Listen Your Way Into More Sales With Gene Slade, the Sales Ninja
Gene Slade shares his journey from working in HVAC to becoming a sales trainer, emphasizing the importance of adapting sales techniques in a rapidly changing industry.
We get into the role of technology, particularly AI, in modern sales processes and the challenges faced by tradespeople today.
Gene highlights the need for proper education in the HVAC industry to ensure quality service and customer satisfaction.
In this conversation, Gene Slade discusses the current challenges in the financing landscape for contractors, emphasizing the importance of service departments and maintenance in the HVAC industry.
He highlights the impact of rising interest rates and tariffs on the market, and shares insights on effective sales strategies, particularly the need for emotional connection and listening skills in sales.
The discussion also touches on the human element in sales, stressing the importance of genuinely caring for clients.
00:00 Introduction to Gene Slade: The HVAC Hero
05:59 Transitioning from HVAC to Sales Training
12:15 The Evolution of Sales Techniques
18:59 The Role of AI in Modern Sales
22:13 Challenges in the HVAC Industry Today
22:32 Industry Financing Challenges
25:25 The Importance of Service Departments
27:35 Impact of Interest Rates and Tariffs
28:37 Sales Strategies for High Ticket Items
32:20 Listening as a Sales Tool
36:36 The Human Element in Sales
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Gene Slade, are you like, are you the radio sales ninja, the
sales radio ninja, the sales ninja with the radio voice?
What do I call you? depends on who you ask if you
ask the right people they'll call me HVAC hero if you ask me
the wrong people they'll call mean HVAC villain Nice.
I'm gonna call you a hero, man. Welcome to the sales podcast.
(00:22):
How the heck are you? I'm doing good, Wes.
Appreciate you having me on the platform.
It means a lot to us. It's gorgeous, man.
I mean, I think it's like 76 degrees right now.
I actually slept in today. I didn't get my workout in yet,
but I'm gonna get that as soon as we're done here.
But beautiful, beautiful sunny skies.
(00:45):
No, thank you. Get it.
So what's this sales ninja man, empowering sales leaders to
achieve their full potential. And you got a regular dang, I
mean, look, these are decorativeswords, right?
Like we marched with them. They're not really sharp, okay?
But like, I think you have a real sword.
What's up with that? It's not real.
(01:06):
One of my one of my Students whois now a business owner I
brought him into the industry years and years ago and he sent
me that the other day just as you know a Funny thing.
It's a wooden sword, but I thinkit looks pretty cool So in the
industry, so your background, was HVAC.
(01:27):
Yeah, so when I was 11, my father owned his own heating and
air conditioning company. And he said, boy, you want food,
you want clothes, come to work. So I did.
And I think he must have canned me 11 or 12 times that first
year. Anytime I'd leave the basement
without any, you know, somethingwe didn't need anymore to save a
trip. was like, boy, go sit in the truck the rest of the day.
So he was tough. was a really, really tough dad and a tough
(01:49):
boss, but he made me a really good installer.
And that was a great foundation for the rest of.
You ever see that meme? It says, you can't hurt my
feelings. I used to hold the flashlight
when my dad repaired our car. car.
You can't hurt my feelings. I don't have any anymore.
(02:09):
My dad beat him out of it. My dad, was in commercial
insulation. Yeah, I was working with him, I
think by 12, know, commercial job sites and he started his own
thing. So I'd be the helper.
Yep. Which was gopher, which was
mule. So run in the truck, get this
wrong stuff. Let me show you.
Hurry up. Clean this place up.
(02:31):
Start cleaning. You know, you want to go home on
time, start cleaning. Like, yeah, our parents might be
related. My dad's famous thing was go get
this from the truck. And by the time I get back with
it, I don't need it anymore. Yeah, exactly. like commercial
insulation, know, pipe fitting and stuff and duct work.
And, you know, insulation dulls knives like crazy.
(02:52):
So so they have a lot of knives.And the ironic thing is, like
when you're good, my dad, I learned, you know, he say you
want you want to get paid a journeyman's wage.
He's like, go show me your tools.
Right. Because he would run major six,
six hundred people, you know, projects with.
You'd have to scaffolding folks and the insulation.
(03:14):
And the guys are bringing their tools.
They'd be crap. He's like, you're not a
journeyman. Yeah. my dad, his knives were
sharp, man. He carried this five gallon
bucket. You know, he had his tool belt,
but then like all the extras were in this bucket.
He was like, go get this out of the bucket.
I reached down. I was in high school.
That was 15, 16. And there was a knife, you know,
(03:36):
like a bread knife, right? But long, long.
And I just reached down. Oh Just Flade my knuckle man,
and I was like it wasn't worse. They just clapped open.
I was like that's not good. So I grabbed what he needed,
held it with the other hand said, Hey, got to go. there like
a first aid? And they just wrapped it up.
Just kept working. And there's a scar to this day,
(03:58):
man. 40 years later. Yup.
I had a similar situation. I was working on a new
construction job and we were cutting out the top plate and I
had my hammer up there and I wascranking, trying to get that top
plate out. And of course there was, you
know, 16 sticking through the floor and that board went let
loose and I punched. the ceilingand I looked down and I had a
(04:18):
nail sticking right out the bottom of my finger.
And nothing like that feeling ofpulling that cold steel out of
your hand. Yeah, did you rip it out?
Yeah, just pulled it down and then wrapped it up and kept
working like you're talking about.
Yup. Yeah.
Just do it fast. I didn't.
(04:40):
I went nice and slow. Yeah. no.
Man, so many injuries in the trades.
It's a dangerous, dangerous job,man.
A lot of people die from it and people don't realize that. think
that tradespeople don't get as much respect as they deserve,
Yeah. Yeah, I remember my dad.
At the time, it was like the tallest. outside of downtown
(05:03):
area. It was called Transco Tower back
in the day in Houston. It was outside of the loop near
near the Galleria. You know, if you're familiar
with Houston at all. I drove by it every day because
I way outside of town and commuted into high school and.
I think it was that building it was told like 65 stories
(05:25):
something like that But a guy carrying a sheet of plywood wind
took him. know, when it was, youknow, what, 10, 20 stories,
however. And, you know, it's like, A,
don't carry it like that. B, let go when the wind hits
you. go, whoop! man.
(05:45):
Yeah, we have a lot of, we have first world problems in this
country, don't we? Yes, sir.
Hmm. So, that was your background.
When did you get into sales and sales training?
So I spent from the time I was 11 until the time I was 2021 in
the field doing install and stuff like that never really did
(06:07):
any service but around the time I was 2021 I started getting
irritated because there was these guys that were coming into
the industry that didn't have the experience that I had and
they're making twice the money that I was making.
So I ended up sending out 50 resumes to Florida, 50 to
Michigan, and went on just a tour of interviews and ended up
taking a job at the most expensive heating and air
(06:28):
conditioning company within a hundred miles of my town in
Michigan. And boy, was that a learning
experience to have your first job be the one where you're 20,
30 % higher than all the rest ofthe competition.
I had to learn how to value really quick.
Why Michigan? Where you from there?
Yeah, I grew up in Michigan and obviously I don't think anybody
(06:51):
would want to live there full time for their entire life.
It's so damn cold. But around the time I was 20, I
was standing at a gas pump in February and the wind was just
whistling through me and I was in five inches of slush up to my
ankles. And I just said to hell with
this. I got to get out of here.
I got to go someplace warmer. So I reached out to a mentor
(07:12):
down in Florida and ended up going on a tour down there. with
a bunch of interviews, didn't accept any of those positions
except at another one and assigning bonus and everything
to come down. Cause I was already doing, this
is over 20 years ago, I was already doing over a million
dollars a year, like three yearsin a row.
And I didn't know anybody else that was selling that much.
And I was trying to get out of the industry cause I thought I
(07:34):
was top dog. And then ended up finding
somebody else who was doing about 800,000 more than me in
Florida. And I was like, shoot, I need to
go learn from that person. And that was, that was really
how I got to Florida. And then on the day that I
accepted my position there, he left and went to Tampa.
So I moved halfway across the country to learn from this dude
(07:57):
and then poof, he's gone. But six months later, he did
recruit me to come up to Tampa and we built a big organization
up there. I was going to say that's where
the ninja came in. You found him in the dead of
night and fed him to the alligators.
But I'm glad it worked out better than So how did you sell
value back in the day? What is the argument on on that?
(08:20):
How what? How do you sell value?
How did you back then? You're 20 % more.
First of all, it's extremely difficult.
It was back then, I should say. First and foremost, I started
doing things that other people weren't doing, right?
(08:41):
And specifically, load calculations.
See, I was competing against my dad at a company in the exact
same market because we left the mechanical shop at the same
time. And, you know, he would go into
these houses where we were competing and he'd go, why would
you want the student when you can have the teacher?
I taught the boy everything he knows.
(09:02):
Right. So I started doing load
calculations on the sly and he didn't know about it.
And I started ripping jobs from him left and right.
And then he finally figured out what I was doing.
And he was like, OK, I'm going to go get a load calculation
machine. He got a machine.
I was on paper. Right.
So he one upped me. And then I was like, God, what
do I do now? Because almost every call I was
(09:24):
running was against him. And I ended up finding a laser
particle counter. I don't know if you've ever
heard of these, but they'll count how many particles are in
a one cubic foot of air down to like point three microns.
And so I saw that at a trade show and I was like. my God,
this guy's got a HEPA filter andhe's testing the air coming in
and out of the HEPA filter. And I was like, man, that would
(09:45):
be a secret weapon. So I got a HEPA filter. was like
175 CFM, threw it in the back ofmy car, bought a particle
counter, and I started doing experiments in the client's
master bedroom. And I would leave that machine
running for 20 minutes or so. We'd take a particle count
outside the door, take a particle count inside the door.
And I won't give everybody the script that I used right now,
(10:07):
but people started buying HEPA filters from me and getting
furnaces with them. And my dad and his company
couldn't figure out what I was doing and I was just
slaughtering them. And so eventually they ended up
calling me and saying, hey, we need you to come over here and
work for us. Here's a bonus and tell us what
you're doing. So I ended up going over to that
(10:28):
other company and that was whereI kind of, I struck gold and
started really crushing it. You know, show your dad your
tricks. Let him go work and make all the
money because it's your inheritance and then you can
like hang out and goof off. Come on, on, man.
Yeah, I told my dad, I said, don't want any of your money,
make sure you spend it all, and when you run out, you let me
(10:51):
know I got more for you. I want all my dad's money.
I don't want any of the stuff. when you die, I want you
sleeping on a cot. I don't want to be getting rid
of stuff. It's a mess, but.
Yeah, I'd rather they got rid ofit all before, you know what I
(11:11):
mean? So there was nothing to deal
with. Yeah, I mean, we're literally
dealing with this right now withmy mother-in-law's estate and
it's like, praise the Lord, my brother-in-law and my wife,
they're like, they have good friends.
They came over and like, we knowsomebody, we know somebody in
this estate sale guy, like in the 70s, he's done this like his
whole life. Just put her at ease.
He's like, let us do it. She's like, oh, praise the Lord.
(11:34):
So she's like, you don't want tobe dealing with that stuff.
It's everybody got what they want it, you know, so they can
remember grandma and it's like, let's move on.
You know, because it really is. It's, know, we get all this
stuff and it's like, nobody wants, nobody wants my plaque
from the Murrieta Chamber of Commerce.
What do you do? And it's like, I'm gone.
(11:55):
I don't care what you do with it, you know, so. well, so.
So, you grew up, so everything. So you were living in Michigan
when you started working and then because I was thinking you
were in Florida and then. then Imoved back but you came down to
Florida later. Yeah.
And you stayed. Yeah, I was born in Rochester,
(12:17):
Michigan and I was there until, shoot, I think until I turned
21. And then right about the time I
turned 21, took off. I saw this funny story on
Twitter. This lady was talking about it.
was like, I never really knew this thing about Michigan. my
husband, like a married guy fromMichigan, and everywhere we go,
we see people, he sees the license plate, oh, you're from
(12:38):
Michigan. And they knew the mitten thing.
Where did you grow up? about.
It's like, that's so funny, man.Every, every state, every region
has their, their, you know, unique, um, is that a
colloquialism? I don't know man, I'm not that
(13:00):
smart and my vocabulary is not that big.
That's one too many syllables inthat word for me. one too many
syllables in that word. So are you working now with like
specifically with trades people or do you work with any type of
sales? Well, we work with pretty much
(13:22):
all trades. My foundation was HVAC and
plumbing because my father ownedthe HVAC company, my uncle owned
a plumbing company. And then a few years ago, we had
some tri-trade companies that were also doing electric and
they wanted the electrical training.
So we set up a meeting and we wrote all of the presentations
(13:42):
for it. Now we've got all of the
electrical scripting and all theelectrical workbooks and
processes, but we've got, I think I built the sales system
for the largest solar removal and replacement company in the
country. We work with pest control, we
work with garage doors. Basically, if you go out to a
customer's house to serve them, we have training for that.
(14:06):
Nice. And are you setting up like CRMs
for them? You know, things like that.
The cadences or just the verbiage?
No, we're not. We have the ability to set up
CRMs for guys that don't have them, but most of the guys that
we work with are either on housecall or service Titan or
something like that already. And so we're able to integrate
(14:28):
our AIs with that. You know, we've got
conversational AIs that make outbound telephone calls and
answer inbound telephone calls. So we're able to integrate all
that stuff so they can read the schedules.
But no, we stick mostly in our sales trading processes to the
field side, you know, and mostlyservice technicians going out to
do maintenance or service calls,repair work, or going out to,
(14:52):
you know, quote, high ticket items.
That's where we that's our lane and that's where we specialize.
Nice. Are there requirements, you
know, if an AI is making the call does it have to identify
itself as an AI call? no, it doesn't have to.
But you do need permission to make AI calls to people, right?
(15:12):
So and that's something that's going to take a minute for a lot
of contractors to get out their invoices and to get those boxes
checked and everything. But no, not at this stage of the
game. But we do introduce that it is
an AI. We we started testing without
introducing it. And 95 % of the people we talked
to did not know it was an AI. 5 % were able to pick it up.
(15:34):
And so I wanted to test what it would be like if we announced
that it was an AI and we used some, some no questions.
Like I'm, I'm a big fan of Christopher Voss as a
salesperson and negotiator, and he's constantly asking no
questions. Like not, is this a good idea?
He'd say, is this a bad idea? Right.
When he was anyhow, so we, decided to program the AI to
(15:58):
announce that it was an AI and get permission from the clients
that it could be their first point of contact in the future.
And people seem to really, really like that as it turns
out. And it's faster than a human
being, much faster. for sure. So is it making cold calls or is
it following? like past customers?
So we're not doing any cold calls because of the laws,
(16:21):
right? You can't really do cold calls
with it. So we're following up with
existing clients to schedule their maintenance appointments
or handling inbound telephone calls to schedule stuff. we will
be writing programs for follow-up and for follow-up
(16:41):
sales because we've been very successful with that with humans
in the past. And we have all the scripting,
so there's no reason that we can't incorporate that.
The challenge is figuring out what was quoted and getting the
AI to be able to read all that stuff.
The technology is just not quitethere yet.
But we will be programming virtual sales managers and stuff
(17:04):
like So on the inbound, are those like new leads or are they
past customers like calling for maintenance or something?
Okay. So when a new customer calls in,
it gathers all the information it needs to gather.
It can see all of the appointments available on the
schedule and bingo, bingo, it just books the call.
(17:24):
And it's got my my knowledge bank in, it's got my radio show,
it's got all my scripting and everything.
So it's essentially me answeringa telephone call.
It's your voice. It's not my voice. could make
that happen. But no, it's my scripting.
It's my IP, if you will. Nice.
(17:45):
If it is inbound, do you have tonotify them that it's AI?
Not to the best of my knowledge.Yeah, I wouldn't think so.
Because it's like they're calling me.
So you're to get what you get. Well, and it's super cool too
that you know it knows who's calling right if I call it up
(18:06):
and go hey Jean How are you doing today?
What can I help you with? It's pretty sweet slick scary
Yeah, I mean Will it mess up though I mean sometimes a number
to show if I get a generic, you know 2000, you know, whatever
that I do that. So Does it does it know if it's
(18:26):
come from a generic office line versus?
know, their extension? That I couldn't tell you.
See, I'm a really good salesperson.
I'm not a great developer. I have developers for that.
So I have buttons on my desk that I can push to get those
kinds of questions as Henry Fordused to say.
Nice. You can obviously if it's a cell
(18:46):
phone you know who it is. Right.
Right. Or if it's a pre-stored number,
right? But if we don't know who is,
it's just going to answer and say, know, hey, it's a great day
at Benjamin Franklin Plumbing. How can I make your day better?
Yeah. So how how are sales done today
versus 20 years ago? Are things the same or people
(19:06):
the same? Are they?
Are they tougher, you know, are they are they shopping a lot
more, they comparing, are they less trusting, are they more
trusting? I don't think it is much
different than it used to be. don't think people are much
different. I think the information is
different, right? We've got so much at our
fingertips today compared to what 2005 or so, 2006, when
(19:29):
iPhones and stuff like that werestarting to come out.
I mean, we've got the world in our palms.
So I think it has made, I think the internet and social media
has made people a little bit more skeptical about people and
a little bit more cautious. But I think it's helped us in
some tremendous ways as well. I mean, we can use it for
follow-up tools. There's so much information now
that we can grab and send out toclients that we want to follow
(19:52):
up with. if you were... If you were considering buying a
certain product and the salesperson kept sending you,
you know, clips or something, they're like, hey, I came across
this today. It made me think of you.
I thought you might be able to use it, you know, and it's about
air quality or it's about a roofor it's about plumbing or it's
about water leaking or it's about mold or whatever, right?
It's given us a lot of advantages.
(20:13):
Um, but sure. I mean, I think it's made people
a little bit more skeptical, a little bit more cautious.
Yeah. Is, is the quality of stuff
being made? Is it better?
It seems like everything is likeplanned obsolescence.
You know, our, our, our refrigerator, what a shit show,
man. You know, and it's a Samsung,
(20:34):
right? Dies constantly.
My wife, my wife, God bless her.mean, we got a big family,
right? So, I mean, we literally need
commercial grade stuff, you know, seven kids and all their
friends and relatives and cousins.
And I mean, and so. it's we go through stuff and she found this
speed queen, right? She looked it up.
We needed a washing machine and it's a commercial grade, but
(20:58):
even California is changing, youknow, cause it's like all metal
parts, blah, blah, blah. So this thing's just a beast,
but you got to go out of your way and do research to find
these things. But it seems like everything's
just crappier now. now. Disposable, Disposable.
And then when you start looking at industries like the HVAC
(21:18):
industry, with all the government regulations and
mandations and the way that they're making them switch to
higher efficiency equipment and stuff that the education really
just isn't keeping up with the technology.
And so you got guys going out there who are in, you know,
selling clients high dollar systems, but they're not paying
(21:40):
attention to what it's attached to.
And that's causing massive, massive problems and it's
causing premature failures and it's causing environmental
problems inside of people's houses.
So, I mean, I think it's a combination of, I think people
are planning the obsolescence ofthe equipment that they're
selling, but I think at the sametime, it's a lack of education
(22:00):
on how to put it in properly forthe greatest lifespan.
And that's a real shame for consumers.
And it makes us look bad as, as industry professionals.
Yeah. How are, what are you seeing
with this? So, know, Trump's only been in
(22:23):
office for a minute, but you know, talking tariffs and
whatnot. Is that, is that going to be
good for your industry? Bad for the industry?
Well, I was talking to a couple of my larger clients two nights
ago and I was just asking them what they're seeing in the
industry. And what they're telling me is
(22:44):
that about 50 % to 60 % of the clients that are applying for
financing are not getting it. Now 40 to 50 % are not getting
it. So about only about half of the
people that they apply for financing are getting it.
I'm also hearing that people aretrying to hold off longer and
(23:05):
not replace their systems, that they're looking at doing more
repairs. And I told people this 18 months
ago. said, you better get your service departments in order.
I've seen this movie before. Get your service departments in
order. Make sure that your service
department and your maintenance department is not sucking the
life out of your replacement department because replacements
(23:25):
are gonna go down. This happened in 2008 when the
banks tightened up and they weren't lending to people.
So I had the pleasure of experiencing this before.
And unfortunately, a lot of people are not listening.
They're just going about their day as normal.
And we're going to have a lot ofcontractors that are going to
end up going out of business as a result of these banks
(23:48):
tightening up the lending. So I'm concerned about it.
There are some some alternative forms that have come out, but
they're not really mainstream yet. and they're not really even
tested. So we'll see what happens, man.
But I think that contractors right now, if they're not
focusing really hard on the maintenance and service side of
the business and accessory side of the business that keeps
(24:10):
systems lasting longer, that they're going to be in trouble.
They're going to be gobbled up by other people.
And then the PEs, the PEs are struggling now.
All the companies that they've purchased.
My opinion, the problem with PEsis that most of them are book
smart, you know, college. educated guys that have never
really worked in the trades and they don't really understand
what's going on inside of them. And when they go into companies
(24:33):
and buy them out, they start changing rules really quickly.
And a lot of the top salespeoplestart to fall off.
And now you don't have the profit in the company anymore.
now it's like we need to get more leads.
We need to sell more. You know, let's let's go for
volume. And so they end up bidding up
all the Google and, you know, the Mm-hmm. and all this other
(24:57):
stuff and it ends up being threefour five six seven hundred
dollars per lead for contractorsSo I think we're gonna see a lot
of these PEs flush out I think alot of Contractors gonna have
the ability to buy their companies back for dimes on the
dollar if they if they still gotthe money and they didn't waste
it But yeah, man, a lot of shit is changing in the industry
right now It's kind of scary fora lot of people especially if
(25:20):
you haven't been through it before you really need a trusted
advisor somebody who's been through it before that can guide
you navigate through it Mm-hmm. So you don't get gobbled up.
Look at you man, you're throwingout, you're talking private
equity, you're latent semantic indexing, you're pretty damn
smart man, look at you. Well, don't let anybody know.
Don't tell anybody. I've just been around this
(25:41):
industry a long time and unfortunately I know a lot of
people so I get to listen to people.
So, but what you brought up, so that's an interesting take.
And so it's more, it's not like the tariffs have hit yet.
It's more of the bank's interestrates going up, banks
tightening, and that's been happening for a couple of years.
(26:05):
So that's finally coming home toroost, right?
Cause like my son's in real estate and know, things have
changed. People are sitting in their
homes. Cause you know, like we have
like a two and a quarter interest rate, right?
We're not selling this house, you know?
And so, and you want to go buy something that's 8 % like well
hell's bells you know that's a big change. are going to have an
(26:29):
effect for sure because we get alot of shit from China man and
what most clients don't understand is that the
contractors have got to keep their cost of goods the
equipment materials somewhere around 30 35 percent maximum So
that means that if something goes up a dollar we got to
charge you three right so and and and obviously prices have
(26:49):
skyrocketed since kovat and I don't I don't think they're
gonna slow down I used to be people selling systems for 13
grand that today are selling them for 26.
And obviously that has an impact.
Interesting. I guess everything's made in
China. mean, are there American made, you know, water heaters?
(27:11):
I think Bradford White might be.don't know.
I know there's a lot of shit assembled here, right?
But I mean, how many of these parts actually come from
overseas? It's a shit ton.
And hopefully, hopefully with this new president, we'll start
to get some manufacturing back. We'll start to take some of our,
you know, our soul back that's been sold overseas.
(27:35):
So what are like common mistakesyou see sales teams making?
What's one of like the first things you fix when you're
brought in? in?
Well, so would say two things. I'm going to, I'm going to go
comfort advisors here and then establish.
I'm just going to take some notes so I don't forget cause
(27:58):
I'm like a squirrel. I see something shining on I'm
gone. So comfort advisors, high ticket
sales people, the guys that are selling re-roofs or they're
selling whole house re-pipes or whole new HVAC systems.
What I see traveling the countrytime after time again is that
these guys, the ones that are doing a million, $2 million a
(28:21):
year in sales, they're considered to be the decent
salespeople. What they're missing is benefits
to the client. When they're trying to justify a
price difference between them and somebody else, they're
really only sharing the feature.As an example, we have 100 %
satisfaction guarantee. Great.
(28:41):
That's fantastic, but that's just the feature.
You didn't share with me what itmeans to me, right?
I didn't get to get a feeling. I want you to buy emotionally,
right? So I've got to attach emotion to
it because otherwise you're going to go with two chucks in a
truck for half the price as me and we're going to be fixing it
for the next 10 years. So if comfort advisors out there
(29:03):
could take the benefit and attach it to the feature that
they're talking about with the client, they'll have massive
success. This is how I usually double or
triple those guys sales. So it's I have 100 %
satisfaction guarantee, which means that it's impossible to
waste your money with us, right?That's the benefit, right?
We we we do drug testing on our technicians, drug tested
(29:26):
technicians show up on time moreoften, get the job done right
the first time more often and have fewer callbacks, right?
Those are the benefits. And if you're just sharing the
feature with the client, they'renot able to connect emotionally
with it. So that's the number one largest
challenge that I see that high ticket salespeople and comfort
advisors and project managers have.
(29:47):
On the other side, have you everbeen sitting with a client guys
and trying to get them interested in something and they
just had zero interest whatsoever?
It's like they're ignoring what you're saying.
That's because there's no need established.
That's because you're selling a product, not selling a problem.
(30:07):
In order for a client to want a product, they have to believe
that there's a problem that needs to be solved.
And you guys are telling the clients about products that they
need and trying to sell them on benefits when there's no pain.
You see, people spend money for two reasons, to escape pain or
to experience pleasure. And they'll spend money way
faster to escape the pain than to experience pleasure.
(30:30):
So you've got to figure out how do I sell the problem and how do
I do it using questions? And I know that that might sound
weird, but I can give you, I cangive you one quick example, if
that's okay. Is that cool with you?
So when it comes to surge protection, that's something
that's pretty universal, right? We could be talking to
(30:51):
electricians or HVAC guys here for sure.
So what I see when I ask somebody to sell me a surge
protector is they, want to throwup on me. want to give me all
kinds of information about the surge protector, right?
And that's not where I would start.
I would start with questions andselling the problem.
So I would go, Mr. Schaefer, whydon't you have surge protection?
(31:13):
Did you know that we get over 1.2 million cloud to ground
lightning strikes a year here inthis area?
And when that happens, we get in-home surges and Did you know
that when we get in-home surges that your compressors and your
motors can glow cherry red on the inside?
Do you think that's good? Now they'll answer the question.
No. Yes.
Yeah. What do you suppose that does to
(31:36):
the reliability of your system? How about the lifespan?
Have you ever purchased a new compressor before?
So you weren't aware that a new compressor is like $3,500.
Can you see now why all of our clients just get surge
protection rather than replacingexpensive compressors, motors,
maybe even a whole system? I'm selling the problem as
opposed to selling a product, you know, and I'm selling that
(31:58):
protection from that problem. And so that's what people are
missing. They're, they're puking all over
customers, talking too much. And you don't talk your way into
sales. You talk your way out of them.
You listen your way into a sale.Yep, I say most salespeople let
their alligator mouths overrun their canary asses.
(32:21):
Well, you would know you've beenin the game for a long time
selling a lot of different things, So it's universal then.
Salespeople are universal. Yep, yep, yep.
Like stop yapping. Shut up.
You got two, two, two ears and one mouth.
Right. So silence and questions are
your two best friends as a salesperson.
(32:43):
Ask a question, shut the fuck upand listen.
And if you listen, a client willtell you how to close them, but
you got to listen. You know, I learned over the
years, kind of on accident, but I've always had an earpiece,
right? Even back in the day, old
school, blackberries, flip phones.
(33:04):
You know, I'd have a wired headset because like I'm, I can
always type. took typing class in high school.
I knew computers were coming andso, and keyboards are loud.
So I would always hit mute. I'd ask a question, I hit mute.
So I'm typing, typing, typing. Because usually in a
conversation, you can tell when they're kind of getting to the
end. You can kind of unmute.
(33:25):
But it's happened on sales calls.
It happens in my podcast. I'll hit mute.
I got a dog, you know, kids. Now I got grandkids coming
around, lawn mowers. I'm next to a busy street.
I'm up high, but they're still loud.
I'll hit mute. And they'll stop talking too
suddenly. I'm like, crap.
And I can't get to the unmute. But even that extra half a
(33:48):
second, three quarters of a second people, they get
uncomfortable. So they would just keep talking.
So I learned, because I've always known it, right?
Being in sales, you'll talk, youknow, ask more questions, listen
more, blah, blah. But to actually experience it.
So now just it's just natural, man.
Quiet. And they'll just keep filling in
(34:11):
the gaps. I'm like, OK, there you go.
More content. tell you all kindsof stuff if you just listen.
And when was the last time you were actually really listened
to? Seriously?
mean, that there's some magic there. me immediately.
Yeah, sure. I know it's sad really it's I
(34:34):
just saw a post got Myron Myron summit that he's a black dude
gray beard like super influential I'm drawing Myron
Golden yes and I just saw a follow Sandals with him and Gary
Cox last year. Okay, cool cool.
I really like him and But I justsaw just just this morning He
(34:55):
had a story on Instagram and it was an older gentleman he was
replacing a fog light on one of his cars and the guys work in
and And he says he just asked him sincerely.
How are you? He said the guy stood up It got
like a little teary-eyed is likehis wife of 50 years.
It just died in January You know, and he said like he felt
(35:16):
like his heart was just ripped out, but he's like Nobody asks
how you're doing You know, and like this, he was he was
focusing on men, you know, he's like, we're running around
carrying the weight of the world, just put a smile on our
face, you know, to hide the frown.
It's like nobody's asking. So and I try to tell that to
people, I try to explain it's like the most powerful people
(35:37):
you could talk to, know, CEOs ofpresidents, heads of boards.
They're frustrated, they're, youknow, they're sad, they're
angry, whatever, they got stuff going on.
And like, if you can just listento them, make them feel heard
and understood. Bing!
You know, and it's like, just bea decent human being. it's sad.
(35:59):
I look back, like I've always been good at sales and I've
never used cheesy lines, no highpressure.
It's like, just, I'm like, how are you?
How can I help you? Like, no, this isn't a good fit.
What? You know, like I've told more
people no than yes. Like, what?
Like, I don't want to just sell you just to make a buck.
Yeah. Oh, you can't man.
(36:29):
It's not normal anymore. It doesn't seem like for people
to be genuinely interested in other people and care about.
Right? What was it?
It was Zig Ziglar and Ed Foremanthat both said, you know, people
don't care what you know until they know that you care about
them. Once they know that you care
about them, man, they will sharetheir wealth with you.
(36:49):
It's amazing if you can demonstrate some caring and do
the right thing for people. Keep your eyes off of your
commission. Keep your eyes off of your
wallet while you're working withthem and everything will work
out just fine. Yeah.
Yep. Crazy, crazy.
Well, man, who should contact you and what do you want them to
(37:11):
do? So I got your website up here,
GeneSlayed.com. Yep, there's gene slay.com.
There's also lead ninja system.com.
But if you want to reach out to us, the best way to do it is via
one of the social profiles. Just go to at gene slay G E N E
S L A D E. And you should be able to find a
(37:32):
shoot us a message. I've got a team that helps me
monitor all that stuff. So you might end up getting a
hold of me. You might end up getting a hold
of one of my fantastic ninjas. but that would be the fastest
way to reach us and follow us onall those social platforms.
Man, I can't tell you Wes, how many people have went from zero
in the trades to making 200, $250,000 a year just consuming
(37:55):
the free content that we put online.
And of course I'd love for everybody to come to us and
purchase the paid stuff from us,but hell, you might have to
start consuming the free stuff to make enough money to be able
to afford us, because we're not cheap.
But go online, start watching the free stuff.
Wes, I put out 339 pieces of content in the last 28 days.
(38:18):
So, like, there's tons of content out there. wait, I gotta
put my coffee down. Okay, that's a lot.
And we're about to scale that todouble and triple the amount of
content. So we do our best to put out as
much content as we can to help people.
And if I help them first, typically they end up seeking us
out for more help later. Yeah.
(38:42):
I need help reading all that. Yeah, no shit.
But most of its video, fortunately, my team cranks out
a ton, a ton of reels. So. cool.
Very nice. us on your platform, man.
It means a lot to us. So I appreciate you. it.
So, yeah, it was great talking with you the other day and I'm
(39:03):
glad we got our technology fixedand I now know how to show up to
appointments. You know, I'm better now.
I'm better at time management because of you, just knowing
you. Aww, how sweet are you?
Okay, so you're here. Okay, well, no, you're in
Florida now. So are you here or are you here?
(39:23):
Floridians don't really do that,for Florida, my hand for
Michigan. I was from right about here in
Michigan. All right, now you're in
Florida. Well, depends on how you're
looking at it. Do I do it like that as I'm
looking at it do I do it for you?
I am literally what is actually 25 I am 20 miles 22 miles north
of alligator alley and They're nothing south of alligator
(39:46):
alley, but pythons. So we're as far south as you can
get on the west coast of FloridaDid the pythons eat the
alligators? Shouldn't it be like alligators
south of Alligator Alley? When they had the hurricane down
here, when Andrew came through, it tore up a snake facility and
spread them throughout the Everglades.
(40:07):
So now we've got these invasive species of pythons and we've got
hunting seasons for them now, but they're getting 20, 20 plus
foot snakes down here now, whichis wild.
They can eat a human. aren't natural right for For Florida or
the US. Yeah, they're from like South
America, I don't know where the hell they're from.
(40:27):
I just know they're not supposedto be here.
And they are. everything in Florida tries to kill you, From
the ants to the spiders to the snakes to the panthers. had that
conversation like the whole South, right?
And I grew up in Baton Rouge andwent to high school in Houston
and I love Southeastern Conference football and talking
smack with everybody. And I'm like, look, I lived out
(40:50):
here for 20 years. it's like, look, I just had I was talking.
I had Dr. Cindy McGovern just had her back on the podcast and
we were talking. She's a big football fan. and we
talked about that. It's like in the South, it's
hot, the mosquitoes are big enough to ride them.
(41:14):
You know, horse flies. You got sharks, jellyfish,
stingrays. Everything tries to kill you
here. at you. Fire ants.
Man, you you step in a pile of fire ants and bruh, it ain't it
ain't good. Right.
Water moccasins. You know, it's humid.
We're you know, we're stretchingduring two days sweating our
(41:36):
asses off. It's like when you blow that
whistle, we're like all this pain and suffering.
I want to hit somebody very hard.
You know, like, you know, out here in California, it's like.
Like, let's go snowboarding, bruh.
You know, let's go surf, you know, after practice.
Like, what? You know, they're bringing a
hoodie to practice because it's going to be cold on the way
(41:57):
home. It's like, we're sweating from
what? March 1st till Thanksgiving, you
know? Yeah, I'm an hour north. doesn't
San Diego what's pretty much 70 degrees year-round ain't it?
It's pretty nice except when my daughter got married a couple of
years ago. Um, and, record heat.
(42:21):
So in a, in a 200 year old mission with no air
conditioning. So, so yeah, but I digress.
well, but you know, my degree doesn't show, I am a
meteorologist, so can actually talk about the weather.
I'm allowed to. to. Yeah.
Don't get me started on meteorologists.
(42:45):
Biggest liars in the world. We're not liars, we're drunk.
And you have to listen to us. Even if we're wrong the next day
you're tuning in to see what we say.
So but never trust never trust agolfing meteorologist because we
will say it's raining tomorrow. Then we make a tee time and
(43:06):
there's no it's the course isn'tcrowded.
So so be careful. I love it, man.
But I digress. Gene Slade way down there by the
alligators. you brother. You too.
Gene Slade, are you like, are you the radio sales ninja, the
sales radio ninja, the sales ninja with the radio voice?
What do I call you? depends on who you ask if you
ask the right people they'll call me HVAC hero if you ask me
the wrong people they'll call mean HVAC villain Nice.
I'm gonna call you a hero, man. Welcome to the sales podcast.
(00:22):
How the heck are you? I'm doing good, Wes.
Appreciate you having me on the platform.
It means a lot to us. It's gorgeous, man.
I mean, I think it's like 76 degrees right now.
I actually slept in today. I didn't get my workout in yet,
but I'm gonna get that as soon as we're done here.
But beautiful, beautiful sunny skies.
(00:45):
No, thank you. Get it.
So what's this sales ninja man, empowering sales leaders to
achieve their full potential. And you got a regular dang, I
mean, look, these are decorativeswords, right?
Like we marched with them. They're not really sharp, okay?
But like, I think you have a real sword.
What's up with that? It's not real.
(01:06):
One of my one of my Students whois now a business owner I
brought him into the industry years and years ago and he sent
me that the other day just as you know a Funny thing.
It's a wooden sword, but I thinkit looks pretty cool So in the
industry, so your background, was HVAC.
(01:27):
Yeah, so when I was 11, my father owned his own heating and
air conditioning company. And he said, boy, you want food,
you want clothes, come to work. So I did.
And I think he must have canned me 11 or 12 times that first
year. Anytime I'd leave the basement
without any, you know, somethingwe didn't need anymore to save a
trip. was like, boy, go sit in the truck the rest of the day.
So he was tough. was a really, really tough dad and a tough
(01:49):
boss, but he made me a really good installer.
And that was a great foundation for the rest of.
You ever see that meme? It says, you can't hurt my
feelings. I used to hold the flashlight
when my dad repaired our car. car.
You can't hurt my feelings. I don't have any anymore.
(02:09):
My dad beat him out of it. My dad, was in commercial
insulation. Yeah, I was working with him, I
think by 12, know, commercial job sites and he started his own
thing. So I'd be the helper.
Yep. Which was gopher, which was
mule. So run in the truck, get this
wrong stuff. Let me show you.
Hurry up. Clean this place up.
(02:31):
Start cleaning. You know, you want to go home on
time, start cleaning. Like, yeah, our parents might be
related. My dad's famous thing was go get
this from the truck. And by the time I get back with
it, I don't need it anymore. Yeah, exactly. like commercial
insulation, know, pipe fitting and stuff and duct work.
And, you know, insulation dulls knives like crazy.
(02:52):
So so they have a lot of knives.And the ironic thing is, like
when you're good, my dad, I learned, you know, he say you
want you want to get paid a journeyman's wage.
He's like, go show me your tools.
Right. Because he would run major six,
six hundred people, you know, projects with.
You'd have to scaffolding folks and the insulation.
(03:14):
And the guys are bringing their tools.
They'd be crap. He's like, you're not a
journeyman. Yeah. my dad, his knives were
sharp, man. He carried this five gallon
bucket. You know, he had his tool belt,
but then like all the extras were in this bucket.
He was like, go get this out of the bucket.
I reached down. I was in high school.
That was 15, 16. And there was a knife, you know,
(03:36):
like a bread knife, right? But long, long.
And I just reached down. Oh Just Flade my knuckle man,
and I was like it wasn't worse. They just clapped open.
I was like that's not good. So I grabbed what he needed,
held it with the other hand said, Hey, got to go. there like
a first aid? And they just wrapped it up.
Just kept working. And there's a scar to this day,
(03:58):
man. 40 years later. Yup.
I had a similar situation. I was working on a new
construction job and we were cutting out the top plate and I
had my hammer up there and I wascranking, trying to get that top
plate out. And of course there was, you
know, 16 sticking through the floor and that board went let
loose and I punched. the ceilingand I looked down and I had a
(04:18):
nail sticking right out the bottom of my finger.
And nothing like that feeling ofpulling that cold steel out of
your hand. Yeah, did you rip it out?
Yeah, just pulled it down and then wrapped it up and kept
working like you're talking about.
Yup. Yeah.
Just do it fast. I didn't.
(04:40):
I went nice and slow. Yeah. no.
Man, so many injuries in the trades.
It's a dangerous, dangerous job,man.
A lot of people die from it and people don't realize that. think
that tradespeople don't get as much respect as they deserve,
Yeah. Yeah, I remember my dad.
At the time, it was like the tallest. outside of downtown
(05:03):
area. It was called Transco Tower back
in the day in Houston. It was outside of the loop near
near the Galleria. You know, if you're familiar
with Houston at all. I drove by it every day because
I way outside of town and commuted into high school and.
I think it was that building it was told like 65 stories
(05:25):
something like that But a guy carrying a sheet of plywood wind
took him. know, when it was, youknow, what, 10, 20 stories,
however. And, you know, it's like, A,
don't carry it like that. B, let go when the wind hits
you. go, whoop! man.
(05:45):
Yeah, we have a lot of, we have first world problems in this
country, don't we? Yes, sir.
Hmm. So, that was your background.
When did you get into sales and sales training?
So I spent from the time I was 11 until the time I was 2021 in
the field doing install and stuff like that never really did
(06:07):
any service but around the time I was 2021 I started getting
irritated because there was these guys that were coming into
the industry that didn't have the experience that I had and
they're making twice the money that I was making.
So I ended up sending out 50 resumes to Florida, 50 to
Michigan, and went on just a tour of interviews and ended up
taking a job at the most expensive heating and air
(06:28):
conditioning company within a hundred miles of my town in
Michigan. And boy, was that a learning
experience to have your first job be the one where you're 20,
30 % higher than all the rest ofthe competition.
I had to learn how to value really quick.
Why Michigan? Where you from there?
Yeah, I grew up in Michigan and obviously I don't think anybody
(06:51):
would want to live there full time for their entire life.
It's so damn cold. But around the time I was 20, I
was standing at a gas pump in February and the wind was just
whistling through me and I was in five inches of slush up to my
ankles. And I just said to hell with
this. I got to get out of here.
I got to go someplace warmer. So I reached out to a mentor
(07:12):
down in Florida and ended up going on a tour down there. with
a bunch of interviews, didn't accept any of those positions
except at another one and assigning bonus and everything
to come down. Cause I was already doing, this
is over 20 years ago, I was already doing over a million
dollars a year, like three yearsin a row.
And I didn't know anybody else that was selling that much.
And I was trying to get out of the industry cause I thought I
(07:34):
was top dog. And then ended up finding
somebody else who was doing about 800,000 more than me in
Florida. And I was like, shoot, I need to
go learn from that person. And that was, that was really
how I got to Florida. And then on the day that I
accepted my position there, he left and went to Tampa.
So I moved halfway across the country to learn from this dude
(07:57):
and then poof, he's gone. But six months later, he did
recruit me to come up to Tampa and we built a big organization
up there. I was going to say that's where
the ninja came in. You found him in the dead of
night and fed him to the alligators.
But I'm glad it worked out better than So how did you sell
value back in the day? What is the argument on on that?
(08:20):
How what? How do you sell value?
How did you back then? You're 20 % more.
First of all, it's extremely difficult.
It was back then, I should say. First and foremost, I started
doing things that other people weren't doing, right?
(08:41):
And specifically, load calculations.
See, I was competing against my dad at a company in the exact
same market because we left the mechanical shop at the same
time. And, you know, he would go into
these houses where we were competing and he'd go, why would
you want the student when you can have the teacher?
I taught the boy everything he knows.
(09:02):
Right. So I started doing load
calculations on the sly and he didn't know about it.
And I started ripping jobs from him left and right.
And then he finally figured out what I was doing.
And he was like, OK, I'm going to go get a load calculation
machine. He got a machine.
I was on paper. Right.
So he one upped me. And then I was like, God, what
do I do now? Because almost every call I was
(09:24):
running was against him. And I ended up finding a laser
particle counter. I don't know if you've ever
heard of these, but they'll count how many particles are in
a one cubic foot of air down to like point three microns.
And so I saw that at a trade show and I was like. my God,
this guy's got a HEPA filter andhe's testing the air coming in
and out of the HEPA filter. And I was like, man, that would
(09:45):
be a secret weapon. So I got a HEPA filter. was like
175 CFM, threw it in the back ofmy car, bought a particle
counter, and I started doing experiments in the client's
master bedroom. And I would leave that machine
running for 20 minutes or so. We'd take a particle count
outside the door, take a particle count inside the door.
And I won't give everybody the script that I used right now,
(10:07):
but people started buying HEPA filters from me and getting
furnaces with them. And my dad and his company
couldn't figure out what I was doing and I was just
slaughtering them. And so eventually they ended up
calling me and saying, hey, we need you to come over here and
work for us. Here's a bonus and tell us what
you're doing. So I ended up going over to that
(10:28):
other company and that was whereI kind of, I struck gold and
started really crushing it. You know, show your dad your
tricks. Let him go work and make all the
money because it's your inheritance and then you can
like hang out and goof off. Come on, on, man.
Yeah, I told my dad, I said, don't want any of your money,
make sure you spend it all, and when you run out, you let me
(10:51):
know I got more for you. I want all my dad's money.
I don't want any of the stuff. when you die, I want you
sleeping on a cot. I don't want to be getting rid
of stuff. It's a mess, but.
Yeah, I'd rather they got rid ofit all before, you know what I
(11:11):
mean? So there was nothing to deal
with. Yeah, I mean, we're literally
dealing with this right now withmy mother-in-law's estate and
it's like, praise the Lord, my brother-in-law and my wife,
they're like, they have good friends.
They came over and like, we knowsomebody, we know somebody in
this estate sale guy, like in the 70s, he's done this like his
whole life. Just put her at ease.
He's like, let us do it. She's like, oh, praise the Lord.
(11:34):
So she's like, you don't want tobe dealing with that stuff.
It's everybody got what they want it, you know, so they can
remember grandma and it's like, let's move on.
You know, because it really is. It's, know, we get all this
stuff and it's like, nobody wants, nobody wants my plaque
from the Murrieta Chamber of Commerce.
What do you do? And it's like, I'm gone.
(11:55):
I don't care what you do with it, you know, so. well, so.
So, you grew up, so everything. So you were living in Michigan
when you started working and then because I was thinking you
were in Florida and then. then Imoved back but you came down to
Florida later. Yeah.
And you stayed. Yeah, I was born in Rochester,
(12:17):
Michigan and I was there until, shoot, I think until I turned
21. And then right about the time I
turned 21, took off. I saw this funny story on
Twitter. This lady was talking about it.
was like, I never really knew this thing about Michigan. my
husband, like a married guy fromMichigan, and everywhere we go,
we see people, he sees the license plate, oh, you're from
(12:38):
Michigan. And they knew the mitten thing.
Where did you grow up? about.
It's like, that's so funny, man.Every, every state, every region
has their, their, you know, unique, um, is that a
colloquialism? I don't know man, I'm not that
(13:00):
smart and my vocabulary is not that big.
That's one too many syllables inthat word for me. one too many
syllables in that word. So are you working now with like
specifically with trades people or do you work with any type of
sales? Well, we work with pretty much
(13:22):
all trades. My foundation was HVAC and
plumbing because my father ownedthe HVAC company, my uncle owned
a plumbing company. And then a few years ago, we had
some tri-trade companies that were also doing electric and
they wanted the electrical training.
So we set up a meeting and we wrote all of the presentations
(13:42):
for it. Now we've got all of the
electrical scripting and all theelectrical workbooks and
processes, but we've got, I think I built the sales system
for the largest solar removal and replacement company in the
country. We work with pest control, we
work with garage doors. Basically, if you go out to a
customer's house to serve them, we have training for that.
(14:06):
Nice. And are you setting up like CRMs
for them? You know, things like that.
The cadences or just the verbiage?
No, we're not. We have the ability to set up
CRMs for guys that don't have them, but most of the guys that
we work with are either on housecall or service Titan or
something like that already. And so we're able to integrate
(14:28):
our AIs with that. You know, we've got
conversational AIs that make outbound telephone calls and
answer inbound telephone calls. So we're able to integrate all
that stuff so they can read the schedules.
But no, we stick mostly in our sales trading processes to the
field side, you know, and mostlyservice technicians going out to
do maintenance or service calls,repair work, or going out to,
(14:52):
you know, quote, high ticket items.
That's where we that's our lane and that's where we specialize.
Nice. Are there requirements, you
know, if an AI is making the call does it have to identify
itself as an AI call? no, it doesn't have to.
But you do need permission to make AI calls to people, right?
(15:12):
So and that's something that's going to take a minute for a lot
of contractors to get out their invoices and to get those boxes
checked and everything. But no, not at this stage of the
game. But we do introduce that it is
an AI. We we started testing without
introducing it. And 95 % of the people we talked
to did not know it was an AI. 5 % were able to pick it up.
(15:34):
And so I wanted to test what it would be like if we announced
that it was an AI and we used some, some no questions.
Like I'm, I'm a big fan of Christopher Voss as a
salesperson and negotiator, and he's constantly asking no
questions. Like not, is this a good idea?
He'd say, is this a bad idea? Right.
When he was anyhow, so we, decided to program the AI to
(15:58):
announce that it was an AI and get permission from the clients
that it could be their first point of contact in the future.
And people seem to really, really like that as it turns
out. And it's faster than a human
being, much faster. for sure. So is it making cold calls or is
it following? like past customers?
So we're not doing any cold calls because of the laws,
(16:21):
right? You can't really do cold calls
with it. So we're following up with
existing clients to schedule their maintenance appointments
or handling inbound telephone calls to schedule stuff. we will
be writing programs for follow-up and for follow-up
(16:41):
sales because we've been very successful with that with humans
in the past. And we have all the scripting,
so there's no reason that we can't incorporate that.
The challenge is figuring out what was quoted and getting the
AI to be able to read all that stuff.
The technology is just not quitethere yet.
But we will be programming virtual sales managers and stuff
(17:04):
like So on the inbound, are those like new leads or are they
past customers like calling for maintenance or something?
Okay. So when a new customer calls in,
it gathers all the information it needs to gather.
It can see all of the appointments available on the
schedule and bingo, bingo, it just books the call.
(17:24):
And it's got my my knowledge bank in, it's got my radio show,
it's got all my scripting and everything.
So it's essentially me answeringa telephone call.
It's your voice. It's not my voice. could make
that happen. But no, it's my scripting.
It's my IP, if you will. Nice.
(17:45):
If it is inbound, do you have tonotify them that it's AI?
Not to the best of my knowledge.Yeah, I wouldn't think so.
Because it's like they're calling me.
So you're to get what you get. Well, and it's super cool too
that you know it knows who's calling right if I call it up
(18:06):
and go hey Jean How are you doing today?
What can I help you with? It's pretty sweet slick scary
Yeah, I mean Will it mess up though I mean sometimes a number
to show if I get a generic, you know 2000, you know, whatever
that I do that. So Does it does it know if it's
(18:26):
come from a generic office line versus?
know, their extension? That I couldn't tell you.
See, I'm a really good salesperson.
I'm not a great developer. I have developers for that.
So I have buttons on my desk that I can push to get those
kinds of questions as Henry Fordused to say.
Nice. You can obviously if it's a cell
(18:46):
phone you know who it is. Right.
Right. Or if it's a pre-stored number,
right? But if we don't know who is,
it's just going to answer and say, know, hey, it's a great day
at Benjamin Franklin Plumbing. How can I make your day better?
Yeah. So how how are sales done today
versus 20 years ago? Are things the same or people
(19:06):
the same? Are they?
Are they tougher, you know, are they are they shopping a lot
more, they comparing, are they less trusting, are they more
trusting? I don't think it is much
different than it used to be. don't think people are much
different. I think the information is
different, right? We've got so much at our
fingertips today compared to what 2005 or so, 2006, when
(19:29):
iPhones and stuff like that werestarting to come out.
I mean, we've got the world in our palms.
So I think it has made, I think the internet and social media
has made people a little bit more skeptical about people and
a little bit more cautious. But I think it's helped us in
some tremendous ways as well. I mean, we can use it for
follow-up tools. There's so much information now
that we can grab and send out toclients that we want to follow
(19:52):
up with. if you were... If you were considering buying a
certain product and the salesperson kept sending you,
you know, clips or something, they're like, hey, I came across
this today. It made me think of you.
I thought you might be able to use it, you know, and it's about
air quality or it's about a roofor it's about plumbing or it's
about water leaking or it's about mold or whatever, right?
It's given us a lot of advantages.
(20:13):
Um, but sure. I mean, I think it's made people
a little bit more skeptical, a little bit more cautious.
Yeah. Is, is the quality of stuff
being made? Is it better?
It seems like everything is likeplanned obsolescence.
You know, our, our, our refrigerator, what a shit show,
man. You know, and it's a Samsung,
(20:34):
right? Dies constantly.
My wife, my wife, God bless her.mean, we got a big family,
right? So, I mean, we literally need
commercial grade stuff, you know, seven kids and all their
friends and relatives and cousins.
And I mean, and so. it's we go through stuff and she found this
speed queen, right? She looked it up.
We needed a washing machine and it's a commercial grade, but
(20:58):
even California is changing, youknow, cause it's like all metal
parts, blah, blah, blah. So this thing's just a beast,
but you got to go out of your way and do research to find
these things. But it seems like everything's
just crappier now. now. Disposable, Disposable.
And then when you start looking at industries like the HVAC
(21:18):
industry, with all the government regulations and
mandations and the way that they're making them switch to
higher efficiency equipment and stuff that the education really
just isn't keeping up with the technology.
And so you got guys going out there who are in, you know,
selling clients high dollar systems, but they're not paying
(21:40):
attention to what it's attached to.
And that's causing massive, massive problems and it's
causing premature failures and it's causing environmental
problems inside of people's houses.
So, I mean, I think it's a combination of, I think people
are planning the obsolescence ofthe equipment that they're
selling, but I think at the sametime, it's a lack of education
(22:00):
on how to put it in properly forthe greatest lifespan.
And that's a real shame for consumers.
And it makes us look bad as, as industry professionals.
Yeah. How are, what are you seeing
with this? So, know, Trump's only been in
(22:23):
office for a minute, but you know, talking tariffs and
whatnot. Is that, is that going to be
good for your industry? Bad for the industry?
Well, I was talking to a couple of my larger clients two nights
ago and I was just asking them what they're seeing in the
industry. And what they're telling me is
(22:44):
that about 50 % to 60 % of the clients that are applying for
financing are not getting it. Now 40 to 50 % are not getting
it. So about only about half of the
people that they apply for financing are getting it.
I'm also hearing that people aretrying to hold off longer and
(23:05):
not replace their systems, that they're looking at doing more
repairs. And I told people this 18 months
ago. said, you better get your service departments in order.
I've seen this movie before. Get your service departments in
order. Make sure that your service
department and your maintenance department is not sucking the
life out of your replacement department because replacements
(23:25):
are gonna go down. This happened in 2008 when the
banks tightened up and they weren't lending to people.
So I had the pleasure of experiencing this before.
And unfortunately, a lot of people are not listening.
They're just going about their day as normal.
And we're going to have a lot ofcontractors that are going to
end up going out of business as a result of these banks
(23:48):
tightening up the lending. So I'm concerned about it.
There are some some alternative forms that have come out, but
they're not really mainstream yet. and they're not really even
tested. So we'll see what happens, man.
But I think that contractors right now, if they're not
focusing really hard on the maintenance and service side of
the business and accessory side of the business that keeps
(24:10):
systems lasting longer, that they're going to be in trouble.
They're going to be gobbled up by other people.
And then the PEs, the PEs are struggling now.
All the companies that they've purchased.
My opinion, the problem with PEsis that most of them are book
smart, you know, college. educated guys that have never
really worked in the trades and they don't really understand
what's going on inside of them. And when they go into companies
(24:33):
and buy them out, they start changing rules really quickly.
And a lot of the top salespeoplestart to fall off.
And now you don't have the profit in the company anymore.
now it's like we need to get more leads.
We need to sell more. You know, let's let's go for
volume. And so they end up bidding up
all the Google and, you know, the Mm-hmm. and all this other
(24:57):
stuff and it ends up being threefour five six seven hundred
dollars per lead for contractorsSo I think we're gonna see a lot
of these PEs flush out I think alot of Contractors gonna have
the ability to buy their companies back for dimes on the
dollar if they if they still gotthe money and they didn't waste
it But yeah, man, a lot of shit is changing in the industry
right now It's kind of scary fora lot of people especially if
(25:20):
you haven't been through it before you really need a trusted
advisor somebody who's been through it before that can guide
you navigate through it Mm-hmm. So you don't get gobbled up.
Look at you man, you're throwingout, you're talking private
equity, you're latent semantic indexing, you're pretty damn
smart man, look at you. Well, don't let anybody know.
Don't tell anybody. I've just been around this
(25:41):
industry a long time and unfortunately I know a lot of
people so I get to listen to people.
So, but what you brought up, so that's an interesting take.
And so it's more, it's not like the tariffs have hit yet.
It's more of the bank's interestrates going up, banks
tightening, and that's been happening for a couple of years.
(26:05):
So that's finally coming home toroost, right?
Cause like my son's in real estate and know, things have
changed. People are sitting in their
homes. Cause you know, like we have
like a two and a quarter interest rate, right?
We're not selling this house, you know?
And so, and you want to go buy something that's 8 % like well
hell's bells you know that's a big change. are going to have an
(26:29):
effect for sure because we get alot of shit from China man and
what most clients don't understand is that the
contractors have got to keep their cost of goods the
equipment materials somewhere around 30 35 percent maximum So
that means that if something goes up a dollar we got to
charge you three right so and and and obviously prices have
(26:49):
skyrocketed since kovat and I don't I don't think they're
gonna slow down I used to be people selling systems for 13
grand that today are selling them for 26.
And obviously that has an impact.
Interesting. I guess everything's made in
China. mean, are there American made, you know, water heaters?
(27:11):
I think Bradford White might be.don't know.
I know there's a lot of shit assembled here, right?
But I mean, how many of these parts actually come from
overseas? It's a shit ton.
And hopefully, hopefully with this new president, we'll start
to get some manufacturing back. We'll start to take some of our,
you know, our soul back that's been sold overseas.
(27:35):
So what are like common mistakesyou see sales teams making?
What's one of like the first things you fix when you're
brought in? in?
Well, so would say two things. I'm going to, I'm going to go
comfort advisors here and then establish.
I'm just going to take some notes so I don't forget cause
(27:58):
I'm like a squirrel. I see something shining on I'm
gone. So comfort advisors, high ticket
sales people, the guys that are selling re-roofs or they're
selling whole house re-pipes or whole new HVAC systems.
What I see traveling the countrytime after time again is that
these guys, the ones that are doing a million, $2 million a
(28:21):
year in sales, they're considered to be the decent
salespeople. What they're missing is benefits
to the client. When they're trying to justify a
price difference between them and somebody else, they're
really only sharing the feature.As an example, we have 100 %
satisfaction guarantee. Great.
(28:41):
That's fantastic, but that's just the feature.
You didn't share with me what itmeans to me, right?
I didn't get to get a feeling. I want you to buy emotionally,
right? So I've got to attach emotion to
it because otherwise you're going to go with two chucks in a
truck for half the price as me and we're going to be fixing it
for the next 10 years. So if comfort advisors out there
(29:03):
could take the benefit and attach it to the feature that
they're talking about with the client, they'll have massive
success. This is how I usually double or
triple those guys sales. So it's I have 100 %
satisfaction guarantee, which means that it's impossible to
waste your money with us, right?That's the benefit, right?
We we we do drug testing on our technicians, drug tested
(29:26):
technicians show up on time moreoften, get the job done right
the first time more often and have fewer callbacks, right?
Those are the benefits. And if you're just sharing the
feature with the client, they'renot able to connect emotionally
with it. So that's the number one largest
challenge that I see that high ticket salespeople and comfort
advisors and project managers have.
(29:47):
On the other side, have you everbeen sitting with a client guys
and trying to get them interested in something and they
just had zero interest whatsoever?
It's like they're ignoring what you're saying.
That's because there's no need established.
That's because you're selling a product, not selling a problem.
(30:07):
In order for a client to want a product, they have to believe
that there's a problem that needs to be solved.
And you guys are telling the clients about products that they
need and trying to sell them on benefits when there's no pain.
You see, people spend money for two reasons, to escape pain or
to experience pleasure. And they'll spend money way
faster to escape the pain than to experience pleasure.
(30:30):
So you've got to figure out how do I sell the problem and how do
I do it using questions? And I know that that might sound
weird, but I can give you, I cangive you one quick example, if
that's okay. Is that cool with you?
So when it comes to surge protection, that's something
that's pretty universal, right? We could be talking to
(30:51):
electricians or HVAC guys here for sure.
So what I see when I ask somebody to sell me a surge
protector is they, want to throwup on me. want to give me all
kinds of information about the surge protector, right?
And that's not where I would start.
I would start with questions andselling the problem.
So I would go, Mr. Schaefer, whydon't you have surge protection?
(31:13):
Did you know that we get over 1.2 million cloud to ground
lightning strikes a year here inthis area?
And when that happens, we get in-home surges and Did you know
that when we get in-home surges that your compressors and your
motors can glow cherry red on the inside?
Do you think that's good? Now they'll answer the question.
No. Yes.
Yeah. What do you suppose that does to
(31:36):
the reliability of your system? How about the lifespan?
Have you ever purchased a new compressor before?
So you weren't aware that a new compressor is like $3,500.
Can you see now why all of our clients just get surge
protection rather than replacingexpensive compressors, motors,
maybe even a whole system? I'm selling the problem as
opposed to selling a product, you know, and I'm selling that
(31:58):
protection from that problem. And so that's what people are
missing. They're, they're puking all over
customers, talking too much. And you don't talk your way into
sales. You talk your way out of them.
You listen your way into a sale.Yep, I say most salespeople let
their alligator mouths overrun their canary asses.
(32:21):
Well, you would know you've beenin the game for a long time
selling a lot of different things, So it's universal then.
Salespeople are universal. Yep, yep, yep.
Like stop yapping. Shut up.
You got two, two, two ears and one mouth.
Right. So silence and questions are
your two best friends as a salesperson.
(32:43):
Ask a question, shut the fuck upand listen.
And if you listen, a client willtell you how to close them, but
you got to listen. You know, I learned over the
years, kind of on accident, but I've always had an earpiece,
right? Even back in the day, old
school, blackberries, flip phones.
(33:04):
You know, I'd have a wired headset because like I'm, I can
always type. took typing class in high school.
I knew computers were coming andso, and keyboards are loud.
So I would always hit mute. I'd ask a question, I hit mute.
So I'm typing, typing, typing. Because usually in a
conversation, you can tell when they're kind of getting to the
end. You can kind of unmute.
(33:25):
But it's happened on sales calls.
It happens in my podcast. I'll hit mute.
I got a dog, you know, kids. Now I got grandkids coming
around, lawn mowers. I'm next to a busy street.
I'm up high, but they're still loud.
I'll hit mute. And they'll stop talking too
suddenly. I'm like, crap.
And I can't get to the unmute. But even that extra half a
(33:48):
second, three quarters of a second people, they get
uncomfortable. So they would just keep talking.
So I learned, because I've always known it, right?
Being in sales, you'll talk, youknow, ask more questions, listen
more, blah, blah. But to actually experience it.
So now just it's just natural, man.
Quiet. And they'll just keep filling in
(34:11):
the gaps. I'm like, OK, there you go.
More content. tell you all kindsof stuff if you just listen.
And when was the last time you were actually really listened
to? Seriously?
mean, that there's some magic there. me immediately.
Yeah, sure. I know it's sad really it's I
(34:34):
just saw a post got Myron Myron summit that he's a black dude
gray beard like super influential I'm drawing Myron
Golden yes and I just saw a follow Sandals with him and Gary
Cox last year. Okay, cool cool.
I really like him and But I justsaw just just this morning He
(34:55):
had a story on Instagram and it was an older gentleman he was
replacing a fog light on one of his cars and the guys work in
and And he says he just asked him sincerely.
How are you? He said the guy stood up It got
like a little teary-eyed is likehis wife of 50 years.
It just died in January You know, and he said like he felt
(35:16):
like his heart was just ripped out, but he's like Nobody asks
how you're doing You know, and like this, he was he was
focusing on men, you know, he's like, we're running around
carrying the weight of the world, just put a smile on our
face, you know, to hide the frown.
It's like nobody's asking. So and I try to tell that to
people, I try to explain it's like the most powerful people
(35:37):
you could talk to, know, CEOs ofpresidents, heads of boards.
They're frustrated, they're, youknow, they're sad, they're
angry, whatever, they got stuff going on.
And like, if you can just listento them, make them feel heard
and understood. Bing!
You know, and it's like, just bea decent human being. it's sad.
(35:59):
I look back, like I've always been good at sales and I've
never used cheesy lines, no highpressure.
It's like, just, I'm like, how are you?
How can I help you? Like, no, this isn't a good fit.
What? You know, like I've told more
people no than yes. Like, what?
Like, I don't want to just sell you just to make a buck.
Yeah. Oh, you can't man.
(36:29):
It's not normal anymore. It doesn't seem like for people
to be genuinely interested in other people and care about.
Right? What was it?
It was Zig Ziglar and Ed Foremanthat both said, you know, people
don't care what you know until they know that you care about
them. Once they know that you care
about them, man, they will sharetheir wealth with you.
(36:49):
It's amazing if you can demonstrate some caring and do
the right thing for people. Keep your eyes off of your
commission. Keep your eyes off of your
wallet while you're working withthem and everything will work
out just fine. Yeah.
Yep. Crazy, crazy.
Well, man, who should contact you and what do you want them to
(37:11):
do? So I got your website up here,
GeneSlayed.com. Yep, there's gene slay.com.
There's also lead ninja system.com.
But if you want to reach out to us, the best way to do it is via
one of the social profiles. Just go to at gene slay G E N E
S L A D E. And you should be able to find a
(37:32):
shoot us a message. I've got a team that helps me
monitor all that stuff. So you might end up getting a
hold of me. You might end up getting a hold
of one of my fantastic ninjas. but that would be the fastest
way to reach us and follow us onall those social platforms.
Man, I can't tell you Wes, how many people have went from zero
in the trades to making 200, $250,000 a year just consuming
(37:55):
the free content that we put online.
And of course I'd love for everybody to come to us and
purchase the paid stuff from us,but hell, you might have to
start consuming the free stuff to make enough money to be able
to afford us, because we're not cheap.
But go online, start watching the free stuff.
Wes, I put out 339 pieces of content in the last 28 days.
(38:18):
So, like, there's tons of content out there. wait, I gotta
put my coffee down. Okay, that's a lot.
And we're about to scale that todouble and triple the amount of
content. So we do our best to put out as
much content as we can to help people.
And if I help them first, typically they end up seeking us
out for more help later. Yeah.
(38:42):
I need help reading all that. Yeah, no shit.
But most of its video, fortunately, my team cranks out
a ton, a ton of reels. So. cool.
Very nice. us on your platform, man.
It means a lot to us. So I appreciate you. it.
So, yeah, it was great talking with you the other day and I'm
(39:03):
glad we got our technology fixedand I now know how to show up to
appointments. You know, I'm better now.
I'm better at time management because of you, just knowing
you. Aww, how sweet are you?
Okay, so you're here. Okay, well, no, you're in
Florida now. So are you here or are you here?
(39:23):
Floridians don't really do that,for Florida, my hand for
Michigan. I was from right about here in
Michigan. All right, now you're in
Florida. Well, depends on how you're
looking at it. Do I do it like that as I'm
looking at it do I do it for you?
I am literally what is actually 25 I am 20 miles 22 miles north
of alligator alley and They're nothing south of alligator
(39:46):
alley, but pythons. So we're as far south as you can
get on the west coast of FloridaDid the pythons eat the
alligators? Shouldn't it be like alligators
south of Alligator Alley? When they had the hurricane down
here, when Andrew came through, it tore up a snake facility and
spread them throughout the Everglades.
(40:07):
So now we've got these invasive species of pythons and we've got
hunting seasons for them now, but they're getting 20, 20 plus
foot snakes down here now, whichis wild.
They can eat a human. aren't natural right for For Florida or
the US. Yeah, they're from like South
America, I don't know where the hell they're from.
(40:27):
I just know they're not supposedto be here.
And they are. everything in Florida tries to kill you, From
the ants to the spiders to the snakes to the panthers. had that
conversation like the whole South, right?
And I grew up in Baton Rouge andwent to high school in Houston
and I love Southeastern Conference football and talking
smack with everybody. And I'm like, look, I lived out
(40:50):
here for 20 years. it's like, look, I just had I was talking.
I had Dr. Cindy McGovern just had her back on the podcast and
we were talking. She's a big football fan. and we
talked about that. It's like in the South, it's
hot, the mosquitoes are big enough to ride them.
(41:14):
You know, horse flies. You got sharks, jellyfish,
stingrays. Everything tries to kill you
here. at you. Fire ants.
Man, you you step in a pile of fire ants and bruh, it ain't it
ain't good. Right.
Water moccasins. You know, it's humid.
We're you know, we're stretchingduring two days sweating our
(41:36):
asses off. It's like when you blow that
whistle, we're like all this pain and suffering.
I want to hit somebody very hard.
You know, like, you know, out here in California, it's like.
Like, let's go snowboarding, bruh.
You know, let's go surf, you know, after practice.
Like, what? You know, they're bringing a
hoodie to practice because it's going to be cold on the way
(41:57):
home. It's like, we're sweating from
what? March 1st till Thanksgiving, you
know? Yeah, I'm an hour north. doesn't
San Diego what's pretty much 70 degrees year-round ain't it?
It's pretty nice except when my daughter got married a couple of
years ago. Um, and, record heat.
(42:21):
So in a, in a 200 year old mission with no air
conditioning. So, so yeah, but I digress.
well, but you know, my degree doesn't show, I am a
meteorologist, so can actually talk about the weather.
I'm allowed to. to. Yeah.
Don't get me started on meteorologists.
(42:45):
Biggest liars in the world. We're not liars, we're drunk.
And you have to listen to us. Even if we're wrong the next day
you're tuning in to see what we say.
So but never trust never trust agolfing meteorologist because we
will say it's raining tomorrow. Then we make a tee time and
(43:06):
there's no it's the course isn'tcrowded.
So so be careful. I love it, man.
But I digress. Gene Slade way down there by the
alligators. you brother. You too.
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