Easy as PIE – Pop It in the Oven

You can find Part 1 here. Now, let’s take a closer look at “Easy as Pie.” Pie is short for Problem, Impact, Emotion.

The Inspection

So my homeowner will have problems with their units. It’s the reason they’ve called us in the first place.

I’m going to find those problems through a series of activities. Number one, just walking through the house as I’m doing my comfort survey, I’m likely going to stumble into some problems because HVAC systems have many components and in the long run, they can break down or work less optimally than when they were new.

Number two, we’re going to go through the comfort survey. The survey questions are going to uncover problems. During your discussion with the homeowner about their family, the hot and cold spots in the house, etc., you’re going to find lots of problems. Now remember, that’s our job. We’re there to listen, inspect and dig deeper.

Don’t just look for the shoulder problem, we’ve got to look for the heart attacks. And throughout the steps of surveying the home and reviewing the questionnaire and the comfort survey, we’re trying to uncover all the problems. You have to get really good at diagnosing problems and recommending solutions to be a top performer in this industry.

Looking for Clues

So when I talk about Easy as Pie, that stands for Problem, Impact, Emotion. I’m saying that whenever you find a problem, you have to find the impact of that problem on the family, and then the emotion that comes from that impact. So as an example, let’s say I’m talking to my homeowners during the survey (and this will make more sense when you see the role-play videos), and I find out that little Susie has allergies.

So the problem is Susie has allergies. The inexperienced salesperson will go straight from that information to the solution.

I want to find the impact of the problem of the allergies. The problem is the allergies. I want to know the impact.

Tech: Tell me how that impacts Susie.

Homeowner: Well, she walks around all summertime. Her eyes are watering. Her nose is red. It’s just really uncomfortable for her.

Now I need to find the emotion underneath the impact of that problem.

Tech: Wow, how does that make you feel?

When you ask someone how they feel about something, you’re asking for the emotional state, and they will respond in an emotive term.

Homeowner: Well, I feel helpless and frustrated.

Those are emotional terms. I’m going to make a note of those for later.

Tech: Is that something I should keep in mind when I design your solution today?

Homeowner: Yes, of course.

They just said that she has these symptoms. It makes them feel frustrated. Of course they want me to keep it in mind. They’re not going to say, “No, just ignore it,” right? They’re going to say, “Yeah, keep it in mind,” because they’d like to solve that problem for little Susie.

The Ammunition

Now, I’m going to take all this information, and I’m going to compile it. This is my ammunition to use at the close. And again, we’ll get into a lot more of this in detail when we get into the closing sequence, but just think about this for a second. When I get down to the end of the presentation, and I ask for the order, and let’s say I ask to sell an indoor air quality package also, I will simply refer back to those emotions. I will say, “Listen, if you trust me with this indoor air quality project, you’ll never have to feel helpless and frustrated about Susie’s allergies again.”

People are far more anxious to solve emotional problems than mechanical problems. They don’t really care about mechanical problems. They care about the emotional problems that are underneath the mechanical problems.

And this is where you have to be a straight-up professional. You have to use these techniques. You have to uncover the emotional stuff that’s going on underneath this survey, underneath these questionnaires.

So again, Problem, Impact, Emotion. And then, “Is that something I should keep in mind?” We’ll continue with more next time.