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.

Hey, hey, hey, hey.

What's happening today?

I have got a great episode where you're gonna want to hear it or watch it if you are on YouTube.

Thank you.

Make sure to remember to like and subscribe if you're on anywhere else.

I absolutely love reviews.

So we're gonna actually start this episode off with a review and then we're gonna get into it.

So this episode is what I want to go ahead and drop you the topic.

It's how to uplevel yourselves without learning another dang script.

Right?

We've got all these scripts in the world.

You can master them.

You cannot.

You can learn them.

You cannot.

Doesn't matter.

But this is one principle and a skill that when you get this down, you're going to immediately see massive increases in your numbers and the way that people respond to you and communicate with you the second you start implementing it and thinking this way.

Before we get into it though, I want to start off by highlighting, highlighting a new review that we got and I'm actually really excited about this one because if you have been listening, you know that recently I had a fellow author on the show, somebody that I have looked up to for a long time and really modeled their book.

So this one, it came in, let's see, four days ago for at least from when I'm reading it.

Here is from Andrea Waltz.

As she said, it's five star review.

I was recently on Sam's Close it now podcast and not only did we have a great conversation, but it's clear he is incredibly skilled at helping his clients zero in on what they need to do to up level their results.

A student of professional development as well as a teacher, Sam Wakefield is the expert you want in your corner.

So thank you so much, Andrea Waltz.

And for those of you that don't know.

Andrea is the co author of one of my very favorite books and also required reading.

If you are ever going to be a one on one coaching client with me, required reading is a book called Go for no.

Right?

Go for no.

In fact, she sent me.

You may have seen the unboxing.

She sent me some stickers recently.

Go for no on my water bottle here.

Highly recommend.

It is on Spotify.

You can listen into it there.

Get it on audible.

It's a quick, easy read.

It is a fable, which means it's a story, but also tells a message.

I love, love, love this content.

It helps you solve a couple things mentally as you go through it.

You're like, oh well that doesn't.

It totally makes sense.

Why would I ever do that again?

So highly recommend Go for no.

You must.

It's a must.

Listen, it's a must read.

It always makes the top.

You know, there's always everybody in the different Facebook groups and you know, in the Close It Now Facebook group which if you're not a member of, make sure to go find Close it now on Facebook and join the group because we're a massive amount of people in there now.

We're approaching 3,000 of people want to uplevel their results.

They want to see be 1% better today than I was yesterday.

Right.

People that want to focus on positivity and growth.

In fact, I've got my positive vibes only cap on today for a couple reasons.

One, I've gone through some things in my life that I need some positive vibes for.

So it's a constant reminder.

Also it's great for all of us to remember, you know, you attract who you are.

Right.

So if you don't remember that, go back.

You don't get what you want.

You get who you become.

So go back and listen to the.

The last episode that came out, it was exactly about that.

So but let's dive in.

So we've got.

So thank you for that review, Andrea.

I am grateful.

Everybody go listen to Go for no or go read it.

It is.

It's a 2 and a 2 hours and 15 minutes Listen on, you know, on audible or on Spotify.

You owe it to yourself to listen to that one.

It's awesome.

And read it.

And then there's a new book which I'm about to get into is what happens after they say no, which they actually her, Andrea Waltz and her husband Richard Fenton just released.

And so I'm excited to have them back on the show soon to talk about the second Book which is it's coming up.

So but let's dive in a little bit when it comes to reviews.

I would love, love, love if you've ever gotten value from this show.

Leave me a review.

Google is the number one place I'm requesting reviews right now.

So go find close it now just on Google.

Leave me a five star review.

You can also review on the show and what you're learning on the Apple podcast platform.

Leave me a five star review there.

If you leave me a review and I read it on the show and you hear it message me and you get a free one hour coaching session.

Which is awesome.

So so many people that actually have given testimonies around that is that they learned more in the one hour of the coaching session than they did in, you know, a year, two year, three or five years of the training from their own companies.

So definitely do the review.

Get a free session if you.

Or say, you know what, let's just.

I've listened to enough episodes and I just want to talk to you about what it's like to coach with you because you know, coaching client.

In fact, one of my coaching clients, you know, I worked with their company and we did a ton of ride alongs.

This guy was hungry if you didn't see it.

We're gonna, I'm gonna have him on the show soon.

Guy named Austin.

He just did over a million dollars in sales in the month of January 2025.

Right.

Pushing 1.1.

So you, we have to know what in the world he was doing to get 96 sales appointments, 96 opportunities close at a 70% close rate at over $15,000 average ticket and pass the million dollar mark in January of 2025 in one month alone.

So he's going to be on the show soon.

I'm happy and grateful to have been a part of his, of his journey.

And I could definitely say he's, you know, one of my, you know, somebody that's learned from me.

So I love it.

And you are all going to be, you're going to love the conversation we have coming up.

So watch out for that episode.

It's coming up soon.

So many good things coming up.

I have some serious rock stars coming up on the, on the show.

So watch out for, we've got a couple more weeks of Roots and Wings which is important.

If you have you been following along with the Roots and Wings conversation with Jimmy J.

Would love to know what your thoughts are on that and how it applies to your family and also your team and your leadership so join the Facebook group.

We have lots of conversations around all of these going on.

So let's, let's hop into, let's see one more announcement and then the what's in your cup?

And then we're going to get to the content for the day.

The last announcement is the close it now.

Relentless, the ultimate sales transformation.

It is going to be a three day boot camp that we're hosting in Boston, Massachusetts, 4-29-30 and May 1.

Lucas.

Yes, you're right.

So everybody that heard me on the last episode, last solo episode I released, yes, I said it wrong at the beginning.

I said the April 49.

But of course we know there's not 49 days in, in April.

So thanks for pointing that out.

Lucas.

He's actually also an incredible selling tech.

I think he did close to like 2 1/2 million this year as a selling tech in the field.

Total beast.

He's a massive fan of the show.

We've done a little bit of coaching together.

But thanks for pointing that out.

Lucas.

Here's your shout out and you guys rock.

So let's get into a couple things.

The boot camp, April 29, 30 and 31.

Yes.

We are going to go over the close it now system that is allowed Austin to sell a million dollars in one month in January.

Right.

It's got, you know, people recently Nathan messaged me, he was like, hey, my biggest sell to date residential sale to date was like 36, 000, something like that.

And we talked about this one a couple episodes back.

This new one was what, 68, 000 something like that for a single cell in residential.

Story after story after story of people who are exploding their numbers from learning the system and implementing it.

The other part of this that I want you all to know about is this is one, this is the time of year to sharpen the ax.

This year is going to be different than the last few.

There's a lot of pent up replacement.

There's a lot of a massive amount of work that needs to be done in the homeowner's homes across the country, across the world in fact.

So thank you for everybody that listens.

In all of the different countries you listen to.

I know we have 71 countries on the list now at some point I'm going to record a, a little snippet of me literally reading off all of them.

That'll be fun.

But I'm not doing that right now, so.

But this is going to be a really cool year.

This is going to be a year of growth.

This is going to be a year of boom.

This is going to be a massive year if you're prepared, if you're not, then it's not going to be easy like it was in 2020, 2021, 2022.

It's not going to be order taking like it was then.

For all of you that started in the industry, then that think, that are thinking man, it got hard and it's, you know, why can't we go back to that?

I can't wait for it to pick back up and feel like that.

I have news for you.

It's not going to.

That was a total anomaly.

That was a boom.

It does not happen like that.

We are back to normal.

The skills needed to succeed and be successful in home improvement cells, if it's H Vac or H Vac or plumbing, electrical, garage doors, irrigation, you name it, right?

The skills needed to actually be able to handle objections and close.

This is what life is normally like.

So if it's hard for you now, I'm going to refer back to Jim Rohn's famous quote, don't wish it were easier, wish you were better, wish you had more skills, right?

Don't wish the problems were less, wish you had more wisdom.

And that's exactly why you're here.

So first of all, huge shout out.

You're here.

You are in Drive Time University.

This is where you grow now.

Don't just learn but also implement.

And there's a couple almost 200 episodes now.

We're really, really close.

We're gonna have a big celebration for episode 200 but that go back and listen to the episodes.

I have so much free content.

People have literally gone from get about to get fired where their numbers are so bad to number one dominating their sales leaderboards week after week strictly by listening to the podcast and do what I teach on here now for all of the rest of you, if you're not that self starter and can immediately implement hearing at one time like that, that's why we have a coaching program.

So reach out to us.

You can email me sam close it now.net you can go to the website@closeitnow.net or join the Facebook group.

You'll learn a little bit more, get some training in there.

Message me and we will get you to the next level.

So let's see, quick recap, let's see.

We've got April 29th, 30th and 1st in Boston, Massachusetts is the close it now.

Relentless, the ultimate, ultimate sales transformation.

That event is going to be Fire.

We've got some insane speakers lined up.

More most importantly, you're going to get a lot of time with me and we're going to really get a deep dive into exactly what it takes to be someone worth buying from, to be that next level person, the next, the person that you walk into the room and people just immediately want to do business with because you're that type of person.

That's where real dramatic, lifelong lasting cells happen.

So go check, go get your ticket.

Now.

There are at least at the time of this recording for everybody there.

The first 10 tickets are buy one, get one.

And four of them have already been sold.

So there's only six tickets left of the buy one, get one price.

Make sure you don't pay the the I waited too long tax.

Right?

Get yours, get yours in the first.

There's six more.

Make sure you get it.

Buy one, get one.

It's gonna be incredible making some big moves today with event planning.

It's different things.

We're gonna have a ton of that info out really, really, really quick so you can know more about the event.

But if you've listened to enough episodes, you know that I bring the value no matter what I do.

Life philosophy always give more value than you take.

You never have to worry about anything else in your life.

So that's a lot.

Let's see.

Last thing, let's do.

What's in your cup today?

What is in your cup today?

So I, I, I love having YouTube as well because I get to actually show off some different mugs.

And so today I actually have two drinks.

So sometimes one drink is actually have three because I have my water here also.

So got the water.

But I've got two different drinks.

One is a coffee and one is a tea.

So today in my failure is not an option NASA mug I have, it's actually decaf Earl Grey with a little bit of sweetener and some cream in it.

And this is the one that I wanted to highlight today though in My Little Pony, My Little Pony mug, which is actually of course my, my daughter's mug from when she was real young.

Well, we've been going through and getting rid of old stuff lately.

So I was like, you know what?

I'm gonna roll through some of the old fun mugs from when the kid, when my daughters were kiddos that way just, just for fun for the show.

So in My Little Pony in, in my My Little Pony mug is today we've got.

I'm rocking out some Nespresso pods again.

Starbucks Pike Place Roast.

This one says chocolate and toasted nut notes.

So the cool thing that I came across these the other day at our grocery store, they had them for sale.

Buy one, Buy one, get one for the box, right?

For these boxes of Nespresso pods.

That's partially why I have them.

The other is I thought it was a cool inspiration to the buy one, get one tickets for my event.

So that's why I did that too, because I got these when I wouldn't have otherwise.

So I know that there's a handful of you that the full price ticket might be too much for you, but if you can get two for that price or get one for half price, it's worth it.

So close it now, boot camp dot com.

And there's where you can get your tickets.

So let's all take a collective sip of the Pike's Placed Pike's Place Nespresso.

The roast.

What is in your cup today?

Are you drinking coffee?

You're drinking tea?

You're drinking kombucha?

What are you drinking?

Let me know.

3, 2, 1.

All right, supercharged that.

Caffeine positive.

I am.

Zoli, what are we talking about today?

We're talking about a.

This concept that is what most people, all the top performers get.

They understand this, but usually a lot of other people don't.

Sells is what.

When we strip away all of the things in the industry, we strip away in any industry, whatever in industry, it is whatever it is that you sell, if it's a product, if it's a service, it doesn't matter.

So we're going to have a higher level conversation today about something I want to really bring up because it's important storytelling.

How good of a storyteller are you?

Sales is a couple things.

When you really, really down to the base level of what sells is, it's one, it's the transfer of enthusiasm.

This is why, you know, you see people in whatever industry, you know, usually their first six months or first year or something, they sell like crazy.

It's like, how is this brand new guy selling like this?

He doesn't know anything.

And that's the point.

That's the freaking point.

He doesn't know anything.

He's.

He or she is just excited about whatever it is they're representing, right?

They're excited about.

They've heard all of these testimonies and stories.

They've heard all of the things that inspired them to, to move into this industry, right?

They've heard all of these things.

They know, you know, all of the, all the Stuff up until this point, right, they.

They've.

They got excited about moving into H Vac or moving into plumbing or moving into, you know, fence or windows or gutters or whatever it is that you sell, right?

Heating, you know, electric heating in, in England.

Right.

Electric heating in London, you know, whatever it is.

Have, you know, people that have reached out to me from all over the world that do all, all different things.

When you have somebody that's brand new, they, of course are excited.

They did the research.

They chose to get into the industry because of the positive things it can do for people, the way it can help, the way it can serve, and also, of course, the opportunity for income, the opportunity for freedom, all of the great things that happen in a sales industry.

And so what happens, right, they get.

They're excited.

And when they're talking to homeowners, when they're talking to the client now, they have this, like, urgency strictly because of their excitement.

And people buy from them left and right.

They don't know the answers and homeowners don't care.

But then what happens?

The more they learn about the industry, the more that they learn about the technical stuff.

And now they're trying to incorporate the technical parts of the conversation into their presentation.

What happens?

Their numbers start to tank.

Their numbers go down, right?

This is, I mean, this is.

This is very trackable.

We call.

This is.

I mean, you could call it a lot of things.

Honestly, I don't even know if I've heard an actual term for this.

I'm sure there is, but I would call it like the rookie slump, right?

It's like the year two slump.

It's what happens, how do we get past that?

We get back to basics.

We get back to communicating without the technical stuff.

We can start.

Remember that we need to communicate what the difference is going to be like for people.

So many times we get so trapped in the technical conversation.

So here's an.

Here's what I want to talk about today, and here's the exercise that I want you in, in your own time to go back and to practice.

We're going to talk about storytelling today.

Storytelling is so huge.

So getting back to the.

Of what sells is sales is a couple things.

One, it's the transfer of enthusiasm, and number two, it is how clear can you help that prospect, that person, that lead, whoever you're in front of the clarity that you can help them see how their life is going to change or be different from the moment that your project is complete or from the time that they buy your Product or service.

Right.

So the better that you can get at using word pictures and painting that forward, the better that your numbers will be.

The better adoption.

The more people will say yes, the less objections you'll get.

Because at the end of the day, no one really cares how the TV works.

They just want to watch the game.

No, most people, of course, there's a handful of people that want to know the what's the resistance of the transistor and.

Right.

It just makes me think of the old Corn song with twisted transistor.

Right.

But people don't really, unless they're part of the 3% that are the engineers and all the things that we go down the technical road with, no one else cares.

Right.

No one else cares.

So if cells is the transfer of enthusiasm and also painting the picture to help people see how their lives are going to be different or how their lives are gonna change, then what do we have to do?

We have to be better storytellers.

Telling stories is.

That is so powerful.

Was it Brian Tracy's always said, facts tell, stories sell.

This is really, really clear.

And this is why we're discussing this today.

So there's a way to practice this.

So let's walk through the timeline of an appointment real quick.

Any sales conversation has basically two parts and a crossover part, a middle part.

So there's lots of different ways you can break down a sales conversation, but we're going to sum it up really, really simply today because I want you to get this principle without overthinking the details.

Okay?

And that's exactly how we have to approach this.

When we're talking to our homeowners, we have to approach it where we want them to get catch the principle, we want them to catch the ideas without getting bogged down in the weeds of the technical details to get there.

So that's the first thing is we have to be thinking along those lines.

That's why we call it the benefit lens.

So many times with my coaching clients and when I'm doing a live training, we will, you know, we'll have a conversation and then it's like, okay, tell me again, but now this time pass it through the benefit lens.

Tell me again, but now tell me why I should care.

Tell me again.

And now tell me how my life is going to change because of this thing or this, you know, the change we're making, the service, whatever.

So we have to be able to communicate in the terms of what is in it for them.

Everyone has that radio antenna above their head.

Wiifm.

We've always heard that, but for most people it just sounds cliche.

But truly what it is is what's in it for me, that everyone needs to know that if you cannot communicate clearly what is in it for them, then no wonder you're getting.

Well, I need to think about it because here's what happens.

People make their buying decisions by emotion based in emotion.

They justify them by, with logic.

And then they justify that logic, logical choice with another emotion that keeps them pulling forward.

If you don't have that third piece to keep on pulling forward, what do we end up with?

Buyer's remorse.

We end up with cancels.

We end up with people being, you know, not happy with their large purchase.

And then you get those calls, man, and we're talking people off the ledge, man.

I don't know if I should have done that.

Should we do a lower option?

All those things, those happen because we haven't painted a good enough picture of how their life is going to change moving forward.

So this can be on anything as simple as just a straight box change out air conditioner for air conditioner, furnace for furnace.

It can be as you know, as complex as, you know, a hundred and two hundred and fifty thousand dollar prod, complete remodel project on the whole house.

Right?

It doesn't matter the price point or it doesn't matter the project.

It's the next emotional piece that we have to have in our conversation.

So what do I mean by this?

Like Sam, what, what's going on?

This is, this is really generic and out there today.

Let's break it down a little bit.

Let's think of, let's break apart the sales appointment real quick.

So when we start our appointment, we are asking about.

So we've got to keep this, this is also what follows the energy curve as well in the appointment.

We've got to keep the.

In the first part, you know, after our introductions and stuff, we really start to sink in, into the discovery phase and the, the needs assessment.

Some systems call it the fact finding part of the conversation.

This is the phase where we're asking the questions.

We're finding out what is life like?

What is it you don't like about life in its current conditions?

Right.

All of the things, right.

We're finding out how bad it is.

How deep does the well go?

Are they, you know, open to spending any amount of money to fix said problem?

Right.

How bad is the problem?

Who does it affect?

How bad is that?

We're getting all of this information out.

So what that does, it helps Them get really so one.

I mean, if you're a professional at what you do and you're moderately trained, you should be able to figure out pretty quickly what their problems are in their home.

It's pretty obvious, right?

Especially if you're doing something like, you know, exteriors or anything like that.

It's obvious they need a paint job.

We're going to paint the house, right?

We got the roof.

We just had a hell storm come through.

Roofing, you know, in those situations, it's easy to a degree.

Right.

But so for most people, though, they don't know what their whole, their actual problem is.

This is the reason we have to spend so much more time in Discovery and the needs assessment than you think you've ever needed to spend.

Because it's not for you completely.

Yes, it's for you to be able to figure out exactly what the problems are and what their concerns are.

Because remember, we're selling to people, not to the house, but for most people.

And raise your hand if you've ever been in at home and you start asking them questions or they start, especially even before you get to questions, they start trying to describe to you what their problem is.

And it becomes very clear really quickly that they have no idea what their problem actually is.

I mean, how many of you have been in situations where, you know, the homeowner starts talking about the problem and it turns out to not even be close to the problem at all.

They just think it is or they think it's related.

Yeah, I know.

I've been into it, been in hundreds of those.

So the part of the reason that we spend so much time in Discovery is so they get clear on what their problem is until they're crystal clear on what is causing their problem.

Then there's, of course they're going to give you a think about on solution because now the problem and the solution are murky.

Right.

There's no clarity on is this really causing my problem?

So they don't know for sure if what you're offering as a solution is going to solve their problem.

So that's phase one.

That's why we spend so much time in discovery, is to find those things out.

We have to know what are your problems, you know, how bad are they?

And then from there we're getting, we're starting to get good.

If you're doing this right, if you do this well enough and you're asking enough questions about the problems, and here's your philosophy when we're asking questions in Discovery, I'm going To give you two quick ninja trip ninja tips here on how to get better answers in your discovery phase.

First of all, imagine that you can't see the space, that you're completely blind to what's going on.

You're in their home.

But so imagine that you have to do this over the phone so you can't see the house.

You have no, no idea of what the information is from what you would observe if you're there in the spot, you know, in the space.

So we're asking questions as if, one, it's over the phone, and two, you're asking them from people who know nothing about what it is you do for H Vac, for, for plumbing, for electrical, whatever you're asking questions in relation to, they know nothing about your industry.

So if you were asking questions over the phone from someone who doesn't know any technical anything, how would you structure your questions?

That's step one.

So we have to be able to ask questions in a way that help them arrive to the conclusion and get clear themselves.

So a good example is, you know, we'll take a house, you know, a room that is.

So a room that is, say, too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, right?

It's a common example.

So we'll, we'll kind of take it through like this.

So the first pass of questions, we need to exhaust all the possibilities of figuring out what the problem is, right?

What is the problem?

So we're asking the questions like, oh, is it with the door open?

It's, is it with the door closed?

Daytime, nighttime, is it year round?

Is it when the cooling's running?

Is it when the heating's running?

Tell me more about it.

Tell me more about it.

Tell me more about it.

Right, so we've got to ask all of the exhaustive questions about the problem.

Now your second pass through, you're going to turn the corner and then you're going to ask all of the questions you can possibly think of and wherever the conversation goes about the person or people that the problem affects.

So who lives in that space?

Who does it affect?

Is it just them?

Anyone?

Does it affect anyone else who first noticed the problem?

What did they say about it?

How bad is it?

How does it affect them?

What can they do?

What can they not do that they would be able to do if the problem were solved?

Right?

So we're uncovering all of this, right?

So that's the second pass.

That's why it's so important to know, because not selling to the house, finding out the Problem, the questions about the problem itself.

That's figuring out what's causing the problem in the house.

It helps them get clear on it.

But the second pass through, now we're getting to the real heart of it is who lives in the space?

Who does the problem affect and how bad is it?

How bad does it affect them?

How does that make them feel?

Right, so start asking all these emotional feeling questions.

And now we're getting to the heart of both logic and emotion in the same conversation.

So once we've done our fact finding and we've got really good on it, of course, you know a nice, you know, tie down question at the end of that, like something like.

So it sounds like this is a pretty big problem.

If we could, and here's your word track, here's your formula.

If we could xyz, would that help you?

If we could XYZ so that, you know, little Ginny doesn't have to xyz.

So we'll take, you know, fill it in for you for this example.

So if we could even out the temperatures in that bedroom.

So right now it's wintertime here in Texas, which has been pretty cold except for today, which is 82.

But for most, I'm only bragging to all of you in the north, like in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where I was last week for the H Vac Champion Summit, it was 0 degrees and now it's 82 here.

So not complaining, total side note.

But so let's take the scenario rooms too cold in the winter.

So we're, if we could, so we, we've investigated it.

We found out the room's too cold.

You know, we'll just use my daughter's room.

She's 13.

She lives in the room at the corner of the house.

Too cold in the winter.

Right.

So if the question is if we could even out the temperatures in that bedroom so she didn't have to sleep with the extra blankets and you know, like you said, wake up, you know, so often with a, with a cold and runny nose.

Would that help you?

Yes.

That's a whole different question than, you know, asking, oh, if we could, you know, if we could fix the temperature in there, you know, by running extra ductwork, you know.

Is that something you want to add to your list?

That's a different question.

Right.

If we could, you know, if we could fix the temperature in that room, you know, I'll see what it's going to take.

Probably some duct work.

That's a different question.

Right.

But if we could help you.

Right if we could even out the temperatures in that room so she didn't have to, you know, sleep with extra blankets so she didn't have to keep the space heater running around the clock causing the unsafe conditions and would wake up better rested to do better at school.

Would that help you?

The answer is always yes.

Yes, yes, of course.

Okay, no problem.

Right.

And then of course, you know, if you're following the close it now system, we're going to turn that into what's called an, you know, an action item on the action list.

Okay, so then you turn the corner, right?

So we're turning the corner in the appointment.

We've asked all the questions, we've, you know, turned the things into action list items, if you know what I'm talking about.

If not, definitely a good reason to reach out to me because that's what turns your project into co creation with the homeowners.

So they are helping to build their own project, which is beautiful because it's very difficult to say no to something you help build.

But that's what you'll learn at the event in Boston the end of April, first of May.

So make sure to get your ticket, last plug of the day, close it now, boot camp dot com, go get your ticket.

But so action list items, then we use those to move forward, then we go investigate, we come back and now here's where the storytelling really, really, really starts.

All of the information that you've been able to gather up until now, we're now going to use in an organized way to be able to paint the picture forward to what life will be like.

So we go and we investigate, we find what's actually causing the problem.

They said they had, you know, document it, of course, take pictures at your meter readings, have them with you if possible.

But you know, we're taking pictures, we're taking videos, we're showing them.

So there's no uncertainty that that problem exists.

Right.

They have to be clear that this is causing the problem.

That this thing that you found, the disconnected ductwork, the ductwork being the wrong size, the, you know, the leaks in the system, whatever it is, the failed components, the, you know, whatever's making the noise with the garage door.

It doesn't matter what the, what, what it is that you found.

We have to show them and in a way that they understand that this thing that we found is causing the problem that they said they had.

Then once they're clear with that moving forward, then what we do is we have to paint the picture forward for them because this is the difference in top performers versus everybody else.

All right, another sip from the My Little Pony cup.

All right, so moving forward, here's the difference and here's where most people miss it.

So most people do a pretty decent job of the discovery and figuring out what the problems are.

If you don't, then I definitely have a free download from my close It Now Facebook group is you can have my questionnaire.

I built it to give away for you to be able to use.

I can guarantee you it is different than any other one you've ever seen because I got rid of all of the bull crap questions that should not be in this phase of the appointment.

When you follow psychology and not just what some technicians thinks they need to ask the homeowner.

There's a major difference in the kind of questions we need to ask on the front end versus what we usually see on those questionnaires.

So with all that being said, so questionnaire we do, most people do a good job asking the questions.

And so.

And raise your hand if this makes sense, if this seems like the way most people have done it.

So remember we said that people make buying decisions in emotion.

They justify it with logic and then they justify that logic with another emotion.

Most people forget the third step, the other emotion.

So the way that most people take it through is like, sounds like this.

So it's okay.

Remember earlier you said we had this problem and this problem and this problem?

Yes.

Well, I found what's causing that.

And if you're doing a good job with the permission stack, you're good to ask permission with permission questions like, would you like to see what's causing that?

They'll say yes.

So you show them and you prove it to them.

Yep, that's causing the problem.

Can you see how?

And then you're asking, can you see how this is causing that problem?

We've got to confirm it.

You can't just show them.

So here it is.

Okay, let's offer solution.

No, we have to check in and make sure that they understand it.

Can you see how this is causing the problem that we talked about earlier?

Yes.

Okay, great.

Now, of course, ask permission to present.

Cool.

Would you like to see some solutions for that?

Yes, of course.

And so you know what most people do is they'll stop here and then when they present solutions, it's almost like we call it just reading the item on the menu.

Right.

There's a difference in reading the item on the menu and actually selling, you know, that nice steak or selling tacos to somebody who May not have bought them otherwise.

So I'm, I'll let you, I'll tie this in here in a second.

You'll understand what I'm saying.

But when we're giving the technical specs, so for example, you know, we'll stay with the theme, you know, the room at the corner of the house.

What most people do is, oh, can you see how this ductwork being disconnected is causing that room to be, you know, too hot or too cold?

Yes.

Okay, great.

Can you see how by sealing that up or replacing this duct, getting more airflow, whatever it is, it's going to solve that?

Yes.

So then when they ask for the business, they're like, okay, do you want to add the 25ft of 8 inch ductwork to your quote?

Like, how much was that?

Well, it's, you know, in our case, we, you know, we had a little menu price of adding this is 2016, 2017, adding a supply duct, home run and a small return, 1200 bucks.

Right.

So menu price, 1200 bucks.

You want to add this and think about it.

Then the think about it's come.

Was it really that bad?

I don't know.

And you're like, okay, but remember we said that, that ductwork's disconnected.

The air is not going in there.

So then we go down this road of trying to come going back and forth and we just don't get why they don't understand how important this is to solve the problem that they said was a really important problem in their life.

Right.

And use any other example.

I mean, I'm just using that as, as an example or if it could be anything.

And I hope you're understanding how this philosophy relates.

Right.

So the missing piece though is.

And we'll, we'll use this for actually, we'll, we'll take it down a different road here in a second, maybe do a full system.

But the missing piece is the emotion after that.

So first of all, we've got to, instead of saying, okay, hey, you want to add this many feet of this ductwork or add whatever XYZ technical thing is, we need to start talking in terms of the desired result.

The desired result is what?

That the room stays a lot more even temperature.

So because it's the daughter's room so she can sleep better, wake up better, and not have to have the extra blankets and not hopefully get sick as often.

Right.

So that's the desired result.

Right.

And so second level consequences of sleeping better and waking up better and not getting sick as often is what do perform better in school, have better, more energy for extracurriculars, right?

We're talking about my 13 year old daughter.

It's just 100% real life scenario.

So when we start thinking about that, realizing that what we do, it doesn't just fix a house, it literally affects and changes people's human existence, how they live in their sanctuary, in their space.

So when we understand that and we start communicating at this level, when you start talking at this level with your homeowners and I don't care, your industry, when you start talking at this level and start speaking about how their human existence is going to change from the moment that they say yes to your project, yes to your service, yes to your product and the minute they start using it or the project is completed and how life will change and the pain that they're going to avoid.

And now we're starting to talk about painting the picture forward.

Now we're really starting to talk about storytelling.

Storytelling is crucial in cells because they have to be able to see what life is going to be like.

Because most people don't have the ability to connect the dots on their own.

Most people don't have this imagination of being able to just see it without you painting the word pictures.

And this is, I don't care who you are, how technical you are, how much of a communicator you say you are or not, how much of a salesperson you say you are or not.

Let's bring it back to like kids books, right?

Let's bring it back to kids books.

Let's bring it to tacos, right?

Actually, this whole conversation came out of a coaching client I had earlier.

They're working on him to stop leaving details out of your story.

Stop leaving details out.

When you describe something to people, for most of you, you leave details out because in your mind you are able to skip steps.

It's kind of like doing math homework for, you know, for junior high or high school.

They want you to show your work.

Why?

So they know that you can get there.

They know you can.

Yes, you've got the right answer, but how did you get there?

It's the same thing with us.

They want our homeowners, we have to show our work.

And what I mean by that is we have to describe this, describe the details, describe the steps to get there, right.

If we don't, they're left with, well, the answer seems right, but I have no idea how you got there.

So, man, we're gonna have to think about it.

This is why I have to do research.

This is why I have to get so many more bids.

Because one, they want to hear what the other experts say about it.

If you left those gaps in their brain, those are still gaps in the brain.

And we know the confused mind says no.

So we have to start describing things better.

So let's go through a couple story examples and then we're going to round this up and get right back and we're going to have the conversation again in a couple different examples.

I'll show you how to wrap this up and tell the story forward with your projects.

So think about like this, right?

I was talking to Brian earlier.

You'd shout out, brian, hope you're listening to this episode.

And I was like, hey, what's your favorite restaurant and what's your favorite meal there?

And so he tells me, oh, yeah, it's this little Mexican place.

It's right off the, off the beaten path.

It's kind of a dive, but it's incredible.

And they make the best lingua tacos.

So if you don't know what lingua tacos are, it's of course beef tongue in, in a taco is the most, some of the most softest, like, like best meats you could possibly get for tacos.

I love them, but they're delicious.

If you haven't tried them, you got to try some lingua tacos.

But the whole point is I was like, all right, sell them to me.

And so he goes, oh, yeah, man, they are.

So these tacos, they're super delicious.

They're juicy.

I always order four.

And this place is called Nachos, so I always order their nachos as well, because you have to.

And man, they're just so good and you leave there full.

I was like, okay, it sounds like you just read me the ingredients on the menu.

Tell me more, right?

Tell me the story.

What is it like?

What is the experience like there?

What's the, the restaurant like?

Why should I care?

Why should I go?

I said, take it through again.

And so he's like, okay, well, you know, you walk in and the, you know, the smell right away hits you of like, incredibly well cooked Mexican food.

They take you to the table, they sit down.

Then he starts giving some details, right?

We sit down at the table, you look at your menu and not many people there speak very good English.

So they're trying to figure out how well do you order?

So they'll send somebody over to actually help you with your order if you don't know exactly what you're ordering.

Okay, now we're getting some details right now.

We're starting to emotionally feel a little bit like we're in this place.

It's like, now describe the food.

Now close the deal.

Ask me, right?

So he goes through and he's describing the food, and he's like.

Just stops.

I'm like, okay, now close the business.

Ask me for the sell.

He's like, all right, man, what are you doing tomorrow?

I'm so hungry, right?

I was like, good.

Ask me to lunch, right?

That's closing the business.

So the same.

And so I know it's a goofy example, but I want you all to.

If you don't feel like you're an expert storyteller, I want you to start conv.

Not convincing, but start to see if you can win over other people in your life to your way of thinking when it comes to a restaurant, when everybody's picking restaurants because it's something we do all the time.

Or say you go somewhere and you have something good and people want to know about it.

Tell the story.

Don't just say, oh, it was good.

I had tacos and they were great.

Tell it as a story.

And the way to learn how to tell stories is kids books.

Think about it in terms of kids books.

Tell a story the way that you read your kids books to your kids.

And if you don't have kids, go pick up a few kids books and.

And think.

Think about the way the story is told.

You know, they don't just tell the details of, you know.

So we'll take.

Let's see what's going on.

No, off top of my head, very hungry caterpillar.

They don't just take the details of.

There was this caterpillar he ate every day, and every single day he ate more and more and more until one day he ate like all of these things, fell asleep, made himself a cocoon, and then before you knew it, he's this gorgeous butterfly.

No, that's not how they tell the story.

Right?

We know this.

But think about how children's stories are told.

They're given details.

They're given word pictures.

Even if there's not pictures in the book, the way that you read it, you would get the mental image of exactly what is going on because of the way that the story is told, because of the word pictures.

It's not just the destination, it's the journey.

How did we get to the destination?

What did we see along the way?

What did we hear along the way?

What did we smell along the way?

How do we tell this story?

Moving Forward in a way that homeowners will care about, in a way that will cause them to take action and to take action now.

So let's use a different example.

Say this is, you know, because there's a lot of places around the country.

I know, I hear you.

I hear you all, man.

Our systems are in basements.

The basements are finished.

We can't change ductwork.

We can't do all these things.

Of course, my.

That's exactly why you should have a huge list of possible accessories or system enhancements.

If you can't be doing those kind of changes or your company is not one that is.

That wants to do those kind of changes, then find other things that you can promote.

Don't be lazy, do the work.

But with that aside, I mean, there's a lot of times we go to homes and they.

We're literally just there for the system replacement, even if it is like, for, like box.

For box basics.

The difference is every other company is going to be reading them the spec sheet basically when they present the system.

Like, okay, this is, you know, this is a 14 seer.

This is a 16 seer.

This is all you need.

It's going to do this, it's going to do that.

It's on, it's off.

You know, they're doing the things, but they're leaving out the most important part.

So because everyone can identify, hey, you've got problems, right?

Everyone can identify, okay, here's.

We're going to get rid of the broken part or get rid of the part that is, or fix or correct the part that's not working, and it's going to be replaced with this.

Okay, great.

But that's where everybody stops.

So the difference is find one doing a better job in discovery to find out how they use the space, what are they doing there, what is it like moving forward.

And here's an example of absolutely 100% had this conversation with at least a dozen homeowners in my, you know, in my years in the field, I trackable.

You can go back and look at these numbers, but what happens is imagine this.

So, and I'll just use the dates right here.

It's February 3rd on date of recording 2025.

And so we're looking forward into the future.

So we've gone to a house and we're going to take a heating and air system because that's my background.

And so we go into a house and, you know, this couple is there, maybe they're a little bit older.

We'll call it mid-50s, maybe they have kids and we find out they have kids and grandkids.

Right?

Okay, awesome.

What is that?

What does it look like?

When.

How do you use the space?

How often do they.

Are they over.

Do you entertain?

Et cetera, et cetera.

Right.

What's it like most of the time?

Here we find all of this out looking forward, and we find out that, you know, maybe they have people over for holidays.

You know, they have all the kids and grandkids over for holidays.

And this is really, really common.

So I hope you're paying attention.

These are.

This is the things you have to do to think outside the box.

This is how we connect the emotional.

The emotional part to this buying decision.

Right.

So we start asking those problems.

Okay, well, great.

When they're over, what's it like?

Right?

Say they're over for.

And it's February now, I'm going to use something like, say they're over for Easter coming up in this next month or month, month and a half.

Say it's Easter weekend.

Everybody's over.

You've got, you know, Easter egg hunt going in the backyard.

Family's over.

What's it like?

Right.

How do they describe it?

What are the issues that you have that, you know, whatever.

Right.

We're discovering all the problems now.

Here's how to paint it forward.

Let's cut to the chase here, because I feel like I'm rambling for a second, which you don't want to do in a story.

So the way that we present this is.

Okay, earlier we talked about.

We've got this, this.

This problem.

You agree?

We agree.

I mean, this thing's got to go.

Yep, absolutely.

All right, so I'm going to skip the presentation part because that's for another episode.

We've done plenty of episodes on how to present equipment or how to present.

We'll do plenty of masterclass on that.

But so we presented.

They've decided that, yes, this one, you know, this one's the right fit.

You know, this level of equipment, this level of choice, whatever your options are now.

So what happened?

We've got an emotion around the buying decision to move away from the pain.

That's their first emotional choice.

So they're buying on emotion.

That's the first thing is people buy to move away from pain and towards pleasure.

But most people will make their bigger decisions by moving away from pain.

Great.

So then we land here in the logic.

The logic is, you know, here's the actual work that we're going to do.

Here's the spec sheet here's the thing, right?

Here's the new heating and air system.

Here's the water tankless water heater.

Here's the, you know, here's the full gutter system for the house.

Whatever.

The thing is, that's the logic part of the decision.

And so we're going from, you know, over here on one side is the emotional.

We don't like this problem anymore.

That's why we called you.

The logic decision is the thing or the service that's going to solve the problem.

And when people stop here, this is where the.

Think about it's come in.

And this is where the buyer's remorse comes in, and it's where cancels come in.

We've got to take it one more step.

So here's what I want you to think about and pay attention to.

So one more step.

In this example could sound something like.

And Mr. Ms. Or Ms. Jones.

Mr. Ms. Whoever.

Won't it feel awesome to know and won't it be incredible this year when you have everybody in the family over for Easter weekend and you've got the, you know, would you say five grandkids in the backyard doing the Easter egg hunt and they're running in and out?

Won't it feel awesome to know that this year it's going to be the most comfortable in the house that it's ever been and nobody's going to complain anymore about when we're cooking and how it's hot in here, but we can't run the air conditioner and all these things.

Isn't it going to be great to know that it's just going to be a nice, peaceful, comfortable family day and you're not going to have to deal with that anymore?

So we're tying this little emotional bow on the backside and we're helping them to see what the day is going to be like.

Notice I didn't put a lot of details in there, but just a handful, right?

In fact, the example we had earlier with my coaching client, they do crawl space encapsulation.

For all of you across the country that do crawl space encapsulation, it could sound like this.

You know, be like, you know, on the problem side, be like, man, did you.

Did you know that 50% of the air you breathe in your home is from the crawl space cats?

Half of the air you breathe.

So, I mean, is it okay if I ask you a question?

Yes.

I mean, would you put your bed under there?

Would you sleep under there like it's a bedroom?

Well, no, of course not.

Why not because it's gross down there.

Ew.

So why are you okay with breathing half of the air, right?

You know, or whatever your pitch is?

That's part of how we used to do it.

I've sold so many crawl space encapsulations in my life when I owned my Dr. Energy Saver company, but, you know, it's like, did you know?

Right?

I'm not sure you're aware.

Did you know that half the air you breathe is from there?

Yes, sure.

No, we didn't.

Okay, great.

Well, it is.

And here's what, you know, here's the.

What causes it, et cetera, et cetera.

So can you see how by closing that off.

That'll be great.

We find out through discovery that maybe a few of the family members always talk about how Grandma and Grandpa's house smells, but maybe they don't even recognize that it's related to the crawl space until you get there and you start explaining what's going on and then painting it forward.

Once you show them the actual what you're going to do, painting it forward would look like with word pictures of.

And won't it feel awesome to know that this year for Easter, when you're, you know, all your whole family's over and you got your three kids and five grandkids, and they're, you know, we're describing it, naming the number of people, right?

And if you have names, use the names right?

You've got your five grandkids outside, they're doing the Easter egg hunt.

They come in, you're barbecuing, everybody's in.

And won't it feel awesome to know that none of the kids, Nobody's going to complain about Grandma and Grandpa's the way their house smells anymore.

And so that means they're going to want to come over more often and hang out with you?

How cool is that?

It's just an emotional question.

Now we're.

This is.

I want you to.

I want to be clear.

This is not manipulation.

This is painting a picture forward of what life can be like once the problem is solved, right?

There's a big difference here.

It all has to do with your intention and your heart, right?

If you're in a heart of service and your heart's in the right place, we're helping them see the desired outcome.

You have to help them see the desired outcome.

You know, if they're just not getting it, have them visualize.

Literally, just have them visualize, say, hey, will you do something with me?

And if you've built enough Rapport.

This is easy to do.

Close your eyes and let's imagine the scenario and then take them through it.

Say it's, you know, Easter Sunday, your whole family's over.

You know, you've been cooking in the kitchen, Grant, you know, Don, you're out there in the back barbecuing, right?

You've mowed the lawn, got it ready, found the perfect hiding spots for the Easter eggs.

The kids are out there, everybody's having an awesome time.

But this time you don't have to worry and you don't have to have that thought in the back of your head of, man, I hope everybody sticks around longer to hang out.

I hope the smell from the house doesn't run them off.

They've always said, oh, it smells like a crawl space over here.

That mold, musty smell.

Isn't it going to be great to know that that is no longer a problem and the house is going to smell fresh and clean and like what you've cooked and not the rest.

It's just going to make for the best day, right?

So it's just helping them visualize something that most people can't, they don't have a hard time seeing on their own.

This is why real estate agents, why they hire people to come in and stage the house.

Is everybody familiar with that is, I mean, staging the house.

It means taking an empty house that's for sale and putting furniture in it and a few wall hangings and things so people going in can see and, and visualize what it would look like with their stuff in it.

Because most people have the hardest of time of visualizing what that will look like.

So it's the same thing we're doing, but we're just able to do it with word pictures.

So the better you get at storytelling, and not only storytelling, but storytelling, your solutions, in a way, has nothing to do with the thing or the service or the, the machine or the accessory.

Has everything to do with how life will change once they understand what your.

What, what you do, right?

If they understood what your equipment did, if they understood what your accessories did, if they understood what your product did, they would already have it.

So the biggest missing piece is that just understanding that explanation, right?

And so once you get that, that is how to lock it in and how to drive it home.

So that is the episode for today.

I hope you got some massive value from this.

I know I did.

I learned just by teaching it.

So thank you everybody for sticking around.

Go.

Leave me a five star review.

I absolutely would love you for it.

And I'm grateful to every single one of you that listen around the world.

Make sure I don't care where you're at in whatever country you're in.

Message me.

Let's get you a ticket to the event.

The relentless Close It Now Relentless Ultimate Sales transformation event coming April 29th, 30th and May 1st in Boston, Massachusetts of 2025.

Till then, everybody, you know what we do.

You go out there, go slay some dragons, go serve at the highest level and go be someone worth buying from.

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

Our passion is to dive head 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.

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