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Sam Wakefield

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The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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We sharpen our axe every single day. It's like we've forgotten that or never even learned that in order to be that expert, we have to constantly be sharpening the axe. It's something you have to do daily. You can't do it on Sunday and expect it to last all week.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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 easily be six figures.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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?

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Yeah, let's raise the standard.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Every answer in 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 talk about how he poured.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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And it was story after story of how he's poured 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 was definitely a privilege to hear that, but it just carries through.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Absolutely. It's funny. Every single one of the things that you mentioned happened to me today. 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 drives me forward is really that the ability to change lives on a grander scale.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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I could step out in the field and just be a top performer somewhere and that's good, but the leverage point of being able to really dramatically impact lives really can only get that way through leverage, through, you know, had a book this last year hit some cool bestseller lists. I've got actually one that I co-authored. I've got one coming out this next year.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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'm going to go back and immediately implement.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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that's the reason that i do it now you're right it is not the most lucrative at uh especially at the beginning 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 that when you find what you love to do you'll never work a day in your life i actually think that's wrong i think you work harder than you ever have because now you're internally inspired

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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instead of just being externally motivated. And when, when that inspiration wakes you up before your alarm goes off, because just cause you can't wait to get to the day. I mean, that's the, that's the big difference there. And yeah, it's the, it's the game changer that, that the intention that keeps things moving forward is the, is what it's all about.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Oh, geez. One of the big ones is everything's out of order in a lot of their process. The company itself... usually builds out of order. So what I mean by that is they'll put, you know, they'll buy their phone system and they'll buy their, you know, service tightener, home service, you know, whatever their operating system is. They'll put all of these things in place. Yeah, they've got their CRM.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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They've got all the different stuff. They've got their marketing 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 backwards because now you're at a place where you have all of this overhead.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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So, Sam, it's a pleasure to have you on. Thank you, man. It's such an awesome pleasure to be here. I love that you mentioned HVAC Spells Wealth. That was one of my very first books that I ever read in the industry. And it was just incredibly powerful to read through that book and learn that our goal is not to just get customers to keep them as well.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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You have all these leads coming in because you invested in all this other stuff, but nobody knows how to convert anything.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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 cells 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

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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So that's one of the things that I typically see is they're waiting way too late in the steps to, and of course, the perfect time to do it, if you didn't build Planetree 20 years ago, 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, nothing happens till something gets sold. And that's very true.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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So we have to have and be priced right from the beginning. And that's the other side of it is everybody starts and think, well, if I just am a little bit less than I can, you know, 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 that's like getting priced from the beginning.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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I feel like that's something a lot of people have forgotten nowadays.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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. Our price is our price. It's something that I talk about often is we completely divorce ourself from the number. When we're in the house, we're there to serve. We're there to care with compassion, with empathy and integrity and ethics.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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And the price is the price. Two things determine the price. One is 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.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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I think that the biggest one that I could remember, especially for all, especially all the new people in sales or even technicians, it doesn't matter your role. And if you're in home services, I think the biggest piece of advice I could, there are 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,

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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 outcome.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Yeah. So, you know, I've been doing this in the trades almost 20 years now. So April is actually the sixth year anniversary for the Close It Now as a sales training company in the podcast. And, you know, one of the big things I've been working on, especially this last few months, is really deep diving into the internal workings of Really just people.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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They're spending enough time to ask the questions and truly listen to what those people need and want. Offer things that could improve their life.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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You know, I found that a long time ago, people will pay more for what they want than what they need. If everybody just had what they need, everybody would drive a Prius and live in a small, tiny, small house. But they don't and never will for this very same reason.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Yeah, I think a lot of it's historical. So it depends on the historical part of it. Except for, you know, go back 30, 40 years and the most trusted person in town was the trades guy. you know, hey, my heater's 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 a lot of people.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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You look at all the exposés 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's a huge part of it.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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And then, of course, we're working so diligently, you know, people like yourself 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.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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 bad sentiment about, you know, about sales and salespeople.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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One of the ways that we close the show is work to become someone worth buying from. And as we go internal, we really get to up-level ourselves first. And as 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 kind of the sales bearer.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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 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.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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And that's the big differentiator, I think, is the consistency of training our people. And to your point, I've heard you say this before. You, of course, read Elevate. And one of the biggest missing pieces in home services and in the trades is the internal training of our people.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Because we'll bring them in and just...

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Yeah, I'll say this is interesting that we're talking about this. I was talking to Doug Wyatt. I don't know if you know who that is the other day with Synergy Learning Systems. And we were having this conversation. We were talking about other industries outside the trades. Industries that are sales-driven industries. Literally any other industry that sells is first.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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You know, what we've really been talking about on our show lately is, you know, when it seems like those objections kind of follow us around, The common denominator could be us. We attract who we are. So if I want to think about it a lot or I need three bids, it's time for us to examine our own buying habits and realize, oh, wait a minute, maybe I'm attracting this.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Because him and I, we've both done some trainings outside of our home services. And 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?

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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It's just the standard is we sharpen our ax every single day when you're a sales-driven 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 Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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 ziglar 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 reminded me of some stuff right now i think it's

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Right. And I'll agree with you a hundred percent 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. You know, I have the similar background in, in, you know, restaurants, you know, every time we'd start to shift the, they'd had the kitchen makeup, the specialists for that.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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So I 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.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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You know, it's funny, if anybody wants to learn about NLP, that's a great place to start. But the, 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 several different things involved with it. Mainly, it's understanding how brains work, the psychology of how people make decisions.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Do I have these things in my life that's causing that to mirror our clients when we go into our appointments? So that's what I've been working on lately. It's been a thought journey that's a lot of fun.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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And then understanding if we can get the keys in the right order to unlock those It's almost like a padlock or something that has several places in their brain. As long as we get them in the right order and we understand those dynamics, then people will, in fact, it's really cool what happens. They start asking for the business versus us feeling like we're always pushing it on them.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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So some of the keys, of course, are, especially in our current society, is the power of the permission question. Asking permission for everything is crucial in the process. After that, some of the other things are just word substitutions that make the biggest difference. The most famous one that I talk about is the difference in interested versus open.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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In fact, you want to role play with me real quick, Tom? Yeah, let's do it. Give an example for everybody? Absolutely. For everybody listening, this is one thing. I did this on the Waste No Day podcast on Wiser Wednesday when I was on there. Shout out to Brian and Nate. Interested versus open. This is really interesting. It's very interesting.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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So what we're going to do is we're going to take something super easy, super basic, and let's say garage doors, because that's what you do. And so you be my homeowner. And we're going to take two super quick passes through this. One is ask me, hey, my garage door is kind of just a basic question. My garage door is kind of broken. Do you guys have any options to upgrade the door?

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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 we'll talk about the difference with using interested versus open. And then permission question with that.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Oh, yeah, man. We got some options. We've got 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 stayed frozen.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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And you're just kind of staring at me like, what the heck is 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.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Oh, absolutely, man. We've got some great options. Would you like to hear what they are? Yeah, I would. Okay, gotcha. Awesome. So before we get into that, one, do you mind if I ask you a couple questions?

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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And then, you know, if I can show you a way where, you know, it could improve 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 feel the difference. So for everybody that's not watching, what you didn't see is the first time through, Tommy didn't even flinch.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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No move, no nothing. The second time through, you couldn't even help it. And this is role play. Physiology changed. You leaned in a little bit. You started smiling. You started nodding.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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 process is is it the initial contact the follow-up or maybe the sweet moment of closing the deal

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Personally, I'm going to answer that different. My favorite part of that is the follow-up. Most people hate follow-up, but it's so fun and it's so easy because we already did the work. I know that nobody else ever follows up hardly. And when I follow up, I get business because nobody else is calling them back.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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And so my, and it's conversations, they, every single time you get on the phone with somebody 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 favorites follow up.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Yeah, I 100% see the same thing. Of course I train a lot of different language, and all the different trainers have language around follow-up, and everybody wonders, well, what do I say? Well, the reason that we teach language around follow-up is not for the client necessarily. It's for the salesperson to get them to actually do it.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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If we give them empowering language so it makes them feel more confident to do follow-up instead of begging, like, oh, I'm just touching 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 expect five to seven follow-ups every single appointment.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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And they expect two to three of those to be a legitimate phone call, not just an email or text. And 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, double dial, double tap.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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 every single unclosed appointment from the previous year this year first week of january he closed two hundred thousand dollars in business strictly by calling back through last year's no new appointments

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Right. Yeah. 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 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 goldmine.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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 happened so many times.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Absolutely. So powerful.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Oh, my gosh. This is a big one. You're touching on one of my hot buttons right now, especially. In fact, I'm working on some things that is about to completely change the way that a lot of things are done when it comes to this topic. But 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.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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So both buying signals and signals that something went sideways. So a lot of times they happen way earlier than we expect the big, oh, 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.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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. My system, the way I train it, by the time we're done with our introductions, company intro, personal intro, and setting the agenda,

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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 upright 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 excited for our appointment.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Be there right at our scheduled time. If you would, take a minute, clear out anything that might be in the way where we're going to be working. 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.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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And then once we step foot on that on the premises, now they're already warmed up that...

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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intros and agenda man they're they're ready to buy if you've made a great first impression so just like it really reinforces like what you're 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 over explain 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

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Yeah, so where you can get in touch with me is, of course, closeitnow.net. That's the website. Email me directly, sam at closeitnow.net. Of course, the big Facebook group you can join as well. And yeah, 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.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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. I actually have a patent I'm working on for the sales process. And then also we've got my book will be coming out this next year as well. So lots going on.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for that. And first, I appreciate you having me on the show. This has been a lot of fun. I always enjoy chopping it up with you every chance we get. Our episodes, I feel like, never end up kind of the same as a lot of other people's because we're all over the map. But yeah, you know, the one thing I could really emphasize to everybody is...

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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When we're working with homeowners, when we're working with the sales, not to forget that 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 your best version of yourself.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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 is It doesn't mean anything unless 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?

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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And then 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 fault we found is not the problem. It's causing their problem.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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That's where the magic starts to happen because then we start to speak in their terms of, hey, this is the benefit to you. Can you see how this will change in your life? And that's really where so much of that conversation moves forward because now we're there to serve and they feel it because we truly care about them. making their life better with no attachment to the dollars on the back end.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Because knowing that, you know, just like Zig Ziglar 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 the money will come, but it's not what it's about. It's about helping people truly with the heart and compassion from the beginning.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Absolutely agree with that. When I'm coaching, I actually had somebody earlier, we were coaching on his 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 kid's names? Do you remember the wife's name? Nope, nope, nope.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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I was like, do you see, before we 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. They gave you the think about it because they didn't even know who you were. You didn't know who they were.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Go ahead. It's because I love this so much, too. That's funny. I saw a post earlier on social media. It was just asking. It was Everett over at his Sales Tales group. He was asking, have you ever received or said yes to anybody offering you something to drink in a home?

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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And, of course, my comment was like, man, I couldn'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 break bread with somebody builds a relationship.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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You know, you really can't otherwise. So it's such a powerful thing 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.

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Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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I love it. Yeah. You get to meet the craziest, coolest people. And, you know, 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.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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And and it's just so fulfilling. It is.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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start close it now and start this hx 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 uh brought a couple new people onto the team sent them off to a training and they came back after a week and

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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. Nobody buys like that anymore. And so I that's what I start. I said, well, if we looked around, I couldn't find a training that was the right fit.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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So I decided to start it. And then the podcast started organically because 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. I knew if my team needed to hear it that other people did too.

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Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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 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 sell and everything's logic, logic, logic.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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 at the time, I didn't find anybody that was was training like that. And so I said, well, you know, somebody has to lead the charge. So let's go.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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Oh, that speaks to me so much. One of the things that I love 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, with that whole idea of work to be someone worth buying from, we cover, you know, so many different elements of life.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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You know, if you're not in integrity with yourself, with your own personal growth, with your own spiritual journey, 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 micro agreements that we keep with ourselves determine how we show up with our confidence, with our posture, with our certainty.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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And proof that actually the sales skills is the least important of that. 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 until you're on top? And they're like, no, not very long.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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And they're on top of the leaderboard again, even though knowing nothing about the new industry, but they're someone that people want to do business with because they've just worked to become that level of person. And that's, man, that's the heart cry of my company and my passion is helping people up level.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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You know, I got tired of going to the conferences and, you know, the guys hanging out in the bar after the 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 up-level all of the home service industries. I agree.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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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 so much better and different than how it used to be, I agree.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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I was at that same kind of era where for so long 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 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 to other down the road that has another college degree.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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And it's like, oh, my gosh, wow. Wait a minute. This is let's right size the right frame of mind around this.

The Home Service Expert Podcast

Mastering Sales in 2025 - Winning Strategies with Sam Wakefield

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It depends on the position, of course. But I mean, if somebody is not making six figures, they're asleep. You know, they're just not in the right position at all. A six figure take home is kind of the minimum threshold, I would say, for most positions.