How To Increase Urgency For System Replacement?

Sealing that deal with your clients can be easily done if they know that they need your services and that you can truly deliver. Sam Wakefield talks about closing that HVAC sale, saving time, and not putting it off for the future. He shows some of the scripts he uses on his clients for generating urgency for system replacement. When clients need you, it is not about the price but always about the results that you can deliver. Join Sam as he unpacks his strategies in increasing urgency and satisfying clients with their system replacements.

We’re going to talk about how to use stories and analogies to increase urgency with people. In fact, I’m going to give you the exact script that I use when the homeowner says, “We just topped the air conditioner off with Freon. We’re going to wait and see how long it goes before we replace.” It feels like you get that gutshot at that moment of, “Don’t wait. We need to sell it now. We need to Close It Now.” That’s what this show is all about. It’s closing that HVAC sale now, not waiting, not putting it off for the future. I’m going to give you the exact script that I use for that because I haven’t had that objection. I’ve had that objection, but I don’t get people that still hold off because I handled it the right way.

I want to mention first of all to go to SamWakefield.com. That is going to be the way that we can connect. You can email me at Sam@SamWakefield.com. Let me know what questions you have. Is there something you’re struggling with in your HVAC sell system? Is it getting hot where you’re at? I know we’re starting to see some serious volume of calls come in. We’re starting to run like crazy and we’re starting to have some serious deals. I had one of my team, he was on call and he went ten for ten over the weekend, which was awesome. That is a huge accomplishment. That is the type of results that my team gets with these tips and tricks. We’re always focused on the skills and the technique. A sale is not just an art, there’s an actual science. There’s a study to it.

There are skills that you need to be a professional in-home salesperson. It has nothing to do with knowing about how many BTU are in a ton and all these things. It has way more to do with the client, how to read people, and having a well-executed system that you follow every single time. That way you can focus on the response and learn how to communicate in a way that the homeowner and the client can understand and the way that they want to be communicated too. Once you get that communication style down and once you understand that at the end of the day, they don’t care about the stuff. They don’t care about how many return ducts you’re going to run here and how many supply ducts are running. If it’s this refrigerant or this refrigerant or R22 or 410 or whatever it is. They don’t care. It doesn’t matter to them. The only thing that the customer cares about is are they going to be cool when they want to be cool. Are they going to be warm when they want to be warm and is it good to be cheap to do it?

All they care about is little Johnny’s bedroom in the corner of the house that’s too cold in the winter, is that room going to be the same temperature as the rest of the house so they’re not having to put a space heater in there? All they care about is little Jeanie who wakes up with a bloody nose because the air is too dry or the allergies are too bad. Are you going to be able to take care of that? When you start talking about in terms of the benefits and stop talking about, “I’ve got this amazing UV light air purifier craziness going on.” They don’t care about what it is. They want to know that you’re going to get them results.

That is when you turn the corner with your sales. You start turning the corner into connecting with the homeowner and saying, “I’m not promising you this number.” You have the conversation of, “When you call us, we’re promising you that we’re going to solve these problems that you say you have. Here’s a super quick overview of how we’re going to do it. More importantly, you’re going to wake up the next day and you’re going to see that every single one of these issues is solved. That’s why we’ve got such great reviews because we are solving people’s problems.” It does matter how you’re doing it. You have to do your best work as well. At the end of the day, in the sales conversation with the homeowner, they want to know that their problems are going to be solved. That’s truly what it is. It’s not about price. It’s never about apples to apples. We crushed that conversation. The next episode is going to be another way to overcome the apples-to-apples conversation.

You’ve got to talk about in terms of the benefits with the homeowner, for them to get it and then they will write you checks for whatever you’re asking because it’s not about the price at that point, it’s about results. I get fired up about this stuff. This is my passion. It’s my get-in-the-flow when we were talking about sales and sales techniques. We’re going to talk about how to use analogies to overcome the objections, specifically the objection of, “I just topped my system off and I’m going to see how long it will last. Maybe I’ll call you back in a few months.”

In every single objection, always start off with a question. When someone tells me that, “Here’s the script, write this down.” The first question is, “Mr. Jones, would you mind if I ask you a question?” You ask permission first. “This is a pressurized system. Over time, being a pressurized system, we know it has a leak in it or it wouldn’t have needed extra Freon. Being a pressurized system, do you think it’s going to fix itself or could it possibly get worse?” The answer is, “It will probably get worse.” Let me ask you this, “Have you ever had an air leak in your tire on your car?” “Yes.” “What’s the first thing you do?” “You go and get it fixed or replaced.”

System Replacement Urgency: In every single objection, always start off with a question.

“If you were to just keep filling it up, what would happen?” “One, it would be a pain because you’d have to keep doing it, but two, you could be stranded if it blew out at the wrong time.” It’s the same thing with your air conditioning system. If you top it off, you’re rolling the dice of when it’s going to let loose and go. As soon as it gets hot this very first time, it could be gone and you’ve wasted that. You’ve thrown your money away. “Wouldn’t it be better to go ahead and take care of the problem and let’s go ahead and get it knocked out?” “Yes.”

What you’re doing there is you’re using a story. It’s an analogy. You’re comparing something they don’t understand very well, which is the air conditioning system because homeowners don’t understand much about it. You’re comparing it to something that they use every single day and something that they know a lot about. More importantly, something that if it were to have the same kind of problem, their sense of urgency and importance is a lot higher in their mind. You don’t even have to say this is the same thing because they’ve already made that mental connection in their head. This is the inner monologue that’s going on in their head, “If I had a leak in my tire, I would get it fixed right away because I don’t want to be left stranded.” That’s what everyone thinks as soon as you get a leaky tire.

Because you’ve taken them down that road and down that path with this conversation, what happens is they mentally tie it to their air conditioning system. They’re like, “That’s right. I understand that.” The next question would be, “How many hours in a day do you spend in your car?” You spend way from more than that at your house. “Do you want to sleep when it’s hot or do you want to sleep when it’s nice and cool?” You can do all kinds of questions, but the important part is to use questions and make an analogy of something that they know a lot about, something that’s very important to them, and something that they would take immediate action on and analogize it with the problem with the air conditioner. There’s literally an analogy story for every single problem and objection that people have any time they come up with, “I don’t know that I should do this because of X, Y, Z.” I guarantee you there’s a story that you can come up with that relates to it that they would understand it.

As this show goes on, we’re going to talk about every single one of those. We’re going to break them apart and unpack them. We’re going to go through how to analogize every little thing. We’re getting into the season of air conditioning in 2019, use that. The next time somebody says, “I just topped my system off. I want to see how long it lasts. Hopefully, I can make it through the summer.” Use that story. Ask them, “We know it’s a pressurized system. Do you think that the leak is going to get better or worse?” Don’t answer it for them. Let them answer. The next question is, “Have you ever had a leak in your tire? What’s the first thing you did and why did you do that?” “I fixed it because I didn’t want to be stranded on the road.” “Why don’t we go ahead and get you on the calendar?” I guarantee you, that will turn the corner for you most of the time. Every now and then, you’re going to have a client that is obstinate and doesn’t want to make a change. Nine times out of ten, what you’re doing is you’re increasing the urgency in that customer’s mind to something that they’re very serious about taking care of immediately.

They’re mentally making that connection that, “This air conditioning is the same level of urgency.” The only reason it wasn’t before is just that they don’t know that much about air conditioning and how it works. As soon as you compare it to something in a way that they can understand and it makes sense for them, that is when you can start to make the sale. Use that trick. That’s a great line of questions. More importantly, I want you to grasp the concept of using stories and using analogies to compare to the problems they’re facing to the solutions, especially when you want to increase someone’s urgency. When you’re wanting to increase the importance of taking care of it now and not waiting, that will get you a lot closer to closing the sale now.

If you want to catch more and stay connected, go to SamWakefield.com. That will actually connect you to me right on Facebook. Join the Facebook, Close It Now HVAC Sales Training. Join that community because it’s a great way to stay in touch. Ask questions. We can support each other. Leave us your tips and tricks. Let’s all grow together to make HVAC. I want you to dominate your marketplace and the area that you’re in for HVAC sales. There is no reason that you can’t be $1 million–plus a year salesperson. Every single one of my team is going to do it. I’m on pace to possibly do too. Let’s all go out there and crush it. I will talk to you again soon.