In this episode of Close It Now, Sam talks about about having a client that every single time they ask a question, you can barely have 4 or 5 words in.Tune in to this episode and get them to listen to you.

Shut Up And Listen:

Sam Wakefield: Who is out there Drive Time University? It is Sam Wakefield here at Close It Now. Now today's topic. Shut up, Mr. Homeowner, just let me tell you what's going on. Raise your hand. If you've ever had that client, that every single time they ask a question, you can barely get four or five words in and then they either start talking on top of you or they're on to the next question, the next subject. And it's like, they didn't even ask the question to start with, raise your hand. I know we've all had those clients. It's no fun. It's ridiculous. It's like, you just asked me this question, come on. Especially if they're in a situation where they're just not listening to reason. There it's like Derry, does this make any sense to you at all?

It's like, do you not understand numbers? Do you not understand anything about anything? We all have those clients that we have to deal with. Right?And so that is the topic for today. How do we get into that conversation? How do we move, navigate that conversation so they one, get a better experience from us. Two cut down on the frustration on our part, because it's just freaking frustrating when we are having that, trying to have a conversation and they're just not listening, right? I hate those situations. How do we handle them? How do we manage them? How do we take them from the non, how do we take them from the non listener to the listener? Yeah. Great question. So that's what we're going to talk about today. All right.

So who is, what, what am I a big question for you in your drive time? What are you drinking? I mean, I hope it's not like alcohol or something, but today I am drinking Starbucks, nitro cold brew there. They're not paying me for this. It's just what I grabbed it. Grabbed at the store on the way. Um, yeah, nitro cold brew. That's what I've got today. Everybody drink up with me here. What are you drinking? Hopefully you're staying hydrated, lots and lots of water. Hydration is important.

What else is going on in your world? Are you crushing it this year? Are you living the life of your dreams? Making all the sales you want to make at the prices that you want to sell, or you're selling all of the top end modulating equipment that you want to sell?Are you selling all the indoor air quality that you want to sell? What's going on? How is your life in 2021?

That's what I'm recording this. Is it what we predicted or are you having issues? Are you still live in money on the table? Is it time to take it to the next. If you would like to double your numbers, if you just want to get some better, I mean, we all, if you've chosen to be a lifelong learner, which you probably have, if you're listening to this podcast. This podcast is not for the rah, rah let's just get really forceful with the clients and, you know, beat them down until they buy from us type of a podcast. We are about, you know, about more meat than that. Um, I'm all about giving you actionable items, psychology to next level, your entire life, not just yourself, because we know that sales is not the performance of an hour. It's the overflow of a life. You know, everything that we do affects the way that our sales happen is because people. You know, resonate with you, they like you, or they don't, they, your energy matches your excitement, sales, the transfer of enthusiasm. How do we operate in that peak state? The majority of the time when we're in a home.

That's why the best time to make a sale is right after you've made a sell. You're already excited. You're in that space. You're like everything I touch right now will turn to gold and there's nothingI can't do the thing I can't accomplish right. In this moment. That's that feeling and how do we capture that and move forward and have it when every time we need in one, it, how do we keep that on tap?

That is what this podcast is about. If this, if this is truly a career, let's act like it let's treat it like one. If there is no silver bullet, there is up leveling yourself 1% better every day and choose to make your, you are your own competition. It doesn't matter what anybody else does. So when you make yourself your own competition, 1% better every day will turn into a massive amount of growth over time through the compound effect.

So let's get back to the topic today. I just, I, it felt like it needed to needed to share that that was a, yeah we call it a flush. Um, something that I just thought I need to share right then of speaking to you, whoever that was, you need to do. Um, so let's get back to the topic, the client that just didn't want to listen. Right? This came from the Facebook group, there was a person that submitted a question. He had a scenario where the, the, the system has storage, had leaks every year. They refilled it every year with several pounds of refrigerant. When they, you know, when, when they go back, the person just wants to repair, just wants the band-aid. Doesn't want to actually look at consider any real solutions, which is, you know, of course, highly frustrating, but when we're they were in the conversation, there were just being pretty belligerent. It sounded like, and not wanting to listen to anything else.

So there's several ways to handle this. First of all, when you've got a client with a little bit of history before you show up, do your due diligence, don't be lazy. Stop being the lazy consultant, the lazy project manager and the lazy sales person. We'll call it in this case. Look up their history. Know if they're an existing client or not. Look up the numbers. How much have they spent in repair since they've been your client? In this case, they'd been the client for several years it sounded like, and the dude had literally spent, you know, upwards of a thousand bucks plus in repair and repair costs across the last two or three years. Well to do that again and again, and not have this conversation with the client, that's doing a disservice to the client. So don't be lazy. Look up that information, have it in your back pocket before you show up. So you can truly have a foundation for why you're going to recommend what you're going to recommend. Start there. So, you know, Mr. Jones, or Mr. Wilson, whatever your name is, Did you realize and start, and this all has to do with questions. I guarantee you that every single one of you out there, if you're struggling with communication, you're struggling with overcoming objections. If you're struggling with closing the deal. It all revolves around youu're not asking enough questions in the process. You've got to get more questions. So start with the question of, you know, man, Mr. Jones, did you realize that? Do you know how much you've spent in repair in the last several years and ask them and then shut up and listen, make them come up with the number, make them come up with a number. And they may or may not be accurate with their number, but it doesn't matter say, you know what?

I've got that right here. You've spent over a thousand dollars on the system in the last few years, in a real short amount of time. Did you realize that could have you could, you could really have a lot better use for that money. So obviously that's the start of the conversation, ask them, do you know how much you've spent on this repair unnecessarily? You didn't have to spend that on a repair just to throw money away. If they're on good money after bad, basically, and use an analogy.

So in this case, the system had a leak in it, a small leak every well, not real small because you know, three or four pounds of frigerator in the system every year. So use an analogy of something that, that people use every single day, the best analogy or the favorite analogy that I have, there may be better ones, but my favorite analogy for a leak in the system and having the conversation with that client to shift them from repair to replace is, Mr. Homeowner, let me ask you, you might have, might've ask you a couple of questions. Have you ever had a leak in your tire, on your car? Well, of course they have and you have to get them to answer each time. Well, of course they have. Yes. Okay. What did you do with that leak? Did you, was it, did you just refill it over and over? Refill your tire over and over. Now with that leak, did you think it was going to get better, stay the same, or get worse if you didn't get it fixed or replaced. They'll of course they'll answer, Oh, it'll get worse. Well, of course it will leaks. Don't get better on their own. No, of course they don't. Okay. Well, in this case, you know, your tire, it has on the inside of the tire, you know, 40, maybe 50 pounds of pressure on the inside of his tire.

Did you realize the inside of your air conditioning system where the Freon is where the refrigerant is, has hundreds of pounds of pressure? And after that ask them. So in this case, do you think that it's going to get better on its own? Stay the same or probably get worse over time they've sent through in the probably will get worse over the time. And of course they're going to answer, well, it'll probably get worse over time. Absolutely.

So you wouldn't just keep refilling your tire on your car. What did you do? You go down and then you fix it or replace it immediately, right? Of course. Well, so it's the same thing here, except you're using this way more hours of the day and night than even your car. So if you continue to just bandaid this every year, that's literally like taking this, you know, $400 ,or however much it is, and walking into the backyard, building a, building a campfire in the backyard every year and throwing those $400 right into the fire. Would you do that with 400 bucks each year? Would uou just walk out and throw it into a campfire? No, of course you will. So why would you do that same thing here and let them answer, because in this conversation, they're going to tell you why they have been resistant to the replacement conversation.

But we've got to lead them to the answers with these questions. Have, we're not manipulating, we're leading to the answer that we want and helping them see what a silly waste of time and money that constant repair is every year. They, when we lead them to the conclusion, it's their conclusion. And this is a really, really great skill to master for any part of the conversation. When they arrive to the conclusion on their own of where you're trying to take them. Now, it's their conclusions there in their mind, they came up with it, even though we asked. The correct leading questions. They still came to it in their mind. It's almost like it was their idea. When this happens it's much much easier to have the rest of the conversation because now they're there, they're turning their mind a little bit to the being open to the idea of a different solution.

So once they've landed there, that's where we start. Questions would you, would you like to see some different options? Would you like to see how we can actually save. A lot of money over time, versus just throwing this cash into the, into the campfire every year. Would you like, would you be open and no one ever, ever, ever ask?

If anybody's interested, nobody's interested. You can never be interested if you haven't looked at something, if you don't know what it is. Ask if they're open to looking at, to hearing about some options to save them money, are you open to hearing about some options to save you money? Well, of course they are. Of course, they're going to be up to it, great. All right. So then you start into your typical process. Um, you know, how whatever your sales system is, and if you don't have one of course, reach out to me. I've got one closing nail system is a proven system, but go into your sales system and so when they, so notice all of this started with the questions, it started with permission questions, and that's the three step process that everything is built on. Permission first, give the data and then check in. So, so far we've done that a few times with them.

So then when that client is, they'll ask you a question about something, anytime they asked that question, it could be about, well, we'll say into our home, Hey, is there a better way to filter the air or other allergies have been badly in order? Or you just hear them say something like that? Allergies have been bad lately. Is there anything you could do do for it? Instead of just starting to tell them the information that's where so many people kind of fail in the communication is they'll just start telling information at that point. What happens? wall goes up their eyes glaze over, you get five, five words in, and they are already off to the next topic. They're already asking another question or talking about something. And we're like, we're fresh. And we're like, you literally just asked me about this. Why. When you ask me, I start to tell you about it. You've checked out. Why is that? Well, part of it is just the goldfish mentality that North Americans have attention span is literally less than a goldfish now on average.

So the way to overcome that and the way to handle that and unlock that door of their mind, to be able to communicate and get the information to them that they're wanting to. It's one that say, we'll use that same question. Hey, is there any allergies have been badly? Is there anything we can do for that? That's where our answer is. Absolutely. Would you like to hear about the different options available? So we come right back with the question about the same thing, but once we, when we ask the question and they say, yes, of course, that's why I asked. So what did that do? They just gave us permission. To present the data.

So step one is asking, restating that question, ask the question, the second we do that, then we can go take, walk them through the different, you know, say in this case, say types of filtration. You know, we've got the basic, we've got our, you know, four inch filter, we've got our electronic air cleaner, whatever, you know, whatever it is you offer, you walk them through the details and then check in. Does that make sense? Do you have more questions about the specifics of any of these specific, which one makes sense for you? Which one makes sense for your family? Obviously asking more questions. Well, why do you ask? What concerns do you have, who suffers from allergies, asthma, respiratory issues, how bad? Tell me more about that, that way you can recommend and I'm in your, sell them. I'm listening, I'm asking these questions that way I can recommend the right solution. Right and so we're, it's all about asking the questions though.

The second you are encountered and when you would encounter that client that, you know, maybe they're starting to give you some. Maybe you're in a conversation and they're frustrated and you're frustrated and they just keep talking on top of you. There could potentially be a point where you have to posture up a little bit and that posturing up is now, sir, listen, we're here to help you, but if you're not going to listen to what we're communicating, there's no way I can help you.

You know, Daniel Fisher, he's in our. Great. Great. A sales guy sells tech. He's the project manager up in Dallas, the DFW area, you know, couple of the things he does, one, And I've done this for years as well. Thanks for this recommendation. Daniel is when they have lots of questions, just write them down on your notepad. Don't, just let them keep talking, let them get it all out first. Write them down on your notepad. And when they're done, then circle back and go through there one by one and answer them that way or when you've got that, some not necessarily angry, but just, you know, the client that is fired up about something they're upset, they've got something happening, you know, they just keep talking on top of you. They're a little bit argumentative, especially the ones that like to argue, that try to argue with you. You can just say. We talk ourselves out of so many sales when, if we just shut up and be silent. And I know it's hard for a lot of us, but just be silent. If you're completely silent, there will come a point when they realize there's nothing, nothing arguing back. There's no, no pushback from you. They'll run out of steam and. There will be a point where they stop. They stop talking. If you're just silent, they will finish their thought and then not having anywhere else to go, because we haven't given, given them any ammunition or fuel to their fire. So you can just be quiet and wait and see what happens. Shut up and sell.

If you haven't heard that podcast go back and listen to that one. It's really powerful. Shut up and sell. That was a good one. All of these things are ways to handle that client that just wants to talk on top of you. It all comes to questions. We've got to ask permission and asking the right questions will take you to the place you need to be when we lead them. When you ask the right leading questions to arrive at the destination you want them to land at when they can get there on their own. Man, the problem is half solved because now it's their idea. Now they’re asked, begging you for the information and that makes all the difference.

So hopefully this was good for you today. This was a, this was a fun topic. I love having those clients when they, whenever it feel some, uh, some tension with the clients, when they're starting to push back where they started to argue, it's a chess match. It's fun. We're not, in order to be a top producer. Yeah, it's 10% sales. It's 90% psychology.We've got to figure out why they're want to buy. Why did they even pick up the phone to the start with all? We also have to figure out what's keeping them from buying. Why are they not buying? Why are they arguing? It's not the objection. It's the purpose behind the objection. Why does this objection even exist to start with? And when we can uncover what that is, that's how to handle it.

So hope this was great for you to go join the Facebook group. I've got a huge, huge, huge, um, roll out of different things in 2021. If you're listening to this later, you will already know the products that are available, the things that are coming we've got a course come in. The book is in first draft right now, the, uh, we're working on a group coaching program, which is going to be phenomenal, uh, high performance coaching, which is one-on-one with me. All of those programs are just about ready to kick off. High-performance coaching is currently running, has been for the last year and a half. So reach out to me about that. If you're ready to really take it to the next level, otherwise go out there, go save the world one had stroke at a time. Stop being weird and start selling. Just ask the obvious questions. When you start asking more better questions, you'll start to get more better answers and from there, sky's the limit. So I will talk to you, every single one of you, soon. Have a good one.