Where Do I Begin?

Stephen R. Covey’s writings have been a foundational part of my successful life. In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he discusses Habit 2, which is this — beginning with the end in mind. In sales, in particular, it would be difficult to start any other way.

If you find yourself at the end of the sale, and you haven’t prepared for this moment, it will usually fail. It takes mentally placing yourself here at the end when you first drive up to the house. The end is the destination. You can’t forget to pack your bags to get there.

If you find yourself at the end of the sale, and you’re not comfortable asking for the sale, there were probably steps you skipped earlier. You wouldn’t forget to place the chicken dinner in the oven, right? And still expect it to be edible, at least. It would have been a waste of time and money to forget the steps in this dinner example and, especially in sales.

We know that some level of trust has to be established throughout the call. A great question to begin your close is this, “Will you trust me with this recommendation?” When we use those words, we’re not asking them to dig into their bank account yet. We’re simply saying, “I’m the expert in this field; will you trust that I know what I’m doing and will resolve your issues?” They’re more willing to listen to your full demo this way.

So, in your mind, you want to earn that trust and earn that sale within 90 minutes of when you begin. You have a lot of work to do to gain credibility.

You can’t walk into the house and, after 15 minutes, ask, “Will you trust me with this?” There’s no basis on which they would trust you because the relationship is what drives the trust.

If you haven’t spent the time building the relationship and showing genuine interest to my homeowner, it will sound really weird when you say, “Will you trust me?” It’s going to seem like an uncomfortable question.

Another reason we feel uneasy with the trust question is that we may not have addressed all of their objections or may not have handled them smoothly. But if you remember your training and the homeowner agreed early on that price is not the most important factor and that getting 3 bids isn’t a guarantee of satisfaction, then we’re more likely to find a yes.

If you seem like a good fit to the homeowner, if you’ve built a great relationship in this short time, and you have them laughing or smiling, then asking for the order will be as natural as taking a breath.

When you begin with the end in mind, you picture yourself at the kitchen table during the close. If all of the decision-makers aren’t home right now, that’s something you need to address early. You can’t let yourself get surprised much later during the close. It will be too late then.

Picture yourself walking the homeowner down the Sales Hallway, one of the metaphors we hear a lot about in our training. You want to lead that homeowner down the hallway to the last door where the money/sale is located. But like Hansel and Gretel, he will leave breadcrumbs to sneak out of the hallway. What are those breadcrumbs? They’re doors you have left open, questions unanswered.

“I want to think about it.” “I want a cheaper price.” “I need 3 bids.” And so on. With those issues unaddressed, he will sneak right out of the hallway to the exit.

Our whole training process is designed around the concept of closing those doors proactively. If you have access to our training, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

When you reach the end of the hallway, those doors are closed because you’ve built a solid relationship. You’ve established high trust and high competency. Then you’re perfectly set to go and ask for the order. Most of the problems in sales come from people trying to rush the process and hurry to the end. You wouldn’t ask someone to marry you in the middle of your first date, would you?

The homeowner will easily sense that you’re rushing. In many industries, salesmen will try to rush through to get on to the next prospective customer. You won’t be successful that way in HVAC though.

If you find yourself taking your time, making friends, and solving problems, it feels perfectly natural to ask for the order at the end. There are times when my sales call feels so natural that I’ll just ask outright, “Are you guys going to use American Express or Visa?”

And they’ll laugh and give us their credit card. But it doesn’t happen every time. Sometimes, there’s a little more closing involved. So every situation is a little bit different.

But to be successful, the hallway doors have to be closed. And that comes from beginning with the end in mind.