Speaker 1: (00:02)
Bill, Can I help you?
Speaker2: Hey listen up, I’m bringing you the best content to ever exist in the door to door industry from sales leadership, recruiting, impersonal development.
Speaker 1:
Why would I need that?
Speaker 2:
Because never before have we been able to collaborate with the top experts in their industries, sharing their secrets and techniques and what makes them the best.
Speaker 1: Wait, who? Who are you?
Speaker 2:
I’m your host. Sam Taggart, creator of the D2D experts in D2Dcon. Is there a place we can sit down?
Speaker 1:
We’ll come on him.
Speaker 3: Register today for D2DCon, learn from over 40 amazing speakers including the real wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort. Come as a team. Learn as a team. Leave as a tribe.
Speaker 2: (00:48)
Hey Everybody. This is Sam Taggart, your host with the D2D podcast.
Speaker 1: (00:02)
Bill, Can I help you?
Speaker2: Hey listen up, I’m bringing you the best content to ever exist in the door to door industry from sales leadership, recruiting, impersonal development.
Speaker 1:
Why would I need that?
Speaker 2:
Because never before have we been able to collaborate with the top experts in their industries, sharing their secrets and techniques and what makes them the best.
Speaker 1: Wait, who? Who are you?
Speaker 2:
I’m your host. Sam Taggart, creator of the D2D experts in D2Dcon. Is there a place we can sit down?
Speaker 1:
We’ll come on him.
Speaker 3: Register today for D2DCon, learn from over 40 amazing speakers including the real wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort. Come as a team. Learn as a team. Leave as a tribe.
Speaker 2: (00:48)
Hey Everybody. This is Sam Taggart, your host with the D2D podcast. And I’m here Speaker
Hey, if you’re watching this, this is Lenny, the D2D Millionaire. Okay, so share this like this. If you know Lenny or you know, tag tag a friend cause we’re about to dive into one of the legends ogs of door to door sales. So super excited to have you on the show. This will be fun. I’m Sam Tagore. For those of you guys that don’t know me and this is the D2D podcast. So let’s just dive right into this. Um, I got my, I got like a frog choked up. I know I’m going to get emotional. I was like, Jeez, this is like my idol. Like the, the door to door bay and I’ve watched a lot of your youtube videos and you know, I’m excited to read your book and uh, it’s, it’s, it’s one of these podcasts have been like waiting for, we went back to lunch once in a while, a year ago and I was like, Hey, let me take her what I’m doing. And you’re like, okay, like, you know, I’m like, yeah, not really anything yet, but you’ll see like, but no good. Super, super excited to have you on the show. So tell us a little bit, um, you started in 1998. Yeah, probably before a lot of these guys were born. I know, I was like, I was eight, so
Speaker 3: (01:37)
98 was my first summer knocking doors. I ended up being the top first year sales rep or a eclipse marketing. Is this like what top rep would be? How many accounts? It was about 500. Yeah. I was gonna say back then it was like top rep was not what it is today. Sure, sure. That was just the top first year rep to talk. And there was guys that were selling a lot more than that. But just for as a first year new guy, uh, I hit the top spot that year. That’s a lot. 500 accounts your first year, right? So if you’re a first year rep and you would like to do 500 accounts, what it’s May 11th, 12th. So I would say, listen to this because we’re going to dive into common mistakes or rep makes a how to do that, how to sell better, how to the, the deep dives of the secrets of how to close deals make sales.
Speaker 3: (02:22)
That’s what his book’s called, right? So, um, basically it’s about how to go do that and uh, that, that’s why I’m excited to dive into. So then you went 500 your first year then kind of what happened? Yeah, it tells us, but yeah, two more summers. While I was finishing up college, a hit about 600 my next year, about 700 the next year. So increased about a hundred sales for my three years. Then I got hired full time, uh, with the eclipse, kind of the over their VP of sales and kind of development of all their curriculum for their sales training. Uh, then started my own company, my own pest company in 2003. So was that a scary journey? I mean, a lot of people flop a lot of people. It’s like, sure. Yeah. Well, you know, I think one of the things about starting a company is, and there’s a lot of guys doing that right now and that’s great.
Speaker 3: (03:10)
But I would say the best advice I can give to those guys is make sure whatever company is, if it’s past it, solar, if it’s, you know, security, whatever it is, make sure you’re an expert in that field. It’s one thing to be able to go sell something, but if you can’t back it up with a good service or a good product, it doesn’t matter how good your sales processes are. And I think a lot of people, what’s funny, off camera we talked about, it’s like, well yeah, you’re really good at sales, but then it’s who came to you and said let’s go do this. Yeah, no, I had several people come to me as I was kind of exploring that and a couple of them in particular, they were sales guys and it was, it made no sense to me to partner with a guy that brought the same skillset that I brought.
Speaker 3: (03:50)
So I partnered with a pest control guy, a guy that knew pest control that ran a pest control operation and our other partner now we’ve got an operations guy, finance guy. So we, like I said, we kind of all bring our certain skill sets to the table. Like I don’t want to do the things that my partners do on a day to day basis. I want to do sales and sales training and that’s, that’s where my partners are so valuable to me is because they bring different strengths. Exactly. And that’s why 15 years later you’re still cranking. You know what I’m saying? Partner. Yeah. We’re still doing our thing. Still got our company. Yeah. That’s awesome. So yeah,
Speaker 2: (04:25)
you and on your best year, his best year was 1,140, 50, almost 1200 accounts. Uh, which, and this industry is kind of, I’m thinking like dependent, I mean I haven’t heard many people doing more than 1200 thousand marks. That’s the golden door, right? So, um, you’re speaking at a guy’s announcement. Lenny is speaking at Ddd con virtual June 5th through the seventh. So make sure to hop onto his webinar and go register right now. D Two d conn.com and you can just, it’s free. Like it’s a free, like he’s giving abundantly. He’s giving abundantly on this podcast. He’s just filming some videos. He’s going to do two segments for the, for the virtual, uh, and you guys will get to learn more. So if you liked this today, then make sure you go register. So, uh, what’s really unique is, um, I find that that 12, you know, the 1100 1200, that’s why we are a thousand was our golden door. When or I don’t, you know, I know you’re out of town. It did any con last year and now it’s like darn Atlanta. But um, no but, but it’s like I’m, I’m curious to see now that we put the four minute mile now that we said, okay, here’s like the publicly like what’s accredidated as like bad day. I’m curious to see who’s going to go up 13 for children and and that, that needle just gets moved and I’m assuming it will happen. Yeah.
Speaker 3: (05:45)
Verses like this, right? Yeah. And your book and you got these things that, that now they don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Like I’ve invented it and I teach it right here. It’s like they’re 20 steps ahead of where I ever thought of being. Yeah, you are. I mean that’s back when it’s like what’s the pit? There was nothing,
Speaker 2: (06:02)
I’m curious, I actually want to know how was the pitch different and 98 than it is today? Or is it the same?
Speaker 3: (06:07)
Funny Story. So my first year it was always like, hey, you know, you’re going to have, you’re going to be trained. This guy from corporate is going to come out. And it kept getting delayed and I was just selling, doing my thing, just kind of figured out on my own, literally cutting my teeth every day on just, just trying new things and seeing what worked and what didn’t work. And so finally, I think it was like, end of June, we get this big corporate guy to come out, this is two months, two months in, and Kinda figure it out. So when he’s tells me he’s, he says, okay, this one I’m gonna do. I’m just gonna Record your pitch and share that with the rest of the company. That was my training. He didn’t teach me. So I mean I literally, uh, I had to figure it all out myself and that’s why the, the resources that are out there now I think are so advantageous to the sales reps because they don’t have to just go figure it out. They got it right here. They just need to put the time and effort into learning it because if, if you do this, it works. And I don’t care what industry, I mean I couldn’t, even though I own a pest control company, I’ve consulted for solar, I’ve consulted for home security, I’ve consulted for carpet cleaner. I mean just anything that you can imagine going door to door I’ve consulted for and they use the same techniques that are in the book.
Speaker 2: (07:14)
Yeah. Literally I got done yesterday speaking for Jay. Jeff did they before that was solar and I’m like, I’m giving you the same sticks. Six steps of the door approach and it’s still applicable. It’s soak. And that’s why I thought Dee did econ and d virtual and these, you know the podcast is, I’m like, it’s so cross contextual. It’s like it’s, you’re not going to ignore, you deal with the same struggles. This sucks. I’m getting rejected. This is hard to get out of my car. They’re yelling at me. I got to overcome that first 30 seconds and I want to dive into that and then close them. I mean it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s just, that’s the cell cycle, right. So, um, tell us, but before we dive into like the nitty gritty and the, and the content and the topics, tell us a little bit about your
Speaker 3: (07:53)
So yeah, uh, really my, my thought on writing the book was that I was going to be my stamp on the industry and how it’s going to be done. I was kind of exploring some other options, uh, from a career standpoint, but I really felt like my contribution because the industry had been so good for me for so many years that I thought, let me just teach what I know and everything that I know, put it out there and put it on paper. Um, so that, that was, that was initially my goal. And also there’s so much, um, I want to say, I’ll say this, lying, cheating and stealing on the doors. Um, there’s, there’s a lot of wrong ways that companies teach their reps to do it or there’s a lot of reps that have been successful doing it the wrong way for so long and that just kind of bleeds and seeps into other, other reps within the company. I was out, I was out at and company yesterday, so I mean, this solar section and I going to say sendings
Speaker 2: (08:44)
or anything like that. And I, and he said something, I was like, that’s not right. And I was like, can we change this? And I was just like, wow, I don’t even think you knew that you were being deceptive. You know what? I was just like, dude, like, nope, nope. Don’t say that. Like you’re getting drunk. Like that could cause you problems like, and you’re down the road. So, you know what I mean? And I think it’s, it’s just the habits of our forefathers. No. And I write about that
Speaker 3: (09:08)
book, right? I write about how to do it ethically and honestly. And I kind of felt like if I’ve had such great success doing it the way I’ve done it, I can put it on paper, I can put my name at the bottom of the book and I can say, this is me. This is exactly how I do it. You can’t be critical of what’s worked for me and it, and it does keep that authenticity as far as being ethical and honest. And so common common thought or common beliefs from a low level rep I’ve found is, oh, he sells a thousand plus. He must be shady. Sure. Have you ever had no, absolutely. No, that’s, that’s that stigma associated with this industry. And it doesn’t just go into reps and you know, the corporate side, it goes into homeowners too. Like I think the, the door to door, uh, industry does get that black eye because there’s been so many people doing it incorrectly and that’s why what you bring to the table, what I’m trying to bring to the table is kind of more of this openness of do it the right way and still be super successful.
Speaker 3: (10:08)
And it helps give our our tribe better name. You know what I mean? The DDD tribe needs a facelift in a sense from a community standpoint, and that’s the mission of DDD and when I’m advocating is like how do we just penetrate down to the consumer level to say, guys, there’s a lot of good, good ones of us. There are a lot of good ones. If I really know and we’re all striving to just make ends meet, make a dime, but also serve you and give you a great value in product. And that’s, we just figure we’re so excited about it, we’ve got to go knock on a door to do it. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. It’s the best type of advertising face to face advertising right now. Right. I mean you, you get that. I mean you’re walking, talking, you know, breathing commercial for every door that you, you knock on for that company you represent, you know, it’s a good company with a good service, a good product and you’re selling it the right way. It’s magical. I mean it’s been working at least since 98 after, before then and now here we are 20 years later and it’s still working. Just great. Yeah. And in fact it’s more and more popular. It’s growing. It’s a growing industry where a lot of people are like, well tech and websites and click funnels and the, you know, like, and I’m like, well why is door to door and the up and up like more services, more products, more, more things are getting added to this and that. I just just
Speaker 2: (11:17)
started it. This is funny that I haven’t added it yet, so don’t like calling me to this yet. But it was pretty funny last week. I’m not knocking solid right in this company and I’m starting a channel called will it sell? And I’m just pitching random things. So I was like, I’ll make a funny one in the beginning. So I sold bounce houses and I’d go knock and I’m like, okay, we’re just doing the bounce houses in the neighborhood and I just apply the six principles. And it was hilarious because the one dude’s like, oh no, I already have a friend that I get it. I get bounced. Says when that he owns a bounce house company. I’ve heard that objection. I know, I know, I know. I was like the same objection just in bounce houses I got in other industries and I was like, oh my gosh, it doesn’t change. So let’s segue. So if you guys want to get his book, I’m gonna put a little plug in, so get it on. Where do you, where does it Amazon d two. So it’s called, if you’re watching door to door millionaire secrets of making the sale, uh, lent by Lenny grade, you can find on Amazon, right?
Speaker 3: (12:16)
Yeah. So it’s on Amazon. I’ve got an audio book. I actually recorded the audio, which is pretty cool. In fact, I tell a lot of people it was a lot harder to do the audio version too.
Speaker 2: (12:24)
Begging me. People have been begging me on my book. Do you have an audio book sale? I’m like, no, that’s going to, I don’t have any red my buddy to do it.
Speaker 3: (12:33)
I think what’s great about it is the guys are, you know, driving out to their areas for the summer. Even after training meeting, they can just, you know, pop in the audio. You’ve got the audio book version and that, that actually is the top seller right now. The paperback still doing great. The audio book is now kind of this time of year really just outsells everything. I got a kindle version as well. All can be on Amazon or on my website dot com slash book I think. And you can get it there as well. Cool. Um, okay, so let’s dive into the training. Everybody’s probably watching this, you’re probably listening are like, all right,
Speaker 2: (13:03)
get to the meat. I want to actually like learn how to sell like Lenny. Right? So that’s, I do. I’m like, Hey, if it’s tell me what I’m getting too deep. But you know, he’s, he’s all about
Speaker 3: (13:13)
I in a secret. So I was like, I’ll, I’ll, let’s see if we, it shares the secrets of the podcast. So first off, I want to know what are the biggest mistakes first year’s rep reps make or just in in general door to door sales reps? The biggest common mistakes they make. So this time of year, I mean this, this is a great thing to talk about, right? It’s May 1st part of May, maybe you’ve been knocking for a week or two, maybe at your, your first couple of days, whatever it is. Your probably making the same mistakes the first year reps for the last 20 years that I’ve been noticing are making, there’s going to be a lot more specifics in the book, but let me just give you a rough idea. Number one is an energy level. Most reps that some companies now that there’s a lot of material out there, some companies, unlike the company I started with, they overtrain and so you get reps on the doors and they’re thinking so hard about what they have to say.
Speaker 3: (14:01)
There’s nothing natural about them. They’re just very, uh, I’d say robotic. Uh, you know, we call it one of the sins of, of the, the sale making the sales is, is being a robot called Zombie mode. Sure. Yeah. They just literally are just so dialed into thinking, oh, they’re thinking so hard. What am I going to say? And, and all of their approaches sound the exact same. Know that that’s the issue. And there’s no personality, there’s no flavor. Like I would think if you’re going out selling door to door and you’ve got to have some kind of an energy level, I call it being a seven a, if you think of, you know, radio dial or whatever, the volume meter. Um, rather than, you know, being what we normally our day to day, we’re probably about threes, fours, fives. You’ve at least got to be a seven, even approaching an eight when you’re on the doors.
Speaker 3: (14:47)
Um, I look at it as, as kind of putting on a show, like if I’m in a room with a bunch of people, I’m probably most boring guy in the room, honestly. Like I’ll, I’ll sit there, I’ll observe. I just like to read nonverbals and do all that nerdy type of stuff, you know, with uh, with communication. But if I’m on the doors, I flipped a switch. Like it’s like the doorstep is my stage and I’ve got to put on a show broadcasting. There it is, it’s funny that you say that. So Brock McCurdy you probably don’t know him, but he did a thousand satellite accounts and I’m doing a podcast with him later. He’s speaking at virtual as well, but he, he did a panel at Ddd con last year and I went to lunch with them just like I want to do. And I’m like, man, this guy’s kind of just like, he gets, they started asking her questions and about his sales pitch and it was just like, dude, like, who are you?
Speaker 3: (15:36)
Yeah. But I mean, I think that’s, and it’s, and I think that there’s a difference between an authentic seven versus an inauthentic seven. Sure, sure. No. And people read that, right? People get if you’re trying to be somebody or somebody else, like if you’re trying to be your manager or trying to be that guy that’s just a the rockstar sales guy, um, it’s probably not going to come off naturally at first. Not saying that it can be learned over repetition and time, but you do have to step outside yourself if you’re going to be successful at door to door. I always say, think about let’s say a house is 20 years old and you go knock on it for 20 years. Door to door guys had been knocking on this door and you’ve been asked, you know, that same homeowner have been answering that door.
Speaker 3: (16:18)
How are you going to be different than the 20 years of guys that are laying dead on the side of the porch and they’ve kicked off and gotten rid of, they need to remember it. Yeah. You got to be something different. My favorite thing is when a neighbor or rep knocks behind me and is like, oh wait, Sam was already here. People that didn’t buy. Yeah, and it’s like, Huh? They know us. They know me. Make an impression and make that impression. Yeah. So talk to me about energy. So when you say I’m a s four three off the doors, what things do you do to help bring the energy up? Like you know, like to get in that state where you can put on the show. Cause sometimes that’s exhausting. Yeah, no it is. And that, that’s the challenge, right? Is at door one and two door 100 you’ve got to have that same energy because that’s your first time to make a first impression on that particular person.
Speaker 3: (17:07)
So it doesn’t matter what door it is, its door 76 of the day. You’ve got to just think in your mindset. It’s like door one, you know, and I’ve, I’ve got to be ready. That’s the best thing about door to door, right? Whoever opens, you just don’t know. It’s a whole new story. Every, every time that door opens and it’s somebody else, her friend, it’s like, oh my gosh, this is like, I’ve never talked to this person before. This is different. This is a new opportunity. I think sales reps sometimes think just because of the same concerns are coming up or you know, they’re hearing some of the same things that everybody’s the same, but everybody’s different. Everybody needs to hear different things. Everybody needs their nonverbals to be broken down a little bit differently depending on what, um, you know, what’s being said and what their interest level is.
Speaker 3: (17:47)
And so the great thing for me is, is you have that, that opportunity every day to make a hundred first impressions. And so that, that’s what excites me when I’m knocking doors is this is my one chance to sell this person. Yes. Hey man, write that down everybody, because that’s the thing. Like it’s like I’m here too. This is my chance right now to sell this one person and nothing else matters. Right? The last 75 could have been the biggest dick ever, but it’s like that I like you are all that matters in this whole year. My goals, my success, my paychecks all comes from you and you told me to, okay. Now that all comes from, you know what I mean? And I think people fail like it. That is, so write this down, like this is good. And the thing of it is you should take all those no’s.
Speaker 3: (18:38)
You should take something from like, where did I mess up? When that type of person answers the door again or talks to me or throws this out, how can I address that differently? I mean, to me it’s a total head game thing in between doors. I don’t think a lot of people think about what goes on in between the doors much. They just talk about what happens at the door. To me, the really good sales reps, it’s what happens when I knock on this door too, when I knock on that door and what am I doing? Am I, am I, you know, a lot of my guys, they’ll, they’ll bring this book and they’ll read something, you know, in between doors they’ll, they’ll read it or they’ll have, uh, my, my playbook that I write from my company and there’ll be reading that or they’ll just do play head games with themselves.
Speaker 3: (19:16)
You know what I did? So I knock with that little, have you seen like the little LG tone? Oh yeah. Yeah. So like I’ll have a headphone playing a podcast or something positive you and pump up music and I’ll have it playing. Just not loud enough to where the customer can hear it. And I have to turn it on and off, on and off. But it’s always playing. And so in between doors I just boom. Right. And then keep going. It’s awesome. And then the, and like I hear the door knock jiggling, take it. Hey, I’m saying yeah and they don’t like it. They would never know. But that’s why, and this is funny, they were tightening in between doors because I don’t think I’ve ever really talked to them in the podcast. And I think it’s probably almost more important because you’re, you’re checking your energy state in between every door.
Speaker 3: (19:57)
Yeah. And a lot of guys, right nowadays we’ve got phones that buzz and beep and everything else kind of noise, vibrate, whatever they’re doing. And a lot of times I see sales reps, like if I’m going out with my own guys before I go out with them, I’ll, I’ll kind of see where they are and just observe them for a little bit to see what’s going on. And a lot of times they knock on the door, they get turned down and what do they do right to their phone, Instagram, and they’re, they’re texting back, their friend, their mom, whatever, and then they get to that next door and then it’s like you didn’t learn anything between those doors. You know, you were focused on something else. It two things that I would ever look at my phone for was one, like the street jr APP or whatever, or to this scoreboard, refresh the debts.
Speaker 3: (20:43)
Where am I guys at Wright who’s out selling me, telling me. Those are the two things that I usually, the only two things you should do. It’s motivation, right? Yeah. But if you’re tweeting something about, you know, whatever, answering a text, I mean that’s, that’s just going to unfocused you from what your next job is. And that’s to make a great first impression on a person. So another mistake. Any other mistakes that people make? You know, I think a lot of times reps don’t listen to what’s being said to them. You know, they kind of steamroll the customer like, like to me the magic of the initial approach. One of my main goals for an initial approach really is just to get the customer talking. I want to start to have dialogue with that person because when they’re verbally expressing themselves, I can read a lot on their tone on some of those metal verbals.
Speaker 3: (21:26)
And so I want to get them talking as quickly as possible. That’s why an initial approach is 30 to 45 seconds period. And then I’m asking a question, I want to see what, you know, what, what they’re saying, what their attitude is and those types of things. So to me what happens is you get customers talking and, and literally I see reps make this mistake all the time. Just saw it last week when I was not going with one of my guys. You know, somebody said something about they weren’t feeling very well or it was, their kid wasn’t, I can’t remember exactly what it was, but somebody wasn’t feeling very well in the house if it wasn’t them, I can’t remember. But, and then the rep just kind of gloss right over that and just kept talking about, you know, promoting what they were doing.
Speaker 3: (22:02)
And it’s like, why didn’t you just stop and say, well what’s, what’s going on? Like, you know, it was like a flu bug going around or just ask some kind of a question to, to show that you’re interested as a human being in that person. And, and a lot of reps, they’re just so dialed into their sales process. They just, I got it to go from a, and then B and then c and then d. I mean I have five steps, uh, four or five steps depending on your industry of a, an an effective initial approach. And I always tell reps they don’t have to be in that order. They just have to kind of have to happen. They have to happen somewhere, but they don’t have to be in order. You don’t have to say this and then this and then this. That’s when you start becoming a robot. You stop listening to people and you’re just trying to fire off some kind of a pitch. No, I 100% love that. I think
Speaker 2: (22:44)
it’s, it’s so funny, but like I, I, I see all the time. Like you, you don’t have people that consciously like, here’s, here’s the paradigm, right? I don’t even know if that’s right word, but we think people don’t treat us like human beings, right? We’re like, dude, you’re just like, you would never be this mean to any other person in the planet. Right. But the fact that I knocked on her door and treat me like this, but then it’s like, let’s, let’s reverse that. Would you talk to any other human being the way that you are probably approaching them with some sales pitch? It’s like, no, let’s have a conversation that you just funnel them into a decision. That’s it. Like it’s just a conversation that you’re hitting these five points and they just come and we’ve naturally ended. Yeah.
Speaker 3: (23:33)
That, that’s the best part about knocking doors. Like if I’m knocking on doors with my reps and you know, I, I make a sale for them. The thing that it’s, it’s hilarious, but I’ll hear nine times out of 10 like, oh, that was an easy one. I, we got that and they don’t even see behind the curtain everything that happened to making that sale because it looks so easy. You just get a little lay down. Yeah. That was an easy one. I would have bought from anybody. I just happened to 10 x more lay downs and you did really know and that’s, you know, I write about that in my book. It’s uh, one of the nicknames I was getting back in the close days was the Pied Piper because for whatever reason, if I, whatever neighborhood or city I was knocking in, all of a sudden everybody needed pest control.
Speaker 3: (24:15)
Right. As the law, I’m just playing the magic flute and like all the bugs are coming. It’s like, no, that ain’t even do with that. It has to do with how you talk to people, how you show interest in people and then like you said, how you funnel them down into, into making a sale. Okay. So we’re going to go into that but give me two seconds. So keep listening. If you’re on live, like I said, share this or tag somebody that sells cause we’re about to go and the selling, hold on real quick. I have to, and I’ll, I’ll just say one other thing while we’re a or miss still get to the, we’re, I would say a another just the last mistake that I, that I see the most often is reps that think they know it all. I mean, especially first year, first year reps, even the experienced ones like I love like the big hitters that are still like hungry to learn how to be, why, why do you think it did this podcast?
Speaker 3: (25:03)
I’m like, oh just get a chance to like pick line, use branch into this guy. This guy’s brain. It’s so fun. Yeah. I’m learning every day. Well, I look and I go, okay, if I’m knocking doors last week with neither one of my reps, one of my reps could say something, and they do all the time where I’m like, oh, why didn’t I think of that? Here they are their first two weeks and I’m going, that was a really good way to say that I’m going to start using that. So if I can learn from a guy that has hardly any experience, like there’s so much knowledge on how to do this. Like that’s always been my mindset is I can learn something from anybody. And when you get those reps, especially the first years, like you said, even the experienced guys that are like, no, I’m good.
Speaker 3: (25:40)
I’ve got this figured out. It’s like, all right, you plateaued and you’re and a heater soon. Awesome. So let’s dive in. How to sell. Here’s the segment, how to 1200 accounts that, I mean like let’s go into the pitch. Like how do you, like how do you start? I’ll be your customer. Let’s just do it like jam. Well, I’ll break it down into, into each second because to me, I’m, I’m very, uh, analytical. When I, when I think about things like there’s a process, like I said, I’ve got four or five steps that we’ll go through and I’ll, I’ll tell you exactly how I do it, but at the same time, depending on that, who opens that door and what the, the attitude is, I might start with step four before I go into step one, right? It really just depends and that’s where you gotta be on your feet and you gotta be alive.
Speaker 3: (26:28)
But typically the, the four steps kind of goes something like this. Number one is, is just the introduction, right? I mean, that’s just, I mean, we’re in America for the most part are, you know, most people just introduce themselves and say who they are. So it’s kind of a, who are you? And that can be, you know, that can vary, right? I’m Sam with such and such solar, I’m Lenny with such and such pest control, or I’m the bug guy, or I’m, you know, whatever it is. There’s gotta be some type of an introduction where it’s just, just a quick little, you know, quick little hit are there, I think as part of that introduction, what I’d like to even further break that one down into is icebreakers. Like super important just to be conversation with people. Um, don’t be afraid if they’ve got a, a flag of a college or a sports team or something.
Speaker 3: (27:11)
Don’t be afraid to just point something out with that. Like, oh, did you see the game last night, man, Celtics are doing awesome. Like, or whatever it is, right? Yeah. You’ve got to bring some type of, of, um, personality and customization to it. So that’s kind of in that first step as well. Um, the, the second step to me is, is why you’re there. Like, why are you on their porch? Um, are you running some kind of, uh, uh, uh, promotion? Are you, um, you know, you filling up some spots on a route, are you, uh, you know, taking care of one of the neighbors, you know, name dropping would be a subsegment of section or part two there where you’ve got to have a reason to be on their door. You can’t just randomly, even though you might randomly be showing up, it’s very important to use your company, customer lists and those types of things so you have some kind of justification for being in that person’s doorstep.
Speaker 3: (28:08)
Um, the third step to me is that is kind of what you’re offering. So it’s who you are, why you’re there, then kind of what you’re offering and what you’re offering. Again, that’s gonna vary from industry to industry, from company to company. Are you offering some type of a, a great bonus for people, some kind of a, an add on or are you offering, you know, your service for a big discount, whatever, you know, you, you’ve got to have a reason why you’re knocking on their door that’s going to benefit that person. Um, and I would say the fourth step to me is addressing a common concern. One thing that I found early on when I was knocking doors is we get a lot of the same concerns, whether it’s bounce house, you know, I got a guy that already does that, or you know, whatever it is, there’s always those, those common concerns that you hear.
Speaker 3: (28:56)
I’m of the opinion that if you get in front of those concerns early, it just gives you that much more advantage over the customer really in the game of selling. So if, if the concern you’re hearing is we already have a company, let’s say, you know, we already have, we already have that, whatever that is. Um, I’m going to say something in my initial approach to the effect of, well, you know why we’re out here in the neighborhood. We’re running a big promotion for a few people. You’ve probably already got that service that’s, that’s typical for this area. But the reason why people are inquiring about or asking about our companies because, and so I already got in front of that, assuming that they already have it. And what I call that as a win win assumption. Because if you guessed it right then you’re right.
Speaker 3: (29:37)
If you guessed it wrong, you might get that person thinking, oh crap, he’s saying everybody has this. I don’t what’s wrong with me and when when assumption, I like that. So that’s, that’s kind of that, that that would be the fourth step is addressing a common concern. I coined the term eight mile. Okay. And it comes from the, the movie eight mile and M and m goes, I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but he doesn’t rap battle. And he says, I know I’m white. I know my mom grew up in a trailer. I know that like I know all these objections we’re about to wrap about me. And he’s like, tell me something you don’t know about me and be like, come on, like what? What else you got? I’ve been here, done it. And you’re done it. And it’s, it’s that addressing the concerns well before they bring them up.
Speaker 3: (30:14)
Right. And support. I like that. Exactly. That’s just it. I mean it’s literally just intro. Why, what common concern and then is there, then I put the last one is most people put it as a close, I actually call it a conversational close where I don’t think, I think some reps get tied up in the thought that in those first 30 to 45 seconds, I’ve got to make a sale. That’s not at all the goal in the first 30 to 45 seconds to make a sale. The goal is to get that person talking to you so you can start to read them and start over, come their concerns and all of those things that I put in the book. And then I talk about, um, so again, to me as a conversational clothes can be completely off top topic. It is. So, uh, it’s funny too is I teach even my own sales reps this, there’s such a disconnect between going step one, two, three, four conversational clothes.
Speaker 3: (31:02)
It’s, it’s out of the blue and it, it, it doesn’t come naturally. But I’m going to tell you that’s the way to just, here’s why I’m standing on your doorstep. This is kind of what we’re doing. But then we want to know about you. Yeah. Hey, how long have you lived in the house? So it’s like, did I get you, did I, did I hook you enough with my what and my why and nef to buy enough time for you to want to talk to me now. Yeah. Now it’s like if I sold you on that you liked me and let’s have a conversation. Yeah. That’s the goal. And the conversation clothes could have nothing to do with making that sale. It’s not, hey, is this something you’re interested in? Which is a horrible question anyway, cause it’s yes, no. And I talk about questioning and my book, so we’ll have to dial into the book to figure out the three types of questions and how to overcome saying the yes, no question, which we always hear that thing we don’t here, but that’s, we don’t even do a conversational closing question.
Speaker 3: (31:48)
I mean it’s really, I’m just trying to bring conversation with people, whether it’s, how long have you lived in the home, whether it’s where you guys, from what, you know, whatever it is. I’m just trying to get that person talking to me so I can again get a read on, on where their interest levels co and I, and, and it’s funny, we call that step transition, but I actually kind of want to change it to conversation. I’ll close because it’s trademarked. I know. I was going to say, did it hashtag lending her every time I put it? Uh, no, but it’s, it’s so much more. I like, it’s such a better way to say transition because a lot of people think transition equals all right, so you want to do it like, all right, so let’s get you sign up. It’s like, no, it’s like now you’ve created enough trust to where it’s like, okay, let’s play on that trust for awhile until it’s ready.
Speaker 3: (32:33)
Let’s, let’s like put you in the African, marinate this marinade for a minute and then I’ll know, I’ll know when it’s right to just be like, all right, let’s do this. Like, you know what I mean? Okay. So let’s dive in. Let’s, let’s do it. Um, let’s just robot. I want to, I want to see. So let’s put some stage, I am a 45 year old dude. Three kids, just middle of cookie cutter class neighborhood. Uh, yeah, that’s who opens it door. Okay. How you doing? Hey, I can help you. Yeah, just really quick. I don’t know if, uh, Marcy next door told you I’d be coming by today. Also, just really quick. I know you’re, it looks like you got what, three, four dozen kids back then? Let’s say you get a bounce house in the bath. That’s pretty awesome. Yeah. Yeah. My, my daughter’s birthday party tomorrow, we’re just getting everything set.
Speaker 3: (33:19)
Probably got it from the door to door. Anyway, what we’re doing is we’re actually going to be in the neighborhood tomorrow and what I’ve got is I’ve got a technician that’s going to have some extra time and I’m offering a couple spots just to fill up his day so he’s not just sitting around because I gotta pay him anyway. Uh, but I’m going to offer a huge discount to the first couple of your neighbors that want to jump on board, but you probably already got your pest setup and that happened. But how long have you lived in the house? About 10 years. I mean, that’s, that’s it. So I’m not going to floor anybody with like this. I’m always, but that’s the initial approach. Everybody listened to your IC, they’re going to be like, how come I don’t sell 12 one, but let’s wait. Let’s keep going because I want to, I’m going to band or I’m going to, I’m going to be a little harder because everybody’s like, well, over it goes, we’re not just like, Yo, let’s do it.
Speaker 3: (34:05)
Yeah. Okay. So, all right. Um, tell them you lived here. So 10, 10 years. 10 years. Okay. You guys from the area, are you guys from out of state? We came here from Virginia, Virginia, just for, we’re against actually used to live in Virginia. What part? North or South? Uh, south, like Richmond area. It’s been awesome. In fact, I worked for a company doing the same thing and actually one of my years was, was in Richmond of all. Now love that. But then that’s hammocks veil. I don’t know if you’re familiar. Yeah, no, for sure. Race ready right there. Anyway. Uh, well like I mentioned the first couple of people that want to jump on board, I’m going to give them a big discount just to kind of fill up these spots. Um, now as far as bug activity, I know you’re not seeing anything inside, but just on the outside right now, what are you guys dealing with?
Speaker 3: (34:45)
Typically? Spiders answered more of like wasps and bees for pri bees and wasps. Well, especially when you have the kids out playing, you guys probably spend a lot of time in your yard. Looks like he got the bounce house, the swimming pool or being set up back there. Um, really what we’re trying to do is just to make sure things don’t start getting in the house. So again, while we’re out in the area, we figure, you know, let’s keep our guys busy and fact with us taking care of Marcy just down the street anyway, it’s kind of one of those things that makes it easy for us. And with your home being, you know, 20 years old kind of in this neighborhood where everybody’s homeless built about the same time, it really makes sense. The more people to do it together, it just advantageous for us and the homeowners as well.
Speaker 3: (35:23)
How much is it? Yeah, no that’s a great question. About how many square feet you guys got here now? About 9,000. About 9,000. Nice. Yeah that would be a big basement. No, that’s awesome. Um, we, yeah and just to keep in mind what we’re going to do on home just so you know what the services and I then basically at that point I get into what’s called value building. So what I did with you there is I took you from the initial approach to qualifying to me. I, there’s certain qualifiers identify what those are in the book, but there’s certain qualifiers that lets me know if I’ve got genuine interest from somebody and you ask me one of the magic questions, how much is it? So I noticed so are you kind of waiting for me to ask that? Yeah, I was gonna say, cause you’ve seeded and I don’t know if anybody listened to heard that, but he’s like, I’m going to do it.
Speaker 3: (36:08)
It is. I’m going to do it a bit. I mean it makes it really cheap for us in order to do it, but he’s never, he’s Kinda like Wade. It almost was like you’re waiting for them to say, well how much is it? Because if somebody is not interested in something, I could, I mean I’m, I’m of the opinion, Sam, that I could go to 50% of the houses that I talked to in a day. If I sit, I’m going to give it to you for free. They wouldn’t do it. Or if I said I’m going to pay you 100 bucks to do it, there’s probably 10% of those that wouldn’t do it either. Oh, it’s true. So I don’t want to talk to those people. I’m not like this magic guru. To me, the top sellers, it’s, it’s what they say and how they work though too and who they spend time with and who they don’t.
Speaker 3: (36:48)
To me, my ratio of closing people who qualify is off the charts, but I’m not going to sell the grumpy old man who’s, you know, peeks out the door this much and doesn’t want to give me two seconds. I might sell that guy one in a hundred times just like anybody else. But what I’m going to do is the guy that expresses interest and qualifies, then I’ve got that back Hook said just a little bit and I’m just going to keep reeling. That hook tell it gets in there tighter and tighter as the idea. So walk us through the value build. Um, you know, you start to build this value. How would you do that? So value building, to me, it’s going to be company specific and what you’re selling. But I want to use, what I want to do is I want to use pictures, right?
Speaker 3: (37:34)
I want to use something or videos or some type of promotional. At this point I’m going, okay, there’s enough interest. I’m not that good looking or that interesting enough that this guy is gonna want to just keep looking at me. And so I want to steer their attention into some of my, my sales training materials. And this is what we do on the inside. This is what we do on the outside, this is what we do, blah, blah, blah. And I’m just really want by the time I dropped the price on them, I want to build that value big enough to where they look at the price and it’s like, that’s a steal. Like holy cow. You do all that for just that. And so that, that’s the idea, what the value build, whatever you’re selling, just really use other materials and promote the crazy out of it.
Speaker 3: (38:12)
Now we don’t want to oversell, right? And then under deliver on the service. You know, that’s a big segue what we’re promising the world. Oh yeah. You’ll never see a bug again or oh yeah, you basically drop a bomb on your house and it kills everything within [inaudible] want to do that. I mean that’s not going to promote, uh, longevity and the customer. Right. But you want to paint a realistic picture cause no matter what you’re selling, people have an idea of what your service is from a friend or maybe they’ve had it before. You know, we, if somebody is going to go wash your windows, they might’ve had some guy who was drinking beers, you know, washing their windows and drunk and fell off the ladder and you know, broke his leg and they got sued. Who knows, who knows what stories they’ve heard about window washers.
Speaker 3: (38:49)
So I want to make my window washing companies seemed like the best out there and why and how we do things and our safety precautions and you know, all of those things. So whatever you’re selling, I’m just going to tie all that in, in the value build. Um, and then I’m going to close. I mean that to me, that’s, that’s where the rubber meets the road. Once I built enough value, um, I’m going to tell them what the price is because you asked, I guess I’ll take a step back before I just closed. I’d go, my next step would be rate card rate card. So you value build. Somebody asked how much, one of the biggest pet peeves I have with sales reps is somebody asked how much I go through the value build and then I kind of do some kind of a close where it’s like, so yeah, is that something you’re interested in?
Speaker 3: (39:30)
And the guy’s like, well how much is it? Like, I don’t want that guy to ask me twice how much is he’s already qualified by asking me that. So I’m going to go from the value build right into my rate card. And, and to me, rate cards are important for companies. If you’re a business owner, whatever, if you’re not in your company, doesn’t have a rate card. Like, I hate the idea of a sales rep going, well, normally our prices, you know, $20,000 but today I’m going to do it for 10 like I’m just making up those numbers. But for whatever reason, if it’s written on something, if you’ve got it on your iPad or you’ve got it in, you know, whatever, just kind of a laminated sheet, whatever it is, if somebody can see that it legitimizes what you’re doing. So, and you’d have a rate card and I don’t come from the pet space.
Speaker 3: (40:12)
So does it mean you’ve got, here’s our services, here’s the typical prices, and then you say, this is what I’m going to, this is the discount, this is the promotion that I mentioned we’re doing in the initial approach. Okay, cool. And then you go to that rate card and then if that rate card you go to a close, so transition me and you’re like, okay, here’s all your stuff you get, here’s your discount. Yeah. Walk me through that and then close me. Okay. So yeah, on the inside and again, different services. I’ll just give you kind of a general service. But yeah, on the inside we’re going to do a crack and crevice treat and then we’re going to hit areas where bugs tried to get in on the outside, we’ll do a granular foundation treatment and need treatment. You know, we’ll make sure we hit areas that bugs or your home susceptible to getting bugs inside.
Speaker 3: (40:51)
Um, now like I mentioned, what we’re going to do with, with your home is we’re just going to set you up on, on kind of our starter package, you know, kind of get you, get you rolling on, on what we do and for how long we do and that Barry’s company or they’re doing a one year or two year tenure, I dunno, whatever companies are doing. Um, and in what we do, like I mentioned you, you’d want to know the price. So for a 9,000 square foot home, if I can show you here, typically if you call into my office, you’re going to get priced out of this at this price. But tomorrow while we’re at Marcy’s house, I can just have my technician drive up to here, no big deal. We’re actually going to do it for this price instead. And so like I mentioned, I’ve got those two spots that I can do.
Speaker 3: (41:27)
Uh, I’ve got one in the morning, one later in the afternoon, evening. What’s going to be better for you guys prior evening? Yeah. What so does that mean like so tomorrow you said so and that’s what’s going to happen, right? I’m going to do a close and then the next step is another objection or two or 20. And the important thing here is once you get, once you overcome an objection, whatever it is, then you just revert back to your same clothes and don’t think like a lot of reps try to reinvent all these, you know, 20 different closes after every concern to me that you can use the same clothes. They’re not hearing the clothes that they’re thinking of their next objection. So once you’ve gone through every single objection, it might be one more objection. It might be 20 more objections. You just keep saying, and like I mentioned, I’ve got those two spots tomorrow, ones in the morning, ones later in the afternoon, you know, what, what works best for you. And then as well, my wife’s not here, I need to talk to her. And then we, we battle with that and we’d go through that and I see if I can overcome that. And like I mentioned, I got those couple spots tomorrow, one in the morning when the afternoon, what, what’s gonna be better for you guys? And you can just go, I love
Speaker 2: (42:31)
and you just keep back to the club back to the close. It’s just like, and, and, and eventually they’re probably just like, well I probably afternoon and then what do you do? So I say, okay, so afternoon.
Speaker 3: (42:40)
Yeah, I mean, then you don’t hesitate, you know? I mean, I’ve literally seen reps scars, are you sure did I like, yeah you did. I mean, and that worked, right? So then it’s just, it’s getting your iPad out or whatever you use. And then it’s like, so yeah. Let’s put everything under your name. What was your first name again? I mentioned, my name is Lennie. Yeah, sin. And it might shake their there. I don’t, I’m not the hand Shaker right out the gate. I hate that. I write about that in my book as to why, but it’s just not, that’s used car salesman to me. Like you don’t know the guy, that guy doesn’t know you and you’re on his doorstep uninvited and all of sudden you’re like, Hey, you want physical touch? No, that’s, that’s not me at all. Like I, I wait until I’ve kind of earned that from them. And at that point, once we’ve closed or we’re making the deal, or they’d done the deal and then fun to, to reach under the handshake, but then, yeah, then I just go through the service agreement and do whatever you gotta do and whatever you’re selling. So,
Speaker 2: (43:32)
and boom, there you have it. The close Mike drop. Exactly. So I think if you’re listening or watching this in my opinion, if you were just to rewind the last 10 minutes and rewatch and rewatch and really pay attention, you know, to some of the things like how he was assuming that close, how he’s asking the questions, the tone, how he just directed me. Like, you know, when we kind of broke that down step by step. But I think what’s really important is having the understanding of like, okay, it’s just moving the thing through. They’re going to give you objections. It’s just going to happen. Going back to just like, go close, don’t wait, don’t hesitate. Um, and, and you’ll get deals like really well. Like it’s just plain and simple deals will fall. Um, and dude, I, I’ve loved the mistakes because right now everybody’s making them right? And, and what it is, it is so honestly, super excited to have you. Did you come virtual? This’ll be a treat for everybody. I hope that everybody got a lot of value out of this one as well. Um, and then go check out his book guys. It
Speaker 3: (44:32)
on Amazon. Is this door to door millionaire. Um, and you’re crying on Lenny. Great outcome. So any other, any other last advice for door to door guy or anything else that you want to share? And I, I uh, I just say when you’re out knocking doors every day, just remember that this game of door to door sales is probably 95% mental and about 5% physical. So I mean to me, if you’re thinking about ways to get better, whether it’s you got your ear patio area, your phone’s in or whatever it is, um, or you’re, you’re reading something or you’re just mentally replaying what just happened at that door and how you get better the next time you hear that same concern or, or whatever. If you’re mentally checked in to this game, you will get better every day. And don’t get too frustrated. We always tell our reps, you need to talk to 600 people before you even start to say you can’t do this. Like, like to us there. There’s just, there’s a repetition. You can just start to go lift weights and thank you some, you know, great bodybuilder after after one or two days, like got, you’ve got to put in the time and the effort. Don’t talk to as many people as you can your first few weeks and then get through that. That the toughest part of the learning curve and then it just, it’s improvement from there, but it’s mental. Cool. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show. This has been awesome.
