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, buy, 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, well welcome to the very first Close it now podcast that has a guest.

This is an interview today.

So I'm super, super, super excited.

Again, my name is Sam Wakefield and this is a monumental moment because this is also going to be one of the first videos for our YouTube channel which is rolling as well.

So thank you for checking in so far at least of recording time.

We are in 25 countries being listened to at this point.

So I'm really excited about everything that's going on around the world with being able to connect to you amazing H Vac salespeople in all the countries around the world, all languages, everything that's coming together.

Because the end of the day the psychology is the same, the way that we interact with our clients and lead from a servant perspective.

If you serve your clients, the money part of it, the closing, the deal takes care of itself and that's really the philosophy that we roll with on Close It Now.

So yeah.

So thank you for tuning in today.

My special guest is somebody who I've known for a long time actually coming up on almost 10 years now.

We've known each other for almost a decade.

I met this guy initially when I was a young Padawan.

Learning the sales process myself and obviously an expert at the time.

I took a class actually is about a two or three day boot camp training under this gentleman.

He is started in 1882 in the heating and air industry.

So doesn't look nearly that old guy.

But started as just like so many of us, started as an installer, he was an attic rat like myself, service tech, got his license, decided to for things to get better, he had to get better.

Which is of course also the philosophy of our, of our channel here.

So he went and got his residential and commercial licenses, ended up becoming a sales manager at a big company.

That company ended up was bought a couple times and kept growing and growing, ended up being bought by a manufacturer.

And then in 1998 they said, you know what, you've done such a good job with your company, who you're leading, would you go out and help some of these other companies who are struggling and maybe having some friction points and some hurdles to get over?

And so that saw some success there and they kept asking him.

So at that point he decided to make a career of that himself.

And that's when he opened his business, which is the H Vac coaching corner.

We'll make sure to get you all of the contact info for Tom here.

He's also fun fact about him, he's had an amazing life journey.

So not only is he disciplined in his business, he's disciplined in his personal life as well.

At one point in time he had hit 340 pounds.

And for all of you foreign people, I'm not sure what that is in kilos, but I'm sure you can do the math there, 340 pounds.

But has now at his worst, but now at his best, he enjoys cycling, hiking, super active lifestyle, remodeling a house in Florida with him and his bride.

And he's now at 222 and crushing it every single day, both business and fitness.

So.

So without further ado, thank you for Joining me today, Mr. Tom Whitman.

Thank you for the invitation.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

So just a super quick bio obviously about yourself, but give us a little bit more insight into your philosophy and your I guess focus on maybe one of the biggest struggles that trade companies.

Obviously you help both plumbing and heating and air companies, but maybe one of the biggest struggles that they have and your kind of vision for overcoming that.

From the business sense or the selling sense?

Let's start with the business sense just in general.

Okay.

The biggest challenge is, and I mean I've lived through it myself during my journey, is them the business understanding a few principles.

Right.

So cash flow is a big thing for small companies.

Minding cash flow and cash spread every day is super important because Sam, you can have a profitable profit loss statement and be making money, run out of cash and go out of business.

So that's number one, watch your cash flow.

Number two is understand where your break even is for revenue every month.

And if they can at least track those two things starting out, they're going to be very successful because they're going to know if they're growing their cash and they're going to know if they're going to surpass, break even and make more informed decisions each month.

It's not Easy being starting out in a truck, you know, one person and building a company.

Right.

But those two things are easily tracked.

If they monitor that everybody else is, everything else is going to come pretty easy.

Sure.

Those two principles, even in the largest companies are oftentimes overlooked.

Cash flow and break even.

And then everything else has to do with, you know, growing the company.

And how do you put the people in the field to do the things they need to do to make sure that the company's going to be profitable.

Sure, that makes perfect sense.

You know, I see that every day.

Even in our market here you get these large companies that every six or seven years they end up having to be sold.

You know, they've got a 40 or 50 year history, but every six to eight years they're bought by somebody else because they're going under.

Because in the off season they, for example, maybe drop their prices solo just to win jobs that they don't understand that they're, they're functioning in the red and they're actually paying to do the work instead of keeping, you know, keeping quality and keeping the prices where they should be and they don't have to.

Right.

I mean that's the strategy.

If they can get while we're there, I mean if they can acquire enough maintenance agreements during demand season to stay in front of customers during the slow season, they can be less weather dependent and not have to work do those type of things.

Things.

Right.

So there's a strategy for everything.

Yeah, actually that's a great segue.

Right now is a perfect time.

Obviously we're time of recording.

This is December 10th.

You guys are probably going to see and hear this recording in January of 2020, but which is, you know, dead winter for most places, but which means obviously there's a lot of, you know, a lot of heating season going on.

But also the other part of the world, I know I've got a big listener base in Australia.

You guys are right in the middle of summer.

So now's a good time to plan and start thinking about what's going to happen in four months from now.

How am I going to handle that time of the year and to basically like just like you said, weatherproof your business, you know, how do you advise for that?

Well, first of all, you need to be thinking winter all summer and summer all winter.

Oh, I like that.

That's Jim Rohn.

You know, give accolades to Jim Rohn.

But the fact of the matter is managers can't do it.

It's up to the people that are in front of customers and customer service reps to plant those seeds and focus on it.

And there's a lot of dynamics as to why they don't want to do it.

One big one is that a lot of companies may not manage their agreements well.

What I mean by that demand season.

Could you imagine being a technician and it's 100 degrees outside and your first two calls are preventative maintenance, service agreement customers and then you're out till 10 o' clock at night servicing repairs.

That's kind of a distractor for technicians.

But if they can buy into the process and discipline themselves to push those calls into the months they need to work and free up opportunities for more incoming calls.

And then take the older equipment, non customer equipment first and prioritize that way, my gosh, it changes the lives of the entire company at that point.

They can literally be less weather dependent.

But it takes the technicians and the customer service reps to buy into it to see how it helps them and actually make it happen.

Wow.

Yeah.

No, like that.

So you're saying to really basically just start to prioritize your calls when people, when they reach out or is what you're doing is just prior.

Okay.

Set up a actual agenda of these come first, these come second, these come third and then stick to that.

Of course, take care of your existing customers and commitments first.

Right.

That's the ethical thing to do.

But anything else that comes in, that's a non client, anybody, that's not an agreement customer isn't a customer.

I believe so.

Not in the family.

Like I say.

That's exactly right.

So everything from that point forward, all those goes first and it's the dispatching.

Management's a little bit different too because instead of building a tight schedule during demand season, you're going to be sliding those calls off to the side and we'll say the next available technician will get to you and then you just, you just keep the list growing and it changes the dynamic of business.

You can do it in one season.

Wow.

Well, what kind of a.

So with companies that you've done this with, what do you have some examples of like some general numbers that you've turned it around?

I had a plumbing company that went into the heating and cooling business and they were struggling at about a half a million, couldn't keep employees.

The cycle was bad.

I went in and got, I was involved with them.

More of a hands on, you know.

So we are weekly mixture of things happen.

The first year, the first cycle through the season, they went from a half a million to 1.5.

Triple their growth.

It was awesome.

Yeah.

Because, I mean, they had four technicians and they were running probably 500 calls a month, turning 60% of those into agreements and anywhere from 8 to 12% into replacements.

Right.

So I mean, imagine doing that over three or four months.

It doesn't take long to get some things put in place.

I love that.

I love that.

Went in, restructured a little bit, you know, put people in charge of performance in the field so that, you know, because as you grow, you have to restructure a little bit.

The second year, they hit 2.2 right now.

They're on a pretty nice growth pattern right now.

But it's a matter of keeping.

Keeping up with the structure.

So.

Yeah, yeah.

At that point it's just a matter of managing the scalability and just the details.

Yeah, pretty much.

But there's a lot of details.

So I want to.

Because this is a very sales focused podcast and my whole business is centered around the sales focus and a lot of it is the conversations.

Let's dive in a little bit and kind of park there for a minute.

You were mentioning the technician's responsibility in the field to have that conversation with the client to turn 60% into maintenance agreement customers.

And we're the 8 to 12% into turnovers.

Right.

What does that conversation look like?

Because context here, I've got a lot of.

A lot of people in the group that listen are just that they're small companies.

Maybe the owners doing the service and the installs or a little bit larger.

So people wearing a lot of hats or a lot of big companies too, actually, we're pretty spread.

So.

Yeah, what's that look like?

But it's real simple really.

It's called a risk assessment.

It's the same profile that life insurance agencies have been using for years.

What's the average life of the system?

Age, average life in or out of warranty and probability of future repairs.

For example, if the system is 18 years old, the average life is 15 to 20.

It's out of warranty.

The probability of future repairs are high.

For that reason, I'd recommend getting a Comfort Advisor out to give you some options on upgrading to a newer system or we can go ahead and restore operation.

What would you like to do?

So if they choose to get a Comfort Advisor out, they've converted it to a leave.

If they say, let's go ahead and repair it, then I would highly recommend a maintenance agreement so you can get a discount on today's repair.

We'll be out here twice a year to get up in front of any issues.

And if you ever have a need when it's hot like this, you'll go to the front of the line service.

That's how they do it.

It's not complicated, but it's fact based.

There's no opinion.

Everything can be validated with facts.

But when the technicians stay disciplined to the process, they get phenomenal results without a lot of pushback.

I love it.

I love it.

Yeah, that's fantastic.

And it's so much like we talk about here.

We're not twist somebody's arm.

We're not making something up.

It's just basically asking permission.

And then the client says yes.

You know, from the old days, your customer is in control of making decisions.

We're in control of keeping them in control.

Right?

That's right.

That's right.

We give them control back by asking the right questions.

But by asking the right questions, we all know from, you know, we've always heard the one who asks the most questions is the one that keeps control of the conversation.

And it's a beautiful, beautiful cycle, a beautiful circle.

It's fun.

A lot about that philosophy.

You learn the skill.

It's a lot of fun.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, that's great.

I love it.

I love it.

So let's talk about sales teams a little bit.

What are some of the common challenges you find when you're, say, when you're turning around a struggling sales team and what do you do to correct that?

I think probably the biggest one I find is that as a company grows or hire a salesperson or sales consultant to be the savior, if you will, and they're left on their own accord to manage their leads, run the calls and do everything.

And then as the company starts to grow, there really isn't any lead coordination or tracking of performance and results.

So making that shift is a challenge, especially if you have a person that's been there contributing for a few years, managing the whole process, and then it's time to bring more people in.

So I think the first one is right off the bat, start managing those leads to final disposition and be disciplined enough to schedule the salespeople very similar to what a technician for the calls and monitor those leads.

I mean, Sam, those leads cost anywhere from 400 to $700 a lead.

And could you imagine handing somebody, I don't know, $1500 and say, here, here's $1500.

Go out and make more money for me.

And you're not tracking.

That's virtually what happens.

When the leads aren't tracked.

So I would say that's number one.

Number two is not having a sales process that can be replicated and tracked.

So inevitably.

So with the processes that we use, we can jump in a car with a comfort advisor and do a quick evaluation and figure out two or three gaps, right?

Absolutely.

Let's tighten it up.

Well, that's what people need.

Number one, tracking.

Number two, process that can be evaluated so that we can help these salespeople get better at what they do.

And then the third one, mindset.

It's a big thing for the comfort advisors mindset.

They need to learn how to learn the lesson, forget the mistake and develop a skill.

Those three things.

If they can learn the lesson, forget the mistake, their mindset is going to be right.

When they learn a new steal, they're going to fall at a higher level.

Absolutely.

I love to tell everybody, you don't.

We never lose in what we do.

We never lose.

We either win or we learn and then move forward from it.

That's a choice.

Yeah, that's exactly that mental choice to take those steps forward and just to get better from each time.

I know that when I even myself being in the field still as well, you know, I learned new verbiage or I learned there's a new closing technique I want to try or whatever.

I know I'm going to have some learning moments along the way when people say, you know what?

I think you're crazy.

But at the same time, it's your laboratory.

That's why it's something we're always moving forward from.

We talked a little bit about the tracking those numbers to those leads all the way to completion.

What are those KPIs to look for those key performance indicators.

What things should a comfort consultant or project manager, whatever we call ourselves, what numbers should they be tracking and then how do they interact with each other to move that ball forward?

That's a great question.

Well, number one is sales volume.

Mainly we should be tracking that anyway because we want to make sure we get past break even.

So sales volume presentations, how many presentations, then closing percentage x amount of presentations, what percentage?

Close.

And then average dollar.

What's your average dollar per sale?

Okay, those are the core four right there.

And I would also include reviews.

They look for and try to obtain reviews after every sale and go back to the customer.

But there's one caveat in that.

I'd like to take ADD if I may.

Absolutely.

We have a process where the comfort advisors salespeople lay out their own Sales plan.

And it's interesting, we started to implement that four years ago.

What's interesting is most of the comfort advisors, when they understand how to plan, they usually set a sales target that way exceeds what the expectation of the company expected of them.

Interesting.

The unexpected consequence of that was fascinating because we shifted towards this is your monthly quota to hey, I want to work with you as your sales plan.

And if the comfort advisors plan exceeded the minimum, we're good with that.

Yeah, 80% of the time the comfort advisors plan exceeded the minimum quota and they were on fire to do that.

It's almost as if we were putting a glass ceiling on them by limiting their potential just based on what the company, the minimum needs for the company.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh, I love that.

That makes so much sense to me because I'm.

That I'm that type of person and I know so many people who listen.

But you know, men and women, both are.

If you're doing a track or plumbing or whatever, but doing H vac sales, you are an achiever.

You are more than achiever or you wouldn't make this a career to function with a hundred percent commission mentality and know that that's how you want it to be.

Otherwise you're limited.

That makes so much sense because we all know that on any given day, are we really giving it our all?

And the answer is most of the time, probably not.

We know there's juice left in the tank.

So to be given those reigns and that buy in of let's control my own destiny here and shoot for this, you know, shoot for the moon, that makes so much sense.

So why those numbers, you know, are so much higher most of the time.

Right?

Yeah.

So that was a good unexpected consequence.

Yeah.

Oh, that's great.

Oh, I love it, I love it, I love it.

Well, cool.

I had a cool idea with this because.

So I'm going to set a quick context for this next section here.

I'm sorry, before we do that, anything else you'd like to add?

We've covered some cool stuff so far.

I'll take your lead on this one.

There's, there's plenty, but we could talk for hours, I'm sure.

Oh, I know it, I know it.

Oh, you know, before actually, before we do this, one thing I'd like to just quickly go through and just to get your thoughts on this.

The way that, the way I teach my system and the way that everybody that's listening is starting to understand the reason that we do some of the things in the specific order that we do them in is to set credibility pieces.

One of the biggest foundations that we've started with is when you do your.

The very first thing is getting into the house.

So we're in the house, we've introduced, obviously introduced ourselves, but then getting into the introduction and asking everything that we do is based on kind of the three steps of asking permission, giving the data and then checking in to make sure it was received and how it was received before you move on to any more data points.

And so with that, that's the initial introduction, which is about the company.

Super quick.

Set some credibility pieces there, the introduction about yourself.

So a couple quick credibility pieces there and then we're set the setting the agenda for what we're going to do.

What is this visit going to look like?

Just like a doctor's visit.

And part of the reason that I like to make sure that this first initial step in the house is in place is where something new that's introduced to their world.

So anything new that gets introduced to anybody's space headspace, they're going to be resistant to it until they get comfortable with that atmosphere.

So even if they don't pay any attention to your words that you're, you know, those data points, you're telling them they're getting comfortable with you and then you can move on.

What are your thoughts on that type of a process?

I completely agree with you.

There's a couple of other things I've learned over the last six years.

One is personality styles and keep it super easy.

A direct or social for people.

So direct individual, you're going to notice me right off the back.

I'm a recovering, dominant direct individual.

So they usually want to get down to business pretty quick.

So you usually gain credibility with them by evidencing issues as opposed to having dialogue about their how their company is in their home.

I'm not saying to omit that piece of it.

However, when you identify a dominant individual, you're going to gain credibility by getting down to business.

A social person, you're going to walk in, they're going to have a picture of sweet tea on the back porch, drink the tea, have a conversation with them, ask questions, because they're going to decide if they like you.

If they like you, they're going to.

Buy from them, right?

And so that's fundamental.

Have an understanding of who your client is and try to reflect their behavior, mannerisms and tonality and you'll go a long way in developing good rapport.

Second is ask a few questions.

My Favorite ones are who in the home has allergies, hay fever, asthma, or any respiratory issues.

And when they answer those questions, be quiet and listen.

After they finish a statement, say, tell me more about that.

Get them talking about it.

Because there's an emotional connection to that problem that they're telling you.

And if you can show them evidence what the problem is and explain to them how you can solve it, chances are they're going to buy from you.

And that's one thing a lot of heating, air conditioning contractors miss.

They just go on, focus on the equipment without asking that question.

Or where do you notice most of the noise from your system or how difficult, which areas are difficult to heat or cool, things like that.

Once they say, yes, the upstairs bedroom is cold, or I hear a lot of noise by my deck or my daughter has allergies, have a conversation about it.

If we were able to reduce those allergies or make the better, more comfortable or reduce the noise, would that be important to you?

Yes, it would.

By all means, write it down.

And your job is to evidence the problem and evidence how you can solve that problem.

And you really, you, you're really going to have a high probability of making that sale.

I love it.

I love it.

Yeah.

One of the actually developed a homeowner questionnaire that is a free.

For any of you who are watching or listening that want it, you can go to the Facebook group, it's in the files section.

Or email me@samoseitnow.net and I will send you a free copy of the homeowner questionnaire that we've developed.

If Sam puts it together, it's great.

So thank you.

Thank you.

It's pulled from a lot of sources that we've shared over the years.

And just so much of that is so powerful because.

And you're right, that's it.

At the end of the day, the homeowners will have 2, 3, 5.

However many companies come in to give bids and we don't give bids, we give evaluations, we give qualified estimates, quotes, proposals.

We don't drop bids and run.

And that's psychological thing that's really important because it's about connect, doing things differently and connecting to people in a way that they are emotionally tied to.

Who cares about the box?

The box just turns on and off.

It's how we navigate everything else that surrounds that particular heater, air conditioner, whatever, and in the conversation can really determine what happens there.

So with that, that is a really.

Thank you.

That was a perfect segue into when people get you're in the house.

And we always hear that.

Almost always here.

Well, gosh, I'm going to have to get three bids on this or, man, I just.

I've got to do my.

Another one.

I hear a lot in here in the Austin, Texas area is, man, I've got to do my due diligence, meaning I've got to talk to more people.

And I've gotten a lot of questions from a lot of people in my group of how do we handle.

I've got to get three bids.

Objection.

And the visit went great.

It felt like we had a great connection.

I thought we were ready to close the deal right then.

And then all of a sudden they hit me with.

It's like the punch in the guts.

Oh, I've got to get three bids.

What do I do with that?

Okay, so now would be.

Yeah, let's.

Let's have some fun here and really go through some different ways to handle that particular objection.

Sure.

There's a concept.

Well, it's not a concept.

How to advance a sale to the next logical step.

Okay.

So either you're going to close tonight or reset with all interested parties or maybe a commit to commit or revisit after research.

Right.

So I'll just leave it at that and then go for it.

Let's bring it on.

Let's have some fun.

Sure, sure.

Yeah.

No, and that's perfect.

That's exactly right.

So.

Okay, so, Tom, let's be.

You be Mr. Amazing Super Rock star comfort consultant.

You've come to my house.

I'll start it with what you would normally actually, let's back up and go ahead and ask for the sale.

This will be the first ask for the sale, and then I'll take it from there as Mr.

Homeowner.

Okay.

Well, Sam, did everything we covered make sense?

Yeah, I think so.

Okay.

Can you see how the additional work's gonna do a great job with.

To your goals?

Yeah, it really seems like it's probably going to.

Okay, well, how soon would you like to start enjoying your new system?

Well, you know, I obviously, you know, we're having some issues here.

It's on.

It's just about dead or literally just died.

We've got a cold snap coming, so I'm gonna have to make this decision pretty soon.

Okay.

All right.

How soon before you are going to decide to move forward?

Yeah, probably this week sometimes.

This week.

Oh, that's them.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right, great.

So if you don't mind me asking, what's going to be different between now.

And Then, well, you know, we're going to, we're going to do some due diligence here.

I've never made any kind of decision like this without getting three bids.

So, you know, you were, you were the first one in.

So that's just full disclosure.

I just want to let you know.

Well, thank you for that.

My wife and I do the same thing.

We just want to make sure we're not getting taken advantage of.

Advantage of.

I can appreciate that.

Yeah.

But you say you're probably finish your research by the end of the week, is that right?

Yeah, probably.

So we've got a couple other appointments coming in this week.

Okay.

All right.

Well, I can't tell you that our price reflects everything that you're getting with the system and so will there.

You're going to find a few that may be a little bit higher.

But if you do find anybody that's promising what we're promising at a lower price, there's probably some gaps in one what you're getting.

Okay.

And if you're going to be finishing by say Friday or so, it would be my pleasure to pop by and visit again with you and your wife.

Just review what we're offering and I don't want to know who the other companies are or even see the proposal.

I'm just going to ask you a few questions and we'll do.

It's called an us and them.

And at the end, at least you'll have a more informed.

Be able to make a more informed decision.

And you know what?

I'd be even happy to.

For the inconvenience of having you back, I'd offer up a $50 gift certificate to the restaurant of your choice.

What do you say?

Yeah, you know, that probably work.

Yeah, sounds good.

Well, great.

Then we'll see you this Friday.

Yeah, yeah, I think.

Yeah, I think actually we're wanting to go ahead and do a little sooner than that tomorrow.

The other two are coming.

Do any, any sooner days than Friday?

Yeah, matter of fact, looks like.

Would Wednesday work for you?

Yeah, Wednesday probably be fine.

Okay, about 3:00'?

Clock?

Sounds good.

Okay, we'll see you then.

So that's one way to directly.

Right, there's another way to do it, but it depends upon how comfortable the company is with certain guarantees to reduce risk.

Sure.

Okay.

So now framing that.

Yeah.

What do you mean by that?

What do I mean by that?

A lot of companies have a money back or an exchange policy within the first year, you know, that simply says if they're not happy with the company, the system or the design at all.

They'll do whatever it takes to make it right, including a full refund for the installation with up to a year.

Some companies are comfortable with that, some companies aren't.

Right.

But all I'm doing is sharing in General what works 40% of the time.

With customers and just super quick as a pop out for everybody listening and watching all of these different ways to go about this, These are different tools in your toolbox.

Not everyone, that's why Thomas said 40% of the time not everyone is the magic bullet for this.

Objection.

However, your job is through the visit to start to understand the type of person you're, you're talking to, the personality and the, what they're responding to throughout the visit and judge your level of, of rapport with them that you've built throughout the visit to know that if and when this comes up, which tool to grab for the job.

If you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

But when you've got a set of tools, then you can pick the right one that's you pinpoint to exactly what needs to happen there.

So that's the quick context for that.

And for example, my company does offer that one year, no questions asked money back guarantee, the one year test drive.

So that is a really great way to go about.

So how about you be, I'll take on this one because I'm really comfortable and familiar with this one.

You be Mr.

Homeowner and we'll use that one.

So for all of you companies out there that offer that, this is the really fantastic verbiage to, to be able to use this one to handle that.

So, Tom, so we've gone over everything with the, the project, talked about little Johnny's room in the corner, and you can see how what we're planning on doing there is going to make that room so much more comfortable.

They're going to wake up and not having to have that, you know, dangerous space heater like we talked about in the bedroom anymore.

Right, right.

Great, great.

Okay.

And you know, your wife with the allergies, gosh, being so bad that she has to get shots and we talked about being able to reduce that.

So many, with so many of our clients that just swear by our process for handling the, the allergies in the home and you'd like to include that here as well, right?

Yes.

Good.

Okay, great.

Well, cool.

So, yeah, you know, we know you can talk to, you know, a ton of different companies in the area and really appreciate you giving us a call.

And everything else we talked about, the systems, all that makes sense.

Good.

Okay.

Well, cool.

Well, you know, really the last thing is just the next steps are, you know, picking an installation date, get you on the calendar.

How's that sound?

Well, that sounds fine, but I just need to do a little bit more research.

Research, okay.

Is there a part of the project that do you want to research?

Is it some of the installation methods or something like that?

No, I mean, you did a great job, explained everything very well.

You're the second person I've talked to.

Okay.

If that was my decision, you would definitely win.

But I've scheduled two more people out, you know, just to have a discussion.

I'm not sharing the proposals or anything like that.

I'm just.

I just want to make sure to do my due diligence.

It's a big investment.

I just want to make sure that, you know, we're not going to get taken advantage of, so.

Oh, yeah, yeah, totally.

No, I get that.

You know, and it is such a big investment and we don't take it lightly at all.

You know, obviously you found us because of our reviews online and how we handle.

In fact, you mentioned earlier, the reason that you called us is not because of the positive reviews, but how we handle the negative ones when they do arise.

And we're known for taking care of problems immediately.

And that's something that really spoke to you.

So with having that reputation, you know, I think you're really going to like, you know, my wife and I, we do the same thing.

We want to make sure, you know, you mentioned not taking advantage of.

But really at the end of the day, you can talk to.

You've already talked to one.

So we're.

Number two question for you would be what are you really looking for that you haven't found already with us?

I guess I just want to make sure I'm not overpaying for the work.

Oh, gotcha, Gotcha.

Okay.

Okay, great.

You know, there's a.

Hang on a second, let me grab this form here.

This is something I think you guys are going to enjoy.

So we do something that's a little different and you'll be really hard pressed to find another company anywhere in the area that has the same kind of guarantee.

Especially that puts it in writing like we do.

So this is what we call our one year test drive.

So here's the form.

What this means is for any reason in the first year, if you're not satisfied with the performance in the new equipment, we're not able to take care of those problems.

Like we say, we're going to call me up in a year and say, you know what, Sam, this just didn't work out.

We will underline it.

We will refund every penny back that you paid us.

And that's our way of taking the risk.

So you don't have to.

I'm asking you for thousands of dollars here.

We should be the ones taking that risk so you don't have to.

So taking that risk off and knowing that we have this guarantee and no other company is going to have that.

Why don't you say we get on the calendar now?

Wow.

Have you ever had to refund any money?

You know what?

In fact, we have and we've stood behind it.

Would you like to hear that story?

You know what?

Let's go ahead and do it.

Sounds good.

Welcome to the family.

Okay, thank you.

Great.

That's one way that I've used that dozens of times in fact for closes that's been really, really effective.

And typically, either the story comes up then or at some point in the process I've sprinkled in a story about.

Because remember everyone, stories sell, facts tell.

So stories are so important.

When you come across a situation, you can think of a story that's a similar type of scenario to whatever the homeowner is.

Say, man, this reminds me of this other client I had.

It was kind of the similar situation.

Here's their problem that was so much like yours and here's what their outcome is now.

And they love it.

I just saw them at the grocery store the other day and they, they gave me a high five and told me how much they love their.

Love their system.

Now when you sprinkle in stories like that through the process, it makes things so much better.

And so.

Yes, but.

So the story.

Would you normally come up of how we refunded the.

The money because of whatever scenario.

It's never been because somebody was just upset at us because of the equipment or whatever.

It's always something else.

And the way that we handle people properly is just taking care of them like family.

I had a situation that a lady was.

And this is a story that any of you listeners can actually use.

Somebody that I work with did this right this.

There was a story of a lady, she installed a really top of the line system with us for whatever reason.

A couple weeks later, she just said that she could feel the voltage in the control wire that we installed.

Which of course was really unusual, we'll come to find out.

Of course she had some medical things and her family actually committed her to an institution a couple weeks later.

And so what we did as the family came to us wanting to take advantage of the money back guarantee, not because anything was wrong with the system, but because they just needed the money back for her situation.

So what we did is we took the equipment out, installed super basic equipment for her, refunded the difference and said, here, you know what, this is just the right thing to do.

But you're selling the house so it's going to need a heating and air system in it.

And so that's the way that we take care of people.

And so that's telling that story also to the homeowner and say that's the way that we take care of our family.

Would you like to go with a company that takes care of people like that or to go with a, you know, so who knows who.

And so stories are powerful.

Yeah, yeah, definitely a total pop out, but yeah.

What, is there another way to handle the three bids comparison?

Well, there is.

There's one thing about the word objections anymore that I shake when people say objection because there's really no such thing as an object.

Yeah.

It's just a question that's not answered yet.

Right.

Well, there's reasons for not buying and reasons are solvable, but there are situations where they simply can't.

And it's important to discern which one that is.

You know, some reasons are I'm not sure how to pay for it.

Don't know if I want to spend that much getting other bids.

It's either a value issue or a money issue, one of those two.

If we can uncover the reason, isolate, if we could solve this problem, you whether any reason not to move forward and close.

That's what it's about.

And the reason I say that is because I think the word objection for a salesperson.

Oftentimes I know a lot of I'm going to get hate mail.

So when I say this, it's used as an excuse.

Right.

I totally agree.

It's a crutch to bail out on the, on doing the work.

And there's only maybe, what, five, six, seven, eight reasons I don't know how to pay for.

And I do it later.

You need to speak to my spouse and getting other bids because I want to make sure I'm not overpaying getting other bids to see if there's anything better out there.

I found it cheaper online.

I've got a buddy in the business that's going to handle it for me.

You're $3,000 more than the other person.

You know, that's.

Imagine if everybody knew how to solve those problems.

Right.

Yeah.

Any other industry.

And I say this respectfully because I love this industry and heating, air conditioning and plumbing, they don't look at it that way.

How do I solve these problems and uncover and solve.

And then once they get a good feel of how to do that, results go through the roof.

But it takes a lot of work to do that.

Yeah, exactly.

In this, so much of it is the training, training yourself that like you mentioned the mindset and the belief system and having the just overall intestinal fortitude to ask the questions when it.

In those uncomfortable moments.

And it's only uncomfortable because we think it's uncomfortable.

Right.

I know you and I both have.

We've gone down that road where we've gone through literally every single step of the close like question after question and asked for the cell 6, 8, 10, 12 times with the homeowner, make the sell.

And they thank us for helping them buy.

It was never a. I feel pressured.

It's never a resistance.

It's much more.

Thank you.

I didn't even know why I was saying no.

But you helped me uncover that real reason.

Right.

Just managing the conversation.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

So super powerful.

So let's do one more.

Okay.

Another way to handle that.

And then we'll get everybody all of your contacted, of course.

Okay.

And wrap the call up here.

Yeah.

You want to take one more?

All right.

Yeah.

I'm going to use the.

In a different way.

Okay.

What you had.

So.

Well, let me ask you, we have an opening Thursday or Friday.

What works better for the installation?

Well, you know, Friday is probably going to work better.

I think we're going to be off.

But, you know, this is.

This is only Monday.

You know, we've got a couple more bids coming in between now and then before we make our final decision.

Decision.

Okay.

Well, you know what, Sam?

I appreciate that.

My wife and I typically do the same thing.

We just want to make sure we don't get taken advantage of.

Right, sure.

So let me ask you a question.

Can you remember a time when you made a significant purchase and then when you brought that purchase home, regretted making that purchase?

Oh, yeah, definitely.

Tell me about that.

So, yeah, we here, I'll use a real life example.

My wife and I were at training a conference one time and it was really energetic and the person from the sage sold us these.

We take responsibility.

But we decided to buy these big, expensive future courses that we were going to attend and we got home and instantly regretted it because it was way more than we ever tended to spend when we were there.

We ended up calling them back and they had a.

Their policy was if we didn't talk to them within three days, there's no money back.

And so we were just stuck with these things.

They were like, almost rude that we had called back and tried to get refunds on them.

Wow.

So you had no recourse to get a refund?

No, no.

It was a pretty rough situation.

Okay.

Well, you know, our company, we don't think that's fair.

That's why we offer a exchange policy.

Simply stated, for the first year of ownership, if you're not happy with the performance of the system or company or anything at all, we'll do whatever it takes to make it right or replace your system with another new one, or give you 100% refund, whatever it takes to make you happy.

So we take all the risks that we don't have to.

We're very serious about making sure that our customers are 100% satisfied.

So now you can be that.

You can be assured that.

That you're not overpaying and you have recourse.

If you are not happy with the performance of a company or the system, would there be any reason not to move forward with scheduling the work?

Wow.

You're the first person that's ever mentioned anything like that.

You know, that's definitely.

Everybody else seems like they're just here, they're going to put it in.

And that's why we've talked, contacted so many firms is because just trying to fill out who we think the most.

Most integrity is.

That's something that's important to us.

So.

Wow, that's truly fantastic.

Do you have anything in writing for that or is there anything.

Here's our guarantee, if you will.

Yeah.

Wow.

Well, what do you think, honey?

You know what?

I really like that.

Yeah, let's go ahead and get it on the.

Let's go ahead and get it in.

Can we still do it Friday?

Absolutely.

Congratulations, by the way.

You're going to love your new system.

Cool.

Okay, so thoughts create an emotion.

Emotion determines action.

Action determines outcome.

Right.

So I've.

Over the last four years, I've.

Learned that technique, and it's fun because you can influence the way people think about what they're about to purchase.

And if that's a positive experience, chances are the outcome is going to be positive as well.

Well, as long as you back it up, sure.

Right.

So it kind of puts a different twist on the whole, no lemons guaranteeing and all that.

Yeah.

And I love that you had them retell the story because that obviously situational puts them back in the emotion of what it was like.

It's basically building that gap.

They think what you're offering is here, but when you asked them about that situation, it made them emotionally remember how bad it actually was.

And then the way that you proposed the guarantee, it moved that up to here.

So that gap was so much bigger that they're realizing where they're going to be versus what that was like.

It kind of unpacks the mental subconscious reminder of the mistake they made and brought it to the table.

Sure, sure.

Yeah.

And when things come into the light, obviously they're not as scary they were when it was just in a distant memory.

Right?

Yeah.

Oh, that's powerful.

I love it.

Well, cool.

I appreciate you so much being with me today doing this interview.

I'll make sure to get you all of the info about it is when it goes up.

And for everyone else you can go to CloseItNow.net to check out of course, check out all the close it now information.

Join our Facebook group because we have, it's a great continuing conversation.

It's a good place to ask questions.

A great community there of like minded people who are wanting to serve others and also work less and earn more.

Crush it in this industry.

There's no reason that you with almost, you can almost sneeze and sell a million dollars worth of worth of equipment in our industry if you treat it properly.

And way up from there there's people in the group that are going to do 3, 4, 5 million this year, this coming year and more and so and earn six figures all over the map in the six figure range.

So that is what we're all about is encouraging and coaching you to be able to do that.

So I'm going to give some super quick contact information for Tom if you want to get in touch with him.

Do you still have your podcast?

It will be on the website.

What's the best way for everybody to get in touch with you?

I guess probably email or phone.

Coachtomwmail.com and website is h vacoachingcorner.com the new site is going to be launched before this airs so that'll be great.

It'll be h vacoachingcorner.com yes.

Yeah.

Excellent.

Excellent.

All right, any, any parting thoughts before we wrap this up?

Well, you know what, it's a pleasure to work with you and as you know, the rising tide raises all ships.

You know, we're starting to, at least for me, and it sounds like you are too, starting to to get a little bit of a network of like minded people that do what we do to help each other help more contractors.

So kudos to you for, for putting this platform together.

And you know what, look forward to seeing what the future brings.

Yes sir, Absolutely.

I appreciate it so much as well.

Well all right everyone.

This has been another episode of Close It Now.

So you guys and ladies, go out there, save the world one heat stroke at a time.

Go save the world one frostbite at a time.

We will talk to you again soon.

Take care of thanks for listening to Close it now with Sam Wakefield.

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