Episode•January 23, 2023•44 min

EP98: Exactly What To Say

When having conversations with others, especially customers, do you ever find yourself feeling stuck when they hit you with objections? Today we will look at a list of magic phrases you can use to help influence those you are speaking with. In this episode, we talk about: The best 23 sayings you can use to influence and impact your conversations with others Removing stress points that your customer may have Diffusing awkward situations by getting others to share what they already know Bringing out emotions in a genuine way Creating a picture in their mind by getting them to imagine things Being bold enough to call customers out on their indecision Prompting customers to ask you questions The need to fully understand your customer’s objections The most powerful word tracks you should use in any conversation Mentioned: The Book - Exactly What to Say Brad’s Top Book List Email me your book suggestions: info@hammerandgrind.com Links to Resources: Get the skills and confidence to: Max out profits Get off the tools Have more freedom Get the business you deserve - Join the Profit Club Join the Free Facebook Group - The Contractor Profit Blueprint Take Your Sales to The Next Level - Sales Accelerator Help us get the word out to other contractors by leaving us a review or sharing our podcast! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Transcript

0:08

A contractor's journey to self-mastery requires discipline, integrity, and respect. Welcome to Hammer and Grind.

0:24

And welcome to the Hammer and Grind podcast, the podcast built for contractors to help maximize profits and get you off the tools before burnout or bankruptcy happens. I'm your host, Brad Hebner. And I'm here to help you on your journey to self-mastery. Make sure you check us out on our social media platforms, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. Just search for Hammer and Grind Podcast and you'll be able to find me there. Consider joining my free Facebook group called the Contract Your Profit Blueprint. I created this free group to give you as much information as possible to help you in your business. I go live in there once a week, tons of content to help you in your business. If you want to accelerate the success, consider joining my paid coaching group called The Profit Club. In there is a great community of contractors all willing to share information and help each other succeed, as well as hundreds of hours of training, coaching calls, everything you need to accelerate your business. If you want to learn more about that, you can find out more information on hammerandgrind. com forward slash The Profit Club. Or just send me a message and I'll be happy to share that with you. Now, let's get on to the show. Hey, welcome back to the Hammer and Grind podcast. And I'm going to try something a little bit different today. I sort of did this before, but this is going to be more extensive. I'm going to do a book review of the book called Exactly What to Say by Phil M. Jones. Now, this is a very short read. I think it's only 100 and... like 180 pages,136 pages, a real small book. I'll put a link to this in the show notes if you're interested in picking this up. And I'll put a link to the Amazon if you want to buy it there. I bought this on the Audible. So I listened to it first on Audible and I liked it so much that I bought the actual book. And that's usually what I do when I listen to books that I'll listen to them first, unless it's just not available. And then if I really like it, I'll buy the book. That way I can go in and mark it up, make notes, and it's just easier to reference stuff than it is to try and find it on Audible. So this book, he's got 23 word tracks or sayings that you can use to influence people. And so the book, it says exactly what to say, the magic words for influence and impact. And some of these we actually use in the profit sales system. Some of them I've never heard before and I'm going to probably implement. And some of them, I don't know if I 100% agree with, but we're going to go through each one of these real quick, kind of give you an overview, and then you can decide for yourself. And I apologize. I still sick. Woke up yesterday sick again, like starting over. So it's been going on for a couple of weeks. So I'll do my best to try and get through this. But usually the more I talk, the worse it gets. Let's get started. Number one is, I'm not sure it's for you, but... Now, I really like this because a lot of times people, they get too defensive and they get too uncomfortable because they have this fear of rejection. You know what I mean? So someone... It doesn't happen very often, but if one of your customers is like, why should I hire you? My immediate response is, I don't know. I don't know that you should hire me. But let's find out and then you can make that decision. Or I don't know enough about your situation yet. So I don't even know if I can help you. So when you immediately come out with, I don't know if I'm the expert. I don't know if I can help you. I don't know if I can do this project for you. It actually removes some of that stress point that they have. because you're not trying to be this hotshot. And so what it says here is, one of the most common reasons I hear from people is to why they fail to introduce their idea, product, or service to others is the fact that they fear for rejection that they might receive. And so he does give some suggestions in here. I'm not going to look through all of these, but just by simply saying, I'm not sure. He gives a couple examples. I'm not sure if it's for you. But would you happen to know someone who is interested? Or I'm not sure if this is for you, but this option is available for this month only. And I would hate for you to miss out on this. Right? So if you could simply use this, like if there's a time sensitive situation in your business where you have an opening, somebody canceled or whatever, and you have an opening next week, and you're trying to fill this in, you could send out a blast to your customer list. Hey, I don't know if this works for you. but I have an opening next week that I'm trying to fill. So you can kind of modify it a little bit. Number two, I really like this one. I've never heard it before. And I even used it on my wife the other day. But number two is open-minded. And I really, really, really like this. So he says, if you were to ask a room of a thousand people, whether they consider themselves open-minded, I am sure over 900 of them would raise their hands. And here's the thing. Every one of us believes that we're open-minded. The reality of it is we're not. Most of us are not open-minded. We're mostly set in our ways. We don't want to change things. We're open-minded if this change is going to completely change our life. Are you open-minded to receiving a free car? Well, yeah. Yeah, I'm open-minded to that. Right. Are you open-minded to take on a thousand dollar a month car payment? No, not open-minded to that at all. But what I love about the open-minded is when you say someone, say something to something or say, say this to someone, how open-minded would you be to try this as an alternative? So maybe you're talking to a client and they're really, really heart set on, they want a custom concrete countertop. and maybe there's only one vendor in your town that does custom concrete countertops, and then maybe they're not the best at it, they're okay, but maybe you know from experience that they're not that great. Instead of saying, oh, I wouldn't do custom concrete because so-and-so company is terrible and you're not going to like it because you'd be bad-mouthing somebody else. You may say, I know you really want the custom concrete, but would you be open-minded to looking at some granite? Or would you be open-minded to something else, an alternative? And when you say, would you be open-minded, people naturally want to think that they're open-minded. So they will at least listen to what you have to say. So I really like that. How open-minded are you? Would you be open-minded? How open-minded are the two ways of saying that? So I really like that one. Number three is, what do you know? So how often do you find yourself in a conversation that quickly becomes a debate because you are speaking with someone who thinks they know best and perhaps even wishes to lecture you with their opinions? So what do you know can be a way to diffuse this by giving them the opportunity of asking them first. You can also use it as a way to get information from them about what they actually know. One reason, one of the things that we talk about is we want to find out how our clients found us. So how did you find out about us? Oh, we found you on the internet. Oh, great. What do you know about us? What do you know about our services? What do you know about our business? And then they can tell you, well, we know that this, this, and this. We know that you do bathroom remodels. We know that you don't do really nice landscapes. And so it's a good way to open them up to find out first what they know instead of us assuming they don't know anything and then wasting five minutes or 10 minutes in a conversation telling them things that they already know. And they're just going to be nice and let you keep talking because they don't want to interrupt you. So you could always start off with, yeah, so what do you know about us? What do you know about the benefits of this? Or what do you know about how we do things here? So that's a really good one. I like that one. Number four, how would you feel if? How would you feel if? A word that gets thrown around like confetti in conferences is motivation. Yet still, when I ask my audience to share with me what the word means, all I see in response are blank faces. It's the meaning of the word that creates the true base for understanding. All areas of negotiation, influence, and persuasion. And you should explore it further if you would like to perform at your peak. And I'm just reading from the book here. So he gives a couple of examples here of how would you feel if this decision led to a promotion? How would you feel if your competition passed you? How would you feel if you weren't able to get this job done? Maybe your price is too high. Maybe your time frame doesn't work. Maybe they need it done next week and you're two months out. You could simply say, how would you feel if you're not able to get this done in the next two months? And that's part of the motivation. That's part of the emotional side of the equation that we want to tug on a little bit. Because we want to bring those feelings into the conversation. People make decisions based on emotion and then they use logic to back it up. So if we can bring out the emotion, it's going to be in our favor. Not in a manipulative way, but in a genuine way. I mean, how would you feel if you weren't able to get this project done in time? So number five is just imagine. Again, this is another motive, another emotional part of it. Just imagine when we're done and you walk into the kitchen for the first time, what that feels like. This is like a visionary. tactic that we use sometimes. What do you see? How does that make you feel? Just imagine you're standing in the kitchen. We're all done. We've left. You walk in there and you take a look around for the first time. Just imagine how that feels. And you create this picture in their mind of what the end product looks like that no one else has probably done. So he gives some suggestions of just imagine the impact this could have. Just imagine how things will be in six months time once you've implemented this. So just imagine is a good way to get them to creatively seeing this and visualizing the end product. Number six is when would be a good time? Now, I'm not a big fan of this one, actually. But he says, when would be a good time? Instead of saying, when are you available? When would be a good time? That is a way of saying that there is no bad time. In other words, you can't say no to it. When would be a good time? When would be a good time for you to take a proper look at this? When would be a good time to get started? When would be a good time to speak next? Or when would be a good time to schedule the consultation? It works. I'm just not a huge fan of when would be a good time. Because I feel like they could still say like never. It's never a good time. But it does work. Number seven is I'm guessing you haven't got around to. Now, this is kind of a variation depending on how you use this. We use a in a follow up email sequence. We'll use have you given up on your project? We'll send someone an email if we haven't heard back from them for a couple, you know, three or four weeks about their project or about whatever it is. Send them an email. Hey, have you given up on your project? This is kind of the same way of doing it. And I do like this too. I'm guessing you haven't got around to. I'm guessing you haven't got around to looking at that estimate yet. I'm guessing you haven't got around to speaking with your spouse about this project yet. And by doing that, it takes some of the edge off. And what he says here is that the reason they cannot use the excuses is because you have been bold enough to start the conversation in a way that suggests. they were about to use the very excuse that they had prepared. So I haven't got around to it yet. Hey, John, have you made a decision on the estimate yet? No, I haven't got around to it yet. But if you lead the conversation with, I'm guessing you haven't got around to it yet, they can't respond with, I haven't got around to it yet. They may say, yes, life's gotten busy and we just haven't had time yet to look at it. But it takes away that initial objection they can give you, which is, I haven't got around to it yet. So some of the examples are, I'm guessing you haven't got around to looking over the documents yet. I'm guessing you haven't got around to setting the date yet. So start your follow-up. And that's more of like a follow-up type of sequence word track. He adds here, by pushing for the negative scenario, you get people to rise to the positive. or to tell you how they are going to fix the thing they said they were going to do. So it kind of prompts them to basically shit or get off the pot. When you say, I'm guessing you haven't got around to it yet, and they haven't, then they have to make a decision. Yes, you're right. I haven't got to it. I'll make a decision by the end of the week. Number eight is simple swaps. This isn't necessarily a word track, but this is something that we definitely do in our training. And the simple swaps are basically changing around how you ask questions or how you say things. And so one of the biggest ones that people do is, yeah, do you have any questions for us? So maybe you go out to a job and you're looking at it or an estimate and you're talking to the client. Do you have any questions for us? They'll say, no, maybe they do or maybe they don't. But if you change that, very subtly change it to... what questions do you have for me? Instead of, do you have any questions? What questions do you have for me? And that's going to prompt them to want to ask questions because it's like saying, I know you have questions. What are they? Instead of, I don't know, should I ask this question or not? Is it proper? Should I have any questions? Or I don't know. And so by simply saying, what questions do you have for me? Then it prompts them to either come up with questions. Or if they do have questions, they're going to be much easier or much at ease to ask what those are. Another thing, this is a bonus on the backside of that, is if you say, what questions do you have for me? And they say, well, how long does this project take? And then you can answer the question. And then you follow up with, what else? What other questions do you have for me? Well, how do you guys handle with getting access to the house? You answer the question, what else? What other questions do you have? Or what else? What else? And you just keep asking that until they verbally tell you, that's it. We don't have any other questions. And that's how you get a lot of the information that they may not want to share or ask, whether they're embarrassed or they don't think it's important or they don't think it's something that maybe should be asked. By saying what else, what else, what else, it actually allows them to feel like they can say whatever, ask whatever. Number nine, you have three options. Now, I really like this one a lot. And I heard one of my coaches say this, and I'm pretty sure you got it from this book. But when you're talking to someone, you say, the way I see it is you have three options. Now, it's kind of important to say the way I see it or something to that type of that example. As I see it, the way I see it. So you want to say that, you know, these are the three options. You can, you know, you want to get it done and next, you want to get it done next week. We're not available until three weeks from now. So the way I see it is you really have three options. You can go with us and know that we'll be able to get it done in three weeks. You can keep looking to see if someone else can get it done in a short period of time or whatever, or you can not do anything. So by giving them like this three options, it kind of forces them to look at things. It's like, oh, I only have three options. Instead of leaving it completely open-ended to where if they say, if you say, we're three weeks out, you need it done next week. Well, that's not an option. I'm going to keep looking. I'm going to keep looking. Maybe there's 27 other options out there. But when you phrase it as you only have three options, or the way I see it, you have three options. And again, not in a manipulative way. The way I see it, you have three options. You can keep looking for another contractor and hope that you find somebody that can do it next week. That may or may not happen. You can hire us and yes, it's not ideal, but you know what to be done in three weeks for sure. Or not do anything and then just keep, you know, continue to keep things the way they are. Whatever the scenario is, it doesn't matter. But I do like that the way I see it. You have three options. Number 10, the two types of people. Now, we use a variation of this in our closings. So if we're talking to someone and they say, well, where do we go from here? What's next? Well, usually, and I say this, well, there's really two options. One, you can do this or one, you can do this. One, we can move straight to the scheduling portion. You put a deposit down on the project. We get you on the schedule and we get started. Or the second option is... somebody needs more information, we just come out and do a consultation. And then you can decide later if that's what you want to do. So this is kind of a spinoff of this. There's two types of people. And you can basically say, there's two types of people in this world. Those who leave their personal financial success in the hands of their employers and those who take full responsibility and build their own futures. This is from the book. There's two types of people. in this world, those who judge something before they have even tried it, and those who are prepared to try something and base their opinion on their own experience. So it's kind of like saying when you come to an impasse of like, what should we do? Well, there's two types of people, ones that do this and ones that do that. And it kind of puts them into one of those two categories, and then they have to decide which one they fit into. Number 11, I bet you're a bit like me. This is a good way to build rapport with them. If you get down to the decision-making process in a sales call and you're like, I bet you're a bit like me, probably need to talk to your wife before you make any kind of major decision, blah, blah, blah. So by saying that, I bet you're a bit like me, I bet you're a bit like me, you probably like to get stuff done quickly. You probably like to make a decision and then get it going fast. So you can even use it as a way to persuade someone to make a decision. And obviously, you don't want to use that where it's like, you clearly know that you're not relatable. You wouldn't say it in a manipulative way. Maybe you make slow decisions. You typically take three to four days to make a decision. Don't get on a call and say, oh, I bet you're a bit like me and you like to make decisions quick. Because that's not true. You're lying. You don't make quick decisions. So he just says a couple examples. I bet you're a bit like me. You're a busy person who's always juggling to get everything done. That's just a way to kind of set that tone there. He just says the magic words of, I bet you're a bit like me often result in the other person comfortably agreeing with you. Number 12, if then. Pretty self-explanatory, but basically, if we can meet your budget, will you then go with us? Essentially is what that is. If we're able to get this project done within your budget, then would you hire us to do that for you? He's got a couple of suggestions. And you can use it also as like a, not a punishment, but as a cause and effect. He says, if you don't tidy your room, then you're going to be grounded for the weekend. This is also, he's just given some different examples, but I like to relate it to how we can do it in construction. If we're able to meet your deadline, then would you be willing to move forward with us? If you give me a chance in the row, then I'm confident you will thank me later. If you give us a chance at your project, then I'm confident you're going to be extremely excited at the end. I'm not a huge fan of that one, but it does work. Number 13, don't worry. Now this one seems counterintuitive. But it can work if someone's in a high stress situation. Like if they think that you're a salesman and you're just going to sell them, you can just start with, hey, don't worry. This conversation, it's not high pressure sales or anything. I just want to find out about your project. So by simply stating, don't worry, according to the author here, it helps to put people at ease. I don't know if I 100% agree with that. That's kind of like if somebody's having a panic attack to say, hey. don't have a panic attack. So I don't know if that's 100% translatable. But he gives some examples of don't worry, you're bound to be nervous right now. We actually say this on our sales training calls. Because in our sales accelerator program, we do a live training call each week. And a lot of times we'll do role plays on there. And so we'll have contractors will get on there in front of 10,15,20 other people on the call and do an actual role play. And it can be nerve wracking. It can definitely be nerve-wracking. And a lot of times, you'll say, hey, don't worry. Everybody started out new. Everybody's nervous. We're all here to help each other.

24:14

Don't worry about it.

24:15

So that could be very useful. Number 14, most people. Now, I really, really like this one. And I use it a lot in my conversations. I don't necessarily use the word most people. I'll say a lot of people or a lot of our customers. One of the things that when we're talking about our process and we're talking to a new lead, I use this phrase right here. I'll say, our process is a little bit different than most contractors and a lot of our clients really seem to enjoy it. And it's very purposefully said because if a lot of my clients enjoy our process, then they... should by default, because they probably fit in with most of the majority, should enjoy it as well. And it's just a little saying there. A lot of our customers really seem to enjoy the process. And so his is most people, and it's the same thing. Most people, when they get to this point in the process, most people decide to go ahead and go with the consultation instead of going straight to the deposit. That way they can have... have a little more clarity around what they want to do. If you're talking to somebody and they're like, well, we just don't know. It's a lot of money. I don't know if we want to do it. What do you think? And that's where you could say, well, most people would decide to go ahead and schedule a consultation. And then if they talk to their spouse and they don't decide not to do it, then we can just cancel it. That's where you could use most people because everybody wants to fit into the most people category. Next one is good news. The good news. Make sure I didn't lose my spot. Number 15, the good news. This can be helpful if you have a little bit of pushback. You can highlight the good news in the situation. I know it's a little bit out of your budget. It's more than what you're wanting to spend. But the good news is we'll be able to get it done before your party on Labor Day. And you'll be able to really enjoy it. Everybody will be able to enjoy your backyard. So that's kind of what's like the good news. It's focusing on the good news. I know it's a little bit over your budget, not really where you want it to be. But the good news is we will be able to meet your deadline and have that project done. So whatever the good news is, you just highlight that by saying the good news. Number 16, what happens next? Now we do a variation of this and we simply say, what do you think we should do next? And I kind of like our version a little bit better because it puts them in the driver's seat and they will tell you exactly what they're thinking. You know, Chris, it seems like the price is right there where you guys were thinking and the timeframe makes sense. I mean, what do you think we should do next? And Chris may say, well, I think we need to get you out here and get the estimate and then get going on this. Or, well, we need to think about it. We got one other. We do have one other contractor coming out, so we need to see what they have to say. But if you get hung up in a call or in a scenario, and it's kind of a stalemate, you can simply take the initiative and say, well, what happens next is we do this. So now that the price is all in line and everything is good to go, what happens next is we would schedule a consultation to come out there and meet with you and Cindy and go over your project. So you can kind of take the initiative by saying what happens next. I like our version a little bit better of what do you think we should do next? Number 17, what makes you say that? Now, this is a super powerful word track, like really powerful. This works in so many different scenarios. If your spouse is yelling at you, if your kids are upset, if a client is upset, if anybody's upset for whatever reason. Or if they're just asking you questions, they don't have to be upset. But if someone says, you really suck at communicating, you really suck at getting back to people. If a client sends you an email or calls you or in person, you guys really suck at getting back to people on time. You just say, what makes you say that? Well, I'm saying that because I've emailed you three times in the past week and you haven't gone back to me yet. So when you say what makes you say that, it makes them actually think about what they're saying. Is it an emotional response or is there really purpose behind it? And so he says here, we face indecision from others in our personal and professional lives and quite often find ourselves having to accept another person's idea. But to overcome an objection, you must first understand what the objection really is. So you can also use it at the sales. Well, it's just a little bit more than what we thought it was going to be. Oh, what makes you say that? They must be making it up. What makes you say that? Well, we've compared it to another contractor and they came in at 20,000 and you guys are at 26,000. Oh, and so it just gives you information, right? So what makes you say that? I used it the other night on somebody I was in a message. One of my former clients was messaging me some stuff. I was talking to him and... he asked me something. I don't remember what it was, but he asked me something. And I said, what makes you ask that? Or what makes you say that? I think I said, ask, what makes you ask that? And he kind of laughed. He's a good open-ended question because he knows the tactics. So that was number 17. What makes you say that? Number 18, before you make up your mind. Now, I do like this one. This is something I haven't heard before, but it works really well. If you're talking to a client, I mean, the idea works well. If you're talking to a client and they say, you know, I don't, it's just a little more than what we thought it was going to be. So we really need to think about it. You could kind of interrupt them a little bit and say, now, Steve, before you make up your mind, would it be helpful if we looked at a few different options to see if we can get it down in your price point? So it's like saying, even if they've told you no, like we've made up our mind, the answer is no. You just simply counter with before you make up your mind and then X. It's like saying, I know you've made up your mind, but don't make up your mind. If that makes any sense at all. So he gives some examples of before you look up your mind, let's make sure we've looked at all the facts. Or before you make up your mind, why don't we just run through the details one more time so you can know what it is that you're saying no to. So that's just a really good one. Before you make up your mind, that's kind of like after you've gotten the no. And he puts a note in here that is probably one of the most powerful statements in his whole book. And this is actually not something that I've thought about before, not intuitively. But he says, moving somebody from a no to a yes is nearly impossible. So when you're trying to convince someone or persuade them after they've already said no, To go from no to yes is impossible. So what you need to do is you need to move them from a no to a maybe. And then from maybe, you can move them from maybe to yes. So it's like a step in the process. And this before you make up your mind is the maybe. And I really, really like that saying and that concept of you have to move people through the pipeline of yes. We have a training in the sales accelerator that's called the Yes Staircase. And it's basically you have to check off their yeses that they have, their concerns and their objections. And so this is kind of like that same principle of moving people from no to maybe to yes. And a lot of us try to go from no to yes. And when we do that, we sound desperate. Number 19, if I can, will you? If I can, will you? If I can get this project done in your budget, will you hire us to do the project for you? That's pretty self-explanatory. It just allows you to move some of the barrier to some things that are going on. It's like, if I can, trying to think off the top of my head, if I can fit this, if I can get this done with the custom concrete countertops, would we be able to move forward? then could we sign the deal and move forward? If they're on the fence, like we really want custom concrete countertops and this and that, and that's like the hang-up. That's the one thing it seems like the hang-up. You just ask them, if I can make this happen with the concrete countertops, then can we move forward? So it's like really putting the... Drawing the line in the sand, rather. Number 20, enough. Now, this is more like... He's talking about really if you're doing something with quantity, but you can also use it in different areas of your construction business. Whereas the example is, instead of saying, if you're doing a kitchen remodel, most of the time people want to add receptacles because back when they built them in the 70s, they had two receptacles and it's not enough. So instead of saying, how many receptacles do you want? And then leaving it open-ended for them to try and figure out, which they have no idea. You simply rephrase that as, so would six receptacles on the counter be enough? So whatever the number is, would that be enough? If we were able to get this done in three weeks, would that give you enough time to move in by the deadline? So it's like, is that enough? I know it sounds pretty self-explanatory, but that's how you can use enough. Is four can lights going to be enough? for you? Or do you think we need six? Number 21, just one more thing. So this one is typically like an upsell. He says it's for just one more thing. And this, again, this, and this book is not for like construction. It's just for sales and negotiation in general. So he's talking about like, if you're trying to, you know, upsell someone or, or, or even downsell someone to give them a trial order. And this is also from like Columbo. call it the Columbo principle. If you ever watch Columbo, he was interrogate someone and then like, they're all done. And he started to leave. And then he'd be like, Hey, just, just one more thing after they've already put their, you know, lower their guard because they thought the interview was over. Just one more thing. And so he's saying, using the magic words, just one more thing keeps the conversation alive. And it can, it can help you avoid leaving with nothing. So let's say you were doing a project, you're bidding on a project, you're talking to a client, and they want to... I'm trying to think of an example. Let's say they have a roof, they need to replace a roof. It's going to be $15,000 to replace this roof. And they don't really want to spend that much money right now. You could, after the conversations run its course, you could say, just one more thing. Do you think it would be helpful if we just came in and did the repair this year? And then in a couple of years came back and did the whole roof. So you can kind of downgrade it to a repair job, which is better than nothing. And that will hold them over. But it's like just one more thing. You know, just one more thing before I go. I mean, what about if we just did a repair on it right now temporarily? And then that'll hold you over for another year or two. Yeah, actually, that could actually work. So it's just one more thing is just a way of saying, oh, hold on a second. I just thought of something. Two more left, guys. Number 22, a favor. I don't know how I feel about this one. It makes sense the way he describes it. But the favor is, he says, I'm sure you've had many scenarios in which you have longed for someone else to do something that makes your life a little easier, that opens a door for you or provides you with the information you need to make the progress you would like. So he says in here, as you reach the end of this book, perhaps you could do me a small favor. Think for a second about how you feel about me asking you that direct question. Could you do me a small favor? I'm pretty sure in that split-second moment, you thought that you might be reasonably open to helping me out. A lot of us want to naturally help people out. We want to be the people that... The person that helps someone else because it makes us feel good. And so by you can simply saying, could you do me a small favor? Like asking for referrals. or any other ways, any other things that you can do. We tend to think that we say, you know, they're going to say it depends on what it is. But most of the time, most people wouldn't say that. Trying to find where he says specifically about how that works. Oh, here we go. I just found it. Helps if you turn the page. This stuff's on the fly, guys. This isn't like pre-play. Could you do me a small favor? You wouldn't happen to know. somebody else that's needing the service done. Or you wouldn't happen to know someone who, you know, could you do me a small favor? You wouldn't happen to know someone just like you looking for, you know, this. You wouldn't happen to know someone that would benefit from X. So that's the small favor. He even rephrases it as, you couldn't do me a small favor, could you? So you can, most people will agree to it. And then you... gives you instant permission to continue with the rest of your request. Then you can go on to say, you wouldn't happen to know. And this says he put in parentheses, this throws down a challenge, which makes people want to prove you wrong. So it's kind of some psyops. We do in the military, psyops, like try to trick people. You wouldn't happen to know somebody. You know, who does this? Or you wouldn't happen to know somebody else looking for this work. And it's like a challenge. And they want to prove you wrong. Like, yeah, I know people. Sure. So that's what he's saying is it kind of tricks people to want to give you information. Number 23. And the last one for this book, which I use all the time, like almost daily, just out of curiosity. It's a very powerful saying of... Instead of saying, how come you don't want to hire us? Or what about that makes it too expensive? You say, just out of curiosity, what about that makes it too expensive? Because it's not like it's just kind of a curiosity, meaning it's not something that you have to know. You're just curious. And people don't see that as a direct question that is like, you have to explain yourself. You know, we don't want to use granite countertops. Why not? Why don't you want to use granite countertops? That's like an accusatory question. You could say, you know, just out of curiosity, what about granite countertops don't you like? Just out of curiosity. So just out of curiosity is a super powerful one. He's got some examples here of just out of curiosity, what is it specifically you need time to think about? So this can be objection handling as well. Just out of curiosity, what needs to happen for you to make a decision about this? And that's a really, really good one. Just out of curiosity, what is stopping you from moving forward with this right now? Why don't you want to sign up? How come you don't want to hire us to do your job? That's accusatory. Just out of curiosity, what's keeping you from hiring us? So that's the end of it, guys. 23... Magic Words for Influence and Impact. Highly recommend you buy this book. I would listen to it on Audible first, but I would probably buy the book as well. Exactly What to Say by Phil M. Jones. Very short read on Audible. I think it's about an hour long, hour and a half maybe. So you can listen to this book in one afternoon easily. Highly recommend it. Again, Phil M. Jones, Exactly What to Say, The Magic Words for Influence and Impact. I hope this... review of this book was helpful. If you'd like me to review more books, do me a favor, go to the comments on whatever platform that you're listening to and let me know or send me a message. You can email me directly if you want info at hammerandgrind. com. I'd like to know if you want to, if you want me to do more books, more book reviews. And if so, if you have specific books that you want me to review, let me know what that is as well. Now I do have some interviews coming up with some experts in the industry. That's going to be really, really good talks. And I hope that you tune in and you subscribe to listen to those that are coming up. I have several people who are going to come on. You're going to want to listen to what they have to say. I promise you. These are some good people, some good topics, some good industries. It's going to help you in your construction business. So make sure you like and subscribe to this. Leave me a review as well. It helps with the algorithms to promote this to get more people to listen. So I'd appreciate that if you would do that. And you know where to find me, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. Just search for the Hammer and Grind podcast. And I got lots more coming up, guys. I appreciate you hanging out with me. I really, really do. And you guys make it worth it. So those are my favor. I have a small favor for you. See, see how I did that? I have a small favor for you. Just leave me a review on this. I really appreciate it. All right, guys, until next time, you know what to do. Be the best version of you.