The central theme of this podcast episode revolves around the critical juncture at which one ought to celebrate a sale, with an emphatic assertion that such celebration should be deferred until the successful installation of the product. We elucidate that the common misconception resides in equating the act of closing a sale with the culmination of the sales process; however, this perspective neglects the reality that true financial remuneration is contingent upon the installation. It is imperative to recognize that merely securing a signature does not signify the completion of service to the client. Instead, we advocate for a robust commitment to customer service that extends beyond the sale, emphasizing the necessity of maintaining communication and ensuring satisfaction throughout the installation process. Ultimately, this approach not only fortifies client relationships but also enhances the potential for referrals and future business opportunities. The podcast episode delves into the critical nature of not merely celebrating sales but rather recognizing the true moment of achievement, which occurs upon the successful installation of HVAC systems. The speaker, Sam Wakefield, emphasizes the common misconception held by many sales professionals who prematurely celebrate the signing of a contract, overlooking the fact that payment is only secured once the installation is completed. This misalignment can lead to a detrimental lapse in customer service and relationship management. Wakefield articulates that a lack of follow-up after the sale can jeopardize future referrals and customer loyalty. By shifting focus from the initial sale to the installation process, sales professionals can enhance their reputation and ensure customer satisfaction, thereby fostering a stronger, lasting relationship with clients. Through this lens, he advocates for a paradigm shift in how sales professionals approach their work, stressing the importance of prioritizing customer service throughout the entire process, from the initial engagement to post-installation follow-ups.

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

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

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

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

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

This is Sam Wakefield.

All right, hey everybody, welcome back to Close It Now.

Sam Wakefield here.

Hey, I've got a cool topic today.

It's something that's really important, but I think a lot of us miss the importance of it.

About when to actually celebrate a sale, when do we celebrate the deal?

Right, so that's going to be the, that's going to be the topic.

It's really important because we, everybody has in the wrong place.

They put the celebration in the wrong moment.

Because I've got a question for you.

You know, when do we actually get paid?

When do we get paid?

Hmm.

We're going to talk about that today.

So thank you for joining me again.

Welcome back to Close It Now.

I know it's been a while since we have chatted, but you know, life happens.

In fact, I'm going to report I'm recording an entire podcast of kind of what's been going on in my life.

And I hope you can relate because there's a very powerful message in that as well.

So that'll be in the next episode.

Episode.

But today we are talking about, you know, the things that kind of throw us off track.

You know, our.

There's a book that I read that actually I've listened to it and read it in a couple different versions numerous times over the years and I highly, highly, highly recommend it.

It's called Go for no.

Go for no.

Basically the concept is if you set a no goal, how many times can I hear no?

And try to get as many of those as possible.

You end up of course, making more sales.

But it also, what it does, it keeps you from, you know, getting off track.

When you are on a roll, when you're doing great and say by Tuesday you've hit your goal for the week.

What do you do?

Some people look like, man, my goal was to do, you know, 30,000, 40, 50,000, 100,000, whatever it is.

And so you Hit that by Tuesday or Wednesday.

There's a group of people that will take Thursday, Friday off, go play golf.

Go to the lake.

You know, go play.

And then there's the other group of people that will say, all right, this is my chance to double my goal.

This is my chance to double down.

So, so who are you?

Which category do you fall in?

So that's a big question.

But the thing is, none of you have hit that yet.

Just because you made the sale doesn't mean that you've hit that level.

It doesn't mean that you're actually getting counted for that.

Because remember, we don't get paid on sales.

We get paid when it installs.

Raise your hand.

How many of you have had installs cancel?

How many of you have had things go get just screwed up in the process?

It turns out different than it was supposed to be.

The customer all of a sudden has talked to somebody else, and now they're coming back and they're like, well, you know, let's change the price.

I'm not, not gonna go with you.

Still, if you can't, if you can't match this other price or whatever it is, the.

The plan changes.

So that's the question, because.

So sales are cool, installs are cooler because we get paid when it actually installs.

Right.

That's a really, really, really valuable lesson.

So when you are going through your process, do not celebrate.

We don't need to celebrate at the beginning when the sale is made.

We've got to learn to celebrate when the install goes in.

And that's not even the end.

We get celebrate.

So I guess the whole point of this podcast is about customer service.

Don't celebrate.

Stop at the sale.

If you stop at the sale, you're missing your one.

You're leaving money on the table.

You're not serving your customer the way they need to be served.

Because the thing is, you have to be able to manage it all the way through.

It's like even companies that have a big team, the people, people buy from people.

I know that there's lots of people out there.

I've heard, you know, the Rick Picard's of the world and the Brett Buckley is talk about, they go in, they do their thing, and then they're gone.

And then other people come in and do the measurements, and the whole team that puts it together makes the order.

So one, if you aren't, if you're not doing, you know, five, six, seven, eight million a year, but you're by yourself and you feel like you're maxed out.

And you wonder how those guys do it.

Listen, it's not because they're that much better.

It's not that.

Because they're that much doing something so wildly different than what you're doing.

It's because they have a whole team to support, but also to time manage.

And you'll ask any one of them, they're like, yeah, you know, yes, I go out and I work my face off.

But I know their numbers.

You know, the close rates aren't higher than other top producers that don't sell as much.

The average ticket isn't that much higher than other top producers that sell as much.

But they have a team to help them with time management so they don't have to do the more tedious things and they can be on to the next client.

So if you're not that person, but you know your numbers are great and you're wondering, how in the world do they do it?

That's how.

They've got a whole team of people put together that surround them.

That's a model based on kind of that point, basically, that, you know, your point man.

And then the team that supports it's not a model.

The other models that so many of us are used to are based on, you know, one person does it themselves.

You'll go out, you make the sale, you get the measurements, you do the thing, but you also are turning it in the work order.

You're also making the order.

You're delivering parts.

If for some reason the.

The team needs some more duct work or the team needs, you know, some pieces and parts, you're the one delivering that also.

So don't think that it's that much different.

But back to the topic is when do we actually celebrate and what's the whole point?

The whole point is customer service.

As we go through our process, we make the sale, we close it, we, you know, shake hands.

Hey, welcome to the XYZ Heating in Air family.

You're gonna love your, you know, you're gonna love the experience.

And next steps are, let's get on the calendar.

You know, whatever your next steps are and however you walk through it.

But that's not the end of it.

Your job is still to check in with them, make sure that they're good.

Don't just run and think, okay, good, I locked the deal in and now it's time to get on to the next one and somebody else will just take care of the rest.

No, the second that you work for your company, until the second that you Step into that house.

The second you step into the house, you work for that client.

They are who you're working for.

And your job is not done with them until you've walked them.

You've closed the deal.

You have checked in with them all the way until install.

You've checked with them during install, you've checked with them after.

Do you know?

Raise your hand if you know the perfect time to ask for referrals.

Referrals are powerful.

Referrals are self generated leads.

Referrals are a way that we can increase the value of the company while increasing your own value in the company to open up opportunities for yourself.

I mean, if you're, if you're.

Most compensation plans that I've ever seen will incentivize.

If you bring in a self generated lead.

You know, most of the time it's like an extra percentage point on the deal because it's marketing dollars that that company doesn't have to spend.

It's the ad spend that.

They're not doing any of that.

They don't have to spend that.

So that's how you can become more valuable is just start bringing in more leads.

I mean, you go to networking groups, all these things, and there's a really, really good podcast that's, that'll be coming out.

There was an interview with a, with a guy named Jimmy J.

So make sure to listen to that one.

And he really breaks down all the ways to generate leads for yourself without depending on the company to do it.

But that's the thing is we've got to take care of the client.

We walk all the way through the appointment, we get through the install, then check back in with them.

How was their experience?

Take them a gift.

If you get a thousand dollar commission on a project, go buy them a $50 gift card at, you know, the local restaurant or take them a bottle of wine or something.

I mean, it's not that hard to do.

We're just not doing it.

I hear all the time.

So a lot of people say, oh, I don't have time to do that kind of stuff.

And I'm here to submit to you that every bum on the street and every billionaire in the world has the exact same amount of time.

You have the time.

And you're just choosing, you're choosing to not prioritize the things to it to do in those steps of the day.

You're choosing to prioritize something else instead of what we're talking about.

It's.

Everyone has as much time as they want to have it's choosing the high and low priority items and learning how one of the things is learning how to say no to things that don't serve.

Say no to things that are not going to get you to your goals.

Say no to the things that are keeping you from doing the higher value activities.

It's less about time.

I really don't like the word time management.

It's not about time management, it's about time prioritization.

We've got to prioritize the important things.

It's not managing it, it's prioritizing it.

When you get that switch in your brain, it changes everything.

We love to do those word replacements.

If you've listened to a lot of podcasts, you've heard me talk about this over and over.

One little word change and the meaning in our mind changes and we can see it completely different as soon as there's so many things we can change in our life that the second we have awareness of something is the second that it'll change.

It doesn't take a long process to grab a drink of coffee here.

It doesn't take a long process of learning how to do something.

A lot of skills, those kind of things.

There's so many things that are just the.

I call them the 1 percenters.

You know, if you're 1% better today than you were yesterday, over time that builds into some massive transformation.

It's the compound effect.

Another great book by Darren Hardy called the Compound Effect.

Highly recommend that if you've never read it.

But it's all those little changes.

So time prioritization versus time management.

Let's start to do that.

That way you can prioritize things like, you know, how do we eliminate more cancellations?

Well, you go in and you, you know, when we're finishing up the project, they ink the deal, you're wrapping everything up and then you've got the lock in question at the end.

I learned this from actually another interview recently, Umar Hamid.

He's got his nlp.

She's going to be one of our podcasts coming out.

But at the end of the sale, when everything is said and done, you're almost on your way out the door.

Ask them, hey, so this wasn't.

Is your arm okay?

You know, I didn't have to twist it too hard to get you to into this project, did I?

Or, you know, those be silly with it, be fun with it.

But clarify, ask those questions like, you know, to really extra lock it in is like.

And the whole point of this is we don't Want someone to have signed because of manipulation.

We want them to sign because they truly made the decision.

And when they see the value and when they see what we actually offer and they make the decision based on your merit, not because you're out there and you're high, pressuring them into an urgent.

This incredible false sense of urgency that we could be here today and not give you time to shop with anybody else.

Because let's just rush, rush, rush, rush, rush.

We'll knock off 85% today if you go ahead and sign with us as our special bonus.

I mean, stop that stuff.

Just be better at what you do.

You don't have to manipulate them into signing the deal based on some false urgency.

I'm tired of that in our industry.

It's just.

It makes me grow.

It's gross.

It makes me sick.

But so that's the thing is lock those.

Lock that deal in at the end.

Ask them, say, all right, you know what?

Go over the reasons why they bought.

Say, you know, I'm so excited for this project.

Now.

Review with me the things that we're going to accomplish.

You know, I want to make it.

I want to make sure that you're clear on everything that we just did here today.

Have them restate that to you.

And when they do that, it locks it in.

They're restating all of the benefits that they're going to be getting out of the project.

So that's awesome.

So when do we celebrate?

We celebrate once the job installs.

Once we go back and talk to them, we, you know, review everything.

If you have to walk them through the thermostat.

And this didn't have to be in person.

You can do it on Zoom.

I like in person, but we know about timing.

Yes, time prioritization is important, but do it on Zoom.

Do it on a phone call.

How did everything go?

I just wanted to reach back out to you, make sure everything is great.

Make sure everything's, you know, you're happy with it.

Any adjustments we need to make, follow up with them.

And when you follow up with them, it locks in that connection because you've built a relationship.

They.

People buy from people.

Yes.

The credibility of the company is wildly important.

Yes.

The quality of install.

Yes, all that stuff.

But at the same time, this is why, you know, realistically, 30% of people out there aren't going to buy from you.

It's because they just don't.

They might like somebody else better.

They might not like the color of your shirt that day statistic.

And this, this is general statistics.

But statistically that's what happens.

30% of people aren't buying from you, so how do we maximize on the other 70%?

That's by being that person that is worth buying from.

So lock it in, go through the steps.

Don't just celebrate when you get a signature on a line.

Celebrate when it installs.

The time to celebrate is when you've got.

Once the install's happened, that's when we get paid, of course, and you've gone back and you followed up, you've made sure they're happy.

You take them the gift card or take them, you know, their favorite 12 pack of beer.

Whatever it is, it doesn't matter.

And you should know what their favorite thing is and what to take them from your discovery part of your appointment.

If you don't know by the end of your appointment that maybe they're a coffee drinker that just likes really specific, really high end coffee, or you don't know that what they're, that they're a beer drinker, they're a wine drink, or if their favorite restaurant or whatever it is that that person or that family is into.

You know, maybe they are real big into grilling and barbecuing.

You know, show up with, you know, a set of different spices or something from the, you know, the store.

Whatever it is, it doesn't matter.

I'm just throwing out random examples.

But if you don't know that from the time that you spent with them in the house, you're not doing a good enough discovery that is wildly important.

In fact, I'm going to do a whole other podcast on just that topic.

How did the things that we need to be looking for in discovery.

So at the end, you should know what to take them as a gift.

That's really going to be extra special because you've done enough discovery, you've done enough relationship building that there's no way that they'll choose somebody else over the relationship you built with them at that point.

It's not, and I'll tell you over and over, it has nothing to do with Price.

Has nothing to do with to do with price.

There was a conversation in the Facebook group that was surrounding, you know that I want to think about it, so I want to think about it, so I want to think about it.

And somebody commented that, man, 85% of the time it's about price.

And I'm here to tell you it is absolutely not.

What it is, is the client still has a level of what's called fud.

Fear, uncertainty and doubt.

If we can clear out the fear, if we can clear out the uncertainty, and if we can clear out the doubt from their mind, there's no reason that they're not going to choose you.

But it's up to us to discover what that is and to help clear it out of their mind.

So that is the.

That's the message today, is don't celebrate when you close the deal.

Remember, sales are good, installs are gooder.

Right?

Installs.

Sales are awesome, installs are awesomer.

However you want to say that and then follow up with them after the install.

That is where you close that chapter in that relationship with the client.

Stop being the guy or a lady that just makes the sale and you're down the road and never to be heard from again.

Because that's the quickest way to get cancellations.

That's the way to get the.

The quickest way to not get good reviews.

That's how you're not going to get referrals.

That's how you're not going to be the person that, you know five years down the road when they sell the house and move to a new house, they're not going to be calling you back.

You know, I've been in places before and I know so many of my top producers.

They've been to the point where, you know, they've served their clients so well and they followed up and connected that when the phone rings and they love it.

I used to love it when I heard, the second I picked up my phone and somebody said, oh, good, I'm so glad you still work for that company.

Oh, good, I'm still glad I still have your contact information.

And this is four, three, four, five years later.

They've saved my number in the memory in their phone they call it.

And the second answer.

Oh, good, I'm glad you still work there.

We loved what you did the last time at our home.

We've sold it, we're moving to a new house.

Come look at the house with us and let's just plan on doing the same thing or show us whatever the new options are.

They're not shopping around.

There's no need.

They trust you at that point.

They have the relationship built to the point where they're taking you house shopping with them, basically.

And they're already planning the project and signed the deal before they even sign the contract on the house, have it scheduled to install, before they can eat, before they even move in, because they know how much better it's going to feel.

They know what it did for their electric bills before.

They know what it did for the temperatures before.

Be that person.

Be the person that follows up.

To the degree that your relationship is built on the level that there's no way they would shop you around in the future, you've got to earn that right.

And you earn the right by staying in touch.

You earn the right by staying committed to the project until they don't need you anymore.

We know when that is.

It's not when you make the sale, it's down the road.

So, so that's the message today.

I hope you got some value from it.

So much, so much.

Coming up, be on the lookout for the book that's going to be coming out super, super soon.

Be on the lookout.

The course is almost finished, so.

Oh my gosh, this has been such a wild journey this year and I'm so glad you're on this path with me.

Rumor has it that in the, in the future coming up to be determined that there will be a live event as well.

Now that things are opening up, we're, we're putting, I'm putting together a live event.

It's going to be next level thinking.

So, so excited.

Make sure to join the Facebook group every Friday.

I do Q and A Friday.

It's a one hour free sales training.

But it's the cool part is because it's in the Facebook group, because it's Facebook Live, you can literally ask real time questions and we have a discussion about the topics.

Whatever your concerns are, your friction points, all of the current issues you're dealing with, we can help hammer it out in real time.

So thank you for listening today.

I'm super stoked to be back in the saddle with the podcast.

So many more coming out.

I will talk to you again soon.

And remember, go save the world one heat stroke at a time.

Thanks for listening to Close it now with Sam Wakefield.

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