The central theme of this podcast episode revolves around the concept of "mental chess" in the realm of sales, particularly within the HVAC industry. We delve into the intricate dynamics of customer engagement, emphasizing the necessity of understanding both the motivations that drive customers to purchase and the barriers that might deter them. It is imperative to adopt a psychological approach, wherein we listen attentively to our clients' unspoken concerns while maintaining integrity throughout the sales process. By setting clear expectations and following up with genuine concern when appointments are missed, we position ourselves as trustworthy professionals who prioritize our clients' needs. Ultimately, our discourse underscores that effective salesmanship transcends mere transactional exchanges; it is about fostering enduring relationships and demonstrating unwavering commitment to our clients' well-being.

Making sales is more than just giving an offer to others and waiting for them to take it. To be a successful closer, you need to learn how to read between the lines of what your customer is saying or showing you. That is why a necessary skill to have is learning how to do mental chess. In today’s show, Sam Wakefield helps us maneuver into this mental chess game with our buyers. He taps into the importance of integrity, follow-ups, taking things at face value, and understanding more than just asking. Dive deep into this great episode to know why people are buying or are not buying from you and how to get them off the fence that holds them back.

The discourse presented in this episode encompasses the intricate dynamics of sales within the HVAC sector, particularly emphasizing the psychological strategies employed in the sales process. A salient theme that emerges from the dialogue is the necessity of understanding customer motivations, which transcends superficial inquiries about their immediate needs. I elucidate the importance of discerning the underlying psychological factors that compel customers to make purchasing decisions, as well as those that deter them from committing. This dual focus on both the drivers and deterrents culminates in a more profound comprehension of the sales landscape, which, when adequately navigated, can result in enhanced sales efficacy. Moreover, I accentuate the pivotal role of integrity in the follow-up process, advocating for a balanced approach that marries persistence with genuine concern for the client's well-being. This episode serves as a clarion call for sales professionals to elevate their engagement strategies, thereby fostering deeper connections and trust with potential clients.

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.

Welcome back.

Sam Wakefield here with Close it now, it's Drive Time University.

I'm driving, you're driving.

Let's do this.

Let's learn something today.

So yeah, welcome, welcome, welcome.

If you haven't already already, go to close it now.net join our Facebook group.

It is a group of awesome people just like yourself who are out there saving the world one heat stroke at a time, saving the world one frostbite at a time and just basically making the world a better place.

We all want to be comfortable because we can.

So yeah, so go join the group and it's a ton of fun over there.

And yeah, I do a lot of different videos and stuff and training in that group that you may be really interested in.

We could do a lot of real live Q and A sessions as well is what we've got going on in that group.

So go check it out.

Closeitnow.net, that'll get you the link to join our Facebook group.

And yeah, it's a fun time.

So yeah, today we're talking about something really interesting.

We're talking about mental chess.

Do you play chess?

Have you ever seen chess?

You know, it's strategy.

It's what it is.

It's a strategy game.

You know, we've been talking in the last several podcasts about in order to be a stone cold closer, to be a high performer, to be someone who really is an achiever in our, in any industry, really in sales, you have to be more than just an order taker.

It's a lot more than just.

It's not enough anymore to go into a house and sure, everybody knows you're supposed to express concern, you're supposed to ask questions, you're supposed to listen to the answers.

And as we talk on here a lot, listening between the lines is what I like to call it.

We have to be able to listen between the lines and hear the Things that they're not telling us, which is a skill.

And I hope that you've learned from this podcast a lot better ways to do that.

Things to look for things to notice.

So one of the things I want to talk about today, though, is, has to do with integrity.

It has to do with taking things at face value.

And it's this mental chess match that goes on.

We have to become almost psychiatrists or psychologists when it comes to.

Not psychiatrist, psychologists, we'll leave the psychiatry to somebody else.

But psychologists when it comes to sales.

It's more than just finding out, you know, figuring out what the house's problems are and suggesting solutions.

Because the house does not write your check.

They don't sign the dotted line.

The people that live in the house sign the dotted line.

So there's two things we've got to figure out.

One, we have to listen.

Ask enough questions and listen to understand their reasons to buy.

That's first.

The very first thing we've got to find out, what are their drivers to buy?

Why now?

Why did you call us?

What's going on?

What are your concerns?

Those types of questions.

The other side of the same coin is we have to figure out their reasons not to buy.

What is preventing them from choosing you and choosing your solution as the correct answer to their problem.

And this goes for and quick shout out to everybody all around the world who listen to this podcast.

Thank you so much.

I've had so much fun in building this podcast and growing it and recording these.

And I love hearing back from you with where in the world you are, what is it that you sell?

What do you do?

What is your industry?

Obviously, when I originally started this, the focus is residential heating and air sales, air conditioning and heating cells.

However, I've come to realize one, the philosophy is the same.

Whatever you do, if you're a plumber, if you're an electrician, if you're selling cars, if you are selling home security systems, whatever it is, this can apply.

If you sell California closets, for that matter, or windows or roofing or siding and gutters, you name could be gardening and landscape, I don't know.

The philosophy is the same.

And so figuring out why people are buying and why people are not buying from you, what is holding them back?

Sometimes the appropriate question is, when you've got a client that's been back and forth for a while, I love to just ask the obvious question and just ask what's holding you from making this investment?

Don't say purchase or anything, just say investment.

What's holding you back from this investment and make that the only question.

Let them tell you what is holding them back.

Because if you've built enough rapport and you've done a great job on the front end, normally they'll tell you and it may be smokescreened a little bit, but usually they'll give you some indication of what is holding it back.

And it could be just, you need to clarify how you handle a situation.

It might just be, oh, you just need a different way to finance this.

They'll usually tell you what's going on, but today we're talking about integrity.

And this has a lot to do with, on the back end, on the follow up on how to get people to respond.

When you raise your hand, if you've, you know, you've left the proposal, you've left the quote, you've left the estimate, or you send it to them and you've been interacting with people and another quick pop out is no longer do we expect to always close in the house every time our society is moving a little bit away from that?

Yes, there's absolutely times to close it now in the house, of course.

But some of the questions up front might need to be what does your timeline look like?

Don't assume that just because somebody doesn't buy from you on the spot that they don't plan to make the purchase.

A good example of this is me and my wife, you know, six, seven, eight months ago, we started the process to buy a house.

We started into applying for financing for a mortgage, that kind of thing.

But in the middle of the process, we realized now is not the right time for us.

So we, you know, just, we told the mortgage people, we told the realtor.

So you know what, we're just going to hit the brakes right now because it's not a good time.

We will revisit this in the future.

Do we plan on buying a house?

Yes, but now it's not the right time for it.

So sometimes that happens, you know, when your clients, yes, 30% of them or so, they just go with someone else.

That's the easy answer.

That's the easy no.

You know, maybe another, you know, 30% buy from you.

Right.

Then hopefully it's more than that.

But industry average is 30%.

But don't assume that just because somebody didn't buy from you meant they actually went with somebody else and they purchased from someone else.

There's a huge percentage of the people that you see that just don't do anything.

They just don't do anything.

At all.

And that's okay because especially the people when you show up and they give you the, well, we're just seeing numbers right now.

We're planning for the future, all this kind of thing.

There's a lot of frustration that comes around with that because.

And I get questions all the time of how to increase urgency in the off season.

How do we get people off the fence to buy?

The answer is show up, do your best, give them your dead level best presentation.

Yes, start some of the closing process.

But if they are just not doing anything, then it's okay.

Because now what you've done is you've built a pipeline.

I'm to the point in my pipeline right now and I know lots of other people I've talked to and who maybe have been where they're at a lot longer.

I know of people that, well, at this point in my career I get every single month I'll have usually somewhere between two and five projects come in from people that I've seen a year, two, three, four years prior that finally call back and say, okay, I've got the money, I'm ready to do it.

And we made the decision when we got all of our bids before we chose who we wanted to go with, it's you.

Now it's just a matter of picking out what we want to do.

We realized that you gave the best presentation, you were the most educated, you educated us the best, you were the most confident in what you were presenting.

So we're not even going to shop around now.

It's just a matter of now.

Our timing is right as well.

So understand that and embrace that fact.

Don't get away from the fear based thinking that if you don't close it in the house on the spot or within a week or so of your original proposal, that you're not going to get it, that it's going to somebody else.

Because if you are an expert at what you do, you have the confidence and the posture of that, they will come back to you.

So it's like the old adage with love, right?

If you love something, let it go and it'll come back to you.

That's absolutely true and that's totally what's going on today.

We're talking about that follow up process.

You know, you've given the quote, raise your hand if you've ever had people drop off the radar, they give you crickets, it's nothing.

But they just ghost you and you can't get the response back.

Well, I did a podcast early on that was about using a no answer, you know, so the no answer is just reaching out and asking, hey, have you given up on this project?

And that's it, that's all you ask.

And with that, usually they'll respond with no or yes, I went with somebody else or no, I haven't given up.

I've just had to deal with this, this and this.

But it gets some sort of answer back from you, answer back to you.

So try that.

If you're having people ghost you and they're not responding to call, text, email, just you know, hit them, say, you know, hit them up and say, hey, have you given up on this project?

So that's the first kind of, first way to go about it.

But the overarching philosophy that I want to talk about today is a little bit, you know, we're going to step it up a level in philosophy and just kind of generalize the conversation.

Because when we go into a house, people expect us to take them at their word, exactly, at the word, exactly what's going on.

But then they know full well at the same time that most people aren't going to or they're going to tell you something.

But then they have no intention in following through either.

And a good example of this is, for example, if you went and saw somebody on a Monday and no matter what you did, you didn't close it on the spot.

We all have those, even the very best closers in any industry, you have those appointments, they're just, no matter what you do, they're not closing right then, they're not going to sign the dotted line the day you're there.

It's okay, it happens.

Then over the next maybe week, two weeks, whatever is, you know, you go into the follow up process.

But for example, on that Monday you said, okay, y' all had established a time maybe for example, Thursday at 3pm to get back in contact.

So Thursday at 3pm rolls around, you call, you text, you email, no response.

So the way what's going on there is they expect us to take them at their word.

We walk in 100% face value at what they tell us.

Now what happens there is they've ghosted us, they don't plan on being back in touch.

However we have, you know, we reach back out exactly when you say you're going to.

And you have to do that to uphold your side of the integrity.

Now what has happened?

Well, what's happened is that gives you the permission to start responding with concern because now you've got your, if we're playing mental chess, you've got your queen, maybe that's been hidden along the line.

It's time to slide that sucker out.

And now let's start to take some serious moves in this mental chess match.

When they miss an appointment that you've preset with them, that gives you the right to reach back out with something.

You know, reach out like are you okay?

Question mark.

Or we set up this time we had a great visit and it seemed like things were going really well.

We set up this time to get back in touch.

Are you okay?

It didn't seem like you to miss our appointment.

Is everything okay?

Are you alright?

I've even gone as far sometimes.

We were talking about that in our meeting this morning with my team.

Especially if you've got somebody, you know, special case or whatever, reach back out to them, say, hey, do I need to send a well check for you?

Are you okay?

I hope everything's fine.

Is your health okay?

And start asking those concerned questions.

You will get a response.

People will respond back because now they know, oh, they caught me.

Will you take them at face value in what they say?

They're going to get back with us.

And when they don't get back with us, that's when we can reach out with that concern of, hey, are you alright?

Is everything okay?

Is your health okay?

I hope something didn't happen.

And people totally appreciate that.

They love it because now they know there's more to us than just every other contractor that comes around, leaves a bid, goes away and doesn't ever follow up, doesn't ever reach back out.

Because to some degree people want to be pursued a little bit.

It's a dating scenario.

When you went on your first date, in no way did they expect you to propose marriage and in no way did you expect to propose marriage on the very first date.

Yes, that can happen through constant contact and doing a great service.

Yeah, we're going to close some deals on the side.

But so many times people want to be pursued a little bit with that is following up.

And we're going to break down some follow up here in a minute too.

The philosophy of how to properly follow up, but mainly take people at their word when they say, hey, yeah, well, let's get back together at Thursday at 3 and they miss it, reach out, say, hey, are you okay?

Is everything all right?

It didn't seem like you're to miss our appointment because I know you're a person of integrity or I know you're, you know, your person that was telling me the truth.

And I just want to make sure that you're fine.

So try that, use that and see how that doesn't work for you because I promise you it's going to unlock some of those responses.

And of course sometimes you're going to get, you know, people answer back to you with, well, you know, we ended up choosing somebody else.

Sometimes it'll open the conversation back up into, you know what, we were just busy for the week.

Sorry to get back to you, here's a couple more questions about your project.

Okay, great.

Sometimes they'll finally get back to say, you know what, it's just not our time right now.

And that's when you can ask them, well, great.

No problem.

I totally get that.

With as we come across promotions and have specials coming up in the future, would it be okay to reach back out to you?

Of course they're going to answer yes.

So your kind of follow up cadence looks like this.

You know, you go out day one, maybe day two, you're texting your email in and I recommend getting people to text as quickly as possible because that is a relationship based level of communication that the sooner that you can take somebody to text, the sooner you're building that better rapport with them.

There's people text with friends.

That's what's going on.

So if you can share information that way as well as via email, as well as, you know, calling on because very seldom, I mean, how many times have you seen or heard people talk about or seen memes fly around on the Internet of you know, what happens when somebody tries to call before they've text message me is people freak out.

In our society now when you just pick up the phone and call them, they feel trapped when you do that.

So it's okay to move to text and to email and get on the phone when, when you need to.

So day, you know, day two, three, you're texting your email and you know, maybe reach out again in another maybe day five, day four to five, reach out again a week later, maybe reach out again a week and a half and then two weeks later if they're not ghosting you at this point, the conversation is still going on.

That is an awesome sign.

If you are in constant contact and communication and questions bouncing back, back and forth over the next week to two weeks, that means there's a huge, huge, huge likelihood that they're just, you know, maybe they're waiting on a bonus come in, maybe they're waiting for just till you've answered all of their questions.

To pull the trigger and move forward with your project.

So, and then that's where questions come in.

Say, okay, and that's where it's like, okay, great.

What's holding you back from this project?

And just ask them that at that point if that's how it's progressed.

If they've started ghosting you.

You know, give them the, are you okay?

Is everything all right?

And they'll get back to you.

And then in the future on how to follow up.

You know, every time after about the first week to two weeks, every single time that you reach out to them, have something more that you can share, always come up with a hey, it's the last week of the month, we're having a flash sale.

I can do an extra discount of this or maybe a month or two later, you know, the next month, it's like, okay, hey, we've got a special promotion.

We're giving away a free, you know, some.

Maybe it's some sort of product, an accessory that you sell, something that's really low cost to you but high value to them, especially if it's something that they were concerned about to start with.

Say, hey, I just heard that we're doing a free air filter promotion.

Or, you know, whatever, it's a free UV light or whatever it is, or maybe a part of their project that you could easily discount.

Say, hey, you know what?

We're running a special on this part of your project this month.

Just didn't want.

And when you reach out with that, say, hey, listen, I've got the special coming up.

It's going to be, you know, from now until the end of whatever time period you set for everyone that moves forward with their project.

It's an extra discount of this or something we can do if we go ahead and get you on the calendar.

So that way every single time you're reaching out because they gave you permission when you have specials and promotions to reach back out.

And so when you do that, when you do truly have some sort of special promotion, each time you reach out, you're well within the permission that you asked for the permission to reach back out.

You still are well within that.

So don't think that you're bugging people when you reach back out like that, because people want to know about sales, people want to know about promotions.

They want to know about what's going on, if it's something they're truly still interested in.

So, I mean, every, you know, every probably two months or so, I'll reach back out to everybody I'LL go back usually six months to a year.

Everybody who is in my pending list and shoot them a quick message.

Hey.

Message that says, hey, we've got some great promotions coming up.

Would you like to hear about them?

Because that gets a response too.

Don't just tell them what the promotion is every single time.

If it's been, you know, if they've been in your pending list for a while, when you reach back out, say, hey, I've got a huge sale coming up.

I didn't want you to miss out.

Would you like to hear what the new discounts are?

Or hey, we've got a new product that's going to better solve the problem we talked about before.

Would you like to hear about it?

So you're asking them again, would you like to hear about the promotion?

Would you like to hear about the new product?

Would you like to hear about the new model?

And wait for them to answer.

Because when you get, when they answer after you've asked a question, they've re engaged into your conversation, they've re engaged into their interest of what you can do for them.

Because if they just come back with, if they're silent or if they just come back with no, I'm not interested right now, great, no problem.

Okay.

To keep following up.

When we have more promotions and specials, they'll always say yes.

So you still have that permission to keep going.

So don't think that you're bugging people or you're being a pest just by following up.

When you make offers like that, when you're offering them something new, it's a fantastic way to do the follow up.

And so every single month, so all the way through the first month follow up every week after that, extend it out a little bit, make it like a six weeks and then maybe a couple months.

But just have some way to track your leads and your appointments to keep them in the calendar.

Because I can guarantee you this is the difference between super high end producers and top producers and top performers in any industry versus the people who are just average or a little above average.

When your sales are purely based on 100% incoming volume and you're not spending a lot of time on the pipeline or on the follow up, you're missing an enormous portion of your sales.

I literally have gone through and done this last month is a good example.

I did a huge, huge, huge push into reaching into my pipeline to make special offers to people who I knew were super interested to start with.

Even back 3, 4, 5, 6 months and was closing deals the whole time, my numbers for the month ended up being about, usually about 75 to $100,000 higher than some of my teammates because I was really focused on the pipeline.

And given I've got a huge pipeline.

But you've got to, you've always heard the fortune is in the follow up and I can guarantee you that that is true.

So you've got to keep following up, but when you do it with integrity in.

Okay, here's what we got going on.

We've scheduled this and let's reach back out.

You gave me permission.

I asked you if we could do promote, you know, let you know about promotions and sales and offers.

And then when you do, you, you stay in the good graces of your client and you just keep after it.

Is it tedious?

Yes.

Does the thought of follow up kind of gross you out?

Maybe.

But I can promise you that's why, you know, have you ever signed up for an email newsletter and you get emails all the time with.

Every single one has a special or a promotion in it.

This is why, because it works.

It's enough, enough visibility, enough exposures.

Maybe it's the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9, 10, 12th time you've reached back out to them and finally they'll be like, okay, we're ready, let's do this project.

Hey, let's go ahead and revisit the numbers.

I've even had clients that when I was there initially, their life situation was, well, you know, we can't really afford much right now.

What's the very basic thing that you can do for us?

And they ended up not doing the project.

Then I've had people reach back out to me two or three years later and say, hey, listen, our situation's totally changed.

We really like the very top end offer that you had and now we can afford it.

Let's go for that.

Which is awesome because now you've got.

That also says that you did a great job on the up front end of doing a rock star presentation.

You just because they said, hey, we've, you know, maybe we can't afford it all right now, or maybe our situation isn't.

We're just planning for the future.

You still present to them as if you were a rock star and it doesn't change anything in your presentation.

You impress their socks off.

So when it's time to actually pull the trigger on the project, you're the only person they reach back to.

It's like, hey, let's just update our numbers.

We know they've probably changed over.

You Know, a couple years, we're ready now, let's do it.

So I hope this is helpful to you today because it's a philosophy that's really important to understand.

Take people at their word and then when they don't follow and you have to follow through when they don't follow through on their end as far as getting back to you or you know, showing up for the appointments that you set for the not answering the calls that you prescheduled, they've given you permission to reach out and say, hey, are you okay?

It's not like you to miss your appointment or hey, is everything all right?

You can also go by the house, knock on the door, drop off a card, drop off a door hanger, say hey, I just wanted to touch base with you, see, you know, see how things are going.

It's okay, it's okay to do that.

There is no such thing as off limits now.

For too long people were scared to do follow up like that.

But people appreciate it.

The general population wants to be pursued in whatever, especially when you've got a, you know, a big ticket item.

You know, the things we do in heating and air.

This morning, literally I sent out a follow up email that was, sounded just like that.

It was like, hey, just touching base.

Have you made a decision on your project?

What other questions can I answer?

Hope everything's okay.

I haven't heard from you on the day that we set to, you know, to set it back up, the day we scheduled and it wasn't an hour later I got a call back, said, you know what, we have made a decision, let's go ahead and do that $30,000 project that we were talking about while you were at the house.

How soon can we get it scheduled?

And it totally works.

Try this, try this philosophy.

The words don't have to be exactly the same, make it sound like you.

But don't be scared to reach out with the integrity of I took you at your word.

Yeah, I mean don't tell them they didn't follow through.

But ask the concerned questions of hey, are you okay?

Are you alright?

Have you given up on this project?

What other questions can I answer?

Have you made a decision?

And when you do that, you're going to find that your close rate is gonna skyrocket because now you're following up in a way that nobody else in your area is doing.

This is sales, like next level sales.

This is what makes a top performer.

This is what makes a closer.

This is what earned you the right to drink the coffee the coffee is for closers, right?

This earns you that right to be able to drink the coffee.

So I hope this was helpful today.

If you want to continue this conversation.

Absolutely.

Let me know.

Shoot me an email.

Samloseitnow.net Join the Facebook group let's keep this going because it's super, super powerful.

And oh, the other thing is coaching program.

If you don't know already, we have a high performance coaching program for that.

Those of you who are ready to take your sales to the next level, if you've gotten value from the podcast and from the content that I put out, then absolutely reach out to me and let's talk about if you're a good fit for the program.

You know, there's limited numbers available, limited spots, but every single person who is enrolled in this program has just multiplied their numbers in a real short amount of time.

You know, I'm talking about people that maybe have never sold anything above single stage equipment in week one.

Going out selling very top end modulating equipment systems or you know, their average sale before we started coaching together was like 50, $500, $5,500.

And average sale after we've coached even for a couple months is more like 8 or 9,000, 10,000.

They're making 17, 18, $19,000 sales when the biggest sale that had ever been made was like $8,000 before.

So they're literally doubling their numbers, doubling their close rate in a pretty short amount of time.

And the thing is, I don't want clients who coach forever if that's the case, you're not achieving the things that you want to achieve.

So with our coaching program comes 100% money back guarantee.

If you're not getting the value that you think you need, that you think you should be receiving, I don't want to keep your money.

I want to see you successful.

So reach out, let's see if it's a good fit for you.

That's the, that's my guarantee is, you know you're gonna dramatically increase your numbers or your money back.

So reach out@CloseItNow.net you can read more about the coaching program.

Shoot me an email, sam, closeitnow.net and we can set up a, set up a call to visit about that, see if it's a good fit for you.

Otherwise, everyone keep going out there, change the world because you have the ability to make an impact on people's lives.

You can change someone's world so dramatically that down the road when they see one, they'll start referring their friends because you've made such an impact on them.

And when you see them down the road, you see them years later, you know they're shaking your hand and giving you a high five in the grocery store or at the coffee shop because they're still so happy with the project you did for them.

They love it.

They've had nothing but good experience because you know, you do the work that changes lives.

So all right everybody, that is the mental chess match conversation.

Hope this was helpful to you.

Let me know what your biggest takeaway is.

Shoot me a message with your biggest nugget you got from this podcast.

And until next time, go out Change the world one heat stroke at a time.

Go change the world one frostbite at a time.

I will talk to you again soon.

Thanks for listening to Close it now with Sam Wakefield.

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