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My Blue-Collar Sales System That Works
73 Plays30 days ago
In Episode 84, Brent Oberlink breaks down the sales strategies that helped grow his business. He covers the tactics he relied on in the early days as well as the systems and processes he uses today. He shares practical lessons on building relationships, earning trust, closing more work, and why great sales involve more than just offering the lowest price. Whether you're just starting out or looking to improve your sales process, this episode is packed with actionable advice you can apply to your business.
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Transcript
Ways to Grow a Company: Sales vs. Retention
00:00:00
Speaker
can grow a company two ways, sales and retention. If you don't have retention, you got to sell the crap out of stuff over and over and over because you're losing all existing clientele all the time.
00:00:10
Speaker
The best way to grow a company is to keep what you already worked for and add new. And I think the key to retention is exactly what we're talking
Introduction to the Better Contractor Podcast
00:00:17
Speaker
about. Welcome back to the Better Contractor Podcast. This is a podcast where we help contractors grow. in This podcast, it's episode 84. We're going to be talking with Brent and his story in sales, how he started his company and how he ran sales back then and how he does sales in modern times.
00:00:32
Speaker
So if you like the podcast, all we ask is if you share and hit that subscribe button.
Host Banter and Catch-Up
00:00:37
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of The Better Contractor. I am joined by my amazing, dressed exactly the same way as he was in the last podcast, and so am I. Alex. I've gotten amazing on this intro. I know. You've been with us for a little while now. I'm moving up in the ranks.
00:00:52
Speaker
I appreciate it. What's up, guys? We're back. We're in the same thing, like Brent just said. Yeah. Lily's been 10 minutes since the last podcast. so Well, this podcast is about sales.
The Importance of Human Connection in Sales
00:01:03
Speaker
So if you need help with sales in your company or need to learn about sales, you're about to hear it. You just went on a little sales trip, didn't you?
00:01:12
Speaker
It was fun. So... We, this was my norm, pre-COVID, this is the norm. So I would usually fly out or drive out on Sunday nights, me and our GM at the time, and we would just go visit customers, spend lunch, dinner with them, and we would do that, usually Monday through Thursday, come back Thursday night, catch up on Friday, and that was it.
00:01:34
Speaker
But since COVID, everybody wants to do virtual and I absolutely hate it. Yeah. Which at the beginning, I loved it because I didn't have to travel as much. But then you realize that there is a human connection that you start to miss a little bit. ah You think maybe that doesn't matter that much in sales.
00:01:50
Speaker
It does matter in sales. so So this past week, there was one contract we've had literally since 2009. So it was one of our first larger contracts. I hadn't been in inside of this facility as a refinery, hadn't been inside this facility for probably five years. So that was actually kind of cool to go back in, you know, and see them and see some of the people that we worked with years ago.
00:02:11
Speaker
So great, great one there. There's another one who we've worked with as a pipeline customer for about seven years, but I've never met him. It's just been emails and phone and texts back and forth, virtual calls.
00:02:23
Speaker
So to put a face actually with all of that and vice versa was awesome. It was a great week. We were ah out in Ohio, then went up to Michigan, back to Chicago, and then back to here. So, yeah, just got back last night. I love to hear it that people are, like, starting to meet again after COVID. yeah Right after COVID, it was just, like, Zoom call after Zoom call. was like, this is terrible. too much I hated it. It was too much.
Balancing Sales and Retention
00:02:44
Speaker
um But now that you're back to doing those tours, do you feel like some people used COVID as an excuse to not have to meet in person? Yeah.
00:02:52
Speaker
I think it made things easy. It made one need to do it. Yeah. In the beginning, I think it was almost like, yes, i don't have to travel anymore. And there was perks to it. But I think like with anything, there's a pendulum.
00:03:05
Speaker
And I think it went too far that way. Yeah. And it may be over here. It was like we're traveling every single week as it gets old. But the perfect spot is somewhere in the middle. yeah So that's where we're trying to land.
00:03:16
Speaker
is try to get a little bit more in-person meetings. Because at the end of the day and I rode out with our general manager, who was not my GM back pre-COVID. He was with us, but not as a GM. And that's the things we were talking about. Like, I was
Early Sales Strategies and Client Education
00:03:30
Speaker
reminiscing about these different contracts that we had and different people, and a lot of them we still have.
00:03:35
Speaker
And then it hit me while I was talking to him, those are all people who I met in person. And I'm like, wait a minute. That's a deeper connection for that very reason. It's because we went out to lunch. We had dinner. We had to grab coffee.
00:03:49
Speaker
If I don't have that with you, then I'm, you know, we talk about commodity sales. If I don't have that with you, I am a commodity. Because there is no relationship there. So then it's just a service or it's just a product if you sell a product.
00:04:02
Speaker
And I don't think that's key. You know, there's you can grow a company two ways. Sales and retention. If you don't have retention, got to sell the crap out of stuff over and over and over because you're losing all existing clientele all the time.
00:04:16
Speaker
The best way to grow a company is to keep what you already worked for and add new. And I think the key to retention is exactly what we're talking about. Yeah. So just like our last podcast, if you guys didn't see that one, we talked about marketing and how Brent markets his companies. Now we're doing sales. So those got kind of go hand in hand. But just like the marketing podcast, I want to start at the beginning and how your sales has kind of evolved over the years. So when you first started, what did your sales process look like? So it's definitely improved. So i started this company with my wife. I was 24. She 22. So we were young.
00:04:51
Speaker
and The year prior to that, I worked at a company doing something similar but slightly different. But they hired me directly out of college into a management position. which I'm thankful for.
00:05:03
Speaker
ah don't quite understand it now at 44 years old. um I was too young. But anyway, I made it work. yeah Learned a lot. But during my last year of college, I interned with an insurance company, which we did some investment stuff as well. And their philosophy is what I was kind of taught in the beginning, which was, you know, you just you don't take no for an answer. You have all these kind of pre-scripted things that you said.
00:05:29
Speaker
Which isn't me. That's not who I am. But that's what I tried to do. And I modified it more to fit me, which is maybe not three three no's. might take one or two. But I guess what i'm trying to say with that is the transition to what I found worked, and thankfully I did it pretty quick, was for me and for my style for this company, that's not what works.
00:05:51
Speaker
There may be products and services where that does work. But for me, it was, i need to help and
Competing Beyond Price: Culture and Value
00:05:57
Speaker
educate. So you'll see, like, I see one of the things you wrote down for the podcast notes was, you know, do you consider yourself a salesman? And the answer is no, because traditionally I don't directly ever ask for the sale.
00:06:09
Speaker
And the reason I do that is I want you to view me as the person who's teaching you something, who's educating you, who's trying to help you. And if that takes me two or three extra attempts and conversations with you, I view that as a better sale.
00:06:25
Speaker
I view that as a sale that's less likely to get canceled. I view that as a sale that's more likely to be retained over time because I earned the relationship first. So if I'm just pushing, pushing, pushing my service or product on you, do you feel a commitment to me or you just finally tell me yes to get me to shut up?
00:06:41
Speaker
Yep. Probably just tell me yes to get me shut up. Yep. But if I end up liking you and like, dang, Alex has taught me so much stuff. At some point, like i so i need if if I need this product or service, I need to buy it from him because he spent so much time helping me. yep That is a different type of customer and relationship than the other style. So that's where I try to go.
00:07:01
Speaker
Gotcha. um How did you kind of learn? that that's that was your style? How did you learn that, hey, I don't want to just go knocking ah gate knocking, as you call it. um I want to educate and I want to teach and get this customer to buy from me because I'm knowledgeable.
00:07:20
Speaker
So before there was influencers, there was this thing called books. And like I said earlier on, I flew a lot in the beginning, so I would just try to find these books on sales topics. as To me, the very beginning especially,
00:07:33
Speaker
That was number one thing i needed help on. Because if I don't have sales, i don't have a business. yep So on a lot of my flights, I would start and finish a book on every single flight, or most of it. Nice speed read. So be honest.
00:07:46
Speaker
So I don't remember the name of the book. I knew you had the question. I would have Googled it before I came. There's a book specifically that dealt with different sales types. It was more of like a psychology type book, which I resonate with anyway.
00:07:58
Speaker
And that's what kind of... made me start thinking differently about it and trying to kind of alter. And then I was in a business group locally for a while, still in actually, that the main person in that group had said that your your best way to make sales is to help.
00:08:13
Speaker
Help people, educate them, get them to like you first and don't be so high pressure. So for me, that resonated very well, too, because that is more of my style. And
Industry Changes Post-COVID
00:08:23
Speaker
that just kind of furthered it even further with me and also within the company of trying to teach others in the company to to take that time to build that relationship and help that client.
00:08:31
Speaker
So with that philosophy, I mean, you've used it for years. So if you're go if you're competing with another salesman, you have your, I'm knowledgeable, I'm going to teach you while we do this business. You have another guy who's just the lowest price. I'm going to beat this guy on price any day. Who does the company usually go with?
00:08:51
Speaker
So in So again, this is going to be a little bit different by by industry. Yeah. so everyone always tells you to hire employees based upon culture.
00:09:05
Speaker
Nobody ever tells you to hire your customers also for culture. okay So this is a more recent learned thing post-COVID for us because post-COVID, Our industry pre-COVID was a lot more safety focused.
00:09:19
Speaker
Not that it's not, but it still, it wasn't as much for our customers a box to check back then. yeah There was a lot more, I felt like, and then again, this isn't every single client, but a lot of clients back then I felt like were more focused on best value, little bit relationship.
00:09:34
Speaker
And then for whatever reason during COVID, and maybe it's just a tighter economy and market, But then a few of them started to give a little bit on that. And like, oh, well, price does actually matter quite a bit. yeah So now in the last three years, I'm dealing with that a lot more than ever have in the prior 14 years. so But like I said, that's not every client.
00:09:53
Speaker
So for us, what we're trying to transition to is identifying. And now I used to just bid everything that came across our desk.
Evolving Sales Approaches: Relationships Over Price
00:10:01
Speaker
Now, if we find out, we do a little bit of research and we're like, you know, they're going to low bid this.
00:10:05
Speaker
There's 10 of us bidding. We're not ever the cheap contractor, ever. Like I don't think I've ever been, except maybe year one through three when I had to be. That's only thing I had to sell. So now I probably won't waste my time on that one, especially if I know they're not looking at any other other stuff that matters.
00:10:22
Speaker
The other thing that tells me too is that's not going to be a retained client, most likely, because every single year they're going to bid it out. So we're trying to put a lot more of our sales and marketing efforts and time into the clients who's like, you know what?
00:10:35
Speaker
I like Alex. I just need you to be in the ballpark. You don't have to be low bid, but you can't be high bid every single year. We can't we can't do that. i have to be responsible with the money I'm overseeing. So give me best value.
00:10:46
Speaker
That's what we try to find is those clients. And that's where we're putting a lot of our time and effort. So when you're going up against that low bid, If that's the game you have to play, because it's the stage of business you're in, you may have to play it.
00:10:57
Speaker
I think if you've been doing business and you still have to play that after 10 or 15 years, I would say you may be in the wrong industry. yeah You may not be marketing well, or you may not be differentiating yourself enough to say, hey, I'm worth a premium. Because the fact is there's some contractors that are not worth a premium.
00:11:15
Speaker
This is what you're bringing to table. You're not replying. You're not texting clients. You're not finishing a job on time. you're bringing You're hiring just whoever to fill a space. You're not providing training. doing that kind of stuff. we You're not worth a premium. So I think there's a little bit of that. But if you're worth a premium, this sounds too simplistic, but it is what it is.
00:11:35
Speaker
Stop playing the little big game. yeah Get out of it. So it may mean you bid those 100 clients that you thought were potentials. Maybe only 20 of them are,
Leveraging Social Media for Brand Awareness
00:11:44
Speaker
but I'd rather do business with 20 than the other 80.
00:11:47
Speaker
Exactly. So when you're talking about your sales trips, you were talking about that human relationship, that human connection. How do you get in your foot in the door and build start building that relationship with those customers?
00:12:01
Speaker
So for us, for me, what it was, so again, we work pipelines. So if you look at a pipeline map in the US, a lot of the pipelines will be in the same general vicinity within 100 miles. And then it'll go through major major metro areas. So for us, it's like t Toledo, Ohio, St. Louis, Oklahoma, Houston.
00:12:20
Speaker
And obviously, there's varying things throughout. There's a lot there near Atlanta. But for us, what worked, I found out for me, is if I could get one customer in that general area,
00:12:31
Speaker
and then start doing work for them. And this was back at the very beginning, but it still
Effective In-Person Sales Tactics
00:12:35
Speaker
works today. But in the very beginning, I'm still dressed in like work outfit. Like I was up there actually doing the work. Wow. So then if if I got rained out or I got done, I had a day between it and next project,
00:12:46
Speaker
I would just take my work truck and gate knock. So I would go to nearby facility and say, hey, I'm Brent. I just finished up a project over here for this customer. I know you're familiar with them. I'd like the opportunity to bid your work. If you want, I got some photos on my phone of the work I did over here. Or feel free to drive by next week and you'll see the work I did.
00:13:04
Speaker
But we're in all the contractor verification websites. We're fully approved. It takes 10, 15 minutes for you to approve us and you're in. But I'm up here and I could probably save you some money if I do it in conjunction with theirs in the future.
00:13:16
Speaker
That was usually what got me in the door and in the beginning. And then from that point, so you're you're basically in that conversation, you're letting them know, I have experience in your industry. Everyone else is using me nearby.
00:13:28
Speaker
Your neighbors are using me. yep um And I'm not making a hardcore sale here. I'm saying, go check out my work. If you like it, give me a call. If you don't, then don't call me back. yeah So that worked for me a lot at the beginning.
00:13:40
Speaker
And then from there, you build the relationship out. and you just keep doing that over and over until you've taken over that kind of area. So that's what kind of worked a lot for us in the beginning. And I like that philosophy because you're not let me so you're not like, let me sell you right here, right now. i want I want you to take a step. I want you to go look at what I just did and then come back to me. yeah like that. And I think that proves on character and then also just quality of work. Yeah. yeah Go check me out. Yeah. Yeah. Literally,
Handling Rejections and Follow-Ups
00:14:06
Speaker
I just did Nextdoor, so you can check it out in a week.
00:14:08
Speaker
Yeah. That's awesome. How has social media changed the way you sell? Oh, gosh. um So what I use social media for, for Lander Corp is more for just brand awareness.
00:14:25
Speaker
You'll see, like, we obviously have this podcast more. This is very recent in the last couple of years, especially the last year. We've been doing more with YouTube, as you are well aware, because you've helped with those. And that has been something where we've tried to gather like this industry roundtable and have these different people on who are also experts. And really for me, it's been an awesome networking tool. yeah So for us, it's been getting that out there. And then like, for instance, in the meetings I had this past week that you referenced when we started the podcast, I referenced two those videos and they were asked, hey, send me those two links if you don't mind.
00:14:56
Speaker
Because they're helpful to them. So when we talk about, hey, help the client, educate the client. So that's where our YouTube is kind of geared towards. And we're still very much building that. It's still pretty new to us. oh yeah But the reason we went that way is because I see that as what is working. So if I...
00:15:11
Speaker
If a lot of clients are like, man, I don't really want to take the time to meet with Alex for an hour because my our clients are super busy. like Their day is packed. So if I can make it easier for them to learn, like if they don't want to jump on a virtual call or meet in person, I need to make it where they can still access what I have to say in an easy format.
00:15:28
Speaker
So the idea behind those is, and that's what I told the two we met with this week. I'll send you the link. Listen to it, you know, because I know they're on the road a lot as well, cause they're driving different pipeline sites. Just listen to it you know sometime this week while you're driving, and give me some feedback in a week or two.
00:15:41
Speaker
So then what I do is I come back, I put it in our CRM, They're doing this. And I set a reminder for me to contact them in two weeks and just say, hey, what'd you think of it? So I think stuff like that goes a long way. And for us, that's the social media that's probably working the best.
00:15:53
Speaker
From a hiring perspective, you know as you know, we're in a lot of the Facebook groups. I'm hoping there's getting that comfort factor with potential employees that, hey, I've seen these guys post a lot. When I get tired of working where I'm working, I'm going to try to apply here.
00:16:07
Speaker
Maybe they come, maybe they don't. But at least they know we exist. yeah So for us, that's the value. Yeah. So in the sales world,
Engaging Satisfied Clients: Patience and Persistence
00:16:15
Speaker
you get no's more than you get yes's. And it can be frustrating. um So obviously, like, if you get a no because of the the customer only wants a low bid, you throw that away, like you just said. But what if it's something is I'm happy with who I'm with now? If anything changes, I'll let you know. How do you take that no and how do you keep not attacking that customer, but keep pressuring that customer, sending some sales? The one that's happy or the one that was bid? Not the one that was low bid. You threw that Yeah, tossed that one out. You threw that one out. So this customer is, they have someone, they're happy with the contractor they have. So I've had this happen recently. So I'll tell you exactly what I told them. Okay.
00:16:54
Speaker
And I said, first, I just want to say I appreciate your loyalty to your to your contractor. That's something I value. That's something we don't see a lot in this industry. You have found someone. You are loyal to them as long as they're a fair back, fair on price.
00:17:06
Speaker
So, number one, I appreciate that. Number two, can I at least send you a few things so that you have it? And in the event, because we all know there's turnover in this industry, yep you may love that contractor. and They may have been killing it for the last 20 years. They may give you a new crew next year that you hate, and you may not like that contractor next year.
00:17:22
Speaker
will you take my information at least hear me out and i'll give you this and if that day comes give me call that's what i did now maybe that's not the right way i don't have any idea uh but did they leave with a little bit better impression of you because you number one you affirmed the way they you know the loyalty they do have and you've acknowledged that you've not been pushy that probably built a little bit of credibility there and likeability but then you're not over pressuring them and then honestly in that situation i've had that happen a few times where they do end up reaching out for exactly the reason I stated, which is, yeah, they that that they lost that crew. Or in our industry, they had a safety incident.
00:18:00
Speaker
We've had that happen to where they actually have a D-level grade, which means they can't use that contractor anymore. So they still like them. yeah They just physically cannot use them anymore because procurement won't allow it. yeah So that's the other thing, too, I will sometimes say is, or the third one I have used, not on the one last week,
00:18:17
Speaker
but is would you at least, you probably at least need to have three bids, correct? Just to justify, least let me bid it. If we're in the ballpark, let's talk. If I'm way off, so be it. Just give me some feedback so I know for next time. Yeah. So a lot of times they will at least let you do that, I've noticed.
00:18:34
Speaker
And then at least, well, that does two things for you or one thing for you. It tells you where you are in conjunction with the current one. So even if they're happy now, you at least know,
00:18:45
Speaker
I was 20% higher. So if in a year they're not happy and I need it and I have 20% to move, I can move 20% and gain that client. So anyway.
The Power of Follow-Ups and Leave-Behinds
00:18:55
Speaker
That's fair. um Do you keep sending them mailers, email blasts, stuff like that? you keep kind of pressuring them in the marketing way?
00:19:02
Speaker
We do to an extent. So I would say i try not to overdo it because I recognize you just get unsubscribed or blocked. So for me, because our in industry and myself, we live in our email. So if you market me, and I just kind of try to use myself as an example.
00:19:20
Speaker
If you market me once a month, I will not normally unsubscribe or block. If you hit me up weekly, you're probably going to get blocked. um So we kind of use that same philosophy in-house is we try not to over hit. Unless you've expressed interest and you've given us deadlines, then we're going to hit you until that deadline.
00:19:38
Speaker
But for the most part, we will try to do about monthly or quarterly. A lot of the e-blasts are monthly, but to me, that's a little bit different than like a personal salesman is reaching out over and over and over. So from a salesman perspective, we will try to do once every four to six weeks, something like that. And it's usually, sometimes we used to send a little bit longer ones.
00:19:58
Speaker
Now we've kind of scripted it to be really, really short and to the point because the fact of the matter is nobody's reading that long email anyway. You get to the point and usually a sentence or two. Gotcha. So let me give you a scenario that happened this morning.
00:20:10
Speaker
I'm going get your sales advice for personal gain. So Noah and I went out this morning to do some in-person sales for TBC Media. If you guys don't know, this is the Better Contractor. You're watching the Better Contractor podcast. But we run media for blue-collar companies. So film, ads, posting, whatever you may need in the media world, we can do that for you. So Noah and I went out this morning to go find some companies and see if we could get them on some media. And we went to three places.
00:20:41
Speaker
um Two of them, we got in, and the people just weren't there. They were like, oh, our head of marketing isn't in office today. Oh, the person you need to talk to isn't here today. How do you get around that? is that That was tough. Sometimes it's true, but sometimes it's, I'm going to say he's not here because I know he's busy. I know he doesn't want to talk to you. I don't want to give you guys a time of day. yeah How do you get around that? Do you keep do you go back another day?
00:21:05
Speaker
what do you what do? So the answer is yes, you would go back. um Do you have a really good leave behind? So for Lander Corp anyway, that's the, and for even me, people who have popped in, if you leave nothing behind, then I just let you you're you're you're never getting to me. yeah um I've had our front desk leave phone numbers and stuff.
00:21:27
Speaker
I delete the email. If she hands it to me in the car, i throw the card away. If you have something to leave behind that is compelling at a quick glance, I think that's the best. The only times I've done business with people like, you know, in that situation is it was something I needed.
00:21:43
Speaker
So even if they told you, no, they're not here and they are here, and the secretary walks back and hands him something, and you're in the market, she just didn't know it, turn him away, then I will maybe contact you. yeah If it's something I didn't know I needed, and you can compellingly say that and leave behind, I'll save it for a little while or take a photo of it. That's how I do some of the stuff. i don't want a bunch of trash laying around. um But I will probably eventually reach out when the time comes.
00:22:10
Speaker
So i think you've got to have a compelling leave behind. i think you need to at least try it twice, if not three times. Just not all in the same week. Yeah, that's fair. Don't go back tomorrow. Is a leave behind a business card or is it something better than a business card? Because i feel like business cards are better almost outdated in today's world. Yeah, nobody's, I don't know, maybe people do keep business cards. I don't know. Do you keep business cards, though? Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:33
Speaker
I keep a business card usually, there's not a lot of times I follow up with someone after get business card. Same, same. Yeah, so I think a leave behind. You know, for us, we've done, I call them one-pagers, 8.5 by 11, two-sided.
00:22:45
Speaker
I do those because I think we try, i normally when we create those, I try to leave the one side as more like graphics and photos that kind of show that we're relevant and we're actually real people. So, you know, so obviously you guys know we have our own media team.
00:23:00
Speaker
So all of our marketing photos, you can tell they're not purchased photos. Like yeah our logos on the shirt, our equipment's on shirt. So that gives us a relevance that all these people are actually legitimate and they're in their industry and they have decent equipment, their employees are dressed decent.
00:23:14
Speaker
Like it it's credibility. On the other side where there's text, try to define a problem that you think they probably have and very, very quickly answer it. This comes in secretary stops by, i look at it, it has to sell me, in my opinion, like three seconds.
00:23:33
Speaker
Because if it doesn't, this is going right over here and into the trash can. So I think that's the key. I don't know if marketing people would agree with me, but I would think that's the key for me.
00:23:43
Speaker
Gotcha. Get a good leave behind. That's how you would get me anyway. okay so But I
Advice for New Contractors: Building Genuine Relationships
00:23:48
Speaker
believe in what you're selling, too, though. so Okay. There we go. You make a note of that? Yeah. We need some leave-behinds.
00:23:56
Speaker
Okay. So now on to some advice. So if there's a new contract, or say you had to start over. You start over. You have nothing. You're starting this company. um How are you selling restarting your company knowing what you know now because when you started your company 17 20 years ago, you didn't have all the knowledge. old were you then? We're talking 20 years ago. I was two. I was just curious. That makes me feel old.
00:24:22
Speaker
You are. Just kidding. ah You guys. I am old. It's all of So knowing what you know now, if you had to restart, how what's your sales philosophy look like? Is it how you're doing it now?
00:24:33
Speaker
It would be how I'm doing it now. um At 23, you're just, not that I'm not hungry now, but at 23, you're so freaking hungry. And at 23, all I wanted was just sales.
00:24:45
Speaker
And I think at that age, I think I did very well. So i'm not I don't want to knock it too much because it served its purpose and we're here. But looking back now, i would have been less focused on, man, I have to have five sales day. I have to have five sales a day. and I would have refocused that into how can I help the 15 people I met today?
00:25:07
Speaker
That's just a simple mindset switch that i think, even though the first one in your mind that feels like, man, this is what will work is just being pushy and aggressive and just hitting a bunch of people and being high energy.
00:25:19
Speaker
Dude, I'm telling you, if you're a high-energy sales dude, you come in my office and you don't take no for an answer. I had a solar guy stop by. oh boy. Dude, I'm not a rude person. You've got to push me a lot to be rude.
00:25:30
Speaker
I was rude because he did not take no for an answer. I finally just told him, I said, I don't want solar panels on my house. I don't want to see them in my backyard. i don't want i don't wanna to see a solar panel anywhere on my property, period. I don't care if it saves money.
00:25:45
Speaker
I don't want solar panels no matter how you try to sell it. but And there's a lot more said than that. But my point is, it was way too pushy. I will never entertain. He went straight to just like,
00:25:58
Speaker
So his first few questions, I wish I could remember him word for word, but it was all about cost. And to me, that's not a huge savings, the numbers he was listing.
00:26:08
Speaker
yeah I immediately replied, i don't care about that savings. That does not equal my dissatisfaction for seeing solar panels in my house. It ruins the look my house.
00:26:20
Speaker
Guess what he kept but you know pushing on? Cost. Cost. I just told you, I don't care about that. You could make it free. you can make me You could pay me to have solar panels. I told him the second time when he came back, i said, you could pay me to have solar panels. I still don't want them. I don't want solar panels. anyway, my point with that is,
00:26:38
Speaker
He didn't try to educate at all. He had one sales point, and that was he was told to focus on cost savings. And maybe that works with 80%, 70%. But it doesn't work for everyone. So anyway, I would go back, and i and he was young. But I would go back, and I would say, try to help educate and sell the client on that and that and build that relationship.
00:26:57
Speaker
I would say maybe there's probably some people listening that if you're selling on a product or something like that, and you're selling thousands of these items a month, Maybe that looks a little different. I still think education and and help is better. yeah But if you're doing a service or something like that where you're spending time with that client and you're making something or doing a craft or a trade, man, I think it's all about the story.
00:27:19
Speaker
I think it's all about the craft. I think it's all about educating and helping them. Because the fact is, if you're in, and this is mostly blue collar, People are hiring you probably because they don't know how to do what it is that you're doing.
00:27:31
Speaker
So I think, I don't think Blue Collar does enough to actually really educate people on what it is that we all do, yeah how cool it actually is. why it's a craft, just like making a watch is a craft, just like doing, just you name it, you know, doing the craft.
00:27:48
Speaker
This is a craft. If you do it well enough, if you don't do it well, then maybe it's not for you. But I think we don't do enough to educate and sell people on that. We don't take the time to build this relationship because we think in our head, i have to hit a customer an hour or two customers an hour. And it's just methodical. You're a robot at that point. yep You're not building any relationships. You come across disingenuous. And I think that's probably one of the key things for me is that if I feel like this salesman, if I'm just a number and I feel that, or if I feel you're disingenuous or you're just about to sail, it could be something I want. I'm probably not going work for you.
00:28:22
Speaker
Now, you may have made me think, man, i need this right now. Thanks for stopping by. But you're not the dude. So I'm going to jump online and find somebody that's less annoying. I'm
Podcast Wrap-Up and Community Engagement
00:28:31
Speaker
going to buy from you. So I think it's it has to go back to you. You've got be genuine. You've got build a relationship. You've got to help. You've got educate.
00:28:38
Speaker
This makes me think of the conversation we just had over lunch about the vacuum salesman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They would come to your door they'd walk in your house, and they'd literally show you how their vacuum works on your carpet. do those vacuums were legit.
00:28:51
Speaker
Brent's a big vacuum guy. But that proves that the knowledge part works. is They wanted to get their vacuum in your home and yeah vacuum your carpet to prove their product. yeah yeah and It's a good tactic. It it was. It worked. Those guys made a lot of sales back then. yeah Yeah, we were talking about how glorious the 80s were.
00:29:10
Speaker
That wasn't a lot. Salesmen in the summertime stopped by, tried to sell you stuff out of a truck or whatever. Good old days. Hey, they didn't have the internet though. Yeah. Had to something.
00:29:22
Speaker
True, true. Well, that's all the questions I had for you about sales. Is there any? That's all I got, Noah. What did Alex miss? Anything, man? I don't think so. Well, that's a good podcast then.
00:29:34
Speaker
It's a perfect place to stop. We touched on everything then. Yeah. Well, we thank you guys for tuning in. As you know, you're on the Better Contractor podcast. We also have a Facebook group called the Better Contractor. It's over 3,000 members of contractors in all different industries, literally just there to help each other. You ask questions, you ask for advice, be as little as something as you ask if the skid steer is worth it or not.
00:29:58
Speaker
um Everyone's there just to help each other. so It's the Better Contractor Facebook group on Facebook. So go join. It's completely free for advice. So can't go wrong with it. Awesome. Thank you, Alex. See you guys next time.