Sales Mindset #1 - "I don't follow up. Wait...WHAT?!"

Foreign. Hello, everyone. Welcome to this edition of the Contractor Radio podcast. My name is John Townsend. I'm one of the head coaches at Contractor Coach Pro, and I'll be your host and your presenter today. Look forward to a really excellent discussion. But first wanted to highlight our sponsor, the team that's putting on this, the Contractor Radio podcast since day one. And that is Contract Coach Pro. And so I want to let you know if you have not already, you're going to see some links in the description of this show description of this podcast. And I want to encourage you, if you haven't done it, done so already, please like and follow our pages on Facebook. Right, there's the Contractor community page, just solely devoted to just giving you valuable content, things that you can use to help take control of your business and grow it at the pace you want and find the freedom that you set out to define when you first started your own business. All right, so that's what it's a page specifically designed for other thought leaders and for vendors and for partners in the construction industry to really pour into you. So please, if you haven't done so already, like it, follow the post comment on them. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Yeah. Follow us on LinkedIn. You're going to find some great content there as well. So everything that is available to you, please go ahead. And I don't want you to miss out on any of the great coaching moments and the feedback and the questions that are asked. It's all in the spirit of loving, serving and caring for you, the contractor. Right. So with that said, I can't wait to dive into today's discussion. My goal is to have a series of sales mindset discussions and conversations around the things that hold a salesperson can potentially hold a salesperson back from reaching their potential. All right? I think that oftentimes, and I'm having, and trust me, this comes, there's a reason why I'm bringing this up. I'm having a recurring discussion with owners, all right, and with sales leaders who are, frankly, they're concerned and they're frustrated and oftentimes confused as to the actions and the mindsets and the thoughts with the people that they bring on to see sales results. And speaking of results, they're concerned that they're not seeing the results. Why isn't this person able to go out and have success like me? I feel like the goal of the owner is oftentimes, I mean, hey, listen, you've worked your butt off, you've built this thing. You feel like you have Control. And now you want to put a little bit of gas in the fire. Now, as far as strategy goes as to who we should hire next, that's a different discussion. But nevertheless, we feel like this need to. We feel this need to bring on salespeople and train them as best we can. Right? In hopes of. And deep down, this may not apply to you, but it applies to most of you. It's like you want to remove yourself from that sales function, but at the same time, we're seeing turnover. We're seeing folks come in. It's just not sticking. We're seeing folks come in. We're saying, hey, why don't they. Why don't they do this the way I do? Why don't they. When they get this lead, why don't they treat it. Why are they complaining about the leads when every single lead I get, I get something out of it, Right? Or just. Bottom line is, there's a disconnect. There's a disconnect between the way you go about sales and the way they go about sales. And it doesn't matter how. And I'm here to tell you. And it doesn't matter how much you pour into them, right? How much process and knowledge you give them, okay? The fact is, they are not you. Fact is, nobody's ever going to be able to sell for your company like you. And as much as you may be trying to get out of that sales role, we have to understand that there is a gap between your mindset as owner and the mindsets of any salesperson that you bring in, regardless of their industry experience, regardless of their skill or their knowledge. There will be a gap there. So today I want to talk about two main mindsets, two competencies, if you will, that can really either support or sabotage a salesperson's ability to go out there and embody that owner mindset. Right? But the topic of the day, all right, the main topic of today is essentially, it's a tool that I used in my sales career to help me do that. All right? It's a really fun conversation to have. I'm having it over and over and over. It's one of those. When I say. When I. When I. When I say the statement, I get this kind of quizzical look. I'll say it's, you know, it's downright skeptical. If you're. If you don't have. I'm making the face into the camera right now. If you don't have video capability, like, it's just this, like, what the heck do you mean by that, like. Or are you serious? That happens all the time. And here's the statement. All right, so I'm going to Tarantino this thing. So here's the statement. Then I'll. And then I'll give you the mindsets. Give you why I. Why I believe it. All right? Why it helped me. Then the mindsets that go along to support it. That I think that as owner, we have to take the accountability and understand that our people aren't us, our salespeople aren't us. And if we want them to succeed, then we, regardless of our sales process, regardless of our word tracks or our scripts or our fundamentals or our tools or our technologies, regardless of all this stuff, we have got to always keep top of mind. The mindsets that support or sabotage our salespeople ability to go out there and speak with authority just like it was you out there in the field. So as we train, it is paramount, okay, when we. When we do role plays, when. When we schedule practice, that we, the owner, the coach, the sales leader, okay, that we always keep these things top of mind. We are on the lookout. We are on the lookout for the actions and the words that come out of a salesperson's mouth that exemplify a positive or negative side of these sales competencies and these mindsets. All right, so here's the statement that I use, and often it leads to a fun discussion. I'll just say that I say, well, backstory. Let me backtrack. Apologies. Why don't our salespeople. Why don't my salespeople follow up? I mean, I'm looking in the CRM and I'm seeing a whole bunch of just. I mean, it's like they don't get a deal, and they just. They just forget about it. And we don't have. I have given them all the workflows, and I've given them all the. You know, I tell them, I remind them every single week. I preach it. I preach it. I preach it to follow up, follow up, follow up. And here's what it looks like. And we've got this great tool to do it. And so the conversation is. That's oftentimes one of the first things I hear. All right, first off is I don't understand why they go out. They don't close a deal. Where's the follow up? It's like, why won't salespeople follow up? And I tell them, I say, I don't follow up. Cue the. Cue the what the heck, John? Look like, what do you mean by that? I say, no, I don't follow up. I don't follow up, and neither should you. Here's. And so here's what I mean by that. Follow up implies that I'm waiting on somebody else to do something. I'm following up to them, with them to see if they've made a decision yet, and following up with them to see if they got those other quotes. I'm following up to them, with them to see if they're ready to do something. I'm following up with them to provide them more information and following up with them for any number of reasons, but it still implies that I've lost control of this thing and I'm waiting on somebody else to do something. And then furthermore, we've all seen that movie play out. Okay, hey, John, just follow up with me next week and we'll go from there. Okay, Mr. Smith? So on Monday, I call up Mr. Smith, right? No answer. Ooh, is it too early? He said next week. But Monday's next week. But I mean, is that too early? All right, that's fine. I won't leave a message yet. I'll just call them tomorrow. And then it's this cycle of, okay, am I calling them too much or am I not calling them enough? Am I bugging them? Okay, I'll send an email. And what should it say? It's not too pushy. Am I too pushy? Am I not pushy enough? I don't want to be too salesy. And then the boss man asks you, says, hey, John, so what's. What's up with that deal with Mr. Smith? You know, I'm just. I'm waiting on them to get back with me, right? And it's in the pipeline, but it's sitting there. And there's no clear next step. And that stinks because inside we know that anything can happen. Now I've lost control over this whole thing. So that's why I say I don't follow up. What do you mean, John? What do you mean you don't follow up? We all know that sales is all about follow up. One that follows up oftentimes gets the deal. Sales is all about follow up. John, what do you mean by that? You actually mean you don't follow up? Thank you for asking. I do follow it. But here's the difference. I don't just follow up and do a check. In the spirit of losing control of the conversation and the decision, I set mutually beneficial next steps, I want you to hear that I don't Follow up. I set a mutually beneficial next step. Here's the mentality. Okay, here's the thing. We have to realize. People want deals to close, even consumers. For some reason. We internally think. And I'm going to get to. Again, I'm going to get to the two main things that hold us back from, from having this conversation right here. But internally, we think that people want to have the freedom and want to have the control of the decision. All right? We think that they think it serves them, and so we're willing to go along with it. But the fact is, it doesn't. They called us. They need help. We're going to solve their problem the right way the first time because we know more about the problem than anybody else. We are the expert. If they don't get help from me, they're not going to get the help that they need. Why? Because what I do is unique. It's proprietary, and it's. And it's, it's. And I'm good at my job and I believe in my company. Right. Do you hear these positive beliefs pouring out of me now? These are start of the mind, some of the mindsets that are going to start to build up this embodiment of the owner mentality. But I started by saying, I don't follow up. And yes, I actually say that to people. Hey, just follow up with me next week. I've said it many times. Yeah, just follow up with me in a week or two. Excuse me. And I say, I don't follow up. Trust me. When you say, try it. When you say I don't follow up, you might be thinking, oh, my goodness, they're going to smack me. Or they're going to say, well, whatever, I'll just call somebody else. No, no, no. It always leads to clarification. They want to know what you mean by that. You say, I don't follow up. They say, what do you mean you don't follow up? So I'm just not going to hear from. No, no. What I want to do is I want to set a mutually beneficial next step. You know, I find that my clients that get the best results, our clients that get the best results, we set a time where anybody who cares about getting this problem solved, we set time to meet with each other and come to a decision. And if there's questions that need to be asked, I'm sure there will be. Because oftentimes, you know, I mean, there's things that you care about that maybe we left out in this first conversation, but we found that our Clients get the best results and everybody who cares about it, we sit down and we go over it and we come to a decision together. All right? We want to solve this problem the right way the first time. We want to do it exactly like you want it. Right. So we set mutually beneficial next steps. Hey, Mr. Smith, what do you think is the best next step? You can just ask them that. All right, so we have to embody. So here's the thing. We must say I'm either the term. I don't follow up. I told you that I had to use it. It was a tool that I had to use. It was my way of saying, I'm either going to get a decision here in this meeting or I'm going to set another meeting to get a decision. I'm going to get a decision right now or I'm going to set another meeting to get a decision. It is imperative that I do that. Otherwise I will lose control. So I set a mutually beneficial next step and I will oftentimes ask the prospect, hey, what is our. What's our. What's the best next step for us? And you'll be surprised. They'll say, hey, tell you what, I get it. I've had, I can't tell you how many times I've had an owner of a company say, you know what, that makes sense. I get it. Fair enough. Tell you what, let's just get back together. Let's schedule another call for next Tuesday. Yeah, you got your calendar out? Okay, cool. What time? I'll go ahead and send you a calendar invite right now. Now we have a, now we have a next step set up for a decision. And furthermore. Furthermore, it's one thing to set an appointment, it's an entirely different thing to set an appointment with expectations. So we're going to meet next Tuesday at 9:00'. Clock. Okay. And at that point, Mr. Smith, you're going to be able to tell me, hey, yep, I'm ready to move forward, John, or you know what, we're going to go with somebody else. Is that fair enough? Yep, that sounds good. Sounds easy, right? Sounds easy. Probably sounds easy because you're the owner and that's typically how you do things. But we're not talking about you, we're talking about your sales folks. So what are the two things that are going to hold us back? And this is just one example. I don't follow up. I don't follow up. Right? No, I said mutually beneficial next steps. And you can. Where I understand that it might come across as abrasive you can, you know, you can change the wordage, but I'm telling you, it's worked. From John. Um, so what's going to hold me back as a salesperson from doing that? There's two main things that I've highlighted. There's a. There's several things, but two main things. The first one is the need for approval. I want to tell you this. I. I haven't. John, as a salesperson, has a need for approval. Hello, I'm John, and I have a need for approval. Hello, John. Okay, I admit this. That's why I have to have tools that will help me. This is why you, as sales, as owner or sales leader, have to have tools when it comes to coaching your folks to get them to overcome that need for approval. But let's talk about the need for approval. The need for approval, in essence means that I feel like I must be. I must be liked in order for somebody to buy from me. We've heard it forever. People buy from people they know like and trust, right? Well, I want to challenge that. I want someone to like me. I would prefer that they like me. Absolutely. I'm not just. I'm not going to go anywhere and be a jerk on purpose. If you've met me before, I mean, I don't. I don't think I come across as a jerk. Depends on who you ask. I mean, if my wife was here, she might be. She might have a different theory, but I am nevertheless. So you. It's important to understand I want to be liked. I would prefer to be liked. But in order for me to help somebody, I don't have to be liked. All right? I don't have to be liked. So the need for approval is. Is essentially, I must be liked in order to get somebody to buy from me. They must like me versus they must what? They must trust me. They must respect me. They must feel like we are on the same team, like we're on the same page. Right. They must view me as an authority. Right. They must view me as the expert. Okay, so how are they going to trust me? There we go. It's a little bit of a foreshadow. How are they going to trust me? They're going to. They trust me by my company's credentials, by, you know, by all the things that. The reputation of our company. But they also trust me because they think I'm an expert. Why do they think I'm an expert? How are they going to think I'm an expert? It's likely from the questions that I ask, right? The questions that I ask, and the way I go about doing my job, the way I go about my inspection, the professionalism, the system, the process that I adopt. If you don't have a process, you will always default to somebody else's process. And their process does not serve them. Why? Because they are not the expert they called us. So we are constantly battling this need for approval and the need for approval. In an effort to make someone like a prospect like me, I can miss out on helping them. In an effort to make a friendship form a friendship, I can actually miss out on asking them the good, tough, timely questions that are going to solve the problem and likely solve the problem differently. Listen to this. Differently than somebody else and better than somebody else. You want to know how somebody's really going to like you, how a prospect's really going to like you and want to be your friend, is if you solve their problem the right way. If you give them experience that they'll never forget. And it starts with that first sales appointment. 60% of the customer experience comes from that very first sales appointment. That's how they're going to remember the company. That's how they're going to remember you. All right? So this is our opportunity to give them the best experience we ever can. But we have to bat. We have to understand that if I feel like they just must like me, then it doesn't matter what my sales process is, doesn't matter what my experience is, doesn't matter what the training, what kind of training I do, I will always be hamstrung. It'll be like walking around with a rock in your shoe. You'll always be capped as to the level of investigation and discovery of what the problem is and how to best solve it and how to really help somebody if we struggle with this need for approval. So how do I overcome it? How do I overcome it? Well, there are certain tools. Like for instance, I can say that, hey, I don't follow up. I set a mutually beneficial next step. Why? Because, and here's the reason why it worked for John, because I really believe it. I know if I don't sell products, I wouldn't sell a product that I didn't believe in. I believe in myself. I believe in my company. I believe in our deliverability. I believe in our price. Okay? I believe in the words that I'm saying. I believe that if you don't get the help, if you don't work with me, then you're not going to get the help you need. I don't believe somebody can do it better than me. I really don't. And even though I don't believe, even though I believe these things, it's still hard to then take the action steps to embody it. But it starts with the belief mechanism. It starts with saying, if they don't get, if they don't work with me, they will not get the help that they need. And I'm here to help. I'm here with a servant's heart to help these people. Okay? This person, this group of people, all right? This is what's going to help me overcome my need for approval. So as you are training, as you are, as you are working as a team and working through your process and role playing, or if you're on a call, if you're on an appointment, doing a ride along, all right? Take note of the things that you say in those critical moments and how you say it and the, the, even your, your posture, right? Your body language. How do I, how do I answer these questions? How do I come back? And how do I firmly. How do I play the quarterback? I should be the one calling the plays. I should be the one calling the plays and saying, hey, here's what's about to happen. All right? Does that make sense to you? Okay. Does that sound fair? Here's what's about to happen. We set the expectations for what's going to happen. This is all part of the excellent customer experience. We set clear expectations, even for this sales appointment. Clear expectations with a need for approval. We will not do that. You won't do it. You'll just default to somebody else's process and go along and be, and be pulled from side to side. Picture a football field where one side is, hey, there's a decision to be made. And one side and one end zone is no decisions made. There's no follow up. There's no next step. It's free consulting. And so it's always this push and pull to get, to get there, all right? And the need for approval will stunt your ability, your development first off, but also your ability to just set the expectations for what's going to happen in quarterback the whole play, the whole series, the whole drive, all right? But it starts overcoming. It starts with the mindset of if, like, I'm not, I am not leaving this point without a decision or another meeting to get a decision. Why? Because I know that if they don't get the help from me, they're not going to get the help they need. The second critical mindset that I think, and the competency. And this is such a fun conversation too. But it's this theory that it's the understanding that how I buy is typically how I allow people to buy from me. You can call it a lot of things, a buy cycle, your supportive buy cycle, your buying process. But it's an understanding that how I buy is typically how I allow people to buy from me. Now, owner, sales leader, owner, owner of the company. Yes or no, you treat money and see money a little bit differently than those who work for you. You're writing checks all the time, sizable checks. The definition backtracked. First thing you must realize is that you do you see money differently from other people, from the people that come into work for you. All right? The way you buy is different. And there's internally, all right, Subconsciously, there are things that we given our buy cycle, how I buy, that are going to depict how I handle certain situations in a sales call. All right? So if you. There's two main components to the buy cycle, all right? Whether it's supportive or non supportive, it's going to help you sell or it's not going to help you sell. Number one is what do you think is a lot of money? What do you think is a large purchase? This is what I would ask you. If you have some salespeople and you're. And you're concerned about this, this is how you uncover this, the buy cycle, a typical buy cycle. Now, I do want to start out and say this is not. It's. This is typically how you allow people to buy from. Doesn't mean that it can't be overcome. Doesn't mean that people aren't currently overcoming. Nevertheless, I'm going to give you some insight as to when it creeps in and what the danger is. When it creeps into our sales conversation and how it holds us back, how it can sabotage the whole deal. All right, so the first question is, what do you believe is a large purchase? Ask your people that. What do you believe is a large purchase? We're not just talking about how you go about buying Coke Zero, right? Or a pair of jeans. Well, if somebody says that buying a pair of jeans is an expensive purchase. Woo. Okay. The point is that what, what we believe to be a large purchase, we will. If we believe that $1,000 is a large purchase and now we're looking for a $10,000 check, we will unfairly project that onto our prospects with our body language, with our tonality, with the questions that we ask, with the way we deliver the Price. Even as we're going throughout our inspection, we will unfairly project that on them. We don't know what their. What their financial situation is like. It's unfair of us and the need and the urgency. It's our job to find this out. So what is a large purchase, number one? And then number two, how do you go about making a purchase that size? Okay, so again, that large purchase, whatever it might be. Hey, when was the last time you made a large purchase? Ask them that. Well, you know, I bought a TV. It was like 700 bucks or something, maybe, I don't know, house or a car. Shopping for a car is a little bit different because now you can do it. You can. I can view 12 different dealerships and Carvana, like, all in 30 minutes. But nevertheless, what was the last large purchase you made? And then tell me about that. Are you the person that. Did you buy based on value or did you buy the cheapest one? How long did it take you to. When you made. When you made the decision, hey, I need to purchase this until you actually parted ways with your money, you made a money exchange. Like, how long did that take? Okay, what else did you need? Did you shop around? Did you go to a whole bunch of different providers of this thing that you bought? Did you go to two or three different locations? Did you go to four or five, 10? Or did you see. Or did you just see it and say, yep, that's the one I want? Do you have this color? Let's go. All right, did you buy the brand name or did you buy the knockoff? Okay, before making that decision, was. Is there somebody. Is there somebody who you need to check in with to get the authority to get the blessing maybe to make that decision? All right, now I know that game. I'm married. And look, I'm the king of the castle as long as the queen's not home, right? So when it comes to making a big decision, yeah, sure, I must. Oh, I better ask my wife, right? I know this. So that's the. Those. These are the things we need to wrap our head around. Like, how long does it take? Do I shop? Do I. Do I buy based on value or just. Or just the price? Do I haggle over the price? Do I get a lot of different quotes and estimates? And. Or if I'm. Look, if it is a tv, do I go to Best Buy and find it and say, oh, wow, this is great, and then look at my phone and it's $20 cheaper at Target and then drive the Target and buy it is that how I make my buying decisions or do I buy definitively make quick decisions based on, hey, I can afford it, all right? It serves me. It's got long term value, all right? I see the value in it. I need it, I want it, I can afford it. Let's go. Now here's what I want to say. These things, these objections or excuse me, these, these what we view as objections, like, hey, I need to talk to my wife before I make this decision. Hey, I need to get more quotes or more bids before I make this decision. Hey, can you sharpen your pencil a little bit before I make this decision? What kind of discounts can you have for you make? Hey, I'm thinking about going with a. I don't need that value. The really, the higher value product. I think I can tone it down a little bit. Bit like these things that. Are any of them unreasonable? That's the question I want to ask. Are any of these thought processes are part of this buy cycle or hey, I need to sleep on it. I need to think about this before I make this decision. Because keep in mind, this is quote unquote, a large purchase. Are any of these things unreasonable? The answer is no, it's not unreasonable. It's not unreasonable for me to check in with my wife and get her blessing before I cut a large check. It's not unreasonable at all. But here's the danger. The danger is that we don't recognize these things as the cues for what they really are. We, if we are accustomed to buying like that, then we will simply say, I get it, I get it. I can't overcome that. Let's move on. That's a hard objection. If we, if we typically buy like that, but that's just not the case. All right? Keep in mind the need for approval. If they don't get the help from me that they need, they're not going to get the help that they need. Nobody's going to be able to do it like me. Okay? So we have to understand, we have to recognize these cues for what they are. They're not objections, they're not hard objections. They are simply put offs, they're thinking overs, they're stalls, they're pauses, they're timeouts. Okay? And they require further investigation. You must ask a follow up question to it. All right? Okay, this sounds great, but you know what? I need a little bit of time. Hey, I get it. Listen, this is, I mean, I agree with you. This is, this is a, this is. We're not talking about buying A pack of chewing gum. All right, so tell me what it, you know, tell me what, what do you, what do you need? Is there something that I didn't explain well enough that's got to be. I mean, is there something that I left out or something we didn't uncover? Let's dig in a little bit. Here's the difference. Let's just dial it back. Here's the difference between the two. If I have a non supportive buy cycle and somebody says, you know what, I need to sleep on it, I say, I get it. All right, so when would you like me to follow up with you? That sounds familiar. Versus, hey, I get it. Tell me a little bit more about that. Well, no, I mean, John, you know, everything looks okay. I just, you know, truthfully, I just got, I got to talk to my wife, I got to talk to. Talk to the missus and. Yeah, and go from there. Mr. Smith, I get it. I'm married too. All right? Like I said, I'm the king of the castle as long as the queen's not home. So tell me, what's that conversation going to sound like? Is this going to be like a. Hey, honey, are you just trying to get her blessing for this or are you going to try to dive in, you know, line item by line item into this proposal? Is this something. Can I schedule another appointment to be there? I found that my clients, you know, get the best results when everybody who cares about making this decision has a chance to ask me questions. Right, so we saw. Make sure that everything lines up. We do. The last thing I want to do is, is, is have you do something that your wife's not going to like. Right. Okay. No, John, you know, let's get. I just really need her blessing. I mean, she's not really going to care too much about the, you know, the X's and O's. She'll let me make the decision. Okay, well, what do you think she's going to be concerned about? Well, she, you know, she'll price. Obviously, price is going to be a big thing. Okay. And now, see, as I'm asking these questions, this gives me an opportunity to coach them. Okay, hey, fair enough. So when, you know, based on that, and keep in mind, I've had a conversation with this fellow up until this point and I don't have the need for approval. So I'm asking good, tough, timely questions. And so what are you going to say, you know, when she, when she's, if she's concerned about the price, what are you going to, What Are you going to tell her? How will you handle that? It's my opportunity to coach this person right there. Right. First off, you know, I'm going to ask, hey, can we call her up right now? Is she available? No, no, no. She's, you know, she's working. She's going to get off. She works the hospital. She can't answer her phone. She's going to get off, you know, later this evening. Okay, understood. And then I'm going to say, hey, what does that conversation look and sound like? What's she gonna be concerned about? Tell you what. So when are you all gonna talk? When do you plan on talking about this? Okay, so tonight. So is it fair enough that we can, you know, tomorrow morning we can have this. I can call you up, or I can come back out here and we can make a decision. Hey, John, I'm ready to move forward, or, you know, John, we're gonna go with somebody else. Is that fair enough? Well, you know what? We got some family coming in, so they're actually coming over for dinner. I don't know if we're actually gonna be able to talk about it. So, you know, come to think of it, might be later on tomorrow. Like tomorrow morning. Okay, so do I need to meet with both of you at that time? No, just me. Okay, so how about. How about I come back out here in the middle of the day tomorrow or I mean, on Wednesday, and. And we'll go. Do you have your calendar handy at that point you can decide, hey, I'm ready to move forward, or, you know what, John, we're going to go with somebody else. Does that sound fair? Yeah, sure. I get it. I get it. Now all of this started. Listen, there's a plethora of ways you can handle that conversation, but all this started just with the recognition of, okay, this is a stall. This is not an unreasonable request. Hey, I need to think it over. Okay, I get it. Tell me a little bit more about that. I never make a large purchase without thinking about it or praying about it. I understand that's not an unreasonable request. Now just tell me a little bit more. What are you concerned about? This gives me my opportunity to coach them even more. I don't want to leave this conversation without either a decision. I don't. I want to feel really good before I walk out of here. Because let me tell you what we face. This is the battle we face. The battle we face is that on every appointment we go to the solution and the price are hanging out here, there, this thing, this Hey, I got a problem. What's the, what's, how's it going to get fixed and what's it going to cost hanging out here thing? It's a magical item. And the second I give it up, the solution and the price, I've got to feel really good about giving it up or I run the risk of just giving free consulting. My hard work, the great inspection that I've done, my incredible reporting mechanism, right, all the things that I've provided with, provided them. I give it up and I give free. It's. It's free, very good consulting. Truth is that buyers are liars. We don't intend to be. We're just conditioned to do that. We're conditioned to think that it serves us to get the price and the solution and now do what we think we need to do with it. So what are they going to do with that? Well, I'm going to take this price and solution, say, hey, can you give me apples to apples or whatever it might be. Fruit salesman. Sure, I can do that. As a matter of fact, you know what I can do a little bit cheaper. Guess who gets the job. The person that didn't do all the work didn't have this great conversation. Why? Because we allowed them to take control of the buying decision, of the process of making the buying decision. Because we are empathetic to the way they buy things or we have. We feel like they must like me and I'm to buy from me and I'm scared to give that little pushback to be the coach, to be the quarterback. You know what? Sometimes quarterbacks are the biggest. They're not the most liked person on the team. That's okay. They're the general. My doctor. My doctor. I don't particularly like him, but I don't need to. I need this guy to come out. I need to go see him. I've got a problem. I need him to ask me some questions and I need him some run to run some tests, some inspections. And I need him to come back and say, here's the game plan, here's what's going to happen. And then he's, maybe he prescribes me something. And you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go out and I'm going to get it and I'm going to start taking it right then because he's the expert. I need this person. I want to like my doctor, but I don't need to like my doctor. So to wrap all this up, land this booger, I'M not really talking to you, owner, about the way you sell. This recurring conversation that we're having around, hey, why don't my salespeople embody the same mindset that I do? Why don't they act like me? Why don't they follow up like me? How come they're, how come their closing rates are so much lower? How come I'm seeing all these deals in the pipeline but there's no next step? Keep a lookout for that. The next step. These things will rear their ugly head in the form of no next step on the, on the calendar. No next step on the calendar for this deal that's in the pipeline. This is if we are firm, if we, if we, if we mitigate our need for approval and we recognize our buying cycle and how it can hurt us, then we will absolutely exponentially increase the amount of next steps with expectations. All right? For decisions in our pipeline. This, the, this is the gap, right? The gap starts up here. And I'm pointing to my head, those of you that don't have video. The gap starts up here and in here. In my heart, right? What do I believe and what do I think and how do I go about doing what I do? So own it. Don't be too panicky. If you feel like people aren't closing deals like you, they're not going to be able to instead see it as an opportunity to develop this person, to get in, to ask questions, great questions to ask. Number one, do you feel like a customer or prospect must like you in order to buy from you? Just ask that. Okay, I'm having this conversation with you, with you, John, because, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of deals, you know, quotes and bids and estimates that have been sent out. There's no next step coming up. All right, so this is something that we need to attack. There's some money hanging out, out there, some low hanging fruit that we can still go get, all right? And then furthermore, we can avoid this in the future. Do you feel like you must be liked in order for somebody to buy from you? And the next, hey, let's talk about the way you buy things. What's, what's the definition of a large purchase for you? How do you go about making that? Do you understand? When, so when people say, when people say that to you, when people say that, hey, I need to sleep on it, or, hey, I need to get more quotes or more bids, more estimates, how do you handle that? Okay, great. Tell you what, let's practice this because typically, I mean, it's very reasonable. That's how you buy. So you'd be empathetic and you would probably come alongside them and say, hey, I get it, but here's what's happening. We run the risk of giving them free consulting and them not getting the help that they actually need. Hey, John, do you believe that we are better than that company and the competitors in our market? Yes, I do. So if they don't work with us, with you, they're not going to get the best help that they need. That's true. Our ability to ask questions, our ability to control and quarterback the situation is not only going to create more urgency for them to work with us, it's going to create an urgency. They're going to be willing to spend more to do it. So the challenge to you, owner, I'm going to land this thing. The challenge that I issue to you as the owner is to when you're, when you. Is to when you first off. Schedule, practice. Schedule practice with your team. Schedule roleplace in our situational roleplays or debrief a recent call that they had, right. Whether it went well or didn't, or talk about a call coming up. All right? But always be on the lookout, always be on the lookout for these mindsets, how they're going to rear their ugly head. How did the conversation end? What did that sound like? What did you say when they said this? Okay, it's going to be a great first step. And again, these are just two main components. There's a couple, a couple more. I can't wait until we talk about how we control our emotions and the concept of happy ears. That's also a really fun conversation. This development track in our minds and in our hearts must start right now. All right. If we want our people to reach their potential and we want them to become the best they can be, then we have to take accountability for doing it. Understanding, reaching them at their level, that's a big part of empathy. It's not sympathy, but it's empathetic. I understand that. They are not me. They're at a different level. Okay, so that's that. I hope this brought you some value. Like I said, I can't wait to continue this discussion with other, other mindsets and belief systems. Hey, big shout out and thanks to the sponsor contractor coach Pro. Today again, you're going to see some links in the, in our, in our discussion. Fill out, you can fill out an assessment if you, if you want to take a. Have an honest look into your business operations. And if you're and help you if you feel like you need to take a little bit more control or you're ready to your business, you can fill out an assessment. You can schedule a time with with one of our with with one of our coaches. All right. To just have an open conversation. The goal is to give you coaching on that call. It's not a sales call. It's not a sales call. Sure. We'll ask you if you want some help if you need it, but we'll also tell you if you don't need it. Also like and follow us on Facebook. Get in the contractor community page. See all the is growing rapidly. We want you to be a part of it. Okay like and comment in that. Be be engaged engage with other folks in the industry, people that aren't there in various markets or maybe they're in your markets. There's a lot of power and a lot of wisdom in that community. So so join it. Like it. Follow subscribe to the YouTube channel. Again, this is John Townsend, Contractor Coach Pro. Thank you for your time. Be safe out there and happy selling.