Welcome to Close it now, an H Vac sales training podcast with Sam Wakefield.
Speaker AHere we'll build your reputation in residential H Vac sales to be the expert influencer in your market.
Speaker AYou'll get insight into the top minds in the industry as they share their skills and hacks to help you on your journey.
Speaker AThis 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.
Speaker ANow let's get started with your host of the Close it now podcast.
Speaker AThis is Sam Wakefield.
Speaker BGreetings and salutations.
Speaker BWelcome everybody back to Close it now, your source for all things H vac sales related.
Speaker BAnd just in home sales related, today we're going to be discussing when somebody says, well, I'm just looking for the cheapest price, there is some psychology and a way to filter that to easily figure out if that is just a smoke screen for you to see if you'll drop your prices or if they are truly just looking for the absolute cheapest thing they can find.
Speaker BSo that is what we're going to talk about today.
Speaker BWe're going to break it apart a little bit, unpack that and talk about a couple different scenarios where that might apply and how to effectively use this verbiage to decipher what they're really telling you to.
Speaker BListen between the lines, as I like to say.
Speaker BSo stick around.
Speaker BThank you for listening.
Speaker BThat is definitely a huge, huge thing with sales, especially in home sales, is listening to what they really mean.
Speaker BBecause a lot of times clients and just people in general, they're gonna smoke screen what they really mean.
Speaker BThey're gonna tell you these things because part of it is just that's the way they've been trained, that's the way they grew up.
Speaker BDepending on what culture they're from.
Speaker BThere are some cultures around the world that it's almost as if right alongside math and science in school, they have a negotiating class in their elementary school.
Speaker BRaise your hand if you've ever come across that and it's okay and it's great.
Speaker BAnd you need to be able to effectively counter those negotiating tactics and principles and how to learn how to unveil what they're really wanting.
Speaker BAnd a good example, this comes from a guy on my team, Dan.
Speaker BThanks for this, Dan.
Speaker BWe were talking about it this morning in our meeting and he had a client that was getting back to him with, well, you know, I'm not so sure about Your company, you know, I'm really looking for a cheap price here.
Speaker BAnd so he of course gets back with.
Speaker BAnd anytime anybody says that if they even come back to you with that, they're still interested in your company, they're just trying to negotiate your price down, you haven't shown them everything they're looking for.
Speaker BThere's a possibility that you haven't increased your level of certainty with them to the fact that they're confident in your company.
Speaker BThey're not maybe not 100% confident in you as the representative.
Speaker BMaybe they're not 100% confident with your project.
Speaker BSo this is how you handle all of that and what to do with it.
Speaker BSo with this verbiage, what you're looking for is anytime anybody says, hey, I'm looking for the cheapest price, got to clarify that because there's a difference in cheap and value, you know, there's a difference in cheap and low price, right?
Speaker BSo with that, what I like to do is instead of saying, okay, you know, I understand you're looking for the lowest price or something like that, actually use some, a lot more clarifying words, be very descriptive in how you describe that.
Speaker BSay, okay, are you truly looking for the low down, dirty rock bottom, cut corners, scrape the bottom of the barrel price or are you looking for the best value for your dollar?
Speaker BNow this is going to do two things for you.
Speaker BSo, and use those kinds of descriptors when you respond.
Speaker BIf you're in person, if it's email, if it's text, however it, if you're on the phone, say, okay, listen, are you looking for, I want to be clear on what you're asking me for.
Speaker BAre you truly looking for the low down, dirty rock bo, you know, bottom feeder, scrape the bottom of the barrel price, or are you looking for the best value for your dollar?
Speaker BAnd what this is going to do.
Speaker BThe people that are truly looking for just the cheapest price and they don't care about quality because you're going to have some of those clients, you will have clients who don't literally don't care about quality if they have to do this every five years, but they are just installing the cheapest price, they're okay with that.
Speaker BAnd you have to come to terms that there are those clients out there and they're not the ones you want because when you sell that project, guess what?
Speaker BThose are the clients that are going to complain the most.
Speaker BThey're going to find the most things wrong with your install, even if it is impeccable, even if it's textbook.
Speaker BThey're going to find some stuff wrong with it and you're going to have go backs and you're going to have complaints and there's a good chance you end up with a bad review.
Speaker BEven though they were the ones that beat you up on the price, they were the ones that just dropped, made you drop the bottom out.
Speaker BDon't do it, don't fall for that.
Speaker BSo you're gonna have those clients, but so this is gonna differentiate the people that are truly looking for that.
Speaker BThey're either going to move on and not respond back to you, which is fine, or they're gonna, you know, it's possibly.
Speaker BThey could get mad a little bit about it.
Speaker BThey could get, you know, you're calling their bluff.
Speaker BSo you've got those clients.
Speaker BThat's really what they're looking for.
Speaker BLet them go.
Speaker BBless and release.
Speaker BThey can be someone else's headache.
Speaker BHowever, and this is the important part, and sales psychology comes in, you will have those clients and the majority of them actually are the client who they really are looking for better value.
Speaker BThey maybe not necessarily are interested in the lowest, cheapest price system you have, but that was just their way of having a smoke screen of getting you to drop your price on some of the other stuff that they're looking at now for those clients when you tell them that, it's kind of like your takeaway because they're going to come back to you with, well, now, hang on, no, that's not really what I'm looking for.
Speaker BWhat I'm looking for is, yes, the best value for my dollar, the best value for the project.
Speaker BI don't want you to cut corners.
Speaker BI don't want you to leave things out.
Speaker BI really am looking for a better value.
Speaker BAnd that reopens the negotiation that opens the ability to have that conversation with those clients because they understand that one you're seeing right through their smokescreen.
Speaker BYou basically labeled it and said, listen and just tell them up front, we will never be the absolute cheapest company, nor would you want us to be the cheapest company, because the things that I would have to leave out in order to make that price happen, you wouldn't want me to leave out.
Speaker BSo I decided a long time ago to not skip steps and be proud of my price because it's for quality work.
Speaker BSo if somebody else is coming in and offering you a system at a thousand or $2,000 less than I am, but it only lasts half as long, have they really saved you anything?
Speaker BIf you have to do it all again and again every few years and you have maintenance issues along the way and it doesn't cool or heat the way they say it's going to.
Speaker BHave you really gotten a better deal or did you just buy yourself a headache?
Speaker BAnd so when you have this kind of upfront, just really clear, you're just like, I'm not making this up.
Speaker BYou can Google search this stuff.
Speaker BIt's exactly what happens.
Speaker BYou have thousands and millions of people who have given bad reviews for this exact same they took their price and just went off of price instead of value and quality.
Speaker BAnd then they end up with a project and with a system that is nothing but a headache and it's giving them nothing but problems.
Speaker BAnd this 100% actually I love quotes, so quotes are very powerful.
Speaker BThere's a quote by Benjamin Franklin that we actually have on the back of every single one of our business cards.
Speaker BThe bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.
Speaker BAnd that's a Benjamin Franklin quote.
Speaker BI'm going to read it again.
Speaker BThe bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.
Speaker BAnd it's super, super powerful because.
Speaker BAnd it's even on the bottom of every single email that we send because we don't want to be the cheap person.
Speaker BThe example is you can sell 10 systems that are your basic efficiency systems, your builder grade stuff, or you can sell one or two high end equipment and earn more money, have more net at the end of the day than 10 of the basic ones and you worked a lot less.
Speaker BSo that's how you work less and earn more.
Speaker BThat's exactly what our podcast is about.
Speaker BThat's one of the key principles and premises of this podcast.
Speaker BThis is not about working your face off until you don't see your family and you never get to take vacation and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker BThis is about being efficient and managing your time by upping your ticket price, upping your sales numbers, up your close rate, you could have the same number of leads.
Speaker BAnd if you up your close rate and you up your ticket price, you're going to earn dramatic amount of more money.
Speaker BThe example is with and I'll just pull from my own life where I'm at now from the first year to the third year I have the same number of leads, but I gave myself a $50,000 raise by just changing the number of my close rate and just changing my average sell.
Speaker BThose are the only two things that changed.
Speaker BThat number of average number of leads was about the same, but when you do that, you dramatically change your bottom line.
Speaker BAnd it's awesome when you see that happen.
Speaker BEvery single one of you can do that by applying some of these skills, these techniques, these principles, and it's going to change the way that your customers interact with you.
Speaker BThe other thing that happens when you communicate like this, when you communicate very clearly, because crystal clear communication is crucial when we're doing sales, especially for something that it's a high ticket item.
Speaker BI mean, we are high ticket closers.
Speaker BYou know, you see Dan Locke on all over the Internet.
Speaker BIf you've never heard of him, look him up.
Speaker BDan and Lok Dan Locke, he is the high ticket closer.
Speaker BThey call him, you know, he's talking about high ticket closes of, you know, 2,000, 3,000, $4,000.
Speaker BI laugh when I see those because in our industry, high ticket closing, our threshold to start is what, six, seven thousand bucks for a complete system.
Speaker BAnd commonly every single day I've got one I'm working on right now, that's 37,000 is what we just ended up at.
Speaker BYou would commonly do, you know, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, $50,000 projects all the time.
Speaker BBecause we educate in this industry.
Speaker BWe educate, you offer services, you offer all of the extras so people can say, you know what, I like this, but I don't like that.
Speaker BI like this, but I don't like that.
Speaker BI understand the benefits here.
Speaker BThank you for educating me.
Speaker BThank you for taking the time to go.
Speaker BI don't know how many times I can tell you, be able to tell me, thank you for taking the time to educate me on what all of this does and what the problem is and how you're going to fix it because no one else cared enough to take that time.
Speaker BThat's why I chose you.
Speaker BSo you've got to do the due diligence and explain things the right way, but in a way that they can understand it, a way that they know what's going on.
Speaker BSo the other thing that happens when we are just completely transparent in that conversation, when you're like, listen, are you looking for the down and dirty, rock bottom, bottom of the barrel, lowball price, or are you looking for more value that not only weeds out the people that are truly looking for that, that are just the cheapos.
Speaker BAnd then the other people that come back and say, okay, no, let's really talk because I like your company, you know, let's see what you can do.
Speaker BBut it also, in that transparency, what happens, you're basically opening up and say, listen, I'm here to help you, but I'm not going to cut corners to do it.
Speaker BIt boosts your credibility as a company.
Speaker BIt boosts your credibility as a representative.
Speaker BAnd basically telling them, I'm not going to compromise my quality because you asked me to.
Speaker BI'm not going to compromise my quality and my service just to win your sale.
Speaker BAnd by doing that, you're basically saying, look, the impression that you get that you give off is, listen, I need people.
Speaker BI don't need a single sale.
Speaker BYour one project is not going to make or break my success.
Speaker BI am a quality representative for a quality company with a quality product.
Speaker BAnd if we win or lose your project, it doesn't make any difference to me because there will be others, there's always more waiting who want quality work.
Speaker BAnd when that is the vibe that you're giving out, it's kind of like when you see people in the dating scene and you hear all of these people talk about you can smell desperation a mile away, right?
Speaker BWhen somebody is desperate, there's not a date inside.
Speaker BIt's like a wasteland.
Speaker BIt's a desert out there.
Speaker BBut the second that you take yourself off the market and you have that whole I don't really care attitude, geez, that's crazy.
Speaker BThere's dates everywhere.
Speaker BEverybody wants you.
Speaker BIt's the same thing with this.
Speaker BIf you are desperate to make a sale and you're, okay, well, listen, you know, what's the other company doing?
Speaker BAnd I can match that price or I can drop my price even lower.
Speaker BI guarantee you I'll beat it.
Speaker BWhat does that sound like?
Speaker BThat's horribly desperate.
Speaker BI had a guy call me earlier, gave him a quote yesterday.
Speaker BWe're working on the final details of it.
Speaker BHe's like, hey, I just wanted to tell you it's a big project.
Speaker BI'm getting other quotes and they're coming in cheaper than yours.
Speaker BAnd I said, absolutely, sir, I'm sure they are.
Speaker BI said, because I'm going to be transparent with you, here's what's going on.
Speaker BThis year is 2019 global.
Speaker BAnd not just global, across the country.
Speaker BThe market is down a little bit.
Speaker BI said, and what's happening in a slower year?
Speaker BThis is a slower year than the last several.
Speaker BI said, so, sir, as you're comparing all of this, what you're going to see happen is there's companies out there that are so desperate for work that they're willing to drop their prices to crazy amounts lower just to get any kind of a job.
Speaker BBut the things that they're cutting out for your project, I would never do.
Speaker BSo, yes, I said, absolutely.
Speaker BLet me help you compare the quality of work.
Speaker BSo, because what we're talking about is not an appliance.
Speaker BIf you went to Lowe's or Home Depot and you buy a refrigerator and you plug that sucker in and it doesn't work, you can blame the manufacturer, you can blame Kenmore or Bosch or whoever made the refrigerator.
Speaker BI said, but what we're talking about here is a lot different.
Speaker BThis is like buying a Ford F150 and having it delivered to your front yard in a thousand boxes.
Speaker BAnd then it's up to you, you to hire the company who's certified and qualified to put it together and not have missing parts left at the end, not have extra screws and components because they didn't know where they went.
Speaker BSo that's why our prices are where they are and that's the quality of project you're going to get.
Speaker BAnd so that's just straight up what I told my phone.
Speaker BHe's like, oh my gosh, yeah, you're totally right.
Speaker BI was like, because if their systems don't last as long, you haven't saved anything because you've got a headache now and it didn't accomplish what you wanted to accomplish.
Speaker BSo at the end of the day, it's never about the price.
Speaker BIt's about the quality of the project and doing it right.
Speaker BAnd when you communicate on this level, can you hear the confidence in my voice?
Speaker BAnd you have to be connected, of course, to a company that you know the quality of install is that good, you know the quality of service behind it is that good.
Speaker BYou know what your design is that good.
Speaker BAnd you're only going to offer the best of what you can do, do your best and forget the rest.
Speaker BRight?
Speaker BBut when you have that type of conversation, the confidence in your voice comes through.
Speaker BYou don't have to say, I'm confident, you just are.
Speaker BIt's about belief.
Speaker BIt's about knowing that you're offering the right thing for the right purpose to the right people and knowing that your price is the right price for the amazing level of quality and service that you're offering.
Speaker BSo that is the rest of that conversation.
Speaker BBut just ask them, label it.
Speaker BThat's called as is ing it.
Speaker BYou are basically, I'm going to call this as it is.
Speaker BAre you looking for that low down, dirty, rock bottom, bottom of the barrel price or are you looking for the best value for your dollar?
Speaker BAnd they will absolutely clarify and they're going to sort themselves for you so you don't end up with the bottom feeder who just wants the cheapest price and doesn't care what corners are cut that are only going to be complainers.
Speaker BOr you'll find that a lot of the people will come back to you and the bigger majority will come back to you with you know what?
Speaker BI really do want the best value for your dollar.
Speaker BThank you for explaining it like that.
Speaker BNo, I don't want you to cut any corners.
Speaker BWhat can we do?
Speaker BLet's work together to come up with something that works.
Speaker BThat's exactly how to have that conversation and it's extremely powerful.
Speaker BSo I would love to hear from you about what value you got from this.
Speaker BWhat was your biggest takeaway from today's episode?
Speaker BShoot me a message@samoseitnow.net go to closeitnow.net to stay in touch.
Speaker BWe've got the coaching program has now begun.
Speaker BSo we've got group coaching, we've got private coaching and watch out for some events.
Speaker BI've got some events coming up in the fall that are going to be amazing.
Speaker BThey're going to be rockers.
Speaker BSo shoot me a message if you would like to discuss a three do it a three day boot camp for your organization because I've got my sales system is proven start to finish.
Speaker BFrom soup to nuts from the first call to the close every single time.
Speaker BSo that blind date to marriage proposal in less than an hour and getting the ring on the finger.
Speaker BSo that's the Close it Now system.
Speaker BSo anyway, if you got value from this, share it with someone.
Speaker BI would love to hear your feedback.
Speaker BUntil next time.
Speaker BI will talk to you soon.
Speaker AThanks for listening to Close it now with Sam Wakefield.
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