Episode 165: Agreement Is the #1 Rule in Sales. Here’s Why…

Episode 165: Agreement Is the #1 Rule in Sales. Here’s Why…

Brandon Schoen:
Use the agreement. Always get into agreement with your customers. Opposites attract, maybe in relationships, but not in sales. So you want to get in like agreement. When you guys practice this, it's like a muscle. The more you practice it, the better you get. You can do this in your marriage, in your relationships and your sales. Practice getting an agreement with people and giving up your position. And honestly, it helps you get what you want. It helps other people get what they want, and it's a big part of sales.

Announcer:
Grow your cleaning business, make more money, have more time. This is the Profit Cleaners Podcast with your hosts, Brandon Condrey and Brandon Schoen.

What's up, everybody? Brandon Shane in the house. Back for another incredible episode with you guys to be taking it to the next level and win and growing your cleaning business.

Guys, today's episode is a little bit different. I wanted to give you guys a sneak peek behind the scenes of one of our recent coaching calls. And we're practicing and going over one of the most important principles and rules of selling. And this is above all else in your selling and acquiring of customers, guys. So really listen in and take this nugget of wisdom and add it to your business, add it to your life.

We're going to talk about what is the most important principle and rule of selling. Above, follow up, above nurturing, above the close, above the negotiation. What's more important than all of that, including the sale. And show you guys behind the scenes coaching call of us role playing this agreement and you guys can hear how it actually plays out in the cleaning business and one of our vendors coming into agreement with us.

We're going to go over all of this, guys, and also just using this skill that you're going to be building as an exercise in agreement that you can translate into all areas of your life, in your marriage, in your friendships and your other relationships. So give it a shot. Guys, listen in on this coaching call and see if you guys can get any nuggets of wisdom from it.

And most importantly, take action. Practice this skill of agreement. Apply it to your business. It's all about the first rule of selling, which is agreement. So we're going to get into that. Regardless of your price or product, you always, always, always want to agree. And I know that sounds crazy, but whenever you're in violation of that agreement, you're in disagreement, you're not going to be able to sell your product.

If you want someone to buy, you need to be agreeable. There's that phrase, right? The customer's always right. Although that's not true. It doesn't mean you want to disagree with them. When you come into agreement, when you integrate this very simple skill but very powerful skill into your business, you'll realize, hey, it takes one person to agree and then there's no conflict. So you're in charge. It's your business.

Have your sales team listen to this podcast. We'll jump into the episode and you guys can take some notes. Thank you for the opportunity and we'll see you guys here soon. So we're just going to practice a quick agreement exercise. You guys can practice this more with your teams. Use the sales script that we've put in place on the course and build this into the script and come into agreement.

So when you have customers, push back on price. Agree as the first fundamental principle rule to selling is agree first and then move into, you know, handle the objection transition and help them overcome that objection. So basically the exercise, guys, is repeat this vocabulary. You're right. I'm with you. I agree. I'll work it out. I'll make it happen. I feel the same way. I understand. So let's just try as a quick role play.

Ty, you guys can practice this in your sales calls with your team. We're talking about cleaning services. So, you know, frankly talking to some other people, your pricing's a little bit higher than what I was expecting. Absolutely, you're right. And a lot of people have told us that we're a premium cleaning service and you're going to love that. Were best of the city seven years in a row.

Color coded systems, team systems were much more efficient. But yeah, totally agree with you. It's a big price. I want you to think about it. But ultimately it'll probably cost you a lot more doing it on your own. Is there any wiggle room or like, is there any way that we can make any adjustments to it at all? Look, I agree our price is a little bit higher than you might expect.

So I'm totally with you. I want to work it out with you. Let me see what I can do with my team. How about this? When you sign up for recurring services, I'm going to actually lock in that discount for you. I just got this approved from my team because I know it is a big investment. What I'm going to do with that discount is with recurring signup, I'm going to save you 50% on your first clean and we'll get you that discounted rate.

Because you're signing up for recurring services, do you want to start on Wednesday or Friday? I got two spots open on the schedule. Can I talk to my wife about it and, like, give you guys a call back? Like, how soon would you need to hear back from me? I totally get it, man. I feel the same way. I'd want to talk to my wife about it, so, yes, please talk to your wife.

I want you guys to make a great decision. Ultimately, think about how excited your wife's going to be when she knows that she doesn't have to be cleaning and you guys can set up a date night. Don't you think she's going to love that? I mean, yeah. Awesome. So anyways, we don't have to keep role playing, but you guys get the point. Use the agreement. Always get into agreement with your customers.

Opposites attract, maybe in relationships, but not in sales. So you want to get in, like, agreement. When you guys practice this, it's like a muscle. The more you practice it, the better you get. You can do this in your marriage, in your relationships, in your sales. Practice getting an agreement with people and giving up your position. And honestly, it helps you get what you want. It helps other people get what they want, and it's a big part of sales.

Ty, you want to add anything else or Brandon, add anything else to that? Did something similar in the firecracker group a couple years ago. And oftentimes when someone inside of your office is telling you something, hey, guys, I think we should, like, paint all the cars pink for breast cancer awareness during October, and then we'll paint them back some other color. A lot of times you're like, no.

And you can see that on your face. You can see the disagreement. And so what we were instructed to do inside that leadership group was to say yes. And you try and build off of the idea. The but is the problem. So if you're like, but that's gonna be really expensive. So. But you just rephrase it. So, yes. And we could potentially do it as a big ribbon sticker on the car instead of the paint, and then it's not so expensive.

And so then the person who came up with the painting the car idea feels like they contributed, and then someone else did it, and then it becomes more of, like, a collaborative effort. So the same thing could be applied to the sales. Like, Brandon just did a really good job showing you that. But the idea would be, don't just immediately run up against. No, no, no, no, no, no.

Like, it's not. That's an adversarial conversation. We want it to be like, a collaborative win, win the win for you is you negotiated that discount because you said, is there any flexibility? And the win for me is that you only got the discount because you signed up for recurring service. And this is another exercise you can do. But just think about this, because I thought about this and I was like, wow, this is really true.

Make a list of one or two or three people in your life that you really, really like and then think about why do you like them. It's probably because you're in agreement with them. They like the same things you like. They have a similar mindset. They think like you think. They like doing the vacations you like, do whatever it is, right? You like hanging out and spending more time with those people because you're in agreement.

You're in, like agreement, which means you'll also spend more money with those people, right? So with your customers, you want to think about becoming like a friend or a family member that they like and they trust and people do business with people they know like and trust. So if you use this concept, guys, it's a very simple concept, but it's agree, agree, agree, and then close. And it doesn't mean you have to do something you don't want to do.

But it's like you're saying, yes, we can do that. I agree. And you transition, right? And so when you come and bring that agreement into everything, it really, really helps closing your negotiations, your follow up. They're asking for a raise. Yes, I would love to give you a raise. I want to give you a raise. However, we got to do this first. So you're agreeing with them and then you're transitioning to get what you need first.

So you can do this and you have a business, but just start practicing it, practicing with your kids. Start building your agreement muscle. This is going to help you guys attract more sales, attract more clients, attract better people that like you, that want to work with you, that want to give you more money. But while we're waiting for someone to chime in the chat, I do want to talk to you about a customer service thing that just happened to us with one of our vendors.

Claudia tells me one of our cars is broken down. We're getting a towed. That's very rare because we have this mechanic that we take it to every six months to make sure everything's doing good. And then she tells me they had oil changes a couple weeks ago. And in my brain I'm like, I think this is going to be bad. And so we get it towed. It was a Santa Fe car.

The oil Change happened in Albuquerque, but we got it towed to the Kia dealer in Santa Fe, and there was no oil in the car, so the engine is just a block of metal now. And so in that situation, the engine has to be completely replaced. So this car is a 2018. It's not super new, but it's not that old. It's one of the first souls that we bought, I think.

And so Claudia tells me she has been texting with the guy who did the oil change. They're very apologetic and they're going to file an insurance claim. And then I talked to my brother who's a mechanic, just to cover my bases, and he was like, you should be careful on the insurance engines because they might give you one that's been kind of like sitting in a junkyard after a car crash or something.

So I called the guy who owns the mechanic shop and talked to him a little bit, and it was a great phone call. He did a good job handling a potentially terrible situation. I am not the type to call up and shout at anyone for anything. But he doesn't know that necessarily. Like, we've worked with this guy for eight years. So I just double checked. I want to cover these bases, what happened.

And yeah, he was just really apologetic. The guy's been working there for a year. What happened was they didn't tighten the drain plug on the oil pan all the way. And so over two weeks it shook out and then all the oil ran out and then the engine seized and so the engine has to be completely replaced. So we talked about that insurance engine. He was like, we won't do that.

He's like, I'm not even sure we're going to file an insurance claim. It might just make the insurance go up. We'll just eat the cost. And so. And then we talked about the employee who did that, and I was like, you know, don't fire that dude unless he's making mistakes left and right. If this was like an honest mistake, like, good people are hard to find, but, you know, just tell them.

And it was just a good call. So I, I liked the way he handled it. We're down a car, we're getting a rental car. They're covering the rental car. They already have the engine at the mechanic shop. There was one locally available and it'll be swapped out by next week and we're back on the road running. But like, that could have been a disaster if they had pushed back on.

That wasn't our fault. Something else happened and it's a he Said, she said. And then you're talk. Talking about him torpedoing a relationship. But, like, if you think about it, we're spending probably $10,000 a year, if not more on maintenance with this one shop that we've been working with since the beginning, since 2017. And we have a good relationship. And I don't want to burn the relationship over a mistake.

And I don't think he does either. And so, you know, like, just something for you guys to keep in mind as you're dealing with your vendors. If you're running into difficult situations, sometimes that relationship is worth saving as long as they're going to do right by you. Like, there's no way that San Diego Green Clean should eat the $9,000 engine cost. That's what the quote was from the Kia dealer to replace it.

So just something to be aware of. Yeah, I love that story, man. That's a great point, too. Is just that Agreement. Again, we're talking about agreement. The mechanic came into agreement with Brandon was like, yep, we did that. I'm sorry. Well, here's how we can fix it. Like, think about this. In your cleaning business, guys, someone calls you up, hey, your team broke my thing. This happens, right?

It's going to happen. Instead of most of the competition, this is a big thing. When we started, the cleaning business we saw in our market was the owners of other cleaning businesses arguing with people online. They didn't bring. They didn't do it. It's your fault. Mr. Customer. This is such a great opportunity for you guys again, just to stand out in your market. Find the weaknesses of your competitors, like blaming customers, not taking responsibility when breakage happens.

Come into agreement. Yes, Mr. Customer. I totally agree with you. That's horrible. I can't believe we broke that. So, so sorry. We take responsibility. Let's fix it. I'm with you. How can we fix it? Right. Right away, Right. Immediately diffuses their anger. They're immediately like, wow, you're on my same side. Okay, you're gonna work with me. Just like, you know, and this is what we're talking about. Agreement.

People expect when they call in to complain about your service that you are going to push back. When you do not, they are totally disarmed. Not only do you not know the best tactics for your market, but it's also all too easy to waste money and get zero results. Once we started working with Tidy youy Sales, all of this changed. We saved time on following up with customers so we can close more leads.

We now have total control of our marketing system. So we know 100% what's working for our market. And best of all, the team at Tidy you sales is incredibly knowledgeable and they'll work with you one to one to show you what works so you get results fast. To learn more about working with the incredible team at Tidy your sales, go to profitcleaners.com tidyyoursales that's profitcleaners.com tidyYoursales right now.

One thing to add to when it comes to objections rather than and a word I've found to be very effective is that's why so affirm. Like they say price is too high. A lot of times my favorite response to that is, absolutely, we are a premium cleaning service. That's why we have so many great reviews on Google, why we have such a great reputation. I'm sure you saw that and I'm sure that's why you gave us a call.

We want to make sure that you have this absolutely fantastic experience and you've experienced this great cleaning that so many other people have as well. And so obviously our price has to allow us to give you that level of service. It also wasn't a yes, no question. Are you ready to get on the schedule? Nope. But if the question is, is Wednesday or Friday better for you? Sometimes you're like, well, like Friday's better.

Great, it's at 10:30, let's get you scheduled. And then they're just rolling with it. You know what I mean? That's credit agreement thing. I do want to stress something here that like this can feel kind of slimy to some people. We're not trying to sell them something they don't want. We're not trying to steamroll them into just saying yes 10 times, then at the end being like, cool, so what's your credit card?

You do want a win win situation here. I think that's important. We're just trying to steer the conversation a little bit with this agreement instead of just answering yes, no questions. Like if you're distracted on the phone when you're talking to the lead, you're typing something else in in your ear. Someone's asking, well, how many people come out there? You're like three. Like, there's no, there's no collaboration.

There's no give and take. So it's just a way to steer the conversation. So don't feel like you're trying to dupe customers. That's not what we're after. You're just trying to get them on the same page. Well, what this comes down to is is when I say that's why I am saying that truly and honestly. Right? I hope everyone on this call can agree that if you're giving discounts to all your customers, how are you going to provide the level of service that you can stand behind and be proud of and maintain the business, create the life that you need to live, that your employees need to live, and solve these problems for your customers?

Right. In the end, you know, we could go through a mock call where we ask our discovery questions and we're like, we are not the service for you. And you could equally say that, like, hey, we're not the person to solve that problem. But if you truly believe you are the person to solve that problem and your pricing is not intended to gouge them. It's intended to provide the level of service.

That is what your customer is coming to you for, not someone else. There's a reason they called you when they didn't just take the $19 cleaning they see on TV from Cole McGlow or whatever that company's called. You have a significant value to your service. My dog just knocked something down. You have a significant value to your service, guys. But if you're questioning that, too, again, go back to think, what is my price?

What is my cost? People may be saying it's expensive, but that doesn't mean that you actually are expensive. What it means is you maybe haven't built enough value in your service yet, but if you need to charge those prices to pay your employees properly and to make sure that you are able to have a stable business, no one should ever feel bad about that. Agreed. Absolutely. Love that.

One other thing I just want to add to that is when you guys are talking to your teams, your customers, it doesn't matter who you're always selling, you're always selling yourself, someone else, what? Your customer, your lead, whatever you talk, whoever talking to. So when you're talking to people, and this is what we tell our teams, too, is they're not buying the product necessarily. They're buying your belief in the product.

The fact that, you know, hey, this has changed my life. This is why we give our. Our teams. We ask our teams to get their house cleaned to buy our cleaning service. So they experience the product, so they see and they feel it, and they can actually describe it in detail to a customer on the phone. They can say, oh, man, this changed my life. It gave me my time.

I had the same thing, too. I had all these kids, and I didn't have time either. So it Helps them relate to the product, they believe it. When you believe, when you're so compelled and you're. You believe so deeply in your product that it's changed your life, that's actually what people are buying. It's not even the product itself. So remember, there's a difference between confidence and ego. Ego is more like, I'm going to manipulate you into believing this is a great product versus confidence is.

Again, if you guys have these systems, everything dialed in the right way, you've got great teams, great training. Above all else, you're going to be confident. Your teams are going to be confident in your product, especially if they've tried it and they use the product. Right now, in cleaning business, obviously, if you might have a customer who goes, hold on. How much would it cost to have my whole house clean?

That has happened to us. And this was, oh, yeah, just those tiny cleanings, you know, they're really not my forte. I mean, doing the whole house isn't that much more expensive. But if you're just looking for that, that's not really what we do. I can refer you to someone else. Well, timeout. Hold on. I am your customer, right? I called you for a reason. How much would it be?

And that's what they're telling themselves. And what's cool about that is, is like they, like, stepped through the door. They've already kind of like, told themselves a little bit that they are. And it is still, in my opinion, is still your responsibility to, like, verify that they actually are your customer. Because for reputation and for your sake, like, the people who aren't your customer, who you have to be slimy to win, are going to be the worst customers anyway.

Like, they're gonna be such problems, just not worth it. But the people who need your services, you do have to somehow sometimes help them understand what their need is. That's what we're trying to train. That's what the ultimate sales training guides you through, is helping you to help them identify what their true need is, what they actually want. And then if you align, if you can solve that problem, how you can present those solutions in a way that helps them to realize that you are the solution to that problem.

And the cost that you're charging is what has to be charged to solve that problem. And if they go with someone cheaper, they're not going to be solving the problem the same way. They're not going to have the trust, they're not going to have the consistency, they're not going to have all these special things that you guys have to offer that makes your cleaning business successful. Those are the key.

So that's it, guys. That's a great day to make it a great day. Let's make it a great rest of the week and keep showing up. And thank you guys for, as always, the opportunity to help you grow your cleaning business. It's a, it's an honor. We love doing it with you. We all learn. We all get better together. So thank you guys as always. See you guys next week.

Keep it clean. Yeah, Keep it clean, guys. Thanks for joining us today. To get more info, including show notes, updates, trainings, and super cool free stuff, head over to profitcleaners.com com and remember, keep it clean.