E220: The One Framework That Will Make Communicating With Customers Easy and Make You More Money: Sales, Leadership, Trade

In our last episode for the week, it's all about the one framework that will make communicating with customers easy to help make you more money. Welcome to Sales Growth Made Simple, the show helping 7 to 8 figure trade, construction, and industry sales and business leaders finally end the stress of inconsistent sales by simplifying your sales systems so your team can close more deals and grow faster. I'm your host, Ben Wright, and over the last 15 years, I've helped hundreds of trade and sales leaders grow their businesses, and generate over $200 million in additional revenue by simplifying their sales processes. Let's get started. Here we are, day 3 of our very special podcast series with George from Montana. I should say George from Montana. This Australian accent always catches me out. This morning I rolled in, I said, George, how's your morning? He said, great. How about you, Ben? I said, fantastic. I made my daughter pancakes this morning. She gobbled them down. I actually got in trouble by mum because she was getting a bit late from school. How do you go with pancakes? What kind of pancakes, George? I like chocolate chip pancakes. Suddenly a massive level of inferiority, it swept across me because I don't make my daughter chocolate chip pancakes. But after this recording, George doesn't know it yet, he's going to share with me that recipe. So here we are on day 3 of this series. Day 1 was all about understanding your identity so that we could effectively, or we can effectively articulate value, great value to our customers. Drive emotion, and increase close rates. Day 2 was all about mistakes, the triangle of poop as George's son calls it, or the triangle of death if we want to be a little bit more commonplace here. The 3 mistakes that are often made around a black hole, around ego, and around the fire hose, and an idea or 2 to fix those. Now, if you haven't listened to those 2, I really encourage you to go back and listen to them. You can listen to this one first, by all means. It's short, it's sharp, But then go back to those two, and you might even come back here because these three episodes, from a value point of view, are really high. Because what we have is two gentlemen that have been in this game for a long time. Well, one gentleman, that's you, George, and me that have been in this game for a really long period of time. And we are sharing different perspectives. It's going to be hard for you to find a better way to spend 10 minutes than listening through, or 30 minutes if you listen to all three of these podcasts. So please dive in and do so. Okay, so welcome back, George. Today we're talking solutions. So we know the mistakes, and maybe very quickly, just very, very quickly, a minute or so, recap those 3 mistakes, and then let's talk about solutions.

I love it, man. I love it. Yeah, so just to recap those 3 mistakes, right? We have the black hole, which is we leave people in the dark, right? We want to turn the black to light. Then we have the ego, which is we make the mistake of posturing, speaking about I, I, I instead of you, you, you. So you want to turn your I's to you's. And then we have the fire hose where We overwhelm people with too much communication, too many options, and their nervous system shuts down. And I'm gonna steal this from you. You wanna go from a fire hose to a garden hose. And so those are the 3 big mistakes. Now, today is all about communication because people— I share those mistakes as an audit tool for you to go look in your business like, hmm, where am I doing this? And I just wanna be clear, here's your pass. None of it's intentional. It's all accidental. It's a part of business. It's the part of scaling. It's the part of relationships. But what it is, it's a very big diagnostic tool for me to be like, wow, before I start diving into changing all my processes, maybe I should make sure that I'm, I'm caring for the humans in this process. So you audit yourself with those. And really what we are talking about is communications. Selling is communication. Selling is relationships. It's safety. It's trust. All of that is predicated on what we talked about in episode 1, which is knowing who you are. So that you can communicate effectively so that people can know, like you and trust you and choose to do business with you because of what makes you different. So this framework that I'm going to share today, it's called APPLE. Okay. So an apple a day will make every customer stay. It's the easiest way to remember this. And it is the most ubiquitous tool that I've ever made. Side note, men, use this on your wives.

You're welcome.

It'll make sense once I explain it. Okay, so what it really boils down to, and Ben, you're a master at this, is effective selling is really mastering communication. And what we forget to do is we forget to communicate to the recipient. We communicate from the sender. We're being very presumptuous. We're like, okay, they know what I'm thinking. They know what's next. They know what the journey's like. And so what APPLE stands for, the A stands for acknowledge. The first P stands for prepare. The second P stands for project. The L stands for let them know, and the E stands for excite. So the best way for me to teach this is for me to teach it in a real applicable example. So Ben, you called me, left a message. I called you back because you need a quote for a new roof. So I call you and I'm gonna apple you on the phone. Hey, is this Ben? Yeah, Ben, it's George. Oh my God. Thank you for picking up the phone. Acknowledgement. I'm acknowledging the behavior that they did or the action that they took so that I can edify it, but also bring us to the present state. Hey Ben, just want to check. Do you have about 10 minutes right now so that we can go through this? It's George from the roofing company and I want to answer your questions. And you're like, 100%. I've prepared you. It's going to take me 10 minutes. We're going to do this. The reason I asked Ben, if you had 10 minutes, is because I just want to ask you a couple of questions to make sure I know where your house is, to pull you up in my system, and then to really understand what we're working with here. Does that sound good to you? You're like, yeah, amazing. That's prepare. Project is, Ben, the reason I'm saying that is because by the end of this call, I want to be able to give you an accurate estimate for us to be able to help you in replacing that roof or introduce you to somebody who's better suited. So this information is going to allow me to get that. Project. I'm painting the picture of what done looks like in that evolution.

Great.

Let you know is me pre-handling objections that I know you're already thinking. And then, by the way, if I'm talking and you don't know, it's completely fine to say, I don't know, and you can interrupt me at any time. I won't be offended. This is about you. This isn't about me. And if there's anything we miss, during the call, I'm gonna give you my phone number and you can text me so that I can include it in your files. That sound good to you? And you're like, amazing. I'm like, cool, let's start. Excite, right? So I acknowledge the person, I prepare them for the evolution, I project what done is going to look like or what the outcome is at the end. I pre-handle the objections and then I'm like, great, let's dive in. Now I'm using the lens of a, a consultation call. As this. That's at the beginning of the call. Well, what do you think I do at the end of the call? I apple you again. Hey Ben, thank you so much for spending 10 minutes with me. Like, it really meant the world to me, and I can't wait to try that restaurant you told me about. Acknowledge.

Mm-hmm.

Hey, after the call, I'm gonna get to work on putting all of this together and sending it to you in an email like we discussed about. Prepare. The email should come within the next 48 hours. I'm going to try to get it today. It's going to have this subject line, and I'll shoot you a text message when I send the invoice, just so you know it's coming. Project. If anything else comes up, if you have any questions, if your husband has any questions, your wife has any questions, you can shoot me a text message, and I just sent you a message so you have it. Thank you so much for today. Reach out if you need anything in the interim. Excite. Acknowledge, prepare, project, let them know, excite. So I use this tool everywhere. Hey honey, I love you. I'm sending you an audio real quick. I'm jumping on a podcast for the next 45 minutes. So if you text me, I'm not going to be able to respond. But the moment I'm done with the podcast, I will call you. And if you need anything and you think you're going to forget because you have ADHD, just text it to me. So you're not frustrated later when I call you back. I'll talk to you soon.

Bye.

Acknowledge, prepare, project, let them know, excite. That's Apple.

Great. So we've covered off— most importantly, we've covered off peace at home. But let's— we'll get back to business very quickly. Okay. So I love that framework. I'm not going to go and repeat it. I think you've done a really good job. But what I will say is that frameworks, in my experience, in threes and fives are the most memorable. Now we've hit one there with a five, five steps in that. If you haven't written that down, just, just go back and we'll get George to summarize it again at the end and write it down. But what I'd love to know from you, George, is that framework, right, which really levels the room, it gets people's attention. In fact, one of the pieces I like about it that you didn't mention is that you get people in the room and in the moment. And it's one of the greatest challenges, I think, in the modern world is keeping people's attention, which is why now when we're talking about sales pitches, we start with the big stuff first. It always used to be build to the big ending like you do in a Broadway show, right? That big crescendo and everyone goes, wow, I'm never going to forget it. Right? It's the opposite now. We need to start with the biggest bits first because attention spans are unfortunately, they're a lot shorter than they used to be. So when are the key times, right? We've got a phone call. I like that. Start and end of a phone call. When are some other key times in a sales journey where you think that framework might work?

Yeah, so this is going to be the worst answer. I use this everywhere. So anytime I'm leading and I'm initiating and ending a conversation, so sales calls, inquiry calls, when I'm calling a current customer about a need that they have, when I get to their house before I do a walkthrough, when I come back and do the final inspection, when I ask for a referral, I use it everywhere. There is not a place that I've ever led somebody that I'm not using it all the way from first touchpoint, all the way through. You've been a customer for 5 years. My friends get mad at me because they know I'm doing it to them and they're like, but you communicate so effectively. So once you break the fourth wall, They're like, stop appleing me. So I use it everywhere, Ben. There's not a place I don't.

Okay, great. And that's very fair. And you are a master of the framework, so it rolls really naturally. Like, I use the GROW coaching framework. I use that everywhere. It just spits out. You don't even realize you're doing it. What I want to do to help the audience is you mentioned 3 or 4 places there where I think you can start. Let's go with 3. We'll stick it to the 3s and the 5s here. The law of 3s and law of 5s. Number 1 is going to be on phone calls. I think phone calls is a great place for you to start because they are often the hardest points to get people's attention because you never know what's going on the other side, right? Like I spoke to you about at the start of this podcast, I was recording the other week and I had a kangaroo bounce by, followed by a fox chasing the kangaroo, followed by a great big white Labrador chasing the fox that was chasing the kangaroo, right? Who sees that? Very, very, very weird, right? But Whoever was talking to me then, they lost me for that 30 seconds because I was like, oh my God, what's going on, right? So great for the phone. Number 2 is when you start a walkthrough at the start of your site visit. Hey, thanks very much for having me today. We're going to walk through and try and find a solution, find a great paint job for you. What I want us to think about, or would love it if you could share with me what's really important in the outcome for you as we walk through. If there's any questions you have, ask me, because by the end of this, I want you to be really excited about what's coming next. Now that's the first time I've ever done APPLE. How did I go? Did I get that right?

You did really good.

Excellent. Thank you. So we're going to do that for at the start of a walkthrough. And in fact, I'm going to use this as well for everyone listening. I really like this framework. There are moments where you take things from your guests, right? I think George is going to take my fire hose down to a garden hose. I'm going to borrow that. I'm going to borrow the APPLE framework. And then the third place I would suggest that you're doing the APPLE framework is at quotation stage. Because we know that speed kills and in this instance, a lack of speed kills deals, right? In fact, we're going to do a podcast around how communication kills deals more than speed, but let's stick with speed at the moment. And if you're not moving fast enough, deals don't get done. So by using that framework, when you are presenting a quote, it's going to allow you to speed up the thought process of our customers and close more deals, not every deal, but close more deals when you're in that moment. So excellent. I really like that, George. So can you please summarize the APPLE framework again for us?

I'm going to summarize and add two points that are huge that you said. So one thing, before anybody thinks it, is the depth of the APPLE is dictated by the depth of the journey. If I'm doing a 10-minute phone call, I only need to APPLE you for about 30 seconds. If I'm jumping on a 2-hour coaching call with you or another call, I spend a little bit more time in APPLE. So that's the first one. The second one is when I said it's ubiquitous. I use Apple when I text, written, when I send audio notes, I use it in email. So if I'm sending you an email with an invoice, there's an Apple in the email. Ben, thank you so much for being on the call today. As we talked about, I'm including the contract and the invoice, and all I need you to do is to review it. If you have any questions, hit reply to it, because the moment you give us a thumbs up on this invoice, We can get you in the system and get materials ordered. And of course, if there's any questions, here's my number directly. So the invoice is attached below. So to summarize, APPLE, the A is acknowledge, the P is prepare, the second P is project, L is let them know, and E is excite. So acknowledge the behaviors that you like, prepare them for what's going to come in the evolution. Project what the outcome of just that evolution is. Remember, don't firehose them. I don't want the evolution 6 months down the road. I want at the end of this one. Pre-handle any objections that they might have or any thoughts they have. Let them know. And then E, excite them. And excite is really just go. And so that's APPLE.

Excellent. I like it. Well, I'm still excited about our podcast chats and we're 3 in, right? You are the first guest I've ever had on for 3 shows. So thank you, George. I am calling you the man in pink from now on. So where can people find you if they'd like to, like to follow a bit more about what you do?

Yeah, just because we are in pattern interrupts, if you want to see a website that looks like a Care Bear threw up on it, that would be my website. It is called The Mind of George. So it's mindofgeorge.com. My podcast is linked there. All my resources are free. My podcasts are free. And there's a contact form if any of this landed. If you have a question, if I can help you apply it, just reach out. And also go make sure you check out the episode with Ben, because I had 3 pages of notes listening to him, and I'm in the same industry. And so it was really, really good. And here's my secret. Getting him off his show and onto my show gets a different perspective. So if you listen to this show, you have to go listen to the episode and give him kudos.

Thank you. We are going to drop into the show notes the episode that we did together. So that will give a direct link through to you. So thank you, George. I'm very grateful. We both have similar size podcasts, different sides of the world, but we both have several thousand listeners a month that roll through our podcast. So really nice to spend some time with you, George. Right. For everyone. Listening as we roll out today, if you are quoting, right, you are out in front of customers and you are not winning enough deals, right? Possibly just because you're not, you're not appeling them well enough, right? But more importantly, if your close rates aren't strong enough, jump into the show notes link there. There is that link to have the free review with us. We will find something. I will find something that will move your business 20 to 25% in 30 minutes. It's that quick. It's that simple. In the meantime, between now and then, please keep thinking about being 1% better every day. It does make all the difference, and the, the series of podcasts from this week with George Bryant will help you do that. That's it, everyone. Thanks, George. We'll have you back again later on in the year. Have a great week. Bye for now.