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Welcome to the Successful Contractor, powered by CertainPath, formerly Success Group International. A show for residential contractors, about residential contractors. We chronicle business journeys, share insights, and celebrate successes in this wonderful industry. I'm your host, Bob Houchin.
As a reminder, all episodes of The Successful Contractor are available on YouTube, as well as your podcast player of choice. And for more information on how CertainPath can put your contracting company on a certain path to success, visit our website, www.mycertainpath.com. I'm excited to bring to you an interview with Sean Mitchell, a comfort consultant salesperson for CM Heating in Everett, Washington.
In 2022, Sean sold by himself $8.64 million in residential replacement HVAC. If that number isn't staggering enough, he had an 88% closing ratio. For 70 minutes, Sean will tell you his story and explain his sales process step by step.
But before we dig into it. Allow me a quick moment to say this. Sean's only been in HVAC sales for two years. All his training came from CM Heating and CertainPath. Sean's sales manager, Michael Pompeo, awesome guy who sold over $3 million a couple of times.
He was trained by CertainPath. I interviewed him in a previous episode a year or two ago. Please check that one out. Sean and Mitchell's sales trainer with CertainPath is our very own Estee Jacoby. Before she came to work with us, she worked for a member company.
All her sales training came. from CertainPath. Folks, we just got back from our CertainPath Awards Gala in Washington, D.C. Over 130 HVAC sales pros and techs were honored for selling over $1.5 million. 130. 40 of them sold over $3 million.
16 of them sold over $4 million. The CertainPath model sales training works. So CertainPath members, if your people haven't gone to our sales training, what are you waiting for? I'm going to give you 70 minutes of Sean in a minute, but he learned the process over two days with us in a classroom. So please send your people if you haven't already.
And if you have, send them again. Non-Certain Path members, what would your company look like with a couple of $4 million salespeople on staff? We can show you how to make that happen.
In fact, our next profit day where we show non-members what the Certain Path system is all about is being held at CM Heating, Sean's company. May 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, depending upon your trade. We're having a profit day all three days.
And when CM Heating started with CertainPath in 2018, its owners at the time, John and James, they were killing themselves to do $5 million in sales. Working 15, 16 hour days, just killing themselves. Now, CM Heating does $40 million. Huge change in five years.
And the quality of life for those two gentlemen, not even comparable. Life is fantastic. Please call 866-344-0789 to see how you can visit. the CM Heating shop in Everett, Washington, tour the facilities, talk to their people, and attend a profit day to get real information on how you can immediately improve your business.
By the way, only 14 seats exist per day, so please don't wait. Okay, that's enough selling for me for one day. I appreciate your patience.
Without further ado, here's my conversation with Sean Mitchell, the $8.64 million man from CM Heating in Everett, Washington. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Take away a nugget or two.
Sean, thank you so much for sitting with me today. I greatly appreciate it. For those who haven't had a chance to meet you yet, be sure your name, your company name, and where you guys are located.
My name is Sean Mitchell, and I'm with CM Heating. We're located in Everett, Washington, and we specialize, our focus primarily has been HVAC, and then we also do electrical. Very good, very good.
We're talking for a great reason. You had just a phenomenal year in terms of sales. You're a comfort advisor with CM Heating.
uh share with everyone the ridiculous number you did in terms of sales last year You know what? I try not to think about it too much because I'm always thinking about the next step, but I believe it was a little over $8 million. Yeah, I think it was $8.6 or something like that. Yeah, $8.6. I've interviewed one guy that did $7 million a few years ago.
This was the first time I've sat with anyone at $8 million in 20 years. So it's pretty impressive. Sam, you've had a great year. So well done. We're going to get into your sales process and how you...
You talk to people and do what you do on a daily basis. Before we get into that, I'd love to hear people's stories, learn where they came from. So how about you?
What's your background? What did you do before HVAC? Before HVAC, I actually worked as an assistant director at the University of Washington.
So my alma mater, Foster School of Business. And prior to that, how I got acquainted with CM Heating, I actually worked at King 5. and I was responsible for marketing there. And CM Heating was one of the accounts that I was responsible to. And then I was able to form a really, really strong bond, a great relationship with John, the owner of CM Heating.
Yeah. And then the rest is history. Holy cow. So how long have you been with CM?
I have been with CM now just a little over two years. Two years. And you really know sales experience beforehand?
Oh, well, I did have sales experience. So, you know, how far back do we want to go? Okay, well, it all started out when I was 19. I just decided, hey, listen, I want to make as much money as possible because I had just right off the cusp of, you know, an experience where I was going to college for about a year.
But prior to that, for the last year of high school, I was homeless. So I knew what it was like to... wake up in the middle of the night with a empty stomach and to not be able to sleep because I was so hungry and I know what it was like to open up the refrigerator not seeing anything in the refrigerator But empty McDonald's ketchup packets and feeling tempted just to have my goal with that, you know, and you know there there's with that experience that I had it just propelled a certain drive within and I Wanted to make sure that I'd never put myself in an experience like that again. Yeah.
I'm giving you the short of it. And what happened was I decided, okay, well, I'm in college right now. How can I make as much money as possible? Sure. And I tried my hand at car sales.
And quickly, almost instantaneously, I became the top seller. And when I was looking at, funny enough, when I'm looking at the credit applications, I'm saying how much money the folks that I'm working with are. you know, we'll just say, just the income here.
And I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I've made that in the past five months. I think that I should stay here and not go back to college. Why? So long story short, at this point now, we're accelerating a few years.
I'm a manager for a Toyota dealership and I get a phone call from my dad. And my dad says, Sean, I know that you've noticed something different in the way that I've been communicating because It would sound as though he was slurring his words. Now my biological father, incredibly articulate man.
And you know, I was concerned about it, but I just didn't really know what it was. He says, Sean, I have to tell you, I have told me he had Lou Gehrig's ALS. And this was one of the last conversations we actually ever had.
And before the end of the call, he said, Sean, I want you to finish your degree. It's not that you won't be successful without it. It's just that with it, I believe that it'll impact the way that you see yourself yeah and the way the other sees you and so i said dad i promise you i'm going to finish the degree yeah that right there was one of the last conversations i had with them shortly thereafter i get a phone call from my sister saying hey sean dad's gone so up until this point i had experience in sales and then when i went to school or finished the degree i it was focused more on marketing and operations management and so on yeah and so you know then now let's time jump where I'm working at CM Heating and brought on as a business development director.
So I'm responsible before I went into consulting, which is very important part of the story here. I was responsible for our CSRs. So I was the manager of the CSR department.
I was responsible for our marketing and I was responsible for the sales department. So I was responsible for those three departments. And then after the first year, I just decided, you know what? I think that there's a greater opportunity that can be realized as a sales consultant.
Now, the thing that we make a mistake with in terms of our perspective, many college students as well, in order to have the income that I want or to have the respect that I want, I need to make sure that I'm working for a Fortune 500 company or some, you know. We call it the big five, the big five in terms or the big four in terms of the consulting companies and so on and so forth. But I felt like this industry, after being a part of it for a year, I felt like the home services industry as a whole, whether it be roofing, electrical, what have you, I felt like it really did not get the respect they truly deserved. And I wanted to make a statement.
So I decided to, you know, it wasn't a fun conversation by any stretch of the imagination. And. But I sat down with the two owners, James and John. They're both mentors for me throughout my, as I continue through my consulting experience here.
They, I just told him, hey, listen, I think that I want to serve a different way. And I believe that as a consultant, I believe that I could make even more impact in rather than leading the charge, exact conversation, rather than leading the charge from the back, you know. I'd rather lead the charge from the front. Mm, interesting.
They said... They said, well, we, you know, I want you to think about it long and hard, you know? And then I did, and...
You had not. Because I caught COVID. Oh? So I had an extra two weeks to think about it. Think about it, yeah.
So I thought about it and I came back. Now, here's the thing, okay? While I was sales manager, the reason why I was thinking about... this is because certain path you have a model this model it for me it's what I cut my teeth on yeah John showed me and I was nervous because I was responsible for leading a team so I felt a little bit like an imposter oh this is why sure because I'm leading a sales team yet I have no actual sales experience that translates directly to HVAC sure and I'm over here giving insights and so on and so forth and I Always question whether or not it was resonating. What happened is I started going on calls with the sales guys Okay, and at that time it was all sales guys.
So I'm using that term correctly. Okay And I would go on calls and every time we would go on calls I would close Well, we would close 100% of the people that we were working with. Yeah, I'm like so okay though these this is the process What are you missing now before I had the confidence Bob to go on the calls with them? What I would do on my spare time during the weekends is I committed to learning exactly what my sales folks were experiencing.
Therefore, on Saturdays, I would become a sales consultant. When I ran calls for about a month and a half and in looking at my numbers, I'm thinking, okay, I think that I have a little bit of a story that I could tell here. I think that there's some insights that we can share. And from that point on, we would go on calls whenever the sales team would maybe.
Anyone on the sales team might experience a bit of a decline with performance. Okay, let's hop in the car. We're going to go on a ride and we're just going to see what we can figure out, what we can extrapolate with the way that you're doing your consultations.
Yeah. And what happened is every time it would be four out of four, three out of three. And it got to the point though, and this is the embarrassing part, it got to the point where when I would report these numbers in our manager meetings, John...
would literally look at me and say, okay, I get it. But it wasn't because you were in the car, right? So like, you know, you're, you're, you're helping them. But I mean, how, how much is this going to stick?
It's, it did stick, you know, for many of them, but long story short, I just looked at it and I decided that it would be better for me to literally see what could happen if I worked as hard as I was working as a manager, as a sales consultant. That's very, do you remember what was your closing percentage last year? Off the top of your head, you know? Because it was high. I remember John talking to me and I don't, it was high, high 80s, maybe low 90s.
That's crazy. That's fantastic. I mean, this is a blend of marketed and tech set leads. Yes. Yep.
Yep. For sure. Man, that's, that's, that's great.
Well, that's a very neat story. And it's, it's very enjoyable. So let's get into a little bit of what you do to have it to be so successful. Thank you.
Let's start with, you know, you're going to the call. Okay. Maybe yeah. Call center gives you a little bit of information. Uh, what, Pia, how do you get ready for the call mentally?
What information do you take from the call center to help you? What's your process? Process is this. First thing is I have a mentality where I need to be the first Kia on the road and I need to be the last Kia off the road. Okay.
And the first thing that I do is I set up by getting all of the information for the calls. And then I, even though we have the heat load calculations that are in an Excel spreadsheet. I like to fill them out manually. This is my particular religious ceremony and my ritual where I like to find out exactly what I have ahead of me that day.
I don't like the idea of going in and just being surprised. I want to know exactly what's happening, and then I take that information, for example. What I will collect is the date that the house was built.
I'll collect the square footage, and then I'll also just collect just some information about how many... bedrooms and so on and so forth. Right. And then what that does is it kind of gets me a highlight, a preview of what's going to happen.
I believe this is necessary because it sets my energy up in a way where I'm not worried about anything. I've properly set expectations within myself. Right. Another thing that I'll do is while I'm looking at that information, I'll look and I'll see exactly what the expectations are with that call. Sometimes I'll even listen to it ahead of time, just so that I can make sure that I'm matching my energy with the energy of the person that's on the other line.
Right. And the reason why is because I also run a high level of calls, right? So if I'm doing three to four calls a day, four calls where I'm with each customer, like maybe around two to two and a half, sometimes three hours. Yeah. I just want to make sure that anything I could do to set the expectation of the amount of energy that needs to be expended is done.
That's all that's incredibly necessary. Yeah. And so then, you know, following that, if I have any questions, I'll have the questions with whoever took the call. But normally I'd don't have any questions because I'm listening to the call.
Right. And then from there, I hop in the Kia. Wow. And so is this the morning? This is the morning.
Yeah. So if the first call is at eight o'clock, then I'm at the office at six o'clock and I get angry for sure if there's a Kia that's there before I'm there. Right. And the reason why is because I believe that we all have different innate. gifts and talents and skills because of the amount of time and energy that we put into committing ourselves to a particular.
However, every person has the right to get to a point where they say, I am the hardest worker. And I wanted to make sure everybody knew that I am the hardest worker. Yeah. But the thing is, I needed to make sure that I wasn't only the hardest worker.
I needed to make sure that I was the smartest worker as well. And I felt that that would be a very dangerous combination. Where does it come from?
Where does that drive? I don't think that being hungry like I was in my senior year in high school hurts. Yeah. But I can say that I just always been hyper competitive. But my main thing is I believe that we are going to live this life one time.
And if it's true, right, Bob, if it's true that we only have one life, we don't have nine lives. If it's true, then why not maximize the one that we have? Okay. Yeah, that's your... You see that?
I just had to hold back because I got so much work. And so I'm about to say, ha, ha, ha, ha. That's preaching back.
And then it's about a year ago and he started rolling. Yeah, like, ha, ha, ha. That's cool.
All right. Well, so very good. So you had your whole kind of plan based on the work that you did before you start getting in your key to go to calls. That's correct.
You did your homework. Let's go to the first part. So you know what you're coming into. You get out of your key up.
Yeah. They knock on the door. You hopefully open the door. And if they greet you, then they invite you.
But it actually a step before that. I don't mind. Okay.
The first thing is this before starting, I knew that I needed to grade every single portion of my call. I refuse to just look at this. Like this is just a regular moment in the day.
Yeah. What do I mean by that? We're all loving the time that the Olympics comes around.
And I thought to myself, what would it look like? Well, there's two things Bob that I have to tell you. It is this key here.
Yeah The first thing here on this point with the Olympics I Pretended as though even though I've nowhere near as flexible I pretended that I was a gymnast because if you ever watched the gymnast in the Olympics They're grading how they did their somersaults. They're grading how they mounted the thing They're grading how they land it was not just oh I got the deal with us So what I'm thinking as well, what are the steps? Okay? So the steps are, there's going to be the phone call, right? And then after the phone call, there's meeting at the door.
And there's the transition from meeting at the door when they say that they want you to go straight into the garage to convincing them to sitting down so that you can go over some of the expectations. It's going over the expectations and then transitioning to either going into the heat load calculation or going into the collection of the data, right? It's going from the collection of the data to then centralizing and triangulating back at the table.
And then, you know, committing towards, you know, the next layer of the project, right? Which is going to be setting the appointment and so on. And then after that, there's actually another step. It's how do I leave the home?
Do I leave the home in such a way that they know that I'm committed? Because if they think that I was just there to get the close and leave, well, there's a higher likelihood that that deal is going to cancel. Sure.
Right? So I would look at it. And then what I would do, Bob, is I'm talking to you about like how the forefront of my thinking and then the background of my thinking, what I mean by the forefront of my thinking is I would think about it such that how can I run this call so that I'm intentional about every single part.
So with that being said, the first part, every time I would pick up the phone. So you call my. Oh, yeah.
I wouldn't be over. I would never, ever have the office call on my behalf. And honestly, anyone that advocates for that, I would have them, I would ask them to question their intentions there because at the end of the day, well, you understand they have a nice voice and, and it seems more professional and blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the day, it's you that is going to serve this customer in such a way where you're able to get enough trust to leave with $30,000.
Right. And if you don't think that that's a significant enough reason to make the phone call yourself, then what's going on here? Just what are your intentions, right?
Is it fear-based because you're nervous? But I will tell you what you're missing out on if you don't make that call. Yeah. So what do you say during that phone call?
Yep. And is it okay if I tell you what, this is what happens if you don't make that phone call. Go ahead. If you don't make that phone call, Bob, then you don't know what kind of energy your customer is going to have. You don't know what you're walking into at eight o'clock and you don't know who's going to be there, right?
You don't know. If it's going to be, you know, just the one, the husband, the wife, is it going to be, you know, the, the, the, the mother-in-law because everyone's at work, you need to be able to set certain expectations. And the other thing is that you don't know how, what their expectations are for the, for the, the time of the appointment, you know, you have to like, yeah, we'll just hurry up, make it quick.
Whoa, whoa. You know what? I'm glad that you said that. Right. So, so you're missing out on an opportunity to build a relationship.
But with that phone call, what I would do is I would make sure that I'm smiling. that I bring great energy such that they're excited. They're excited to have me walk in the door.
And then that right there, you know how they say your first impressions or everything? Yeah. I consider that to be my first impression.
Very interesting. So what are you saying? Is it just on your day to day? Do you have any like catch little, you know, little questions you ask them when you call? Well, what I do is it, hey, is this Bob?
Yes, it is. Hey Bob, this is Sean with CM Heating. How are you?
I'm doing fine, Sean. How are you? Good, good, good.
Well, just wanted to give you a quick call to let you know that I am actually in route heading your way. Okay, very good. And I should be there in no more than about, hmm, 20 minutes. Excellent. We're waiting for it.
Okay, see you soon, Bob. Bye. Good. So then, good in it. Exactly, right?
And then also, I would never say that I'm going to be there. If I'm saying that I'm there in 20 minutes, I'm actually there in 10 minutes. Okay.
Watch this every, okay. I want to make sure that I let you know. So they say that it's death. You heard the term death by a thousand cuts, right? I say life by a thousand cares.
So you do a thousand things, right? You might get the life, the deal closed, whatever you're looking for at the end, that would bring life to your purpose, which would be having this customer understand that they're making the right decision by going with us. Right.
I want to make sure that I, I. I major in the minors. Okay? And so by majoring in the minors, what does that look like? I told them that I'm going to be there in 20 minutes. Well, I just showed up in 10 minutes.
I think that I just exceeded expectations. Wouldn't you say so? So, so little things like, okay, very good. All right.
So fast forward, you get out of your fart. Again, you knock on the door, they let you in. And all of a sudden we start with a conversation. What do you do to break the ice even more so? Is it looking for the sincere compliments?
We talk about, well, what do you like to do? Bob, I have to tell you. There's a step before that.
Okay. I have to tell you, like, yeah, there's a step before that because there has not been one time that I was excited to get out of the car to knock on the customer's door. There has not been one time.
Unless it was a family friend or a friend that I was working with. Sure. The first thing that I do is I sit in the car and, okay, so it's two hours from now.
Just close the. this customer how why why did i close this question and i'm doing this actually while i'm driving okay i closed this customer because i was intentional i'll make up a story yeah i closed this customer bob because i i listened i didn't speak over them and i i built a friendship a genuine friendship and oh man it feels so good we they're happy we have a great friendship and now I'm leaving and I'm going on to my next. And so what would happen is now I'm convinced that that deal is already closed. Yeah. My energy, my momentum, it's already done.
Right? Regardless of anything that's thrown at me. That's the most important step. Right?
That, Bob, is the most important step. Because if you're not convinced, then it's hard to convince somebody else. That being said, now that we're in the home, I'm definitely going to start out with some small talk.
You know? And the other thing is, I refuse to wear a larger jacket or anything like that when I walk in. Even if it's cold out, I would wear something that's a little bit form-fitting.
Because if you're... working with someone that's maybe not the same height as you are, or maybe it's a single, maybe widow or whatever the case may be. It's important to make sure that you're coming across this thing, you know, this threatening.
So once I come into the home, then it's all about centralizing to one place where we can have some more conversation. Okay. And you asked, is there somewhere we can sit down?
Yes. And talk. Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely.
What, and how does it, will you stand in the doorway for an hour if someone wants to, or near, then have that conversation or? You're trying to sit down right away and then have it work casually. So, Bob, you came in.
I'm going to go take you to the garage, right? Okay, perfect. Now, before we do some of the data collections, just one of the things that I just wanted to make sure that we're able to do is just make sure that we're able to set expectations. So, do you have maybe a home base we can circle up at? Okay.
That's how you steer it. Oh, yeah, sure. How about our kitchen table?
Does that sound good? Yeah. I don't know. Leave your shoes on, Sean. No, I'll put my footies on.
It's important for me to, you know, just protect your house. I'm outside all the time. Sure. So what's the conversation look like at that point?
You know, sometimes we talk about like credibility statement, you know, does that something do upfront? Like I've been doing this for X amount of years or I've worked with so many homeowners or do you have more open-ended questions to see about what they expect from the project? First thing I do is make sure wherever I can establish common ground, I establish common ground so they understand my energy and they understand my intention, right?
And then after that, to your point, which is super important, it's all about the way that you project and it's about your level of confidence. So, Bob, just, you know, just to kind of give you a little bit of the lay of the land here, we're going to do is we're just going to start out with some of the expectations that you should have from us. Following that, I'm excited to hear a little bit more about your expectations. And what I mean by that is just simply where you are right now in terms of comfort.
And then, of course, where you'd like to be. So then that way, together, we're building a solution that will bridge the gap. And as you're probably well familiar with. One of the biggest issues that's faced nationwide when it comes to the installation of new heating and cooling equipment is the improper sizing of the equipment.
So with your permission, what I'm going to do is just simply walk the perimeter of your home, measuring windows and doors and such, just to kind of get an idea of the personality of your home, right? And the whole idea here is, you know, when it's really hot, cool escapes, and when it's really cold, heat escapes. So essentially by doing this heat load calculation, it ensures that we have everything that We need from a BTU, you know, British Thermal Unit perspective, how we measure each unit of heat.
And then following that, what I'll do, of course, just do some simple measurements, you know, with your permission, I'll take some pictures of, you know, the thermostat and so on. And then once we're all, you know, kind of set there, we'll just circle back and just kind of look at some of the options that we were able to customize together. And then we'll see where you'd like to go from there.
Fair enough? So you plant seed about improper installation. Yeah, absolutely.
And yeah, and as well with everything that I did right there, I just set authority. And what I mean by set authority is I let them know that I came to their home respectfully, that I have a plan of a plan of action. And also with the way that I use my inflections, every little bit that I did right there, all calculated. Yeah.
Right. You don't just, so what we're going to do or go to sleep. Yeah, for sure.
I am going to beat that coffee. Right. Very good.
And how much of are you paying attention to body language? I noticed you did the homework beforehand. See if I have worshiped you.
Is that really direct how you communicate? If they're softer, you'll be a little softer or you stay-Bob, I love you so much right now. I have to tell you right now, because it was, I was able to join while I was a manager. I was able to join a certain path. Well, actually I joined certain path in terms of the expo.
It was- In 2021, I saw I was there, I believe it may have been in Dallas. Don't hold me to that. No, that's all right.
But one of the things that happened is there's someone, I hope that he's here again today, I heard with this about, but he was talking about body language and what's a mirror. And honestly, that was a huge success. So you asked me, do I pay attention to body language? Absolutely.
Everything in my mind is 100% for certain calculations. I'm looking at whether they're hunched over. I'm looking at whether or not their attention is drawn to anything else. I'm listening to their inflections. I'm listening to the rhythm of their tone.
I'm listening and I'm dissecting every little bit of the information I can gather to find out exactly what I need to be for that individual. Yeah, very good. Very good. And then did you just know how to adapt to that? Like, I was thinking, someone that is leaning forward, you know they're interested, right?
But if someone's distracted, what do you do with someone who's distracted? There's several things. There's several things. So let's just, you know, first and foremost, right now, during this interview, you and I are positioned directly across. I, as a rule, would never allow myself to be positioned in such a way if it's a male.
What I'm going to do, if it's a male, and this is from the information that I learned at Certain Path, I'm going to sit alongside. because with men, you know, we need to be collaborating towards the same aim. However, according to the information that I received last time, with women, they need to be able to see you.
You need to look them directly in the eye. And so I would make sure that I position myself at the kitchen table in such a way where I'm coming alongside the male, right? And so that's one. Now, the other thing is you have to pay attention to the way that they're communicating. Here's a for instance, you're working with a lady in...
I was working with one lady and as I'm speaking to her, she's like, yeah, okay, okay. And I'm like, so what we're gonna do is, oh, okay, and then, oh, yep, that's right, yep, okay. What in the world is going on right now? Why is she going so fast? And so the natural instinct would be to try to speed up, right?
But I realized why, so you have to ask why. So the reason why she's speaking like this, Bob, is because she's nervous. She's alone in her home with a stranger. What's going on?
So at that moment, The other thing that we're going to do here, just to make sure that we have all of our eyes dotted and keys crossed, Pam, I'm going to, with your permission, walk the perimeter of your home. Literally, you watch her start to relax, right? If you're working with someone that is more lethargic and you think they're going to fall asleep on you, well, now you need to be a little bit more animated, right? But again, I believe, Bob, I believe that every single deal can be closed. every single deal and if it wasn't closed and it's because i missed something it's important as a consultant that i take responsibility for that you know is that every month you should be better and build and build because you have to set yourself is okay am i am i getting too passionate no no okay bob here's the thing you have this this is what i did i i decided that because of the certain path mob because of everything that you have if if it's true if this thing really works and i need to freaking work it right because it'll work If I work, right?
Yeah. So then what I thought is, okay, well, how can I literally, Microsoft has one, Amazon has one, Facebook has one. They all have algorithms, Bob.
They all have algorithms. So what if I had the mentality where I'm going to turn myself into a machine? I become an algorithm. I find out the best way to approach situations.
I take that, that worked, this didn't work, all the way to the point where by the end of the year. I should be closing in the high nineties because I'm taking information and I'm being incredibly intentional every single step of the way. But yeah. And so you're very focused, cued in on every little thing they say, every way they lean, every way, you know, all of it.
And it alters how you address. I'm telling you another thing that is going to be incredibly valuable for whoever's watching this. The dogs.
Oh, okay. Do those people dog biscuits in the pocket? Never.
Because if you bring something like that, now you are putting yourself at risk. You're exposing yourself to having the customer irritated because you don't know if the customer wants you to have that. And then are you trying to assert some sort of dominance here? You have no idea the level of security or insecurity your customer is dealing with.
It's best to just not even set yourself up for that. Definitely never that. But I make sure that I understand that dogs read energy, just like people read energy, right?
They see. So. if there's a dog that's in the crate barking, like, oh my gosh, sorry, Cody, please, please, you know?
No offense if your name is Cody. Yeah, it's a great name. So then what happens is I just say, hey, you know what? Can you just let him out? Will you please just let him out?
I love dogs. Yeah. It would just be great.
Like, no, I'm sure. Oh, for sure. So then they'll let their dog out.
Cody comes over. He sniffs me. I pet him. you know he goes crazy for like maybe two minutes but then he goes in his little corner and he sits down he's chilling so now what what just happened i allowed i took two minutes i invested two minutes to build a relationship with cody and now guess what bob is doing bob is thinking about me now bob is thinking about himself and now i have clarity with the information that i'm providing does that increase or decrease my potential to close out She's right, she's not distracted by barking and apologizing or anything. Yep, that's really good, that's good.
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Fully customizable to meet your needs and improve productivity. Our national network of distribution centers and more than 2,200 store locations provide national reach with a local focus, giving unmatched convenience and product availability. We power pros to do more. Use our comfort survey. It's basically, in fact, there's like 17 questions deep, but a certain path won.
Do you use it or is it just yourself? I refuse to not do that first. Okay. And here's the reason why, Bob, because I hear, so I am fiercely under the belief everyone should run the play a certain way. Anyway, well, you know, you do it this way and that way, but then you have too many inconsistencies, too many irregularities.
And most people, from my experience, they change the process. They're doing it because they're looking for the path of least resistance, right? Here's the reason why a comfort survey is so important. The reason why the comfort survey is so important is because what does it do?
What it does in my experience is it tells the customer that you care. So you're not just asking these questions because you're trying to just get some information. When I sit down with you, I reordered the comfort survey questions. Okay. And I'll tell you why.
I reordered them because the first question that I want to ask is, okay, so now, does anyone in the home here suffer from allergies, asthma, or cold problems? Okay. Okay.
Perfect. Now, Also, what have you been experiencing with regards to any harder cold spots in the home? When I'm asking those questions, rather than starting out with, let me see. So, is the age of the home this? What's that?
It's just a doctor's appointment. You know what I'm saying? I didn't want to go to the doctor. And I already have that information because I set myself apart because I did the research.
So, now I'm confirming with them with the ELO calculation. So, the reason why I'm saying this is because now when I'm saying. that I wanted to get to know you. When I'm building a relationship with you, Bob, I want to make sure that I'm asking questions from you, right?
So you know that I'm interested. If I don't go through the comfort survey, then I lose the opportunity to build relationships. Interesting. Dr. Bissett, the answers affect how you're going to present your options later on. Like for example, someone says they're only going to be at the hall for another year or two.
You're not going to offer the premium. you know, system, or does that not affect how you build it up? Again, so great question.
It depends. It depends. So, you know, you're only going to be in the home for two years. Okay.
So now, okay, nice. Tell me a little bit more about that, Bob. Oh, I think I might be, you know, leaving the area or something, you know, something like that.
Yep. Yep. Okay.
Perfect. So now what I'm doing is I'm looking at Sean thinking, okay, what the heck is happening, man? And no, no, this is good. This is good. I'm not, I'm not throwing off, but I'm thinking, okay, what does Bob want?
Okay, so he's going to be in the home for two years. And what's the state for these next two years? Does he have someone in the home that has a physical ailment and they need to make sure that they have a certain level of comfort? When he sells this home, what kind of value proposition is he going to want to have? Is he going to want to have a value proposition saying, hey, I have premium quality, this premium quality, that?
Of course, now, since I know he's going to be leaving, one of the things that I can tell him is, about our warranties and the warranties that transfer over. So now he understands that I'm on his side and we have an even bigger value proposition because, hey, look, now you're going to be able to sell this home with a warranty that's going to transfer over as well. But the biggest thing is, how are they planning on paying for this?
So when I ask these questions, okay, now is this going to be a home that we're looking at financing or just writing a check? She asked earlier. Is this a project that we're looking at financing or writing a check for?
Yeah. I mean, just, you know, just if I have no, who's going to get mad because you were trying to find that out? Yep. And yeah, for sure.
I'm going to ask that question now. Before I've gone through that, I've done the unbeatable promises. I coined it unbeatable promises. Right.
And that's essentially where we talk about who we are. It talks about the guarantees, the warranties and all those things. So by that point, they do know.
that we have financing options, right? Now, here's the thing. If they say it depends, well, now I understand that I have, I understand how to position it because if it depends, it's likely that this person, if they have the option to pay cash, they're going to really appreciate the concept of 0% financing.
And so now it's just, how am I going to leverage this? How can I, you know, get a read on this person? And then of course you have the people where they're like, probably.
That's not pay cash. Yeah. You know, they look at their wife like, you know, like, perfect. Great to know. Yeah.
Would you, you know, say you bring up the allergy question and I go, yeah, you know, I really do suffer from seasonal allergies. Do you start talking about some of the IFU stuff at that point or does that come later on? And same thing like with the warranties.
You said, OK, yeah, warranties are changeable and blah, blah, blah. Or are you not selling at that point? Oh, every part of the process is a sell. If you don't. think of it that way, then you're missing out.
Every single part. And what do you mean sell? Every part, all selling is guiding them to the decision. So every single part, you're guiding them to the decision.
So when they're asked, when I'm asking them, hey, so does anyone in the home here suffer from allergies, asthma, or cold problems? Yeah, you know, my daughter, the first thing that I'm going to do is like, yeah, when I was 10, I was actually diagnosed with asthma. You know, I've been able to kind of work through it, but I definitely know what it's like to kind of be in that place where you know, it feels like your lungs are kind of closing up. So the reason why I bring that up, Bob, is because, you know, I don't know if you're interested as we kind of customize these options together. I don't know, you know, if indoor air quality is something that you were looking for.
Can you kind of speak to that for me? Sure. I don't know anything about it, but. Okay.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know what? I'm a little bit of a nerd, right?
I always say, by the way, that's a big point. I'm a little bit of a nerd, a little bit of self-deprecation and permission at the same time. I'm a little bit of a nerd. So, I mean, if it's okay, I'd love to kind of just talk to you a little bit about that.
You see my hands? Again, everything is calculated. There's no misstep, right? There's no, oh, I wonder what happened. No, I know what happened, right?
So then I, you know, they're like, oh yeah, tell me more. Okay. Well, you have the air scrapper and the air ranger.
And then I go into that, right? For the purposes of this conversation. Yeah.
I don't need to tell that. Do you have a personal story for each one of those questions? Like if they based on their answer, I mean, you know, like we, the allergy one is an example.
They need some of those other questions. Please, Tim. you can you know get on common ground the best part is what most people i don't necessarily in in the stories will come if you're gonna be if if you're gonna go with the flow with anything just let it be how you connect with your customer because a story that i might tell to resonate with frank isn't the same story that i would tell to resonate with uh with with with lee chan right like there's there's different stories so i based on what i'm seeing That's going to be where I take those stories and how long I let those stories continue.
Did you, were those just, did that mean that that's something that you practiced? These stories and you have them in the bank or is this something that just comes up? Every single per-this is an excellent question. This is an excellent question because every single person has a story.
Do you have a home that you live, you live in? Do you have an experience that you've had there? Do you or anyone in your family, anyone in your family have any allergies?
Yeah, you know what? My mom has that. I totally understand.
That's what we're doing is we're relating so that we can build relationship. Sure. And it's very hard to say no to a friend.
Yeah. Very good. Very good.
So you go through this, these questions of X to do your missions. Do you love to have the homeowner go with you as you do it? Bob, I love you, man.
I love that brother. Yes. I love having the homeowner with me.
Now I will tell you that there's two sides of that story. If the homeowner isn't with me, I appreciate that too, but I don't love it. I appreciate that too, because now I can work even more efficiently. I'm a high volume closer and I want to make sure that I have enough time to get to my next one.
Right? So if they're not there, that I just going to speed up the process even more. But if they're there, well now all of a sudden they get to see me doing the measurements, right?
Okay, so here we are. And what we're looking at right now is a downflow 80% efficient B cabinet furnace. And what we're going to be doing here is we're going to be blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right?
And I'm filming this. Now, one of the things that the homeowner said, Oh, yeah, I'm filming this. And now one of the things that you know, our homeowner said is that they're looking for such and such and such. And then by the time I'm done, I stopped him like, how was that?
Yeah, that was, that was good. Because the biggest thing Okay. It's important to understand that you are an entertainer. Yeah.
You're on stage the moment they answer the phone call. You're an entertainer the whole way through. What is an entertainer?
This is not to say that we're here to beguile anybody. Sure. This is to say, I understand that every moment of your time needs to have value.
And I'm going to make sure that anything that I could do to keep you engaged, anything that I could do to translate the information. I'm going to do that, and I'm not going to miss a step. Very good.
Very good. So this whole time, are you asking other questions of them? I mean, you said you're doing the recording, right, of the system. But as you're measuring, do you measure windows in the room?
Like, what's the conversation like? Definitely not when I'm measuring doors and windows. Did you imagine someone going in your home and recording like, oh my God, definitely, I don't have the energy.
Oh, no, no. What I'm saying is, so the way that we do the things that say in heating is we record these videos so that that way our technicians or our installers, they're, so they say that a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Well, a video is worth a thousand pictures. So I'm, it's, it's. It's double intended.
It's intended to give the customer an experience, right? It's intended to make sure also that I'm preparing my team coming behind this. Wet a sweat.
Yeah. So it's not just, the only time I do a video is where they, it's information that is going to need to translate to them. But while you're doing these other measures, you're doing the Hilo calculation. I mean, how long do you do it quickly or how long does that take?
Well, so because I've been doing this for a while, and what I mean by a while is I'm high volume, right? And so with that being said, when I'm looking at the windows, I can look at any window, I could look at any door pretty much right now. And I know what the dimensions are.
Therefore, what I like to do, and I always tell them, just to respect your space, if you don't mind, I'll walk the perimeter of your home. I do it from the outside. Yeah, for sure. And honestly, I'm doing it out of selfish reasons too, because I want to get out of there as quickly as possible because I have three other customers at eight o'clock that I need to go see.
Right. And then also I'm able to see more and they're not on pins and needles because what if he walks in the other room and why is he walking in the room? It's the last person to come.
Yeah. Right. And it could work on your side or it could work against you as well. If you know, they don't want you to see whatever they don't want you to see.
That's a good point. That's a good point. So, you know. want to see that anyways uh i don't have any crazy stories but i know a lot of people would do or and i wouldn't have those crazy stories because i walk at the perimeter site right i guess in a certain degree people don't have to worry about you taking anything like you have a stranger in your house like you're there's always a back of your mind what's that guy what's he doing is he opening drawers yeah there's a little bit of doubt if especially you're not with you oh well number one i would never put myself in position for them to not be with you Yeah.
Okay. Perfect. I just want to make sure.
So can you show me? Okay. Now we're going. Yeah.
I got you there. I would never, ever, ever put myself in the position to be questioned, right? Yeah.
There's several reasons that I would never put myself in position to do that. But let's just say I would never do that. But you know, the good thing is sometimes you do need to have them with you.
And sometimes maybe there is a customer that is more involved. You're working with an engineer and this engineer just really wants to see every little detail. I might want to measure the windows from inside and even have him help hold part of the measuring tape.
You know why? Because, Bob, now he's collaborating. And now we're immersed. And now we're building this experience together.
And it's hard to say no to something. Right. Right. Very true.
Very true. Very good. All right. You finished your DLO calculation. I guess the next step is to sit down back at your comfortable spot, right?
And kind of go through your presentation. I think you guys, you guys use a CERC path. model the comfort solutions guide or have you, I think you probably kind of. I'm so glad that SD taught me that for sure. Yeah.
So, um, you know, you start out with your better, you know, your, well, your best, better, and some do the basic, right. Yeah. Um, I, I like that for sure. I, I definitely, you know, kind of go in that direction, but the way that I build out my, uh, estimates is a little bit different in that I have already I know exactly what the customer is looking for.
And if you're giving your customer too much information, now you've given them something to think. Right. So when I do my best, better and basic, I do is I just say, okay, so this one right here has the air scrubber and it also has that new thermostat, you know, that we're going to be putting in. The other one just doesn't have those.
And then you know the other one just doesn't have you know the extended one which one are you liking and you have that look on your face you know and then and then the question is okay so um which one which one are you liking the most right not do you want to no i never uh ask a yes or no question ever isn't the price is the prices are referring to and then and so then like oh you know what sean i really like these options um i'm gonna choose one of these But I'm gonna have to think about it. Okay, well, which one are you liking the most for now? Well, right now, I really like the one with the air screw. Okay, you know what? This is what we'll do.
It's a pause because I have to think about if this is possible. Shoot. What we'll do is we'll just secure this one for now. And let's say after you talk to your wife, let's say you decide you don't want to do the air scrubber.
Well, now we know what we're defaulting for too, but at least we'll be able to secure the equipment in time. Now, what date are you saying that you were most interested in? Again, I don't know if we're lucky enough to get that, but I just wanted to see what date were you hoping for?
I don't know, I guess the next week or so. Next week. Out of heat.
Now, the question that I have for you is this. When everything is said and done, I'm going to feel a little bit vulnerable asking you. says okay, if I ask you this by order, when everything is said and done, would you please be willing to at least write a review about your experience with me here today?
Yes, I would do that. You're very pleasant. Thank you.
Thank you. Okay, well, let me just get a quick authorization here. Just a quick initial here. Okay.
So I've at least authorized that top one. Maybe we'll take off the earth scrubber. Yeah, literally.
You see how much easier that is than, oh, wait, they want to go with a completely different system. Yeah. right and now we need to check inventory on that and this that and the third and then when you're dealing with your coordinator and you're saying oh perfect can we just take this out now if i did my job correctly and i know exactly what they need i have no hesitation because i know how thorough and i know i didn't miss any right so i'm not well i wonder if they end up do i wonder if they do go with that freaking platinum system i wonder if they do do that no because i know right and if they do decide to do that then they'll give me a call but our prices you know On average, they're more expensive than the next guy.
Yeah. So, you know, I just, I know that I'm confident. I'm confident in what they have to do. A big little, I guess I'll say insight that's really important for any consultant to know is that your responsibility is not to convince the customer. Yeah.
Your responsibility is to convince, is to show the customer that you're convinced. If the customer is convinced that you are convinced, especially in a round that is born to them. Yeah, then they are going to have the trust necessary.
You know, but if you're not convinced, if you don't have that energy, you don't have that momentum, then it's going to be very difficult for have them buy into it. Before we got to the options that we got pretty deep that talk bucket so backing up just a little bit, we did the measurements and all, and now sit down, what all is your presentation at that point before you get to the options? What do you talk about the company? What are you talking?
I mean, Is there anything that you get, you know, and now at the very beginning, that's all at the very beginning, you say it again, or it just was at the beginning. And now we're talking now, now we're talking options. Yeah. At the, at the very beginning, you know, I talked to them just about, you know, uh, just when I go over the unbeatable promises. So as you put, what are the raining?
Okay. So as you probably already know, CM Heating, we're actually the top rated heating and cooling company in Washington state. Uh, we're number one with PUD in the. Better Business Bureau actually just gave us their highest honor, which is the Torch Award for Ethics. We also have more five-star reviews than anyone else in the market.
Now, the only reason why I tell you this is because it's important for you to know that you should come to continue to expect nothing less than the same level of five-star quality and service. And then also for your warranty, most folks out there, they offer a 10-year parts, one, maybe two-year labor warranty. We're just going to give you a 10 and 10. Okay, 10 year parts, 10 year labor warranty.
So that way, for at least your first full decade, you're going to have 100% piece of money. And then we'll go into, you know, more about the equipment. And then we'll go into the no frustration guarantee.
And then, you know, the other guarantees and you know, so on and so forth, all the way to the two year 100% satisfaction guarantee. But I established all that at the very beginning, because in any date, any successful date that I've been. What I want to do is I want to make sure that I tell them about the expectations that she should have from me.
And then I want to know what she's expecting as well. Yeah. Right. And so she knows that I'm committed.
And I believe that relationally, when you're going in and you're working with a customer, this is very much it has the same DNA as a date. And so this is my getting to know them and this is them getting to know me. And so by the time we get to the close, they have all the information necessary to be able to, by the way, when we're doing this, I believe that many consultants will be able to take a deep breath and they will have less pressure if they realize that they're not selling. Yeah, definitely. They're not selling.
You know what we're selling? We're selling appointments. Appointments.
And as long as I remember that my responsibility is to sell an appointment, which is their install day. Yeah. It's a lot easier.
That's good. That's, that's, I like that. So you, so you got to the ops, you'd be the best friend, you'd get to the options right away.
Uh, and then you should, you closed me there a minute ago. What happens if We get to a point and you said $30,000 system. Maybe I thought it was going to cost $10,000. I'm shocked.
Holy cow. I had no idea. Systems cost us. I know you had mentioned financing or paying in full, and I thought, well, I might finance or something, but this is just so much money.
I need to think about it. How do you respond? I respond to it because I know that that's going to be an objection, especially when you're the highest priced in the market. I know that that's going to be an objection. at the very beginning.
Therefore, I choose not to put myself to that energy drain because I have another three customers I need to work with. So I close that at the very beginning. Okay. And if I don't, well, now we're going to have to go through some theatrics to go back and forth and I'm going to have to convince them, which I have no problem, you know, going through that and, you know, getting to that point.
But if they had expectations for 30,000 for 10,000 on 30,000, then, you know, the things that you could easily do is you could pivot to the reminder of the fact that, hey, you know what? I felt the same way when I got my system. I felt the same way when I got my system.
And, you know, the thing that really helped me is, and especially Sally, the thing that I want to remind you is, this is an investment that you're making in your home, right? And then also you did say that you wanted to make sure that you had more comfort during the summers. They've been getting auto rent. And then also you were saying that, you know, you're going to be having family over and you want to make sure that they're comfortable.
Okay, and we wanted to make sure that you had the best system overall because we're talking about something that's going to last you, you know, upwards of 20 years, right? Yeah. Okay.
And then also just wanted to make sure, you know, with the company, when we do the installation, I just want to make sure that it's done right the first time, right? Okay, so now when we're looking at this, you know, my question is, as long as we have the equipment available, right, and we were able to make this work, my only question is, At the end of it, would you please be willing to try to review about your experience with me? Yeah.
Okay, perfect. And by the way, I totally relate. And the crazy thing is with the inflation and everything that's going on now, it's been scary to me.
Have you freaking bought groceries lately? I'm wondering who I need to call about that. And it's unfortunately the times that we're in, but I want you to know that we're committed to you every single step of the way. Is that fair enough?
That sounds good. And now the thing is- I don't like to have to go through that. So that would be one of the things that I would go back in my car as I do my revisiting of how things went.
I would say, okay, you had this objection. How could you have done this call in such a way where you didn't have that objection? There's something really low. If I ask you that.
Yeah, because at the very beginning. Something in the front. At the very beginning.
Yeah. All you really need to let them know is, hey, guess what? Right now we're in this unique period, right, where we're having supply chain shortages compounded by inflation.
And so naturally what's been happening, the prices of everything are just going up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up. And it's, you know, kind of gotten to the point now where just the average customer that I'm seeing, they're expecting to spend, you know, anywhere between $25,000 and $30,000 on a system, you know. But, you know, The good news here is we may have something available.
Guess what I just did? I planted a seed. Right.
And by the time it comes for that close, I believe that that seed will... Very good. How about, how many, I'm sure probably, number of appointments you've done?
How many other bids do you see? Someone's got a sheet of paper from them, some ABC heating and cooling, that says it's going to be two-thirds of what you know your project's going to be. How do you handle those situations?
Can I see the bid, please? Use that. And that was like ABC heating?
Yeah. Okay, perfect. Now, okay, so tell me a little bit more about that, right? All I know is I've got a price on here that says it's for $22,000. You said $30,000.
It really doesn't say much else. Okay. And now, just to make sure that I'm not missing anything, just in terms of the information that I was able to provide you and just to make sure I have everything right, what kind of system was it? Can I just take a look, just to visit it with you, just to make sure, because I want to make sure you make the best, I mean, at this point, we're friends. That's why I make sure you're making the best decisions.
Is that okay? Sure. Then we look at it and, you know, at the end of the day, you'll notice that they most likely don't have the same warranties. You'll notice that there's other things that are missing. But at the end of the day, you can always bet your bottom dollar that something that we all understand on a personal level is that you end up getting what you pay for.
Yeah. And that's one of the reasons, Bob, that when I go into the house. Every single time I go into them, I never have the same polo. I wash my polos. I have a fresh polo on every time.
I make sure that I stay in shape because if I'm in shape, then that's going to say something about my intentionality. I'm going to make sure that. I'm articulating a certain way.
You know why Bob? Because I know that the one thing that Sally is going to know by the end of this is I want more Sean Mitchells in my home. Even if CM Keating has anything to do with Sean Mitchell and if like Sean Mitchell is any indication of what's coming behind him, then I want to do business with them. Because the last guy, he didn't even take his shoes off. He had stains.
He had boot in his beard, blah, blah. Do I really want to take that lower bid when I have my house on the line? Now, in the instance of this.
bid what I threw at you is we generally find out earlier in the call another bit like I'd sprung it like it was at the end. Do you typically find a way to our CSRs? They do such a great job. Yeah, they do such a great job.
And you know, the the Yeah, so that that's, that's the main thing there. But one thing that I will often do, and you'll be surprised how much information you can get from this coming to the home, right? I just First, I just wanted to just try this on for size, but I was surprised at how effective it was.
I sit down, cross my legs. What? Talk to me.
Tell me about why I'm here. What's going on? Well, I just, you know, I know our furnace is getting kind of old and I'm just worried it's not going to get us through the fall heating season. Yeah, I just thought it doesn't hurt.
I work from home. I'll just get a couple of floats and see what this costs. How's that been going? You said you were getting up. Well, you're the first one.
I haven't had anyone else. Earth, you know, let's look back. I already had ABC heating come in and they gave me a bid.
But, you know, they were fine. But I think it's a smart thing. All we learned is you should get through the bid.
Yeah. And honestly, I want to say thank you for your patience having us here. I know that it's been, I know that it's quite the wait.
Of course, with us being the top rated heating and cooling company, you know, in the state. So I just want to say thank you for that. And also, I do.
Probably already are a loyal customer of ours, but if not, I just want you to know that that's definitely the aim that we have here, just to make sure that, you know, we just start right. And so then I would just kind of go from there. I just planted several seeds. Sure.
Right. And essentially what I'm saying is, you know, ABC will not be your X, Y, Z. That was good. I like that. Oh, that's good stuff.
All right. Now these are very slight things with all these. I could have gone deeper as we kind of do these role playing. But again, it's just knowing who you are. It is also understanding your customer.
The thing is that every consultant should know, especially if they've been in this industry for anywhere more than two years. What they all need to understand is that all of our customers are exactly the same. They have different names. They look differently. They have different size homes, but they all feel vulnerable when you walk in the door.
They all are seeking information. They all want to make sure that they can trust you. They all are looking to solve a problem.
And if you understand that you're working with the same exact customer, but they just look a certain different way and they have different dynamics, then all of a sudden this looks easier and easier and easier. And the algorithm should get better and better than better. That's awesome.
I want to dig into this a little bit more than the close part. How much finance, is a lot of it finance? Do you do a lot of financing or is it a mix?
Pronounceable. It literally depends on my customer. Yeah.
I mean, so. And it's so what fraud, like what fraud financing product is really fine. If. Same as cash.
Bob, I have to give you, I have to tell you a story. I have to tell you a story because this changed, this changed my approach. I'm working with a retired gentleman and I was able to get him a really good price.
I'm talking a very good price. And at the end of it, he was really concerned about. the payment it was zero percent interest bob you're you you've invested you've had this home for a while you're smart with your money it's zero percent interest yeah but sean the the payment is you know 540 i'm just not really prepared for that okay but the price is right and so then i i am i have an obsessive personality obsessive so if something doesn't go the way that i thought it should go i'm going to beat it to death until i'm able to freaking like a cow meeting chutz you I have two stomachs. I'm going to figure out why that deal didn't close and I'm going to spit up a solution. Yeah.
And then check this out. Three days later, I call up Bob. And that's literally I just wanted to just let you know, by the way, thank you so much for spending time.
Yeah. I love when we talked about such and such and such and so on and so forth. You know, I I realize that, you know, as you were looking at this. There was something that I missed and I want to let you know that I have good news. Exactly what he said.
That's interesting. Yeah, exactly what he said. Well, I was looking at this and, you know, what I'm going to do is this. Remember we were talking about the payments being, you know, $500. Well, I found an opportunity where we're able to actually do, get this, 120 months, okay, for 4.5% financing.
Here's the thing. There's no prepayment penalty. Your payments were only $189 a month. And there's no prepayment penalty so you can pay it off whenever you want.
Well, you know what, Sean, that makes a lot of sense. You know why that makes sense to Bob? Ding, ding, ding. He's retired and he's on a fixed income. So it all depends.
You have to know your audience. And so to say, oh, everyone wants to finance. Now you have to know your audience. So if I'm working with the retired, you know, I'm going to make sure that I let them know that there's no prepayment penalty for those products. I think in the state of Washington, it's illegal to have a prepayment penalty, but I let them know that there's no prepayment penalty just in case they're really attracted to the 0% off-retters.
But to your point, to answer it more succinctly. More people I am seeing finance than not because even if they're sharp like you are and they're saying, hey, you know what I want to do, I want to pay cash. They don't sneeze at the idea of free money. Sure.
Zero percent financing works very well. That's interesting. Are you allowed to discount up to a certain point?
I know you're, you know, do you have leeway in the field to go, okay, I could cut a thousand off or something like that? Or do you have to call the office? What do you guys, what's the process at C? Look uncomfortable. Oh, no, it's because I'm excited and I'm thinking about a thousand different ways I can answer this question in a way that's going to make sure that I do it justice and I provide value to everybody.
The way that it works is we have an automatic, I'll say to our discretion. Sure. Okay. We have a discretionary 5% discount that we're able to provide under certain situations. That's 100% of the situations.
None of the situations is up to us. So it's great knowing that I have that. The other thing that we have is a 3% discount for cash, right? Because we don't have to invest that same money.
We're not getting charged that when people pay with a credit card or people decide to go with certain financing options, especially the 0% financing option. And it's pretty much that. And if I'm feeling super hyper aggressive and I just refuse to lose this deal, and we're only $200 apart and I can't, I'll take it out of my commission.
I ain't too, I am not too proud. And a matter of fact, I did that on one, you know, deal and the customer was in sales and he goes, I wouldn't do it. And I was like, oh, well, you know what? And how you understand how important, you know, your business is to us and to me personal. You know, it's personal, right?
But at the end of the day, like I'm all about, like I was like literally, like my whole mentality, my personal mentality, and this is. So it works in some areas and other areas I needed to learn how to make it work. Understand what I'm saying when I say that, but I care about winning and I only care about winning.
Like it is who I am. Like I'm telling you right now, I only care about winning. And you know, when I'm talking about being a part of our team with CM Healing, I care about us winning. And so sometimes the us, and I've determined that us comes before I.
Us comes before I. But as long as we win. That's all that matters. And in terms of our competition, I take the...
I'm Ray Kroc all the way. I don't know if you saw the movie The Founder. You talked about that hose. I care nothing about my competition. I want to eat them alive.
And it's their fault because they shouldn't have been my competition. But when it comes to competition, I have absolutely no mercy. I will eat them alive, and I have so much pleasure in taking business. I don't know. Like, you have no idea the energy that I have.
Like, if you're my competition, then it's your fault. You should have gotten to a different league. Well, I do want to ask you about your follow-up process. You called Bob to find a new financing option that fit his lifestyle. You close most of the calls you go on, but there's a few that you don't.
What's your process for when you get back to that person? Is it once that week, maybe a week later you give them a call? And then you try to always find, you know, that the reason why they didn't close the first point and try to address it or what's your process for that? You always want to set it up.
You don't want to have any, you know, expectations that are unmet and you don't want to be that. No one wants to answer the call at the sales guide and just no one wants to answer that. But if you're like, okay, perfect. So what I'm going to do, you said that you want to think about it. I'm going to also take some time and I'm going to do some more research for you just to kind of see what, what else there might be here, because you mentioned a lot.
So I'm actually glad that we're not rushed right now. So, thank God. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to check on some things. And then let's just, you know, hop on the horn. You want to.
In the next couple days, or do you want to do early next week? Okay, that's a good question. Yeah, so now it's an appointment. I'm selling them on a different kind of appointment, but I'm still selling them on it. Excellent, excellent.
You close them. You said one of the parts of the process is the post-close to make sure they're still feeling good about you spending $30,000 on a new system. So what do you do for your post-close to make sure your installers have everything they need, your...
Your customer is happy and feeling good about this decision. What do you do? Our leaders at CM Meeting have done a phenomenal project.
They have done a great job with our process and our projects. I can't take any credit for what I'm going to tell you. All I could tell you is that John, Michael, Lyle, and Kailana, they set it up so that we have conversations with our team members before they go. We meet with them at about 7 o'clock just to kind of go over certain aspects of the project. And if they have any questions, then they'll let us know ahead of time in terms of, well, there's our project managers or other coordinators that are doing the equipment, kind of curating and so on and so forth.
It might just be that we have a good system. We don't really need to worry too much about that. I think that any... system where your salespeople aren't able to major on just being salespeople, you might be losing an opportunity to get their best expression.
Well, how about when, before you leave, what do you say to that homeowner? I signed the paperwork and I'm like, oof, I like Sean. It's a lot of money, but I'm okay. We're going to go for it. What do you do to make sure I feel warm and fuzzy before you go on your way to go to another house?
Congratulations. That's why I say 100% congratulations. I'm surprised not only that we had this equipment because this is the most popular, but we have the right install date.
What I'm going to do is this. If you don't mind, I'm actually going to just make a quick call just to make sure that we could get one of our more senior teams on your project. I just want to make sure that I'm a little bit more hands-on, right? And the other thing is this. I'm just going to write this down.
This is my personal cell phone number, okay? Same number that my mom calls me on. And so if you have any questions down the line, just let me know. And if it's okay, if I could still take you up on that offer for, you know, having some barbecue later on.
I'd love that. You know, I'll bring the steak too. Okay.
All right. And so I just want to say thank you so much for having me. What do you have going the rest of the day? Transition. Have you had a go with barbecues?
You know what? I have, and no one's going to like what I'm going to say right now, but I was so busy because I had a goal. for this year. I was so busy that I didn't have time to really do those, you know, but that's what it is. I don't think, I don't expect most people to do that.
But yeah, but I'd like a full offer. Yeah, for sure. For sure. No, I understand. Just kind of to wrap me up, what advice would you have for other, you know, advisors, salespeople in the HVAC space?
How do they become, instead of the $2 million guy, the $4 million guy? Or how do they exponentially Two things. I have a lot. I have a lot here, but I'll just do two.
Yeah. First thing is talk walks very little and walk talks very little. Don't talk about it.
Walk about it. And so, so, so actually what does that look like? If you don't have a goal for this month, if you don't know exactly what the end of this month looks like, then you're allowing the wind to take you there instead of directing the charge in knowing exactly where your sales are headed.
Right. You need to know exactly what the end of the month looks like. What does the end of your year look like?
What are your intentions? And now that you know that that's what it looks like, what do the steps look like with you getting there? Like, are you intentional? So know what it's like. Oh man, I hope this is going to be good.
If it only went up, it's not like this is going to work like that. You literally write your paycheck. I knew that I was going to be writing an $80,000 paycheck for this month. I decided that I was going to write myself a $100,000 paycheck for this month. And guess what?
Nobody else is able to put a ceiling on me, but me. Right. And the thing that every consultant needs to know is that you may have a floor at your, your job. Maybe they don't sell less than this, but nobody's giving you a freaking ceiling, right? Nobody's giving you a ceiling.
So, so fly if you, if, if you want to, you know, and so everybody that wants to say, well, you don't work here and you have no family, right? Don't use why you're working all these hours. I will say when you're making. You know, I mean, you do the math.
When it's, you know, 86, you know, $8.6 million, you know, I think that I'm setting myself up. If I were to do that for the next three to five years, I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to spend a lot of time with my family. Right.
And again, what I'm saying is it's easy to default and judge someone and say, well, you know what, you're just putting in, you know, all this extra work, you know, because because you have the time to do it and I don't. Well, I could give you the exact opposite. I'm doing this because I want to spend more time.
Right. The other final thing is this moments are what provide momentum. So be focused and be intentional about every single moment. The moments being majoring on the minors.
You know, making sure that you get to know your customer, you know, making sure that you're professional every single step of the way. All those little things are going to build to the momentum. Because remember, it's death by a thousand cuts or it could be a life by a thousand cares.
A thousand things that you're doing the right way will get you to the place you want to be at. I love it. Very good.
Sean, thank you so much for all your time today. I really enjoyed it. Thank you. Sean Mitchell, Comfort Consultant for CM Heating in Everett, Washington.
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