When and Why To Ask "YES" vs. "NO" Questions When Pitching and Selling Roofs (For Storm & Retail)

Your job in sales is to do what it's to get to yes, the yes, I want to do business with you. Yes, I want you to do my roof. But the old way, and I will say old because I do believe it's dated. The old way of trying to get to yes is priming people to say yes, yes, yes, yes. Which, believe me, there is validity in doing this. However, this yes approach is what makes people feel like you're being pushy. So it's important to sprinkle in the no questions and the yes questions in the right way to guide your homeowners. And let me actually take a step back. It's not guiding them. Your homeowners will be guiding him or herself to working with you because you are planting the seeds and think of it like you're dropping breadcrumbs. You are laying the path. And should they enjoy the taste of that breadcrumb, they will continue until, yes, I'd like to do business with you the old way. The dated way is by trying to sit and turn your customer around and just push, push, push them into working with you. That's where they get the resistance of I'm not comfortable, you're not safe, you're being pushy. So when we flip the script and we know the when and the why to use our questions the right way to get to yes, when it's appropriate, to get to know when it's appropriate. That's the difference of trying to get behind someone and pushing them out the door or into your offer, so to speak, versus dropping breadcrumbs in them, walking themselves and their own free will to you. This will reduce your cancellation rate. Have you had that happen? You ink a deal, a contingency agreement or retail, and then all of a sudden someone has cold feet. The buyer's remorse, that's oftentimes because they felt pushed into this yes, versus making it electively. Then by the time you left, they don't have that confrontation. They say, okay, well, I said yes, but I really am second guessing it. And my out is now because I have three days to cancel or whatever the law is in your state. So at any rate, that's why and when and why we're going to be using these yes or no questions, which I'll be teaching you right now. Now, this video was inspired, by the way, from the ongoing and consistent raving feedback I'm getting from roofing salespeople just like you who are using my famous one liner to get more roof inspections. And there's a link to that video right here. And in that video, I teach the one liner that goes like this and the philosophy behind it. Hey, do you have any objection if I hop up on your roof for a complimentary inspection and I'll show you what I find so you'll notice? Do you have any objection? No. No is your natural answer. That's the safe answer. You showed up unannounced. No is okay. No is what I know is the answer I'm comfortable with. No is the easy rejection. But by saying no, I'm actually agreeing. No, I do not have any objections. So in this case, no actually means yes. Right? So no means yes. And when we take this approach of no meaning yes, all of a sudden our customers become very comfortable with us and it makes it easier for them to say yes. Now, in addition to that, I want to just frame really quickly the difference between a close ended question versus open ended. So we have close ended. And what is a close ended question? Okay, this is when your answer is yes or no. Would you like a glass of water? What are you going to reply? Yes or no? Okay. Versus an open ended question. Now if I asked you an open ended question, what are you going? Here's an example, by the way, not instead of would you like a glass of water? Yes or no? What can I get you to drink? Okay, now you'll notice that servers do this at restaurants. They don't say by the way. The smart servers do this. Notice the difference. Can I get you anything to drink besides water? That's yes or no. It's easy to say no, I'll stick with water. Maybe you're out for lunch. There's no sense in buying a beverage. You want to keep your bill low. You say no. If the server comes over and says, what can I get you to drink? Then you have to think about it, right? You have to think about an answer and you're going to say, oh. So then you've got coffee, you got tea, you got water, you have soda, you have a beer, and then the rest of the menu and then it might even respond with a question. Well, do you have this? The chances of that server, the bartender, whoever it might be, of getting that item added to the ticket means a higher tip. Pay attention to your next server. Would you like anything to drink besides water? And you know what? You can even say, hey, I want to teach you something because it's going to help you have more people order and it's going to make you more money. By the way, they're going to like you for this. You're going to get better service. Might even throw in some freebies for you like a free appetizer. You'll teach them that. Yes or no versus an open ended question. Say what? What can I get you to drink? Leave it at that. Now I have to think, alright, so that's the difference between open and closed ended. So in today's video we're focusing on these closed ended questions, not the open ended to decipher the difference between yes and no. Alright, so let's first start into when to use questions that are going to guide us to no. So first we're going to talk about no. And what we're going to discuss is the when and the why. Use questions that get to a no first whenever we need permission. Okay? It is easier and often invasive if we say, hey, can I hop up on your roof for complimentary inspection? People don't want to say yes. There's a resistance. Think about it. Think about if I showed up on your doorstep and said, hey, can I hop up on your roof for an inspection and show you what I find. Very few. There's a resistance. You have to force yourself beyond the natural tendency to say no. So when I'm looking for permission, I'm going to look for negative agreements. Any issues with doing this right? Any concerns about this? Do you have any objection about this? Those questions lead to no. Now the other thing is to verify. The other time we want to use no questions is to verify that there are no objections. Okay, I'm going to show you what I mean by this and I'm just writing that for short. So to verify that there are no objections. So let me give you an example. I get off the roof, I'm going through the photos, I'm invited inside, we're going through the contingency, excuse me, the process. And right before I transfer my attention to the presentation for my retail quote or to my contingency agreement for a storm claim, I'm going to ask, do you have any questions before we move on to the next steps? The answer can be yes or no. But you know what I'm looking for? I'm looking for a no. I am not going to move to the next step. So again, permission. I'm not going to move to the next step in the process until I hear no. I do not. One of the worst deal killers is when you say, alright, so now we went over this. Let's slide into the quote for retail or the contingency agreement on getting started. And then you're pushing this in. But if they have questions, you, they're not listening. And I guarantee you they will not sign with you. So your job is to verify that there are no objections or no more questions. That is when you want a no. All right? So the main places to use no are for when you need permission, like, do you have any objection if I hop up on your roof? Or do you have any questions about moving forward? And here's one more. Do you see any reason that you wouldn't want to proceed working with us? Okay. To proceed with working with us, for example? That's another one. I want them to say, no, I don't see any issues with that. It's easier than saying, are you ready to do business with me? Which I am always a fan of asking. But at the right time, when you get this, you want to verify there's nothing else going on. So again, permission to verify. This is when we ask these no questions. Okay. Again, words like do you have any objection, any issues with or do you have any concerns or do you have any questions so far? This is when we want to be getting to know. Got it. Now let's jump into yes, yes questions and the when and why. Now, this particular story is not mine. I got this from Jack Schaefer's book called the Like Switch. Okay. And by the way, I'll write that down. Like Switch. It's by Jack Schaefer. It's a great read, by the way, and highly recommend that book. And in there he talks about this story, which I thought was phenomenally well picked, well painted, of a telemarketer calling up a homeowner. The homeowner says, hey. Or the telemarketer says, hey, you know, do you like, after the pleasantries, do you like fresh, clean, tasting drinking water? Okay, let me ask you this. Who's going to say no to that? Who's going to say, you know what? I actually prefer swampy water with some sediment floating and a slight taste of sewage. No, no one says this, right? So then you say, oh, of course I do. And they say, and would you feel more comfortable in your home drinking clean, sanitized water that was healthy for you? Come on. Yes. So this is. Yes, forcing. This is funneling people and making them feel pushed. Do you see the difference now? See that? That was a yes question. Do you see the difference now? And I wanted you to think to yourself, yeah, I see that this stuff fires unconsciously in our own mind, and I wanted you to experience it for yourself. That was an appropriate time for me to drive in a point. But if I called you up, hey, do you like clean drinking water? Of course I do. Do you prefer to drink safe water? No, I want to drink mine with lead. Like these are funneling and forcing questions. And this is when homeowners put up a wall of resistance and they'll say yes when they don mean it and that's when you get that cancellation rate. So it's very important that we only use these yes questions sparingly. And when we are looking for agreement, okay. We want to make sure that they are following along. And I need to switch. There we go. So we are looking for agreement now. It's important when we do this we don't overuse it. Do you like clean drinking water? Do you want safe drinking water? Don't ask the obvious question. So I'm just going to make a note here. Do not do it for the obvious, obvious questions, alright? Like, you know, we really do a good job at protecting our home. You do want your house protected, don't you? Come on. We know they're going to say yes. So here's when I'll do it. For example, do you have any questions so far? And they say no. I'm going to say excellent. Does all of this make sense so far? Yes. Okay. This is when I am looking for yes. I often ask, does all of this make sense so far? Okay. And I only ask that after I get to know. So I do this stuff unconsciously and frankly, I do it from a teaching tool. It applies to sales. Just like Chris Voss's book never split the difference. In Jack Schaefer's book, both FBI agents that wrote books called the like Switch, which I just told you about, and his other book is called the Truth Detector. And both these FBI agents were dealing with high stress situations. They're teaching negotiation and tactics or when it's life or death on the line, not we're sitting in here talking about someone's roof and they're looking to get to know because it's easier. There's an intense emotional connection going on. Now those tactics do apply, but again, they're using it to solve their situation. I've learned these yes or nos when it comes to teaching. However, negotiating, teaching, it's all human interaction to guide someone to a conclusion. Whether it's I'm not going to shoot the hostage or I want to choose you to do my roof or I watched Adam's video. It made sense to me. I learned something that I could apply in my life and it made Me, money. That's my goal for you. And the other day I was running a call with a gentleman named Mark who was interested in my sales team plan for his growing company. And Mark laughed at me. He says, man, you do everything on these calls that you do in your videos. I said, hey, Mark, any questions so far? No. Does all this make sense? Yes. Now I know to proceed. What I'm looking for is agreement and understanding. Okay, now I'm going to write this word on there because I think it's really important if I only use yeses to get agreement and common understanding. All right? This is going to help me eliminate being pushy by not saying, you do want to make more sales this year, don't you? Well, yes, I do. Well, you ought to buy my program, don't you think? Yes. No. This is garbage, right? That is pushy. I could tee up you. I could tee up question over question over question to get you to saying yes to give me your money. And then what I do is say, so all it costs is X dollars. Are you comfortable with this investment? And do you see that you will make your money back very quickly? Yes. Okay, so it's like, no. Then you're going to be like, oh, my gosh, Seriously. He just teed up these questions to get into this thing. It's like being forced in a funnel versus guiding someone in a way that they are agreeing and understanding. So we are using this not as a manipulation and not as a fitness force, but rather as an educational tool to guide someone to their own decision by dropping the breadcrumbs. All right, so now you know when and why to use no questions versus yes questions. Okay, so no versus yes. We are going to be using the no when we want to get permission for things. If there's any sort of invasive questions or strong questions where the customer in their mind, it is easier to say no than yes. Yes. If it is easier to say no, we ask the no. Do you have any questions so far? No. And you know what? What if they say yes? Great. Then we overcome it and what do we do? Did that answer your question? Yes. Any other questions? No. I do this inherently because I realize that some people are too shy to ask the questions, but if they're thinking about them, they're not paying attention, which means they're not getting it, which means they won't learn from the video, which means they won't purchase something from me because they're thinking about the other things that I didn't ask them. And I want them to Be comfortable. I do not want someone calling me after and saying, hey, Adam, I felt like you pushed me into this and I changed my mind because I didn't answer these questions or I had false expectations. Which, by the way, happened to me. Selling roofs. Get a roof approved for a guy. I show up. Now the roofers there like, what the heck is this guy doing here? He says, oh, I didn't realize that you guys were roofers too. I was like, what part of that process did you think I'd be running around working pro bono? But this, again, was a question unanswered. I learned from this. So again, new excuse me, new no. We want to ask when the question is easier to give. Yes. And whenever we need permission. Okay. Those are the two key things for you to think about. Permission to move forward in the process. Do you have any questions so far? No. Okay, great. Do you have any objection if I hop up on your roof? Do you have any concerns or issues about us doing this for you? No. Alright. Or when it's easier. When it's easier to say no. Any concerns about getting our agreement executed by the end of the week? We're looking for a no. No concerns. Right. Or you know what? I do have some concerns. But again, that no means yes. Do you have any concerns about getting this wrapped up by the end of the week if you're chasing final payment. Hey, any issues or any concerns about submitting. Excuse me. About settling up our final balance by Tuesday. That's another great time to get no meaning yes. Got it. Now yes is when we're looking for acknowledgement and understanding. Okay, this is only to recap. I don't want to be asking these questions such as, do you want your house to be protected? Is value important to you? Come on. So do not use these for common sense questions. You want acknowledgement and understanding to move forward. Of course you can use a yes question to ask for the business. And in fact, I personally sprinkle both. And this is kind of the one little piece I want to leave with you is you can get to yes on your agreement with getting to a no or yes in my program, my car park closing formula. Excuse me, the complete closing strategy that is built upon my car park closing formula. At the A asks section for the business, I teach a series of questions to get to the yes. And then in the final ask, I am looking for a yes. Okay? That is my way of knowing they are fully on board. Me personally, I only use no questions on the follow up. If they didn't like we ink the deal and I'm waiting for one final thing or a deposit or whatever the case may be. Then I switch to the no questions. Any concerns, any issues, any questions about getting started. Right. That is an easier for the no but to ask for the business I want to get to yes. Now, one way just want to leave this with you because certain people, especially the homeowners who are resistant, you know the type, the arm crossers where you can get no meaning yes is hey, after we went through anything, any concerns or questions about moving forward with us as your contractor? No, not yet. Great. Now I got my agreement solidified and then I can say great. So the next steps are this, this and this. And then we just need your autograph right here and go ahead and boom, done. Right? So that is one way to tee up for that final yes. Hopefully this video is going to teach you how to lay back off any of the pushy tactics and use the breadcrumb approach to get that customer guiding him or herself to you to get to your final yes so you can win the deal. That is all I have for this video. If you want to learn more about closing and facilitating the right questions at the right time, then check out this video to learn. Oops. It's actually not going to be here. I tricked you. It's going to be here. How to use my car park closing formula to run your sales appointment from the minute you step foot in that door all the way to leaving with the deal. So here for the car park closing formula and click here to get a free copy of my Pitch Like a Pro roofing Sales training video library. Every video I've ever done organized by category. It's a great training tool. Any newbies, anyone that's seasoned and teams that are hiring. Pitch Like a Pro free. Download all my videos Car park closing strategy. I will see you on the next one.