The REAL Reason to Say Yes When Customers Offer You Coffee
Adam Bensman explains the psychological principle of consistency: when you accept small gestures from customers, like coffee, they're more likely to keep doing favors and say yes to your pitch. A hotel employee named Michelle removed toilet paper from his shoe, then comped his group's breakfast, showing how one helpful act triggered more generosity.
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What is the real reason that you should accept the cup of coffee or the water that's offered to you the minute you walk in that customer's house? Now, whether you're the person that's already doing it and preaching to your team, always accept the kind offer. Or whether you're the person that says, no, no, thank you, it's too much trouble, I'm okay, I got some water in the truck. Whichever camp you fall in this video in this story is going to help you understand the very powerful psychological principle of influence at play known as consistency, and how this one little gesture is mundane as it might seem and as natural as it might come across from that homeowner is actually leading them far, far closer to yes and choosing you as the roofer, which means you get to leave that house with more deals. Yeah, I mean it. Pretty tall claim. I'm just accepting a cup of coffee. But I'll let you be the judge after you watch this video all the way to the end, before we get to it. Welcome, welcome back. Adam Bensman here, the roof strategist and everything that I do I on our channel, our podcast and inside our training center. It's designed to help you and your team smash your income goal and give every customer an amazing experience. So if you like what you're seeing here or listening to, you're going to love what's inside. Plus, it gives you a free taste of what our our training center is like in there. And you can get inside right now by texting the word free to 303-222-7133 or using the link in the description inside. You're going to get access to my pitch like a pro roofing sales training video library, my roof flames crash course, my recommended reading list, 10 closing techniques for every situation, a wait list to get my book that's coming out very soon called the Roofing Sales Survival Guide and a whole bunch more. So use the link in the description or text the word free to 303-222-7133. Now, what we're going to be talking about in today's video is why we accept the coffee or the water that is offered to us, even if it's troublesome for the homeowner to make a fresh pot or go through some legwork to get you that beautiful cup of joe. But instead of giving you the breakdown as to why, first, I want to share a story with you. It was a few months ago staying at this hotel for an Owens Corning contractor sales training event and I'M an early riser, so I woke up early. I went down into the hotel restaurant where they were serving breakfast. And you know how these places are. A hotel breakfast is wildly overpriced. It's like a continental spread for 20 bucks or $25, right? So I walk in there, I'm an early riser, I say, you know what, I'm just going to eat a little bit first. I want to get my mind right, get some work done and prep for the day before I meet with a couple of folks from the Owens Corning team who are there for the event and Matt on my team who was there for the event. So I walk into the breakfast place in the restaurant of this hotel and I walk up to the podium with the sign that says wait to be seated. And I look around and no one is there. And I don't know if you share this with me, but that is my pet peeve. If I walk into a restaurant, I here to give you my money. All you need to do is say hello. So I wait there for a moment and I look around and no one's there. And then off in the distance, I just see about, I don't know, 25, 30ft away, there's another podium with someone standing there who just looked at me stone faced and I was like. So it says, please wait to be seated. I'm waiting. This woman hasn't even acknowledged me yet. So I wait a little bit more. Now my nerves, I am frustrated at this point. Please wait to be seated. I'm doing what I'm told. No one's here. This person sees me and I'm the only person in the breakfast hall in this little restaurant and she hasn't even acknowledged me yet. So with a slight bit of attitude and frustration, I walk up, she gives me that look, you know, that says, I need you to know I hate my life, I hate my job, and I don't want to be here. You know that look that people give you. And then I'm like, oh, well, I'm sorry to be a bother. I would like to have breakfast and your job is to do that. And I am grumpy and, and again, I didn't give her lip, I just said, just me and that's it. She sat me down. So I just wanted to be crystal clear. This is all going on in my head. I am grumpy and I can tell so is she. I read her name tag. Her name is Michelle. She sits me down, I eat, I do my thing and then I say, hey, Listen, I'm going to be meeting some folks here in about 30 minutes. Is it possible for me just to come back and grab this table? She goes, you know what, I can't let you leave here and come back in or I have to charge you again now $25 for some garbage continental buffet. I was like, are you joking? I just ate. You want to charge me again? So I say to her, I said, okay, I understand it's not your policy. You're just doing what the hotel is making you do. How about this? Can I just leave my bag here and just run to the restroom really quick and then come back? She goes, absolutely, that's fine. So I leave my stuff and it's the morning. I had my morning coffee and my breakfast and what usually follows, you know. So I go into the bathroom, I do my morning business and I'm walking out through the hotel lobby because you know, the bathroom is on the other side of the hotel, through the hotel lobby into the restaurant. And I'm about to walk over to my table when this woman, Michelle, runs up to me like she saw a ghost. She shoots up to me and she puts both hands on my shoulders, like grabbing me and she goes, stop. Now I am off guard at this moment. I'm looking around and I'm like, so stop. Stop what? And I was like a little, I don't know, I had a bad taste in my mouth. We didn't have the greatest interaction at the beginning. So I was like, okay, I'm like, what's going on? And then she leans and whispers in my ear. She goes, turn around. And she physically grabs my shoulders and turns me around. Now I'm standing here like this, I can't see what's going on. All of a sudden I feel the hands come off my shoulder. She taps me on the shoulder just like this. I turn back around. She is smiling and holding up a six foot piece of toilet paper that was stuck to the bottom of my shoe like a cartoon. And I was marching through the hotel lobby dragging this six foot row of toilet paper in the wind, through the lobby and into the restaurant of the hotel. My face turned beet red. Michelle was chuckling to herself, but she felt really good about helping me inside. She was just being a good person and saw someone in need instead of stood up to help. Now I looked at Michelle, my whole view of her changed. And I said, michelle, thank you so much. How embarrassing. I didn't even think that stuff actually happened. That is the first time in my life that I've actually had toilet paper stuck to my shoe, especially a giant six foot piece dragging around. So I didn't think anything of it beyond this and I didn't tell anybody about it because I was embarrassed. And then the Owens Corning guys show up. Matt shows up. There's five of us eating breakfast now. It's 20 to 25 bucks ahead. I can't recall. Call 20 for easy math. It's a hundred dollar breakfast, not great by the way. And at the end, instead of bringing a check, Michelle walks up to me and she grabs me and she whispers in my ear, she goes, breakfast is on me today. For you and the team. I looked around. Now without naming names, I've stayed at this hotel franchise a lot. I have never been comped to breakfast. Not only did she comp my breakfast, she comped five people. All from one simple gesture. A woman who didn't even seem to like me, care about me or give me any semblance of professional attention that was required. But when she saw me in need and helped out, that one moment where she helped me and saw how good it made me feel inspired her to continue doing nice things and therefore comping our entire breakfast. This is the perfect example of the psychological principle known as consistency. People behave in a consistent manner when you can get them to offer you a cup of coffee. Excuse me, not get them. When they do offer you a cup of coffee and you accept that cup of coffee, they are far more likely to continue doing nice things for you because people bond through community feeling. So there you have it, the psychological principle of consistency at play. Do you believe that it can help you close more deals in the house? Well, I'd love to hear from you in the comments section below. I want to hear, are you accepting coffee and water or not? And if you are, what is the weirdest thing that you've been offered? I want to hear about it because I heard some goofy stuff. So let's see that in the comments section below. Do you accept the drink? Yes or no? And if yes, what is the weirdest thing that you have ever been offered? Now, if you like this, video it and you want to take this a step further, Robert Cialdini's book called Influence, where I first learned about this principle in context of consistency, I highly recommend reading it. In fact, it's on my recommended reading list which you'll find inside the free training center. So there you have it. Next time someone offers you a cup of coffee or even a water and they say, hey, let me get a pot started, you're going to say what again? I'd love that. Thank you so much. So there you have it. Hey, just because our time here is about to wrap up doesn't mean your and my time has to. So if you like this video and you want more, jump into our free training center here or hang with me right here on YouTube. Hop into this video. We'll see you on the next one.
