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.

All right, starting again. S more different. S. All right, if you know where that reference is from, drop me a line. I would love to know who resonates with that reference. So today we are talking about what is in your cup. We're going to talk about some cool things. I've got coming up with Close it now. And also we're going to talk about some psychology in sales. If you listen to this podcast very long, you know, we talk a lot about the psychology of the homeowner, the human experience. How can we create a safe, comfortable environment within the homeowner's own home? We're creating a container where they feel safe and comfortable to be able to make a buying decision. So that's some of the psychology that we're going to talk about today. So buckle up. This is going to be a really great episode. So before we do, but first, let's talk about what's in your cup. What is in your cup today? I know that we've talked about a lot of different coffees today. I'm actually recording in the afternoon, which is a little bit out of my norm because I had some things happen today that shifted my schedule around. So today in my cup is Shaka tea from Hawaii. This one is the Passion orange guava flavor. And I'm really excited about this one. If you if a little bit of my history actually lived in Hawaii for a year when I was a kid, I was 7 and 8 years old and I fell in love with Passion orange guava flavored juice. And if you don't know, that is actually where pogs come from. If you remember back in the late 80s, early 90s, there were the pogs, right? It was like the game that you played. It was almost like marbles or something that you had the pogs. Well, if you don't know. That actually came from Hawaii and it came from this company that made Passion Orange Guava juice. And it was the top of the container that you pulled off the juice container. That was the pog, that was the slammer. So that's where I learned about this dating myself a little bit. 87, 88 when I was 7 and 8 years old in Hawaii. But today is the Passion Orange Guava tea. So everybody, what is in your cup today? If let's all take a collective sip from our cup. 3, 2, 1. Thanks for toasting with me. Let's get into this episode. Before we do, let's go over a let's read some reviews, shall we? It's been a minute since I've read reviews. One of the things I love so much about what we do is the ability to change lives. You know, I had no idea when I started this podcast that it was going to turn into what it is now and I was going to have the privilege and the ability to reach into so many people's lives. And it's such an honor and it's a weight of responsibility that I definitely don't take lightly. So let's see what are some reviews? Oh, I know which one we're going to do. See, we've got some fun ones here. And this one is from actually one of my coaching clients today. He texted me the other day and he has been a. When we started coaching, he was strict. This is Johnny, Johnny Ge. He's over in the Tucson, Arizona area. So what's up Johnny? When we started coaching together, he reached out to me. He was a selling tech but really wasn't selling anything other than strictly just repairs. Right. And so we started into the process, we start coaching and lo and behold, of course he starts selling IAQ and now he messaged me the other day, he's been getting into system sales. His goal is to eventually move into more of an advisor role. And I love this because so he ends up changing companies not too long ago. So it's a little bit of starting over, but it's a good company he's with. He texted me on let's see, I'm recording on Monday. He texted me me on Friday, said so today they let me run a tech lead, sold a Bosch inverter system and tomorrow they put an H Vac estimate on me. So going from strictly service tech, not selling anything to drop in systems and plugging them in left and right now that is what happens when you implement what we talk about on this podcast. Especially with. He's been coaching with me directly. So we're getting him up to speed really fast. So to go from not selling anything to selling a Bosch inverter right on the. On the spot, on his call. And then obviously they're starting to give him some H Vac, some estimates, so he can be more of a CA role. So awesome. So love that testimony. Thank you so much. Johnny, you are a rock star. Keep crushing it over there in Tucson. I know you are only. It's only just the beginning, especially because we got a lot more coaching to do, so you become a top performer here in no time. So way to go, brother. All right, everybody, let's dive into this episode today. Are you somebody who likes analogies? I hope so, because analogies are. First of all, let's talk about analogies and a little bit of how to use analogies about things. An analogy is, of course, a story that you tell about something that people use every single day. Use. It's a comparison, right? So, for example, we use so many car analogies, and the reason we use so many car analogies in our industry, because we have to help people relate what's going on with their heating and air conditioning equipment or their experience with something that they touch and they use every single day. Well, cars are definitely that. So it's a. It's an instant, easy analogy to make. So let's talk about this a little bit, though, because when we're making analogies, there are some best practices and there's some not so good practices. And it seems like at first glance, it would make sense to make these type of analogies. But we're going to unpack it a little bit because I wanted to save you from limiting yourself when you don't even know it. Right. So let's talk about the analogies a little bit. When we're using cars as the analogy, you know, you know, using. Talking about cruise control on the highway versus stoplight to stoplight driving. Perfect analogy. When we're talking about the difference in adaptive systems versus your single stage kind of equipment. That's awesome. Now, let's think about this a little bit because, you know, I know belief system is everything. So we're going to back up off of the analogy conversation for half a second because I want to set some context here. When we are going to a homeowner's house, this is the same reason that I am not at all a fan of knowing a lot, very many of the notes ahead of time. I don't necessarily want to know what neighborhood the house is in, how big the house is, all these kind of things. Because personally, I've overcome the ability to prejudge years ago. But for so many of us, it's just natural. It happens in your head. Prejudging a call ahead of time is one of the worst things you can do. But go in as a complete blank slate, complete open book. And I know it's easier said than done. This is one of those, like, don't just talk about it, actually do it and go in neutral. But from experience, I can tell you, you know, the biggest, nicest house in the neighborhood with all of. They've got all of the flashy cars, you know, got the swimming pool, all of the crazy stuff. I've absolutely. And my, you know, my whole teams over the years have been in those houses and they, they were so leveraged, they were so broke, they literally couldn't afford to pay attention, let alone get approved for financing for, you know, an air conditioning system. Right? And so it's not about that. And at the same time, on the flip side of that, the other side of that same coin, you know, this very, very specific house I remember years ago that completely broke me of prejudging. I pull up to this house in this little bitty town called Sunray, Texas. I think the population is like, you know, 2300 or something like that. Pull up into this town, pull up to this house in this neighborhood. And the house was not even square or level. You literally stand at the curb looking at the door, and it leans, it's leaning, the house is leaning, right? And so go into the house, go into this appointment, and sure enough, the homeowner says, is that the nicest one you have? And what else can we add to it? What else can we add to it? What else can we add to it? He literally asked about, are there any other accessories we can get? What else can we do? What else can we do? And this is early on in my career, before I was, you know, understood how to off, how to ask the right questions and to offer things. So he basically just asked me and I included every single possible thing we could do in this home. We did new ductwork system, we did all of our iaq, we did surge protectors. You name it, it got included in this project. And then when it comes time to pay for it, what happens? Homeboy goes into the other room and comes out with a coffee can of hundred dollar bills and counts out like 23. So this is, gosh, 20, probably a 2011, 2012. And he counts out $23,000 worth of cash. Right, Right, right. To me, it's like, okay, let's go. And it's like, what? This was wild. And broke me of prejudging because he just was like, all right, I want to do this once. I want to touch it, do it right and not have to mess with it again. So those lessons, those appointments happened in a very short amount of time between each other. So I was like, okay, I've got to stop prejudging. You never know the situation the homeowner's in. You have no idea. For you to try to predict the future, what are you? Magician, Right? You have a crystal ball that says when somebody can and can't afford it, so do not prejudge. Ask them, and they will tell you what's going on. So with that being said, that also takes us to. People have a mindset. You know, we're talking about belief system a lot with what we do. When you believe you're a closer, you start closing. When you believe you're the person who makes healthy choices, you stop grabbing for the sugar and for the fast food. When you know that your belief system is such that my habits dictate who I am. My habits are healthy habits. So I know that I'm the person that gets the workout in before I do anything else. So these are just examples of how belief system works, right? So when we. When you choose to become the person worth buying from, your belief system increases. You choose to be the thermostat in the room, not the thermometer. You choose to set the temperature of a room when you walk into it. This is my belief system. Right? Same thing with you. If you're a closer, you know you're a closer. This is why you can take someone from any industry, if they were a top performer, pull them out of that industry and plop them into another industry. And actually, one of my coaching clients right now is a great case of this. K up in Connecticut, he's killing it. He was top performer in car sales. He hops over into a track and still a top performer because he knows he is a closer. So same thing. So huge shout out to you, K. But so when you are. When your belief system is, you know, such, you know you're a closer, you hop into another industry and you still close because you know that's who you are and what you do. You talk to any multimillionaire out there and, well, the good. A good example of this is the TV show they did recently with Grant Cardone, right. They took. Didn't let him use his name. They gave. It was just a couple hundred bucks. And his goal is to start a company. And in less was it less than a month to make over. I forget how many millions of dollars. Well, he blew right past that and ended up making multiple times the. Built a company that was multiple times that and I think did 15 million in his timeframe instead of like, you know, 5 or whatever the goal was. Why is that? Because his belief system, his identity, he's like, this is who I am. This is how I perform, and this is what I do. Right. He's built the muscles. He's built the skills to get there. Right. On the flip side, it's the same reason people that are in lower socioeconomic classes so many times tend to stay there and have such a hard time breaking through that glass ceiling into the next level. Into the next level. And we all have this struggle to some degree, based on how we were raised, based on, you know, what we learned growing up and all of these things. So what we don't want to do when we're using analogies is unintentionally classify homeowners and put them in a bucket. That limits them in what they feel like their buying decisions can be. And I'm going to give you an example of this because I know a lot of you use cars as a reference point when you're talking about your system, the system options. So how many raise your hand. How many of you out there use. Okay, so this model is the. This is the Camry. This model is the Prius. This model is the Cadillac. This model is the Ferrari. Right. How many of you use those types of analogies? When you're comparing your system equipment to cars, what in the world do you think that does to the homeowner's mindset? Homeowners who, you know, are the Ferrari people. Yeah. Absolutely. Will resonate with that. However, when you. When they're not that, what do you think that tells them? Oh, well, I'm not that person. So they don't even consider that as an option. When it's not cool when somebody, say, drives the Camry and you go in and you're like, okay, well, this is the Camry and this is the Cadillac, and this is the Ferrari. What do you think they feel like they can buy? Because we're talking about something way deeper than just equipment. Right. At first glance, this feels like great way to name stuff. However, when somebody is in the mindset and the belief system and they're in a specific socioeconomic class. How many times have you and I know you've had this experience? How many times have they come back to you and said, well, listen, we're not the Cadillac people. We're not the top of the line people. Normally we choose middle of the road. Okay, why is that? Would everyone have the top end if they could afford it? Absolutely. So what's the difference? Because they feel like because you've presented it that way, they can't even afford it. And then now you're having to backpedal to show them how they can afford it. Why don't we just skip labeling things to start with and, and just show them what the different levels of equipment do. And show them what, more importantly, what life is going. Show them the benefits. Funnel it through the benefit lens and show them what life is going to be like once they already have it installed. And then it's your job to show them how they can afford it through your financing, through whatever programs you offer. But do not limit their decisions based on their own mindset, their own belief system, their own sociology, economic class that they've put themselves in. If you're telling them, listen, this is for this person outside of your socioeconomic class, they will mentally shut down to even have the possibility of those other systems as an option. Is this making sense to you? So it's something I just came across the other day because I heard somebody use the car analogy like that. But I was like, wait, wait, wait, timeout, hold the phone. You don't want to limit people in what they think they can buy based on where their upbringing is or their own personal income. Because you and I both know, we all know they can afford whatever they want. Especially when you start talking about the really incredible financing programs and things we have. They can afford it. By pitching it that way, they're. We're limiting their mindset to what they think they can afford strictly because you have it labeled that way. So relabel things. Right? Don't label them like that. You can have cool names for your levels of equipment. That's fine. But do not. Do not, I cannot stress this enough. Do not tie it to something that would uncategorize somebody in that socioeconomic class. So this is a very, very important one when we're talking about this. For example, I was sat with a homeowner not to a couple months ago. He's like, listen, man, I'm in the millennial generation. We're known for buying pre me ochre. I was like, Pre me okre. I've never heard that term. He's like, well, we don't buy the very top of the line premium. We buy one down from the very top. That's the preemie ochre version. I was like, all right, I get it. I can roll with that. So we ended up with the level two adaptive system. Right? He rocked it out. But the point is his belief system, that's where he plugged himself in. I in no way was going to reclassify and rename stuff to, you know, to make him feel like that wasn't where he was going to be. But he classified himself and then that's the one he picked and moved forward with. So think about this. This is next level sales. This is the psychology behind why people choose what they do. This is the psychology behind the decisions made. So we have to understand this. And this is one of those. The little things that add up to the big things. You'll not have a top performer that goes through and says, okay, this is the Ferrari. It's only for some people. No, you're going to have. All your top performers are going to go through show benefits, then ask, which of these do you think is the best fit for you and your family? And all of this happens before they've even seen a number. It has nothing to do with the number. If you think it's still about price, I'm sorry, I'm here to tell you that's an amateur way to think. It's time to grow up and time to start focusing on the benefits. Remember, if the homeowners understood what our equipment did, if they understood what our IAQ products did, and not only what they do, what they actually, you know, what they did. This is the more important part. If they understood how their life would change and what living, the living experience of having that equipment and those IAQ products or whatever it is, if they understood how life would be different once it's already installed, they would already have it. So where's the disconnect? The disconnect is in communication. The disconnect has always been in our industry of, well, first of all, we just never told them it existed. How many times have you gone out to a house and you present everything? And so many times they'll say, wow, we didn't even know that was possible. Well, shame on us. That's our fault. That's the reason we lost the thermostat. Real estate on the wall to Google, to Nest and then Google. Right. We always had those, that type of stuff. On the truck. We just never told them it was possible. We never told them it existed. So somebody else comes along and says, hey, we want that. We're going to steal it from you because you're not even offering it to your homeowner. So I made a vow when that happened to never let that happen again. In our industry, that can only happen by communication. The other reason that people don't already have everything is even though, you know, we might have told them about it, but we got stuck in the technical details and got bogged down in the weeds. More importantly, all they saw was a price tag and some technical specs. But we did not communicate how that was going to change their life. Only a handful of people who understand psychology that have done their work, that have done sales training, that have done this kind of thing to understand how to take somebody through. Bridging the gap, building the gap, how to create, create and expose pain points and then how to show what life is going to be like once the problem is solved and relieve them of those pain points in an emotional way where they don't not only care, but they care to accomplish it and to get that different life right now. So when you can start to communicate the benefits and in a way that you tell it as a story where they understand how life will be different, that is when the true magic starts to happen. But as we do this, do not, do not, do not use analogies or things that will class so those homeowners self classify into little buckets instead of being open to all the possibilities. Does this make sense for you? I hope so, because this is a big one, right? Stop labeling things. The Ferrari and the Cadillac and all of those things or, you know, whatever else that you use to label things, you know, call, you know, call them cool stuff. If you got all the pro teams in your town, you know, you. So for example, I'm in Texas. If I was in Dallas, you know, I'd have like the, the cowboys one and I'd have the rangers and I'd have the stars, and I would, you know, that's fine, you know, absolutely label stuff like that. But in fact, there was a company in Colorado one time, they labeled their different systems after the different, you know, mountain peaks in the area. Everybody's hikers and climbers around. They, they know the elevation of the mountaintops. So, like, the number one system was just the tallest peak on, you know, the tallest mountain in the area. The number two system was the second tallest mountain peak in the area. It went down like that. That was great. That's awesome. Don't label things where people will self classify into well, I'm not the type of person that could ever have a Ferrari, so I know I can't even look at this system. They might not say that, but they're thinking it subconsciously. So stop limiting your homeowners ability to buy from you by unintentionally class of putting them in a bucket where they don't belong. So that's my message today. So a couple quick announcements. Also, if you got some value from this or have ever gotten value from this podcast, drop me a review. I love reviews. You can review on Apple podcasts. I'd love a five star review and that helps me grow the show, create more shows, more content for you to better yourselves. Also, I am going to be speaking at the American Dream conference coming up June 20th and 21st. Go to americandreamevent.com use the close it now code and you can get 10% off your tickets. Get come see me. I would love to hang out and chop it up with you in person. I'm already putting together an incredible presentation for that. I get the main stage to myself so that's going to be a lot of fun. Go check out closeitnow.net that's how you can learn more about me, about the coaching programs, how to get involved there. Also, if you don't know, I run a monthly book club. We meet once a month on Zoom. We go over business books, mindset books, just all kind of great stuff with the last month's book was the Seven Power Contractor by Al Levy. This month we're actually doing Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey. It's one of the most incredible books I have read in a long time time. So reach out to me. You can learn more about the book club. I'm actually going to create its own little Facebook group for whoever everyone who wants to be in the book club. We meet usually about an hour, hour and a half, once a month over Zoom. Everyone can have the time for this if you choose to make it. So it's just a great way to get, you know, get in a group with your peers, share thoughts, share ideas, share what you're learning and growing. And you know, someone else's perspective might really help you out. It might be the golden nugget you need to, you know, sell an extra million dollars this year. You never know. So definitely reach out if you want to know more about the book club. So many cool things are happening this year. You can reach me@samoseitnow.net or pop me a text 512-364-8559 I am here for you. And yeah, I'm here to see you successful. So I hope this episode was valuable to you. Definitely take it and share this podcast with everyone you know that could uplevel their sales game, that could use some psychology, use some motivation and just overall, let's, let's help our industry be better, right? It is time to raise the standard of our industry and it starts with individuals just like you. So thanks for listening. I am here to see you win. And until next time, folks, go save the world one heat stroke at a time.

You've been listening to the Close it now podcast. Our passion is to dive headfirst into the transformative movement that's reshaping the very foundation of H Vac and home improvement and at the same time covering fitness, nutrition, relationships and personal growth, proving that we can indeed have it all. We hope you've enjoyed the show. If you did, make sure to like rate and review. We'll be back soon, but in the meantime, find the website@closeitnow.net find us on Instagram at thereal. Close it now and on Facebook CloseItNow. See you next time.

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