Jim Johnson is the Head Coach of Contractor Coach PRO and has successfully coached over 350 contractors in the last 7 years. Contractor Coach PRO is a Business and Life Strategy coaching service that empowers people to believe. Watch this insightful sit down to learn all about how to pivot your field sales strategy to one that’s virtual.
Where to find Jim and access his resources:
– Website
– Contractor Evolve Program
– Facebook
– Instagram Handle – contractorcoachpro
– Twitter – @CCPWins
Video Transcription:
Face to Face vs. Virtual – It’s a Whole Different World
Trey: [00:00:00] Hey, it’s Trey Gibson. I’m the founder and CEO here at
[00:00:12] SPOTIO. Uh, our core purpose at SPOTIO is we’re transforming field sales to achieve more with the Corona virus coming in and basically wiping out the ability for field sales teams to interact face to face. This core purpose of ours is taken on a whole new meaning.
[00:00:28] And so we’ve come together as a company and are focused on helping field sales teams adapt to this new reality for the time being, by trying to give you resources to do what we’re calling virtual field sales. This is tactical and practical strategies, or are you and your company can thrive through these times.
Trey: [00:00:44] So yes. A company that sells a filled sells app is now trying to help you not sell by not using field sales. I know it’s crazy, but today with me, I have Jim Johnson, he’s the head coach of contractor coach pro, and has success successfully coached over 350 contractors in the last seven years. Contractor coach pro is a business and life strategy coaching service that empowers people to believe.
Trey: [00:01:10] I’m excited to have Jim here. I’ve known him for many, many years. The topic of today’s conversation is going to be face to face versus virtual. It’s a whole different world. Um, you know, Jim and I are similar in the sense that we both started in the home improvement space years ago, selling face to face and then got into selling virtual, you know, meet with SPOTIO and him with and many other things he’s doing now.
Trey: [00:01:34] So Jim, let’s jump right in here and talk about the differences cause it is stark and if you haven’t done it before, you can get slapped in the face. So let’s help some people, uh, you know, not stub their toe like, like many others are doing right now. Yeah. You know, it’s, it’s this question in this kind of, the underlying theme behind what we’re doing right now with contractors is not.
Jim: [00:01:57] If you can, like certainly we can have, the technology’s been there that I can, you know, I don’t have to knock on a door. I can run a digital ad and get somebody to respond to it. Um, I don’t have to come in contact with them when I do an inspection. I could literally just call them and say, Hey, I’m outside.
Jim:[00:02:12] I’m going to do your inspection. I mean, I can even connect them to, you know, some cool technology like company cam that they can see the pictures as I’m taking them. There’s. The fact that I can sign any document, there’s a fact that I can get on a zoom meeting. All of those things, they exist. And so to pivot that way isn’t so hard.
Jim: [00:02:34] The how you do it. Is completely changed and it’s the psychology and the tools and assets that you have to have that I think a lot of people are missing at this point. You and I were talking, I’ve been doing this now for 13 and a half years. I had to kind of calculate that up and, uh, I moved from the contract.
[00:02:53] I still remember the name of your contracting business, by the way. Uh, canopy construction. Am I right? Yeah, I can’t, I, that’s, that was long time ago, long time ago. And, uh, and so you and I both started field sales. You get this interaction. And one of the beauties of field sales is if I’m just a good dude and I can get somebody to trust me pretty quick.
[00:03:14] I’m going to make a lot of sales. It’s not hard. Now you put a bunch of sales technique and skill and stuff like that behind it, and you can really, really lay waste to it out there. Um, but now you get into this virtual world and things change. It changed dramatically. And so, uh, for the last 13 and a half years, I’ve studied it inside out and backwards and forwards and, and engagement.
[00:03:37] Was the key. Like there’s this key to engaging people and you have to be very consultative and value oriented. You can’t just be a good dude, just doesn’t get you very far, uh, on these types of calls. And so, yes, you can see each other, which is super important. But when you flip to screen-share, you’ve got like this little bitty picture, you know, sitting up in a corner.
[00:03:56] You can’t tell anything that’s going on with that person. And you also don’t have this advantage of like being onsite. When you’re on site, you get to see some things. You get to see the kids’ toys in the yard, a trampoline in the back batting cage, the ATVs, the fishing gear boat or whatever. And man, I’ve got something to talk about, landscaping, whatever it is, and I can go up and talk about that first and get that warm up and create that.
[00:04:20] We’re in a virtual world. How do you do that all you see? Like all I know about Trey right now, it’s, you just got a bunch of stuff on his desk behind him. If I look really close, I’m going to say that it was, somebody may be close to him in that picture behind him. Um, I don’t know. Maybe. Uh, and so I might ask you about that because it is something for me to get that.
[00:04:39] But a lot of times when you’re on these calls, I did one the other day, literally white wall behind the person. That was it. No, there’s nothing. I couldn’t see anything. And so at that point I’m like, what do I talk about right. So you’ve got to ask more engaging questions and you’ve got to be a little bit more of a investigator than you had before.
[00:04:57] And so that, that’s kind of thing one, right? Like thing going, like that whole interaction just changed dramatically. And then understanding people’s personalities. Much easier to do in person because I can see the whole you. And like right now, I couldn’t tell if your toes tapping or not tapping. Right?
[00:05:15] And the idea that if I’m face to face with you, I would know. And if your toe is tapping, that means you’re impatient. And so I need to speed things up. Don’t know that right now. So how do you get those things figured out? Um, you gotta you gotta ask a lot of really good questions, uh, questions like, um, for example, so.
[00:05:34] So now that you’re in this situation, whatever that situation is, what’s your timeframe look like? Are you looking at trying to get something done right away? Or are you looking longer term? Which is a normal standard type sales question if you’ve had sales training and skill training. But in most of what we do, we don’t, we don’t have to ask those things.
[00:05:51] We kind of know those things. Um, and so like, if, if I needed to know that somebody was impatient. Uh, and I can’t see, I would have to ask them how much time do we have today? And a lot of times you don’t have to do that when you’re in person. So there’s a lot of psychology that’s going on and there’s a lot of this idea that, um, if I’m engaging with you like I am right now, I can’t be just on whatever digital presentation you come up with and throw it up on a screen and go through it.
[00:06:23] Without taking a break. It’s a biggest problem that we see with most people when they try to do this. As they pull this presentation up and it’s like, uh, can I use it? Can I say diarrhea of the mouth? Can I say that? Diarrhea of the mouth. They throw up everything and every ounce of information, the person’s completely overwhelmed or they’re bored.
[00:06:42] And you don’t even know it. Like they may not even be on their camera. They may not, they may come on on a zoom meeting and not turn. The camera may not be checking their email while you’re doing the presentation and you’d never know it. Yeah. And so, you know, one of the little tricks for that, it’s just ask questions and sort of question every two to three minutes and make sure you ask a question.
[00:07:00] Um, now did you see that Mrs. Jones exactly what we’re talking about right there. And if you ask a couple of questions and you really asking a bunch of questions up front, they’re like, okay, this dude is going to give me a quiz, so I better pay attention and they’ll be more attentive. So that’s just some of the little things, you know, it is, it is a dramatically different world.
[00:07:21] And not just on the sales side of it, but on the business side of it too. You know, operating your business and, and really having. You know, this whole new marketing plan, you’ve got to think about marketing in a wholly different way than you did before. The guys, I feel really sorry for is like their whole entire business revolved around door knocking.
[00:07:38] It was the only thing they knew a lot of approached a lot of honestly. Yeah, like that’s, that’s their number one cha. They don’t even know marketing outside of knocking on a door and they really don’t even follow up with the ones that said yes or no, or at least the customers before they come to us. So yeah.
[00:07:53] It sounds like you’ve seen that too, is what the heck are they doing? What, what’s that shift like? They’re going from. How are they doing marketing right now? I mean, cold calling, I guess they’re doing it. They’re doing a couple of things. One thing they’re doing is just sitting there scared to death and shaking in their boots and not knowing what to do.
[00:08:10] Some are doing, you know what I call throwing stuff up against the wall and seeing what sticks. So next best option, like you mentioned, is telemarketing and, but you know, most telemarketing, you maybe get 50, 60% of the numbers. How do you get those other people? I didn’t get those other folks. Um, and so you have to have.
[00:08:27] A very well thought out strategy and plan to do that, and then the wherewithal as a leader to hold people accountable to it, right? If you’re leading one of those teams, a lot of times, you know, before all this. You kind of had this ability to just almost let people run Willy nilly, and if they sold something great, if they didn’t okay, that’s okay too.
[00:08:49] But now every single contact is so important. The follow up is so important. That’s another thing that’s different with this virtual world. You’re going to have more need for followup than you’ve ever had before. And if you don’t have a system for that and you don’t have a plan for that, and you don’t have a procedure for that, you’re going to miss about 35% of your sales.
[00:09:09] Just because you didn’t follow up. Not, not if you followed up, but you didn’t follow up the right way. Like that’s, that’s a key to this too. So, uh, yeah, man, it’s, uh, it’s like we’re doing this contractor evolve program and I’m not here to self promote. I’m just going to talk about what some of their experience has been.
[00:09:28] There was this thought of like, okay, I’m doing this. Like, boy, they just came up with something so you can make some money and stay in business. Uh, and that we’d been working on it for a couple of years and the game plan was, we’re going to roll it out in January and charge 20, 25 grand for it. And put people through it over about six months.
[00:09:47] Instead, what we’ve done is we’ve switched that into the next 30 days because I’ve got some time now and we’re every day. We meet with them every single day. We meet with them at two 30 right before I hopped on here with you, I was just finishing up. And they do. You usually run like it’s supposed to be an hour, but man, the questions are no end.
[00:10:06] And, uh. And so the thing that’s been coming back from everybody that’s in it has been, man, I did not understand the depth of this. I didn’t, I didn’t get that. I’m like, I knew I could kind of do these things, but man, there’s a lot of thought put behind this. And that’s been the rewarding part of it. Um, as an example, like we finished our first week last week.
[00:10:29] And, uh, so we got him a bunch of assets and stuff that they could use, and we got on this one flyer and we put it together and all it really is COBIT safe and some steps that they do to do right. Uh, one of our guys, he used it, he put it out to his whole intern list. He put an ad in the, on Facebook and, you know, put your name and email him and download this.
[00:10:51] And, uh, he made 25 sales on Saturday. His biggest sales day to date the Lord, and so I, sorry, that was on Sunday. Sorry. It wasn’t Saturday. It was Sunday. Even better. Yeah. Oh man. That was super cool. Texting me the whole time. He’s like, Holy cow, we’re still selling. We’re not going to slow him down. I’m like, dude, that’s awesome.
[00:11:12] I had no doubt. Like I knew the stuff worked because we’ve actually worked with. Some other contractors. Our stuff is very custom when we do our one on one coaching. And so they come in and they tell us, you know, how the dream, what they’re trying to accomplish and kind of their, what their vision is. And then we build it backwards from that.
[00:11:27] And so some of them have been, I want to go virtual, I want to be digital, and we help them get there. So it was not like our first rodeo going down this road. And, uh, those guys actually commented on some of my posts. And I glad we did that a long time ago. So it was a, was pretty funny. If you can compare the, the steps, old, old, old way.
[00:11:48] So the steps were, you know, knocked door set inspection or whatever. To the virtual way, like maybe give an idea on, on how the funnel breaks down so people really get the difference. When you think about when you knock on a door, right? You’re not going to door, you engage with them, have you? Do you ask normally what most people say, I’m working on one of your neighbor’s houses and I thought I’d stopped buying off via free inspection, which.
[00:12:09] Okay. That’s standard. It’s what everybody does. I’m kind of like, can’t you just add a little piece? Nailing something a little more valuable? And so we teach a lot of guys about, you know, developing a report and giving that person this thing. It’s showing it to him. Like, I will give you this when I get done today.
[00:12:25] And so that’s, that’s cool in the field. But now I’m, now, I’m not in the field anymore and I’m not knocking on doors. And a lot of times in our coaching, we talk about once I knock on the door and I get them to say yes to the inspection. I then give them kind of my elevator pitch, who we are. Let me tell you a little bit about my company and we build credibility for the company ourselves.
[00:12:48] We asked a bunch of objection, defeating questions and uh, we set expectations for this inspection of what they’re going to get. And so I spend five, 10 minutes with them that. Most people don’t, but I can’t do that anymore. That that thing isn’t a thing that I can do. So how do I take that and move it into a virtual world?
[00:13:07] Because the now that people engaging with me are not people I’ve knocked on their door and they’ve had this chance to talk with me and do that. I have to set them up on a call first. Before ever even go out. It’s an whole new step in this process. I think a lot of people are missing, and so we call it a discovery call.
[00:13:25] So discover a little bit about us is really kind of the thought process behind that. We’ve got some cool tools for all that. I’m going hop somebody online, 15 minutes, maybe 10 and I explain what we’re doing, how we’re keeping things safe. And, uh, and then book that appointment in a variety of different ways with a variety of different pieces of technology, whether that’s, you know, there’s texting tools.
[00:13:48] You could just set one on a Google calendar if you want. There’s things like Calendly, which is. It’s spelled weird, but like feel like you would spell calender with an L Y on the end.com and you can automate those. I bet you probably use something like that for your appointments. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So do I.
[00:14:05] I’m, all my appointments are automated and all that stuff is like, Hey, here’s my link. Go find a time. Right. Because we run busy calendars in a virtual world. We’re on a computer all the time. Yeah. And so if you don’t know those things and don’t know where to put them in the process, you know, it starts to struggle.
[00:14:22] So now I do get them engaged. I say, yeah, I come in to spec my house. I can go do that, make a phone call and say, Hey, I’m here and and do my thing. But now when I get done with my thing, I can’t show them. Right. I can send them the pictures like I did before on my phone. Right? Like I got my phone. I could email them, I could send them to him by text.
[00:14:41] I could use company camera. There’s all kinds of ways to get that in front of them, but I don’t get to have that. Conversation. Right. I don’t get to put the pictures with the story and the animal share rapport. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. People, people buy on emotion based on logic. As long as everything is logical and you can get me emotionally interested and you’re probably going to sell me.
[00:15:02] And so that interaction is now changed. So instead of like giving them everything right, that now they can follow along with the pictures, which I think is cool to engage them, but I got to get them back in my world. How do I get them to schedule that next appointment so I can go through the rest of my presentation on exactly how we’re going to help them.
[00:15:19] And even just knowing that, like me talking to you and saying, Hey, boop, boop, boop. That’s the process. That’s the can, that’s not the how. Right. That’s going to take a lot more than this phone call today. Yeah. We’d be here for hours and hours. Yeah. The, the biggest. So like a couple things that stuck out to me that, that I know I’ve learned the hard way going from a, um, uh, a field world to the virtual world.
[00:15:42] As you mentioned, there’s, there’s multiple more steps now. For me, it was always about selling that next step. Sell the next step. Don’t sell the end. Like, you know, if I’m going to talk to you about spotty, Oh, but I need to set an appointment. I’m not going to tell you how spotty can solve all your problems when you get it installed and we run it with your field.
[00:16:02] I’m gonna say, Hey, let’s set up a discovery call so you can even determine if it’s a good fit or we need to move to the next step. So about like always just move to that next step versus. So, you know, pitching the whole end of the whole big picture right from the beginning. Yeah, that’s, that’s actually a key part of this, we were talking about it today and contractor evolve is, you know, no matter how far you go through your process, you always have to finish with what the next step is.
[00:16:27] You have to give them this expectation that, okay, we’re going to do something else. It’s not like we just end. Right. And amazingly, you know, sales guys will do that over and over again, and you’re like. Hey, there’s one, there it is. And the Homer goes, yeah, thanks. And off they go. And you just lost them. Like there was no like, okay, here’s what we’re going to do next.
[00:16:44] Part of it. Um, and even in field sales, I think a lot of the times we don’t give the rest of the story. Like we meet them, especially if you’re in the insurance where we are, you know, you meet them, you get your pictures and you get them all involved and you’re like, Hey, let’s get to work with your insurance company.
[00:16:58] Hopefully you signed some kind of agreement and that type of thing. Yeah. And you walk away from it. Uh, and, and people sell, you know, we’ve done some studies on it. You know, that interaction right there, they’re hitting about a 35% clip, which to me is awful. Like you’re trying to give them a free roof or a roof for very little amount of money like this, like trying to get somebody to buy a Mercedes for $3,000.
[00:17:22] If you can’t sell that, you should just stop selling. And what it is, is that person, that person you’re interacting with says, I need to think about it. It’s the hardest objection, I think, because you don’t know what it is they need to think about unless you ask them, which is what you should do. And uh, and ask them, well, you know, I’m trying to make sure you get all the information you need.
[00:17:43] What is it exactly you need to think about? You get into that objection handling way too much, and the reason you do is because what you’ve done is you’ve left out the rest of the story. They’re like, okay, cool. Like he’s going to help me with my insurance company and get all this stuff approved, and that was really cool.
[00:18:01] What happens after that? Like, I don’t have any idea. They don’t know what to say to you cause they don’t know what the rest of the process is. So they need to think about it. Where if you were to say, we’re going to pick out colors, we’re going to deliver an inventory, everything, then we’re going to set up and, uh, take care of your home and we’re going to do, this is how we’re gonna do our safety.
[00:18:21] This is how we’re going to install stuff. This is how we’re going to clean up when we get done this, the final inspection, and this is how payment works and this is, um, our, how we finalize our workmanship. Do you have any questions. There is nothing to think about. I just laid out the whole story. What else is there to the whole story either the only question at that point is either.
[00:18:40] They don’t like you, which is a possibility. Um, they don’t have the money. If they have a big deductible, which you should have probably addressed that in your finance, those things. Um, it, you know, you, you have these reasons that not everybody’s your customer, but in the insurance world, if you’re not closing at about a 75, 80% clip, um, you probably need to look at what you’re doing, your presentation and your process.
[00:19:05] Wow. Yeah, that’s. Any particular, um, part of this new process that your clients are getting stuck at more than others? Like anything stick out. They’re like, man, I’m really struggling with this one particular part. Are they still kind of figuring it out? Um, they’re, they’re struggling with the communication, right?
[00:19:28] Like, you think about it. Um, I’ve got Mrs. Jones, she lives over in so-and-so neighborhood. She’s 65, 70 years old. She don’t even know what zoom is like, and it sounds scary because it’s new. It’s change, it’s fear. This is the Jetsons, right? Like that’s what they’re thinking. Like how do you talk to people on TV?
[00:19:49] She may have. FaceTime though. Hmm. Could I interact with her on FaceTime? My mom uses FaceTime ride to talk to the grandkids, but she, you say zoom. She’s like, what the hell? No, I’m not going to do it. Yeah. What am I, one of my neighbors, he’s an elderly guy and he, when we first moved here, we’re thinking about moving here.
[00:20:09] He showed us around the neighborhood and we connected. We were, we’ve stayed in context. When this all hit on a, Hey, you know, Carl. And if you need anything, I got you brother, and I’ll go get food. Whatever you need, I’ll take care of it. And he’s like, no, we’re good for now. But I’ll keep that in mind. So how are you?
[00:20:25] Is everything okay? He goes, yeah, you know, my church group, we just got this new software. This new app came out and now we’re still able to meet. I’m like, that’s cool. That’s great. What, what is it? Cause I was like, Hey man, tell me this new thing I like. He’s like, yeah, it’s called zoom. Yeah. Brand new just came out.
[00:20:42] So, um, but that’s what I’m dealing with. Right. And so if I know what I’m dealing with. Did I have to think about the answers? So if zoom is a problem, well, let’s FaceTime and maybe I could show you how to do zoom. Skype, Hangouts, people communicate in all different kinds of way. WhatsApp, and there’s all, there’s a billion different ways to communicate.
[00:21:02] I better know the top seven, eight, nine, 10 Facebook messenger. I can call you on the phone on Facebook. I can do video with you on Facebook messenger. And so I’ve got to be good at all those things cause I don’t want to make them have to be good at one thing. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. And so that would be the struggle I would think at this point is like that communication, understanding that that’s a thing.
[00:21:24] Um, it, it’s, it’s more, we tend to be more about us and instead of more about them, Hey, this is the way we do it. So just click the link already. Right? Like that kind of attitude. And you’re going to get people go. I don’t know what zoom is. Don’t wanna know what zoom is. The government’s going to get my house if I use them.
[00:21:42] Right.
[00:21:46] That’s the other thing, like I’m in the communication is understanding who you’re talking to. Because everybody during this situation is in a different place. We’ve kind of identified four of them. Um, these four places that people were at are scared to death. So, and I’m coming out of the room, like super quarantine.
[00:22:05] Don’t come on my house. I will shoot you if you come on my property. I got a buddy like that. Um, and then we have the, um, dismissive, like, Oh man, this is no big deal. It’s just the flu. Let’s all go get sick and that’ll be okay. And we’ll go. I’ll move on. Then you have the, um, conspiracy theorist. I love those guys.
[00:22:24] And there’s all kinds of reasons why everybody’s out to get us. And then you have the responsible people, but people are going, Hey, I’m gonna listen to the CDC. I’m gonna listen to who I’m trying to trust my leaders as best I can. I’m going to educate myself and get a bunch of that education, not on Fox TV or CNN.
[00:22:39] Please stay away from those places. Get it from good sources that you can trust. And, uh, and then once they educate themselves, and this is the key. Is the fear goes away. Like I now that I know what this, like people are scared of the dark because they don’t know what’s in the dark. People are scared of this covert 19 thing cause they don’t know like what?
[00:22:59] What is it like? Is it really bad? Is it, is it not really bad? Is it, is it just the flu? And once you go dust, start doing some studying, you start saying, Hey, do some math. Okay now and this thing is actually a a thing. It’s, it’s important that we are responsible. I need to be able to communicate that in a way that’s not offensive to other people.
[00:23:19] Because if you start talking like that to a conspiracy theorist person, you’re screwed. You just lost a whole segment of your business, and so you’ve got to find out where they are. You’ve got to find out which one of those four pieces they’re in because you’re going to have to communicate with them that way.
[00:23:34] I just saw him up at my office. I’m the only one here, but I saw one of my neighbors out there and he was telling me this as I was trying to make it to our call. He kept wanting to talk about how this is the government’s opportunity to convert us to cryptocurrency. So he’s like, you’re on the lookout, you know?
[00:23:49] And I was like, I’ll see you in six months and we’ll see what happens if I don’t, this is, they’re going to do it. All that cash I took out of my bank three weeks ago, it was not a good idea. Is that what you’re talking, my gold or whatever. Do you think this is going to slow down? Think about this. Does the close rate or the sales cycle extend quite a bit?
[00:24:10] Like should should. You’re, you know, the, the, the people out there doing this virtual cells. Now does it go from a, Hey, I said, do my inspection. We’re sitting down, we’re signing the agreement. Maybe within a one day or two day period. Does this now go to like a 14 day close sales cycle? Yeah. You know, I see guys.
[00:24:27] That they think faster is better. So that’s why they short circuit everything. And I can sign people in 15 minutes and it’s like, okay, that’s great, but what’s your closing percentage? And I, that’s a key equation. I’d rather spend an hour and make people very aware and close at 80% and spend 15 minutes and close it 30% absolutely.
[00:24:46] I make better use of my time. This is going to be longer. It is, but you know, you say, Hey, this is longer a process. So you know, you, you have that engagement meeting, then you go inspect and then you sit down and you have another call and boom, we have a signature. So that could be three to five days, which is kind of what we’re seeing right now.
[00:25:06] The process after that. Um, you know, as far as, you know, getting an approved with insurance companies, if you do that kind of work or picking out colors and doing those type of things, those are all meetings and they take some time. I don’t think you’re looking at anything more than five to seven days on that upfront thing.
[00:25:22] Um, but there’s also opportunity there. I sit there and I go, Hmm, all right. How much time do I waste driving? I’m driving all the time, all over the place, and, uh, and, and how much time it, now I’m much more efficient. I can meet more people instead of meeting, you know, three or four people a day where you engage with them.
[00:25:42] I can be 10. I mean, I can be 15 I can meet so many more people if I know how to get them into my world, and there’s a billion different. That’s been, that’s actually been the key to this whole evolve thing that we identified that three years ago it was like, great, we can do all this stuff, but how do we get people in the world, right?
[00:25:59] Like, Oh yes, I want you to talk to me. And that marketing part of it, and that’s not what this call is about, but a couple of little pointers just to sales guys that might be listening to this is. Get yourself out there and whether that’s on Facebook or LinkedIn or Instagram, get in as many groups as you can.
[00:26:19] Be a member of. Create your own Facebook group, but don’t create the, you know, game day construction, Facebook group. Nobody wants to be a part of that. Go create the, you know, happenings in Dallas, Facebook page. And so I got happenings in Dallas. I live in Dallas, I want to know what’s happening. I’ll join that group.
[00:26:37] It’s public and it just builds, builds, builds, and every single time when we coach guys who do this every single time, there’s always people on there that now that their community, they want to talk about other things instead of what’s happening. And like, Hey, does anybody know a roofer op hopper? I’m, yeah, I know a guy.
[00:26:54] And so, but that’s kind of a longer term play. And, uh, and that’s something he should have been doing. Like now you get here and you’re like, Oh crap, I didn’t do any of that stuff and I’m doing that Morgan. So now I got to learn that. Um, so I think it’s opened our eyes a little bit. They’ll, one other thing that I think is kind of a struggle for these guys is the lack of routine.
[00:27:16] Um, you know, you get up in the morning, drive to the office, do whatever paperwork you got, go out, knock doors, um, you know, finish up paperwork in the evening and, uh, that kind of routine. Right now you’re waking up hopefully at the same time, probably not. Um, you got kids around dog, around, wife, around whatever’s going on in your world.
[00:27:38] And there’s so many distractions, right? When I’m at work, I’m at work and there’s not as many distractions. They’re still there, but you know, I don’t have the kids tugging on me to like, Hey, do whatever. I don’t have that, uh, option to dope and I don’t need to make any calls today. I’m just going to go hang out with my kid and do some fun stuff, or hang out with my wife and do some fun stuff, which I highly encourage, but.
[00:28:00] There’s work time and then there’s me time. And so you’ve got to get on a schedule, you know, literally like get out of bed, get dressed, and number one, like get dressed, like you’re going to work. Like I’m, I’m here by myself. I’m dressed the same exact way I would be any other day. And it’s my work clothes and it was my work clothes, and if I wear my work clothes, I’m much more mentally and mindset for working.
[00:28:25] The other thing is separate yourself. If you’ve got to set up an office in your bedroom, I don’t care, man. Figure it out. Find a separate place. We have guys that have set their offices in their garages and their sheds and their bedrooms in a spare bedroom, taken over another room that was like a kid’s and put the two kids together and say, Hey, this is my office.
[00:28:46] Because you need that place where that’s where I work. Um, so I think that’s just super important is get this routine, get up, get to work, and pick a time, like whatever time that is for you. I’m not going to advise you on that. And it’s up to you how much you want to make, but to pick a time that you’re going to work, to pick your lunchtimes, pick your break times and get that schedule written out and then follow it.
[00:29:08] Make it habit. And there’s only one way to make a habit. Everybody talks about habit. I think it’s interesting, um, that, uh, that you hear all these things. Like if you do something for three weeks, then it’s been a habit six days or whatever, and that bull crap, that’s not true. Um, it just doesn’t work that way.
[00:29:26] Habits are built off of three things. Um, there’s a trigger. So something makes you do something. Okay, so my alarm goes off. That says, get up, right? So that’s a trigger. And then I go do something, like, I tend to go and have a cup of coffee and do a devotional in the morning, and when I get done, I feel good.
[00:29:46] And so I have the trigger of behavior and a reward. So each day. That you go and set your schedule up, make sure you reward yourself. Reward yourself with time, with your kids. Rewarder. So what time with your wife reward yourself with time for you, where you get to do what you want to do. And the more that you put that reward out there, you’ll have the behavior and you’ll listen to the trigger and get it up.
[00:30:11] Nice. Well, I’m gonna hit you with some quick fire questions. Just ask my fire a few at you and tell me what you think first thing off the top of your head. So, um. Thinking about mindset. What if, if you’re coaching one of your contractors, what do you, what are you teaching them? What are you telling them their mindset should be going through this?
[00:30:34] Um, absolutely on every aspect of everything. Find the opportunity. Um, I actually put that out as a, as a challenge for these next 30 days is on my Facebook page. I’m doing it. I’m doing the opportunity challenge for the next 30 days. I’m going to post where I see opportunity every single day and been a lot of people been giving feedback, but, um.
[00:30:56] It’s funny when bad things hit us. Uh, we’ve got two choices. We can either curl up like a baby and run away, or we can say, okay, time to put on my big boy pants and get after it. And, uh, I’m, uh, I’m going to run into the battle person not to run from it. And I would think that that would be a big thing for most people and their mindset is instead of focusing on the negative.
[00:31:19] Okay. Cause it’s easy to do right now. There’s so much to like take it and there’s information is amazing and what it can do to you. I’m setting aside those things that like, I’ve blocked so many people on Facebook in the last 30 days. Funny. I’m like, okay look, you got a 30 day pause man. Cause I know that in my world.
[00:31:38] Um, and do that and set those situations up and, and set that expectation with it. Everybody that’s around you. Um, that, Hey, I’m looking at opportunity in this. I’m not looking at this as a negative. If you’re going to do that, do not engage with you. And, uh, if you keep those people away from you, I your mindset.
[00:31:56] So be good. Yeah. Love it and not, you kind of answered my next question is how do you keep it that way? So I’ll jump to the third one is what permanent changes do you see happening in the business world because of this coronavirus situation? Some people are going to figure out that they not only can do it, but they know how to do it and do it just as effectively, if maybe not more effectively, and it’s going to save them money.
[00:32:22] Not going to have to have as big of an office. You’re going to be able to work remotely. You’re going to learn how to lead and manage people in that situation. That’s, that’s a challenge on the business. I don’t know those guys, but you, you have a team. I have a team and all my team works remote. Everybody.
[00:32:37] Nobody’s in an office with me. We’re all remote. And managing that and leading that as a whole different world than being able to put a finger on somebody and it is across the desk from somebody, and so I’m learning how to hold people accountable and all that stuff is going to be a different world. I think it’s going to.
[00:32:56] If I’m honest, I think it’s going to be a change for some people that they embrace, but I think it’s a pretty small percentage. I think it’s probably 10 or 20%. I think once it’s all over with, people will go back to what they knew before, uh, but they’re going to find some obstacles in their way that weren’t there before.
[00:33:15] Like, you know, I’m working with this contractor online and it’s really cool because I really didn’t want to meet you. I think about it the way we buy things today. We don’t want to meet people want to interact with you by text. I want to hop online and we ordered off Amazon. I don’t want somebody knocking on my door and sitting at my kitchen table when I can get that information anyway.
[00:33:37] Yup. And so I think that’s gonna change. I just don’t think many contractors are going to take it seriously until probably. Maybe five, six months down the road when they start going, man, these guys that did that virtual thing put some walls up for me. Yeah. Yeah. I see it being similar to you. Is it, there’ll be a blended approach.
[00:33:57] I, I don’t know if this will go on long enough to really force like a forever permanent change, but like you said, the smart ones will adapt and probably do a combination of both, you know? And that that’s, yeah. It’ll all be about what was your success during the experience? If he had great success during the experience, which I think is going to be a very small percentage because they’re just doing what they can, not knowing how, um.
[00:34:22] That means that a big percentage are gonna try to go back to doing what they were doing before, but any homeowners kind of getting trained right now, like, Hey, we can actually do this. Yeah. And uh, so it’ll be interesting to see any final message for field sales reps, managers, owners out there that you want to leave them with.
[00:34:42] The only person you can blame if you’re not selling enough is yourself. Can’t blame coronavirus. Can’t blame your boss. You can’t blame like none of that. Get rid of that thought process that everything has an excuse. Um, when you put yourself in the opportunity to make excuses, you will listen to them.
[00:35:03] Self-talk is one of the most important things right now. Going back to that mindset thing. But if I say, well, nobody’s gonna answer the phone cause they’re dealing with coronavirus or anybody that does answer the phone as scared. And if I start telling myself that stuff, I start believing it and you’ll give yourself every reason in the world.
[00:35:21] Uh, not to do it. Like if anybody’s led a good sales team before, I always tell him the hardest door to open is the one of your truck. Yeah. Right. Like that you can just get out of your truck and everything’s going to be okay. Um, cause once you get out the truck, but you might as well go knock a door or do whatever it is that you do.
[00:35:38] And this is, you know, um, pick up the phone. You get that marketing piece out or do that Facebook ad or you know, you’ve got so many different opportunities. That’s the thing, like we’ve been teaching all of those opportunities for seven years, and I did it even before we’ve talked about this, like being able to sell somebody without meeting them.
[00:35:59] Has it been around? Every sense of fax machine existed. I sold somebody, you know, on a fax machine in 1998 one single time they were in France. I mean, same deal. And so the technology’s been there. It’s just, do you have the process and systems to get people to believe in it? Cause that’s what it’s all about.
[00:36:21] If people don’t believe they don’t do, they don’t take action. If you can get them to believe they’ll take action. It’s that simple. Absolutely. So where can we find you? If people want to come and learn more about what you do, contact you, whatever, how can they track you down? Um, so if you’re looking for me personally, uh, Jim Johnson on Facebook is a little difficult to find, but if you type in the Jim Johnson, you’ll find me.
[00:36:44] I put that little V in front and, and it’s only visible to me, but if you type it in, you’ll actually see it and find me, and you can frame me. Uh, you can follow our Facebook page, contractor, coach pro, you can go to our website, contractor coach pro.com. You can go check out our evolve program where we’re doing our 30 day virtual contractor challenge, um, where anybody that joins, they can join at any point within 30 days.
[00:37:07] We’ll get them up to operating virtually. Um, and a lot of those guys are experiencing success right in the first week, which is super cool as it contract revolve.com. Um, on Instagram is contractor coach pro Twitter. It’s CCP wins. Uh, LinkedIn, Jim Johnson. You can find me like I’m out there. Well, that’s actually like a good lesson to the sales guys.
[00:37:32] I’m there. I’ll teach everybody a little equation here. Uh, I learned this. It’s not mine. I wish it was. I think it’s brilliant and simple at the same time. Yeah, this concept of brand, right? Most people associate that with a company. Um, and they’re associated with like things on my hat and you know, my shirt and stuff like that.
[00:37:49] That’s brand, right? You’re spotty. EEO logo, that’s brand, but it’s not really what your brand is, your reputation. And so you think that’s the end product. Okay. So reputation. There are two things that make up your reputation. There’s results. And there’s rich and a lot of these sales guys are pretty good.
[00:38:08] They’ve sold a lot of people. Homeowners are happy, and they got all these great results, but nobody knows who they are. They’ve got to increase their reach. Whether you do that in social media, you do it on YouTube, you do it through the mail. I don’t care how you do it. You gotta get yourself out there more.
[00:38:23] And, uh. Um, it’ll make a difference. It’ll make them pretty mad. That’s why you see me everywhere. Why my stuff is on everything. Like I don’t know how, I don’t know how you’re going to find me, but I know you’re going to find me. Yeah. And that’s all I really care about. Cause if we can engage and I can share with you what we do and hopefully you see that we kind of know maybe a thing or two about it.
[00:38:43] Great. Jim, thanks so much for your time today. It’s fantastic. I’m sure people will be reaching out to you, so thanks for giving value back to the marketplace when they need it the most. So we’ll talk to you later. No problem. I have one last final plug. I completely forgot. We do have a podcast too. It’s called contractor radio and it’s for the guys.
[00:39:02] And I like do what you do. And we’ve got, I don’t know, there’s like 20 episodes on announcement. We just started in December. We’ve had some really cool guests and like high powered, like professional, like well-known marketers and stuff like that. So, uh, we did one on Corona virus that we’d go watch that one.
[00:39:18] If people are listening to this or listen, cause we do it both video and. We call it a vodcast actually. So, um, you can go listen to it on any podcast. You’ll just look up contractor radio. You’ll find it. And, uh, and we’re just trying to help, man. We’ll serve this industry really truthfully. I took from it for a lot of years, so it’s time to give back.
[00:39:37] Yeah, absolutely. Thanks. And we’ll talk to you later. Thanks Trey. Appreciate it. All right. Bye.
