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.

Close It Now.

Sam Wakefield here.

Really excited about this episode.

Today we are covering system descriptions but with a heating focus.

If you remember a few months back or a few episodes back we covered how to describe and talk about equipment for system presentation, but it had much more of a cooling focus because that episode was recorded real near the middle of summer.

So this one, since its day of recording is December 3rd, we are going to be talking about a heating focus with the same system description and we're going to change some stories and I'm going to show you how to use stories and analogies to get the point across.

Very simply, instead of drowning in the sea of technical jargon and air conditioning and furnace data with the homeowners, which we know, the confused mind says no and that will only confuse them.

How do we communicate it in a way they can understand?

Because remember, if homeowners understood what our equipment does and how their life is going to be different, they would already have it.

So we have to learn to communicate better.

We have to get better at giving word pictures and helping people visualize, not the equipment.

People don't give a rat's ass about the equipment.

What they care about is the benefits, how their life is going to be different versus now.

How is it going to change?

What am I going to experience?

How is it going to feel versus what it's like now?

So the minute that we can master that, then your cells will naturally improve.

So that's what this episode is about today.

I'm really excited to bring it to you.

But first a little bit of house cleaning.

I love that there are so many listeners and thank you so much every single one of you.

Today we are going to feature a new review on the this one is on Apple podcasts.

It's from Lukes 87.

So much great info.

The title is excellent.

It is a 5 star review.

So thank you lukes87 so much great info and conversations here.

If you're a tradesman or businessman, you can learn something from this.

So super excited about that.

And then one more here.

I'm really excited.

I'm actually happy about this one because I know who left it.

This is from the Successful Life podcast.

And if you haven't listened to the Successful Life podcast, my friend Corey Barrier has a really great podcast over there.

So go look for that one Successful Life podcast.

I was a guest recently and he was actually a guest on this show.

But his review is if you're wanting to learn how to sell more effectively, listen to Sam.

He's full of knowledge and wisdom.

So.

And then the title, Sam Crushes on this podcast and it's five stars.

So thank you, Corrier.

I appreciate Corey Corrier.

Corey Barrier, I appreciate that so much.

And you are a rock star as well.

Everybody go listen to the Successful Life podcast.

Corey Crushes it over there.

He has a ton of great, great guests on his podcast.

So let's get into this a little bit.

We are talking about what it is like to describe and how to do system presentation with a heating focus.

Because of course, as we know so much of this country is heating, you know, heating driven.

The heating season is really what drives your business more than the summer.

So we're talking about the northern half.

And even in the South, I mean, I cut my teeth all over Texas and you know, in cells and H vac and, you know, I cannot tell you the number of highest efficiency.

You know, I was Bryant dealer for years.

So we did Bryant 97, 96, 97, 98% furnaces when they came out left and right.

Right.

So I'm pairing those with the green with, well, the Bryant version, the.

The extreme, which is the Bryant Green speed.

So I was pairing those all over the place and just destroying slaying dragons with it, as my friend Chris likes to say.

And so it happens.

It happens everywhere.

But how in the world do we do that?

Right?

How do you.

How.

How do you win a.

The title for an entire state by selling the most of a piece of equipment like that.

That's the highest end.

And when everybody says, oh, you can't sell that in Texas, well, okay, watch me.

Okay?

So anytime somebody tells me I can't do something, I'm gonna go and prove them wrong, which I did.

And so what happens though is, you know, we have to understand people don't buy.

Nobody woke up this morning and said, oh my gosh, I'm gonna go buy a furnace.

No, they don't Care.

No one cares about that.

They literally, if they could live in the perfect temperature house, they wouldn't give a dime to your heating and air company.

I'm sorry, what makes them invest?

Right.

They want the benefit.

People have to understand how they're going to feel, how it's going to be different.

If you can't describe that or you can't communicate that, then you have zero chance of upselling a furnace to homeowners, basically.

And so that's what we're talking about here.

That's what this conversation is like.

So one, first of all, go back and listen to the system descriptions and how to describe modulating and variable speed equipment on the cooling focus.

Go back and listen to that first, then come back and listen to this or it doesn't matter, watch, listen to them in either order.

You can listen to this one first and then go back and listen to that one.

But those two tie together and they correlate.

So make sure to pay attention.

But it's really simple.

So as you know, anything you do in the close it now sells system.

If you've listened to the podcast at all, everything is based on the permission stack, which is three steps.

It's a permission question.

First, get permission to present whatever information you're about to present.

Step two is give the data.

Whatever we're describing in step three is check in.

Does that make sense?

You follow me?

All those kind of things.

And so that makes a nice little chapter in that information book of the sales presentation we're handing to the homeowner, basically giving them their set of encyclopedia of all of these, or just one book of all these little chapters that we seamed together and stitched together throughout the sales process.

So that was a lot of words to say.

We're going to utilize the three steps, permission, permission stack in this process.

So the way that we do that, just like when we talked about when we get to the cooling system presentation, we have to, most of the time what happens is kind of setting the context for this.

How many times do we have get to the appointments and we're going through the process and it's like it's a total bummer because whatever they have broke, right?

Or system broke, they don't want to be investing money.

And so we get to, okay, well here's the new equipment and here's what we can do for you.

But we don't really do anything to change the energy, change the state.

So a really great way before you present equipment is you've got to set the context A little bit, set the frame, set it on a positive light.

And the way to do that, it could sound something like this.

And this is what I love to use.

It is very much a.

Listen, I understand this was, you know, this is kind of a bum deal.

It sucks this happened to you.

But the good news is you don't have to just take what someone else picked out for you and you don't have to just take what you inherited from the previous homeowner that was the builder or whatever situation gave to you in this house.

Because we know, you and I both know that whatever somebody else picks is probably not the best fit for you.

Right?

Right.

So you set that context there a little bit.

So now's the cool part, because now you get to choose what you want in your home and how it's going to make you feel.

So since this last equipment was installed or was manufactured, there's been a lot of great changes in the technology and a lot of improvements.

Would you like to see what they are?

So that's the permission question.

We're setting up the excitement.

We're planting a little bit of seeds of excitement for the new equipment, for the new technology.

And what this also does, it closes the objection door, that is.

Well, I don't know if I want any of this new equipment because it's got all of these pieces and parts that might fail.

Sounds like more parts that can break.

Raise your hand if you've ever heard that.

When you're trying to describe variable speed systems to people, man, this new fangled gadget sounds like just more parts that can break.

Right?

Well, if you frame this right, you don't have to worry about that objection anymore.

Because now we're like, listen, a lot of technology has improved in the last 15, 20 years.

So we're reminding them.

It's been that long since this equipment was made.

Everything else, advances in technology just this fast.

Why shouldn't our equipment.

Well, it does.

And so that's what we're reminding people.

So we're telling them, listen, there's been a lot of advancements in technology and the equipment since this was made.

Would you like to hear what all the new technology is?

And they're of course going to say yes.

So that's our permission question.

So then as you go through this and again, there is a drawing that accompanies this that you.

It's hard to tell over, of course, audio.

You'll just have to join the Facebook group and check that out to get to see the drawing.

But the way the Description goes is one you have to establish when they say yes.

Okay, great.

So get yourself a blank piece of paper and you're going to give them basically just tell them, hey, here's a brief history of heating in like five minutes or less, right?

Here we go, five or ten minutes.

And so we start out at the bottom left corner of the page.

You're going to write down when heating was invented.

Right.

So basically, so I looked it up for years.

I've actually had the wrong information.

So I looked it up because I was wrong.

And so I wanted to know what it is.

So it looks like everything that I could find on history of the modern gas fired furnace.

So looks like in 1905 there was a man named Albert Marsh that discovered chrome.

Right.

So in 1905 allows the construction of a heating element 300 times stronger than anything else on the market.

So Albert Marsh is often called the father of the electrical heating industry.

So that was in 1905, which was that discovery.

And so his heaters, you know, push electrical basically as a heat strip right through his heating element, converting it to heat cool.

So basically electric heaters have been around before, gas heaters, which is kind of surprised to me, but there, there it is.

Right.

And so actually he started making heaters in 1882 and then in 1905 is when he discovered crumbs.

So there's a little just industry history for everybody.

The main thing that we need to know then is in 1919, Alice Parker as the first central heating system.

Alice Parker invented and patented the first American central heating system.

In 1919.

This device finally put an end to families huddling around the fireplace because he put ductwork to distribute it through a home.

And here's the crazy part.

I didn't realize it was this late in the game.

The first distributed forced air furnace was coal fueled electric fan and ductwork.

And that was in 1935.

So that's actually later than I thought.

But for the sake of this discussion, we're going to go back to.

Let's use the 1919 number.

That's the one I like the best.

First central heating system in 1919 by Alice Parker.

So let's get back to the episode.

That was a little piece of information to make sure we have accurate information.

Here's the thing, this is a solid lesson right here.

When you're in the home with a homeowner, even if it's something like this, where we're talking about the history of your own industry, don't make stuff up.

If you have a Piece of wrong information, Verify it, look it up and I'll tell you.

I've had the wrong information on when furnaces started.

For years I thought it was Mr. Bryant that actually had the first forced air furnace, but I was wrong.

So it's Alice Parker in 1919.

And that is what we are going to go with.

So back to the system's description.

The bottom left corner of your page, you're going to write down 1919.

And then basically you're just going to draw a couple squares and you say, listen, this is when the first central furnace, central heating system was invented in 1919.

And they gave us what is called single stage equipment.

So it's 100% on or it's 100% off, full blast or nothing.

Right.

Does it make sense?

Yes.

Everybody say, oh, yeah, of course.

That's how they operate.

Great.

So remember, so this is 1919.

So we're looking at 100-year-old technology.

A little over and throw your hands up.

Be like, I don't know why they even make this anymore, but they do.

Hundred year old technology.

So we're really driving that home.

And there's a reason for it.

You'll get.

We'll go over here in a minute.

So.

And then the story that we're going to insert here is, listen, do you mind if I ask you a question?

Have you ever been sitting around in the winter and it may be it's movie night and y' all are huddled up on the couch and you're thinking, oh my gosh, it's getting cold in here.

You know, it's wintertime and it's, you know, call it five degrees outside or maybe it's freezing outside.

And you're thinking, man, it's getting cold in here.

Is that heat ever going to come on?

And you've got the blanket, you know, you've got the quilt all pulled up on the couch trying to watch a movie, and then that furnace comes on.

And all of a sudden, holy crap, it feels like you're in a blast furnace and you're throwing the, throwing the blanket off and it's just hot, hot in the house.

And then it's just this constant up and down and back and forth with the heat.

Just like that.

It's either cold or it's super hot.

It's cold or it's super hot.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

And of course everyone is going to say, oh yeah, absolutely.

And we can even take that a step further.

Say, hey, it's even worse at night.

Right.

Like when you're asleep, you end up waking up and you're like got the blanket thrown off and then you're freezing, you pull it back on.

Right.

And they'll agree.

So okay, so listen, this is not good or bad, it's just how this equipment is designed.

Again, hundred year old technology.

So that's basically what they gave us 100 years ago.

Does that make sense?

Yes.

So then ask them what kind of equipment do you think you have in your house right now?

And you know, they might say something else, but they say, nope, this is it, this is the one you got.

Right?

So you currently have 100 year old technology in your house.

And so you then say now and make sure they understand that's where we check in.

Does that make sense?

Yes.

Okay, great.

So then we move up into two stage.

Now quick pop out everybody.

Yes, I know.

Single stage furnaces also have a variable fan.

Then you've got your two stage furnace, then two stage with variable fan and all of these levels in between.

What we don't want to do is get caught in the weeds here because I will tell you, have you ever, because I've lived in houses with every single one of these.

If you've lived in a house with me, you know, take a single stage furnace with a variable speed fan, you literally cannot tell the difference.

If you can, you're a better person than me.

But after installing a ton of those and a ton of the two stage with variable fans, what we would end up doing is go back and actually turn the, the variable fan, like almost basically turn that off.

Because you know, people just be complaining that the temperatures cold out of the air after the furnace goes off.

So anyway, out of the technical weeds back to the.

The whole point is we're not going to describe any of those.

There's no point in getting lost in the weeds there.

The point is we're going to go single stage and then we move up in the page we're going to write down 50 years.

So roughly 50 years ago the industry came out.

And we'll get some exact numbers on this too.

But the industry came out with what's called two stage.

So you've got a high gear and a low gear and off because we know it's not always zero degrees outside, it's sometimes warmer than that and it doesn't need to be on full blast.

So it's going to slow down into low gear.

So the fan that moves the air through the house and the flames that burn for the to burn to heat the house are less.

So it starts to save you on your electric and gas bill.

And it's a little more comfortable because it's a little longer heating cycle.

Does that make sense?

They'll say yes.

So then you're going to draw a dotted line across the page and say, okay, enter this century.

So that's when we draw this nice curved line and they gave us what is called adaptive.

Yes, I know that the furnace manufacturers call it modulating.

Don't say modulating.

We're not going to say variable speed.

We want to use the word adaptive.

For whatever reason, homeowners understand the word adaptive.

When they don't understand modulating or variable speed.

Don't ask me why, but those are industry speak for the homeowner.

Use the word adaptive.

This is an adaptive furnace.

So basically we're telling, listen, so when it's zero degrees outside or if it's 50 degrees outside, this furnace is going to speed up or slow down both the fan and the amount of heat it's producing to hold that temperature in the house absolutely steady.

And ask them, so take a quick pause and ask them, say, so remember we talked about what it's like on movie night or sleeping at night with that constant up and down, it's hot and cold.

Say yes, say with this furnace, you won't ever have to worry about that again.

And that's it.

And that is your system description.

Then you ask them the check in question after you've gone through all of them is, so now that you've heard what the benefits of each of these are, which one do you think is the best fit for you and your family?

And then whatever they tell you, ask them, but why, though?

Because we want them to sell us back.

Sell back to us.

All of the benefit reasons why they like the one that they do.

Because remember everybody, it doesn't matter what we say, it matters what they say.

And so when we ask these types of questions, why do you like this one?

And we're slowed down and we take the time to ask the question, listen, to understand, not to respond, but why though?

And they repeat that back to us and then ask for two or three things they'll say, probably one thing, say, okay, what else?

What else?

And once they've sold it back to us, okay, great, I totally agree.

I'm so glad that you see that because that's the one that I would recommend anyway based on what you told me you wanted to accomplish or something like that.

And then of course, you know, switch over to pricing and that kind of thing and presentation, but that's it.

So we're going to ask, now that you've seen the benefits of what these furnaces will do, what this equipment will do, which do you think may be a great fit for your family?

And that's it.

And that's the question.

Then ask, but why though?

And, and let them tell you two or three things, what they like about it.

And this is it.

This is the system description for furnaces.

It's the same as cooling, but we have a heating focus.

You're using different terminology.

Tell a little different story.

But do you see how we did that?

We used a story with an analogy that's basically like, you know, when you wake up and it's like this, and it feels like this, and then this happens, right?

And we're really aggravating that pain point because we know that everybody with old equipment experiences this.

So we're talking about their experience.

We're not talking about, hey, you've got an old furnace, let's put a new one in here.

We're talking about.

This is what your experience is like now, right?

Yes.

And they agree.

And then we ask them, and then we go through the descriptions to show what the different experience is like.

And then we ask them.

Basically what we're asking them is which experience do you want moving forward?

Do you want the same old experience with the pain points that we just described, or do you want to experience something different?

And that's really it.

That's how you can sell higher and higher end equipment without having to get technical.

And the more technical you get, I will tell you, it's the opposite effect of what you think you want to happen.

Right?

You can tell somebody, oh yeah, this gas valve has 60 stages in it and all these things, but they don't care.

Unless it's that that one engineer out of 100 people, the rest don't care.

They get lost in the sauce and then just completely check out because you're way over their head technically.

So tell stories, talk about the experience, talk about what it's going to be like and when you can do that effectively and they can start to see themselves living in that new.

And that's really what we're doing.

We're helping people.

Basically, we're fortune telling.

We're seeing the future, right?

We're helping people live in the future of what life is going to be like after we've done the work and they don't have to worry about it anymore.

And we're there if you can, through Your words and through your word pictures describe to them what life will be like and what it won't be like with that change of equipment.

Then it's game over.

That's, that's how the top people sell the highest end equipment all day long.

Even in markets that from the outside and from logic, it would be absurd to buy this equipment in.

However, what?

People buy what they want, not what they need.

Remember that people buy what they want, not what they need.

So if you're in the north and you think it's going to be unrealistic or unbelievable to sell, you know, the highest end adaptive cooling, air conditioning along with your high end furnace, I'm here to tell you you're wrong.

People will buy what they want, not what they need.

If you're in the south and you're thinking, oh my gosh, it's probably absurd and nobody would buy the highest end, highest efficient, you know, modulating gas furnace and I'm in the south, on the coast.

Well also I'm here to tell you you're wrong.

Offer it.

People buy what they want, not what they need.

Is it the best fit in every situation?

Maybe, maybe not.

However, I will tell you, people buy what they want, not what they need.

Say that over and over because everywhere I go we're proving it to be true.

All over the country, it doesn't matter if it's the north or south or wherever.

All over North America, people buy what they want, not what they need.

And they will write a check for the best if you describe it properly.

Because it's not about the equipment, it's not about the price, it's about what they're going to experience once the work is done.

It's what will life be like for me and my family on the day to day basis and at night while we're trying to sleep, all of those things, will it be better or will it be the same?

And when you can correctly communicate that man, it's game over.

We're talking about your sales going up instantly and dramatically because you just, you're becoming a better communicator.

And at the end of the day, that's what sales is.

It's two things, communication and psychology.

If you can understand the study the psychology of people and buying psychology and all these things, psychology is super important and we can learn to communicate better.

Then it's all over.

From there, it's game over.

So that is the episode.

I hope this was powerful for you and if it was, go to wherever you're listening and leave me a five star review.

I would dramatically appreciate that.

And yeah, let me know, leave your name on there.

We'll feature you on the podcast and also connect with me samoseitnow.net and join the Facebook group close it now.

So two big things.

One is, oh my gosh, there's so much going on.

One, you can grab the online course and get tickets to the door to door con 7 where I'm going to be speaking at at the end of January, January 25th, 2627.

You can get that@h vacdoors.net that's h vacdoors.net use the code SAMW10 to get a 10% discount on those tickets.

So that's going to be incredible.

Other keynotes are Lance Armstrong.

Who else?

Lance Armstrong, Sean White, Chris Voss, Sam Taggart and Sam Wakefield.

So those are the badass keynotes.

And let's see, in March I am hosting an in person two day sales conference.

It's going to be just in depth sales training.

I'm going to be taking you through this.

The close it now sells system that is, it's basically blowing the doors off the country right now everywhere we go we're closing at 6, 60% close rate or greater months after I'm there.

That's the important part.

It doesn't matter what we do while I'm there.

But I will tell you, I'm not that trainer that comes in, is in his hotel, you know, in a Hotel by 2pm, does three ride alongs and closes nothing.

Right.

I'm not the guy that's going to round out the week with a close rate of you know, 9% or whatever.

It is some silly number I saw recently with somebody.

We every time we go out in the field we're closing at, I mean I rounded out Kansas City at 79% close rate.

And these are not people that cancel.

It's not because we forced them into it.

People were asking us for, they were begging us for it.

High fiving us at the end.

Right.

You know there's, there's, there's two types of salespeople in our industry.

You got the ones that like basically browbeat people into signing the contract because they're so scared that they can't kick you out of their house and then they end up canceling a ton.

Or you do it like we do it, we get permission, we serve at the highest level, we close at the highest level because people want solutions to their problems and that's the difference.

That is the closest close it now difference.

So yeah, so we've got that going on.

So that's the sales system.

I'm going to be doing an in person sales two day masterclass in March.

As soon as I have the dates locked down I will let you know.

You can find out about it on the Close It Now Facebook group.

Go join that group.

You can find my Facebook page.

Text me 512-364-8559 email me samoseitnow.net let's get in touch.

We can talk about getting me out to your organization to train you in person.

We can talk about the online courses, we can talk about the virtual group.

We can talk about this in person training.

There's just so much happening that is super exciting.

Also the book is about done.

It is coming out soon so watch out for that.

There's going to be a book and then eventually a workbook to follow along with that.

That has the Close it now sell system in it.

And yeah, if you want me to speak at your events, reach out to me.

I am a speaker so I can motivate, encourage and absolutely help up level the personal growth of your organization.

I know we're getting into party season, you know the different Christmas parties and stuff as well as getting into the new year.

If you have a company event, if you have a personal event, who do you know that runs an event that has speakers?

Send them my way.

I would love to make contact with them.

So otherwise everything else is we'll have to wait until next week.

I love every single one of you.

We are in December.

I hope your holidays are going awesome.

And man, until next time.

Go save the world one heat stroke at a time.

Go save the world one frostbite at a time.

Thanks for listening to Close it now with Sam Wakefield.

Subscribe to the podcast now so you're first to hear new episodes jam packed with actionable tools and tips to make you the top H Vac professional in your market.

If you have friends and colleagues who would like this show, share it with them and send them to our Facebook community for more in depth discussion about the challenges we all face and how to overcome them on the Close it now podcast.