This podcast episode elucidates the paramount importance of adhering to a structured sales process in the HVAC industry. We emphasize that the efficacy of sales transcends mere transactional interactions; it necessitates a profound understanding of customer needs and the meticulous presentation of options. Throughout our discussion, we recount compelling success stories, illustrating how adherence to a systematic approach fosters significant sales achievements. We advocate for the necessity of patience and thoroughness in the sales process, even amidst the urgency often felt by customers. Ultimately, our discourse aims to empower HVAC professionals to enhance their sales acumen by following a proven methodology, thereby facilitating both personal and professional growth.

This episode covers the importance of having a set system that works for you not against you. We also hear a couple of fantastic testimonies from listeners and coaching students. The system works.

Make sure to check out www.closeitnow.net to stay connected.

The podcast episode delves into the pivotal role of reputation building in residential HVAC sales, emphasizing the necessity for professionals to establish themselves as expert influencers within their respective markets. The host, Sam Wakefield, articulates the essence of not merely focusing on the act of selling more equipment but rather on comprehending and addressing the nuanced needs of customers. By adopting a customer-centric approach, sales professionals can foster efficiencies that allow them to optimize their time and efforts, ultimately leading to increased sales without the concomitant burden of excessive work. Wakefield asserts that the insights shared by leading minds in the industry serve not only as practical hacks but also as foundational elements for personal development within the sales landscape. This episode promises to equip listeners with the tools necessary to elevate their sales practices while remaining top-of-mind among potential customers seeking HVAC solutions, thereby enhancing their overall market presence and business success.

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.

Sam Wakefield here.

This is your drive time university.

So first of all, I want to give a humongous round of applause.

Congratulations, Congratulations, virtual high five to one of my coaching clients, Mark.

He super quick backstory on him.

He has been in business for several years now, has never sold anything above a single stage piece of equipment and less than a week of coaching, he sold his very first fully communicating variable speed unit today.

So huge congrats to Mark.

Way to go.

And it just totally proves that this system freaking rocks.

And it works and I love it.

I love to hear about successes of all of you out there.

How are you doing?

I heard another story this week as well.

Thanks Allison for meeting up with me.

It was a lot of fun.

I enjoyed our lunch the other day.

But also she told me this cool story.

She has a salesperson that was.

She shared my podcast with.

And then the next five sales were high end equipment.

So way to go, Way to go, Allison and your team over there.

You guys are awesome.

So.

But that is, that's what we're seeing.

We're starting to hear some super awesome testimonies of just the system and how it works and just the belief and motivation to just do it.

To use new words and to take the steps in the process to get new results.

Different results than you've ever gotten.

So way to go, Alison.

And way to go, Mark.

Man, I'm super proud of you, dude.

This is just the beginning.

So.

And that totally feeds into exactly what I want to talk about is the power of the process.

I just left a project as well where I also sold a high end communicating piece of system.

The whole, you know, the whole shebang.

And when I.

So here's my setup and then I'll get back to Mark here in a minute.

But so I get to this house and it's a turnover from a technician, which is awesome.

We all raise your Hand, if you like tech turnovers.

So did you know that a referral or a tech turnover, the close rate should be right around 80%.

That's 8,0%, which is awesome.

It's awesome.

So that's good.

So anytime you walk into a tech turnover or you walk into a referral from a friend from a past client, you should see about an 80% close rate, which is a great start.

But I walk into this house and the guy tells me instantly, well, let's just see what we're.

It's running.

Let's just see what we're doing today.

Because I'm getting other bids.

And of course, I'm following him up the stairs.

And as soon as he said that, I couldn't help but grin because, you know, I was instantly recognized.

Okay, here's his smoke screen.

He's like trying to push me off, but I didn't let it phase me at all.

I just followed the system.

So I went through all of the process, went through the homeowner questionnaire, went through asking him what he's trying to accomplish, then ask for permission.

Would you like to see how we can help you with these problems?

And of course, the answer is yes.

And ends up we're doing a brand new system.

He signs up right on the spot, closed it now in the house, and of course is doing a new system.

The point of that is, and now I'm going to jump back to the story with Mark.

From what he was telling me, he said he showed it's super hot where he's at.

It's 100 degrees up in the Chicagoland area.

And he goes to this, goes to this appointment.

He was actually there yesterday.

It turns out it was a breaker issue.

Gets there today, compressor's dead, right?

Compressor's just dead.

What he hears from the homeowner is, what's the cheapest way I can get out of this?

What is the, you know, what's my cheap solution?

So, of course, when we hear that, what we typically go to is, you know, well, we can do a compressor replacement, but I don't recommend it.

And you have that whole conversation or, you know, but what he did, he said, you know what?

I was started to go into that same old conversation, but I remembered the system and said, you know what, let's go in and sit down for a minute and go over some things and then I can show you the options.

So it goes in, sits down with the homeowner and just, you know, really casually and not being weird, starts to draw out some of the differences in the equipment.

And the guy says, really intrigued by communicating equipment.

So, oh man, that sounds really interesting.

Tell me more about that.

And sure enough, he walks out of there with a fully variable speed sail, which is awesome.

That's awesome.

Because he didn't just go with what the homeowner, what he was hearing from the homeowner, he went with what went with the system, went with what he knows is going to be the best solution, which is educate them first and let them decide what's going to be the best fit.

The traditional technician would just say, okay, you asked for something cheap, let's just go with something cheap.

Whereas when the key here is, well, if you don't mind, I'm going to take you through everything that's available and then you can decide what's going to be the best fit for you.

That way you can see it all and make a great educated decision.

And when you tell the homeowner that, when you go through the process so often, I mean, 50% of the time with my numbers are, you know, variable speed, high end equipment, because you educate people and they get to choose what they want.

Another great sentence that people relate to is, you know, when you moved into this house, this system is a, it's a builder grade model.

It's what the, what they did kind of contractor grade with the house when it was built.

So you got handed something that you would never choose for yourself.

Now you get the opportunity to pick what you would want in your own house.

It's like somebody else handing you a Yugo or, you know, handing you a basic little Kia or Ford Fiesta, something you would never choose for yourself.

But now you're stuck with this until it dies.

Or now you get to choose what vehicle you're gonna drive.

You get to choose your Lexus, you get to choose your Camaro, you get to choose your Ford F150.

You don't get to have, you don't have to take a little Nissan Versa hatchback that somebody else gave you.

And now you get to choose.

So it's the same thing with this.

You don't have to take what somebody else chose for you.

You get to decide, showing you all the options, then you can pick whatever you want.

And that's exactly the kind of conversation he had.

That's the conversation I had.

And that's totally what happens.

And you take people through the options and let them be the judge, but don't shortcut it.

And that's the importance here.

That is exactly what I'm talking about.

Is don't let.

Because it's hot, people are in a hurry, they're urgent.

Don't let that derail you from following the system to go ahead and take.

Take the time to sit down, take a breath, take a breather, take a breath, take them through all of their options.

And don't shortcut anything with the system.

You wouldn't shortcut anything with the installation of the equipment.

Why would you shortcut anything in the sales process to get to what you're installing?

So that is part one of this podcast today.

Okay, welcome back to part two.

So this episode we're talking about not skipping the steps in the process.

You have to communicate the right things in the right order for people to build on those items to get to where you want them to land, to understand all of the concepts and the ideas before you make an offer.

And so this is so on the flip side of this.

When you have a set system, when you have a plan, when you have the confidence that you have built, that you've done your preparation, when you've got the confidence that you're prepared for an appointment, when you've got a set system that you don't have to think about, you go through your list, you go through the steps in the right order.

One that frees your mind to focus on how the homeowner is responding, what they're thinking, to listen for what they're really wanting.

Because, remember, people write checks for what they want, not what they need.

And it's our job to align what they want with the things that we know that they need.

As far as, you know, say, what the house could use, what the.

What's causing the problems that are causing, making them want to make changes.

So the other side of having that system is, and it's not about necessarily being a robot, it has nothing to do with that.

It just means having a set order that you do things.

When you go to the doctor, it would be so weird if you saw the doctor first and then the nurse came in and asked you the questions about what you're looking for.

That's out of order.

It doesn't make sense.

You don't go to the restaurant and walk through the meal backwards, have your last course first, and then move through that way.

It doesn't make any sense.

So it's the same thing with this.

We've got to go through the process in the right order.

And when you have that set stone and you've got it down, you know the things you're going to cover in the Order that you're going to cover them.

That's when the magic really starts to happen because it gives you freedom.

It frees your mind to really focus on the things that are important, the energy of the room, how they're responding.

This is next level sales here.

This is what most courses don't talk about.

Most courses, they'll teach you the.

Here's the words to say, but they don't necessarily teach you how to say it.

They'll teach you the, okay, you're going to ask these questions and you're going to look for these things, but they don't teach you to the psychology behind why that question was crafted to start with and how it was crafted.

They don't teach you to listen.

Watch for the energy.

Watch when people change emotion, how to change your tonality and your voice, which we're going to get to deeply at some point.

So this is next level sales.

This is what makes or breaks any great salesperson.

Every single top performer.

And it doesn't even matter the industry, I guarantee you that they're going to be teaching this even if they don't know that they're doing it.

It might just be from intuition or just a natural raw talent, something they've developed over time.

It's definitely what's happening.

It's what sends them to the next level.

That's why.

So we've got a guy on our team, he was a retired police office.

That's why people who come out of law enforcement and detectives and those kind of things make fantastic salespeople because they're trained to read body language.

They're trained to read how the other people are responding, how to look for buying signals, how to look for signals of resistance, how to tell if people are telling the truth or if it's maybe a fib.

When you start to develop these skills, this is how you're able to really cut through, through all of the smoke screens that the clients try to give you.

Having a system is part of that, because then you don't have to think about what the next step is.

It just becomes part of you, and then you can respond.

There's another side of this too that is very powerful.

So a little story from my life and from my experience.

There was a season in my life for about a year that I was basically mentally checked out.

I had a bunch of tragedy happen in my life that left me just in a horrible state in my personal life.

Now we really talk a lot about hanging.

Leaving that out of the appointment, leaving it out of the Sales call.

But there's some things that you just can't.

It's a black cloud on your brain.

Well, I had a.

At that point, I was in a real small market, but I was doing just amazing numbers.

I've always, always sold over a million dollars, but.

Which is not bad in a town of 13,000 people.

But it, you know, what happened that year is things are going along, my numbers are awesome, we're doing great.

And then the next year, all of this tragedy happens.

My numbers didn't go down, which was when looking back, it blows my mind.

And the reason that they didn't is because I had a system.

So what I did, I just leaned into the system and just said, you know what?

I am really not mentally here.

I'm kind of checked out.

And I knew that, but I had to do it anyway.

And that's what top producers and top achievers do.

You show up anyway.

It doesn't matter what the situation is.

It doesn't matter what's going on in life.

You show up when you don't feel like it, you show up.

And that is showing up is, you know, was it 80% of success, 90% of success?

What is that old quote?

I'll have to look it up.

But showing up, that is what, what, you know, what, top achievers.

It doesn't matter what the weather is that day.

It doesn't matter what's going on.

You show up.

So that's what I did that year.

I just, I showed up, I leaned into the system, I said, you know what?

I'm going to trust this system.

I know it works because I've proven it in the past.

So I'm just going to trust that the system is going to do it for me, even though I wasn't completely mentally there and my numbers didn't go down.

And it was a testament to having really a set path, a way to answer questions when they come up.

Because we all know that there's really only a handful of basic objections that anybody will ever give you in future episodes, we're going to break those apart one at a time and cover the.

I want to think about it and the.

Well, what do you thinks and check with my spouse and all those things.

But there's lots of ways to handle those.

But when you know what to say and how to respond to each one of those, a big part of it is showing up and just doing it.

Could my numbers have been better that year?

Absolutely.

Had I been fully checked in.

And thankfully, over time I got, you know, I Got control of it, obviously, life moves on.

You know, Jim Rohn, a mentor of mine, he says one of his famous quotes that absolutely hit home with me in that point in time is the winds of life blow the same on every single person.

There's ups, there's downs, there's tragedies with everyone.

But if the winds of life are blowing on you and we're all ships on the sea, it's how you set your sail that determines where your destination ends up, if you're going to get slammed into the rocks, or if you're going to go on an adventure and find new lands and seek a new destination.

Now, that's my paraphrase version.

But the winds of life blow the same on every person.

It's how you set your sail that determines where you're going.

And so that's it.

You choose to overcome.

You can choose joy, you can choose to be happy, you can choose to overcome things.

And in that moment, trusting the system and choosing just to use the system the way it was written is just a beautiful, fantastic way to survive.

It was great then.

And so that's the other side of having something that is something that works, having a system, developing a pattern for yourself of this is how I do it every single time.

This is my method.

And of course, I've got the Close it now system, which I.

A lot of that is what I'm training in these podcasts.

And over time, there's going to be.

You can piece them together or you can join one of the coaching programs at CloseItNow.net, you can read more about those and we can really deep dive into helping you develop your own system.

But the point is to have a system, have a set order of things that you do every appointment.

That way, when you're mentally there, when you're not mentally there, you can still lean in to it and still have success, still see results, still see proactive, moving forward achievement, because you know you've written a successful system.

So that is the other side of having a.

Having patterns.

Don't put things out of order, don't break the system just because situations change or you feel different.

And it's wildly successful that everybody who are top performers a way that they do things that if you were to follow them for a thousand appointments, you're gonna find probably 995 of those appointments go almost exactly alike because they have something that works and they have a set system that makes sense.

So that is part two for today's episode.

Thank you for listening.

I know it's been.

There's a little bit of a break in between, but we are back on track.

If you got some value from this Share it with Sharing is caring, so share it with someone in the industry, out of the industry, it doesn't matter.

Anyone who touches sales at all.

This is a powerful principle that's going to make a big impact in their life.

So thank you for listening.

Today.

You can stay in contact with me@closeitnow.net that is the website where you can get all the details and information about what is going on.

I'm launching my group coaching and private coaching packages so go check them out@closeitnow.net find our Facebook group.

It's also Close it now because branding is important and consistency is important.

I will talk to you again soon.

Thanks for listening to Close it now with Sam Wakefield.

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