Sales Mindset #3 - Call the Play

Hey everybody. Welcome to this edition of the Contractor Radio Podcast. I am John Townsend, AKA Coach jt, AKA jt, AKA Ashley's husband with Contractor Coach Pro, and I'll be today's host. Really looking forward to diving into our third edition of the Sales Mindset series. But before we get started, want to take a moment to just recognize and give a shout out to the folks that are making this podcast happen today and making it possible. Andersen Windows and Doors so let's give a word for our sponsors.

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Okay, welcome back. Yes, Big thank you to Anderson Windows and Doors. Look, we don't just let anybody on here. So they've been Anderson Windows and Doors I believe have been around 115 years. So it's a simple choice if you're a window installer. Right? Also, before we get going here, I want to just take a moment to remind you if you have not already to go to like and follow us on Facebook, on our contractor Community page, on Instagram, on LinkedIn. Whether it's the Contractor Coach Pro page, whether it's the top rep training page, just take a moment to click. There's a lot of just the whole goal is just to serve you the contractor with high quality content. Great discussion, challenging questions, a little bit of entertainment, infotainment I guess. But the whole goal there, it's just you're missing out if you're not part of it. So if you haven't done it yet, please take take a moment and follow us like and follow us and subscribe to our YouTube channels. Engage in the posts. It will be time well spent. Anyway. So back to today's discussion. This is so this is the third I'm stepping into, Lord willing, a series of sales mindset discussions with the sole purpose. The really, the main goal is to help you, the sales leader, or do you, the salesperson, understand the gaps that naturally exist in our mentality, right? In our confidence levels and just in our beliefs, our belief systems? Because I've had this discussion all the time, every single day, almost, with owners and sales leaders who say, who are confused, concerned, and they're thinking, hey, why aren't these people behaving the way that I behave? Why aren't they selling the way I sell? Why aren't they closing the way I close? Why aren't they treating leads the way I treat leads? Why aren't they as motivated as I am? The fact is, we're just uncovering all these little factors, I think, that go into creating that delta, that gap. All right, so today's is. The title of today's podcast is Call the Play. All right. Call the Play. So I think one. I actually just had this discussion today as we were with an owner, as we were working through a process, creating the process and creating the process that he would like to see his salespeople follow as part of the customer journey. Right. This is something we take very seriously here at ccp. It's an integral part of the blueprint, is creating that sops the process, that your strategy for making sure that everything is repeatable and it's done at a high level. Um, and so the question came up before we get to an appointment, you know, we're working through that. Okay, where do you. When do you want them to arrive? When would you like your guys to arrive? Want them to arrive earlier? Do you want them to arrive on time or 15 or 5 minutes? What's your preference? And he's. He's the owner. So I say, you. You choose what you want, right? This is. We want your folks to do it the way you want them to do it. And then it occurred to me, I said, what happens before the appointment? What happens before you arrive? What do you do? And he said, well, if it's me, I'm going to call them. Okay, okay. What about your. What about your salespeople? He says, I doubt they're doing that. I said, well, why not? He says, well, because it's not baked into our process. I don't. It's not something that I can teach and coach. Right? That's the importance of a process, right? Is building something out where you can see a gap. You can see, okay, there's a deficit here. There's a crack in our armor, so to speak. This either it's an issue with our process or it's an issue with our skills. And that means it's something we can coach and role play, right? So as a result of our conversation, we recognize that he, the owner who is no longer in his sales, wearing the sales hat. He says, no, when I have an appointment before I even leave to go there, I want to call them and I want to find out if they're there. And I said, well, who's they? And he said, the decision makers, right? The people who care about this. The people who want this problem to be solved. And I said, why is that important? So, because I don't want to make multiple trips. And I said, well, what if they're not there? He said, then I will. I will adjust my game plan to. Basically, there's a higher likelihood of me having success and them getting their problem solved if both of the decision makers are there. Said, sure. He said, so I'll just adjust my game plan to make sure that when I present, they are both there. I'm like, man, this is golden. So obviously, though, there's a problem because not everybody's doing that in his organization. All right? So I think that if nothing else, I want that illustration just to kind of highlight the natural beliefs that support you as an owner to go out and make sales that don't necessarily. They may not immediately exist in your salespeople's brains. And as a salesperson, I want to say there might be some things that are holding you, but this is a very simple. This concept of calling the play is a. It's not easy, but it's very simple. A very simple way that oftentimes we don't think about. It's one of the most overlooked strategies. Excuse me, tactics. It's one of the most overlooked tactics and steps in the process that I've found in my years of sales coaching and in sales myself. I'm guilty of it. We all are. But it comes a lot more naturally to owners and to sales leaders, people who. Who are really bought into what they're doing. They're going to make sure they're going to set themselves up for the best amount of success that they can have on every single appointment. And as a result of that, they are wired and conditioned to ask questions or deliver certain statements or call the play that we're going to talk about today that otherwise, we just have to be able to recognize that. I hope I'm making this clear. The goal of this is to recognize the mentality, the differences in the mentality of an owner and a salesperson. And how do we. How do we bridge that gap? How do we coach to it and how do we train to it? Okay, so let's talk about calling the play. Now, in football, there's a quarterback, somebody's calling the play, whether it's a coach from the sideline, but ultimately we huddle up, everybody's looking at somebody, and I'm calling the play. I'm saying, here's what's going to happen if things go the way they're supposed to go. Here's the play that we're going to run, and then here's what's going to happen. The same thing needs to happen in our sales appointments. I'm such a big believer in calling the play and setting. You can call. Let's just call it what it is. It's setting the expectations, right? Setting the expectations for what's about to happen. And this is. I don't think you can over set the expectations. I mean, from the original call, original lead comes in, somebody setting the appointment. There's a big difference. Write this down. There's a big difference between having an appointment set and then having an appointment set with expectations. Big difference between having an appointment set and having an appointment set with expectations. Okay, the expectations of what's going to happen here, what are we looking to do? What's our end game? How are you involved? How am I involved? What am I going to do? What are you going to do? Big difference between the two. So even when it comes to that initial phone call, setting the appointment, how can we go about making sure that the people who care about solving this problem are there and the expected time it's going to take for us to do our job while we're there, and then the expected result. We've got to be able to do it then we've got to be able to do it. When we're about to show up at the appointment or before we leave, we're going to call them, we're going to call the play. Ready? Break. All right, so I want to share a quick example of my experience doing this. Then I want to explain to you the two crucial ways that calling the play is going to help you. The major benefits you're going to find if you get into the habit, if you bake into your process, this art of calling the play, quarterbacking the situation, you're in charge. So I, in my former sales career, I was selling a higher ticket item and I flat you know, basically, I got tired. This is a question we all have to ask ourselves as salespeople. It's like, how long are you going to play? How long are you going to let this happen to you? And I got tired of getting to the end of a call and feeling like I had to hurry up to get to the solution, or feeling like there wasn't really a clear agenda. And you can feel it the whole time, like, where. Where are we headed? Where are we headed? And it's. It really. It plays in your mind. You don't feel like you're getting any traction. You feel like you're spinning your wheels. Like, is this appointment taking too long? Is it too short? Am I too my. Am I moving too quickly? Am I answering their questions? So I got in the habit very early on in our conversation, that is. And it was likely. And majority of it was done over zoom. And I would get made fun of if somebody was shadowing me because I did it every. I have a habit of doing it. But we would exchange formalities. Right. Hey, I'm John. Yeah, nice to meet you. Oh, something in common, right? You like football? Cool. Me, too. All right, and then we move on. Now it's time to start talking the talk. Right? And I would. What's the word? You know, subconsciously, just muscle memory. I would always go clap my hands and say, okay, here's what's about to happen. And then I would go on to say, I'm going to ask you a few questions. I want to see if I can really understand your problem. And then I'm going to be able to explain a little bit about what we do, all right? If I believe that we are a good fit and I can actually solve your problem, I'm going to explain a little bit about what we do, and then I'm going to give you a chance, all right, to ask me some questions and ultimately decide whether or not you want to work with us today. Does that sound good? I said, yep, sounds good. But I created such muscle memory. I got so used to doing it that I always clap my hands every single time. And that's why I call, like, quarterbacking the situation and calling the play, because at the end of the huddle, he said, right, ready? Or like, all right, break. Right? And so I'd clap my hands and say, all right, here's what's about to happen. And I would tell that person what's about to happen. And I get questions all the time. Like, you would seriously do that? You would actually tell somebody, hey, like an owner of a company, you would look at them in the eye and say, okay, here's what's about to happen. And boss them around like that. You bet I would. Here's the reality. We want somebody to quarterback the situation. Somebody needs the quarterback situation. There's a problem here. There's a problem that needs to be solved. You were called or you knocked on the door to help, okay? Somebody needs to take control of this, and there needs to be a quarterback. And that person has two thumbs, right? It's you, it's me. We need to be the ones that are stepping in and saying, hey, here's what's about to happen, number one. And so let me tell you the first reason why this is so important. Number one is it's going to really set you up as an expert and as a person of authority. You're building a relationship with your folks. It's only natural. We talked about the need for approval. We want to be liked, right? So we're going to break down the barriers, remove the resistance as best we can, and sure, create a friend and a relationship here, build rapport. But ultimately, we need to establish ourselves as a trusted authority, as a partner in this, as a coach, right? As a. I am here to help you solve your problem. I know more about it than you do. So here is what is about to happen. So it sets us up as the expert, as the trusted authority. It also says that we have a plan, we have a process. I have done this before, y'. All. I've done this before. I get great results. Furthermore, I get all of my clients that get great results, they follow this process. Do you want the great results or not? Like, I have a process. Do you want to come on board or not? So I set the expectations, and here's typically what it sounds like. I mean, I want to use the example of roofing. Let me use the example of roofing, right? Get to the point where, you know, exchange formalities, clap your hands, whether it's physical or just in your brain, and you say, okay, so here's what's about to happen. I'm going to ask you a few questions. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about our company. I'm gonna ask you a few questions, and I want to make sure we're a good fit for each other. And then ultimately, I'm gonna go up, I'm gonna get on the roof, and I'm gonna take a look and see if I can identify the problem. See if it's a problem that we can help solve. I'm confident that we can. And then I'm gonna be able to come to come back and I'm gonna work up a presentation for you and a quote, a bid, investment, whatever you want to call it, something. And I'm confident that you're gonna like it. But I'm ultimately gonna give you a chance today to decide whether or not you would like to do business with us. Does that sound good? Sure. Sure. John, it's going to be tough to find somebody that says, no, that does not sound good. I do not like your plan. That plan is you outline, hey, this is exactly what's going to happen. I would even go as far as far as saying, this is. This is the amount of time you can expect for this to take. Right. Does that sound good? Sure. So it sets you up as an authority. I have a process. It's a winning process. This is. This is the process that my folks use to get the best. Do you want the best results? Right. Do you want to be one of those people that gets the best results? Then you should come along with my process. I have a plan. I have a process. It works. And I can speak it with authority, with confidence and tell you this is what's about to happen. I've been down this road before. I've seen this movie. Let's go. Let's go. Right. So that's the first critical thing, is setting you up as the authority, as a professional, as my company. We are pros. We've been doing this for a long time. This is how we do it. You want to. You want us to do what we do? Okay, great. The second thing is it gives you permission. All those things that I just said I was going to do, I was going to ask some questions, right? I was going to tell them a little bit about my company, our company, all right? I was going to let them ask me some questions. I was going to then decide if we are a good fit. And then I was going to go up on the roof and I was going to take a look, see if I can identify what the problem is, See if there's a solution that we can solve. See if there's a problem we can solve. Then I'm going to come back, Then I'm going to. I'm going to work up and work up an estimate. I'm going to work up a presentation for you. I'm going to deliver it, and then I'm going to ask you at some point, I'm going to give you the opportunity to decide Today, whether or not you want to do business with us, hey, I'll give you the chance to say, you know what, John, we're ready to move forward, or I think we might look for another solution. I'm going to give you that chance. Does that sound good? So now it does sound good. Now I had the permission to do all those things that I said I was going to do. I have the permission to take the amount of time that I said it was going to take. I have the permission to ask questions, right? This is very, this takes a lot of stress. So all those that when you're worried, hey, am I taking too long? Are we getting anywhere? Well, you've laid out now, laid out the steps in your process, what's going to happen. You've given yourself permission and authority to do it, all right? And now they've basically said, they basically said, yes, you can. This is freeing, this is a very freeing thing to call the play. Ready? All right, here we go. Here's what's about to happen. So those are the two main things. Two main things are positioning yourself as an authority and as an expert. And the other thing is that just, it gives you permission to do your job, do it really well the way that your customers get the best results. Alright, so when should we do this? Like I said earlier, I don't think you can overdo it. From the initial phone call. From the initial, the initial phone call, whoever's answering the phone and maybe scheduling it or if they, if they, if they are able to schedule it right there. Hey, let's set the expectation for what needs to happen to make this a really great meeting. Right? Whoever cares about this problem should be there. Here's the amount of time it typically takes for an inspection. Here's the amount of time it typically takes for a presentation like this is the amount of time you can expect to spend with this person or people. All right? They're going to ask you some questions, right? They're going to take a look, they're going to give you a presentation and they're going to give you a chance to decide if you want to work with us or not. Hey, and then I'm on the way to the, to the call. Why not? Hey, it's John. I'm headed to you. Mr. Mrs. Smith. Mr. Smith. Just want to verify. So is Mrs. Smith home? Okay. Yeah. Okay, cool. So here's. You can expect me to come in. I'll knock on the door. Where would you prefer I park? I'm going to knock on the door. I'm gonna ask you some questions. I'm gonna ask you some questions. I'm gonna make sure we're a good fit. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about our company. I'm gonna go up on the roof, I'm gonna identify what's going on, see if there's a problem that we can solve. Okay. I'm gonna come down, I'm gonna give you a presentation. I'm confident that you're gonna like it. And I'm gonna give you the chance to decide whether or not you want to work with us. Does that sound good? Boom. I haven't even shown up yet. Then I get there. Yeah. Cool. All right. You like football too? Yeah, Excellent. All right, reiterated. Here's what's going to happen. I'm calling the play again. I don't think you can call the play too much. And then further down the road. So here's the other thing. I hate when we have all these deals in our pipeline and there's no anticipated next step. The follow up game. We talked about this. Where are we with that deal? I'm just waiting to. Am I calling? I'm just waiting to hear back from them, right? Am I calling them too much? Should I call them? Should I email them? Am I not calling them enough? Am I being pushy? And then three weeks later we found out we didn't get the job because somebody else is up there. All right? The follow up game stinks. That's why I say there's one. There's a big difference between an appointment set and an appointment set with expectations. If something happens and we don't close it right there and a follow up meeting or appointment is in order, it needs to be scheduled. All right? We are setting an appointment right there for a decision to be made. We either want to get a decision right there or we're setting an appointment for a decision to be made. So it's not as easy as just saying, hey, all right, so you want me? Yeah, just get back with me next week. Okay, perfect. I'm happy to do that. And then we don't. And then we call them on Wednesday and they don't answer. They ghost us. This is, this is how it typically works. I mean, we're all guilty of it. It's okay. So there's a bit that's an example of like, we have a theoretical appointment to get back in touch next week. No, let's set on our calendars a time where not only are we segregating time for us to meet we're dedicating time for us to meet apart from everything else we're doing. But now I'm going to set the expectations and call the play for that appointment. So excuse me. After we work through and we talked a little bit about this in the sales mindset number one podcast, but now I want to, we are going to position ourselves to ultimately say okay, so list. So Next Wednesday at 9am I'm going to come back out here and then this is what's going to happen. I'm going to call the play even before a week before that day comes, going to come back out here Wednesday and here's what's going to happen. I'm going to sit down, I'm going to ask you some questions. You're probably going to have some questions for me or maybe there's some things we need to tinker with when it comes to the, to the quote, to the estimate, to the solution. And then ultimately, and that's fine, everybody expects that we can handle it. But then ultimately you're going to decide on Wednesday at 9am in our appointment, you're going to decide whether or not you want to do business with us like hey John, this looks great, let's move forward or John, this isn't what we're looking for. We're gonna go home, we're gonna move with somebody else. Does that sound good? I know a lot of companies know a lot of companies that are closing at a much higher clip for one reason only. They are setting the, they go into the first deployment already setting the expectations for that follow up deployment because they know now they, they, they're not gonna, they're not going to, you know, turn down a one call close. They're not going to turn that down. They're going to try to get it as best they can. But in their back of their mind they know that people in their market don't follow up very well. And so if a decision is not made, they're going to be the best at setting the expectations for the next step because they know when they go out for that next step and they, and they again set the expectations for decision. Nobody else is doing that and they're going to win just because they did it, just because they showed up again. But it all comes down to our supportive belief, our supportive belief that we can, our time is worth it. What we do is important. Our time is worth a lot. We are here to help. I'm the quarterback, I'm going to call this baby. Here's what's about to happen. Walk them through it. Does that sound good? Now I've established my process and the professionalism of us, our team having, my company, having a plan, and number two, I've given myself permission to do exactly what I said I was going to do. So anyways, I hope this makes sense and I hope it brings you value. But I also want to say this is a great thing to coach. It is. Even if we are really good at it, like I said, it is one of the easiest things to skip. So as we are role playing, I want to challenge you. As you're working, as you're practicing, as a team, as individuals, as you're role playing, keep a lookout for somebody to skip that. Always incorporate that into your role play. Whatever you're working on, start with setting the expectations. All right. Practice that phone call. Practice the lead intake. Practice it. Practice setting the expectations, calling the play quarterback in the situation. All right, well, look, I hope this brought you value again. Thank you to Anderson, Windows and Doors, our sponsor for today's podcast, Contractor Radio Podcast. If you have not, go ahead and like, join, subscribe Follow us on LinkedIn on Facebook, the Contractor Community the Contractor Community page. Lot of great content in there. Don't want you to miss out on it. So follow us on social media, Instagram, Instagram, TikTok. We're going to be putting out a lot more content for you that's going to be quality and entertaining. Have a great day. Happy selling. See you on the next one.