Clients comparing prices from one offer to another is as normal as you choosing which is the better burger. In this episode, Sam Wakefield shares the secret to closing amazing projects and breaks down the pieces and parts of the process. There are ways to leave clients with no other choice but to choose you, and one must not also forget the importance of impression in the business. As Sam talks about how crucial doing due diligence is in the business, he also shares how to deal with the competition, how to handle price comparison, and how to harness the power of connecting with people emotionally. Learn all this and more and start making a difference in your close rate.

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 to the Close it now podcast.

My name is Sam Wakefield.

Thank you for joining me today.

Today we're going to cover one way to handle infamous hey, this other company is offering me a better package or the same package at less money.

What can you do for me?

And so that price objection.

So I'm going to actually use a real life example from this week that I used to close a really amazing project.

So we're going to talk about that, I'm going to dissect it, tell you all about the pieces and parts.

There's some psychology behind it and just a very simple principle that you can use immediately to start making a difference in your close rate.

So welcome, welcome to this podcast.

One of the things I love about I realize because if you're like me, you get a lot of road time.

I like to call it drive time University.

So if you are not using your drive time, your commute back and forth between projects to learn, to get better, to improve yourself, start.

There's one of the titans of the heating and air industry, Charlie Greer.

He is a classic, classic trainer.

If you've ever watched Tech Daddy or any of the other things that he's done, he was one of the very first people in heating and air to sell over a million dollars a year.

And this is back in the 80s when the average sale was right around $3,000.

So that is selling a massive amount of equ.

But one of the things he says, I heard a statistic from him that in a 20 year career in the heating and air industry as a service technician or as a salesperson, a comfort consultant, or we call them project managers, whatever you call yourself, or just the salesperson in a 20 year career, if you added up all of the amount of commute time and if you actually applied that by audiobooks, I love audiobooks and podcasts and those kind of things, if you actually applied that and Translated that time over a 20 year career in the industry would equal the equivalent of three PhD degrees, three separate PhD degrees by the amount of education you can give yourself in the amount of drive time that you have every single day.

So I encourage you, if you haven't yet, if you're on this podcast, you've started your own education.

So I applaud you.

I give you a huge props for right now for bettering yourself and choosing to grow yourself so your results can grow as you grow yourself.

So one of my favorite mentors, I'm going to mention him again, Jim Rohn, he said, set a goal to earn a million dollars, not for the million dollars, because the million dollars can come and go.

Set a goal to earn a million dollars because of the level of person you have to become to earn that million dollars.

Your belief system has bring to the world has to increase because we know that the amount of value you bring to the world is directly proportional to the amount that you'll be compensated for.

So if you want to earn more money, bring more value to your clients and your customers.

And how do we do that?

We do that by solving their problems that they have in their life.

See, we are not about, if you're in this community, you are not about taking care of people's air conditioners, taking care of people's heaters.

You are about taking care of people.

And when you take care of people and people's problems, the sales will happen because people know that you are connected to them emotionally.

You actually care about their situation and their problems and their experiences and how they live their life and you're there for them.

Who else would they choose to install a new heater and air conditioner?

I mean, come on, it's a no brainer.

It doesn't make any sense for them to choose anyone else.

If you actually show up, if you show up with passion and purpose and focus in at every appointment and you actually bring your A game every time, then it's a silly, silly question for a client to choose anybody else.

So that's exactly what we're talking about.

But so in this situation this week, it was a, I'll give you the backstory of it.

We, our company, we use Yelp pretty extensively.

So a message had come in across Yelp.

It was inquiring, read some reviews of ours and we have really great reviews.

You've got to get reviews every time you interact with anyone.

Ask for a review, ask for what you want.

But he read some of our reviews and he messaged into the company.

Well, I was the on call person for this past week, which means anything that's after hours or over the weekend, it comes straight to me.

That way I can respond.

What I did is I, you know, he was just initially asking about the process.

So I just picked up the phone and called him and talked about his situation.

Well, situation, he's in this big house, it's you know, 2,400 square foot or so, ranch style.

He's built the house 26 year old system or something like that.

And so he basically gave up the ghost and it died.

We had a home warranty company and raise your hand if you are tired of dealing with home warranty warranty companies.

But he said that he was getting no results from them and was ready to just take a cash out and to have a contractor that he chose to come out and do his work.

So interacted with him actually two different times this past Sunday.

We had set an appointment for Monday evening.

Get over there Monday evening we're sitting in his house, we're sweating and one of the tips, one of the principles I want to talk about today is do your due diligence even when you don't want to.

Even when it seems like I know this construction, I know what the system is, I know what's going on.

It would be a no brainer just for me to move on because I know what is happening here.

Well, so what happened is I did my due diligence even though I didn't have to, I chose to anyway.

Because they need to see that you are looking at everything.

They need to know that you are concerned about the details.

They need to know that you have special interest in their project as a custom project.

They don't need to know that it's identical to 500 other projects you've done within the same neighborhood.

They don't need to know that the homeowner wants to know that you are focused on them and on their house and on their special needs as if one, it's the first time you've ever seen these specific problems and two, your sole mission in life is to figure those problems out right then while you're there.

And when you can do that, that's a turning point in their minds.

You're building the confidence that they have that you are there to take care of them.

So by the due diligence in this situation, what I mean is the system was in a closet upflow in a closet all the way across the from the attic entrance.

Also turns out that the cross bracing and the joists in the attic in this house was like a spider web.

So it's 130, 120 degrees or so in the attic.

My first real flop sweat of the season.

I am up in the attic and I climb of course all the way across the attic and take pictures of his supply plenum.

Because I knew even though I'd seen it a hundred times in this neighborhood, the builder didn't put nearly the right amount of supply in.

So starved for airflow.

So I'd get pictures, I get, come back down out of the attic and show him exactly what the problem was, exactly what we were going to do to fix the problem, increase the airflow here, here, here and we sit down to the, sit down at the table, show him the different options he chooses, chooses.

So full situation.

He chooses a single stage and we call for right then got him approved for financing on the spot and set the project up for the very next day now.

So I'm leaving there about 7:30 at night, have another appointment after that.

I'm driving home and it's almost 10 o' clock and I get a text from this guy and here's where the story gets really, really interesting and here's where both the due diligence and the other tip and topic we're going to about here in just a minute really come into play.

So I get to get to my house and I get a text from this guy that says hey, your competitor, I'm not going to mention the name because they're a well known company here in Austin.

Your competitor offered me a two stage system for literally almost the same money.

After some discounts and different things, we were going to end up about the same money.

And so it instead, and here's where most people would probably answer back and start the conversation back and forth of well can you send me the quote and may we do price matching and all of this kind of thing.

You know how many of you raise your hand if you have ever told the homeowner.

Now we really look for an apples to apples comparison.

So if you send me their quote, we'll take a good look and we'll consult and make sure we're looking at the same thing.

And at the end of the day and vomit, vomit, vomit, do not do that because all you're doing is you're turning what you're doing into a commodity that anyone can buy off of the freaking shelf.

Anyone can go down the line and just pick a name and then it's the exact same thing every Single time.

As soon as the apples to apples words come out of your mouth, you've completely taken your project and demoralized it and turned it into a commodity that anyone can pick up like a can of beans.

So don't do that.

So I get a little passionate about this because it's my freaking passion to serve people and to teach you how to serve people in a way that you're bringing value and you're also getting value because it's a fair exchange, because you're doing an awesome job for them.

So sales, this is crucial.

Never commoditize what you're doing.

So if you don't know what commoditize means, go to join the Close It Now Facebook group.

Facebook can community and we can have this conversation.

But I will tell you, it is never about the cheapest price.

So back to our story.

It says, well, this other company was offering me a two stage system at almost the same money.

In fact, it turned out it was $200 less than what my single stage system I was offering for same family of equipment.

So it wasn't too different, it was just one step different.

So instead of going that journey of well, how much can we discount and this and that, I asked a question.

The key principle here is, and at the end of the story you'll see I never answered his direct question because he didn't truly know what he was asking.

So what I asked was, did they come out?

Because I knew his timeline was really short.

First question was, did the other company even come out to give you a quote?

Because initially I had red flags going off in my head that they had given it to him over the phone.

So he says, he says, yup.

And that's all he says, yup, yup.

So he's answering short with me.

So you match the tone.

You've got to match the tone a lot of times.

So I came back with, did they even go into the attic?

Because I knew by doing my due diligence, no one else will do it.

And that's the thing.

If you are a premium provider, if you are truly there to serve people, you will climb your happy butt to every corner of the attic or crawl space or wherever it is to check out the ductwork and to look at all of the aspects of the home and don't cut corners because I know that nobody else in our town is going to do that.

And I'm sure it's the same with you.

So he says, nope, they didn't go into the attic.

And then I asked well, what were they just guessing at what the duct work problem was or did they even ask about that?

I said, if they're guessing at that, I wonder what else they're guessing at.

And so he responds, yeah, maybe.

So he's starting to turn, starting to kind of turn the corner there.

And then I asked him what was their solution for the lack of airflow.

Because in my mind, I know at this point they hadn't even diagnosed the problem.

So they didn't even know there was one.

So he says, well, they were gonna give me a free air, free upgraded air filter.

So it internally.

Well, not internally.

I mean this is all via text message.

So I'm cracking up at this point.

And so my response then was just that, ok, well they're not solving.

I said it doesn't matter.

And the other part of piece of information here, you guys, is the size system on the house was a three and a half ton.

The house truly needed a four ton.

Did the manual J load calculation, figured out that it actually needed a 4 ton system.

So upgrading the size of the system anyway, and it was already short on the air supply.

So my response at that point was, well, it doesn't matter what system you install a single stage, a two stage, whatever, if the airflow is not right.

It's only going to destroy the new equipment if it's lacking in that much supply air.

I said, you'll be glad that you chose us because you're not going to have these problems.

And so sure enough, he said, and I put the thumb, you know, thumbs up emoji right in the text message.

And he sends back this smiley face.

Yeah, you're right.

Thanks for the confidence.

Go to bed because it's super.

And so sure enough, the very next night, and so our crews go out, we do an amazing job, of course, as your company should, if you set in in the sales process.

That's the thing, if you're making big promises, you've got to deliver, right?

You have to have the people to deliver on those promises you're making.

So there's a whole concept of, you know, if you've ever heard, raise your hand if you've ever heard under promise and over deliver, I think that is complete.

Yes, but it should be over promise and then over deliver past that because that is how you get and keep lifetime clients.

So of course I respond back and the next evening I'm checking on him.

Hey, how'd the project go?

How's the house?

And so he sends me back this huge text message thanking me so much for the confidence and helping him get over the hump and how the system is 10x quieter than his previous system, because that was one of his big concerns.

Having to turn the TV up in the living room every time it came on, of course.

And how much he loved my crew because they're very respectful and just goes down the whole list of every single thing that was positive.

And then the very next day, literally like five or six paragraphs worth of review on our Yelp page from this guy because he was so blown away by our service.

Now, there's two big lessons here.

If I had not done my due diligence to know that the system was short on airflow and to climb all the way across that attic and had done the due diligence, I wouldn't have known and I wouldn't have the ammunition to instantly be able to come back with to him when he was asking about the price comparison shopping.

I wouldn't have been able to come back to him and say, what are they going to do about this problem?

Because I wouldn't have even known that there was a problem.

So that's lesson number one.

You have to do your due diligence.

You've got to look at everything every single time.

Even if it's the end of the day and you're on call number seven or eight for the day and it's 11 at night, like I know some of you do, because I know I do.

You've got to do your due diligence.

Feel like it or not.

Lesson two, and this is the big one, this is the closing lesson of the week.

When they come to you with if you've done your process properly, if you've done your investigation properly, if you've asked all of the questions on your and you should have a form with what questions you're asking every time you're in a house.

Don't change from your system.

Don't deviate from a system.

Establish a system and consistently use it A to Z.

So if you're asking the right questions, they've given you all the information you need that'll take you right to the close.

So when they come back to you with, oh, well, so and so was offering this, don't make it about the price.

Take it away from the price instantly.

Don't respond to that price question.

Respond in questions about how the other company is going to handle the situations that you're easily handling because you investigated them and figured them out.

So Just like I did when he's like, well, they're offering a two stage at the same price as your single stage.

Wouldn't that be a better choice?

My question was, how are they going to handle these problems?

Did they even go in the attic?

How are they going to handle this airflow?

And so he's like, no, no, they didn't have a plan for that.

So then you just question at the end of the day, if your system only.

If theirs only lasts half as long as ours, or you have headaches and problems and maintenance issues when you shouldn't have, because they were only guessing at it.

Have they saved you any money?

Because what we're promising is that we're going to do it right and we're not cutting corners.

Let's stay on the calendar.

Right?

So, yeah.

And his response was, okay, let's go ahead as scheduled.

So that's the lesson.

Do your due diligence.

And by doing your due diligence, you've got the ammunition.

So when objections start to arise, you can just bring them up and say, and so this specifically relates to the objections about another company and a price.

And so then you can start to ask them, how are they gonna handle this?

How are they gonna handle that?

How are they gonna handle this?

Because you have a plan of attack and it's gonna be an effective one because you're confident in the work that you do and you're confident in your design.

Because you study, because you get better, things get better.

So that's the podcast for this session, for this episode, episode number two of H Vac Sales Podcast.

I want to hear from you.

So how can you do that?

You can find me@samwakefield.com.

that's S A M W A K E F I e l d.com that is going to take you.

Actually, right now it is pointing to my Facebook page.

Find me.

Find my page on Facebook.

Like it and join the close it now, close it now H Vac training community.

We have a private Facebook group and we were building a group of people who are a group of H VAC sales experts who are dedicated to serving people, providing value so you can double, triple, quadruple your income.

We're going to double your close rate.

We're going to double your average ticket price.

Who doesn't want more money at the end of the year?

More money in your check, in your pocket, Net net in your pocket every single week.

I know both of my hands are raised right now and yours should be too.

So this year is going to be an amazing.

We're going to crush it.

If you didn't know, in the market across the whole across the world there is actually an enormous amount of pent up system replacement.

So by that we mean there are literally millions of systems that people have been putting off and putting off and putting off because of political changes, because of changes in economics, all those different types of changes, changes in the stock market, people have been holding off doing replacement they've only been repairing up until now and there's there it's all breaking loose.

So all this pinup replacement in the market is coming due.

You're gonna see a harvest bigger than you've seen.

This year is already shaping up to be record breaking year for my company and I hope yours as well.

If you follow these principles, you'll absolutely be able to double 10x your income even at that matter.

So find me samwakefield.com join the Facebook Group.

We are building a community of these dedicated salespeople of H Vac Freaking rock stars and I will see you guys on the next podcast.

Thanks for listening to Close it now with Sam Wakefield.

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