This Is Why You're Not Closing Sales feat. Joe Covarrubias

Contractor Freedom - Break out of Contractor Prison

Jason Phillips: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Contractor Freedom Podcast. I'm your host, Jason Phillips. This show exists to help small business owners like you escape the tyranny of Contractor Freedom and enter the bliss of Contractor Freedom so you can have the Time, Money, and Freedom to Live Your Life With Purpose Beyond Your Business.

As a certified human behavior consultant in DISC personality styles and motivators, I'll be sharing with you skills for life, love, leadership, and business. I'll also be connecting you with experts that can help you scale your business and your life. So if you want to build the business and life of your dreams, then you are in the right place.

Let's go.

Jason Phillips: Hello Contractors, we've got a great episode for you today. I have with me today Mr. Joe Covarrubias. He is the, the shy, quiet type. No, for those of you that know Joe, no, he's not the shy, quiet type. Joe's our VP and he has been, training the salespeople at our home improvement company for, I [00:01:00] think, eight years now.

Eight years. And so we're going to learn some insights from Joe so that you can take your sales organization to higher levels. Hey Joe, welcome to the show today.

Joe Covarrubias: Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here. I always love Visiting with you on a different level other than a boss employee relationship.

I love just sharing and chatting. So thank you for having me.

Jason Phillips: I'm glad you were able to take some time out of VP prison. No. So you've, you know, you've trained quite a few salespeople. And the reason we're doing this episode today is because so many of our business owner friends.

are at the place where they've hired their first salesperson and the new salesperson for whatever reason can't seem to close the deal like the business owner. And I thought we might diagnose for them some possible things of what could be going on. So, you know, what would be the first thing, you know, if a guy comes in, Hey Joe, my new salesperson, he's not closing deals like I was.

Can you help me diagnose it? You know, what's the first thing you would look at?

Joe Covarrubias: Well, the first thing I would look at [00:02:00] is, you know, I've been real fortunate to kind of go on this journey with you of the behavior profiles. And when I first started as a sales manager here at Phillips, I didn't have, I wasn't as educated as I was, and I was just hiring guys who had the gift of gap, you know, just sales guys, right?

But as I've been along on this journey with you, With regard to behavior profile, that'd be the first question I ask. What is this guy's, is he in a seat that, is he in the right seat? I mean, be great guy. He may be a, his, it is this profile may be a sales profile, but it could be a long sales cycle. There's different sales.

And here at Philips, you know, we work, we try to nurture a one call close environment. And there's a certain profile that. That does that. So if they're not closing OTS on the spot, that's probably the first place up.

Jason Phillips: Is the personality profile. Interesting. Something near and dear to my heart. Yeah, exactly.

You know, it makes me think about if we look at external things and we look at like sports. Right. You know, there's a typical physique of someone who's winning medals in swimming.

Joe Covarrubias: Right.

Jason Phillips: And [00:03:00] you know, from their height, their leg length versus their upper body length. And then their lungs. This is the same thing for like marathon runners.

Sure. And let's say basketball players or sumo wrestlers or boxers. Right. Or it's like in any professional sport for, let's say individual sports for now, there are. Some typical physiques or body makeups that put you at an advantage automatically. The other guys can still outwork you and work harder than you, but there's things that give you the edge.

And it's kind of like that, it's like personalities. And you know, I'll never forget when one of the times that this really hit me. Hit home to me was when we were initially teaching the team how to knock on the door and, you know, and our, one of the things we want to do is we show up with a clipboard with our paper, right?

And it's got, you know, it's got both property owners on it, typically a husband and a wife, and we don't know who's answering the door. But in a scenario, you know, if the husband answers the door and our paperwork says that we're supposed to meet with [00:04:00] John and Jane, then we need to, you know, say, well, Hey, Mr.

Krubitsch, I see I'm supposed to be meeting with a you and Jane, is Jane available? And that question, when I was working with people that had the wrong personality style, that question scared the crap out of them.

Joe Covarrubias: It can, it, if you don't have the right profile, it can be uncomfortable.

Jason Phillips: But it's such a simple.

Joe Covarrubias: It's simple, you know, with a with ourselves, there's a series of what we call soft. And every, in our last, at our last boot camp that we had here, that you guys were at the boot camp, you remember us talking about trying to get three yards at a time, and, or three and a half yards at a time.

And throughout the sales, at the end of each, let's just call it a step, there's a soft close, and that's your three yards. And your first soft close is getting both people at the table. That's their full focus of all owners. That's the first soft close and if you start your appointment or you start your set off or whatever you call it, without being able to get that first commitment, the other six commitments are gonna be really tough.

Because at the end, you're [00:05:00] gonna ask them to get on your schedule. And if you can't ask for the for the second party, it's going to be real hard to ask for a 40, 000 interior, you know? Yeah,

Jason Phillips: exactly. So, you know, you've hit on something else, is if we don't line up a great appointment, if we can't get there, if we can't get their focus, the kids are running around, or they're distracted by taking, you know, their animal, or a phone call.

If we can't have their focus, it's going to be hard to get any commitments to get the project done, to trust us, to want it our way. You know, our value, all of that.

Joe Covarrubias: It is, and you know, the beautiful thing about, you know, our workflow here at Phillips is, which you quoted it today to the leadership team, it's reinforcement.

You know, we start that process of getting both parties there as soon as the customer calls in. And by the time we knock on the door, whether it's that day, many times it's the same day, which guys prefer because they're ready to buy if it's a same day appointment. We reinforce that importance. The importance of having all parties.

Jason Phillips: So what, Joe, what are some, let's say you hire a sales guy and we're in this plays into the, why your new [00:06:00] guy isn't closing like he should. What are some telltale signs on day one or week one that this guy or gal really, we're not, we say salesmen, but saleswomen do really well in this industry as well.

What are some early warning signs that you shouldn't ignore? Okay.

Joe Covarrubias: I do things, I probably do things a little bit. It may be, and it may come across as harsh. What I do is when I feel like I have a strong candidate to join the superstars here at Philips, I invite them on Friday to come in. That's our, that's a sales meeting day right now.

And to just join the sales meeting, help the guys. At that Friday meeting, I introduce them to their first script, that doorknock. And I go over the script with them. I actually let them video me. I have them record me, and basically what I tell them is to learn it on Friday, love it on Saturday, and be able to live it on Sunday.

Because I'm not teaching them a task, I'm teaching them a way of life throughout their career here at Phillips. And I tell them they have until 9 o'clock Monday morning. They're welcome to call [00:07:00] me over the weekend. They're welcome to, and I remember they're walking away with a video recording in the actual script.

There have been a number of times where I've let the candidate go at nine o'clock because he did not study the script. It may seem a little harsh, but you know, right, right now, I think the last Facebook live we did, we talked about the cost per lead in those assets. You know, before we start sinking 1, 000 1, 500 a day in these candidates, we have to know they're going to do the homework.

First sign. If they don't get that first script over the weekend.

Jason Phillips: Will they put in the work?

Joe Covarrubias: Will they

Jason Phillips: put in the work. So, Joe, are you giving them like a whole book? Tell everybody, I know what you're giving them but, I mean, are you giving them a whole script book? What, how big is this? I'm

Joe Covarrubias: giving one, I should count the words, I don't know.

It's like 10 sentences. Yeah, it's just 10 sentences. The purpose of that script is basically to get the prospect's time and attention. Yeah. That's all we're trying to do.

Jason Phillips: So, so you're saying that if a guy shows up and he hasn't given it the effort over the weekend at 9 o'clock, you're cutting him loose.

Because if he's I pay him for the day. Of course. I pay him for the

Joe Covarrubias: day, but It's I have our training measured by the hour of [00:08:00] the day. They, there's a certain number. I don't do days and I don't do weeks. I do hours because there is a countdown that first hour and there is no time to waste.

Jason Phillips: Cause you need to have them running their first appointment.

How soon?

Joe Covarrubias: In three weeks. I went through writing their first contract in three weeks. In three weeks. Okay. And so the training is real flux. There's some ride alongs, there's scripting, there's homework. There is, when I say, let's just say, I say, we got to get them going. That includes the time they sleep.

That's just, that's the, those are working hours. That's how many hours we have. Right. Because we, you know, I say we, you, you're invested in a marketing team. They are doing their job. Sure. We have the leads for us to issue and they're on a clock too. I mean, we're, it's April 4th. We're in the middle of it.

There's no time to waste. That's right. Yeah.

Jason Phillips: So on the opposite end, okay. Well, on that end, some telltale signs early on is they didn't put in the work. What if they put in the work and they still can't get it?

Joe Covarrubias: Can you give me a what, for instance?

Jason Phillips: Say they're really struggling with learning a script.

Cause you know, you said learn it, [00:09:00] love it, live it. Right? So you've met a few people that no matter how hard they tried, they were just struggling with scripts. And how did that work out?

Joe Covarrubias: It doesn't work out well. . I mean, in, they might be great guys, they might have experience, they might have all of that, but the, what we call TBW, the Phillips Way is that we're scripted in our sales process.

I can't write along with every one of the guys and our two sales managers can't write along with the guys on every, so we have some resources that help us find out if they're following that script. It's a world class presentation, so it is a script.

Jason Phillips: So Joe, I mean a script,

Joe Covarrubias: does

Jason Phillips: that mean

Joe Covarrubias: it. They sound like robots?

No, not at all. See, Jason, what you have to understand is that this is a four, this is a 420 billion industry. And a third of that money is spent to go back and redo which previously been done according to the Harvard Joint Center on Housing. Indeed. Jason, I just gave you a script. Did it sound like one?

Jason Phillips: No, it didn't.

Joe Covarrubias: It was a familiar one. But it's conversational. I teach them how to be conversational. I teach [00:10:00] them how to use voice inflections maybe do A few theatrics with their glasses. There are some things that we teach to give a world class presentation.

Jason Phillips: Okay. So, we've talked about, you know, couple early warning signs.

What about, this is probably goes for all positions. How about they're showing up for work late on their first week?

Joe Covarrubias: That has, that, that is, that's a no. It just, it doesn't work. What about

Jason Phillips: they have drama emergencies and they have to leave work early? The dog, the cat, the mother in law the wife, the whoever.

Joe Covarrubias: You know, some of, you know, we, we have a lot of influences here at Phillips, a lot of, and you've talked to them about them before. Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, Dave Ramsey's one. And in his book, Entree Leadership, there's like almost a whole chapter on drama. We just don't do drama here.

Jason Phillips: It's not for everybody.

That's right. That's right. That's right. So, you know, if we were to break down some keys to success, you know, we already talked about, you brought up the right personality and maybe we should stick on that for a second. Okay. Is that's the first key today is the right personality. Now, when we're looking for [00:11:00] salespeople we know that our buyers, our prospects are most likely going to make a pretty quick decision.

And we also know that there are, we call them Ravens, the unscrupulous contractors willing to say and do anything to get the contract that are out there trying to steal that or get that and get those customers and not treat them well. We don't have a lot of time to close the sale. So when it comes to, you know, personalities, and we're talking disc personality styles here, what styles are you looking for?

Joe Covarrubias: Okay, for a number of years, I really focused on a D. That takes a lot of coaching because They can sometimes come across abrasive or something. Well, you know, the pros and cons. Are you

Jason Phillips: saying I'm abrasive? No,

Joe Covarrubias: I'm not saying that at all, sir. That you heard it right here on the Contractor Freedom.

No you're not, but there's a D there's a DI. We'll call it what we call a dynamo. And then there's an ID, which is an influencer persuader, which is one of my favorites. Those three profiles are really prone to succeed in a one call close [00:12:00] environment. A D? A D I and an I D. Now, there's pros and cons to all of those.

The D, like I said, can come across a little abrasive. The I D can maybe have a little challenge with follow up. There's just, they all have their own little, they all have their own little, but if you know the profile, you studied the profile, you know how to coach them through that.

Jason Phillips: Yeah. Okay.

Got it. So, you know,

Joe Covarrubias: I think I should say that every, all three of those have the letter D. D in it, the dominance factor, whether the D's first or the D second, those profiles have the makeup to ask for the order on the first call.

Jason Phillips: And the D's gotta be above the middle or the energy line. Right? Yeah. So, you know, we've got our contractor friends are contractor, freedom family.

Yeah. Friends, there's a lot of the bus, a lot of the business owners that are currently doing the sales. Are not ID people. . A lot of, some of them are. Some of you guys are. Gals are, some are scs, css. Iss. And what advice would you give to them if they're the [00:13:00] ones currently doing the selling?

Joe Covarrubias: I would definitely, number one, I what I've learned with our contractor Freedom Friends is that some of them really haven't found or adopted a sales process that fits still okay. Or fits their workflow. I would say if you're in a position to, to start looking for your. Salesman saleswoman to, to consider those profiles that we discussed.

But the scs and the, and what was the other one? The SCS and the Z.

Jason Phillips: The S. The scs and the iss. Okay.

Joe Covarrubias: Very sweet, talkative, supportive people, right? Yes. And they will, I feel like one could sell with those. It may take a little longer. But the people will fall in love with them.

They'll fall in, you know, their prospects will fall in love with them for sure. But the, and it's not to say that their D isn't like at a 30 or a 40. It just takes a little bit more for them to muster up that, that courage to, to ask for that sale, because, you know, below The midline starts to drain us, and it starts to become uncomfortable, and you get to where you're not appreciating what you're doing.

Yep, yep. And so, but there's a [00:14:00] lot of role play. And that's the beauty of having a sales process, is that You can practice it. You can just practice it. And time after time after time. And so, you don't have to come up with something different every time you knock on the door. You know where you're going.

You know what you're saying. I have a new recruit now. I have two that I'm really excited about. One of them, one of them asked me just last night. We happened to both be at the office after hours, and he said he's really excited. And he says, I'm drowning. I'm having a little trouble with the follow up.

That is 100 percent net. And so what we've done is we've, he and I both have agreed to be at the office. I told him, hey man, I'll roll up my sleeves with you. We'll be here at the office at eight o'clock. And we have a couple of other new recruits. And so they're all coming in at eight o'clock. And I said, okay, this is what we're going to do now.

This is what we're going to do now. So the same thing with the ISs. You've got to get to the office early and practice and reinforce. And you can be an IS. The fact that you're an I, [00:15:00] you can talk to people. But with the right script, it doesn't come across pushy. And just like it's saying, Hi, my name is Joe.

I'm with Philips. When you get down to the closing table, would you like to get on the schedule? It's just a script. It's just a question. And the worst possible thing they can say is no. Is no.

Jason Phillips: Let's see. I think there was a famous guy who said, you know, you miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take.

Who said that? Was it Michael Jordan or was it Wayne Gretzky?

Joe Covarrubias: Maybe Wayne Gretzky.

Jason Phillips: Maybe both of them. So, you know, I've got a piece of advice for...