In this episode we talked about the right time to suggest a system replacement. And big hint, it has nothing to do with the condition of the equipment. Then we move into the two key components to every buying decision. If you don’t satisfy both of these components the answer will always be I have to think about it, or maybe get other quotes.

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, welcome back.

This is the Close It Now H Vac sales training podcast.

My name is Sam Wakefield, coming to you from Austin, Texas, the land of tacos, barbecue and live music capital of the world.

And we know a little bit about air conditioning down here in Texas.

Well, actually I also spent the first decade of my career at the other end of the state where we know a lot about winter as well.

If you didn't know, Texas gets a lot of snow in the top part of the state.

So yeah, that's something that little known fact about the state, it's so big.

Anyway, today, today we are going to be talking about when is the right time to suggest a system replacement.

I know we've got a lot of listeners who are technicians or they do installers or even one man shops.

You do the sales, you do the service, you do the install, you do it all.

So all different sizes of organizations that listen.

So the question has come up several times to me recently, when is the right time to suggest a system replacement?

And I want to hear from you.

You can connect email me@samwakefield.com or also connect with us in the Close It Now Facebook group.

It's the Close It Now H Vac sales training Facebook group.

Join the community and let's have, let's keep this conversation going.

So several answers came up in the in fact in that Facebook group that kind of interesting, there's some crazy formulas that I came across of if the cost of the repair is a third of the price of the total system or if the, you know, the system is over X amount of years and multiply that by the cost of the repair and all these, all these crazy things.

You know, years ago Bryant had come out with a really cool repair versus replace questionnaire that you could actually take the homeowner through.

For the first part of my career I was a Bryant dealer.

So I was familiar with that, but really, at the end of the day, all of that doesn't necessarily matter because there's an underlying principle that we're missing.

If we only go off of the age of the system or the condition of the system or what's the cost of the repair, how many repairs are needed, multiply that by the age.

All these things we're missing the biggest element because who is the system going to write you a check for to replace itself?

Is the system the one that's going to fill out the financing paperwork?

Are they the one that's going to say, yeah, you know what, why don't you just go ahead and replace me with a nice variable speed unit?

No, that has nothing to do with it.

At the end of the day, it all depends on the homeowner.

It depends on the consumer because we know people write checks for what they want, not what they need.

I'm going to say that again because it's very, very crucial that you get this concept because with this concept will unlock the whole world of sales for you.

Especially, especially in the, in home H Vac Sal, people will write checks for what they want, not what they need.

People buy what they want, not what they need.

So with that being said, there's lots, and I did a video about this in the group, in the Facebook group as well.

But there I've been in houses that certain situations, maybe the system was 10, 12, 13, 15, 18 years old and it needed a couple repairs and if you follow the, you know, calculate it with the age of the system, all this other stuff, you know, that may have been time to suggest a replacement.

But listening to the homeowner and knowing the situation, the circumstance, you know, a raise, that said, you know what, maybe you want to consider it.

And the situation did not call for a system replacement.

The system was running really well, just needed a couple repairs and because of the homeowner's situation, it was not the right time for them to do a system replacement.

Now at the same time, I've been in houses that were literally brand new, you know, a year old, two years old.

And we've, we went out there because the call, the, the way the lead came in was, you know, it's this multi story house and these rooms aren't cold, these rooms aren't keeping up, they're, you know, there's all kind of temperature imbalance.

What can you do for, well, through listening to what the client wants, listening to their needs and going through the questionnaire, you know, if you don't have a specific Set of questions that are directed to uncover the concerns of the consumer, the concerns of the homeowner, then you really need to develop one.

In fact, I'm working on one right now.

That's going to be my free download for you guys.

So as soon as I have that fit finished, I'll make it available to you because it's going to be my gift to you because you've got to have a questionnaire of specific questions going through the common concerns in the house.

And not only that, use it, use it every time and ask the right questions.

The uncover the unpeel the onion, so to speak questions.

And when you do that, the homeowner is going to tell you all of their big concerns and what they really, really want from.

And so by asking the right questions, asking about, okay, you've lived in this house for, you know, several months.

You've experienced the summertime or you've experienced the wintertime, but in this situation it was the summertime.

So what would you like the house to feel like?

How would you like to be able to control the temperatures in the house?

What areas are warmer than others when some of the house is cool?

And so through that conversation, even though they had bought the house a year, you know, it was a brand new system.

And all practical purposes, if I was strictly a technician out there, diagnosed the equipment, it was perfectly fine, it was running as designed.

Now it wasn't performing the way the homeowner wanted it to.

And that's the crucial key here because we all know, say a brand new house is going to have the very basic builder grade system.

It's also going to be put in by unfortunately, as we all know that a lot of times the subcontractors that work for a home builder aren't necessarily the sharpest knives in the drawer.

Raise your hand if you can feel me on that one.

So there was a handful of things that while not technically wrong, could be a lot better.

So the homeowner basically they, they said, you know what?

We don't like way this system operates.

We understand that when we bought this house there were going to be a handful of things that were just kind of basic level.

But we're not the type of people who stay with that kind of basic level.

When we buy cars, we don't buy the cheapest one.

When we take vacations, we don't take the cheapest trip.

So same thing here because they, through this conversation they began to understand that the largest energy consumer that they own in their entire life is their heating and Air system.

And also that's the one thing that directly determines their comfort in the most hours of their day and night.

And so they said, our sleep is important to us, we want to be comfortable.

So what we did is we pulled that system out and it was of course single stage builder grade with conventional zoning, which is very passionate about this.

That is a horrible design that was never intended to happen.

But I digress.

So what we did is we pulled that out and installed, I think the total was like 18,500 or something for this, you know, for this house, something like that.

For a variable speed zone system, it might have been a little more a variable speed zone system that they are the most ecstatic clients, you know, in the top five, maybe of the most excited clients I've ever had.

You know, in fact, anytime I run into them or see them, they tell me, years later, man, that's still so comfortable.

Thanks so much.

And they just love it.

And the end of the day though, they were happy to write that check and happy for us to accomplish what they wanted to accomplish.

Because it wasn't about is the system running right?

It wasn't about is it broken?

It wasn't about, you know, is the cost of the repair versus it wasn't about any of that.

It was about people write checks for what they want, not what they need.

And that is, that is such a crucial, crucial thing to understand.

So with any of your home visits, when you're out on a call, when you're out on a lead, have questions prepared.

That way you don't have to and ask the same questions every time.

That way you don't have to think about the questions.

You don't have to think about what you're going to say or the system or the steps you're going to take to go through it.

What you're focusing on is their response.

You're focusing on their concerns and their hot buttons and how to get them to share more of what their concerns are and that, you know.

And so we're going to take a super quick break, change gears here.

So with uncovering those needs this way to get to the deeper level of what their concerns are is just start asking the second and third layer questions.

So instead of just having you say asking question like, okay, in the, in the summer when some rooms are cool, are there others that are warmer?

And they say, okay, yeah, it's this corner bedroom, this kids bedrooms or our master bedroom or wherever it is, and just stopping there and moving on and making that movement on say, oh, okay, and here's the deeper level question is, tell me more about that.

How so?

What do you mean?

Can you describe it?

Or.

This is even better.

When they, especially if they start to get really excited about something that is, you know, the husband, the spouse, the wife, whoever, they get excited about telling you, you start to see that energy rise with, oh, our master bedroom is always hot.

Okay, when is it hot?

Oh, it's hot at night.

It's hot during this season.

You know what, can you, can you take me there?

Go to that room, go put them in the situation.

Because situational awareness will start to though by putting them back in that space, back in that environment.

Get away from the kitchen table, get away from the living room.

Go say, okay, show me what are the vents?

Like, what is the condition of the room?

Do you sleep with the door open or closed?

Start asking these questions.

And with that you're going to see the second that you put them in that environment is the minute that now their memories are going to start to trigger into remembering what it's like when they're experiencing it being uncomfortable.

So that's just going to drive their emotions to solve that problem higher and higher and their energy and their motivation to solve that problem higher and higher.

So because we know that people make decisions on two things, logic and emotion.

And if you don't believe this, read some psychology of sales, because this is 100% true logic.

So if a sale, if a buying decision is a car, logic is the steering wheel that points it in the right direction.

But emotion is the gas pedal.

Emotion is what the foot on the gas pedal is to actually make it drive forward.

It's actually going to get them to take action and take action now to close it now to solve their problems because they can, you can explain all the details of, you know, how and why.

This is the greatest system since sliced bread.

And, you know, all these thousand duck runs we're going to put in this room and returns and, you know, all the indoor air quality so you can explain all the details, all of the facts and the figures, and that's the logic.

And they're going to sit and say, yep, I understand, Yep, I understand it.

Sure, okay, yeah, I get it.

But until you get some emotion behind it, they're not going to take action with the energy that it takes to say, yes, let's go ahead and fix it and let's fix it now because I'm tired of sleep, sleeping in this hot room.

I'm tired of experiencing what I'm currently experiencing and I can see how your solution is going to take me to the place that I want to be.

So in the next podcast we're going to talk about building the gap.

So a little sneak peek, that's recognizing where someone is, showing them where they can go and widening that gap.

So we're going to talk about that a lot deeper, but that's it.

You've got to get the emotions in, involved, and that's done by asking the right questions and then describing what life can be like if you make the changes.

And so that's the podcast for today.

This is, let's see, this is.

We're getting into June in the summertime here.

Let me know where you're listening to from around the world.

This podcast has gone global.

We're in six countries in the world now.

So thank you for listening.

Truly grateful.

Again, you can email me@samwakefield.com in fact, go to samwakefield.com and get connected with me and join the Close It Now Facebook group and join the community.

We're building a community of sales professionals for the H Vac industry that dominates your marketplace.

My idea of competition is that competition's doors are close.

There is no such thing as competition because we know winners look at the finish line and losers look at Finner.

Losers look at winners and we are winners.

And so that is our goal, is to close every sale that is closable because we know we don't want every sale either.

So you show me someone with 100% close rate, I will show you someone who is not getting in front of enough people because we don't want every single sale.

We want the best sales and we want most of them, of course.

But we are here to provide solutions to solve people's problems and get paid dramatically for it.

So again, thanks for listening and yeah, I'd love to hear some of your comments and feedbacks.

What are some topics that you want me to cover?

What are some questions that you have about in home sales?

Is it the process?

Is it closing?

Is it the psychology?

Is it personal growth?

And also drop me a line, let me know what books you're reading, what podcasts you're listening to.

What are you doing to grow yourself every single day?

Because remember, you have to be someone worth buying from.

Are you that person that people will buy from?

So improve yourself and increase your level of person and you will find that the level of people who buy from you also increases at the same time.

So, Sam Wakefield signing off.

This is the Close it now podcast.

I will talk to you again soon.

All right.

Welcome back.

This is the Close It Now H Vac Sales training podcast.

My name is Sam Wakefield, coming to you from Austin, Texas, the land of tacos, barbecue and live music capital of the world.

And we a little bit about air conditioning down here in Texas.

Well, actually I also spent the first decade of my career at the other end of the state where we know a lot about winter as well.

If you didn't know, Texas gets a lot of snow in the top part of the state.

So yeah, that's something that little known fact about the state.

It's so big.

Anyway, today we are going to be talking about when is the right time to just a system replacement.

I know we've got a lot of listeners who are technicians or they do installers or even one man shops.

You do the sales, you do the service, you do the install, you do it all.

So all different sizes of organizations that listen.

So the question has come up several times to me recently, when is the right time to suggest a system replacement?

And I want to hear from you.

You can connect email me@samwakefield.com or also connect with us in the Close It Now Facebook group.

It's the Close It Now H Vac sales training Facebook group.

Join the community and let's keep this conversation going.

So several answers came up in the in fact, in that Facebook group that were kind of interesting.

There's some crazy formulas that I came across of if the cost of the repair is a third of the price of the total system or if the, you know, the system is over X amount of years and multiply that by the cost of the repair and all these crazy things.

You know, years ago Bryant had come out with a really cool repair versus replace questionnaire that you could actually take the homeowner through.

For the first part of my career, I was a Bryant dealer, so I was familiar with that.

But really, at the end of the day, all of that doesn't necessarily matter because there's an underlying principle that we're missing.

If we only go off of the age of the system or the condition of the system or you know, what's the cost of the repair, how many repairs are needed, multiply that by the age.

All these things we're missing the biggest element because who is the system going to write you a check for to replace itself?

Is the system the one that's going to fill out the financing paperwork?

Are they the one that's going to say, yeah, you know what, why don't you Just go ahead and replace me with a nice variable speed unit.

No, that has nothing to do with it.

At the end of the day, it all depends on the homeowner.

It depends on, on the consumer because we know people write checks for what they want, not what they need.

I'm gonna say that again because it's very, very crucial that you get this concept because with this concept will unlock the whole world of sales for you.

Especially, especially in the, in home H vac sales industry, people will write checks for what they want, not what they need.

People buy what they, they need.

So with that being said, there's lots, and I did a video about this in the group, in the Facebook group as well.

But there I've been in houses that certain situations, maybe the system was 10, 12, 13, 15, 18 years old and it needed a couple repairs.

And if you follow the, you know, calculate it with the age of the system, all this other stuff, you know, that may have been time to suggest a replacement.

But listening to the homeowner and knowing the situation, the circumstance, you know, a raise, that said, you know what, maybe you want to consider it.

And the situation did not call for a system replacement.

The system was running really well, just needed a couple repairs and because of the homeowner's situation, it was not the right time for them to do a system replacement.

Now at the same time time I've been in houses that were literally brand new, you know, a year old, two years old.

And we've, we went out there because the call, the, the way the lead came in was, you know, it's this multi story house and these rooms aren't cold, these rooms aren't keeping up, they're, you know, there's all kind of temperature imbalance.

What can you do for us?

Well, through listening to what the client want, listening to their needs and going through the questionnaire, you know, if you don't have a specific set of questions that are directed to uncover the concerns of the consumer, the concerns of the homeowner, then you really need to develop one.

In fact, I'm working on one right now that's going to be my free download for you guys.

So as soon as I have that finished, I'll make it available to you because it's going to be my gift to you because you've got to have a questionnaire of specific questions going through the common concerns in the house.

And not only that, use it, use it every time and ask the right questions, the uncover the unpeel the onion, so to speak questions and when you do that, the homeowner is going to tell you all of their big concerns and what they really, really want from you.

And so by asking the right questions, asking about, okay, you've lived in this for, you know, several months, you've experienced the summertime or you've experienced the wintertime, but in this situation it was the summertime.

So what, what would you like the house to feel like?

What would you, how would you like to be able to control the temperatures in the house?

What areas are warmer than others when some of the house is cool?

And so through that conversation, even though they had bought the house a year, you know, it was a brand new and all practical purposes, if I was strictly a technician out there, diagnosed the equipment, it was perfectly fine, it was running as designed.

Now it wasn't performing the way the homeowner wanted it to.

And that's the crucial key here because we all know, say a brand new house is going to have the very basic builder grade system.

It's also going to be putting in by, unfortunately, as we all know, that a lot of times the subcontractors that work for a home builder aren't necessarily the sharpest knives in the drawer.

Raise your hand if you can feel me on that one.

So there was a handful of things that while not technically wrong, could be a lot better.

So the homeowner basically, they, they said, you know what, we don't like the way this system operates.

We understand that when we bought this house there were going to be a handful things that were just kind of basic level.

But we're not the type of people who stay with that kind of basic level.

When we buy cars, we don't buy the cheapest one.

When we take vacations, we don't take the cheapest trip.

So same thing here.

Because through this conversation they began to understand that the largest energy consumer that they own in their entire life is their heating and air system.

And also that's the one thing that directly determines their comfort in the most hours of their day and night.

And so they said, our sleep is important to us, we want to be comfortable.

So what we did is we pulled that system out and it was a, you know, of course, single stage builder grade with conventional zoning, which is, I'm very passionate about this.

That is a horrible design that was never intended to happen.

But I digress.

So what we did is we pulled that out and installed.

I think the total was like 18,500 or something for this, you know, for this house, something like that, for a variable Speed zone system.

It might have been a little more a variable speed zone system, that they are the most ecstatic clients, you know, in the top five, maybe of the most excited clients I've ever had.

You know, in fact, anytime I run into them or see them, they tell me, years later, man, still so comfortable.

Thanks so much.

And they just love it.

And the end of the day, though, they were happy to write that check and happy for us to accomplish what they wanted to accomplish.

Because it wasn't about, is the system running right?

It wasn't about, is it broken?

It wasn't about, you know, is the cost of the repair versus it wasn't about any of that.

It was about people write checks for what they want, not what they need.

And that is such a crucial, crucial thing to understand.

So with any of your home visits, when you're out on a call, when you're out on a lead, have questions prepared.

That way you don't have to.

And ask the same questions every time.

That way you don't have to think about the questions.

You don't have to think about what you're gonna say or the system or the steps you're gonna take to go through it.

What you're focusing on is their response.

You're focusing on their concerns and their hot buttons and how to get them to share more of what their concerns are and that, you know.

And so we're gonna take a super quick break and change gears.

Uncovering those needs this way to get to the deeper level of what their concerns are is just start asking the second and third layer questions.

So instead of just having, say, asking question like, okay, in the summer, when some rooms are cool, are there others that are warmer?

And they say, okay, yeah, it's this corner bedroom, these kids bedrooms, or our master bedroom or wherever it is, and just stopping that, moving on and making that, moving on and say, oh, okay.

And here's the deeper level question is, tell me more about that.

How so?

What do you mean?

Can you describe it?

Or this is even better.

When they, especially if they start to get really excited about something that is, you know, the husband, the spouse, the wife, whoever, they get excited about telling you, you start to see that energy rise with, oh, our master is always hot.

Okay, when is it hot?

Oh, it's hot at night.

It's hot during this season.

You know what, can you take me there?

Go to that room.

Go put them in the situation.

Because situational awareness will start to.

By putting them back in that space, back in that environment, get away from the kitchen table, get away from the living room, go there, say, okay, show me what are the vents?

Like, what is the condition of the room?

Do you sleep with the door open or closed?

Start asking these questions.

And with that you're going to see the second that you put them in that environment is the minute that now their memories are going to start to trigger into remembering what it's like when they're experiencing it being uncomfortable.

So that's just going to drive their emotions to solve that problem higher and higher and their energy and their motivation to solve that problem higher and higher.

So because we know that people make decisions on two things, logic and emotion.

And if you don't believe this, read some psychology of sales, because this is 100% true logic.

So if a sale, if a buying decision is a car, logic is the steering wheel that points it in the right direction.

But emotion is the gas pedal.

Emotion is what the foot on the gas pedal is to actually make it drive forward.

It's actually going to get them to take action and take action now to close it now to solve their problems, because they can, you can explain all the details of, you know, how and why this is the greatest system since sliced bread.

And, you know, all these thousand duct runs we're going to put in this room and returns and you know, all the indoor air quality so you can explain all the details, all of the facts and the figures, and that's the logic.

And they're going to sit and say, yep, I understand.

Yep, I understand it.

Sure, okay, yeah, I get it.

But until you get some emotion behind it, they're not going to take action with the energy that it takes to say, yes, let's go ahead and fix it and let's fix it now because I'm tired of sleeping in this hot room.

I'm tired of experiencing what I'm currently experiencing.

And I can how your solution is going to take me to the place that I want to be.

So in the next podcast, we're going to talk about building the gap.

So a little sneak peek, that's recognizing where someone is, showing them where they can go and widening that gap.

So we're going to talk about that a lot deeper, but that's it.

You've got to get the emotions involved.

And that's done by asking the right questions and then describing what life can be like if you make the changes.

And so that's the podcast for today.

This is.

Let's see, we're getting into June in the summertime here.

Let me know where you're listening to from around the World.

This podcast has gone global.

We're in six countries in the world now.

So thank you for listening.

I'm truly grateful.

Again, you can email me@samwakefield.com in fact, go to samwakefield.com and get connected with me and join the Close It Now Facebook group and join the community.

We're building a community of sales professionals for the H Vac industry that dominates your marketplace.

My idea of competition is the competition's doors are closed.

There is no such thing as competition because we know winners look at the finish line and losers look at finner that losers look at winners and we are winners.

And so that is our goal is to close every sale that is closable because we know we don't want every sale either.

So you show me someone with 100% close rate, I will show you someone who is not getting in front of enough people.

Because we don't want every single sale.

We want the best sales and we want most of them of course.

But we are here to provide solutions to solve people's problems and get paid dramatically for it.

So again, thanks for listening and yeah, I'd love to hear some of your comments and feedbacks.

What are some topics that you want me to cover?

What are some questions that you have about in home sales?

Is it the process?

Is it closing?

Is it the psychology?

Is it personal growth?

And also drop me a line, let me know what books you're reading, what podcasts you're listening to.

What are you doing to grow yourself every single day?

Because remember, you have to be someone worth buying from.

Are you that person that people will buy from?

So improve yourself and increase your level of person and you will find that the level of people who buy from you also increases at the same time.

So Sam Wakefield signing off.

This is the Close it now podcast.

I will talk to you again soon.

Thanks for listening to Close it now with Sam Wakefield.

Subscribe to the podcast now so you're first to hear new episodes jam packed with actionable tools and tips to make you the top H Vac professional in your market.

If you have friends and colleagues who would like this show, share it with them and send them to our Facebook community for more in depth discussion about the challenges we all face and how to overcome them on the Close it now podcast.