Transcript

Mastering Sales Strategy in 2025 with Sam Wakefield

From Home Service Expert · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 1 h 3 min · 12,497 words · 83 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Mastering Sales Strategy in 2025 with Sam Wakefield", an episode of Home Service Expert published May 23, 2025 (1 h 3 min, about 12,497 words). It mentions 7 people, works and ideas, including Sam Wakefield, Close It Now, Close It Now podcast, Service Titan, Pay Them What They're Worth.

What this episode is about

Sam Wakefield, a sales and business expert and founder of Close It Now, shares insights on mastering sales strategies in 2025, emphasizing the importance of customer retention alongside acquisition, particularly within the HVAC industry. His innovative approach to sales training, combined with real-world examples, positions HVAC as a foundational skill set that translates across various sectors, highlighting the enduring value of strong sales techniques.

Key takeaways

  • In HVAC, mastering sales is the ultimate life hack — know this, and you've unlocked all trades.
  • Sales isn't just about closing; it's about connecting. Customers crave care, not just a transaction.
  • Your sales objections may be a mirror; attract what you project, even in your buying habits.
  • To elevate your sales game, first elevate yourself. Personal growth fuels professional success — oxygen mask first!
  • Clients feel loved through active listening; remembering their pets' names might just seal the deal.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 10:00: Close It Now, Sam Wakefield, Close It Now podcast, Service Titan
  2. – 20:00: Frank Blau
  3. – 30:00: Service Titan
  4. – 1:00:00: Service Titan, Pay Them What They're Worth

Notable quotes from "Mastering Sales Strategy in 2025 with Sam Wakefield"

  • All right, guys. Today's going to be fun. I got Sam Wakefield here. He's based out of Round Rock, Texas. He's a sales and business expert. He's the founder of Close It Now, sales training and Close It Now.
    about Sam Wakefield · at
  • Know from Hack Plumbing Electrical. if you think back in the day, HX spells wealth. Round Ron Smith paved the way for guys like George Brazil and Frank Blau in the late 80s. and who else? Jim.
    about Frank Blau · at
  • This one, is really spend a lot of time building your profile. if you're if you're using software like Service Titan is send a great picture. Send your pets, send your…
    about Service Titan · at
  • I've got the core of it, but it's called Pay Them What They're Worth. And it talks a lot about just ways to reward employees and get them on page and make sure they're getting, they got.
    about Pay Them What They're Worth · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Sam Wakefield — Person · Main guest · 1 mention · first at
    Primary interview subject discussing HVAC/home-services sales training, follow-up, pricing, and relationship-based selling; founder of Close It Now and host of its podcast.
  • Frank Blau — Person · Referenced industry pioneer · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned alongside other leaders as someone who helped elevate standards/pricing and professionalization in the HVAC/home-services space.
  • George Brazil — Person · Referenced industry pioneer · 1 mention · first at
    Cited as part of a lineage of HVAC industry leaders who helped set standards and 'pave the way' for modern home-services businesses.
    Know from Hack Plumbing Electrical. if you think back in the day, HX spells wealth. Round Ron Smith paved the way for guys like George Brazil and Frank Blau in the late 80s. and who else? Jim.

Books & papers

  • Pay Them What They're Worth — Book · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at
    Book mentioned by the host, discussing ways to reward employees and ensure they have a stake in the outcome.

Companies & orgs

  • Close It Now — Company · Business focus · 2 mentions · first at
    Sales training company and podcast founded by Sam Wakefield, focusing on transforming the sales landscape with innovative strategies.
    Based out of Round Rock, Texas. He's a sales and business expert. He's the founder of Close It Now, sales training and Close It Now podcast. The dynamic founder of Close It Now…

Products & tech

  • Service Titan — Product · Case study · 3 mentions · first at
    Software mentioned in the context of building profiles and enhancing customer service in home services.

Media & podcasts

  • Close It Now podcast — Media · Business focus · 1 mention · first at
    Podcast hosted by Sam Wakefield, mirroring his passion for blending actionable advice with real-world examples for HVAC professionals.
    Landscape, Sam's career is a testament to his innovative strategies and motivational prowess. His popular podcast closing now mirrors his passion blending actional advice to…

Full transcript with timestamps

All right, guys. Today's going to be fun. I got Sam Wakefield here. He's based out of Round Rock Round Rock, Texas. He's a uh sales and business expert. He's the founder of Close It Now, sales training and Close It Now podcast. The dynamic founder of Close It Now stands at the forefront of HX sales training. Known for his high octane approach and deep industry expertise, a master in transforming the sales landscape, Sam's career is a testament to his innovative strategies and motivational prowess. His popular podcast closing now mirrors his passion blending actional advice advice to real world examples that resonate with HVAC professionals. And by the way, HVAC is the godfather of all sales. I believe that. I learned everything I know from Hack Plumbing Electrical. Um, if you think back in the day, HX spells wealth. Round Ron Smith paved the way for guys like uh George Brazil and Frank Blau in the

late 80s. Um, and uh, who else? Um, Jim. What's another one? Jim. Um, trying to think of Jim. I never met him, but oh, I'm trying to I'm brain farting his name, but I'll tell you, HVAC is like, if you know HVAC sales, you know how to do chimneys and roofing and landscaping. And I do believe you get good at HVAC sales, you can do anything in life. So, Sam, it's a pleasure to have you on. Thank you, man. It's a such an awesome uh pleasure to be here. I love that you mentioned HBAC spells wealth. That was my one of my very first books that I ever read in the industry. And I it it was just incredibly powerful to to read through that book and learn that, you know, our goal is not to just get customers to keep them as well. I feel like that's something a lot of people have forgotten nowadays. Yeah, that's the thing he said is that, you know, I got that in my bathrooms here. Get customers and keep customers. And I put

that when I read that book, I get more customers. And the guy I was thinking of was Jim Abraham. Oh yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so tell me a little bit about yourself, man. Where'd you start? What are you working on? What's new? What's good? What's What's your passions? Yeah, so, you know, I've been doing this in the in the trades almost 20 years now. Um, so April is actually the sixth year anniversary for the Close It Now as a uh, you know, as a sales training company and the podcast. And uh you know, one of the big things I've been working on, especially this last oh, few months, is really deep diving into the internal workings of really just people.

You know, what one of the ways that we close the show is, you know, work to become someone worth buying from. And as we go internal, we, you know, really get to uplevel ourselves first. And as you know, we put on our own oxygen mask, then we can help everybody else around us. In fact, a podcast I just recorded earlier today for my show was the kind of the sales bearer. You know what we've really been talking about on our show lately is um you know what it seems like those objections kind of follow us around. The common denominator could be us. We we attract who we are. So if you know we get I want to think about it a lot or 83 bids, it's time for us to examine our own buying habits and realize, oh wait a minute, maybe I'm attracting this. Do I have these things in my life that's causing that to mirror our clients when we go into our appointments? So, so that's what I've been working on lately. It's been a a

thought journey that's a lot of fun. Dan Martell sat right next to me in this very room and said, "When I started buying how I want to be bought from, everything changed when I was indecisive and I had to make a deal with everybody and make sure I got the deepest discounted price." Uh, I was actually saying I'm not worth the full experience. I want you to give me discounted service. And when that all changes, the perspective of your self-worth goes up. And I tell my people all the time during orientation, I just told them today. I'm like, you're going to really understand very soon. Like, here's the thing that people, we've always heard they need to know, like, and trust you, right? People need to know, like, and trust you. The other thing is they need to know, like, and trust the company. And the third thing that everybody fails at is they need to feel loved.

So, how does a client feel loved? I asked them, "Well, how do you guys think a client feels loved?" Is if you actively listen and you bring up things that they mentioned. Oh, you said you're a kid named Tommy that's 5 years old and he sleeps upstairs, right? You you you actually care and you're actively listening. You're going, "Uh-huh. Wow, that's interesting. Tell me more. When did you know that she was going to be your wife? That's crazy. And I I miss being in the garage and and for for those in HVAC, you know, on the roofs or what I I miss the experience of just the client, the intimacy and just talking to them, learning about them. I was with a World War II vet. He told me his whole story. I I canceled my next two jobs.

This was years and years back. But enjoying to getting to know the clients. If you don't do that, then you shouldn't be in sales. 100%. Absolutely agree with that. You know, when I'm coaching, I actually had somebody earlier, we were coaching on his, you know, service appointment, and I was like, "Well, how many people live in the house?" "Well, how many pets do they have? Do you know the pet's names? Do you know the kids' names? Do you remember the wife's name?" "Nope. Nope. Nope." I was like, "Do you see before even get into the sales appointment, can you see where we might have a problem?"

Because no wonder they didn't want to buy from you. And they gave you to think about it because they didn't even know who you were. You didn't know who they were. Yeah. 100%. And that's the most important thing is you should know exactly what the wife does for a living, the husband does for a living. You should know exactly where the kids go to school, the pets names. Another thing I think you should do, and you'll like this one, is uh really really really spend a lot of time building your profile. if you're if you're using software like Service Titan is send a great picture. Send your pets, send send your motorcycle and your wife and your kids and talk about how like you made it through an obstacle like training was tough and when you got trained and how you fell in love with the industry and and spend time for let the client get to know you and then offer something on the way. If you just do these little things,

you're like, I told my team, I said, you ever go to those classes, Sam, you probably had a class like this where the teacher says, "I'm giving everybody an A that you just sat down. Your first grade is an A. All you got to do is keep it." Well, when you set the right profile and you offer the right stuff on the way and you knock the door and you're smiling, you've already got an A and you're very considerate. You say, "Yes, sir. Absolutely, sir. I appreciate that, sir. Would you like a glass of water?" Absolutely, sir. Thank you so much, sir.

And you just show this like you're winning already. What uh Go ahead. Because I love this so much, too. That's that's funny. It reminded me there. I saw a post earlier in social media. There it was just asking, it was Everett over at his sales group. He was asking, "Have have you ever received or said yes to anybody offering you something to drink in a home?" And of course, my comment was like, man, the n I can't count the number of meals and drinks that I've had with people in their homes, you know, the number of dinners and lunches that they've served. When you build a relationship with people over time, it's incredible what happens. And it's not for obviously the free food, but just to be able to to break bread with somebody, it builds a relationship like just, you know, you really can't otherwise. So it's it's such a powerful thing when that you know when that really starts to happen. That's how you know that you're

effectively authentically making relationship instead of just trying to fake it. Yeah. I mean I remember people would always ask me to go to church with them, invite me over for Thanksgiving dinner. I mean very rarely. Usually the uh Latter-day Saints invited me to their church. Uh you know I'm in Arizona here, especially in the East Valley. But uh yeah. No, I miss those days. I really do. I miss getting to know people and hearing their stories and whether they were talking about George Clooney or, you know, politics or religion or their family or their profession, uh, you know, or their favorite, you know, things to do on the weekend. It didn't matter to me. I just loved listening and learning. Some people had kearers in their garage and I'd be like, "Show me how that works." And it was just cool, man. And I I really do miss it.

Yeah. I love it. Yeah. You get to meet the craziest, coolest people. and uh you know and truly at the end of the day we're changing lives too and that's that's the important part you know we literally can change the way somebody exists in their home with any type of home services whatever we do it's like they have a struggle we're able to make their lives easier and better and and it's just so fulfilling it is you know I'm curious what caused you to start clos it now and and start this HVAC sales training yeah that's a good question uh Tommy, thanks for that actually. So, I had a I was sales manager and sales trainer for a company here in Austin, Texas, and we uh this was six years ago, 2019. I sent a couple people off to a sales training, brought a couple new people onto the team, sent them off to a training, and they came back after a week and, you know, several thousand dollars a piece

with the exact same slide deck from a training that I had taken 10 years before that. And I was like, "Oh my gosh, throw that." They hadn't changed a single slide. I was like, "Throw that in the trash." That nobody buys like that anymore. And so I that's what I start. I said, "Well, if we I I looked around. I couldn't find a training that was the right fit." So I decided to start it. And then the podcast started organically cuz back in for everybody that listens drive time university the first probably 30 of my podcasts I'm literally driving between appointments recording my podcast in a voice memo because I just had this message to get out as I knew if my team needed to hear it that you know other people did too. And so that's what was the impetus that started the company because I was like the way people buying has changed so much especially the second that uh the pandemic hit and everything is so much more feeling and

emotion driven and everybody was stuck in the old days of you know the ABC model always be closing and the hard cell and everything is logic logic logic and we've forgotten that people buy based on emotion they justify it with logic but they're going to justify that logic decision with another emotion and there at the time I didn't find anybody that was uh was training like that and so I said well you know somebody has to lead the charge so let's go I do see a lot of people teaching the hard clothes I I I I do like the idea of like options when selling and and you know whether it's magic moments and that stuff I still think all that exists but like you know I'm not I'm not I never was really a hard close I just am like you know I just want to do what's right for you and based on what you told me, I I really feel like this is the decision I'd be doing for if this were my mom's house, you know, and I love my mom a lot. So,

and just slowing down and listening and just being human with them and not and telling them, look, I want to be your garage guy for life. If you're not keeping this house, I want you to come in the next house. Like, look, let's just do what's right for you because my plan is when you leave here that you tell everybody, your friends, your neighbors, your family, this is the best home service experience you've ever had. Mhm. 100%. Make eye contact the whole time and don't stutter and don't be afraid of no. Like just treat them like a human being. And so many people are just afraid. And I think they're afraid because they don't have any self-esteem.

I think a lot of people in the home service industry, they're not happy with their smile, you know, they're not happy with their bodies. They're not happy with their education. And they know how to make great money in the home service space, but they have to kind of fake it till they make it. They don't get to be in their true skin. Oh, that that speaks to me so much. One of the things that I love to to really emphasize that we talk about very very often on the show is and then every time I do, you know, coachings and trainings is, you know, work with that whole idea of work to be someone worth buying from.

We we cover, you know, so many different elements of life. You know, if you're not in integrity with yourself, with your own personal growth, with your own spiritual journey, you know, whatever that is, are you in alignment with doing what you know you should be doing, your relationships at home, your nutrition, your fitness? All of these microaggments that we keep with ourselves determine how we show up with our confidence, with our posture, with our certainty. And you know, proof that actually the sell skills is the least important of that.

You know, you can take anybody from any industry that's a top performer and pick them up out of that industry and drop them in another one and then ask them, "How long is it going to be till you're on top?" And they're like, "No, not very long." And they're on top of the leaderboard again. Even though no knowing nothing about the new industry, but there's someone that people want to do business with because they've just worked to become that level of person. And that's that man, that's that's the heart cry of my of my company and my passion is helping people uplevel. You know, I got tired of going to the conferences and, you know, the guys hanging out in the bar after the con conference being like almost like a scorecard like how many heart attacks have you had and how many wives have you had and it just was gross and I was like there's got to be a better way. It's time to uplevel the indust all of the

home service industries. I agree. It's not an easy Well, I think the industry is getting better now. I think CO was the best thing that happened to us. And I I think with AI and everything going on, people are like, "Man, go learn a trade." That's kind of like no one no AI, no machines, no robots. Like, learn a trade. Uh it used to be when I was a kid, if you didn't go to college, you were like, you were shunned. It was like, "Oh, you're an HK guy. Do you a garbage guy? You you fix garage doors for a living." Now it's like, "What do you do? You got $300,000 worth of debt and you're still with your mom and you can't hold a job down when look at us guys in the service space, you know. Yeah. We got paid to learn what we're doing and now we're continuing. We didn't have this crazy debt from school and all these things.

Yeah. It's uh it's so much better and different than how it used to be. I agree. I was at that same that same kind of era where you know for so long I I was like man my wife has a master's degree and for so long I was like I just have my associates and I feel gross telling people what I did until until that started to happen until I realized that wait a minute I make more than the optometrist down the road and you know this guy other down the road that has another college degree it's like oh my gosh wow wait a minute this is let's right size the right frame of mind around this. What do you think is a good wage to make if you're in a a HVAC industry?

Uh, it depends on the position, of course, but I mean if somebody's not making six figures, they're asleep. You know, they're just not in the right position at all. Um, a six-figure take-home is kind of the minimum threshold, I would say, for most positions. Unless you work at a company that pays hourly and really hasn't figured out that they pay people what they're worth. Correct. Correct. Absolutely. You know, obviously the startups and things, but you know, any good company that charges the right prices, you know, Yeah. It should easy be six figures. What is the right price for a 5-tonon unit?

Well, before I answer that, Tommy, do you mind if I ask you a few more questions to make sure it's the right fit for your home? I I I'm going to tell you I'd say the minimum is um 12 to 20,000. And absolutely there's a range there. It depends on where you live and the complications and the insulation and a lot of different things are going to go into that. What kind of unit you want and what kind of warranty you want with it. But, you know, I think some people think that's highway robbery. And I'm like, you know, I sat down with a bunch of garage owners, Sam. This is five, six, seven years ago now. I don't remember exactly. And and they said, uh, how could I sleep at night for what I was charging? And I said, "How many of you guys uh have more than 20 billboards on the road when all the plumbers and hack guys do?" I said, "How many of you guys have PTO u and for at least a month of PTO?" How many of you guys

uh pay, you know, a normal pay rate for your technician and installers is six figures? No hands. No hands. No hands. Wait a minute. How many of you guys get brand new vehicles out to every one of your techs and installers? How many of you guys pay for the tools? $6,000 for tools. How many of you guys get minimum of 10 weeks training before they actually practice on a client's house? Wait a minute. There's not been any hands up for this. So, wait a minute. You give your clients a really, really good deal so you can f over your employees. So, you hold them down to making nothing but $50,000 a year and make sure they live in an apartment, could drive an old truck, and could barely support their family so you could give your clients a great deal. I said, I want to be innovative. If I want to have trademarks, I want to be able to market. I want to be able to keep the air conditioning cold in the summer in

our training center. I want to have new vehicles and I want to take them on vacations and buy them lunch and dinners. Like, you don't do you guys do that stuff? And they're like, Sam, when I left there, and this was at this facility next door upstairs, every single owner said they're going to raise their prices. I love it. So, I needed to change. And I didn't do this. It was There was a lot of us that did. a lot of people before me, but we needed to change the garage door industry in order to build what we've built today.

Because everybody's like, "Why do you share all your secrets, Tommy? Why do you invite other garage door companies in and show them what you're doing?" I'm like, "Because our industry has to change. It needs to happen with, like I said, Frank Blau and Jim Abrams and Bron Smith, the guys that pave the way there. They met up and they actually didn't hate each other and despise one another. They worked together and they said, "Hey, listen. You want to start charging fair prices? I'll start charging fair price." It wasn't like a monopoly that they just decided like collusion. It's just like let let's let's make sure we could pay our people more and give them better trucks. Yeah. Let's raise the standard. Yeah. And I think that there's a lot of people listening right now that maybe just maybe if you're the elite, but everybody's complaining to you that you're that too high a price. Invite them in and show them why. And hopefully

you don't have a Bentley and live in a mega mansion. Because look, if you if you had an exit and you did great, look, I never really took a whole lot of draws. I put it all back in and 25 people had an equity stake in the company that I that actually earned it, but it was given. So, you know, I think it's okay for people to have an exit and make a lot of money. I think that should be the goal for every company, but in the process, your people make a lot of money right? Absolutely. I actually had the privilege a few years back of seeing Sir Richard Branson at an event and it was incredible to listen to him. Of course, I mean it's Sir Richard Branson for one, but his every answer had a 30-minute spot in every single question. It didn't matter what the question was to some degree. He always turned it back around to how well you take care of your people is how well they're going to take care

of the client for you. And it was the coolest thing to really hear someone at that level just really talk about how he pou and it was story after story of how he's poured into his into his own people for that very reason. He's like if you take care of the internal customers first they will always take care of the rest and it it was definitely a a privilege to uh to hear that but it just carries through. That is like first you got to get the people like what I'm realizing if you get the right competitive people that love to win and actually are a little humble, hungry and smart, right? And then you constantly remind them about their goals or why their commitment and they they they discuss it with their family the important people whether that's their mom their wife or their kids and they're constantly brought up instead of brought down and I'm going to call people up instead of calling them out. If that's

done properly they're going to go to war for you. You know how many people, and I'm I'm just going to tell you this because we just got back from our pinnacle trip, the top 5% of the company is either their wife or they came up to me and said, "If you ever go anywhere other than A1, I mean, I'm the founder of this company, but we're going with you. Like, we're going to follow you to the pits of hell, basically." And I'm like, "Well, you're stuck with me here for a long time." Um, I I got a question. So, you chose to be a coach. Um, and I got to tell you something.

Um, I've always wondered, I still am involved in my business. I love doing podcasting. I use this to learn. I've got some coaching we do. I've got garage door freedom and home service freedom. Uh, but I don't take any money from that. I I think I I've seen the people that tried to make it as a coach and man, it is like it is so hard, man. I can only imagine. You got to have events and podcasts and email blasts and then there's people that just don't take the training seriously and if you don't charge them enough, but then they won't sign up if you and it's all and it takes a decade. And I worked with Al Levy and I've paid I've paid more coaches than I know what to do with and I love the coaches I've hired. But you know then you look at it and you can start a small business and it's fairly easy if you understand the marketing side and you're good at sales. So what what made you because it's going to get hard that it's

not going to be easy. I think you're starting to realize I don't I don't know how long you've been doing this but it's it's not everybody's like they come up to me some of my top guys are like what do you think if I start my podcast and become a coach? And I'm like, I love that. Listen, but why not become an internal coach and I'll pay you a ton of money. Like like they they're like, "What if I just they kind of want to get the fame or something?" And they're like, "Man, I've been I've been doing podcasting for eight years." And you know, I've been doing a lot of different programs for different people and I still haven't taken a paycheck out of that stuff. So be be prepared to put 10 years in before there's real money. You know what I mean? Absolutely. You know, it's funny.

Every single one of the things that you mentioned happened to me today. So I made I made a podcast. I was a guest on a podcast. I had that client that's not doing anything. I mean every single thing it's like literally happened today. So I 100% know what you're talking about. But yeah, what you know what the what drives me forward is really that the ability to change lives on a grander scale. you know, I could step out in the field and, you know, just be a top performer somewhere and that's good, but the leverage point of being able to really dramatically impact lives um really can only get that way through leverage through, you know, had a uh this a book this last year, hit some hit some cool bestseller list. I've got a actually a one that I co-authored.

I've got one coming out this next year. I'm going to be speaking at a few events and the number of people that come up to me that truly have had that magical experience of like, "Holy cow, either through a podcast, it changed the way that I sell and everything's changed or you said something in your talk that just hit me to my core and I, you know, I'm going to go back and immediately implement." That's the reason that I do it. Now, you're right. It is not the most lucrative at uh especially at the beginning. Uh but it's okay because you know when you're when you're in flow and you're doing what you're absolutely called to do, you know, it's they say if when you find what you love to do, you'll never work a day in your life. I I actually think that's wrong. I think you work harder than you ever have because now you're internally inspired instead of just being externally motivated. And uh when when that

inspiration wakes you up before your alarm goes off just because you can't wait to get to the day. I mean that's the that's the big difference there. Um and yeah, it's the uh it it's the game changer that that the intention that keeps things moving forward is the uh is what it's all about. Well, you found a passion and it seems like you're motivated by the passion and and I agree that once you find a passion, although I I used to tell people I love golfing, but I'm like Tiger Woods still has to hit a thousand balls a day. Even though I know for a fact he doesn't want to and Kobe used to practice and Jordan and it goes on and but but when you find out what you love like I did my orientation today I just said guys don't take this the wrong way but I could retire 10 times over again.

I'm here because I choose to be here. And they said well what's the point? And I said to change your lives. And I said, 'When you find out my true legacy, and legacy is a pretty common word these days, but my legacy is going to be that, you know, I hopefully if you guys stay on board for a couple years that your life's changed in a positive direction and I got a lot of work to do and I'm a work in progress and I can't promise you I'm going to make all your dreams come true, but I'm going to try. As a sales coach, what are some of the common pitfalls that you see HVAC and other sales professionals fall into?

Oh jeez. the uh you know one of the big ones is the the everything's out of order in a lot of their process. You know the the company itself usually builds out of order. So what I mean by that is they'll put you know they'll they'll buy their phone system and they'll buy their you know service titan or home service ex you know whatever the you know whatever their com you know their um operating system is and sure they put all of these things in place. See how they got their CRM, they got all the different stuff, right? They've got their marketing and and all the rest. And then they come to me and they're like, "Man, all right, sales is the last piece. We've got to get the sales piece plugged in." And I'm like, "Guys, you built you built backwards because now you're at a place where you have all of this overhead. You no, you have all these leads coming in because you invested in all this other

stuff, but nobody knows how to convert anything and you're about to go broke. So now you're sending up this Hail Mary to me to come in and save the day and turn everything around. It's like let's build let's build sales in a lot earlier in the process because then you can have better conversion, you can have better margins, and you'll have the funds to be able to invest in the growth of the organization. So that's one of the things that I I typically see is they're waiting way too late in the steps to and of course the the perfect time to do it if you didn't build plant a tree 20 years ago that you know the next second best time is now. But starting earlier in the process to learn how to sell stuff is paramount but classic Brian Tracy you know nothing happens till something gets sold and that that's very true. So we have to have and be priced right from the beginning. And the that's the other side of it is everybody starts

and think well if I just am a little bit less then I can you know I'll I'll win all these deals from stealing from everybody else. But then there's nothing left to be able to reinvest in. And so it's like getting priced from the beginning. You can pay better people. Better people will stick around. All of the things starts to happen when we can sell better and higher from the beginning. No one believes in the price if they don't spend any money. You have an event. Exactly. I guarantee you, you give out a thousand free tickets, you'll have 80 show up. You make sure they pay $5,000 a ticket, you'll get if you sell 100, 99 will show up. One person will have, you know, a kid get six. Something really will happen to somebody. But there's actually money behind why they there's intent behind it. I mean, Alex Shamoszi talks about it. 100 million offers. I talk about this all the time, but like charge a higher price as you

could. Alen Roar talks about it too is like let's freaking charge as much as we possibly can and people think that's like immoral and I'm like wait a minute that the same people that say it's immoral are wearing Gucci's and wearing $400 shoes and $300 belt and they bought a 200 bottle of you know clone and they're wearing a a necklace that cost a thousand bucks. I'm like, look at you see these. I got three plastic bracelets, rubber bracelets on my like look, I'm wearing like this shirt. Like I I It's so funny how the people that talk about prices have the nicest like clothes, they drive the nicest car, but they still live in an apartment. Mhm.

You know, I never want to hear anybody What's that? They're just fronting it. They're They're not They're not authentic in what they're doing. And you can instantly tell. I have a price for everybody because I have options. And if I my take for instance, there's a 10,000 cycle price. The door goes up and down. That's one cycle. We carry a 25,000 cycle price. We carry an 80,000 cycle spring. So 80,000 cycle, let's just say the normal guy charges 350 for a spring. No, 400 for even numbers. Mine is eight times that. So that means I should probably charge 3,200.

I'm charging a third of that for 8x the life. So, you're getting a bargain. And I don't think people understand this. All I want I tell my clients, listen, you remember those May tags from the 80s and the 70s, the washers and dryers, they're usually yellow or white and they're still going today. Like those May tags last forever. They're just they'll keep going. They run forever. And I when I started this business, I decided why don't why don't parts come like that anymore? So, we engineered Max Life Springs. We've got our own trademark. We've got rollers. We've got the the a lot of the parts and people are like, "Oh, that's overkill." Like, but I've never seen one break, right? You know what I mean? It's like, and people are buying peace of mind with it. And I say, here's the deal, guys. I told all my team today, do not join any garage door groups. It's only losers that hang out there. They like to fix

everything. They don't like to ever offer anything new. They'd rather fix it all for nothing. And I'll fix stuff, but at the end of the day, if I got to fix it three times to kick the can down the road, you know, your garage door is 40% of your curb appeal, the smile of your home. Like designers and architects, they they request certain garage doors. It's not just a plain Jane. It dresses up your home. So, did you want this not insulated? you know, did you want me to fix this? Or have you ever thought about like putting something on here that's going to actually it's 194% return on investment? Meaning you put a buck in, you take a buck 94 out. Like that's a no-brainer, right? This is not insulated. No U factor, no RV value. Like it's just it's oxidized. The bottom rubber's shot. It's dented. You want me to fix this or did you ever think maybe maybe we replace it? I think that to me that is the the

best version of service to give them the option to improve their life. It's not up to us to spend their money for them. You know, our price is our price. And it's something that I talk about often is we completely divorce oursel from the number. When we're when we're in the house, we're there to serve. We're there to care with compassion, with empathy and integrity and ethics. And you know, the price is the price. Two things determine the price. one is the, you know, the size and condition of the home and they decided that when they bought the house and the second is what they want to include in the project. If the price is too high, then we'll pick something else. We don't need to discount it. But at the end of the day, you know, the price happens to just come along with the things that they choose to serve them the best way possible.

Yeah. Well, I agree with that. And um you know, you you made an investment into your home and most people have a mortgage. Why wouldn't you want to protect your mortgage in this home by investing in it with the nicest best things? And and you know, I just think if if you're most people's best investment is usually their home. At least you want to protect your investment. Mhm. 100%. Love it. What's one piece of advice you wish someone would have told you when you first started out? Oo, that's a good one. I think that the biggest one that I could especially for all especially all the new people in sales or even technicians, it doesn't matter your role. If you're in home services, I think the biggest piece of advice I could there two two pieces that kind of tie together. One is ask more questions. Nobody asks enough questions.

And then the second piece which goes with that is take more time than you've ever taken before in an appointment. So slow the heck down, ask more questions and slow down. Those are the two things I think that everyone can immediately apply and totally change the totally change the outcome. I really I agree with both of those wholeheartedly. I'd add a third one is practice smiling more and when you talk look into their pupils but the more you smile and you mean to smile and you're having fun like one day my lead trainer at the time she goes we had a guy in there from Albuquerque getting a kind of a retraining and she goes you're not having any fun you look like you got a stick in your ass like smile more and have fun like dude this job's fun like talk to customers get to know them and he came back a month later and his sales had quadrupled because he started smiling and he's just you're sitting

there. People love when you smile. Like if you took you looked at a baby, you know, six months old and you somebody just constantly stare at them. No smile, no frown, and then everyone else, you know, the other person smiling, the baby's going to love the smile. They're going to laugh. They're going to giggle. They're going to appreciate it. They're going to be excited to see them. And obviously tonality matters. And when you smile, your tone changes. So yeah, slow down. I mean, I tell my guys the top guys in the company like to run one to two jobs a day. It's all they need.

Yeah. And they do very very well. They don't need to run four or five jobs. Yeah. No doubt. And I spending enough time to ask the questions and truly listen to what those people like need and want. Offer things that could improve their life. Yeah. So, I always say, you know, some people say they only sell things people need. I'm like, I never sell things people need. I didn't need a new phone. I'm buying a new phone later today because I want one. I didn't need a second car or a Delorean or a house as big as my size. I didn't need, you know, anything. I didn't need the tankless hot water heater. I'm glad they offered it to me. You know what I mean? I didn't need anything. Like I All I need is water. I don't When losers say this line, I only sell things people need.

Like what do you mean? I'm glad you don't work at a at Nordstrom's cuz people, you know, what do you mean you only sell things people need? I always give options and say, "Look, I'm going to give you the options. You pick what you'd like, but I want to give you everything you might ever want. Anything of your heart's desire." You know, I found out a long time ago. People will pay more for what they want than what they need. If everybody just had what they need, everybody drive a Prius and, you know, live in a small, you know, a tiny small house. But they don't. and never will for this very same reason. There's 100%. I mean, we got to take this idea of sales that we're salesmen to out of like because most people feel like sales are a bad thing.

It's a used car salesman. It's a dirty tactic. Well, sales is a good thing. You know, the the priest and the your pastor are in sales. Like when you're in sales, when you talk to your kids about going to bed on time and making their bed, uh so sales Well, a lot of people Why do you think people think sales is so evil? Yeah, I think a lot of it's historical and at the same so it depends on the historical part of it. Um except for you know go back 30 40 years and the most trusted person in town was the trades guy. You know hey my feeders out all right put on another pot of coffee. I'll be right over. But the last probably especially you know two three decades so many bad apples have ruined sales for for a lot of people. all the you look at all the exposees on TV about you know these different companies taking advantage of homeowners and all these things and it's just put such a bad taste in people's mouths that I mean

that that's a huge part of it and then of course we're working so diligently you know people like yourself and and the rest of us that are working to bring trust back to the trades be that person of integrity have the code of ethics the things that we refuse to compromise on for you know just for profit. It doesn't mean we can't charge what we, you know, what we earn, but we're not going to compromise morals and ethics for it. And I think that's a big part of what has caused the the bad sentiment about, you know, about sales and salespeople.

You know, I'll tell you something that I've not told that, you know, and this was recent. I've never said this story yet. My mom asked me, she said, "I I I need my HVAC coils and heater cleaned." And and she asked me a company. And I I told her the most expensive company I know. I said, "Don't let them sell you a new unit, though." But I said, "I know some guys that'll go out there for 50 bucks." Literally, like I I know them that and I know people that I could call that'll do it for free because it's my mom. And I didn't even call this company and ask for a deal or anything. Like I didn't I just said, "Here, call this guy." And I just fored the number. And I want to explain something very interesting about this because I know they'll be there when they say. I know they're drug testing a background checked. I know they'll fix it right if something goes wrong. I know that my mom does not need that air conditioning

going out in the middle of a 122°ree day. So therefore, these other guys that sometimes a week out before they can get there, they'll stop by, they'll bandaid it, it'll break again. So once again, we go back to buying like we want to be bought from. And I think most of the people that don't understand this, they're selling out of their own pocket and they don't own a house yet. Mhm. And they might not even care that much because they're like, you know what? Who cares if we got to sit a day without a garage cuz I just want it cheap. And then they get the cheap stuff and then they complain when it breaks in a year.

It's just amazing how that works. You know why I'm so proud is because so many people that listen to this podcast, they they call us up. They never contact me. They don't ask for a discount. They get it done right and I don't hear from them for a decade. I mean, of course, I see them at shows and stuff and they're like, "Oh, by the way, I wanted to show you this picture of your guy. He's amazing. He I had him at my house six months ago and I'm like, "That's freaking awesome because we took care did we take care of you." And 99.9% of the time they're like, "It was the best experience I've ever had." And I think that's important.

It's crucial. You know, it's so interesting in the trades especially the standard is because it's so easy for people to start a company in the in home services and in the trades. That also means that the standard is really low. So, it's not incredibly hard to be exceptional, but it is difficult to stay there consistently day after day. And that's that's the big differentiator I think is the consistency of training our people and and to your to your point I've heard you say this before you you of course read elevate and you know the train the one of the biggest missing pieces in home services and in the trades is training the internal training of our people. Yeah. you know, because we'll bring them in and just, okay, fly little birds. Here's your, you know, two-hour session and we we're not inspecting what we expect for them to provide that, you know, Chick-fil-A A1 garage door level service every single

time. Well, it's every day. And one person that I continue to learn from every time I talk to him is Leland Smith out of Southern California with Service Champions is he's like, "Every day we train for two hours a morning. Our guys would role play before they'd go out. That was just that was a must." Like we'd init like intentionally not schedule our first job till 9 so they could come in from 7:00 to 9 and role play with each other and we'd have a top couple guys with a couple not so top guys and and they get better and better and better and better and better. Yeah.

I'll say this is interesting that we're talking about this. Um I was talking to uh Doug Wyatt I don't know if you know who that is the other day with Synergy Learning System uh learning systems and we were we were having this conversation. We're talking about other industries outside the trades, industries that are salesdriven industries. Literally any other industry that sells is first when we're, you know, we're because him and I, we've both done done some trainings outside of our our home services. And you the second you step into any other industry that is sales driven, we were like, "Okay, well, you know, when y'all have your weekly meeting," and they're like, "What do you mean weekly meeting?"

Like, "Well, yeah, your weekly sales meeting." They're like, "We do sales every day. What are you talking about?" It's just the standard is we sharpen our axe every single day when you're a salesdriven organization. And then we step into the trades and it's a really unusual thing to train every day. And it's like, wait a minute, where's the disconnect? It's like we've forgotten that or never even learned that the in order to be that expert, a home service expert, just like the show's name. In order to be that expert, we have to constantly be sharpening the axe. It's like Zig Ziggler used to say about personal growth. You You have to It's something you have to do daily. You can't do it on Sunday and expect it to last all week.

I love this. You remind me of some stuff right now. I I think it's I used to be a bus boy and a server and a bartender. And when I was a server, they'd have the AM and PM, right? Chips. Mhm. We'd have a 15minute meeting just to make sure we knew the specials and offered this wine with the certain entre and we knew the soup dur you know soup whatever soup like that's was serving tables at a freaking restaurant but yet in home service where oh no the guys want to meet up every day I don't care what they want their paychecks and their wives want them to get better at their profession and and it's not only about sales but some people some of it's operational some of it's technical it's training training to be wellrounded. Some of it's safety training and making sure you're wearing the right uniforms and making sure you got siltoed boots and you're wearing gloves to protect your fangas. Like I I

don't want to make this only about sales because it's all the above, but sales is the one thing that's the hardest that continuous improvement, right? And I'll agree with you 100% too. I mean, we've got to be constantly working on all of the things to make that that well-rounded, you know, well-rounded person. Um, you know, I have the similar background in in uh, you know, restaurants. You know, every time we'd start the shift, the they'd had the kitchen make up the specialists for night so everybody could even try them to be able to describe them more accurately. It's like, how when's the last time we did that with our, you know, with with what we do? Everybody says, "Well, do you have one of these in your own home?" Well, no wonder you're not selling it. You didn't even put it in your own house.

Oh my gosh, I just talked about this. Put one in your own house. Um I said, you know, everybody that made our pinnacle trip, they every single one of them have a door from us and it's a really nice door and they show pictures. Here's what I got. Yeah. This is what I believe in and I'm getting ready to replace my mom's door and we're tape we're t we're tape we're video you know it's going to become a commercial. We say look my mom's door five years old still not good enough for me. Uh it's a builder's grade. I am going to make this stuff happen.

These are good notes. So, well, tell me a little bit about NLP and why it works so well for sales. You know, it's funny. If anybody wants to learn about NLP, that's a great place to start. But the um you know, NLP is the fancy way of saying brain science. I like to break it down like that. But it's one of the there's a there's several different things involved with it. Mainly it's understanding how brains work, the psychology of how people make decisions and then understanding if we can get the keys in the right order to unlock those.

It's like a almost like a padlock or something that has several places in their brain. If as long as we get them in the right order and we understand that those dynamics, then people will in fact it's it's really cool what happens. they start asking for the business versus us feeling like we're always pushing it on them. So some of the keys of course are especially in our current society is you know the power of the permission question. You know asking permission for everything is crucial in the process. And so after that some of the other things are just word substitutions that make the biggest difference. The biggest one, the the most famous one that I I talk about is the difference in interested versus open. Right. So, in fact, you want to role play with me real quick, Tom? Yeah. And get a give an example for everybody? Absolutely. So, for everybody listening, this is the one this is one thing I I did this on on the

Waste No Day podcast on Wiser Wednesday when I was on there. Shout out to Brian and Nate. So, interested versus open. This is really interesting. It's very interesting. And the reason it's interesting is no one wants to be perceived as closed-minded. The other side of that is everyone wants to be perceived as open-minded. The other part of this when it comes to interested, no one can be interested for anything that they don't know anything about. So until there's a level of education, no one will answer yes, I'm interested. So in so what we're going to do is we're going to take something super easy, super basic and uh you know let's say garage doors because that's that's what you do. And so I'll you be my homeowner and we're going to take just super quick two super quick passes through this one is ask me hey my you know garage door's kind of just basic question my garage door's kind of broken

do you guys have any options to upgrade the door? So, I'll answer how a lot of people traditionally answer a direct question like that and then we'll time out. We'll go through it again and I'll we'll talk about the difference with using interested versus open. Okay. And then permission question with that. So, so go ahead. The garage door seems like it's having a few issues. It's it's shaky. It's noisy. U was wondering if you guys have any options to replace this thing. Oh, yeah man. We got some options. We've got the uh the basic door which is just your single it's not insulated the single ply there we've got the upgraded door from that which is going to be insulated. Then we've got and so I'm going to time out already because what happened? Nothing nothing really happened there. You said frozen and you're just kind of staring at me like what the heck's this guy talking about. So, let's do it again real quick

and I'm going to use open and also the permission question and so you'll see how that works and I want you to feel the difference. Yeah. So, I got this noisy garage door. It's giving me a lot of issues. It has problems going up and down. Do you guys have any options for a replacement? Oh, absolutely, man. We've got some great options. Would you like to hear what they are? Yeah, I would. Okay, gotcha. Awesome. So, uh, before we get into that, um, one, do you mind if I ask you a couple questions? And then, you know, if I can show you a way where, you know, it could improve the, uh, the value of your home and basically show you how it would cost zero to actually do this door in the long run. Would you be open to some more information? Yeah, I would. Okay, great. So, Phil, the difference. So, for everybody that's not watching, what you didn't see is the first time through, Tommy didn't even

flinch. No move, no nothing. The second time through, you couldn't even help it. And this is roleplay. Physiology changed. You leaned in a little bit. You started smiling. You started nodding strictly with the permission question. And now we're open to the information. And so, it makes a massive shift in how people receive information. And that's just kind of a tiny example of how NLP works in or brain science works in in sales. What do you think your favorite part of the sales processes? Is it the initial contact, the followup, or maybe the sweet moment of closing the deal?

I'm going to for personally I'm going to answer that different. My my favorite part of that is the followup. Most people hate followup, but it's so fun and it's so easy because we already did the work. And I know that nobody else ever follows up hardly. And when I follow up, I get business because nobody else is calling them back. And so my and it's conversations they every single time you get on the phone with somebody you already did a project with or already did an appointment with, they're like, "Oh yeah, hey, how's it going? I remember." And so my favorite is follow-up.

I love the followup, brother. Um that, you know, we use Chirp so effectively and everybody's asking me, "Can I see your campaigns? Can I see your campaigns?" I'm like, "Look, because I know the guys so well at Chirp. the everybody thinks the secret is I do have great campaigns and I make great videos and they're selfies and I'm like hey Tommy here the founder of A1 garage service just wanted to let you know you got some options here if you wanted to do something a little bit different I got these doors that are sitting here that kind of fit what you're looking for and I can get them at a better value if they if you want to discuss those options but you know I make videos and I test different things but the real deal is we respond in real time so if we send you a message via text we need to respond when you say, "Hey, yeah, I'd like to I'd like to follow up with you." And like half the battle of studying what the best of the

best at Chirp do is it's just they they follow up at every client and then they make sure they get back to them right away on their time, not my time. You see, it's the client's time that I care about. It didn't break when it was convenient for them, and it's never going to be convenient in home service. So, if they say, "Yeah, can you get back to me tonight around 8:00 p.m.?" I don't think anybody's wife would matter to close a $10,000 door sale if they said, "Hey, I'll give you 15 minutes." Like, and the best the best in my company, they're so good. They're they're relentless at the followup.

Yeah, I 100% see the same thing. You know, of course, I train a lot of different language and you know, there's all the different trainers have language around follow-up and everybody wonders, well, what do I say? Well, the reason that we treat teach language around follow-up is not for the client necessarily. It's for the person, the salesperson to get them to actually do it. If we give them empowering language that feels so makes them feel more confident to do follow-up instead of begging like I'm just touch and base, circling back, all those things, well, they feel more empowered to actually do it. But at the end of the day, statistically, the customer does not care. They're they expect five to seven follow-ups every single appointment and they expect two to three of those to be a legitimate phone call, not just an email or text.

And that's that's statistics. Every single time follow-up is studied in our society. And so the fact that we do it and stay in touch doesn't matter what you say. Just pick up the phone and call the people. Text them. And if they don't answer, text. If they don't answer, double dial, you know, double tap. They then text, then email, all at the same time. But just reach out and get in touch with people. You will close business. I had one of my guy that listens to my podcast. He's a big big- time fan. Every single January, he spends the first week of January literally calling every single unclosed pro every single unclosed appointment from the previous year. this year, first week of January, he closed $200,000 in business strictly by calling up back through last year's. No new appointments, just talking to people.

Hey, how's it going? Where are you in your decision process? That's it. That's all they had to do is just call back. Yeah. Like, look, look, listen. I want to be your garage door provider for life and I want to figure out what this is going to take and I want to make sure you feel good about us and we feel like we give you a good shake. If it's the money, we've got different options. If it's the timing, let me know. Uh, but we want to be your company. And I I gotta say, I'm asking you for your business. I really am. I I really want to know. A And look, if you need me to bring your wife flowers and give you tickets to the Lions game, I'll do it because that's how much we want your business. Like, just show that you want it. So many people are like, "Oh, I was just calling to see if you made it this yet." It's like, oh my gosh, dude. you like and this is not even hard training. This is just common sense, right? Yeah. It for

it's really funny because this is like it seems to us because we're so experienced with it. It's like, man, this is entry level. But it so many people don't do it. And I don't understand why because they're literally sitting on millions of dollars of business and they're just not picking up the phone and calling them. So for everybody listening, pick up the phone. It's a gold mine. And if you don't, we will. We'll follow up behind you and we'll close your business because that's what happens. You've educated them.

Somebody else comes in and then has the intentional conversation and closes it. You could have closed it, but you didn't. So, you set it up for somebody else. And that's what happens so many times. You know how many times I hear you're the only one that got back to me, so we're definitely going to be doing business with you. And I don't know, like you hear some people say, "I got to talk to three people." Well, that's that's not real. I I've had so many people say, "Before you get started, I'm going to talk with three people." When I get done, and we're laughing and I blow their mind, and I educate them on a HS and the home service uh expert page on Facebook, I I put I copied this and it said, this guy said, as a conversation, I just started reading through it.

There's so many posts in there. And this guy said, "I got three different window quotes." And on the third one, the guy brought in all the samples. He educated me about this and the rebates and the energy efficiency and just showed me everything to feel like I I actually understood windows now. And that's why I chose that company because they educated me. And if you spend the time to educate clients and give them options and just tell them what you would do based on their situation and say there's no wrong answer here. Listen, I want to do what's good for you. You're going to win the business a lot of the time, but they need to like you, feel liked, and they need to like the company. That's it.

Absolutely. so powerful. What do you think what do you think you can do to spot the buying signals in a sale? Because I think some people talk past the buying signals of like they they burn the sale, you know? Abs. Oh my gosh, this is this is a big one. This is you you're touching on one of my hot buttons right now, especially um in fact, I'm I'm working on some things that is about to uh completely change the way that a lot of things are done when it comes to this topic. it. The buying signals are smaller than most people think. In fact, the things that you truly are looking for, they come earlier in the conversation. So, both buying signals and signals that something went sideways. So, a lot of times they happen way earlier than we, you know, expect the big, woo, hey, that's exciting.

We're not looking for the, you know, we don't want it to look like they just got dealt a pair of pocket aces and they're playing poker, you know, and can't hide a bluff. If that's the first place that we recognize a buying signal, we haven't been paying attention. So, it's further than that. It's a lot more subtle than that. So, usually buying signals happen early in the appointment. um the way the I mean the my system the way I train it by the time we're done with our introductions company intro personal intro and setting the agenda they're sold the buying signals start happening there and then as we go through it just reinforces it in fact I would be willing to uh to wager that if we set it up right not just the bio and the you know the picture that we send ahead of time with Service Titan there's something else that I train is actually sending an on the way video which is hey I'm you know I'm excited for our

appointment be there you know right at our scheduled time if you would take a minute and clear out anything that might be in the way where we're going to be working um appreciate that that way we can focus on what's important to you the fact that we now have a video there also ahead of time that warms that client up because something called the living room effect and then once we step foot on that on the premises now they're so they're already warmed up that intros and agenda, man, they're they're ready to buy if you've made a great first impression. So, just like you, it really reinforces like what you were saying, we start off with the A if we've made that great first impression and then people will talk themselves out of it because they think they need to overexlain things or need to dive in technical way more than people need or want. And so that's where the confused mind says no, but they start off with the yes.

I love this. I can talk to you all day about sales, man. I'm sure we're going to get up there eventually. Um, so if people want to reach out to you, Sam, what's the best way to do that? Yes. So, um, yeah. So, where where you can get in touch with me is, of course, closeitnow.net. That's the website. Email me directly, sam@cloitnow.net. of course the big Facebook group you can join as well and uh yeah that's that's the big thing and then this end of last year I co-authored a book that hit international bestseller list and so that was really exciting so be on the lookout for at least one or two books coming out this year I've got a co-author book that's under the radar I'm working on actually have a patent I'm working on uh for cell for the sales process and then also we've got all my book will be coming out this next year as well So, lots going on. Cool. I'm writing a new book. Um, I'm actually I bought a lot of

books this week to help me with my book. I've got the core of it, but it's called Pay Them What They're Worth. And it talks a lot about just ways to reward employees and get them on page and make sure they're getting, you know, they got a stake in the outcome. So, um, we talked about a lot of stuff, Sam. I want to give you just a few minutes to close us out on anything that you feel like the audience needs to hear. Yeah. Thank you for that and and first I appreciate you having me on the show. This has been a lot of fun. Always enjoy enjoy chopping it up with you every chance we get. our our episodes I feel like never end up this kind of the same as a lot of other people because we're all over the map. But uh yeah, you know, the the one thing I could really emphasize to everybody is, you know, when we're when we're working with homeowners, when we're working with the sales, not to forget that, you know,

whatever line of home services we're in, we're there to serve. It is home services for a reason. So, show up with heart. Show up truly in, you know, in your in your best version of yourself. What I say is I'm not asking anybody to be somebody they're not, but I'm asking you to show up and be the very best version of yourself as possible. And then along with that, the kind of technical thing to remember is remember what the homeowner's problem is. Too many people try to sell to the house. The house doesn't write the check. Just because you found all of these code faults and all of these things that are quote unquote wrong with the install or wrong with the house, it doesn't mean anything unless the the people in the house see a problem with it and what is their problem. So figure out what their problem is first. What are your concerns? All of these things. How can we improve your life? And then as a it's

our job as professionals to connect the dots between what their problem is and the things that we do and show them how this will solve their problem. And the second that we get those things clear and understand that the pro the the the fault we found is not the problem. It's causing their problem. That's where the magic starts to happen because then we start to speak on their terms of hey this is the benefit to you. Can you see how this will change in your life? And that that's really where so much of that conversation moves forward because now we're there to serve and they they feel it because we truly care about making their life better with no attachment to the dollars on the back end because knowing that, you know, just like Zig Ziggler always said, if we take care of enough people, then if we help other people get anything they want, then we can have anything we want. And so it'll the money will come, but it's not what

it's about. And it's about helping people truly with the heart and compassion from the beginning. I love it, Sam. This was a great podcast. And you know, you said we go all over the place. If you listen to Joe Rogan talk for three hours and his podcast, I talk about all over the place. So, I just like to like sit back and like have fun and I don't like to do too much formatting and question like perfect and you're going to know. I don't care if people know exactly what they're going to get, but it's going to be fun. It's going to be informative and it's going to be hopefully useful.

something they could get started with today. So, I appreciate you being on here, Sam, and uh look forward to seeing you here soon. Absolutely, man. I appreciate it. Thanks. Great work. All right, my brother.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Mastering Sales Strategy in 2025 with Sam Wakefield"?

Tommy (Host), Sam Wakefield (Guest).

What is "Mastering Sales Strategy in 2025 with Sam Wakefield" about?

Sam Wakefield, a sales and business expert and founder of Close It Now, shares insights on mastering sales strategies in 2025, emphasizing the importance of customer retention alongside acquisition, particularly within the HVAC industry. His innovative approach to sales training, combined with real-world examples, positions HVAC as a foundational skill set that translates across various sectors,…

What is mentioned in this Home Service Expert episode?

7 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Sam Wakefield, Close It Now, Close It Now podcast, Service Titan, Pay Them What They're Worth, Frank Blau. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Mastering Sales Strategy in 2025 with Sam Wakefield"?

The episode runs 1 h 3 min; the transcript is about 12,497 words in 83 timestamped sections.

More from Home Service Expert

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.