Defend Yourself Against NEGATIVE, ANGRY & TOXIC Encounters in Roofing Sales (especially D2D)

Dealing with toxic, negative, angry people can totally put a damper in your day. And in roofing sales, we deal with toxicity all the time. It might even come up when you're just knocking on someone's door. They scream at you, calling you a scumbag, telling you to get a real job, calling you all sorts of names that I wouldn't even be able to say here on YouTube. And other times it comes up with our customers, people that we've served, and everything seems like it's going just fine. And then like a light switch, they flip, and all of a sudden they are angry, aggressive, insulting, and rude. And if you're anything like me, these things, even though we say, hey, don't take it personal, they can impact us. In fact, we can go back home or back to the office, and the weight of that negativity is like a rain cloud over us that poisons our day, poisons our mindset, poisons our motivation, and it's just really difficult to shake it out. So in this video, I want to give you some tools to help you de with the toxic negativity that is inevitable when it comes to roofing sales. And the reality is this video right here was inspired by someone who just said, I don't review the roof strategy or give me a thumbs down and says a negative review on Facebook. And then his comment was, these reviews are fake. And the truth is many of them were because we got spammed by someone doing some Forex trading and it blew up our page. And we've reported them to Facebook three times and they will not take it down. But every single other review that you see there on the Facebook reviews is real. These are people that have met me that are using our programs. You can click on their profile and see. You can go to our website in the link in the description and click on the results tab and see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of unsolicited reviews. You can jump in any industry Facebook group and say, hey, what do you guys think of the roof strategist? And ask publicly or search Adam Bensman or the roof strategist and you'll see for yourself what's being said. But when I get these reviews, they still drive me nuts and they get under my skin. I and I said, you know what? What a great time when I'm right in the thick of it to be able to relate to that feeling. Like when I was knocking a door and someone screams at me, telling me I'm a scumbag. Get a real job. You're a Low life, loser, whatever else. So sorry, my blood pressure is getting going. Let's get to it, shall we? First, I just want to say a quick welcome or welcome back. Adam Bensman here, the roof strategist. And everything that I dedicate every waking minute practically of my life to this helping you and your team smash your income goal and give every customer an amazing experience. And I know I can't say every minute of my waking life, but lately it sure feels like it over the last six months with the hours that we've been putting in, but at the end of the day, the reason I do what I do is because I've found in my opinion and estimation that about 66% of first year sales reps quit or get fired. And the main reason for that is they weren't equipped to succeed. And part of being equipped to succeed is knowing what you're actually going to face. Now, this industry is far from easy. It is really simple, but it's not easy. We get beat down, we get called names, customers flip like that. Crew stuff happens, there's inner conflict in the office. Just things are not easy. The interpersonal stuff that we face is just really, really challenging. So let's jump into how do we deal with this toxic negativity? And I want to give you three helpful tips. Now, tip number one is to realize that it's not about you. Now, I want to qualify that because everybody says, don't worry about it, it's not about you. Now, one of the videos I did in the past was on staying motivated even when times get tough. And I shared this story and I'm going to share it again here, but a short version, and it's an ancient Chinese proverb. There's a man paddling up river in his canoe. And as he's paddling, he sees coming down river, a canoe coming towards him. And upset, he stands up and he waves his paddle and he says, hey, dude, watch out. You're coming right towards me. And the canoe barrels straight towards him without moving. So naturally, this guy gets mad. He's in that canoe, he's like, he moves over and the canoe comes right towards him. He says, dude, watch out. You're coming right towards me. And the canoe keeps coming towards him. And he's looking around, he's like, what a freaking idiot. And he gets irate and he's screaming at the man in the canoe. And then before you know it, boom. The canoes collide. The man falls down, he stumbles upon, drops his oar, picks it up and turns around, and he looks at the canoe that just passed, and it was empty. And the message in that is that there's no one in the canoe. Meaning our reactions to things, our broadcast of emotions, are targeted, but they're really not at somebody. And just the same as someone who thought that it was a good idea to write me a negative review that wasn't about me, Adam Bensman. That's not insulting my character. This is someone who just so happens to have enough free time to feel compelled to share this. And I realized that instead of being angry, I realized it's not about me. In fact, I shifted from anger to a level of compassion. To say that must really not be a great way to live, to feel so compelled to just jump online and say negative things about someone else to feel better about me by putting someone down, huh? It's no sweat off my back, because there's no one in the canoe. If it's not me, it's someone else. And chances are that person has blasted the same thing to other people. So it's not about me and it's not about you. So tip number one is to realize that even when things feel targeted and directed at you and towards you, really not about you, we often personalize these things like it's an attack on your core being. But if you just swapped you for sales rep number two and they're in here, they're going to get that same response from the person, the angry screaming. When things go wrong in people's homes, they get really personal, all right? Because it's their home and their castle. So there's tip number one. Don't take it personal. Remember, there's no one in the canoe. Now, tip number two, to reconnect with your why. Now, what is our why? I'll share mine. My why is to help every sales rep smash their income goal and give every customer an amazing experience. Now, I don't know if I'll ever be able to impact that many people. I don't know if I'll ever be able to do that. So it gives me this vision to chase indefinitely. And I was inspired, by the way, by Simon Sinek's book called the Infinite Game in order to chase that really big why. So I reconnect with that. Say, hey, you know what? I. I can't let this one clown upset my path and distract me from serving my people. And just the same for you. Your mission is to smash your income goal, I assume, and give every one of your customers an amazing experience. And if you allow this toxic Negative energy to impact who you're serving, they're winning. So if your mission is to serve well, earn great money by collecting what I call thank you notes. You know, the types where a customer hands you the check for 20 grand and says, thank you so much for taking the time to explain everything to me. Thank you so much for being here for me. They're thanking you as they give you money. That right there is the greatest gift in the entire world. And your mission is to stay focused on serving those people and just look at that as some. Some distraction trying to pull you off course. So focus on your people, your why, and your mission. And if you don't have a why yet, I want to walk you through a really fast exercise to figure that out. We first write down our income goal. I want to earn X dollars by this date. And then we ask ourselves, well, why do I want to earn that money? And for many of us, like, well, I don't know, I just never did before. But that's not enough. Ask yourself deeper. Is it to buy the house? Is it to save money for college or for your kids? And then you ask one more time, and why is that important? So we have our goal, why is it important? Why is that important? And when we go even deeper, that goal might be because I didn't have these opportunities as a kid, and I knew that if I did, I'd be even further ahead. So what I want to do is give my children those opportunities that I didn't have, give my wife the opportunity to not have to work, to raise our kids, save for college, and provide a lifestyle that I didn't have. Now we're tapping into something. All right, so that's reason number two, or, excuse me, method number two. To survive this toxic negativity is to tap into your why. And then reason number three, or method number three. This is far and away my favorite. It is to close your eyes and. And recite all of the amazing customers that you served, the lives you've impacted, the stories you've heard from people, the emails that are sent in saying, thank you so much for helping me. You've been amazing. I can't believe that we wanted to buy in your roof and you found hail damage. Thank you for making this process so streamlined. Thank you for creating an opportunity that was so much better than the last time we had a deal with a contractor. The homeowners that invite you back for dinner, the customers that write you a thank you card, the customers that send you home with homemade baked goods because they Loved working with you. And when you go through all three of these in one and you say, it's not about me. And then number two, I'm tapping into my why of being of service. And number three, look, I am worthy. Look at all these people I've served. What you do is you create a shell of armor that all this toxic negativity, pew, pew, pew, pew, just bounces off. And one of those reviews that inspired this was a gentleman who commented. He says, adam, thank you for just being you and being quirky. And I laughed. And he put in parentheses and quirky in a good way. And you know what? At first I was ashamed of it. I was a little worried about being myself and being quirky. I didn't fit the norm when I started doing this in the roofing space. And the more I've been who I am, the greatest challenge has been to be more of me and inspiring others to do it. Now I feel like it's my duty. It is my duty to be me, to be authentic, to be unfiltered, but to do so in a heartfelt way, not a way to justify having a negative attitude or cursing or throwing f bombs in every other word. I mean, tapping into my core being of a loving human being trying to serve others. And the more that we do this together, you and me together, the more that we can serve, the more we can earn and the more that we can uplift this industry. So listen, my ask of you is if you know anyone on your team who's dealt with negativity or an angry customer, share this video with them, because it's not going to stop. We're going to be bombarded with it, especially in the world of social media where everyone can get behind a keyboard. And when I was just speaking at the Owens Corning Platinum Conference, David Goggins talked about how he's sitting there trying to run a hundred mile race, getting feedback from people who've never run a mile in their life. And that one saying I was like, David Goggins, you're awesome, man. I love that. So join me on a journey of building our armor. Remember, it's not about you. Tap into your why and remember all of those people who loved the service that you gave them. And you'll provide a shell to deflect all the toxic negativity of which I'm going to let you in on a secret. The more successful you get, the more it comes so you can fulfill upon your mission, smash your income goal and give every customer an amazing experience. Pass this video on to someone who needs it. Thank you so much for joining me today. Just because our time here is about to wrap up doesn't mean you are in. My time has to. If you like this video and you want more, I invite you to join me in my free training center. And you can click right here to get inside or text the word free to 303-222-7133. And if you want more videos on mindset YouTube, excuse me, I have a great playlist for you on YouTube and you can just jump into that one right here. Hey, thanks again for joining me and I'll see you on the next one.