EP23: How Taking Control Of Your Sales Is A Lifestyle Change

Yeah, I love it.

And then look in the mirror, like, come on, man.

No, it's so weird that I'm relating this to... exercise in your body because I think so many people can relate to it, right? And imagine the people that are out of shape, overweight, they know what they need to do, but they just don't do it. And I think that's part of the problem as well. That contractor mindset, they busted their ass all day, they're tired, they worked hard, they dealt with all this stress and they fought the traffic. And then when they get home, like, do I really want to go to the gym? Do I really want to study this sales book? Do I really want to schedule some role plays with some contractor buddies of mine? Do I really want to read the book? You really have to want it bad. You have to figure it out.

Right. Is that where you got that quote? You use that quote all the time.

I'm going to literally, every time you say that now, I'm going to imagine you scurrying down the hallway because you got to go hit the crapper. That's where you got that quote.

Why are we always talking about you going to the bathroom and all these podcasts? We have like 25 podcasts and at least five of them,20% of the podcasts we talk about you going to the bathroom.

Bringing the heat. So listen, I have kind of four points I want to talk about this. And maybe... just maybe helping someone with the paradigm shift. So the first, I don't want it, the principle, the bullet point, whatever, like the first thing that needs to happen is you just, you need to discover the fact that you could use some help, that you need some help. It's discovery of within, like, hey, I'm not as good at sales as I think I am. A lot of contractors think they are because when they go out to the person's place, All they do is talk about themselves and how awesome of a craftsman they are and how many awards they've won. It makes them feel good. So they actually think they're good at sales when they actually suck.

Yeah, I mean, it's the same thing with me. I mean, I got by. I mean, I didn't go hungry, right? I mean, I bought boots, but I wasn't running a real smooth operation. I wasn't running a really awesome, sustainable business until I really kind of figured it out, right? and then went from there. So I guess the first thing is like, how can someone who thinks they're good at sales, how can you convince them that they're not? They have this belief system in them. Like, I'm crushing it. I don't think you can.

This wasn't my intention to have this. We could have maybe changed the title of this whole podcast to like, what does exercising and sales have in common? Because I'm really thinking about this. Discovery. How can we help a contractor who actually thinks they're great at sales, but they aren't? How can we help them understand that? It's discovery. So when are they going to learn, right? So it's like discovery in exercise. You think you're healthy. You think you're in good shape. You go through live checking boxes and doing things. And then suddenly you're all set on a hike and you're winded. What if you had to run somewhere? What if you got a flat tire and you had to run over here and you get to the other side? I have a lot of young guys that smoke all the time, right? They smoke cigarettes like crazy. I'm like... dude, don't you guys know this is bad for you? But then they're 25 years old. They're fine. They run like a beast. They're still invincible, right? All of a sudden, they're 30 years old. And now doing some of the same things that they used to do, running wheelbarrows or whatever, they're winded. And then that's when they discover that like, whoa, I need to maybe, maybe I should quit smoking or I'm getting out of shape. And it takes a long time before it really... really shocks you. And I just don't know that really aha moment, that really super discovery thing that really wakes someone up. And if we can help someone discover it faster, that would be great.

Sure. So I'll tell you a personal story because this kind of hits home with me. Because I'm thinking, when was a real moment? I think I've had a pretty good career. I mean, we've grown, we've bought property, we've bought machines, we've bought houses and stuff. But there's this weird... moment when we're scaling and moving around and growing the business and getting more employees that it, it kind of overwhelmed me in the regard that's like, I had so many vehicles and so many machines. It's like, Hey, we need, we need new tires for the skid steer. I'm like, crap, didn't I just buy new tires? Oh, I bought it for that truck. And then it's like, you go look at the reserves and you're like, I don't really want to spend the money on that right now. And then all of a sudden it's like, The guys have terrible looking shirts and I'm like, oh, I need to order some shirts. My guys are looking bad. It's like, let me get a new short order. And I go in and I'm like, hey, I need a couple grand to get some shirts. And they're like, hey, let's wait a couple weeks. I'm like, how come I can't just make this stuff happen? It's because my profits weren't hitting at the right. spot to be able to manage as fast as I was scaling. And so I wasn't watching the numbers tight enough at that time. And that was one of the realizations where I was kind of like, I got to make an adjustment. And I got to dig in deeper. And that was really kind of a discovery part for me when I was like, I need to get these sales down a little bit tighter. I got to learn some stuff. I got to dive into some sales.

I think I got it on the shelf right here.

Yeah, that's a good, I'm glad you mentioned that because it's like, it's the DUI. It's a couple nights in jail. It's like, hey, I got to change. It's the blackout drunk moment on the lawn. You wake up naked. I'm not speaking from experience, people. I just want to be clear.

But that's the thing. It's like when people wake up and they go like, wow, that was a close call last night. I'm scared, right? Just like when all of a sudden you had to run and you've been smoking cigarettes and you can barely breathe and you feel like your chest is coming out, that's that down moment. So listen, because business is a moving target. It's not just a static thing that you're shooting at, right? It's like you have to really be on your toes and you have to constantly be watching what's happening. You get extra employees, you get extra overhead, got to make some adjustments in the way you estimate. You have to raise your prices to accommodate those things. So since it's a moving target, I think a lot of people just get complacent. And then they just think that one way. They think that it's static and then things change. I can relate this to ponds because when I build a pond for someone, I have a podcast called The Three-Year Pond Syndrome. And it's like at that third year, the person's just doing the same exact thing that they've been doing for so many years. But since a pond is a moving target, your fish are getting bigger, plants are getting bigger, all that stuff. So what happens is at three years, the pond is a completely different ecosystem than it was for the past... 2.11 something years, right? It literally makes a change right then. And so that's why I say business is a moving target. You have to constantly keep an eye on it. You got to keep watching your numbers and you have to be aware like you were walking down the hall at Stater Brothers or I said Stater Brothers Staples and stay focused and have some self-awareness.

Well, the next step is an investment because they have to either invest... Time is a big thing. I think that's probably the biggest thing that a lot of people overcome. I think as entrepreneurs, somehow we find a way to spend money on whatever, whether it's a book for... $20 or $10,000 for a coaching program. I think us as entrepreneurs can find that way. I think money is easier than time. So the big part of this is time. A lot of contractors that we're dealing with, they're up early, they stay out late doing estimates. And so they're like, when am I going to be able to do this? Should I just not sleep? Should I just not be a husband anymore? Not be a dad? So that investment part is probably the biggest thing that these guys need to overcome. These girls, all these contractors that are listening, they need to figure out that investment. If you want to get healthy, you're going to have to go to the gym, spend some time. You're going to have to spend some time meal prepping. It's the same can be said about sales. You're going to have to do some reading. You're going to have to watch some videos. You're going to have to look for some coaching. You're going to have to then... take the practitioner part of it and trying to apply it, the investment of time is probably a harder thing to overcome than just even figuring out you need help.

I didn't see it yet, no.

Do I need to go look it up real quick and play it?

Right. But when you're saying yes to something, you're saying no to something else. Sure. So they have to figure out what they're going to say no to.

Well, it's boring.

There you go. There you go again. Talking about taking a crap. Do I get to shoot a bullet every time I draw?

You're not even shooting live ammo. No, I'm not interested. That's terrible.

Well, some people don't even know what a role play is. Some people don't even know what that is.

Yeah. So is it boring? Sure.

I can see to you it's boring. I mean, role plays to me were a lot, a lot of fun.

And you're going this in just a month or so, right?

Nice. Nice. Okay. Check this out. First of all, I want to go back to guitar for a second because there's a fun story in here. I remember, you know, when I was 15,16, I was trying to learn how to play guitar. I wanted to be in a rock band. And, and I remember my buddy's brother was a guitar player. He'd been playing for five years. He was badass. He was so good. Just shredding. Right. And, uh, he's, he was like, yeah, I'll show you a couple of things. He showed me a couple of things. And then I was like, man, he's been playing for five years. Maybe after I've been playing for five years, I could be this good. Right. So I just remember like I would sometimes practice on the weekends for like eight hours on guitar, just all day long, constantly. I'd come home from school all day. And then I remember like a year later, I hadn't seen that guy in a while. A year later, I'm not bad. I'm playing pretty good. And I was over to see this guy. I was like, oh, maybe he can teach me some more stuff. I had this memory of this shredder, right? Teaching me some things. And when I got there, I was like, this guy sucks. He's no good. But he'd been playing for five years. I've been playing for a year. But I think at that point, I had put in more reps on the guitar in a shorter period of time. So that was probably my real aha moment about repetition and focus and passion and leaning into it. And you can 10x getting where you want to be a whole lot faster.

Wouldn't the shortcut to making better profits and making more sales and saving time, don't you think that people would make that shortcut like they want that shortcut so bad? I can see how... A lot of people are like, I like playing guitar. It's cool. I like to learn, but I don't have to get there that fast. I'll take my time. But why would anyone want to wait on making more profit, more money, and saving time by practicing sales? I guess it's going to go back to discovery. I wanted to talk about that. How you discover you need to learn sales is how hard you go on the investment. Because the guy who is winded... And, or his wife leaves him because he's a slob. And then he's like, oh, I got to get in shape. Do you ever notice that? Like when people break up, you know, when they get together, they're all happy and then they put on all this weight and then they split up. They're like, oh, screw you, whatever. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, I got to get in shape. You know, like that, that is the defining moment where someone's like, I got to get healthy. My girlfriend left me a hater. My best way to revenge is to get hot again. Like, why didn't they just do that to begin with?

Yeah, yeah.

Well, that's just the thing. So you talked about getting the gutter. It depends on how hard you fall in discovery. And so hopefully this podcast will get someone who's not totally in the gutter right now to kind of raise their eyebrow and go, hmm, what's this sales stuff they're talking about? How can I make some changes? How can I make the difference? So let's say the second thing that they need to do is they need to have... They had needed to be aware of the investment of time. And then money. Again, you can get a book. You can watch videos for free. You can download some stuff. You can get into a program to learn. You can hire a coach. There's all those different levels. And depending on how hard you hit the dirt depends on how hard you go at it. So I think we're clear on that. What about number three? There's all these objections. Just like in sales, we get objections. There's objections in this sales system like that. or in studying sales, I should say. You got any examples or you want a couple?

So one objection could be, hey, I'm going to join this group and I'm going to pay a certain amount of money to learn. Now the wife's like, oh, I don't want to spend the money on that. So that becomes an objection to you getting... into your sales process, right? I mean, you can read a book, it's $20, whatever. You can probably get some from some contractor buddies if you really ask. And then you can read a couple of books and get into it. But the more you get into it to shorten the timeframe, you got to go harder where you get trained by people, you get into a group, you have to pay some money every month to be in a group where you're role-playing with people or you hire a high-level coach to teach you that stuff. I just remember when I went real hard at it and I was prepared to spend money to learn, you know, think about people go to college and spend a couple hundred grand to get a degree and then they can't even find a job. So for me, when it's like, hey, I'm going to make an investment in sales, I'm going to make an investment in myself. And that's something that I can apply immediately. I know it can already be applied to my business. And then I'll get my ROI real fast. When you have a student go to school nowadays, which is awful, you have $250,000 in financial debt, and it takes them their whole life to pay that off. So for me to spend $10,000 on a coaching program to learn that stuff, I know I can convert that if I apply myself faster. But the objection did immediately come through my wife. Hey, why would we do this? What's going to go on? You don't have the time. That can be an objection.

Well, there is that self-doubt stuff. There is going to be some self-doubt with people and some self-destructive behavior, right? So I'm not a psychologist, man. I don't know how to get these people over it. you know, this is stuff that you have to do. So if you had a wife, you'd have to like really, and this is kind of good. It's like, I don't want you to have to try and convince her. I want you to have to talk her through it. It could be your spouse, whatever. I don't want you to have to convince your spouse that, you know, hey, this is gonna be a really good idea. If you can convince them, you can convince yourself. You gotta convince yourself first. So if you don't think you have enough time and you say, hey, I really wanna do this and you're looking for approval and she's like, You don't have the time. You're going to go, oh, yeah, you're right, I guess. All right. Never mind.

A bidet? I don't know.

Yeah.

Do people watch that much TV?

No way. Yeah.

Four hours a day,28 hours a week.

Or two months of nonstop TV watching per year.

Yeah. Well... It's probably down a little bit. It probably used to be five.

In a 65-year lifespan, a person that watches four hours of TV days spends nine years of their life.

28 hours a week.

Probably around 175. Do the math.

I guess 175.

Oh, that's days. I was thinking days.

28 hours a week. I was thinking of work days and I was trying to back it out of that.

How many days is that? Divided by 24. What'd you say? I got to see if I was terribly off. Hold on. I don't know. 1,464? I'm going to get this. 1,464.1,466. Oh, shit. 1,466. Divided by 12.

182. It's 182 days. I said 175. Yeah. That's a lot. Yeah.

Yes. Four hours a day. Look, look, this. this has me going back to, I think we talked about working a half day the other day. I don't, I don't know if it was on a podcast or it was on a coaching call. Coaching call. Yeah. It's like, yeah, half, I work typically half days. This is 12 hours. I remember I told someone the other day, like, how many hours did you work today? I was like, I worked a half day yesterday. And, uh, they're like, you only worked four hours. I was like, no bro. That's 12. Half a day. And they're like, oh gosh. So, but I mean, that's the way people think. But I mean, that's a half day's work right there. So it's like they work for eight hours and then they come home and watch TV for four hours. I'd love to think that most contractors are not in that mode, but yeah.

You need to audit your time. I mean, if you say, I don't have time to read a book or I don't have time to do a coaching, you need to audit your time.

I'm sure you got multiple ways. What's up?

Oh, there you go. I was like, bring it home, bro. We're not getting it. So listening to the radio, I mean, a lot of guys are working on the roof or doing whatever. They just need that motivation. What you're getting at, and I know, is listen to some audiobooks, listen to some podcasts, listen to something to feed your brain besides some heavy metal music.

So when you get mad at me tomorrow, can I just be like, did you watch the news today, bro? Or

So any other objections that we should talk about? I mean, that is the thing. It's about, it's out self, you know, self deprivation. Like you're like, I don't have the time, you know, your, your spouses, I don't have the money. I'm just trying to think of what else might, might be an objection.

You want to punch you in the face.

So I want to talk about that for a second because I micro-analyzed some of my... some of my steps through the day, this self-evaluation thing, right? There is time when people just need to like check out. I can see someone really worked hard today. They're still kind of wired. They're still awake. Absolutely. They have to decompress. So I'm all for that. I want to make sure people realize we're not just being hard asses and go like, just work, work, work.

won the day by that time. Hopefully by the time you're in that, okay, I'm going to decompress by 10 or nine or whatever the number that is, I'm decompressing by this, but hopefully you've got those-critical tasks that you really want to get done, checked off for the day. And if you get them done early, you're like, hey, I can decompress and feel good about it.

Right.

Well, I guess another objection would be money. You know, I mean, they could sort of objections like I'm not a very good reader. I can't tell you how many. my friends' employees are like, oh, I don't read. I'm like, I buy them a book. Here, read this book.

So there's an example.

No, you've listened to hundreds and hundreds of books.

Well, when I say I read a book, I actually read it.

Okay. Well, so that would be an objection. I'm not a good reader. Okay. Now that you get an audio book, right? All right. Hopefully we helped someone right there. An audio book. I never thought about that. Let me go get one.

That's the point I'm getting at. It's like money. Well, it's a lot of money. Well, then you haven't been, you're not in the dirt far enough yet. Maybe in three years from now, you really hit the gutter and then you'll realize, and then you'll be pissed that you didn't start three years earlier. So I think we've kind of beat objections into the ground.

Making a commitment. Nothing happens until you make a commitment.

But I mean, it's the truth, right? You're not going to get healthy and in shape by going to the gym once or twice a week. That's not really a commitment. Someone who really wants to make drastic change with their health and wellness, and they're going to make... you know, a commitment to where they're not going to eat sugar or they're going to make a commitment to they're going to do a certain amount of cardio and whatever, right? It's the commitment. And you can see it in someone's eyes. Like you could see it in their whole, you know, psyche when they finally make a commitment, I'm going to get this done, come hell or high water, no matter what, I'm going to do it. And that's what it takes to go from not knowing anything about Qatar, watching a guy who thinks he's a shredder, and then a year later, you're better than him. But let's do it in sales where you can actually benefit your life.

I love that song. The

Buy someone's. I don't care if it's a book.

You don't rent from the library, bro. Bro, you need a nap. You've been working too hard. You need to decompress.

I was just thinking, I've probably spent about four hours a day this year so far just focused on how can we help contractors? How can we make a difference? How can we... It moves me to the core when I talk to a contractor and they share with me some of the successes from... from what we've talked about with them, how it's changed their life, how they've had more time with their kids. I mean, they tell me these stories and just freaking makes me want to cry. I mean, my chest is all like pumping, you know, like nothing moves me more than that to see that kind of stuff. It's a real fun part of my career at this point.

I've heard, yeah, you say it sometimes, but I don't know. Next time it happens, just like, You got to send me a picture. A little tear in your eye.

Yeah, that rocked me back. That rocked me back pretty hard today. I got a thank you card in the mail. I hope you got one too. Otherwise you're going to have your feelings. But I got a thank you card in the mail from someone in our group talking about. some things that I made suggested and they applied it to their business and it made a big deal. It was really cool. I wasn't going to tell you.

I'm about to cry. Take a picture. No, but that's a big deal to me is when that kind of stuff happens. So we, I mean, my hope from this podcast is like, it kind of just sheds a little light on self-awareness to let you know you're not alone in it. You know, we've gone through it. We've paid for coaching. We're continuing to pay for coaching because we want to be better for, you know, the people that are in our community.

Yeah, of course.

you done? You got it all wrapped up? Come on, give us a couple more words of wisdom.

I just hope you find the way. Again, I mean, I think we covered it because I think most people that are at least listening to podcasts, they're entrepreneurs in the sense that they're resourceful. And with resources, you just find a way. You be resourceful with your time. You be resourceful with your money. be resourceful communicating with your spouse to make these things happen. And so I hope we moved someone. I hope I get a thank you card from this podcast.

Where can they send fan mail? Can we come up with that and see who gets more fan mail, me or you?

We should put that down in the show notes and see if I can get some fan mail, make you cry.

Brad and I have talked about taking the podcast more video oriented. And I was just going to say, it'd be cool to have that board behind us or something like that on the wall. It'd be fun. Yeah.

no, really. I want a thank you card. That's just, I mean, that's not asking much. I mean, if I help save someone's life, Brad, come on. It makes me feel special.

Thank you so much for spending time with us today on the podcast. You know, it means a lot to us when you share the podcast with your contractor community. We all could use a little bit of help and we all want to get better together. Please rate and review us over on iTunes. It means a big deal to us. And until next download, be safe. Have a good day.