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.

Hey, hey, hey.

Sam Wakefield here with Close It Now.

I am so excited to hang out with you today.

I have a special guest, Mr. Pete Ramsey of H Vac Greatness.

He is all about doubling yourselves without selling.

And I am of course, as you know, all about improving yourselves by not working your face off by becoming more efficient.

So it just made sense that we had a conversation today to talk about how the back end and the, the whole company, the organ in general can support sales and how as the sale, as the, the project managers, the selling person in the field, you're the face of the company and how we can support the office and support the back end and so how they synergistically work together.

So stick around.

It's going to be a really just killer episode today.

So yeah, so let's, let's pop right in.

So yeah, if you didn't.

I'm excited to hang out with you today, Pete.

So thanks for agreeing to do this.

This is if for all of you listeners this is actually a kind of a joint session today.

We're, we're going to be on, on each other's podcast.

So it's kind of fun to, to team up like this.

Yeah, yeah, I think this is really good.

It's good.

It's a good format.

It's more of a conversation I think than an interview like we, I typically do and I think you do too.

So.

Yeah, cool stuff, cool stuff.

So what is Close it now doing these days?

You know.

Gosh.

Yeah, so it's kind of, you know, I just recorded the Yesterday, the first podcast back after a little bit of a hiatus.

You know, life happened, Covid happened.

We had all these things happen and you know, there is something that's going on in the country that is changing the face of how we do business as contractors.

The, the electrify movement, the include.

All of a sudden everybody's talking about chat GPT and the AI and the goods and bads of that, how can we use that in our business?

And with the Electrify movement, I mean they're talking about getting rid of our gas stoves, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But the whole purpose of that is.

And it's a polarizing topic.

I mean, you know, you look at it politically, it's going to be, you know, there's a lot of people arguing but we know it's happening.

You know, good or bad, there's a movement there.

So what I've been doing is I went out and I mastered another industry.

I went out and mastered how to do solar and how to add solar into heating and air.

And so now that's an aspect of what close it now is doing is we're still doing the same sales training like always, still doing the coaching program re implementing site visits this year to come to locations and do full on boot camps for, you know, training for specific companies and also now showing people how to add in solar as a option to be able to help homeowners even better.

We're already helping them reduce their energy usage.

Let's help them produce too.

Yeah, we've been watching that too.

One of the things that we talk about in H Vac greatness and by the way for your viewers it's more of the marketing, branding identity.

And I always use the example of, you know, this.

I used to work for Linux industries when I sold my business.

I owned a heating, air conditioning business for about 10 years, a little over 10 years.

And I sold it and I went to work for Linux and I was with them for about 13 years.

And Linux at that time was one of the most premium brands available in my market.

It was trained in Linux and Carrie was right in there.

But so those were the two in terms of the way it was perceived at that time.

This was on the heels of the, the GMC days.

Goodman didn't have that much of a, it didn't, it wasn't considered, you know, high quality like, like these brands were.

Anyway, long story short, I left lennox after about 13 years and Goodman recruited me and put me to work in the same market.

And I was down, I was down in South Florida and so I called on the same dealers and, and it was the same Pete, the same salesperson.

And I think you can relate to where I'm going with this.

The same salesperson, same golf shirt, khaki pants, my same agenda clipboard and everything else.

Visiting the same dealers but representing a different company.

And guess what happened, Pete?

We Love you.

You know, the relationship was there, they'd always talk to him and everything.

It was great to catch up.

But you know, we're a premium product company, we sell Linux and I couldn't seem to get much more than just a small piece of their business with the Goodman product.

Sure was interesting was that as I changed my direction over looked for a different type of a dealer, different type of customer, I could kill it.

And so what I discovered was, and I guess intuitively I knew this, different customers respond to different companies.

And so I found it difficult selling high end, high quality to dealers who were low in high volume and vice versa.

And so when we started looking at that, we started blending that into what we do today.

You're a premium product salesperson, I know that.

And therefore, just like I was treated differently when I worked for one company versus another, the company that you work for in the reputation, the way they're perceived is just taking on more and more significance in terms of your success.

I mean, I know you're a great salesperson, you've got all the tactics and everything else, but doesn't it help when you've got a company standing behind you that just checks all the boxes?

Absolutely, absolutely.

In fact, that's it's so important.

I've been with, you know, multiple companies over the years as the, when I was in the field all the time and there's nothing worse than sitting at a kitchen table.

And I mean, we've literally had reviews like this in the past and heard people say, man, go, you know, go with them for the install, but just pray you never need their service.

Never need, never need your system worked on because their service department is awful.

Sure.

You know, and I've even sat at homeowners tables and said, you know, I'm so glad to represent the company I'm I'm with now because in the past there's nothing worse than sitting here having this conversation and just in the back of your mind praying, boy, I hope they get install crew A and not install crew B because install crew B always breaks something.

So when you know that there's consistency behind, you know, following you with what you that the homeowner is actually going to get delivered and the service that you promising and that is, that's what gives you confidence in the house to sell better.

Yeah, it does, it does.

And just circling back around to what you were talking about with the solar and this, how did you word it?

The move towards electrical, all electric.

Yeah, the.

It's kind of unofficially being coined The Electrify everything movement, the electric in the United States.

Yeah, yeah, that's a good one.

So one of the things that we have done is we said, okay, I can be a heating and air conditioning company, but there's a bunch of heating, air conditioning companies already out there.

I can be perceived as the most memorable, which is good.

Right.

So remember my name.

But when it comes down to getting that estimate, a lot of times it still is.

Well, you guys are all the same.

You're all pretty much the same.

And it's equipment, plug and play.

It doesn't matter who puts it in, how much.

Right.

So trying to overcome that, we.

We found that it was really important to have a, a unique marketing position of some sort.

Whether it's the identity itself or the mechanism in which we approach that.

And depending on the type of company, your strategy can vary.

But the example I wanted to give you was right up exactly what you're saying.

So I'm working with a new customer.

We've been together for a few months.

We've been building his identity.

He's doing a total rebrand and based on the movement to where everything is coming all electric, he decided to be a specialist within heating and cooling.

So you're not just heating and cooling.

And he played with a number of names and he wanted to target the heat pump market.

So he was going to be a heat pump specialist and identify himself as such in anticipation for exactly what you just said, for what's happening in the industry and how everything is changing.

And when you couple that with the fact that we've got, you know, economic changes on the horizon, everybody's going to be affected with.

We've got to factor that in our strategy as well.

Sure.

So, but I love the fact that you brought that up because that's exactly what we're seeing too.

And we like in.

In Dr. Heat Pump.

That's his.com and everything else.

Oh, nice.

That's a great name too, whoever that is.

Sam Wakefield.

Approved.

Yeah.

I'll make sure he watches this.

So.

But he, you know, he has big heating and cooling, but he says, got a heat pump call a specialist.

Right.

So what he's doing is.

And you know what's weird?

I mean, you want to diversify your offering clearly, but not too much, you know, like Pete's heating and air conditioning, plumbing, electrical, vinyl siding, fencing, you know, just going right too far out.

But by narrowing in, it feels like he's cutting himself from.

Out from all these other services, but in essence getting deeper, deeper penetration with that segment of the market and therefore more customers and those who perceive him at a higher value because he's a specialist.

I'm not gonna.

I was a specialist.

I'm just gonna.

Sure.

You go.

You go to a general practitioner.

You know, it's like exactly 80 bucks for a visit.

But you.

If you go to the oncologist, for example, or, you know, a specialist gastroenterologist, now you're looking at 350 a visit.

Sure changed.

Back in my day, the way they did that was you'd identify yourself as a carrier specialist or a, you know, or train.

You've had big train logo, and then you'd almost have no logo recognition for you.

Yeah, the little.

We work on everything else, too, at.

The bottom as well, so.

But, yeah, you know, that.

That was just one of the strategies.

You know, there's.

There's a ton of them out there, but the other one is a mechanism.

So that might be your approach to service.

We're heating and air conditioning, but we're special because this is how.

This is our approach to service, or this is our.

Like, I've got.

You know, you remember Zeke?

Zeke Warner?

He.

Yeah, he has a unique approach and warranties and guarantees.

He calls it the Warner way, and he calls it Warner's comfort shield.

And it's legitimate.

You know, you get this, this, and this at no additional charge.

Every.

Everyone, you know, so it's a.

It's a unique mechanism, which is.

Which is kind of cool.

And so I love that when his comfort advisor steps in, they.

He's.

They got something to work with.

They got.

They got something to go.

To.

Go to bat with.

But.

But that's not enough.

You got to have what you bring to the table as well, clearly.

Well, you know, and that's great, too.

And I. I love that, especially because communication and clear, communication is the name of the game, you know, and at the end of the day, you know, there's pro.

I mean, more than.

And I don't know the specifics of what's in that comfort shield, but I would almost wager that there's other companies in the same town that do the same stuff.

However, if you don't tell them you're doing it, you might as well not be doing it, right.

If you don't tell the homeowner what you're, you know, what you're offering.

So it has to do so much with the correct messaging, with the correct way to communicate to that homeowner.

So to.

I love that.

To create this nice, big, you know, Special shielded messaging.

That's like, you're gonna get this every time with us.

It, it instantly cast out on any other companies that don't communicate that just because, well, they're, we're.

They're saying, we get that every time with them.

I wonder, is this other company not doing that because they didn't tell us?

We had this conversation the other day.

It was like back when I used to do.

I was a comfort advisor.

I always had a copy of my, my, my insurance, my license and whatnot.

And I would, I would actually say that this is a copy back then a million dollars worth of general liability.

And you know, here's our license, we're licensed, and this, this and this.

And you would expect every company to have these.

But we provided a copy, you know, just, just to.

Sure, yeah.

I'd word it now.

Yeah.

If they're not showing you this right up front, do they really have it?

Right.

And so it casts that doubt, the one that you mentioned, I mean, this goes way back to.

Don't just put thermostat on, on your quotation.

If it's a basic thermostat, a five function thermostat.

You remember that one?

Five function.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

You can turn it on, you can turn it off.

You've got heat, you've got cool, you got fan.

There's your functions.

Right, right.

So.

So, but with the five functions, the way that that was articulated and the customer is reading.

Did Sam's quote have a five function thermostat?

Maybe he's trying to just give me four.

Right.

Different differentiation.

Yeah, right, right, right, right.

So it's a similar thing.

So what works on the inside, works on the outside.

So the idea is to project the right message into your market that appeals to the right customer avatar.

We're referring to that or your ultimate customer.

So you don't want every customer, especially if you're a, you know, your premium dealer.

I mean, at first you want, you want anything you can get at first.

But.

But yeah, you know, you want somebody that can afford your services and they're just a good candidate.

And so if you project the right message, you get the right people, you know, looking at you.

And if your message is good, then you can ultimately get to that appointment and then, you know, you know, a Sam or somebody can come out and, and take that initial credibility or communicated value and just take it to that next level and build a relationship in the trust.

Yeah, you got it.

You know, in fact, I'm going to take it another step.

There Too good.

Because even more important is, you know, yeah, you can get a Sam out there, but you're not.

Not every company has an entire, you know, stable of Salespeople who have 17 years experience and have literally invested over a hundred thousand dollars in personal growth and training.

Yes.

How, how much better is it to have created a system and standardize your messaging and build the credibility of the company up to the point where the guy that just started a month ago can go out and get similar results.

And that, that's really the whole purpose of, you know, what we, what you and I both do, when you start to really marry that together is to one create systems for.

That's that you can duplicate so it doesn't bottleneck at a single person, but also to build the credibility with that company.

And then with a handful of one, it builds the reputation in the community.

And then with a handful of resources, some collateral, you can hand it to a guy with, you know, two, three, four weeks training and they can go out and get similar results as the person who is the top performer.

And that's really what the, like the real benefit of creating a reputation and standardizing so much and creating a really powerful sticky brand because branding.

I learned this from a man named Dave Mingle.

He actually owns a $500 million a year solar company.

He says branding beats sell seven days out of seven.

Yeah.

And you can see that in every single market.

Yes.

Because we all know that company, that man, they don't do the best work, but boy, their branding is great.

Why do people keep calling them?

Yeah.

And, and you dealers out there, and I love you guys, but, but part of love is giving tough love.

Your brand is probably not nearly as good as you think it is.

That logo that you, you know, that you created yourself or you had your nephew draw, it's probably not going to have the same impact.

And you know, there's professionals out there now and they're taking things to new levels.

And so the communication of that brand really needs to surpass the logic.

And it needs to get down to an emotional level that people respond to.

They call these, they call these triggers.

And this is, this is.

Everybody works off of triggers.

I think there's seven triggers.

I'm so sorry, I can't remember the author, but there was a book called the seven Triggers to.

Yes.

And it.

In it and it categorizes the top seven and number one is the friendship, which is your rapport.

That, that's what Sam is awesome at.

That's what so many of you Guys who.

That's what you do, you're good at, but equally as powerful is, is called the authority trigger.

And you are being perceived as an authority or an expert based on these things that you're doing in your process that hopefully your prospective client is saying, oh, the other company didn't do that.

Yeah.

And there's a few other ones, but the one that you just reminded me of is something called the consistency trigger.

And people are consistent in their behaviors, but they also look for consistency in others.

And what you just said was talking about, you know, as you transition through from different roles, there needs to be a consistency in that experience.

And that's why if you have like a service person out and he's using his personality and doing a service call, let's say Sam goes out and they left Sam and they send Pete out.

Well, Pete doesn't do it the same way.

And, and, and the customer usually responds something like this.

And if you got a new hire, you know, new technician, you'll hear, you know, Sam, we love you.

We love having you out here.

The guy Pete that you sent out, he's a nice guy and everything, but do you mind taking care of your equipment yourself?

I don't think he knows what he's doing.

Pete, you know.

Right.

He didn't do these things that you did, which built the value to begin with.

So structure and then that consistency.

You do that.

You.

You do that structure.

I do that structure.

And at that point, they don't go, wow, that's not just Sam, That's Pete, that's John, that's the whole company.

And so the credit goes over to where it should be.

And that's the, that's the company itself.

That's it.

Yeah.

I mean, if, if this is executed properly, what starts to happen is from, from the very first point of contact, the homeowner has seen your branding before they ever pick up the phone and need you.

So you're top of mind then from the very first point of contact.

And I hope that you, as, as contractors, you have an online way to book appointments.

And please build in a scheduling software so the homeowner can pick their own day and time for an appointment.

100 recommend that if you're not doing that, you're literally missing out on thousands of dollars worth of business every single month.

But.

So that's one of my soapboxes.

I'm all about using technology, use the tools.

We have them.

Don't be stuck in the 90s or early 2000s.

Right.

So use those kind of Things, but from the very first point of contact, making it easy for a homeowner to book.

Also, if they're calling in, making the messaging in your call center, whoever answers the phone, the messaging the same as the person that goes out.

The person, the salesperson goes out, the service technician goes out, the install crew goes out, they meet the visual.

The messaging needs to be the same.

Everybody has to know the same mission.

Years ago, when I had my company, we had literally had our mission statement on the whiteboard every single meeting.

We, in order to qualify to go out into the field solo, you had to have the mission statement memorized and be able to recite it back to us because it's so important that everyone has the same rally flag.

Yeah, we, we've taken that a step farther.

In fact, that's my little thing over here.

We call it the culture of champions.

When you, when you have a team of people and all you guys that have hired an employee, or if you've had employees that are difficult, you know, this fundamentally the reason that these customers, these awesome customers in this awesome company came together is because there's certain values that are shared and the, the outcome is, is, is happy customer and a fulfilled company who's, you know, you take pride in what they do.

So if you have these primary values of, say, professionalism, honesty and integrity and say, you know, technologically superior technical excellency, we'll call it.

So those are your three things, okay?

And then your customer loves that.

You love that it's part of your messaging.

But then you hire somebody got 15 years of experience and they don't.

They're not as honest or, or maybe they're not as technically savvy.

They're pulling in their 15 years of.

Bad habits, whatever that might be.

You have the structure that we just share that now.

Sam and Peter doing the same, same process.

And you ask Bob to come in and he really don't care about that kind of stuff.

I just, I'm about me, right?

I don't care about this.

And so I'm just going to make that money.

Right?

And so he doesn't fit that culture.

And so now you have a cultural problem.

But if, if we hire and let's say I use technologically advanced, maybe one more caring.

I think caring is so important because as you know, one of the most important things that you can do is bond with your customer.

And it's kind of hard to do that if you don't really don't care about them.

And it just, it just cures over in everything else.

So if you have a technician who's selfish and they don't care about anybody but themselves.

Well, are they going to.

You know, they.

If I'm working for Sam, I might say, you know, I don't feel too good, but Sam needs me today.

He's got this jobs, but I'm coming in.

Right.

That makes all the difference.

Or I'm on.

I'm in a homeowner's house and, you know, I'm supposed to get off.

I got.

I've got my jujitsu class tonight.

It's going to take me another hour, but the customer paid for that.

I got, I got.

I'll go to class.

Like, you know, I'm going to do right by this.

Somebody cares beyond themselves.

So that culture is part of that.

And, you know, you started on that path, I figured I'd throw that in the middle.

You got it.

Yeah.

I mean, that's the definition of integrity.

Doing what's right even when nobody's looking.

Sure.

And so.

And honestly, I'll tell you from experience, I've hired the right people and I've hired the wrong people.

I've hired strictly for skill.

And sometimes that was a.

That was a bad decision.

I would always rather be slow to hire, quick to fire and hire for integrity.

Higher for personality, higher for just, you know, integrity.

I said integrity, but just all of the good attributes.

And we can train the skill.

If somebody is above a certain level of aptitude and can learn, we'll train that.

I would much rather have somebody to show up on time and have a good work ethic.

Yeah.

Than somebody who is maybe a prima donna, but they're an awesome technician or they're great at install.

They're great at sales.

Yeah.

They don't play well with others.

There's no room on my team for that.

There's a conversational level to what you just said.

But, you know, I know I'm older than you.

I've been around a long time, and I've been through that stuff.

I had that technician, he joined my culture.

He had everybody sour.

It was terrible.

But he was my best tech technically, and I was just terrified to lose it.

But when he finally left, it was the best thing that ever happened.

And.

And when you hear somebody conversationally, what you just said, if you don't have that firsthand experience.

Okay, yeah, yeah, it makes sense.

But when you live just.

It's a kick in the gut.

And.

And I always say, you know, I've been in the industry for 40 years.

Believe it.

Oh, gosh.

Makes me feel 40 years in one form or fashion.

And the, the reason I feel so qualified to do what I do is it because I was Mr.

Successful and I did all this and I grew this and you know, I had my measures of success.

It's like, like many.

But it was all the scars and bruises and kicks in the belly that I know you don't want to go down that path.

You need to go this way.

Right.

Oh man.

Right.

So you got it?

Yeah.

See how I know?

Let me show you the scar from it.

Right, Right.

Well, it's a universal truth.

You don't get growth without pain.

So, you know, gym, diet, whatever.

You know, you have to put that sacrifice in.

But, but you can definitely get a little guidance so that you can avoid some of that stuff.

And that's, that's what I love about what we do, what you do.

I've watched your stuff before.

It.

It's really, really painful to go through, you know, these leads that you might be spending hundreds of dollars to get and to know.

Had I known that, that how to resolve that on the front end from that one step that Sam was teaching, I wouldn't have that objection way at the end and then try to overcome.

Be ill equipped to even overcome it.

I would have gotten that sale.

Absolutely.

Money.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What.

What most people don't realize is, you know, the industry average.

So the industry and we all know everything the dollar's really fallen in installs.

You know, most companies, I mean there, there's of course there's companies that are strictly designed for.

We only do service.

We only do this one thing for the.

For the most part.

You know, the service drive sales and services used as the lead generation lead generator for your.

You know, for installs and for retro.

That's where the volume of revenue comes in a company.

And you know, what most people don't understand is the statistics behind how people buy.

And this is across the board for anything.

30, when you're going out and you're quoting 30% of people are going to the industry average 30% close rate.

That means that the really great executed process or the guy that's just writing the number on the back of a business card and is there 10 minutes they're closing at 30%.

That's the foundational part of it.

30% of people are not going to buy from you no matter what.

They might just not like the color of your hair or your shirt or something.

Yeah.

Statistically speaking, 30 of people are just.

They're gonna go with their brother or whoever.

That leaves 30% of people in the middle that we have the power to impress, to influence, to help them with their buying decision.

So that's, that's where you know, rockstar companies are averaging, you know, 40 to 60% in those, those kind of numbers.

Those are the ones that are really providing a lot of value.

There's the ones that have a great messaging, they've got a great process, they've, you know, they've worked with a Pete Ramsey and, or if they haven't, they need to, to, to really develop a system because I mean if you're a company out there and you're, you have a, if you don't know every single step from the time that your phone rings until the time that you're high fiving them a year later or even further, if you don't know every single step along the way and you have, have homeowners and leads and prospects that are dropping out, getting lost, you need a process and that, that's, it's crucial for a company's success and to multiply double your sales without selling.

Right.

That's how you, how you take care of that.

Yeah.

I was watching an interview on, on, on comedians, some comedians, I think it was those guys that did grown ups, most of us guys.

But one guy gives advice to Adam Sandler, he says, hey, record your stand up comedy.

Take the parts that they didn't laugh at out and then put, try some new stuff and put that back in.

He's like, that's what I do.

Right?

So, and it just kind of reminded me what you said.

We've got these processes that actually are in there for a reason and that's to, to, to, to, to have an influence, to, to have a, to deliver some type of an emotional response or what have you.

And when you consistently do those just like the comedians are just get better and better and better with laughter continuously.

We remove these bad things and put in the good things and we come up with this process that just flows and, and, and, and you, hopefully you'll bring them to a new level and you'll, and this is another one of the triggers we talked about contrast.

You know, if you think about when you pull up to the fuel pump and there's the different grades, they're different colors and everything else in your price books, maybe you have, you know, best, better, good if you do it that way and that's really long and better is a little bit short in the goods, you know, so, so that there's a contrast.

So.

And that people can relate that to things that they bought from in, in the past and they just respond to it.

So.

So creating contrast is between you and your competition is very important.

And so these processes, some of them are designed to get that, you know, that friendship trigger or what have you and others are just to build that authority.

And people go, wow, you know, nobody's ever checked it to this degree.

His solution must be better.

Right?

And, and I was going to ask you in your.

This is un.

Un rehearsed.

So I have no idea.

In your experience, what is the one point where you get the most physically shift from neutral to positive or from negative to positive in the sales call, at what point do you see their eyes kind of light up for you?

You know that actually it's way earlier on than most people expect.

The, the reason that with the close it now system anyway and any well executed cell system, the reason that there's so much introduction at the beginning and this is not about building weird, you know, fake rapport with people.

It's not, oh, you have a dog, I have a dog.

You like the Raiders?

I like the Raiders.

You play golf, I play golf.

Everybody's tired of that.

Stop.

Everybody out there, stop using form to build rapport.

Everyone.

The homeowners hate it.

It's fake rapport.

It's fake news.

And they can smell that BS meter.

It starts to go off a mile away.

No, they're not going to go out to lunch with you next week because you were their air conditioner guy.

You don't go to the doctor, expect them to go play golf with you next week.

So treat it like that.

Be a professional.

So rapport building is crucial.

Now.

The reason that it's so important to do a really good introduction and is so they know credibility of who they're talking to, both for you and the company.

So those credibility pieces need to be in there.

And then you go into Discovery.

Discovery is right after the introduction and Discovery is just the fancy name for asking the right questions.

So many people go through the process and they're instantly, hey, I'll just go look at your.

Go look at your air handler.

Go look at your system not knowing what they're looking at.

They have no idea why they're even there.

I'm just going to look at everything and treat it all the same.

That's not serving people.

So what you're asking about is what I've called a moment of rapport.

That usually happens somewhere within Discovery.

The moment of rapport.

Happens when you've done a great job of getting to know them a little bit through your introducing yourself, introducing the company, and you start asking those concerned questions of.

Okay, Pete, it's May.

As soon as this starts to warm up here in the summer, which rooms are warmer than the rest?

Or which rooms would you like to make more even with the rest of the house?

Hey, who in your house suffers from allergies and asthma in the.

Think back to the winter.

Which rooms were colder then you'll.

And take me there.

Let's get situationally in that.

That place so they can emotionally start to connect.

And somewhere in that process, the moment of rapport happens, where all of a sudden, you look at your watch, they look at their watch, you cross your legs, they cross their legs.

So now you're leading, you're in sync.

Yeah.

And it feels like that before then it's like almost a conflict, because anytime you introduce anything new into an environment, everybody's waltz goes up.

It's when the shoulders drop and that conflict goes to.

Now we're working together to solve your problem.

Yeah.

That moment of rapport is the biggest aha moment.

And I trained to never move forward out of that phase until that happens.

If that doesn't happen, the chances of them buying drops dramatically.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So awesome.

So obviously that is not typical.

And I would say it's not typical because I'm speaking from firsthand experience.

I walk in and the.

And the homeowner immediately says, yeah, the furnace is this way.

And they're taking me straight to the equipment.

And so how am I going to build that rapport if I'm going right to the equipment?

So you're taking charge at some point, you know.

Yeah.

You don't.

You say, absolutely.

I'm going to look at that here in a little bit.

But first, do you have somewhere I can set.

Set my stuff up?

I'm gonna need to set my computer up here in just a little bit.

Do you have somewhere we can do that?

Nice.

Great.

And as soon as they take you to that spot, you set your stuff down, that's where you plant your feet.

Hey, our.

Our homeowners, our clients tell us they like to know a little bit about the company and the person they're working with.

I'd like to take a second and introduce myself.

Would that be all right?

Right, right.

And of course, you've asked that question.

They're gonna answer.

They'll say, of course, yes, absolutely.

And then you just go right into it, into your introduction and your discovery there so that's what you just give them.

Here's the agenda for our appointment.

And so you really have the posture to say, absolutely, I'm going to look at that.

But first, I have a plan for our meeting today to be most efficient.

Here's what we're going to do.

And by taking that control, that's where they know you're the professional and you have a plan.

You need to tell them, hey, listen, I'm going to look at that.

Here's the plan to be most efficient and help you best.

Where can we go that I can set up?

And that's just like a doctor, you know, if you walk into your doctor and they just start looking at your ankle and you're like, I have something wrong with my shoulder.

Why did they start looking at my ankle?

You think they're a quack, Right?

But if they ask the right questions first, hey, what's wrong?

Why are you here today?

Okay, well, now they are educating themselves on what's going on.

So.

Yeah, so it's just, it's almost this transition from sitting across the table from each other confrontationally and sliding the chair around beside them and shoulder to shoulder, attacking this situation as a team.

You got it?

Yeah.

Every chance.

Yeah, every chance you can.

You're so like when you're going through and say you've climbed through somebody's attic or in a crawl space or in a basement or something, they're not there.

You're taking pictures.

When you, you know, don't put them on the big presentation on your screen and turn your computer around.

No, you keep them on your phone.

Everybody takes pictures with that.

And side up to em, side by side to look at it together.

You're doing everything together.

Make them part of the process.

And the same thing for like start to finish in the whole experience, not just the sales call, but start to finish with the whole company.

If there's ways that you can incorporate them into every step of the way that they feel like they have an element of control with it now they're taking ownership in their own project.

Yeah, I remember that back in psychology where your proximity when you're standing really close to somebody, face to face, it, it's really uncomfortable.

But all you have to do is turn sideways and kind of come in, you know, sideways, and you could be right up against each other talking about something across the room and it feels totally natural even if you're, you know, your new acquaintances.

So the body language is all a huge part of that.

I love that.

Great stuff, great stuff.

So I'm going to hit.

I'll hit you with the unscripted one.

Where in the process do you.

Because your, your tagline, of course, is double your sales without selling.

Right.

In this, in cleaning up the process of a company, where are you seeing the one thing that can be done where people are seeing the biggest difference in their bottom line?

Okay, repeat that one more time.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, so in, in the process.

So in, in the process, you've got.

Right on your flowchart.

Okay.

Right behind you there.

Yeah.

Where in, in the process of helping, you know, say, say I've got my company.

Okay.

Yeah.

I've come to you.

You're going to be coaching me.

You look at my books, you look at, you know, all the different elements of my company.

Where do you start with people?

What's the.

Where's the lowest hanging fruit?

Somebody can start to make changes that they're going to see the biggest results.

I know this is going to sound like a smart Eli answer, but it's the absolute truth.

Step one.

Step one.

And so let me elaborate here.

Here's step eight.

Your irresistible services.

And within that, how do I raise my average tickets?

How do I get more.

Closing all the stuff that you're teaching, right?

But yet here I am with all of these other problems in, in my identity.

I don't have a unique power identity.

I'm just another heating and air conditioning company.

I don't have any special warranties or, or unique claims.

I'm just, you know, I'm just another company.

In order, in, in order for you to offer unique, let's say, let's say you offer a comfort guarantee.

We guarantee in writing, right?

Because, you know, nobody wants a furnace or an air conditioner.

They want their house a certain temperature, right?

That's, that's why they put stuff in there.

So if I'm going to offer that and I'm going to offer it in writing, well, then I must know what I'm doing.

And when I, when I make an equipment selection and if I'm going to simultaneously offer, let's say, a satisfaction guarantee, well, how am I going to do that without knowing exactly what that customer is looking for?

So way back in that process, I've got to do a structural assessment, right?

I've got to look at the volume of the house.

I've got to look at the materials is constructed from the R values, the windows, the colors, the orientation of the house.

Then I got to look at things like infiltration.

You know, does the, when the Wind blows, you fill it in the living room.

Right.

So all these are factors.

So then I look at the performance data of the equipment against that and against what, AKA states for that area.

Okay.

Now I can actually calculate, I know without a doubt that this is the right size of equipment for the structure.

But then with my customer assistant, all the stuff that you're talking about where we take care of those different rooms or we take care of any, any allergies or asthma or any other breathing conditions for IQ or sound or all these different variables.

Yeah, yeah, because the house is right in the check.

Right.

But the guarantees and the warranties.

Are.

That'S your home run.

Right.

That's when you bring in, nobody in town is going to do this, this and this.

Right.

That's your leverage.

And if you guys are comfort advisors, you want that from your boss because that's just going to help you close.

So.

But are, you know, in order to do that, you have to be able to go in and obviously your boss has to provide this, be able to, you know, figure all this stuff out and make sure that we're not misapplying.

So that's all part of that.

All right, but back to the process, all the way back to step one.

It comes from what we call the ultimate customer avatar.

So if we're going to identify this, this awesome company that is easy to sell for.

Right.

Customer, not only does it attract high end customers, this is a little known secret.

When you brand and you package really well, it also attracts better employees because you perceive that, you know, they're consumers first.

So they perceive.

Absolutely.

Yeah, that's your first customer.

Your second customer is the one outside of your own doors.

Right.

But the marketing applies to both sides and that's, that's what a lot of people don't realize.

And so, so knowing who our ultimate customer avatar is is knowing more than their values.

Like I mentioned, honesty and integrity, professionalism, caring and then technical excellence.

Okay, so those are the ones.

Okay.

That's their values.

But there's also, and most people don't get this.

And this is, I know you, this is their fears, their pains and their insecurities as a prospect.

They're not customers yet.

They're like, I don't know who to call, but I'm afraid a hack is going to come out here or they're going to try to sell me something I don't need or you know, if it's a repair person, you know, customer indifference where he just didn't, you know, treat me like A number.

It doesn't, I'm trying to talk to him.

It doesn't let you know there's all these little fears and pains and everything else.

So if we understand what the fears and pains and insecurities are towards our customers with those values, what they tend to be, we're understanding our customer a little deeper then we understand what they think they want.

Like if they want stability, they're going to say I want a company is licensed and insured so you darn well better have that on your, on your marketing.

But what they think they want and then we have things of that require redirection.

These are false assumptions like bigger is better.

And so these are different things we have to deal with.

So once we have this, we have a really clear understanding of who we're going out after.

And also external influences by the way, the economy right now is important.

Right.

So the dollar squeezing a little bit.

So we need to, we need to factor into our, into communicated that if we want to get that customer, we need to overcome these fears and pains, speak to what they truly value as well as what they think they want.

Even though you know you, if you may have to sugarcoat that, that, that aspirin on the marketing side in order to get in and be able to teach them what they really want.

Okay, sure.

Which can be used.

That can be backfired.

When I was a little boy, they had to take me to the hospital, get my stomach pumped out because I ate up all the, the candy coated aspirins.

True story.

You know, so they think they want something but you know it's just gonna make them sick.

Right.

So that's our job to convey that.

But yeah, it starts here.

And once we know who that person is and you know that that collective person is, then we build an identity that's unique.

Blue Ocean.

If you, I don't know if you've read that book Blue Ocean Strategy.

And so for those who are listening that hadn't heard of that, whenever you have a competitive industry like H Vac, the, the waters get bloodied with those shark infested competitive waters of price and this, that and the other.

But when you lift your business boat or sell your business boat on out past into some blue ocean, different waters, a different market offering a different product or service, at least it's perceived that all of a sudden it gets a lot more profitable, a lot easier.

Right.

So in your uniqueness we have to speak to step one.

We got to who that person is.

Then we become go find out what Your customer wants and become that company that they want to do business with.

Hire the people that.

That, that fit that.

So the culture's right.

People like working there, they like doing what they do.

And, and you know, you don't have the high turnover.

Then you got baseline.

Everything else builds on everything else.

That's it.

Love it.

Love it.

Yeah.

And that, that's so powerful.

The.

One of the.

The classic marketing examples because the whole goal is, you know, the word differentiation we hear over and over.

And the goal is how do you separate yourself?

So the homeowner is not making a decision of you and your company versus three other companies.

They're making a decision of what you offer versus generic heating and cooling.

Oh.

This is a whole different conversation now.

So we.

This here's how we do things differently and here's what we offer that you won't find anywhere else.

So now it's a whole conversation of we're offering solutions to your problems.

They're offering a plug and play replacement just for a box that may or may not even affect what your concerns are.

Yeah.

So it's.

It's using language like that, both through the messaging from the company, through the messaging through the service X, messaging through, you know, through the.

The project manager, the comfort advisor, to really help the homeowners see that differentiation.

And you know, the greatest example that's happened in the last 20 years we can study.

It has nothing to do with trades, is how to create a new bucket.

Is.

Do you have an air fryer?

Everybody in the world has an air fryer now.

Yeah.

Right.

Well, air fryer is not a fryer.

It's a little convection oven.

That's all it is.

Yeah.

And what did they do?

They completely invented a new term and created a small kitchen appliance to fit mechanism.

A totally new market that didn't exist before.

That's it.

And so I love it.

It's a small kitchen appliance.

It's a little bitty convection oven.

Whoa.

But I'm feeling that instant brilliance because they created a whole new market.

And so we can do the same thing.

Yeah.

At the roots of it are we a heating and air company, We a solar company.

You know, a company that offers the one home.

It technically the one home improvement.

Yes.

How we're perceived by the homeowner as something totally different has everything to do with our marketing and branding.

Yeah.

And one of the things that.

That we picked up on more so than ever.

And we're actually putting in our presentations now.

And I'm sure You're familiar with this as well.

But just for those listeners, when we, we love.

We're logical.

Especially if, if you came from the technical side, now you're selling.

You love this all technical and.

Because you're going to impress them, right?

Oh, you know what he's saying?

But it's got to be good, right?

So a lot of that goes on.

But unless you have enough of that trust.

There's two different types of trust, right?

There's trust in you morally, you know, are you honest?

Or there's trust in your competency, you know, okay, nice guy.

But can he really do it?

Does he look the part?

I'm looking for that consistency.

He looks like the professional.

He talks like the professional.

You know, you're going to go to truck and get a party, you know, are you going to get.

Go to a service vehicle, get the proper replacement component, right?

So all this has to tie into that.

So there's the logical side and then there's the, the right brain, left brain.

Okay.

So in the presentation that we were utilizing, we talked about the structural assessment.

So we got a picture of the house and.

But it's a cutaway and it shows the, the floor square footage and then the ceiling heights to get cubic footage.

Right.

And then off to one side we've got what we call, I guess our right brain equivalent of that of an aquarium, you know, and a calculator.

Calculator saying we're going to have to calculate how much water that new aquarium is going to hold.

So we have to calculate how much air conditioning you're going to need.

Right.

Or the infiltration.

On the one side we've got a picture of that same cutaway with the, like the little air leaking out around the plumbing and around this.

But on the other side we got a piece of a garden hose with a leak in it and the water squirting out.

So that when you're explaining this technical stuff, it makes sense to the both the right and left brain.

That was my.

So.

So I love it.

You know, I talk about that a lot.

If you've ever listened to the Close it now podcast, one of the things that I really communicate, and this is actually how I explained earlier, just on the podcast, I recorded the difference between Seer and Seer 2.

Okay.

Because we're getting a lot of questions right now and how do I explain that in a way that homeowners understand it?

The general concept, general idea is anything that you technical that you need to explain to a homeowner, use an analogy of Something they use every day that they know they know and can touch and feel.

Right.

And as soon as you explain it in an analogy of something they understand, now you can tie it back and say, okay, now does this make sense how it applies here?

And, and most of the time that is extremely effective.

Yeah.

So great, so great example.

I love seeing those comparisons.

Yeah.

The closest I found, like doing the load calculation with the, with the insulation and the windows and everything else, we've got that on one side and on the other side I've got like eight selections of sunscreen, you know, so that, you know, you know, right.

How, you know, how much block out versus how much heat you're blocking out.

So, yeah, little things like that.

And it really.

And it.

The things that you think they're getting all of a sudden, they're not really getting all of a sudden.

They will.

It's not necessarily, you know, what you're saying.

It's like Sam said, it's the effectiveness of the communication itself.

That's it.

15 of communication is the actual words we're using.

The rest is body language and tonality even.

But so for the listeners, just the comparison here, which is really fun, we're talking about analogies and the way to explain.

So the perfect analogy for a little something you listeners, you can use immediately and use right away.

And I love this the way to.

When homeowners say, oh, the other companies size the equipment based on square footage and how to really differentiate why an actual manual J or an actual load calculation is important and is that much better.

The analogy I've always used is so.

Hey, Pete, have you ever, ever put something in a.

In a yeti cooler?

A yeti cooler?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You ever use like a really, really, really good cooler and how long it keeps the.

Yeah, you put your ice in there.

It's good to keep ice for a few last.

Yeah.

Hey, if I had a cardboard box that's the exact same size.

Right.

I love it.

And I put, you know, put my drinks and my ice in there.

Is it going to last as long as.

Sure, sure.

It's not, right?

Yeah, exactly.

So it's the same thing with houses.

Yeah.

Just because it's the same.

A house that's the exact same size, the same square footage, two houses side by side, one might have a lot better insulation and windows and doors, do you think better inflation.

Windows and doors is a lot more like that cooler.

Right.

And the one without is a lot more like the cardboard box.

So it doesn't matter.

The size is the Same.

This is why it's so important to do that calculation.

That's an example.

Easy analogy people get.

And if you can visualize that, like actually catch, you know, a photo, if that's part of your process, you know, the actual cooler with, you know, with the thickness and everything else, versus some cardboard box, that really would help it.

But then you can actually, if you really want to, bring it home.

Third party validation is always a home.

We used to, back when I, when I, when I was at Lennox, we did, we did some sales training and one of the pieces that we use was, it was a statement from carrier, quote unquote, with their logo, one from Trane, one from Lennox, one from York, or whoever it was.

It said, never ever do a business with a contract that does not do a load calculation from the manufacturers.

Yeah.

So you say, hey, listen, this is the experts talking.

It's not even me.

Yeah, we, we trust the experts and we educate ourselves to do it the right way.

Right.

So use your example.

You show them and you say, oh, by the way, manufacturers agree.

See here.

Home run.

Yeah.

So, yeah, of course, square footage.

I've seen that stuff too.

In fact, I, you know, I work with a number of contractors and it's surprising how many, you know, they need to be educated.

And so we actually have these conversations and before it's done, I need to go take some, you know, manual J classes.

Manual D classes.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

I mean, and I'll tell you, if you've never done it by hand, it's, it's worth the exercise to learn how to do it by hand at least a few times, just so you understand everything that goes into the calculation.

So, I mean, yes, you've got, you can throw it into, you know, a cool calc or right.

Soft or, or something and rice off mobile and you can literally do a manual J in what, less than a minute now, because the calculations software is so good.

But I, I, I highly recommend go through the process, do one or two by hand so you know, everything goes into it.

So you can, with confidence have the posture to communicate what it's actually doing in the calculation.

So you can just be the expert in.

The misconception is you have to communicate everything.

You know, somebody is perceived as knowing more when you don't communicate it.

When it's, when it's locked in the brain, you've got the knowledge there, but you don't, you don't have to communicate it.

People can feel the, the amount of knowledge you have without, you know, it's without communicating.

You don't have to tell everything you know, you need to tell them everything they need to know.

Still waters run deep.

Yeah, I used to do the old manual back when I did it before, back when we had computers, but we didn't use them in that particular capacity.

And so everything was manual.

But just keep in mind, it's a whole house.

It's next year.

You don't, you're not going room by room and just, you know, doing all that stuff until after you get the sale.

You know, if you're doing room by room work then and figure that out.

But, but with software and everything else.

Yeah, Sam, I couldn't agree more.

But, but yeah, I think we're pretty much at the top of the hour.

Good.

Yeah.

Let's land this plane, man.

I know, right?

Right.

So we definitely got to do this again.

I think we probably skim the top and I definitely think there's at least one more session in store.

We got to meet again and let's take one of these topics.

It's been a few years since we've done this, so there's a lot.

That's a lot of water's gone under the, the, the old bridge for H vac and for the, for trades.

So, yeah, we got a lot to cover.

I'm happy to see you back.

I'm glad to see you're doing your podcast again.

I, you know, as you know, I started mine on YouTube because YouTube's pushing that again.

And I thought, you know what, I'm doing this kind of stuff anyway, I'm going to do it in that particular area.

So that's why mine is back.

So for those of you guys you need to subscribe to Sam, where do they hook up with you at?

Sam?

Yeah, so they can.

So the website is a good place to get started.

It's CloseItNow.net and right from there, probably the one place that the most communication happens is in our Facebook group.

So right from the website, there's a link to join the Facebook group right@CloseItNow.net and that'll take you to the group.

And it's a great place.

There's 17, over 1700 members in the group now.

Every.

There's all kind of people from, you know, first people that have been in the industry two, three weeks all the way to, you know, people that are 6, 7, 8 million a year project managers in there, there's owners.

So it's a great resource.

It's totally positive.

Awesome.

Or you can email me.

Sam, close it now.net and yeah, so don't close it.

How about you, Pete?

Don't close it.

Don't close it tomorrow.

Close it now.

Close it now.

Yeah.

Not.comnetprofit.net and then on your podcast, is there.

What's the name of that so that they can find that.

Yeah.

So here's where branding is good.

It's a really creative name.

It's called clo.

It's called Close it now podcast is Close it now sales training.

You can find it.

It's on all of the streaming podcast platforms.

So it's on.

I, you know, I.

The Apple podcast, it's on Spotify, Stitcher, you name it.

You can find it all over the place.

Yeah.

And.

Yeah.

So the last quick little plug is the.

If, if you happen to catch this in May of 2023, I've got a spring training promo, the high performance coaching.

The one on one coaching with me is just a little over 30% off.

So it's.

It's saving people thousands to help as many people as I can set record numbers this year.

Will you send me that code?

And I'm going to put it down in the description underneath my YouTube video itself.

Okay.

So that they can.

Absolutely.

Okay.

And yeah, so, so.

So likewise, H Vac Greatness, not goodness greatness.

Your ability to be perceived as better than everybody else is your H Vac greatness.

We do that through the branding, through the marketing, through the communication as well as the sales process.

So.

But our primary focus, again, is how to set all this stuff up so that when people look at your brand, they go, wow, this is different.

And so that is mine.

H vac greatness dot com.

You can email me at h vac greatness@gmail dot com.

I've got Pete as well, all that other stuff, but everything's Gmail these days.

And I also have a Facebook group as H Vac.

It's called your H Vac greatness.

And.

And that's how you and I met, because you were actually one of the guest speakers over there.

And I.

Awesome.

I was.

Yeah.

It's been a few years back.

Yeah, we're getting older.

Periodically, somebody will reach out to me still and say, hey, I saw this trading you did with Pete.

It was really great.

Awesome.

Same here.

Same here.

Okay.

Okay.

So what is the.

What's the, what's the next biggest thing for.

Just super quick, before we go, next biggest thing for H Vac Greatness.

What.

What do you have launching everybody can get excited about?

Yeah, I think we're going to really go after a pro, an offensive marketing attack as we start transitioning to these tighter markets.

Because we're seeing, what I'm seeing is installers are all of a sudden and things like this and technicians are asking for way more money or else they're going right.

And the, the, the, the consumers are asking for way less money.

Are they going to do business with somebody else?

And we're seeing a really tight squeeze.

I think we're going to see a lot of people going to get squeezed out of the business.

And so we're looking for how to take a proact, not a defensive defense.

You're gonna start dropping your prices and trying to get with everybody else proactive offense so that you can position yourself in front of the right customers with the right message.

And you still have to have that flexibility.

But speak to them at a level in which they will actually respond and allow you to still be profitable and build your business during the downturn.

Because we are going to have one coming.

We all know that.

And so that's one of the things we're really focused on right now.

Sure.

Perfect.

I love it.

That's exactly why we're here.

Exactly.

In the down, in the downest of turns in the, in the economy, the well positioned trades, businesses, heating, air, you know, plumbing, electric, anybody.

If you can help any homeowners save money by your service, they have no problem spending it with you.

So some of the best years come out of downturns in economy.

Amen.

Amen.

Yeah.

Okay guys, awesome.

We'll see you on the next one.

Yep.

Cheers.

Bye.

Thanks for listening to Close it now with Sam Wakefield.

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