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

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

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

This podcast isn't just about selling more, it's about understanding your customers needs and building efficiencies behind the scenes so you can sell more but work less while being top of mind when people think H Vac.

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

This is Sam Wakefield.

All right everybody, welcome back to Close It Now.

Sam Wakefield here I am over the moon excited about this guest I have today and you are going to hear why here shortly.

Because this, this is not just a another guest to bring, which is always great when we have guests that bring great value for sales training or for tips and mindset training and those kind of things.

But today everybody, we're going to take it up a notch.

This my guest today, he is talk about some mental fortitude.

We can talk about mindset, we can talk about the discipline and the drive it takes to be a top achiever, to be a champion.

Because this person, he is just a total badass.

He From 1997 to 2008 he fought professionally.

70 pro fights around the world, six world titles.

In 2006, he was the king of leg locks.

And so we were.

And then in 2000, would you say 2007, 2007, world knockout of the year in MMA fighting and all the different iterations and versions of MMA around the world.

And I'm just so excited to have this guest today and everybody listening.

That's not even the reason why he's on the podcast, which we could do an entire podcast around the mindset of the champion, I'm sure, which I'd love to do at some point.

But even more important than that today is he has a mission and he has a company that is doing things differently that I want you to know about because there is some incredible things.

One of the biggest questions that I get all the time is how do I find good quality people?

How do I find people to hire?

And so that's a big part of what we're going to be talking about today.

So everyone please welcome to the show Mr. John Rincken.

And thank you for being with me, sir.

Thank you so much for having me.

I appreciate it.

Absolutely.

So let's get going, man.

Let I'm Sure.

Everybody would love to hear a highlight reel of this.

Feels more like an ESPN highlight kind of reel.

But give us everybody a highlight reel of your life and how you landed where you are right now and then turn that corner for us.

How, how does that connect and apply to, to what you're doing now?

And give some philosophies too.

It's like what's, what's the driving force behind what you do?

Sure, sure.

Yeah.

So I've always been in sales.

I had my first sales position when I was 11.

I was doing door to door, newspaper out.

Started doing telemarketing when I was 15.

Maybe I was 16.

15 or 16 started.

Now I'm going to date myself here, so if you have a younger audience, they'll have to forgive me.

But when we made the transition from the BR cell phone to the flip cell phone, I was actually on the front line selling that.

Nice.

So, so I started doing mobile sales.

And yeah, that's not doing it with sales.

Not just walking in the store and taking orders.

You had to actually, you like actually had to convince people to get a mobile phone.

Right.

So, you know, so I've always been in sales except for my time in the military.

And my time in the military is what's actually switched me into fighting because I was doing martial arts as a kid and then I, the army and the first UFC came out and then I started fighting professionally when I got out of the army.

So went to college, fought pro and then in 2000 came back to Fort Campbell, Kentucky and started doing training for the government.

I was training special forces how to shoot and fight together.

And then.

But I had to be the government contracting sales rep as well.

So I had to do all the procurement for the government.

Sure, sure.

So I, I've been in sales pretty much my whole life.

I mean for the large portion of it.

Right.

And then in 2020, covet obviously happens.

My government career of 20 years goes away almost overnight.

Yeah.

Because you know, if you can't be six feet within each other, you surely can't, you know, you surely can't fight.

You train hand to hand combat.

Yeah.

So it was really a tough time in my life because I'd made a lot of money, I'd done a lot of things, I'd ran my own companies.

I was in charge of literally millions and millions of dollars of human assets as well as inventory, guns, I mean, all kinds of stuff.

Right.

And then I, I mean it was partially due to Covid.

Right.

But then I couldn't get a Job.

Nobody wanted to hire me.

Yeah.

And if you just all telling you you're overqualified for everything.

Right?

Yeah, I got that a lot.

Like, I wouldn't insult you with a job offer type stuff.

And I was like, oh, my God.

Dude, I need some money.

Come on, I need some money.

And I had plenty of sales opportunities, but when you're good, you should never do it for free unless you really believe in it.

Right.

So, like, I was getting sales opportunities, but these weren't opportunities that I felt like.

Let me phrase it this way.

I had an old mentor of mine who told me, instead of asking, what's your next opportunity?

You should be asking, what's your last opportunity?

Meaning is this something you could see yourself doing for the rest of your life?

Sure.

And too often we hop from one thing to the other instead of looking at the longer ranged picture of, is this something I could be happy doing for the rest of my life?

Yeah.

You know, so when I was looking at some of these sales offers that were coming in, number one, they didn't pay me really what I felt like I was worth, but number two, they weren't something I could see myself doing for a long time unless it was just to bridge for money.

Right, sure.

So then one of my buddies called me and he said, hey, I got a job opportunity for you.

They're hiring coaches.

Well, this is right still during the kind of thick of COVID And I'm like, nobody in the government is coaching.

Yeah.

Like nobody's doing combatives.

He goes, I don't know.

He just said he was hiring coaches.

Just talk to him.

I'm like, well, it doesn't hurt.

So I'll call him.

So I'm like, so what base are we at?

What?

You know, what program?

Because I know all the programs.

Right.

Because I started half of them.

Right.

He wrote the curriculum for him, right?

Yeah.

So I wrote part of the level three curriculum.

Like, you know, I was around.

And he goes, this is sales coaching, not fighting.

And I was like, oh, well, I could do that too.

What's.

What's the bay?

You know, so, you know, I got into the interview process and found out that it was really lucrative.

Like, it.

It could actually.

And the more people I met from the company, more I was like, okay.

I could see myself doing this.

I'm.

I'm a good coach.

I've done that forever.

I'm a good sales guy.

I've done that forever.

And, you know, so then I took the dive on it about a year later, and which I'm still with this company, Southwestern Consulting, one of the best companies I've ever worked with.

About a year later, though, I started kind of, like, getting a little edgy.

My clients were great clients.

I have great, great clients.

But I really missed the veteran connection and working with the military.

But I.

But I didn't.

I didn't.

I hadn't really thought it through and why.

That was what was missing.

Right.

I just felt like something was missing, but I didn't know what it was.

Yeah.

Missing a.

More of a purpose, right?

Yeah.

I mean, I love helping people, so that part was really good.

And like I said, I had great clients, but one of my clients was a West Point grad, and I started to tell the difference in our relationship versus my other clients.

Sure.

I was like, man.

And I was like.

And then I got on the phone with one of my really good buddies, and he's like, well, why don't you just coach veterans in sales?

I'm like, I don't think there's that many.

He goes, well, do you know that?

And I'm like, oh, no, I really don't.

I just haven't met a bunch.

You know, at that point in my life, I really had met a bunch of veterans in sales.

Sure.

So.

So I went to LinkedIn and I did a search, and there were 415,000 veterans that came up in sales, and it changed my life.

Oh, like, I love it.

Love it.

Yeah.

So, I mean, I immediately pivoted and started working just with veterans that are in sales, that want to make more money, that have, you know, legitimate businesses, all those kind of things.

Right.

So that was In February of 22, in May of 22, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, which is the base that I'm stationed at or that I was stationed at, that I live at, called me and said, hey, we want you to do a skillbridge program.

I was like, what's a skill bridge program?

I mean, they didn't have that when I was in.

It's where you take people, train them in a skill, and that bridges into their civilian life.

Sure.

Because right now, guys are getting 20, 25 bucks an hour.

And I was like, what?

20, 25 bucks an hour?

How's anybody make a living?

No kidding.

Yeah.

And then I found out that, you know, it takes two years to start a skillbridge.

And I told him, I'm not interested.

I'll find somebody.

Bring them.

So I did.

He ended up unexpectedly passing away, and then they gave the company to me.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Crazy, crazy story.

That is Incredible.

I mean, people are just given companies every day.

Yeah, well, you know, so they had a couple offers to buy, but they were going to basically dismantle the company, take out pieces of the company that they wanted.

But it wasn't really going to serve its true purpose, which was to help veterans get jobs that pay them what they're worth and teach them a skill set that could work in any market.

And so when they kind of started talking to me and talking about my vision and what I want to do, they decided to give me the company.

Love it.

Yeah.

So now we run the only agnostic sales training program for military people transitioning out, which is called Sales Platoon, which is a hub in Southwestern consulting.

So.

Nice.

I think that was a little more than the highlight you wanted, but.

No, that's perfect actually, because now that, that actually landed us in a really good spot for conversation, which I'm sure you were.

That's where we were driving towards.

But so for everybody listening, John and I spoke on the phone for a good while here a couple here a few weeks ago, and he was giving me the rundown of the program.

And so I've been watching him, watching him on Facebook and some of the different social medias after we connected originally.

And I'm so excited to bring this to everybody.

First of all, what I'd like to do is just describe this a little bit more.

So, like, unpack what Sales Platoon is.

I want to bring some value to everybody too.

So before we really dive into exactly what it does and how companies can benefit, there's a lot of veterans that.

Listen, I'd love for you to talk about some of the cool stuff that happens, the trips and those kind of things, just that veterans have access to they don't even know exists.

There's a lot of that stuff this podcast is known for, like immediately actionable items they can implement right away.

And I feel like that's one of them.

And then we'll really dive into to the rest of the conversation.

Yeah, and I'll drop my link for you where they can get the information for free.

So if you served in the military, it doesn't matter if it was active, if it was National Guard, you know, if it was the Air Force or the Coast Guard, which almost counts as serving, you know, as long as you did some sort of military term of service that you were honorably discharged with, so, you know, worry, medical discharge, whatever, but you served honorably, you're qualified for a 10 day free cruise every year or a week in Atlantis in the Bahamas for 375 for just the taxes.

These are reward programs for you serving.

There's no catch.

There's no give me.

I was just there at the beginning of January.

I'm taking the 10 day cruise this summer.

Like, nobody's charged me.

Like, nobody.

Like, all right, now you're here.

Timeshare, right?

None of that kind of stuff.

And I'll share the link with you.

I did two little step by step ebook slash PDFs or whatever you want to call them that just kind of explain how you can claim them.

Sure.

And then you can go to my Facebook or whatever and see me there.

Like, yeah, and I'll, I'll definitely vouch for this because we were, we started talking before this last trip and spread by list.

I was reaching out to John to be like, hey, let's get on.

Let's get the podcast booked.

And he's like, well, I'm.

I'm on a cruise.

I can.

I'm out here in the.

Here's the picture.

Sent me a selfie from the middle of the ocean.

And he's like, this is the trip I was talking about.

It's.

It's for reals.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Everybody, you know, because we're so used to people taking advantage of us there.

Everybody's like, what's the catch?

And all this stuff.

There is no catch.

You.

You already have paid the price for the catch, which is that you served.

And there are organizations out there that just want to pay you back for what you've done.

And that's all this is.

So love it.

Yeah.

So that is incredible.

And everybody pay attention.

I know there's so many veterans that listen to this podcast.

Share this information with every veteran you know, because it's one of the biggest secrets right now that everybody should know about to be able to take advantage of this.

When you say secret, bro, that's straight up the truth.

People act like it doesn't exist.

I just dropped the link for you too.

Perfect.

So, yeah, for everybody listening, I'm going to read off the link, but also go to the.

Go to my Facebook page, join the Close it now group, everyone, and I'll make sure that this link is basically front and center there as well.

So go to LinkedIn.com smart-links/get ready.

Yeah, I'm going to put the link in there.

It's.

We'll go through it fast.

A, Q, G, S, D, V, zero.

Let's see.

That's a. Screw it.

Just go find the link.

It's in the group.

It's in the group.

And it'll be on the podcast.

Yeah, Yep, it's going to be in the podcast notes.

Everybody look for it.

But it's how to apply for these free trips.

They're incredible.

So there's your value add.

Everyone, if you served, please, please, please share this.

And so who all qualifies?

Is it just the person?

Is it the person that no one qualifies too?

So for Atlantis, you and your whole family can go as long as you can fit in the room.

Right.

So if you have a 10 member family, probably not such a good idea.

Sure.

But with that program, you get the second room at 50% off.

Oh, it's even better.

Yeah.

So you could do it that way.

It's just Atlantis is about 400 a night.

So, you know, you got to pay about 200 a night if you get the second room.

Oh, man, that's.

That's nothing for salespeople.

Which we'll dive into here in a second.

Yeah, that's not.

If you can't afford it right now, keep listening because we're going to show you how.

Right, we'll show you how.

That's a great one.

You know, and then the second One is the 10 day cruise with MCS and that covers you and your spouse.

It does not cover your children.

So it's just you and your spouse.

You get a room, you get a cruise.

10 days anywhere in the world.

Wow.

That's incredible.

I freaking love this.

I mean, so where did these kind of start?

When, when did these start do if you know.

And yeah, these are just organizations giving back.

Yeah, they're just organizations giving back.

So the Atlantis trip is through Caesar's Palace.

It's called the Salute card.

The cruise is through Ocean City and their card gives you the MC MSC cruise.

I know Atlantis.

I've been taking that trip since 2016.

Okay.

So I don't know when it started.

2017, something like that.

That's awesome.

That's awesome.

I love this.

So.

And it's so fun to like.

It makes my heart so happy to be able to like do this kind of stuff on a grand scale and talk to a lot of people at the same time about this.

So everybody listen up.

So that's what's going on.

So let's turn the corner and get into really the main reason that we connected because I was so blown away by this program that you have by your company, what you do.

And it's the biggest no brainer that I have come across for a business Owner in years.

So tell us about it.

Yeah.

So, you know, you have to understand the context of the military.

So not everybody on your podcast served or you know, knows about what happens when we transition from being military to civilian.

Sure.

Okay.

So as, as rough as that transition is coming in from being off the block, it is equally, if not more difficult to leave.

Okay.

So what happens is, is whether you do two years or 20 years, everybody goes through a program where when they're getting out, roughly the last six months to three months before they get out, they can apply for what's called the Skillbridge program.

So there's roughly 10,000, 12,000 people that get out of the military every single month going back into the civilian world.

And the labor department to help them transition classifies that as unemployment contract is terminated, therefore it equates to being fired.

Sure.

Even though it's not.

Right.

So if you think about it, at 10,000, 12,000 people per month getting out, how much unemployment is that?

The federal government.

That's insane.

Yeah, Astronomical.

So it's unsustainable.

Right.

So the federal government came up with this program which is teaching people a skill to bridge them into the civilian world.

Okay.

Now what does the government get out of it?

Well, they lose you for three to six months, but they're no longer on the hook for unemployment.

You are.

Right, Right.

So that's number one.

Number two, for all of us that have served.

It actually is a major transition because we go from a society that teaches us and trains us and tells us, what time do you have to get up, where do you have to be, what do you have to wear, what do you get to eat, when do you get to eat, when do you get off?

Right.

I mean, everything is very micromanaged, even down to the level of how much you're going to get paid, with no ability to make more.

Sure.

Right.

So then you come into a capitalist society that doesn't give two flying flips about any of that.

They're not going to tell you what time to be there.

They're not going to tell you what to wear, they're not going to give you specific instructions.

They're going to tell you to do your job and get paid.

It is a huge transition.

Then they lose community, they lose bond, they lose purpose, they lose mission.

Like all of those factors really change us.

Right.

The government sees that, knows that's a huge problem.

But they have competing interests.

We still have to maintain enough people that we can find a two front war.

But we also know that we got to figure out a way to cut the budget because we can't afford to keep paying unemployment on 10,000 people per month.

Right.

So they came up with this program.

So what this program does is, let's say Sam is getting out of the army in May of this year and he can apply.

He would have applied back in November of last year.

And he decides he hates school, he doesn't want to go back to school.

He's not really sure what else he wants to do, but he knows he wants to make six figures.

Sure.

Right.

But he wasn't a doctor, he wasn't a nurse, he wasn't a lawyer, he wasn't a nuclear engineer.

So what's he going to do to make six figures?

Go into sales.

You and I know the answer.

That's going to sales, right?

Yeah.

Obviously that's the giving.

Because obviously we're on a sales podcast.

Right.

But it's also the truth, you know, for our people, once you hit OT, most of our people are making somewhere in the 70 to 85 range for first year on target earnings.

By the second year, you can truly be making six figures, right?

Absolutely.

So what we do is we take these candidates, we train them how to do sales, we partner them with companies.

That company for three to six months does not have to cover their workman's comp, does not have to cover their insurance, does not have to cover their insurer or their pay.

Nothing.

And they don't have to delegate somebody to train them because we train them.

Wow.

Then the federal government said, sam, we need you to hire these people so much that we'll actually give you back up to $12,000 for you to hire them coming out of the military.

Geez Louise.

So by the time it's all said and done for a guy that makes between $65,000 and $75,000, the company will net profit somewhere between 20 and $26,000 by hiring these guys.

Wow.

And so I really want to camp on this for a second because the value of hiring a veteran I know firsthand, because so for everybody listening, when I was sales manager and sales trainer at the company that I grew with the owner and over tripled in size here in Austin, Texas, we were the number one per percentage employer of veterans in the entire Central Texas area.

Specifically, because early on we recognized that you don't have problems with people showing up late, you don't have problems with self discipline, you don't have problems with people doing what you ask them to do.

They will follow what's on the job.

Description and it's awesome when that happens.

And being incredibly coachable and trainable, which is also really awesome.

There's so many benefits of hiring veterans.

The culture, the work ethic is incredible.

And there's a, I mean there's a lot of just back end benefits.

Like they all have incredible healthcare already.

Right.

So we can supplement that.

So there's so many things, so many pros to hiring veterans and if you really embrace the culture then you can even have that as like, hey, we're a veteran majority run company.

You know, that type of even put that into not to manipulate people.

Should be like, just be proud of it and message that out.

So there's so many reasons why this is such an incredible program.

Yeah.

So I mean all the way around, you know, just think of how much time it takes when you hire a brand new hire to train them how to do sales, then to train them how to do your specific type of sales and then whoever's mentoring them or training them, what happens to their sales?

Of course it goes down because the time goes down.

It's twice the work and half the pay for the person training them.

Yep.

So all the way around the company's losing a ton of money.

Where they could partner with us, we could get them quality people who know what it is to work hard, who are loyal and now come to them with sales training and they get to train them for free where they're not paying them.

So incredible.

I love this so absolutely much.

It's.

It just like I lose the ability to word when I think about this program because I've, you know, everybody listening, I'm over all over the country, all the time and I, I talk to so many business owners who are, this is one of the biggest struggles we all know in the heating and air industry, in the home improvement industries.

We know what kind of an opportunity we have.

You know, when, when John's talking about, you know, these guys getting out, their average is 75 to 80k first year.

Well, we all know within our industry double those numbers is where first year should be.

So we have such a better opportunity for the veterans coming out for placement.

And then at the same time, the sky's the limit from there because so many people ask me like, how do I find we have such a limited workforce and especially people who can sell stuff.

And the cool thing is, I mean you can definitely speak to this John.

The backstory of most of these people who, you know, they weren't in the, you know, they weren't the medics they weren't in those.

A lot of times they're very technically minded on the back end of things.

So it seems like such a logical fit for this.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, because 80% of the people getting out of the military don't have college degrees.

Right.

So you, you'll get people that.

We have our own H Vac guys.

Right.

In the military.

So like we, we could literally go recruit a bunch of H Vac guys who are already technicians and then teach them how to do sales and then place them with your company.

So now you have a guy that already is H Vac certified.

Now he could do sales and then he goes straight into your company.

How well do people do in sales in H Vac if they already know how to run the H Vac?

Oh, geez.

It's incredible.

Yeah, I love this.

So then not only is it.

So I'm just going to recap this the way that I hear it and correct me if I'm wrong and then we can build on this is.

So I've got a company I contact you to for some placement.

I say, okay, I need three, I'm hiring for three people this quarter.

So you do the training.

You hook me up with those three people.

They come to work for me for roughly three to six months.

I don't have to pay them because they're being paid by this program.

I don't have to take on any of that, like the huge burden of the training responsibility because that's already covered.

And the average for our industry is 10 to 15,000 per person.

And normally we're just hiring spaghetti and throwing it against the wall and seeing what sticks.

And so we've already got somebody with the right skill set already being trained.

They raised their hand and said, yes, I want to get into sales.

So that means they already have the right mindset for it.

That's right.

Then they work for me for three to six months at zero cost to me.

Then when I do hire them, what I paid you to place that person, I get back from the government in the form of a write off with my company.

No, no, no.

Or how does that work?

It's not a write off.

It's a tax credit.

So it's a credit.

It's a tax credit.

So number one, you get to issue me a 1099.

So that's a write off.

So for my placement, you get 100% write off there.

Okay.

But then you get an additional tax credit from the federal government, which is pure tax credit.

Like as if you had kids that.

Moves that needle that full amount, not just a write off amount.

Yes.

Wow.

That is incredible.

So it's basically double.

The government set up a way to double dip and get a free.

Basically get a free employee.

Yeah, dude.

And why does the wor.

Why does nobody talk about this program?

It's just most people simply don't know about it.

Yeah, most people.

We still struggle with this.

So one of the largest skillbridge programs in the country does about 7,500 a year.

Well, there's 10,000 that get out a month.

Oh, yeah.

So where are the rest of them exactly?

They don't know.

And most companies don't know this is available either.

So what kind of numbers of people do you.

Are you working with that you train on the regular basis?

Yeah, we train 30 to 40 every three months.

We place 95% of them.

Not everybody likes the.

The roles we have, so some of them go find their own.

Sure.

But we place about 95% of.

I love this.

So the next logical question then is because I know at this point we're building, not intentionally, but building anticipation.

I know there's plenty of people.

Right.

The second would pick up the phone and dial.

How in the world do they get a hold of you about this program?

Yeah, the easiest way is just go to my website, mysalesplatoon.com and just book an appointment.

Okay.

Mysalesplatoon.com Yep.

If you're a dial person, I can't always answer the phone because I'm doing podcasts or I'm teaching or we're door.

Like next week the kids start door knocking.

So like, like they're out in the field, you know, and I'm out there with them, so.

Nice.

So tell me.

Let's park there for a second because I don't know if you knew this, but last week I was just one of the.

I had a whole session and a speaker at door to door con 7, which is of course the largest door to door conference in the world.

And of course we had, you know, Chris Voss and Lance Armstrong and Shaun White and some incredible keynotes.

But of course the whole purpose is, you know, teaching people how to go create business.

So tell me more about that part of your training.

Because that's something that.

I'm basically the face of doors for H Vac right now.

So that's something I'm extremely passionate about, is showing companies how.

Because nobody does it in the industry.

So showing companies how to do that to start with.

So that's the other reason I'M so excited because this really marries together.

So speak to that a little bit.

Yeah.

So the first thing I do is I tell them I don't care what they sell.

I don't care what they talk about, I don't care what they do.

Come up with a plan and you're going to knock 100 doors this weekend.

And I tell them you could, you can do donations for your favorite church, your favorite political candidate.

You could sell Girl Scout cookies.

You could just go around telling people about who we are and what we do.

The only metric for success is that you knock 100 doors.

Love it.

And that's all we do.

They come back from this exercise completely changed.

Because I believe that door to door is probably the most difficult sales process there is now.

Right.

You know what, what's going to happen if you cold dial 100 people?

Nothing.

There's like a. Yeah, yeah.

But it can be a little bit, depending on what city you're in, a little bit more abusive.

If you knock 100 doors right.

After knocking a few thousand in several cities across the country, I can.

You don't care anymore after that, though, so.

So we do it to get them that experience, to develop that thick skin.

And again, I purposely leave it vague for them to determine what they're going to do.

Sure.

Just so they're comfortable enough to get out and knock on her doors.

That's it.

I love it.

So what do you find happens after that exercise?

Their confidence levels go through the roof.

Yeah.

And why is that?

Because I think in our culture today, we're so digitally oriented that we've forgotten what it is to do belly to belly sales.

And when you get done knocking the doors and it's really not as bad as you thought it was going to be, then it really inspires confidence and they come back under doors, they'll probably make two sales because they don't know what they're doing.

But that doesn't matter because I relieve them of that pressure and I tell them, I don't care if you sell anything.

Yeah.

The objective is the 100 Knox, not the sell.

I love this.

So let's break this.

I'm going to camp here for a sec.

Because one, you're training.

The importance of marry the process, divorce the results.

So the importance of putting the work and tracking the leading metrics, not the lagging metrics.

Because if we have this certain output that we want, we can work those numbers backwards and say, okay, well, I just need to hit maybe this many doors or have this many conversations.

And I'm going to get that result.

Well, the problem is, is that people, because we have to make a living, right.

We have to have a paycheck.

So too often in sales, we get married to our paycheck instead of our activity.

Right.

But we can't control the sale.

I can't make you do anything.

I can't say, sam, you're going to buy this product.

I don't care what you say.

I can't do it.

Yeah.

So I can't control that.

What I can control is how many Sams I talk to.

So if you came to me and you said, hey, I'm going to pay you $1 million and all you have to do is talk to 1,000 Sam's, I can talk to a thousand Sams.

Love it.

I could probably talk to a thousand Sam's just in Clarksville and Nashville.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

So we didn't even have to travel.

Yeah, dude, I would.

Everybody on LinkedIn named Sam would have a conversation with me.

100%.

Oh.

And so it just helps us recognize too, that, you know, especially with that process, that it's like, you know, if I go to pay you a buck, a million bucks for every, as soon as you get that thousand Sam mark, how fast are they going to sort through the rest?

That's right.

Well, and I tell people this, so imagine, and we, you and I both know this as, as people that have been in the game for a while, and this is 100% true.

But people don't do this.

If I told you, if I guaranteed you, Sam, here's a contract.

In this contract, I guarantee you if you talk to 100 people a week, just 100 every week, 50 weeks out of 52 weeks, you'll make 200 grand a year.

Mm.

Would you talk to 100 people a week?

Guaranteed?

Guaranteed?

I would, yes.

The numbers show that if you actually did that, you would make multiple six figures.

The numbers are, are in, are, are indisputable.

Yeah.

100 a week.

Even in door knocking, which, you know, typically you're talking a hundred a day, but even in door knocking.

Yeah.

You consistently, for 50 weeks every year, knock 100 doors a week, you'll make close to 200k, bro.

You know, and the craziest part is I can talk about, confirm this, because I just spent an entire week in door to door, kind of in a room of 5,000 people, and I met hundreds of people, literally hundreds of people that are earning between like 500k to 7 figures.

Plus I saw a guy I met A guy that made 2.2 million last year of his own efforts strictly from knocking doors, personal income.

I mean the number of like Lamborghinis and Ferraris and Porsches in front of this place from people who.

And these are.

It was incredible watching people getting these awards that are, you know, 16, 17, 18, 19, making multiple six figures, let alone the people, the veterans.

That's right, know what they're doing.

So it doesn't matter what the industry is or the technique.

Right.

Is it door to door calls or emails?

Listen, so I saw this, I don't know if you're on TikTok, but I saw this TikTok influencer, I forget what his name was.

And he said if you do three videos a day for 90 days, it'll change your life, guaranteed.

Because that's the way TikTok's algorithm works.

Yeah, yeah, bro.

I'm starting out like immediately.

So the reason I wanted to camp out here on doors for so long is, you know, that's been a big mission of mine and I've hear a lot of people within, specifically within H vac industry that are really resistant to it strictly from, you know, from history and from.

Oh well, our industry doesn't need to do that.

Well, this last year we all know digital marketing just turned into a bloodbath.

And the cost of new client acquisition, witness through the roof, it multiplied four to five times.

So now we have the ability to go out and bring volume into our business.

And this is how I'm still waiting for that first eight track company that says I'm ready to explode.

Because this is how companies are going from a million 10 million to 100 million, from 20 million to 200 million is by blowing just on doors.

100% on doors.

And nobody gets that concept yet.

And what's it cost to go Nornock and you have to file a city permit for 25 bucks maybe versus Facebook ads, which they're starting to do all the structure, 7,500 plus 2,000amonth in ads.

Oh yeah, and that's minimum.

I mean I've come across companies that are spending 20, 50, 60, $100,000 a month and not getting anywhere close to the return.

We can put three to five people in the field and like just.

And they get paid on their efforts.

So if they don't show results, they're earning it.

But we all know they're going to earn it because of what a high value return that is.

So we won't camp out on doors anymore.

It's my passion.

The Most important part of this conversation, though, is how this program works.

So here's a couple questions.

Are there criteria or any limiting factors for companies that want to contact you?

Does every company qualify or what's that look like?

Well, let me say this.

Every company qualifies to participate with somebody like me or even to go apply for their own skill bridge.

Now, I wouldn't suggest that only because it's a two year process of red tape, but anybody can do this.

And if you want help with that, just give me a call, shoot me an email off my website.

You know what?

Regardless of which way you want to do it.

So anybody qualifies.

Okay.

I personally won't work with a company that doesn't pay at least 30 bucks an hour because I believe veterans are worth more than that, 100%.

Now, the candidates actually have a far more stringent requirement to come and work with me than the companies because I want to guarantee that the company is getting somebody of quality.

Sure.

Right.

I don't want to do the spaghetti, throwing it on the wall and hoping they stick.

I want to get guys.

And I do this with every candidate.

I'm evaluating the candidate for their fit in sales.

Then I'm evaluating the candidate for their fit in your industry.

Perfect.

So we do sales assessments, we do tests inside the class.

Like for example, gonna go knock 100 doors next week.

Yeah.

But if you come back and you're like, oh my God, that was the most horrible thing ever.

I'm not going to send him to Sam.

Right.

That's not a good fit.

So.

So I, so I spent a lot of time mentoring each one of these kids and making sure they're heading in the right direction for them.

Sure.

But also for the right direction for the company.

So do you in that, that process of say I just called you up and said, hey, I need, you know, a couple people.

Do you do like an intake with the companies to go through and recognize.

Exactly.

Skill sets.

What's the task?

Yeah, what's the task?

Condition standards, you know, what are your top earners making?

What's the, the career progression look like for.

Look like here?

I do all those things.

Okay.

Okay, Perfect.

So everybody listening.

I don't know why you wouldn't do this if you were a business owner.

There's no reason to not because it's such a win win.

We just didn't know it existed.

And so again, it's mysalesplatoon.com John, I'm sure you'll probably be okay with this.

I hadn't asked you ahead of time, but if I shoot you an invite to the Face to the Close It Now Facebook group, are you okay to hop in there and.

Oh, of course.

That's a great, great place.

A good catching place.

Everybody that's listening to this, it's Drive Time University for most people, so they can't necessarily just stop and make notes and stuff.

Sure.

But in the Facebook group, you'll be able to catch John.

We will do.

I would like.

We're also going to do a Facebook Live within the group and really talk.

Be able to answer some questions and do a live version and talk to all of you in the group.

And it'll be a great place for you to be able to reach out to connect with him to get this process rolling.

Because I know all so many of you across the country are always looking for those quality people.

Some of these may be a perfect fit for the straight sales consultant.

Some of them may be a great fit for that technician, you know, and so wherever that they turn out to be a good fit, John's got the people for you.

And so, man, and it's being paid for.

You get like months to make sure it's a good fit, which is incredible.

And I mean, where else can you have a try it if you like it type of program for hiring somebody?

I've never heard of, even heard of this before.

And it's incredible.

So, yeah, love it.

It's great.

Yeah, whatever you guys need from me, you know, there's a lot of, you know, especially if they're doing like you are and doing a lot of door to door.

So when I work with roofing and solar guys, one of the things I talk about in their sales process, and we can do this in your Facebook group is.

But how do you incentivize people to do the right actions as defined by you and I?

Right.

Right.

So in door to door, we get it where we set a lot of appointments and then they no show.

So how do I incentivize Sam to make sure he's there tomorrow at noon?

And then I want Sam to buy.

So how do I incentivize him to buy?

And then I want Sam to give me a list of all of his buddies who might be open to buying.

So how do I incentivize Sam to.

To refer me to all his friends?

Right.

That's so important.

And door to door.

Oh, it is.

That you're man, you're literally like reading the script from like, I did a whole series of podcasts on this is what we were talking about, and I'm sure you probably haven't even listened to them.

But.

So these are universal truths.

We know this.

These are the important things that must happen for the process.

And even cooler is when you get someone trained to be a trained hunter like this, a, you know, like the.

This specific person already has the mindset of being that.

That carnivore.

I eat what I kill.

Right.

And so very.

I'm sure you're talking about entrepreneurship and commission mindset and the 1099 mindset, we like to call it.

And so they already have this if there's no lead from the company, I'm going to go make it happen type of mindset.

So then for them, it's a bonus when they actually might catch a lead from the company, but otherwise they don't care because they're going to make it happen.

And, man, talk about a value.

That's the value add to organizations across the country.

I've been working on, you know, preaching this to them, and you're just like, re emphasizing how important this is, and I love it.

Yeah, don't get me started on 1099 versus slavery.

Oh, yeah, we can absolutely have that whole conversation.

Also, because I'm with you, there's such a, you know, my mission, especially this year, is you to show people not only how they can make an incredible income in the industry, but also how they can.

Basically, I say you can have it all.

It's not just working your face off, but you can also have a great family life.

You can also, you know, have a great fitness and nutrition life.

You can't make a million bucks if you get off the dollar menu.

And so that's something that we as podcasting as a platform, we talk about a lot.

And it sounds like you're definitely on that same page.

Yep, absolutely.

Man, I love this.

So.

All right, everybody, well, it is time to land this plane.

And John, thank you so much for hanging out with me today.

I hope everybody listening, every single person should be reaching out to John if you have a business or even want to start a company.

John is the resource for in his company, my sales platoon.

So it's mysalesplatoon.com he's going to be in the Facebook group.

We're going to create some.

Create some content around this because, man, I have a new passion project, and this is part of it.

With the second we came across, I came across you in the Facebook group.

It was cool.

So thanks for being here for everybody listening.

You can grow Your team, with the help of John and my sales platoon and the US Government, they want to put people in your company and they want to see you successful and we want to see you successful.

And most importantly, let's give the veterans a place to transition to that is worth being at.

One of the things we say all the time on this podcast, John, is work to become someone worth buying from.

Oh, nice.

Yeah.

And that is the whole philosophy and why this resonates so much with me.

Because you've already given them a cheat code to start with and then they're just, you know, standing on the backs of shoulder, shoulders of giants to grow from there.

Awesome.

I love that.

That's great.

Excellent, man.

Well, all right, everybody, thanks for listening today.

How to contact John will be in the episode notes and also in the Facebook page.

Couple Quick announcements.

March 21st and 22nd, here in Round Rock, Texas, I am hosting the Close It Now Sells training.

It's going to be a master class.

We've got two days.

We're going to deep dive into every bit of the Close It Now H vac sales process.

So it will change your numbers.

I can't guarantee you that you're going to be the number one person in your city, but what I can guarantee you is your numbers will multiply.

So wherever they are, they're going to grow.

And so that is the 21st and 22nd of March.

Also, everyone make sure to join the Facebook group and there's some really fun stuff coming this year with Close it now.

So watch out.

One of the top ones at the forefront is going to be working with my sales platoon.

This is not the last time that you've heard from John and the last time you've heard me will hear me mention this because it will become a mainstay.

So thank you everybody for listening.

Thanks John, for being here.

And until next time, my friends, 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.

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