When Selling Sucks: Battling Deaths, Sadness, & Mindset w/ Airon

Have you ever felt like you've spent all day at the doors and you're just not getting the results that you expected? Largely in part because of your mindset. You're dealing with the death in the family, a breakup, the grief, the sadness and the frustration is just weighing you down and you can't bring your best. Well, you're not alone. And that's why I'm publishing this interview. This interview with Aaron is the first of a brand new series I'm experimenting with called Roofing Sales Rescue where I'm providing a one on one coaching session to a member of of the Pitch Pro movement. That's the community and mastermind that I run. And I'm airing those here on YouTube so you can experience those personal breakthroughs for yourself because your story is probably just like Aaron's. And I'm doing this series because I want you to know that you're not alone. And in this business, we often feel like we're the only one struggling or the only one suffering and it's just not the case. So in this episode, Aaron and I are gonna do some role play. You're gonna watch breakthroughs happen of refining his pitch, his approach at the door where he's spending his time in the neighborhoods, and discussion about the mental roadblocks and grief that's been holding Aaron back. And I truly hope that it helps you. So let's get started.

So format that we'll be doing today is think of this like a coaching session to plug the massive hole in your sales right now, Aaron. And everyone has one. I have them in my own business. I'm actually working through those as we speak. But when we approach our growth in sales, I want to think like if you're on a sinking ship and there's three holes, basketball size, tennis ball size and ping pong ball size, what are we going to plug first? Basketball size hole. And for all of us, it's in different areas. So I just want to hear from you, what's the basketball size hole in your business and in your sales right now?

I guess generating more leads that way I could close more. It's just generating more sales in general right now at the moment.

Perfect. And if you were to put a percentage of time that you're spending on the doors, how, what percent of your time do you spend door knocking right now?

Well, percentage wise, I mean, I know hourly wise, I'm out there anywhere from four, four to five hours. And that's, that's about a five, five, five days throughout the week sometimes Six, sometimes six.

That's awesome. So five to six hours a day knocking doors. And what's the. What's the sticking point then? Because when I hear that, the first thing that I'm looking for, by the way, is there's three things. One, if someone's not doing the work, which you are. So that's not a factor. Right. It's fact for number one. If you said, I'm doing it 30 minutes a day like that, that's a different discussion. But you're doing this already a lot. So tell me what's happening at the doors? Like what. What kind of feedback are you getting?

Well, I'm getting a lot right now because as I'm working Claremont area after the huge hailstorm, I'm getting a lot of feedbacks basically of, oh, I have my contractor already set in stone, we have a contract. I'm getting a lot of feedbacks of. Even houses that look 20 years old obviously got damaged. You can see it from the ground up. Those people are running into a lot of people that don't want to go through insurance as well. But basically she's just, you know, more or less. And I do get my. Not interested. You know, I'm not interested at the moment. You know, you could go away and stuff like that, but, you know, here and there. But majority is just those three, which is, you know, I already have my contractor working with and stuff like that. Those are the biggest.

So we've got. I already have a. I'm putting these in the chat. Already have a contractor, and then we've got. I don't want to go through insurance. And what was the final one again?

The final one was that they don't. Basically, they're not interested at the moment, so don't. They don't even.

Yeah, got it. Okay, so a couple things we want to dial into these. Pretty. Pretty focused. So first, if folks already have a contract, there's not much we can do on that front. And I know that other people might tell you otherwise, but my belief. Is there a chance that a homeowner could be bluffing you just to get you off their doorstep? Of course, if there's a yard sign in front or something, then we want to take that at face value and not poach other people's projects. If you start to hear that a lot, that will tell me on that event. Find a new neighborhood. And when we're working, especially a bigger storm, everyone is working off the same information. We have to remember that. So everyone's got the same hail maps. Same subscriptions, and they're doing the exact same thing that you're doing, which is you open the map, you're scouting where the big hail fell fall, what are the biggest houses I can target. And what I like to do actually is after that stuff's gobbled up, that becomes a bit of a war zone. I'm looking for more of those fringe areas where there's going to be less competition. So I start further out on the storms. And especially in a market like where you're working, there have been hailstorms, it might have been five years ago, but if you start working on more of the fringe areas of that map, you're going to see there's less competition and there's very likely going to be some additional damage from previous storms that are on there, that are basically reopened, so to speak, due to the new storm date. And it's very difficult to discern what's old, what's new. And then we'll go through this in a bit more detail. Next I want to dial into, I don't want to go through insurance. So tell me more like when is that coming up from the homeowner? When they tell you that they don't want to go through insurance?

When I, when I talk, when I'm talking to them about what my inspections consist of. So I'm letting them know, hey, my inspection is not like every other roofer inspection that you kind of run into. You know, I would show you a photo report, video report at that moment. They're, they're kind of noticing that because I let them know, hey, you're going to have a full photo report after I'm finished and then I'll walk you through the steps, by steps as to what you can do. That's when they kind of, hey, well, right then and there they hit me with the, oh, I don't want to go through insurance. Just give me an estimate.

Interesting. Okay, so this tells us something. This is what, what we call selling too soon. And when we, when we approach a sales dialogue, we have to think of it like advancing the, advancing the ball in football. Okay, so for this analogy, let's say I receive a kick and it's on a one yard line and I'm, I'm way deep, right? I run the ball. Now I'm at the 20 and right there, that's knocking at the door. If they kept you in conversation, then you do your pitch and you're at the 30 yard line and you're saying, hey, you know, do you have any objection If I hop on your recontentary inspection, they let you on your roof. We're advancing the sale. They get off the roof. We're advancing the sale by getting in inside the house, right to present, and then we're advancing the sale to get them to take ownership of the damage, and then we're advancing the sale into how we can help. So every little step, we're trying to advance the ball one step at a time. And if we try to share too much information up front, bringing up the insurance upfront, that's what backfires. And my guess is if. If we. And I'm going to do a little role play with you, if you're okay with it, how to. How we can adjust your pitch to give them just enough information where they're almost on the edge of their seat the whole time, and there's no. There's no closure. And the reason that we want to do that is if we share too much too soon, they're going to jump to a conclusion and get defensive. And what we need to remember is, is our objectives, in this order are, number one, show up at the house and don't get kicked off the doorstep. Right. Get that conversation started. Step number two, get up on the roof. Yeah. Step number three, get inside the house. You can show up in the photos. Step number four, use framing to get the homeowner to take ownership of that problem because we don't want to tell them that the roof is messed up. Step five, transition to our pitch. And in that transition, when we transition to our pitch, that's where we're going to overcome their biggest objections, which is the deductible and the insurance process. And when we do that process in order now, you'll notice that we're saving that insurance talk till we're in the home. But if we bring it up early, many people think with what they're going through and we put ourselves in their shoes is, hey, this stranger's showing up. He wants me to, like, use my insurance and file a claim and take the money. So we just want to pump the brakes on that discussion. Does that make sense?

Yeah, that makes sense.

So let's do a little role play for a minute. Let's say I'm the homeowner and I'm going to have you knock on my door. I'll do the knock, knock, and then just roll with it and share with me how you're doing it in real time. So let's. Yeah. Hello, how can I help you?

Hey, how are you doing, sir? My Name is Aaron Perella. Just wanted to stop by, say hi to you real quickly because I just left your neighbor's house. Not sure if you're familiar with her. Her name is Peggy. And are you familiar with her by any chance, sir?

Yeah, yeah, I think I've known a little bit. We met him, we moved in, but not super close at all.

That's awesome. That's awesome. That's great to hear. So reason why I'm stopping by. And again, I'll be super brief. I just left her house after doing an inspection on her roof. I actually showed her what her roof looked like after the storm, since there was a big hailstorm here that happened not too long ago. I'm sure you're aware of that as well. But it's causing a lot of. Of in your neighborhood, specifically caused a lot of damage here. And so I just wanted to kind of see where you are in the process. Has anybody come by and, you know, taking a look at your roof, done an inspection or anything like that recently?

Yeah. Pause. Awesome. So the reason that I cut that off, because that's all we need, is just that first intro. What I would recommend is when you end your pitch, try to shorten it up just a little bit. And the reason I say that is I went through the same thing, especially when I started doing this, that I just really wanted to, like, keep the conversation going. And I'd shift into, like, what I'd call nice guy mode. Just, like, trying to keep them in conversation versus kind of getting straight to the point. So I'll give you an example of how I do it. So if you're the homeowner and there's a knock, hey, you know, how you doing? Listen, my name is Adam. I know I'm stopped by unannounced. I just left Peggy's house. She's about four doors down. And the reason I'm in the neighborhood is we're actually helping her with her roof through this process after that big old storm. And I couldn't help but notice your roof's about the same age as hers. Where are you guys at the process. And you see how tighter I could make that. And I still hit all those key points, right? I said, hey, why? I was there. I made it familiar. I made it really familiar with their neighborhood. And I just. I assimilated. Your house is just like hers. That's why I stopped by. Where are you guys at in the process? And at that point, my main mission, if we look at what our main goal is at the door it's really people over complicated. And I'm not implying you're over complicating it, but many people do. And our main goal at the door is to, to get the homeowner to share with us in one question the single most valuable information that we can have, which is, where are you in this process? Stage one, no claim. And they either unaware of damage or they need your help. Stage two, partial coverage. The insurance company already came out. They're paying for a few small repairs. Do they, are they happy with that outcome or are they angry about that outcome? Stage three, denial. Have they been denied by their insurance? And they said, hey, we're good. Insurance company came out, they said we're in good hands, we have no damage. Right. Or they irate. And then the fourth is I'm sitting on a check from the insurance company because depending on how they respond, everything that I share after that is going to be very different. And if I don't get to that point really quickly, I'm going to be selling the wrong thing. Like the analogy you've probably heard me use before. I'm selling the Mercedes AMG convertible with heated seats in Miami. The heated seats make sense in Denver, but not in Miami. So when I just kind of cut right to it and assimilate the properties, hey, your, your roof's about the same age, it might even be the same shingle as Peggy's and we're doing her roof. Where are you guys at in the process? And right away, because it's an open ended question. What happens with shorter, tighter questions? Get complex answers in. Complex questions actually get simple answers. So if I fumble through the question and say things like, hey, you know, I wanted to stop by and, and ask like, you know, you know, have you talked to anybody? Has anybody stopped by? Where, where are you at? Like that's not just, boom, straight to the point. And that's why I want to get straight to it. Where are you at in the process? And then how they respond will vary. They'll be like, what process are you talking about? And bingo, just like that, you know, great. So it sounds like I'm probably the first person you've spoken with and you now have so much information by listening actively that they, they don't know about it. You're the first person there and now you got to speak to this as if they are unaware of the problem. Whereas if they say, my insurance company was already out, I just want an estimate, bingo, we don't have to talk about that yet. Say, great, I'd be more than happy to help you through this process. Step one is for me to better understand your roof and your needs would be to do my own inspection and provide some photo and video. Do you have any objection if I grab my ladder, I'll hop up, take me about 10 minutes, and I'll show you what I find, and we'll. We'll talk from there. And now we have our way onto the roof. We come down, and we can then use that information to then transition. We don't want to overcome that objection of we're not going to give you an estimate because they don't need one. I know you guys are in Florida, so of course, you know, you have that. That component there, but do you see what I mean? On getting really pointed with that question helps them reveal that information and now you know exactly what's going on.

Yep. That's awesome. Yeah. I love how you cut it down because I. I caught myself talking to. Sometimes could catch myself talking too much in that process.

Yeah. There can be a fear of, like, shooting your shot too soon, so to speak. And at the same time, the faster you get them talking, the better.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yep.

Because have you ever had that where the homeowner answers the door and gives you that look like, what are you doing here?

Yeah.

Yeah. Like, hurry up with this. Why are you here? Cut to the chase.

Yeah.

And those are the people that don't like the small talk at all.

Yeah, at all.

They're just like, tell me why you're here. There's a video I did on. On YouTube. In fact, we'll. I recommend you watch it. I'll put a link to it up here when we publish this. It's called the 10 second pitch. If so, if you search that, I can send it out to you afterwards. The 10 second pitch. And I was inspired to do that one because a gentleman reached out and he. He said that a guy answered the door and said, I'll give you 10 seconds. Go. And he's like, what would I. What should I have said?

Funny.

What questions you got for me, man.

I mean, she's. I mean, not. I mean, I don't really know right now as far as questions, but I. I know that, you know, in the time that I've been doing roofing has been a year and a couple months. And, you know, reading your book has. Has done a lot of help because I was feeling like I was almost alone and, And. And, you know, the feelings wise. Mental. Mental health wise and stuff like that. So I have gone through A lot of stuff and stuff like that. And you know, that, that was one of my, that's also one of my biggest, I guess, you know, it kind of stops me from going out and getting it sometimes just because I'm going through certain things in life and it kind of just, you know, takes away from what I'm supposed to be doing sometimes. And I know that, you know, we can only control two things. It's either our thoughts and, you know, our actions. But, you know, sometimes my thoughts kind of get over, over on me. So just, you know, it's just going through things in life and then kind of like that that's kind of affecting my work. My work as well. But you know, again, like, reading your book has, has been a very great help and, and I'm, you know, reading a lot and, and reading podcasts and stuff like that. But as far as, as far as questions, man, I mean, not, not really too many questions as far as, you know, when it comes to, you know, I guess closing and stuff like that. I feel like I am a really good closer. I do have my paws, but it's just actually just, you know, getting those, getting those consistent, consistent leads, you know what I mean? And, and being that I'm out there door knocking almost four to five hours, you know, a day and sometimes I do come home with, you know, with nothing, probably a set inspection here and there. But majority recently has been, has been, you know, either I'm sending an inspection through later on, later on throughout the week or I'm coming home with nothing. And so I just want to, I guess, you know, just trying to figure out a way, I figure out a way, you know, just to being out there. And I know it has to do with me most of the time because I am aware, you know, I do have to put in the extra hours even from your book. I'm taking away like, you know, just putting an extra two hours throughout the day will get, you know, will get me there. But yeah, it's just I'm, I'm more of a, you know, going through my, my, you know, it's just my feelings and what I'm going through in my day to day life and kind of just, I just want basically to just be, you know, at a, at a constant level. Even though I know sometimes it's not because it's, it's life ups and downs and it happens. Yeah. But yeah, it's just, you know, that's kind of what my struggle, I feel like is, is, you know, is at the moment but yeah, and then like I said, she's, you know, being better as far as like my pitch at the door and not talking too fast, not talking too long and stuff like that. So. But yeah, that's, that's kind of where I'm at right now at the moment.

Yeah. One last thing on the tactical piece and then I want to dive into this mental stuff I forget is Florida is a two party consent state, isn't it? To record or.

No, I. Yeah, it is, yeah. Yeah.

Shoot. I just want to find a. I believe there's some platforms out there that will are compliant with two party states for recording that will blur out the prospect's voice. It'd be really great, Aaron, if you could either have someone shadow you as well and. Or find a way to legally record yourself. I've learned a lot from watching my own videos. I used to, I've. In fact, I shouldn't say I used to. When I got started, I didn't watch them because I hated it. And now I watch them all the time because I learn what I did well and I become my own worst critic and my own best coach. And it allows us to develop a deep level of self awareness. So if you're not able to do that legally at the doors, which we do need to be compliant with our laws. Right. What you can do is do some role play and film yourself. And you're going to start to pick up on things like, holy crap, I had no idea that when I was pitching I'd break eye contact and look to the lower left and you know, I noticed you doing that. But I also know that this is, we're doing role play on zoom. You're sitting, you're sitting down. And we all know that in an office setting when we're doing role play, we want to simulate as real world as possible standing up, having the door there so you'll pick up on all those cues. So I wanted to give you that on the tactical side now on the mental battlefield side, share with me what's going on to the extent that you're comfortable sharing because you're not alone, man. We all have it. I'm going through my own stuff right now as well and I want to hear what's going on with you so I can help.

It's more of a family, I think this past past year I've lost, I want to say, a good handful of family members in my family. So it's been my uncle, my two uncles passed away from my dad's side last year to Lung failure. And then I have two. One of my aunt is, is battling cancer. I had a cousin that got ran over by a truck not too long ago as well. So it's just, it's been a lot of emotional, emotional things going on. And I hate getting like this because I don't, you know, I don't like getting like this for, you know, anybody. But yeah, it's just been a lot of loss, a lot of, you know, going through things with the family members, you know, my, my brother as well, my mom. So it's just seeing them stressed out like that is, is not really good as well. My little brother has epilepsy. So sometimes in my day to work life, if I get a phone call, hey, I got a seizure, I need you to come pick me up from my job. I gotta drop what I'm doing, rush over to him and you know, go ahead and do that. But yeah, man, she's lost a lot of family members in the past. Like, like I said, past year I've lost about a good five. Getting ready to lose another one again because she's battling cancer and yeah, man, she's just, it's just been tough as far as with, you know, family. I had a breakup not too long ago as well with one of my, you know, my ex girlfriend and that wasn't easy as well. So, you know, she's trying to stick strong, trying to stay strong and you know, like I said, she's just being out there. But that has a, that has a big toll right now in my life and it's kind of hard, you know.

Dude, I'm really sorry to hear that. I can't imagine the grief with that amount of loss in a year stacking up and juggling everything. And you know, when they rate what they meaning, like psychologists will rate levels of stress and the top ones are, are, are death divorces or breakups moves. I mean, you're, you're, you're, you got a lot on your plate. And the hardest part of this business is like if you had a desk job, it's easy to just swallow that shit, like have a bad day and show up and be like, you know what? I can just get through. All I gotta do is my little typey things and I'm done. And in this business, you know, we almost. It feels like I was actually just talking to someone last night on the phone on the way back from a speaking event who's going through a lot of really horrific stuff, who's another speaker. And this person says to me, I feel like I'm an actor sometimes, like I have to show up and put on the act and do it, do it for the people I'm there to serve. And then when I'm done, I'm feeling like garbage again. And unfortunately it's, it's. I, I can't even believe my sis. But it is a skill that we need to develop is to compartmentalize in some respect what, what's where. Otherwise the, the struggles that we face become all consuming. And you know, when we look at our, especially our loved ones, like looking down at us and asking ourselves what would they want from me? And they're not going to want to see you, they're not going to want to see anybody letting life pass them by and being pulled from truly serving others. And you've got people to serve, you've got yourself to serve, you've got your brother to serve and then you've got your customers to serve, you got the team to serve and then you've got your, your future family to serve all from, from what we're doing now. And you know, I've, I too have had to, had to check life things to get up there in front of people and serve. And remember that, that you're putting on when you're going to work. You're putting on your servant hat. And your servant hat is to be there for others. And as hard as it is when we're getting rejected and stuff, when you just can put on the servant hat, I know that's the number one thing I do when I'm depressed is I just start doing things for other people because it makes me feel good. It's like I gotta get out of my own, otherwise I'll have my own pity party and it brings me nowhere. So just remember man, when you leave that house, like when you put your, because I know you guys rock your AGU hats, like put it on and call it your servant hat. Like that's the indicator of I'm going to work to be a servant. And then when you come home, take that hat off and let, let it all be, you know, go into where you want to get into, but just use that as that symbol to say I'm here to serve now and I'm putting that hat on and I'm doing, I'm doing what I need to be doing for, for, for everybody as a servant. So that's, that's just one little thing that I've done because I can't do it. I can't tell you how to not be sad. I can't tell you that. That life doesn't throw curveball or hit you when it's rain, when it's poor. Like I'd be full of. I'd be full of it. But what I can say is shifting into servant mode and just having that as that reminder, you know, for sure. So for sure.

Thank you, man. I do appreciate your words and stuff like that. Yeah, definitely, man. That, that, that did a lot of help and stuff like that. Yeah. Taking a day, one. One day at a time and you know, remembering my. Why is. Is. Is. Is what I'm doing this for. So.

Yeah. Yeah. You gotta. One other interview. There's an interview I did with a gentleman named Mitch and he's. He's on the channel. Mitch was going through a divorce during the best growth time of his life. And for most people, you know, the weight of that breakup and, and by the way, there's. This isn't a direct comparison. Losing people, breakups, everything's different. Right. Breaking out with a girlfriend versus a divorce, having kids, that, that there's different layers of complexities amongst all these things. But the same, the one underlying thing is the emotional drain that's. That distracts us. And Mitch was really inspiring to me to see someone that has gone through it and learned to kind of compartmentalize his work and his personal life in a. In a healthy way to be able to grow through a divorce where most people are. Are the opposite. Right. Everything struggles. So that might be a good one to. To hop in and take a look at. Okay. Yeah, he did. He did two interviews and I can't remember which one he was sharing his divorce. I did interviewed him once about his first year. He made about 177,000 in year one. There was that he nearly doubled his income in year two. That was the one is when he nearly doubled his income in year two by. By working referrals. So give that one a watch, man. I appreciate you being so real with, with not only with me, but with yourself. Because this industry, like self awareness is what leads to growth. And when we know what's going on, no one's perfect. I'm far from it myself. I got plenty of things I need to get better on. And I, I too am not a saint when it comes to the mindset piece. I need a healthy kick in the butt. My wife's the one that gives it to me.

Thank you, man. I really do appreciate you.

Adam. Yeah, thanks for being here. Aaron.

Thank you, man.

Don't go anymore.

Thank you for having me.