without a breath or a pause.

They'll say, hey, let me ask you a question, and then go right to the question.

Right.

But also when they do that.

So a couple things are happening in the homeowner's mind and in your client's mind.

They're one, when you say, let me ask you a question, and then you go straight into it.

That has about the same effect as we all know how ridiculous it is when somebody says, well, with all due respect, and then they feel like they can say anything they want after that statement.

We know how absurd that is.

This is the same thing.

This is literally the same thing.

So when you say, let me ask you a question and you don't give them.

And that's not even a question.

That's just, let me ask you a question, it's a statement.

And then you go straight into whatever it is that you're wanting to handle the objection head on with.

It causes resistance.

You're creating resistance.

Your phrasing.

Just because you have the word question in your sentence does not mean it's a permission question.

It does not mean it's even a question.

So the way to handle this better is we have to actually ask a permission question.

So really where I wanted to go with this is the anytime, anytime in a conversation, you.

You feel like they are throwing up a smokescreen in order to get behind the second we start asking questions.

Behind the smokescreen is what I call it.

So if that smokescreen happens, we're about to probe deeper psychologically, we're going to step right past that smokescreen and start asking clarifying questions as the driver behind that smoke screen.

So in order for us to get behind the smoke screen, we have to get permission to go there, because otherwise we're talking at them and we're going to cause resistance.

They're going to bow up.

They're going to.

We're creating this reaction that we don't want.

We're creating resistance in their mind, and we're triggering a fight or flight mechanism.

If we go straight into.

Let me ask you a question.

And then you go straight in to handle that objection, you're creating a fight or flight mechanism in the homeowner's mind, which is not where you want to be because you work for 40, 45 minutes an hour building rapport.

Don't ruin it by all of a sudden attacking them head on and focusing in on this.

So, but the way to get behind the smoke screen is a permission question.

And instead of saying, let me ask you a question, and then going into what you're saying, the correct way to do it is this.

So write this down.

If you're driving in Drive Time University, make a note to come back to this spot and write this down.

This is crucial verbiage and it's not hard.

But just remember, when that smokescreen objection comes up, say this.

Do you mind if I ask you a couple questions and then stop and listen?

Because it's not the question that you asked that lowers the resistance.

You could ask any type of question.

It doesn't matter.

You asking that question is not what lowers resistance.

The important part of this is you're going to stop and wait for an answer because their act of Answering the permission based question, the permission question, and answering it in the affirmative, that is what drops the guard in their mind.

That is what keeps them from going into fight or flight mode.

Is you asked a question, do you mind asking a permission question?

Do you mind if I ask you a couple questions?

The act of them answering the permission question with a yes, that is what drops their guard.

Because they're telling themselves, there's no need for me to be in fight or flight.

There's no need to resist this.

I'm giving them permission to ask questions behind the smoke screen of this conversation.

So they're giving you permission to ask more clarifying questions.

So stay in that batter's box longer.

The second you get any type of smokescreen questions, remember that is your mental trigger to start asking more permission questions.

Ask.

Do you mind if I ask you a couple questions and then ask clarifying questions behind that?

So let's go through an example so you can really feel exactly what I'm talking about.

The permission question there.

For example, let's say we're at the end of the appointment, right?

We presented numbers, we presented systems maybe say we've narrowed it down.

And they say something like, man, you know, Sam, it looks great.

I really love what you got here.

This is Tuesday.

We're going to make a decision by Friday.

Can you email this to us and we'll let you know?

That's what it usually sounds like.

And so then we're going to ask, you know, ask.

Absolutely.

Ask some more questions and start with, you know, of course I can email this to you.

Do you mind if I ask you a couple questions?

Wait for the answer.

They'll say yes.

Okay, great.

So since you're planning on making a decision so soon anyway, what is the reason for making a decision for the end of the week versus earlier in the week?

And then we're starting to expose why the delay.

They're gonna say, well, you know, we've got a couple more.

Getting a couple more bids.

Oh, okay, gotcha.

When you.

Because we've already asked permission to ask a couple questions.

When you get those bids, are you trying to decide if you're just getting the right value for the dollar or is there maybe a product or service out there that we haven't talked about today that you just have fear of missing out and wait for them to answer?

So that's an example of asking questions behind the smokescreen.

The smoke screen is, hey, we got to think about it.

Hey, so we got a permission question to ask.

What's going to be different later in the week versus earlier in the week.

We're not asking them what's going to be different later in the week versus right now.

We're asking what's different later in the week versus earlier in the week.

That's when they'll, oh, we're getting a couple more bids.

Right.

And so then we can ask those questions of, well, when you get those bids, are you trying to make sure you're getting the right value for the dollar or fear of missing out?

Right.

And watch the three bids, listen to or watch the three bids training for the rest of that.

But it's super powerful.

The concept is the second the smoke screen objection comes up, we have to ask permission to get behind that smokescreen.

We're probing into a place they don't want us to be or they wouldn't have put up a smoke screen.

So now we're basically digging into their mind, which is what we do anyway.

We're 90% psychologists and 10% sales.

Right.

In order to effectively make a sale, we have to figure out 50% of it is figuring out why they want to buy.

The other half is figuring out why they don't want to buy or what's keeping them from buying.

So this is part of that process.

But we have to be able to get behind the smoke screen in order to make it happen.

So going through this again super quick, don't think that the same thing happens when you say, let me ask you a question.

When you get those three bids, are you trying to figure out if you're getting the right value for the dollar or you're going to be missing out on something that is not the same thing as do you mind if I ask you a question and then shut up and wait for an answer?

Wait for a verbal response in the affirmative, A verbal response of yes.

Then and only then do you have permission to ask more questions behind the smokescreen.

So this is crucial to understand this concept.

If you can nail this concept, then the actual words themselves are so much less important because you're now speaking to different parts of your homeowner's brain.

And you're either the old way, you're triggering the fight or flight mechanism, or the new way, the permission way, is you're disarming and giving them permission for vulnerability, which is exactly where you want them to be in this part of the conversation.

So I hope that was helpful to you today.

If it is, I would appreciate it if you left me a five star review.

That would be incredible.

Wherever you listen and today we are going to feature a new review that has gone up.

I am super excited about this and as always, if you leave me a review and you hear me feature your review on an episode, message me and I will hook you up with something that nobody else gets.

So I'm super excited about that.

So leave me a five star review and message me if you hear me feature it on a podcast episode and you'll get a special gift.

But this One is from TheTruen W R E N. Great show.

Exclamation point.

It's five stars recently started in the industry and the advice and training solely from the podcast has helped me immensely.

Super grateful for Sam and his passion for improving the industry.

I love that.

Thank you so much.

The true Ren.

You are awesome.

If you hear this message me and I will hook you up with a special deal.

Not special deal.

It's just a gift.

I'm not selling anything in this.

I'm just giving stuff away for people who leave me a review and message me that you heard me talk about it.

So thank you.

The true Wren.

You're awesome.

Another five star review in the books, which is incredible.

It helps me.

But man, make sure y' all get to the March 21st and 22nd event.

I do not want to see you left behind this year whenever all of your peers are exploding their numbers and you're like, oh, you know, I just didn't want to go.

It was like, come on, get your butt here.

It's going to be the best catered event in all of the industry.

We're doing world class tacos one day.

We're doing some of the best barbecue on the planet the next day or well, whichever day.

But the barbecue one day tacos one day.

Because it's Austin, Texas, y'.

All.

And more importantly, make sure to ask about.

So email me samoseitnow.net text me 512-364-8559 join the facebook group and check out the website closeitnow.net the facebook group is close it now so search that.

It'll come right up.

All of those places I can get you info for the event.

It is going to be just incredible and I can't build it up enough because I know this is the missing piece for you.

It will give you the system.

You don't have to wing it anymore.

You can get out there and really start dominating your market strictly by.

It's a little bit of what we talked about today, but we're going to go way in depth on it and unlock these doors that you didn't even know were possible.

So that is the episode today.

Thank you for listening.

I appreciate every single one of you.

I'm so grateful.

And until next time, my friends, go save the world one frostbite at a time.

Go save the world one heat stroke at a time.

Thanks for listening to Close it now with Sam Wakefield.

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