Okay, now it's going.
Okay, so what made me successful?
That work? Yeah, what do you think?
Well, I think there's a number of things. One is
I think that I was honest, I should be honest
with the people that I dealt with, to have their best
interests at heart, even if it didn't, you know, I was in sales
even if it didn't end up in a sales for me, I was really trying
to do what was best for them.
So I think honesty, and I think that came
through, and I could say that
one of the things is that I would
usually start in the day with prayer.
So that was a right
right way to start.
And I never felt like I was doing anything
dishonest or trying to trick the customer or anything. Even though I took a
number of self-help classes that I
paid for myself, you know, like sales classes
and organization classes and
closing techniques and all that, that's not
really what made me successful. Those were just techniques.
Honestly, the success came from
being honest with the people and trying to have their best interests
at heart. So like, I often felt like
I want to treat this customer
the way that I would want somebody to treat my mom as a customer.
Or if this were my mom that I was dealing with
how would I deal with her? And I always wanted to be
upfront and honest with her.
And so I tried to do that. And I think, even though
some periods of my life I might have used sales techniques,
I think the honesty thing came through
is having their best interest and listening.
That was the other thing was listening to.
I think it's important to listen. Because not too many people get listened to
in their life. And to listen to somebody
you know, how can I help you? And then they
tell you what their problem is in that.
And you let them do
most of the talking. And if you do that,
and maybe occasionally you might have a question or something
to assist to clarify your thinking about how they're
thinking or where they're coming from. But if you do that, if you listen to them
and you're honest and you're dealing with them, then
you're going to be successful.
And then the other thing was doing more
than was expected of me and being a detailed
person. You know, if I said, oh we're going to do
this and this and this, then we would do this and this and this.
Plus we might do extra.
When you do extra for them.
And letting them know that. Sometimes they don't know that.
I think it's important to let them know.
But yeah,
working and putting in the time that it took and trying to
stay up in my craft, which was sales,
but it was
learning the different bugs and everything.
But I think the main thing is
I always felt like I was an educator and a listener
and not really a salesperson.
And if you listen to them and then just educate them
and let them know what you could do
for them, honestly do for them,
then you're successful.
That was really it,
I think. Listening and being honest with them
was the bottom line, I think.
Do you ever remember one of your biggest sales?
Terminix?
Yeah, I can't remember the specifics.
I think it was Salt Lake County Housing.
And actually there was me, I was the branch manager
and then there was a service manager, Steve.
And then there was a salesman and he was fairly new.
And he was newly married and we were
trying to help him do well.
And so we actually
closed the sale
for him, so to speak, and did most of it for him.
But he got the credit and as a salesman,
as a branch manager and service manager,
we didn't get any commission off of that. And it was a big sale,
that was $30,000. Oh, for what? Just all the houses?
Yeah, the housing. So it was apartments and housing,
apartments for low income. And there was quite a few
units and it was a $30,000 contract
for the year.
And we really did it to help him out.
Why? It helped our branch out too, but
why'd you want to help him out? Because we liked him, he was a good guy,
he was newly married, he needed income, he needed a confidence boost
or he didn't really bust in on learning, but he had
things hadn't really clicked.
And so we were trying to help him out.
And part of it was trying to help the branch out. I mean $30,000
in sales was a huge sale, huge.
I mean, just huge.
It was giant. And then I remember another sale that I did
it was
there used to be an IT company,
Novac or Novice, down in Orham.
Anyway,
and I closed that one
it was over $10,000.
And I got some help from
one of the service technicians, and so as a result
I promised him that if we got the sale that I would give him
part of my commission, which you didn't have to do, I mean
I did do that. I gave him, it was like
$2,500 or something. But I didn't have to give him at all.
But I felt that he had earned it and deserved it.
That was a big sale.
But all the sales were good. I liked all the sales.
I enjoyed the sales end of it.
But it's more in helping the people. Yeah, it's great to
say, hey, I sold that and we did this
and then this customer thought it was worth enough to pay us this much
money. I mean, to me that's an incredible feeling.
You know, that they value your business and your service enough
to put enough trust into you to take care
of their needs and they're going to pay you for that. To me I always thought
that was amazing. And to get paid at the same time, especially
when I was in sales for my house and pest control.
And so it was a trust. I always felt there was that trust from the customer.
They're trusting you to take care of their problem.
And they're spending their hard earned money
and so that to me was
a trust issue with me and I always wanted to
give them more than what. I always wanted to feel like they got
more value than what they paid for.
I always felt like I wanted to have that feeling.
Because when I worked at different
places, and with Termex too sometimes, I felt like
they didn't get the value that they were supposed to get from our service.
And of course I didn't have a whole lot of
control over that
sometimes because I would just go out and sell it and somebody else would do the service.
Whereas when it was my company it was all
on me.
I always felt that that was a big trust.
They're trusting you with their income.
And so to me you've got to
uphold that trust. It's something that you just don't violate.
Ever.
You just don't do it.
And there were sales, sales that I can remember,
one period is where I learned to really listen that
was in January and February which are notoriously low months
in sales for Termex. And if you sold
eight grand or better in one of those months you're doing here in Utah
you're doing great well. One month I sold 35,000
and 25,000 in those months and all I did was listen.
Literally go to the customer's house, knock on the door
in response and say hi I'm Steve with Termex. And then I'd
shut up. And then they just
took me in and showed me stuff. Same thing at a business.
And I would once in a while interject
well here's what this means or here's what the insect does.
But I waited until they were totally done talking
and they might talk for a half hour. And then by the time they were
done this was incredible. This really happened in those two months
especially.
They would just say okay I want to schedule it. We hadn't discussed pricing.
We hadn't discussed guarantee.
We hadn't discussed how we were going to do it. It's just that I listened to them.
And then they would just say okay I'd like to schedule it.
I'd call in the office and normally I'd call in the office and they'd say
okay how much it's for, what are we going to do and all that.
And in those months I'd call in and say well I don't have any information yet.
We just want to schedule it.
What do you mean? It's sold. They just want to do it.
I'll go and get the measurements and tell you what we're going to do and what it's for.
But I'll have to give you that information later. Let's just schedule it for them now.
When you get to a point when a customer does that
that's distrust. And all I did was listen.
And it went so well in those months that I told
Geralt about it and he tried it and his sales skyrocketed.
And then we put on a presentation
for the entire branch
and did that.
Our sales numbers and service numbers went through the roof that month
because people started buying that.
So anyway that's
just listening.
You found that hard to believe but you just knock on the door and now I'm Steve with
Thermex. And I did the same thing on the phone with
when I had awesome pest control. Hi, thanks for calling Awesome Pest Control.
And then just listen.
I had more than one customer tell me on the phone
Guy, you just listened.
You didn't try and interrupt me or anything. It was incredible.
And that's why
I bought from you. Because I trusted you. I just felt that you really were
interested in what I had to say.
It's that easy. And I really think it's that easy in sales.
Because sales is the trust thing
between you and the customer.
There were sales especially early in my career where I would say
let's compare apples to apples and they might pull out a contract for another
company. And there once in a while I'd say I think you should buy
from them because I think you're getting for your needs and everything it's going to
fit you better than what we can offer. Of course my bosses didn't like
that.
But I can remember that happening a couple different times.
So anyway.
So that's one thing. And it works.
It's not just in sales but it works for everything.
I mean stop and think about it. Yeah.
If you're watching TV and your wife comes up to you and starts talking to you
and you turn off the TV or you turn it down and you just have
your eyes totally focused on them
and you're intently listening to them. See what happens.
I'd have to try that though. Seriously.
I mean it's just like when you're kids, you're playing with your kids, all your attention
is devoted to them. How does it go?
They love it.
Because we usually don't get listened to very much.
That's interesting. But yeah.
That's the key. That's really the key.
Is listening to people. And really listening to you. I mean not just
listening and waiting and going okay when can I talk.
Not thinking oh here's what I'm going to say next.
Listening to them.
That's the secret.
Yeah. It's something that I just thought.
And I've always felt that I've been a good listener. I haven't always
listened to that extent.
But I think when you do
and if you notice it when you go out to
anywhere, any contact you have with anybody
the people that feel good are the ones that make you feel good are the ones
that you feel they're listening to you.
We had a mom and I went to lunch yesterday
and the lady who was the cashier taking our orders
were giving our orders and all of a sudden she starts talking to one of the co-workers.
And we hadn't quite finished.
That's annoying. But then she turned back to look at us and I just
flipped her off. No, I just said
I just told your mom I think we're done ordering.
So I didn't order other stuff that I was originally going to order.
Yeah, that's annoying. Yeah, that's very
But if you chew it in your life, practice it in your life
see what happens.
Same thing, you go to the doctor or anything else.
If you just listen to people you're going to be ahead.
And you don't just do it to be ahead.
I'm not saying that. It will put you ahead. But
you do it because it makes your life more meaningful.
Because you're there, you're present in the moment.
You're right there, present in the moment.
Thinking about something else, you're engaged, you're fully engaging.
So as a result, your experience is even greater
as a result as well as their experience is.
So it's really a win-win for everybody.
So you can say it boils down to relationships.
Which I truly think that it does.
And being honest with people.
It just makes a difference.
And I just found that. But that was an experiment that
I did for sales in particular in January.
And we just blew out the numbers.
And it was incredible. And everybody that called in
everybody that we saw, we sold, and we got so many referrals
without even asking.
Because people just...
Yeah.
I mean how many times do you tell somebody, yeah schedule, I don't care what it costs,
the schedule, I trust you.
It was just that...
easy.
And it was like, sales doesn't have to be hard, it doesn't have to be all these different techniques.
And if you stop and think about it, think about when
like Andy you went on a mission, or Brad when you're out
in the field that are selling that, you're talking to people.
Think about the experiences that you have and the ones that are really meaningful
and what's common denominator in those experiences.
And I think you'll find it's because
you're fully engaged with the other person, they were engaged with you.
And there wasn't,
there wasn't like, cause there's a difference, I've been in a situation
where you're so desperate
to make a sale that you just say or do anything
and that desperation comes through, cause then you're coming from
a selfish point of view, you're not there to serve them,
you're there to make a sale so to speak. But to me
that was so much fun just listening.
It just gets you so, so engaged and that's why
out of all the different things that I've done in my entire
life, the thing that I've always enjoyed the most if I think back over my
life is conversation with other people.
And if you watch your mom, that's one
of the things that I love about your mom is that
she's usually fully engaged with that person and she really
she's not false or anything.
She's just herself. And it comes across.
It just comes across and people like her.
Cause she's just that way.
Anyway that's true.
But yeah I think if we did that
as we're raising our kids and did that with our spouses that
it just makes a humongous difference in our lives.
You know it's kind of like some of the advice I gave was that
you always put your wife's happiness first, make sure
that she's number one in your life. And her happiness
comes first.
Yeah.
Hmm.
Alright.
Stop.