Welcome to Close it now, the podcast that's revolutionizing the H Vac and home improvement trades industries. Get ready to dive deep into the world of heating, ventilation and air conditioning. We're turning up the heat on industry standards and cooling down misconceptions. And we're not just talking about fixing vents and adjusting thermostats. It's about the transformative movement that's reshaping the very foundation of H Vac and home improvement. We're the driving force, inspiring top performers who crave excellence not only in their professional endeavors, but also in fitness, nutrition, relationships, and personal growth, proving that we can indeed have it all. This is Close it now, where excellence meets excitement. Let's get to work now. Your host, Sam Wakefield.

All right. Welcome back to Close It Now. I am excited about this episode. It has been a minute since I've been able to record one just with me. As everyone knows, life happens, man. It gets crazy sometimes. And it is time to get back into action. You know, one of the craziest things about when you are an entrepreneur, when you own your own business or just in sales, especially in sales, the entrepreneur mindset has to be strong with you in sales. And, you know, so many of the things that we talk about are easy to do and they're easy not to do. They are. The differentiators are the 1% differentiators between top performers and everyone else are those little things that are easy to do that the top performers have committed to doing consistently on a regular basis and everyone else just kind of halfway does them sometimes. Or the idea is, well, that's a great idea. I don't know that I have time to do it. Well, you do. Everyone has time. You have to build it into your system, build it into your life, build it into your process. So that's exactly what I've been doing, too. I've had to get very efficient with my time because of some life situations and things going on. So being more efficient with your time is important. So today's episode actually has nothing to do with that sort of. It kind of has something to do with that. But what we're going to talk about today in this episode I'm really excited about it, is what happens when you get lumped into a cattle call. If you. In here in Texas, we call it a cattle call. If you don't know what that is, that's when you show up at the house and there's like already somebody there with another company during your appointment, your appointment time, or even crazier and this is really what I'm talking about as you show up. And there's 1, 2, 3, 4 other companies who the homeowner has scheduled at the same time. Now, I don't know about you, but my level of competition is through the roof. That is like my favorite moment. I've never lost one of those. In today's episode, I'm going to show you how to own that situation, how to dominate that situation, how to and how to walk out with that deal. So that's what we're going to cover in today's episode. So stick around.

One of the most unique podcasts on the web. We talk about H Vac and home improvement, yet we throw in fitness, nutrition, and personal growth. This is close it now. And here's your host, Sam Wakefield.

All right, this episode where let's cover a what's in your cup? Because we haven't done a what's in your cup in a minute. So today is what's in your cup. I want one. I am excited to the next episode. I finally got some mushroom coffee in that that we ordered. And we're gonna that's gonna be what's in your cup next week. But for this one, I was excited because my lady's mom, she had some coffee in her freezer from the holidays, and I'm kind of just an okay Starbucks fan, but their holiday blend brew is really freaking good. I love the holiday blend from Starbucks. So she actually found a bag of beans in her freezer from Christmas time and gave it to us the other day. So I am drinking today. Starbucks holiday blend is what's in my cup. So, everybody, what is in your cup? Let's start a coffee thread in the Facebook group. So make sure to join the Facebook group. We're going to start a coffee thread. What is in your cup? Do you like your coffee sweet? Do you drink coffee at all? Do you drink flavored coffee or is it super high octane? Is it like death wish or black rifle? What are you drinking? So today I've got Starbucks holiday blend. Let's everyone take a minute and a collective sip. All of us together. Drive time university. 3, 2, 1. All right, let's go. So if you have recommendations for coffee that I should try, definitely shoot it my way. Something that I actually was recommended recently to do is I built a Amazon wish list for different coffees. So if you wanted to know what that link is, it's going to be in the show notes because a couple people started asking like, hey, how do we send you coffee? If we want to send you coffee. Not that I'm saying for everybody to send me coffee. I'm not begging for coffee or anything, but I have had several people send me coffee from all over the country, which is awesome, and I'm so grateful for every one of you. But there is an Amazon wish list that we're always updating with different coffees that I find at home that I want to try. So if somebody wants to, there's a link there. Definitely. No pressure, though. But let's get into this episode. So this comes from Ian up at Grizzle Heating and Air in Canyon, Texas. And so, Ian, Brian, what's up, guys? Shout out to y'. All. Ian just attended, actually, my course in Austin recently. I did the sales masterclass, and he came down and just absolutely crushed it during the training, and he's gone back and is really, really killing it back in Canyon, Texas. So what's up, guys? Ian and Brian, huge shout out to you. Everybody that's listening. Madison, Julie, great to. It was great to see Ian and definitely got to reconnect with you guys at some point. But let's get into this, into the session. So basically what happened? Ian showed up the other day, and there are multiple people at this house. So he calls me. He's like, holy crap, what in the world should I do? Do I just wait? And so that sparked the idea for this episode because I've experienced it. Everybody on my team at once upon, you know, at one time or another has experienced this. I know a lot of you or most of you have experienced this. The first thing I want to talk about is mindset. The homeowner called you because you're the expert, to show up and be a professional, to be top level, right? We strive to be top level in everything we do, providing service to the homeowner, all the things, right? And so when we show up like that so many times in sales, we have this. All of these stories that we tell ourselves that are untrue. Some of those stories are, well, you know, I couldn't just go in and talk to, you know, knock on the door when the other company's there. It's courtesy, professional courtesy to sit and wait. No, I'm here to tell you that if you want to be a top performer, you show up when your appointment time is. That means if somebody else is in there still knock on the door. You're there. You're there for a reason. Your time is valuable. So the very first thing that I want to talk about is do not let the homeowner devalue your time and force you to wait because your time is incredibly valuable. We're literally making doctor lawyer money, or better or greater. In most cases, we make way more than doctors and lawyers. And especially if you start breaking it down by the hour, your time is valuable. So don't let a homeowner just completely devalue your time and get your mindset all screwed up, because they just happen to call more than one company and book them at the same time. You never know. Maybe they only have that amount of time. Right. There's lots of situations, lots of reasons why this has happened. Normally, the homeowner is just. A lot of times they're just kind of a jerk when they do this. However, you can use this to your advantage. So the way to handle that type of situation, say there's a handful of companies there. I've done this in the past, and it's super, super powerful. In fact, I've done this lots of times throughout the years that I was in the field. And it's actually really fun. So sales should be fun and easy. It should not be difficult or stressful or hard. There's a lot of work to it. Yes. But if we keep it fun and easy and turn it into a game for us, that's where everything starts to really change and your numbers start to go up. Because now you're having fun, the homeowner's having fun, and the whole process is simple. So what do we do when there's a lot of people there? Well, you show up, you take charge as the leader, because. Be the leader. Right? Be the leader. And so I'll just recount a story from one time that I had this experience. Because when you handle it right, the homeowner sees you as the expert, the local expert, especially when you start taking leadership roles and directing everybody. So what happens here, for example, say there's four. You're number five. There's four other people at the house, right? You show up and everybody's waiting outside. Or they could, you know, everybody's. Usually what happens is everybody's kind of standing in the yard looking at each other and going, what in the world are we doing here? So, so many times what happens, the cool news is one or two of those people are just going to take off and be like, I don't have time for this crap. Right? So that's okay. So all of a sudden now you're. The numbers are less, but even if they don't, the way that we handle this is, you Become a leader. You take. Take leadership role in this experience. So you're going to say, okay, no problem. Listen, everybody. Mr. Homeowner, is it okay with you if we just make this really efficient for you and help you decide much quicker instead of having to go through this individually one at a time? And they'll say, sure, because that's what they're hoping for. So that's where you take leadership, say, okay, everyone. And obviously, you have to have massive confidence in one, your own abilities in your company and in the service you provide. But when that's the case, you step in. Okay, everyone, let's make this easy for the Mr. Homeowner, let's start with you. Why should they buy from you? Okay, next. Why should they buy from you? Okay, next. Why should they buy from you? Okay, next. Why should they buy from you? The second you take that leadership and you start directing the conversation with the other contractors and coordinating it for the homeowner, this becomes really, really powerful. But what happens is they're going to have maybe one reason, two reasons, and they're all going to sound very similar. Oh, because we're the best, we do the best, install, whatever. But they're all going to kind of say the same thing. And then when you come preloaded with a dozen reasons why they should buy from you, and it's so powerful that you can just list off reason after reason after reason, there's right there, you're going to have one or two people that are going to buzz off and say, you know what, I don't need this. And they'll leave because they know you've got them outmatched. Your certainty, your confidence in your leadership ability right there is going to build so much rapport with the homeowner that one, it's going to blow you away. Two, what happens, I've actually had those specific. In those situations later, after that appointment, I had one guy, one time. He literally waited around until I was done. I closed the deal. After that, he waited for me to ask me if I had room on my sales team. And he actually hired him to come work for my company when I was the sales manager at the company here in Austin because he was so impressed with the leadership, the confidence, the certainty. So that was really cool. It was a total side benefit. But we ended up getting a really great advisor out of that process because they did not like where they were, and they saw something in me that was leadership that. That they wanted to learn. So it was cool. We brought them onto the team and they ended up being rock stars. So that also happens. So total side note, but it's really fun when you can recruit from your competition at a house, and it's incredible when that happens. So always be recruiting for one, but for two, take that leadership role. Go around like, why should they buy from you? Why should they buy from you? Why should they buy from you? If you know your reviews are stellar, whip out your computer or tablet. Say, let's compare right now. Especially if you are, you know, you should know your market, know the competition. So, hey, let's look at everybody's reviews. You're going to have some people shaking in their boots right now, because everybody knows reviews are make or break a company. If you strive to have great reviews, that's a great way to do that also. But then just going through and taking that leadership role of, okay, this, this, this, why should they buy from you? Why should they buy from you? Why should they buy from you? Here's all of the reasons why you should buy from us. Starting the conversation like that is really, really powerful. Now, if you have some people that go through that process and stick around, then what you do, and this is super fun, is say, okay, no problem, Mr. Homeowner. Why don't we just go through this process together? At each step of the way, you get to hear how their companies handle each of the problems, how their company handles each of the steps, and you can make an instant comparison to how we handle the steps. And so literally just become that leader at every step of the process. Say, okay, why don't you go first? Okay, why don't you go next? Listen, I'll go last. Because you've taken the leadership role. You get to direct who goes first and second and third or whatever the case is, and just let them go through the process. And then you show up with your level of conversation being so much higher than everyone else's. If you've listened to this podcast a lot, you should start to get the feeling for how to speak at a different level, how to talk at a different level with the homeowner. So one of those things is painting the pictures of really understanding where the problems are and what life is going to be like. But let everybody else go through their process and then ask the homeowner, okay, do you mind if we do things a little bit differently and then do something different than what the other companies just did every single step of the way, do it, handle it a little bit differently. You're differentiating yourself right on the spot. And then when you start, you Know, really presenting things. It just. It's crazy. I've never had the situation where, and I've literally been probably a dozen of these types of situations. I've never had a single time where when I took that kind of role and just sit everyone through the process together, that by the end there was another company left standing. Usually by then they'll buzz out, they get super uncomfortable. This is the true form of competition. They get super uncomfortable. They're going to leave and say, Listen, Mr. Homeowner, we're going to go put together all of our numbers. We'll put everything together. When's the best time we can come back and talk to you? And there's even been times when I've said, well, why do you have to go to put it together? Don't you have a way to present right here at the house? And then because they do, but because they don't want to be involved in that situation with other people from other companies there, they're still going to leave and put their numbers together. And when they do, that's when you say, wow, I know, Mr. Homeowner, I know they have the ability to give you pricing right now. I mean, how does that make you feel that they didn't even take the time to do it right now? Do they not value your time? That's why we do things differently. That's why we're as thorough as we are. I'm going to give you some. We're going to give you everything you need right now to make a great decision. How does that sound, Mr. Homeowner? They appreciate it so much. And the chances of you closing it in house after that level of conversation with those, with all the competition there is incredible. It is incredible. So that is how you handle a group cattle call situation like that. You show up and you be the leader, have the certainty and the confidence in you, in your company, in the project, that there's no doubt in the homeowner's mind their problems are going to be solved. And you're so confident, confident in the company doing the work. And they will end by extension, they're going to have the confidence in you overseeing the project to make sure they get exactly what they want. And that's the language you need to use with the homeowner is like, yeah, you could absolutely go with one of these other companies. However, we've worked with so many people in your area, in your own neighborhood, and been able to solve these problems completely with all certainty that you're not going to have them in the future, everyone else, there's some doubt there because they're not looking at the things you're doing. So when you speak at that level of language with the homeowner, it gives them confidence, it gives them certainty in you and your project and the company that it's so much easier to close, even if there's other people literally closed projects they've signed with the other company sitting there and they've signed my contracts because of the certainty and the confidence in being the leader in the room. And it's so, so, so, so powerful. So that's one incredible way to handle that type of situation. I'm definitely not somebody that says when you see that to reschedule. Because if you show up at the house with me and you reschedule, I'm going to close it while we're there. That's just what happens, right? My certainty and my confidence of that is so high. That's what normally happens. Is it every single one? No, of course not. I'm not here to tell you that I close or any of you know, anybody closes every single one that they go out on. However, setting up the circumstances in the situation, to be able to handle it like that is incredible and super powerful. So hope that helps. Ian and up in Grizzle. Man, I hope that was a great info for you. I'm kind of stumbling over words that I've got so much going on in my head right now. But I wanted to make sure to get this down for you guys and ladies. It is a really powerful way when you take leadership and you step into that role and just own it. You create for yourself what's called local star power. Everyone begins to look to you. Even if the homeowner say, worst case scenario, if they do decide to go with someone else, you've built such rapport with them. I've had this happen one time as well. I was at a home. There was a couple of us there. There was three, actually, three of us there. I ended up not winning the project because one of the other companies, on paper, they looked the same. And this is before, way before I had the certainty that I do now, but ended up going with another company because they were, you know, like 2 or $3,000 cheaper on paper. It was, you know, the same kind of company. Both factory authorized dealers, both, you know, we sold the same brand of equipment. We didn't at that point in time, we didn't really have a lot of differentiators. Other just then, you know, our branding and our history and you know, reviews and stuff. So I lost the deal. Ended up, it was about four months later, three months later, we got a call from the guy directly across the street from this homeowner. He says that. So I show up for the appointment and he says, yeah, my neighbor across the street, he didn't use you. Ended up replacing two systems with another company and it's been nothing but headaches. So when I asked him who he used, he said, this is the company I use, but don't use them. It's been nothing but trouble. They didn't install right. It's exactly like Sam said. I recommend call back to Sam, call back, call this company. I wish I had gone with them to start with. Then when I showed up for the appointment, that homeowner who didn't use me actually comes across the street, sits in on the entire appointment with this homeowner across the street. And it was the coolest thing because even though he didn't buy from me, he basically every section of my presentation, he stepped in and reinforced the points to the, to the new prospect, the new homeowner that I was sitting at the appointment with, he reinforced every single point along the way and talked about how the other company didn't do the things that I said that we were going to do. And it was such a slam dunk and incredible referral from the guy that didn't even use us. And so that's what happens when you show up. You become that leader, you become the expert. Even if they don't buy from you. The referrals that come from that homeowner once they've gotten a bad experience from somebody else can also be incredible. So make sure that you are showing up as a top performer, giving top level service, top level presentation, no matter who is there. Don't skip your steps in your system. Don't skip steps in your process. The system, the process is what does let that do the heavy lifting for you. Like I said, sales should be fun and easy, but only if you know how to manage it properly. So that's the lesson for today. I hope that was valuable for all of you. And I want to hear what, how you would handle this, right? What is your response? What do you think? You can comment. In fact, email me samoseitnow.net or you pop me a text. 512-364-8559 I would love to hear how you would handle this. Or in the Facebook group. Go join the Facebook group. Just search close it now on Facebook and the group will come right up we're coming up on 2,500 people in there of they're all top level. We're getting actually a lot of people from different trades now and international and somebody joined from the United Kingdom, someone joined from Melbourne, Australia. So people from the perspective is incredible in the Facebook group and it's a great place to ask questions. And when I post this episode, let's start a comment chain, let's have a discussion on how you would handle this situation because that's how I handle it, that's how I recommend handling it. But there may be some others out there as well that have some great ideas too. So it's a good community for asking those kind of questions. That's the episode today. One other thing, if you want to grab the online course that I have available, it's@h vacdoors.net that goes over the entire sales process, the sales system, you get the downloadable workbook, you, you get a whole module on handling objections and you get a whole module on door to door scripting for H Vac. So that's a really incredible course. @hvacdoors.net Go to closeitnow.net to learn more about the company. To hire me as a speaker for your event or just to stay connected, join the Facebook group. And last thing, if you've ever gotten value from this podcast, I'm so grateful for every single one of you. I would appreciate, I would love you forever if you left me a five star review. Specifically right now I'm looking for reviews on Apple, on Apple podcast. That would be incredible if you left me a five star review there or anywhere that you listen. It would be much, much appreciated if you're not getting reviews for your company. Basically you have to become what you want, right? You attract who you are. You attract what you are. So if you're refusing to leave a review, no wonder nobody's leaving your reviews. So not to guilt you into it, but if you've gotten value from the podcast, I would love, love it, love it, love it if you left me a review. And I'm so excited about this year. This is spring 2024. We've got so much coming up this year. I'm in process of actually working on a book. I've got a couple books coming out hopefully this year. If not one this year, one next year. But one is actually I'm putting together a project to help you get more referrals. We know referral business is some of the best closing on the planet, right? A technician flip is a Referral in a way it closes on average at like what, 75, 80%. Referrals also close right around 80% and they spend on average 16% more money with you than non referrals. So something you need to know and I'm working on giving you a superpower to be able to ask for ask and get referrals every time we're in a home. So working on that. So watch for that coming out. And we've got a lot of stuff going on this year for all of you. I did reopen my one on one coaching program. It's virtual. We meet on zoom. I only have a handful of spots left. I haven't done private one on one coaching in long time, probably almost a year. And so the new slots that I have open, there's only a few left. If you want to know more about that, reach out to me, Sam Closeitnow.net or text me 512-364-8559 happy to share with you what that coaching program looks like. It's basically sitting with me every week and you get access to me and we're going to go over the whole system step by step and make sure that you get it down. This is the time to invest in yourself for training to maximize the summer this year. This is going to be an incredible summer if as long as you work on your sales skills, you can't go out anymore and just take orders. You've got to be, you've got to have some sales skills to close the deals if you go out like you always did in the last 20, 20, 2021, 2022 just to take the order like you always have. No wonder everybody's numbers are going down because the homeowners now are a little tighter on their money. They are still buying, don't worry about that. But you have to show them value and you have to actually be able to sell now instead of just taking orders. So now's the perfect time to invest in yourself because the return on investment there, you're literally talking about hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars of personal income across the next couple years strictly with the skills and the muscles that we build in the coaching program. So if you want to know more about that, let me know. And otherwise that is the episode today. Thanks for listening and all of you, I'm sure I'm going to be speaking at several events this year. Make sure to come out and find me, come say hi and when I have those locked in, I'll let you know what they are but until then, everyone go save the world one heat stroke at a time.

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