Rev up your sales & close like a boss

Ange
Yeah, that’s right. We’ve owned and operated our plumbing business for over 20 years, and now we dedicate our lives to teaching fellow trade business owners how to get their business running smoothly. So if you’ve got a question that you’ve been sitting on, then hit us up at podcast@lifestyletradie.com.au or via the toolbox at www.lifestyletradie.com.au.

Andy
Should we rip in?

Ange
Yeah, absolutely. So today’s question is, when trying to close a sale with a customer, is there anything I can do to make sure they say yes?

Andy
Ooh. All right. This is an absolute cracking one. Yes. But first of all, I think most trade business owners, this is the part that a lot of us don’t like. We don’t like the fact that we’re a business owner, but sales is so important, and when I say to most people, what do you think when we say the word sales, sales, sales, sales?

Ange
Well, when you say it like that, what comes to mind is sleazy car salesman and that feeling, I suppose, of being uncomfortable or pressured to sell.

Andy
Exactly. And none of us like feeling like we’re being sold to. No. And most salespeople are so pushy and they make you feel really uncomfortable. And I reckon that’s why tradies hate thinking of themselves as salespeople.

Ange
Sure.

Andy
The thing is we need to embrace sales if we want to be a successful trade business.

Ange
Yeah, I totally agree. For you guys listening, trade business owners, instead of thinking of yourself as a salesperson, think of it this way. You are not selling to them, instead, you are educating the customer so that they can be empowered to make a decision.

Andy
That is a hundred percent the truth. Yeah. You know, there’s a massive difference between educating and selling to a customer. You know, we all went to TAFE for four to six years to learn everything about our trade, not to use our knowledge to educate our customers is a sin. You know, this is what we are supposed to do.

Ange
Yeah, I totally agree. I suppose I put myself in the customer’s shoes, so imagine that you’ve come to see me on site and to be honest, I know obviously very little about what’s going on, and that’s the reason why I’ve called you out is because you are a knowledgeable person. So if you position yourself as just trying to educate me and not selling to me, then I’m a hundred percent more favorable to saying yes to you to going ahead with the work just simply because you’ve helped me make a decision. So, Andy in saying that, based on your experience as a trade business owner, how do you build this relationship with every potential customer so that the likelihood of them saying yes to working with you is at an all-time high?

Andy
Well, I think the big thing when you are selling or when someone’s purchasing, it’s important to know that making a sale or getting a customer to say yes, Doesn’t happen only at the moment that you’re talking about the job or the quote. It starts way, way earlier than that.

Ange
Yeah, you’re right Andy. It actually starts right from the beginning of what we call the customer journey. We actually teach this process called the trust escalator, and it takes you through the five buying decision steps that every single customer follows when they’re making a buying decision. It’s not actually when you’re standing in front of them, you know, talking about a quote. It actually starts at the very beginning when they’re actually starting to do research. When they’re trying to pull in, say that plumber or that electrician, and they’ve landed on your website, for instance, and they’re reading everything about you and you don’t even know it.

Andy
Yeah, this trust escalator really made a lot of money for the guys we’ve worked with because it teaches them a very simple and easy process that you need to follow every time. You know, we actually did a full episode on this already, so check out our episode in season one. It’s, I’m not a salesperson, I’m a tradie. It’s where we talk about trust based selling in detail, and we give you all the tools to make sure that you and your team are doing this right. You know, it’s such a massive conversation and it’s super important. If you wanna learn how to close a sale, you need to have nailed that buying decision process and trust-based selling section first, because it’s all about customers knowing who you are, liking you, and as we said before, people wanna buy from people they like.

Ange
Yes. So once you’ve got your head around the five buying decisions that you need to follow to actually build trust, one of the basics of this, which sounds really, really simple, is being really conscious about how you show up, not just on the phone, but also in front of a customer. You need to literally ensure that your attitude is top notch every single time with a smile on your face.

Andy
Yeah, you gotta build this relationship from the moment they make the first phone call to the moment you come on site, they know everything about you and know you’re the right person for the job. And then when you do turn up on site, you know what? You’ve gotta need to give a shit. Oh my God. Some tradies that rock up with their phone to their head and they’re smelly and they’re dirty and they’ve just got a poor attitude. I’m working too hard and I don’t wanna be here. And I do get it as a tradie perspective because sometimes we are super, super busy and we’re super, super stressed and we fall into this negative spiral. But I can tell you this, when you do that, it gets you off to a terrible start with your customer. And when you do need to sell at the end, they don’t have that connection with you, there’s a real challenge there.

Ange
Well, if I put myself in the customer’s shoes, and that’s exactly how you showed up, is you know, too obsessed with how your day was going and you’ve got your head down and you’re all negative, straight away, I’ve pretty much just judged you that you are not a very nice guy and I don’t really want you in my house.

Andy
Here’s a tip, everyone. When someone says to you, Hey, how’s your day going? You know what? They don’t really wanna know how your day’s going, so don’t tell ’em how shit your day is. They don’t wanna know. Right? They’re saying it to be polite. Yeah. So even if you’re having the worst day of your life, When the customer asks you that, you’re like, oh, fantastic. Having an absolute cracker day. Love what I do and get stuck in. But that’s what customers want to hear. They don’t want to hear all the downward spiral stuff.

Ange
No, that’s right. This is all embedded in customer psychology, and we talk a lot about this. That, you know, you show up. I’m gonna talk about residential for a second, but obviously there’s lots of other market segments. But imagine you’ve just shown up at my front door and you don’t know what’s gone on in my life. Like I’m ridiculously busy, I’m dealing with the kids. Maybe I’ve just had a fight with my husband. I mean, who knows what’s happened? And if you show up at my front door and all of a sudden you also are negative, you’re just gonna impound on my negativity already and I already hate you. It is actually your job to help me get out of this position. No, no. That sounds stupid.

Andy
But no, it’s not. We talk a lot about that. If you do go to a customer’s house and they are on a bit of a negative spiral, it’s our job to try and pick them out of that and get them on a high, because it’s very hard to sell to someone when they’re negative. Yes. You’ve gotta get them on that level playing field. They understand what’s going on, and you use your tonality to pull ’em out of that. You know, it’s no different, right? If you’re at a bar having a few drinks and you want to go pick someone up, you know, if you approach them and you’ve got no confidence and you’re, you’re mumbling and you,

Ange
Telling me how bad you shave.

Andy
You’ve got shoulders, hands, you’re like, hi, how are you going? Yeah, I’m going, okay, but dude, I had a bad day. Like, they don’t wanna hear that. And, and if you go up to a person, Fucking look at me, mate. I’m a sexy rooster. And you’re too cocky. And you just act like, yeah, come on. I just wanna take you home, sometimes a person doesn’t like that either, so,

Ange
Ah, no.

Andy
You’ve gotta make sure that you are playing on their level playing field. So you need to understand what type of person you are talking to.

Ange
Yeah, this all comes down to communication, not just communication in what you say, the language, which is what you were just talking about, but also the mannerisms. Like I don’t, I know you guys can’t see any, but he was like cock, he was like a, um, a rooster, rooster, roo in this podcast.

Andy
But you know, times have changed. I know these days you don’t have to worry about picking someone up on the bar, just jump on Tinder and away you go. I mean, I don’t know. Is that? Do you look back on our days growing up before you and I met, do you wish Tinder was around or did you like the old school way?

Ange
Oh, I don’t even know how to answer that.

Andy
I, I do. Oh, I bet not say it here though. . But realistically, like I was saying, when you do meet anyone, there’s different personality types, isn’t there, Ange?

Ange
Yes. And personality styles or types are actually really important. It’s, uh, critical that you understand not just yourself, but that you can actually read other people. There’s some really good training called DISC meaning dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientious. And it explains the different types of people. So D, for instance, are confident and focused on accomplishing results. I, are like the personality people, they’re based on relationships and influence. S, people are dependable and they look for cooperation and sincerity. And people with a high C profile are driven by accuracy and detail and competency.

Andy
So what am I?

Ange
You’re totally a D.

Andy
You’re calling me a big D. Thanks for that.

Ange
I am. When you actually understand this about yourself and you know what makes you tick when you actually see a customer, It’s really important that you actually switch your personality style to match the person in front of you.

Andy
Yeah, that’s right. You need to make sure, cuz as we talked about people, like people that are like them, right? So if you know you got a little old lady and she’s, hi, how are you going? You can’t walk in there. You going, Mrs. Jay, Jay, what do you want done today? Because, She’s gonna fall over and break that walking stick and it’s, it’s all over. Right?

Ange
That’s right.

Andy
You need to be at their level. So you need to be able to work out what they are in the personality types, and then you need to react with that. And some of the best salespeople are very, very good at doing this. You’re gonna mold yourself to their personality to win ’em over.

Ange
Yes. So a perfect example of this is, You know that you are a D like Andy is, who doesn’t like to get us?

Andy
I don’t like it when you keep calling me a D.

Ange
Who doesn’t wanna hear lots of detail or ask lots of questions. He just wants to make quick decisions.

Andy
Let’s go.

Ange
But if the person in front of you is asking lots of questions, you just need to take a step back and think to yourself, alright, these questions are good questions, means they haven’t actually yet made a decision and they’re still trying to make a decision. So just take a chill pill and smile and answer every single question because this person is clearly a C type of personality. So just emulate them because they’re therefore gonna eventually make a decision. And ideally they’re gonna choose you because you’ve actually taken the time to be more like them.

Andy
Yeah. And some people will tell you that one selling strategy works for everyone, but you know what? That is so not true. And there’s some terrible stories out there, how people are winning quotes across the line, and ones that really make me sick, to be honest. And some people use that real high pressure and staring the customer down and like it’s gotta be done. And they’ve got a bit of an intimidating way of selling. You know, to be honest, I’m really not into that and I wish no one did that. And I think it gives us a bit of a bad name. If you are using a process like that, it’s just about making sure you are connecting with the people and people wanna feel like they’re getting a good deal and people wanna feel like you are gonna deliver an amazing job. You’re gonna give them a good deal and you are there to make money. There’s no doubt about it. But they wanna feel like you’re gonna do everything right.

Ange
So, Andy, let me ask you this. Can you think of one good technique for how to get a customer to say yes to doing work with you?

Andy
Yeah, a simple and easy technique, Ange. Ah, for the freaking sale , like the amount of people that go, oh, I can’t quote today, and I’ll give you a quote a week down the track and they don’t do it in front of the customer. The best time to get the sale is when you are in front of the customer. You, you built all the trust. They think you’re amazing. Everything about your business, they’re on an all time high. You give them a price and you say to them, listen to Mrs. Jones, we can do it today, or we can do it at seven o’clock tomorrow. So you are asking a yes yes question and you’re actually asking for the sale. Now they are not always gonna say yes, But you’ll be surprised how often when you ask for the sale in front of them, if you’ve positioned yourself and your company the right way, you will get that sale, especially with the right type of avatar or customer. Obviously commercial big jobs, jobs maybe over $10,000 is a little bit harder, but you’ve gotta ask for the sale.

Ange
I think the thing to always remember, Is the customer has called you in because there is truthfully a problem at hand and you’ve been called in to try and, you know, suggest a solution and they actually want the solution. So just make the decision really easy for them and quick so that they almost can, you know, tick this little box off their to-do list. That’s the, that’s your job.

Andy
I remember we were standing on stage in Brisbane and we’re at a painter’s networking event. I think there’s about 200 people in the room or something. And, I was telling them about asking for this sale and when this painter stood up and went, Hey mate, there’s no way we can ask for the sale on the spot. I’m like, why is that? And he goes, because we’ve gotta go away and quote. And I’m like, oh. And I just remember saying this, it probably didn’t come across as nice as it should have. But I’m like, oh mate, your job’s so bloody hard being a painter, isn’t it, buddy? What are you gonna do? Paint sandpaper, a couple of sanding blocks, like, and I really ripped into him and he was like, oh, oh, oh. I’m like, well, people convince themselves that they can’t quote on the spot and they’re just because they’re lazy. Like you should be able to quote the majority of your jobs on the spot. And if you’ve gotta ring a supplier and get a price on something, do it on the spot so you can ask for the sale on the spot. That is the best way to do it.

Ange
So if you work with a market segment like Strata or maybe real estate agents, or maybe the job is like 50, a hundred grand, I don’t know. Yeah. So sometimes you actually can’t ask for a sale on the spot.

Andy
No.

Ange
So what would you suggest then?

Andy
Well, working with Strata and commercials, you wanna get in front of the right people. You know, the strata managers normally on your side because they’ve engaged you but what about the body corporate? Who do they want to use? Why are you gonna be the best? You know, what I used to always do when we did a hell of a lot of strata was I would talk to the strata manager and say, listen, do you want me to be a part of the body corporate meeting? Yes, it’d take an hour or two of my time, but I’d rock in there. I’d meet everyone. I’d wine and dine ’em. I’d make sure they all thought I was a legend guy. We’d talk about the pricing. We’d position the company of who we are. I’d run through the job with them on site. I’d build relationships. And if you had a job for 30 grand or 40 grand and the other guy they can hardly even talk to, and I’m there at 40 grand and they’re having this amazing relationship and there’s 20 people in the block. They don’t really care about the 10 grand so much. They just want the person they know is gonna do the perfect job for them. That’s gonna last in the long term. But most people are like, I’m too busy. I’m not gonna, one of those things. I’m not doing that. As I’ve always said, and as everyone knows, the best time to sell is when you’re standing in front of the people. Look, when you buy a car, if you ring up a car dealer and you say to them, Hey, I wanna buy this car, what price? They always say to you, oh, come on in, come on in. Because they know your emotions and who you are and the car’s in front of you. They’ve got a chance to sell you face to face. It’s really hard selling people, you know, on Zoom or, or um, over a phone call. It’s just a, you can do it, but it’s a lot harder.

Ange
And on that point, it is really important to ensure that that decision maker is with you when you are actually making, you know, when you’re actually pitching that sale. So using that example you just mentioned then Andy, about strata and going to say the body, corporates or whatever they are the decision makers. They are the ones who have that final say about whether or not to choose you over some other plumber, for instance. Mm-hmm. , um, or any other trade. So just make sure that the final decision maker is with you. It’s absolutely critical.

Andy
Yeah. But sometimes you go to a customer’s house and say, the wife’s there, or the husband’s there and, and a lot of the times I’ll say, oh, I just can’t make a decision today. I need to talk to my husband. Now, there’s one or two things there. One is I just think you’re too expensive and they don’t actually like you. So it’s like that’s a way for them to say, piss off mate. The second one is they, you haven’t sold them enough to make them feel comfortable to make the decision. And sometimes the, the husband or the wife does need to be involved, but we,

Ange
Well, sometimes they truthfully want two or three quotes.

Andy
Yeah. But the interesting thing is when we ever did our plumbing, if someone got two or three quotes, you know, we were never the cheapest. So we had to win them on who we were. And our brand and what we did. So a lot of the times when someone got two or three quotes, we were so far above everyone else, there was a chance we would lose the job. So the trick was to make sure we pushed hard because they’d won another couple of quotes, but they gotta wait a week, two weeks, the guy doesn’t turn up, he’s a pain in the ass, he’s not there. Then all of a sudden they go, oh my God, these guys are just so switched on. So I would say to them, well, listen, if you wanna talk to your husband tonight, that’s not a problem. Make a decision tonight. I’ll give you a ring at 7:00 AM or 8:00 AM in the morning, and then we’ll book at a time where we’ll get the job. Does that sound okay? Yes, I ring the next morning. Hi Mrs. Jones, how are you going? I just wanna look at booking that job in. If there’s any additional questions I can ask, but bang, we’re done. And that’s what you need to do.

Ange
Another great way to help close or win a sale is to layer in what we call the VAC principles, which are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. And basically there is a toolkit of communication. So let me explain what each one of these are. So if you talk about visuals, what are you actually placing in front of a customer that they literally can see, that assists building trust with that person and with you as a business. We give things like an information booklet or a credibility pack to our customers. Now, if I started talking about audio, this is obviously what a customer hears. So this is all about the language you use, the tonality you have, and literally assuming the sale, and Andy said a sentence like, did you wanna book this job for Wednesday or Friday at 7:00 AM? So there’s again, a lot of customer psychology around that too. And then if I moved on to kinesthetic, kinesthetic means what can I touch and feel so that it helps me make a buying decision? You’ve actually got a really good one that we used to use in plumbing. Do you wanna share that?

Andy
Yeah. In our business, Dr. Drip, we used to always use it and we’d have a flexible connection that obviously connects a basin or kitchen or whatever. Water goes through it, it comes out of a tap. I think everyone knows what they are. They’re a braided hose. But the thing with that is they actually burst and after five years or seven years, they can burst. And when they do burst, they can flood a whole place and it’s a disaster. But we’d actually show the customer a braided hose that was burst and rusted, had all rust spots on it and say, listen, if you have any of these with rust spots, this is what can happen. And this is what actually happened to the customer. It flooded the top floor, went downstairs, and ruined a kitchen. It was about 80 grand worth of work. So we need to look at replacing this now.

Ange
So what I think is really interesting, What you just explained there, people would go, oh, you’re just sharing information. It’s like, yeah, but guess what? That is actually a sales technique cuz I as a customer have no idea about what these braider hoses look like, and I don’t know the damage that can happen inside my house. But for the fact that you’ve shown me one and I’ve cited it and I’ve now touched it because you’ve handed it to me, I’m now on the lookout for these things around my house.

Andy
Exactly.

Ange
So I know that this sounds like all really super high level stuff, but this customer psychology when it comes to sales is really, really important. If you want to have a successful business, it must get layered in.

Andy
Well, it sounds like that’s the news.

Ange
Yep. Sounds like it.

Andy
Ange so what is in the news today?

Ange
Right. So I was scrolling through social media and I saw this headline at Red Devastating Cease and Desist Letter Cost, New South Wales Tradie 15 grand. If you remember, we just had this amazing strategist, Debbie O’Connor, on the podcast, and we asked her about how to brand your business and what to do if some trade business is copycatting yours.

Andy
Yeah, and she was awesome. You know, we chatted about how difficult it is to build a great brand for yourself, and all the intricate details that go into making sure your brand is working hard for you. You know, there’s a lot of effort that you have to put in to have a good brand.

Ange
Yeah, that’s right. So as his story goes, this New South Wales trade business owner had an excavation company called Olympus, and it was doing really, really well. But if that name sounds familiar to you, it’s also the name of a high-end camera and tech brand.

Andy
Oh no. That is not good. But what happens is when we pick a trade business name, we’re looking at trade businesses that have a similar name. We’re not sort of going outside of that. And the fact that this was a tech company. We wouldn’t have even realized when they actually decided to start their company with that name.

Ange
Well, that may be true, but when you register your name for an ABN, it should pick it up so that you don’t ever double up on a name. But that clearly failed for this guy, and it came back to buy ’em. So he was literally in breach of federal law and the tech company sent him this pretty scary letter saying that he had to cease the use of the name immediately or be taken to federal court.

Andy
Yeah, and you definitely don’t wanna go down and play with the federal court. It cost you a bucket load of cash. So after the last couple of years, you know, with Covid and Lockdowns, if you are hit with a legal letter saying you’re headed to federal court over your company name, that’s pretty intense, isn’t it?

Ange
Yeah, it’s pretty much the cherry on the top of a pretty bad few years. Right? And like most tradies, this guy has absolutely no idea about copyright laws and likely never intended to copy this company’s name.

Andy
But it’s the same odd saying, you don’t know what you don’t know, and sometimes because you don’t know, you end up in hot water.

Ange
It actually costs this trade business owner four months and $15,000 to rebrand his company. And you know what? He didn’t have a choice. Sometimes you just can’t fight these things, but as a trade business up against a huge company, you’re probably unlikely to win, even you and I had to go to court over our name, Dr. Drip.

Andy
Yeah, we could have easily been out of a pocket like this tradie for 15 grand, actually, probably a hell of a lot more because it’s really hard when you’ve spent so much time and effort on your rebrand to actually have to do it all over again.

Ange
Yeah. But honestly, we know as trade business owners, word of mouth in the industry is a massive contributor to how we win jobs. So to build your business up into a success story and then have to change your name, it can have such damaging results.

Andy
Yeah. And we think about the 15 grand to rebrand, but how much marketing money or spend did he do in the early days? So that’s all like a loss as well.

Ange
According to ASIC 2021, recorded the highest number of new business registrations every month compared to any year in the previous decade. How’s that? And in that article, the tradie had to ask his wife what a trademark even was. So it just goes to show that tradies are just not taught this really critical stuff yet again.

Andy
Yeah, too many people jump in their truck, get their tools, grab a business name, and off they go without even looking at trademarking. Trademarking is definitely one of those things that is an issue for a lot of tradies out there. If you don’t have a trademark, I would honestly say you need to make sure you get involved and you know you can do it yourself, but I’d be saying, go to a trademark lawyer that specializes in this because that’s the best way to go, and that’s why we came out the other side. So good with our business.

Ange
It just goes to show that trademarking your business name is a real issue for us. So you’ve gotta take it seriously and safeguard yourself.

Andy
Yes, that’s right. And that’s all the news for today. So check out the full story in the show notes.

Ange
Phew. This has been a massive episode. Should we quickly recap?

Andy
Yes, we certainly can. Basically, learning how to get your customers to say yes to working with you is the ultimate goal. You know, when you understand the concept of the trust escalator and the five buying decisions, the process to build trust, it makes complete sense.

Ange
We have a step-by-step process in which we teach our members literally how to answer the phone, how to enter a residential or you know, any property for that matter, and hence teach how you need to show up on what language to use. It’s all built with customer psychology in mind.

Andy
Being taught the process and using it every single day does take a little bit of practice, but over time it’ll become second nature and it will make a massive difference to you and your business.

Ange
Yes, communication is the key here. So use your incredible knowledge to arm me your potential customer with knowledge and options as to the best solution to the problem at hand and the confidence in you as a person that you are right and capable to complete the work and let me decide what to do, but make the decision really easy for me to make by suggesting that we start now.

Andy
If you wanna have an awesome trade business, then learning to speak with confidence is an absolute must. You know, this includes speaking about price with confidence because you are worth it.

Ange
Yeah. What’s that famous makeup ad? Maybelline, because you are worth it.

Andy
Yeah, I don’t put too much makeup on these days.

Ange
So basically, your potential customers want to give their business to someone they like and trust. So make sure that they choose you.

Andy
If you are interested in learning the specific sales hacks we share with our members, book a free strategy session with me.

Ange
Yeah, let’s make sure you are making the money that you deserve, doing the work you love with customers you wanna work with now and not later, so that you too will increase conversion of all of your quotes and basically build trust with your customers like an absolute boss. Well, that’s it from us today. That was huge. That was fun.

Andy
Till next time, hell yeah.