How to Be the Best Sales Professional in Your Market

Consistency is the biggest key to almost everything in life, and sales is no different. But what if you could make consistency second-nature for yourself by changing your focus from working towards results to working on your process.

This week on Cracking the Code, Contractor University faculty members Drew Cameron, Gary Elekes and Weldon Long discuss interpreting failure of process vs. failure to close a sale and the flow state of mind that allows you to be consistent.

Audio Transcription (in Beta)

On today’s show, learn how to be the best sales professional in your market.

Okay, folks, let’s get started with this week’s content today. We’ve got yours truly Mr. Gary Alex, Andrew Cameron, all in the studio to talk about how to be the best sales professional in your market. Let’s go guys. So let’s get started and talk about being consistent. You know, I wrote a book called the power of consistency, and I think most people understand the concept.

One of the things I write about in that book is that, you know, consistent sales results Come from consistent sales activities. Random sales results come from random sales activities. So it’s kind of common sense. If you think about it, for example, maybe in sports, let’s say you’ve got a baseball player and they get into a hitting slump, right?

They’re not really hitting the ball the way they normally do, right? Does the, uh, the coach come in and say, Hey, I want you to try a new style of hitting, right? Forget the fundamentals. Just get up there and do something different. Of course they would never do that, right? Because it’s the fundamentals that produce results.

It’s the basics that produce, uh, the results that we want. And it’s doing those on a consistent basis. Think about the golfers, right? Uh, the golf, if you, if you’re a golfer, the way I am and the way Gary is, and I don’t know about Drew so much, uh, we got to get him out more. Um, it’s about the consistent, it’s what you’re looking for is consistency in your swing.

I will tell you, it almost never happens, at least not with me, but that’s what you’re shooting for. If you’re a football player and let’s say your quarterback’s out there and throws an interception, right? The coach doesn’t bring him in at halftime and say, Hey, we want you to change your, your throwing motion.

Right? We would never do that. So we understand that in, in most endeavors, consistency is the key. There’s kind of a right way in a wrong way to do things and doing things the right way produces the right results. Now, the challenge becomes doing things the right way on a consistent basis and doing it where it’s second nature.

Let me describe what I mean by that. If you’ve ever had the experience where you’re ending your day at work and you’re driving home and as you’re driving home across town, uh, you know, you’re following the directions, obviously you’re making the turns and then following the street signs where you’re supposed to go.

And maybe you’re on the phone with a customer and having a cup of coffee and you got the radio. Playing and you’re not really thinking about where you’re going and then suddenly without ever thinking about it consciously you pull up in your driveway Right, we’ve all had that experience Now what I want you to think about is this Think about the very first time you went to that house before you bought it before you rented it Whatever the case was could you just drive there without thinking about it?

Of course not, right? You had to have a map a GPS a realtor somebody, you know, something had to help you get there But once you made that journey back and forth from, you know, your, your business, your job and your home, eventually the directions to your home went from your conscious mind to your subconscious mind.

And that really is the key to getting in, as Drew would say, getting into the flow. This whole company is about getting people into the flow because when you get into the flow, it’s about doing things second nature. It’s about doing things subconsciously, automatic. So it’s the same thing with the sales process.

If you’re making, let’s say you’re making a hundred grand a year. And you want to go to 200 grand a year. Are there specific directions you would need to follow? Of course there are, right? Certain things you do in your sales process, you might emulate someone who’s very successful, you might go, and go through Drew’s sales training, or my sales training, or, or all of the above, and you kind of figure out what you’re going to do in the house, right?

But at first you’re going to have to really concentrate on the directions of doubling your productivity. But after a while, when you go back and forth, Uh, and through that process, eventually the directions to 200, 000 a year goes from your conscious brain to your subconscious. And now just like driving home after work, you can do it without thinking about it consciously.

So the key thing here, I think that most people, you know, understand the concept that consistency is the key to success. But the real, uh, the real challenge is to make that consistency automatic. To make it second nature. One of the examples I often use Uh is a metaphor that uh, you know, your your brain is like a highway system, right?

If you think about the highway system in your in your town You’ve got interstates and on ramps and off ramps and bridges and tunnels and you know All these various complex road designs and different things and on those roads We see cars right cars are driving down the roads Well, in your brain, you’ve got a highway system too, right?

You’ve got a series of neural pathways, all these various highways in your brain. But instead of cars going down, uh, those neural pathways, you have thoughts. And those thoughts are going down those highways and they’re, they’re pretty automatic, right? They happen second nature. It’s kind of like, uh, the morning traffic when you leave your house, you kind of know where the traffic jams are going to be because the traffic patterns are pretty much the same every day.

Right. Right. Right. Well, it’s just like our thought patterns. They’re pretty much the same every single day. We tend to think about, you know, the same things. And we think about those things the same way. In other words, we think about money and sales and our relationships or whatever. We think about them the same way almost every single day.

It’s almost like we got this, you know, um, this routine just going on. And, and it’s the same thoughts, the same, the same likes, the same dislikes every single day. So here’s, here’s the point. If you have this road system in your, in your town, let’s say you live in Dallas. And you want to go to Houston and you follow the highway to Houston.

How often do you get to Houston? 100 percent of the time, right? You’re going to get there every single time. But, what are the odds that if you follow the directions to Houston, you actually end up in San Antonio? Alright, that’s not going to happen. If you want to get to San Antonio, you’ve got to go on a different highway system.

And so if I have a set of directions and a highway that takes me from point A to point B, if I want to go a different direction, I’ve got to follow a different highway system. Well, it’s the same thing in your brain. You see, all these thoughts that are going down the neural pathways in your brain, They’re getting you to a particular destination, a very predictable destination.

And that predictable destination is exactly where you are in your life with your career, your income, your money, everything that you think and do, the culmination of every thought you’ve had in your life, every behavior you’ve had in your life. It led you exactly where you are today, right? It goes without saying.

What I want you to understand today, at least I hope you understand. Is that when we’re there together, I’m going to take you through a process based on my book, The Power of Consistency, that’s going to teach you how to recreate those highway systems in your brain. And again, it’s a pretty, it’s a pretty simple process, right?

It’s nothing, it’s not exactly rocket science. It is brain science, but it’s not, it’s not rocket science, right? So the process is simply to get clarity on exactly where you want to go, Identify the things you need to do to get there and then you got to program those to be kind of the new habitual thoughts the new consistent thoughts about About your sales about your sales process.

So That’s really what I wanted to talk about today just briefly again If you have any questions on that Uh, we’re going to have 10 or 15 minutes here, uh, towards the end to answer those questions. But I really want you to think about this idea of consistency, right? If your, if your sales are sometimes really good and sometimes really bad, that is by definition random, right?

The sometimes they’re good, some, that’s not coming from consistent sales behaviors. That’s coming from random sales behaviors. Now. We all know there’s some Uh, there’s some cycles to weather cycles to our business, but we shouldn’t have these wild Differences, especially with our revenue per lead. We may run fewer leads in the slow season But our revenue per lead should stay roughly the same if we’re doing the same things.

We all know that sometimes we tend, when it’s really busy, to cut corners and we, we do things differently. And we kind of get away with it because the weather helps us. But you get into the shoulder season and try cutting those corners, and it’s going to be a very, uh, a very, uh, uh, very bad result. So, uh, with that, what I’m going to do is to invite Drew and Gary into the conversation.

And I’d just like to get their opinion on this concept of consistency. Obviously it’s something that they both teach and, and, and leverage in their own businesses. And just want to kind of get your opinion, Drew, in terms of, uh, this concept of consistency and then G man, hopefully we’ll be able to see your beautiful face up here in just a minute and get your comments.

On this concept as well. No, I love it and I and I love your book and because it’s it’s exactly that right It’s the power of consistency and the way to get into flow state as you kind of talked about is you’ve got to be doing Things consistently repeated behaviors, right? That’s how you get good Uh, you develop that habit as you kind of talk about I saw one of your podcasts this week where you’re talking about Developing a habit and undeveloping a habit as well Because sometimes you have to unlearn certain things to learn, you know, to layer in the new concepts, you know, for them to take and to stick.

And so to be into flow and be what is called peak performance, you’ve got to be consistent. And if you’re not consistent, then you’ll be out of flow very quickly. And flow is just another word for being in the zone, right? Where time seems to kind of just, you know, melt away and everything around you, the noise and distractions kind of melt away.

And you just seem, you know, focused and, you know, on the task and it just comes effortlessly to you. And you can do that with pretty much anything, but what Weldon’s talking about here is doing it with a process that you execute consistently and that you’re so ingrained in the process that you can be there and be present with the homeowner so that you can execute that process so consistently so that you get the consistent results.

I just ask you, Drew, and get Gary’s thoughts on this as well. Like, you’ve been doing this, been in this industry now for 30, 35 years. 45 years. 45 years. Gary’s been close to 40. I’ve been in it for 20. And what’s the likelihood that a top producer is going to be kind of a winged kind of comfort advisor?

Like what’s, what’s, what are the odds that that, that person is going to be the top producer? Uh, zero. Zero, right? Now, again, I know that Drew, for example, and I feel the same way, like a process doesn’t need to be like a straitjacket, right? I’ve been in a straitjacket, by the way. It’s no fun. Uh, but still there’s a process.

It may be kind of a loosely organized process, but you kind of go through the same things. And. I see now we have the G Man up on the screen from up in the Pacific Northwest. G Man, I’m sorry you couldn’t be here with us. Uh, today, uh, but I know we’re going to get to see you Saturday. You’re going to be here in Colorado Springs with us.

The Pacific Northwest is beautiful. It’s going to be gorgeous all week, Wally. So, uh, uh, I’m hoping Colorado Springs would be the same, um, on the comments about consistency and Drew’s comments about, you know, just being in the flow. Um, I a hundred percent agree with that. I think the trick is what you guys are talking about is style is different than technique and technique is what the consistency is, the requirement.

So, you know, the process points have to be hit. We got to be able to understand financing, talk to the customer through the financing, you know, the product features, benefits, the lifestyle decisions, et cetera. All those are technique. The style, you know, uh, is, is personal and that’s something that separates, you know, some, you, for example, being a great showman, outstanding on stage, very charismatic, you know, one of the funniest guys I know, uh, absolutely terrific.

And so, you know, you put somebody up there who’s maybe more of a little analytical personality, doesn’t have, you know, some of the appeal. Um, the technique can be the same. So I think we pair the consistency with the technique, uh, and the style. And, uh, that’s, that’s where you get your peak performance. So, uh, last comment I would make Wally is discipline.

Um, the discipline of, of reinforcing, uh, this change of behavior pattern that you guys talk about, you know, I’m making a hundred thousand. I want to make 200, 000. I got to go to San Antonio, not Houston. I got to figure out a different pathway. And I think, um, the, the. Folks that are in the audience have to learn how to do real plays, how to, you know, have a sales coach or a sales manager or some sort of a system that allows them to practice this new technique.

And so I think that’s a discipline and a lot of, a lot of folks aren’t keen on that. And so sometimes it’s better to pay coach. I’d pay somebody like Drew to come in and, uh, and hold me accountable for that. So there you go. Yeah, that, that, that’s a great point that the consistency is reinforced. Through the real play, the coaching, that type of thing.

And the distinction that you make between style and technique is really interesting. I never thought about it that way, but it really is. So what we’re talking about here is the consistency is the technique. But your style is going to be your style, right? And Drew talks a lot about that in his teachings that, you know, you’ve got to be flexible and, and, and perform, you know, according to your style.

So that’s the topic of consistency. With that, we’re going to move on. And Mr. Drew Cameron is going to be talking about being unique. Yeah. Uh, thank you, Wally. And again, great to have you as well, Gary and, uh, Jeff as well. So, you know, let’s talk about being unique because once you’re consistent and you can execute the process, like Gary said, there’s style, but also as part of the process.

And let me share the screen, um, as part of the process. You want to, you would definitely want to be unique. Right? Now some people talk about being unique or being the be or being the best, and then some people say, well, why can’t I be both? Well, let’s kind of take a look at that, right? And, and if you had to pick one, what would you rather be?

A lot of people say they’d rather be the best, but here’s the reality of it. You can be the best of one. Meaning you can be the best at something. But that doesn’t mean that you’ll always be the best at something. Someone could, you know, could evolve and get better and surpass you. And so, you’re the best of one.

But when you’re unique, you’re the only one. And so, you can be unique and be the best, but you can’t, you might not, you might be the best, but not be unique. Because there might be other people doing what it is that you do. And so while you can be the best at something, it may be for a period of time, it just not be, may not be for all time.

But see, you can always be unique. And you can be the best at, at something, and you can be the unique at, at something. But you can also be unique at really everything, when you think about it. And so, we talk about being unique. Some people say Well, different always means that you’re comparing and contrasting.

And if you’re doing so, there’s a reference point. And I, I, I want you to be aware of what’s going on out there and others that might be out there in the space. But I want you to be the best that you can be, okay, at what it is that you choose to do in your unique style, as Gary said, uh, because that is ultimately what’s going to make you unique.

And when you are unique, You’re just this one of a kind thing. You’re the only one. It’s not the best one, you’re the only one. And you can always do that in everything that it is that you do. Now, somebody may, you know, come along and try and copy you, but you can always evolve, right? And so I always like to say in sales training, you know, that, you know, Hey, I suck by my own standards, right?

And so does everybody else. I mean, I’m aware of what other people are doing and I’m aware of what other, uh, you know, salespeople or other companies are doing out there, but that doesn’t matter to me. Again, it’s who can I be? What is my, what is my selling? What is my, my potential? And I’m always evolving and getting better at that.

So again, I’d rather be unique than be the best. And again, like I said, I can be the unique and be best. But why do you think customers comparison shop? It’s because nobody’s unique and they can comparison shop. Nobody tells them that they can’t. It’s, it’s, it’s really a salesperson’s job to teach a customer, you know, about, uh, how to buy and where value comes from.

And customers comparison shop because contractors comparison sell. Most contractors are always referring to themselves or other companies, uh, especially if a customer brings up the other company, or they’re selling product, they’re selling commodities. They’re selling the things and when you tend to sell things, customers focus on the things and you tend to own more of your things, meaning they tend to sit in your warehouse longer.

And so customers are comparison shopping the commodities because that’s what they think that they can do. And that’s what they’re familiar with. They’re familiar with buying cars and appliances and electronics and groceries and clothing, all of which they can pretty much Anywhere from a multitude of providers, the same things in that and for that matter, but what it is that we do with what it is that we do, 70 percent of the manufacturing process takes place in the home, but yet, if you don’t tell a homeowner that they don’t understand that 7 percent of their happiness is going to come from the contractor, not the box that they buy.

So contractors, customers comparison shop because contractors comparison sell. And if you were compelling, there’d be no comparison. And so compelling is a step towards being unique, and that’s what we want to really focus on. And everybody else has to measure up to that standard. It’s not me versus any other company, or my products versus anybody else’s products.

It’s all of us versus a standard. And I can basically make the standard be unique as well. But I’m a huge fan of Star Trek The Next Generation, and this is a picture of one of the Borg. And in that, basically what they’re doing there is this, uh, entity is assimilating human beings to all think and be exactly alike.

And, and I like this because I think this is what happens out there when contractors get their contractor’s license. Right? They worked for somebody, and they did things in their own special, unique way, and they decided to jump into business because they thought they could be something unique, special, different, better, and more than the company that they worked with.

And they had this entrepreneurial seizure and they jumped into business. And then guess what? They didn’t. They assimilated, right? And they became like everybody else in the market. And they compared themselves to everybody else in the market. They say, we have to price like everybody else in the market.

And there’s a race to the bottom in selling like everybody else in the market on pricing. And they market like everybody else in the market. And so when you become a contractor, it just seems like resistance is futile. And so most contractors are in business. And really what I want you to be is a person who’s in the business of contracting.

And I want you to think differently. And that you serve people, and you don’t sell things. And when you think about it, you’ll change the way, uh, you focus. You’ll de assimilate yourself. Because it’s also the buying process in which the customer is familiar with, when they comparison shop. And contractors don’t tell the customer they can’t use the comparison shopping process.

See, my job is never to sell anything. In fact, you never have sold anything, nor have I sold anything. You never will sell anything. People choose to buy, they choose not to buy, for their reasons. But they don’t know how to buy installed products and services. They’re not used to doing this. They get to maybe do this once or twice in their life at the most.

But they are used to buying vehicles. They are used to buying appliances. They are used to buying electronics. They are used to buying clothing and groceries and all these things that are commodity based where all the value is inherent to the thing. Where all the value, uh, for the things that we sell comes from the people and the processes and how we install them, the design and the craftsmanship and the installation, the verification and testing out of the process and then the service and the maintenance thereafter.

It’s how you’re answering the phones and how you treat people and how you make them feel. It’s not about the things I can get the same vehicle from, you know, six different Ford dealers or carrier, uh, carrier equipment from six different carrier dealers or train or Lennox or Goodman or Amanda or Dykin, Reem, it doesn’t matter.

It’s all great equipment. These guys make fantastic equipment, but what they did is they all handpicked their dealers because they wanted the best in class contractors to partner with them, to make their equipment come to life. And that’s comes down to you. And so your job is to really help the customer understand that the real value comes from your people, your processes, and that’s what makes you neat, unique, and that this comparison shopping process actually is going to be, you know, do more damage.

And like I said, when you’re compelling, you are unique. And so how can you be unique? I’m going to give you the framework and we’re going to share with you when you get to Nashville so you have an understanding as to kind of what that means. So, we’re going to talk about the five T’s. What are you going to talk about?

What is the treatment of the customer? And how are you going to interact with them and make them feel? Because it’s never about what a customer spends, it’s about how they feel about what they spend. And then how are you going to use tools, training, and technology to stand out in the customer’s mind?

What skills are you going to bring to the table? Right, we can teach you the skills, but the skills are very unique in how you apply them. That’s where that style comes into play, like Gary talked about. Your process, the process that you have is very similar to pretty much the process that we all teach.

Right, but it’s your execution of that process and the consistency with what Jweldon talked about that is important. Questions are a part of that process. The questions that you ask that no one else asks and how you ask those questions. Everybody asks about hot spots and cold spots. But what if you asked a better question, like, what’s the hottest room in the house at four o’clock on a hot summer day?

Or how about the coldest room in the house at 10 o’clock on a cold winter’s night? Take me to that room. See, they can take you to that room, but if you ask the generic question about hot spots or cold spots, they’d probably say no. So how are you going to do a survey of the customer in the house in the application?

We’ll talk about that. Doing a load calculation is a game changer. It’s one that basically knocks 80 percent of all contractors out of the game because most of them won’t do it, right? Talking about air flow, air quality, and then air conditioning. Problem is, is we basically do that in reverse order in this industry.

We focus on heating and cooling the air, and then we talk about air quality and air flow after the fact. You need to lead with the airflow because that’s the entire game. Because if you don’t get the airflow right, you will not be in flow, and therefore you won’t get the air quality and won’t get the air conditioning right.

Energy evaluation. You’re going to have to have this conversation about being able to do an energy evaluation, and you have to be able to do it quick and in such a way that you can make it transparent to a customer. And so we’ll talk about how to do that as well. And in addition to that, I want you to focus on solving root causes and providing permanent solutions versus the symptoms and temporary fixes that most contractors provide.

Most contractors are basically, you know, taking a, a cursory review or superficial, uh, analysis of customers comfort, indoor air quality, and health concerns, uh, as well as energy efficiency, uh, desires that they have. And then, uh, you know, what products and services are you offering? very much. Again, I’m going to share with you a whole suite of ideas that will transcend the market.

Things that you’re not even thinking about doing and make you unique, special, and different than anybody else that’s out offering products and services out there. And like I said a little bit ago, your people and your processes. I want you to highlight that. That’s really what differentiate you from any other company in town.

Because everybody can basically copy your trucks, they can copy the products you sell, but they can’t copy your people and your processes. That’s what makes you unique, right? When it comes down to it, like I said, people don’t buy things, they get the things. They don’t want the things, okay, what they want is the life impact, the problem resolved, the experiences, the emotion, the status, the identities, the story.

They want to hear their story, not your story. It’s okay if you tell your story, but you better connect it to their story and make them the hero of the story. Because if they’re not the hero of the story, you’re the hero of the story. And then, peace of mind, protections and insurances, those warranties and guarantees that remove the risk and reverse the risk and place it squarely on your shoulders where it actually, actually belongs.

Remove all of that risk. People are not price sensitive, but they are risk averse. And then offer payment options consistently. It’s not just financing. It’s, it’s the ability to have low payment. It’s the ability to have the 0 percent it’s credit cards, it’s leasing. It’s all of the above. And you have to lead with that.

This stuff is getting expensive in this economy is, is what it is. Inflation is real. Okay, and it’s evolving. You need to evolve and you need to lead with the payment so that your customer can see what you’ve now spent a lot of time making valuable, you now make affordable. And lastly is, I want you to connect with people in the store, their story, and not close.

Don’t focus on closing. You should be opening up. Opening the conversation and connecting with people. And when you do that, what you’ll come to find out is that more people will want to connect with you and your company, and they’ll end up buying from you. Well, thank you to Gary and Drew for coming in and have that conversation with me.

I appreciate it. Great advice. And we’re all going to take it. Aren’t we folks, right? We better because we’re trying to get better every single day. Now, listen, be sure and share this on Facebook. And if you’re not a member, I want you to click the link and sign up for a free trial. It’s a 30 day free trial.

You get access to all of our content. And I guarantee you, if you follow the advice, if you take the courses, you will take your company to new places, new amounts of success. Well, folks, that’s our show for this week. We’ll see you next week until then. Bye bye for now.