How to Close on the First Appointment - Part 2 of 2

0:04 Thank you for joining us on the Winning and Selling podcast. I'm Bill Hellkamp of Reach Development Systems and with me is Professor Scott Plum of the Minnesota Sales Institute. And together we've launched Franchise Sales Pro with a commitment to work with franchise owners and franchisees to drive sales and boost revenue. As I mentioned in part one, most salespeople are trained to build rapport, gather information and follow up later.

0:29 But what if the prospect is ready today? In service-based in-home sales like Home Improvement, Senior Care Centers, Child Services, the best clothes might happen on the first visit. Do you want to be strong in influencing or persistent in follow-up to make the sale? Join Bill and me as we break down how to close on your first appointment, part two, by building curiosity and interest, defining the buying criteria, uncovering motivation, and creating urgency to close the deal of confidence on Episode 6.

0:58 Episode 694 of the Winning and Selling podcast. It was going to be exciting because I was not upset with the word. I was anxious that we didn't get it all finished in the first shot, so Session 2 should be good. But before we dive back into our book club, Scott has an announcement. Have you ever thought about running your own business? A franchise might be the perfect way to make that dream a reality. Think of it as a business in a box with a proven system, brand recognition, and built in support.

1:31 If you're a skilled technician, ready to explore entrepreneurship, or you're approaching retirement but not ready to stop contributing, owning a franchise could be the next great chapter in your life. It's a big decision with lots of moving parts, and doing it alone can lead to distractions and missed opportunities. That's why we work with experienced professionals who can guide you through the franchising journey. If you'd like to talk with someone, visit mnsales.com slash offers, complete the form, and we'll connect you with someone who can work with you to navigate the path to franchise ownership.

2:06 Thank you, Scott. So we are diving back into aligning strategy and sales by Frank Sesbeth. We're on Chapter 8, so we're, I don't know, a little bit more than halfway through the book. And we're talking about performance management and in Chapter 8 it's called People, Hiring, Development and Sales Organization, which is exactly what he talks about in this. So his title is clear. And I think it's a pretty good time to talk about this since we had Dr. Chris Corona on last week talking about how do you hire the right people.

2:35 Perfectly timed. Perfectly timed. Just like we set it up that way, but we didn't. We didn't. We wish we could. That's not. We wish we could. Plus occasionally. This is one of. We wish we had that much foresight, but just lining out the chapters for the next, you know, month of the next book is pretty much at the limit of our capacity on somebody's thing. So listen, here's what he talks about. It's about the people. And we've talked about that a lot.

3:04 Who you hire is fundamental to the success of your sales team. But you know, when I was new sales manager, most sales teams are already built out. All right. So you need to figure out what's the team that's already in place. I like to use the football analogy or baseball analogy. A new manager comes in. The twins are going to have a new manager. Well, they already sold the whole team. So this analogy doesn't apply. But let's say a new manager comes in for your football team.

3:31 You don't fire all the players and start over. You got to figure out what you got and make the plays that work for the players you have. And eventually you want to replace some of the dads with some better players. But you want to get those right people in place. Don't be hasty. Sometimes we want everybody to be in our own mold. Well, I think in the book, it talked about the sales managers generally hire people that follow the same process to success that they had or the same system or the same methodology.

4:00 There's that connection between that sales manager and that salesperson. But they're two different completely skill attributes to be successful at it. So sometimes duplicating that's not to your advantage. Right. We don't want to hire a bunch of future sales managers. Right. I want to hire some of the top sales people. And even then he says, you know, finding and keeping that top sales person is hard. Maybe that second level one, you've got a number of those you're going to keep.

4:24 So yeah. But I do think it's important. He talked about some numbers in here. Top performers, that 15% top people, may generate five to ten times as much as those in the middle of the pack. Wow. Five to ten times much. And I've seen that. Your job is to improve those who want to and can improve. I think what I'm best at is really making, taking advantage of the opportunities that I have. I have a high close rate. Mm-hmm.

4:51 So we all have different things that we're good at. I'm really good when I get into the appointment. All right. Step one, build your team recruitment and selection. And this is what Chris Krone talked about. But I like this idea. First, he says, you've got to do this like you identified a customer profile. You had your ideal customer. Now you should do the same thing for your sales position. What are the most important characteristics of your most productive sales people?

5:22 Because if you come in from the outside and as you said, I've got a certain process, that process might not work well for this particular new type of sales. So what are the top sales people doing and what do you want them to emulate? What do you want the rest of the group to emulate in some ways, right? And another thing to look at is how your customers buy and what's important to them. So build your team accordingly.

5:49 Kind of like again, the football analogy. The players that we have, why do they win and how can we make more of those winners? Makes sense. I mean, are you selling a product or service? The sales person that you're interviewing, did they sell a product or service? Were they working with a big company and now you're a small company? How is that going to work to your advantage or disadvantage? You have to know a lot of things about that person's past.

6:14 Well, your topic of closing on the first appointment? I'm not a closer on the first appointment. So what you're talking about in here, I'm learning from, but many of our customers are, and so we needed to understand this better. Ours is the longer process usually, but that customer, that consumer and user often, you don't have a second chance. They bought from somebody else if you let it go, right? So we're going to talk about that more.

6:42 So Scott and I talked about three points that Scott and I feel are pretty important in this hiring process. Number one, we've found over time you can't train character very well. When you have a 35-year-old person, their character is often what it is. It's good, bad or indifferent. They may make the choice to change their character, but you're not going to be able to cause them to change their character. So you need to hire people with the traits that you desire, and then we can teach them how to sell more effectively.

7:13 We can teach them about the product. I would add on to that, hiring people with good judgment too. And we cannot teach good judgment. And as leaders, we have an obligation to manage and instill good judgment in our sales people. So character and good judgment, I think are probably the main attributes to success when it comes to hiring sales people. So once you've decided the sales person isn't going to make it, start to look for the replacement.

7:40 Don't wait around. It's hard to get someone new started, but our experience is this is one of the things that crushes sales management is that they don't want to get rid of somebody because they don't want to have to do all the work of hiring somebody totally new. This crummy sales person that I have is at least better than a raw recruit. Well, that's not true. And one's the best time to plant a tree today. It's going to take time to grow it, but you need to do the things that are right and start it today.

8:10 I'm convinced sometimes an employee has a review and they're kind of given a little bit of a PIP plan. If they don't follow through on that performance improvement plan, they're creating documentation for termination. So really commit to understanding what your obligations are. And you know, is your commitment greater than the consequences and the consequences of not having a job? Then you're going to commit to the job.

8:35 So if your consequences are going to be severe, if you don't commit, you might want to increase your commitment. Well, be careful of the person that you ask them, when did you start working here? And then they say when they threatened to fire me. Yeah, exactly. So some people don't start working until the PIP plan is in place, right? Yeah. All right, number three idea. Consider having a couple of inside salespeople. They can assist your most able people.

9:00 First of all, we think that's important. We've got these salespeople that are really, really good at what they do. And there's five things they hate to do. And they're killing them. Maybe it's filling out the CRM. Maybe it's doing reports. Maybe it's follow up. They're great at everything else. Hire them an assistant and you'll double their productivity because they'll get things out of their way. At the same time, that inside salesperson is learning about your product.

9:25 They're learning about your customer. And if they're the right people, if you've hired the right people, they're ready to step into that sales role. And I'll tell you another advantage is there's nothing that motivates a salesperson like knowing someone's in the wings. Way to take their job. Exactly. Exactly. That is very motivational. And that's a good spirit of competitiveness too. A very good spirit of competitiveness.

9:48 Yeah. They say good salespeople's like to be competitive. So all right. He steps in the process of hiring the right person. Number one, develop the fundamentals training and development. So this is kind of this area is where we really shine and we help companies. You and I Scott. Here's a quote, people need reinforcement, periodic upgrading and adaptation of skills to new circumstances. And the motivation that is the byproduct of any good developmental process.

10:19 That sounds like it describes what we do for customers. Well said. Well said. Yes. Yep. I'm always amazed by the companies, even the do sales training once a year. It's not enough. Do you remember the guys from sales, jujitsu? Yeah. Yeah. Every sales meeting, they have a half hour practice session. Yeah. Every sales meeting, they have a half hour practice session. They pick a thing to practice. They set up some scenarios and they practice it.

10:49 I thought that was a great example to follow. Sales managers don't want to do it, but you've got to it's got to be continuous practice. Number two, customize your strategic goals and sales initiatives. And I think customize to your strategic goals and sales initiative, meaning the training should match what you want to do. Don't just train out of the box. Whatever. There's a goal. There's a mission. And this is one of the first questions we ask clients.

11:20 What are you trying to get out of this? What do you want them to do better? What do you want them to do more of? What do you want them to do less of? And until you know that, you're just not going to make a good decision on how to train. Mm hmm. Isn't it amazing how they don't know that answer? Sometimes we ask them, what do you want them to stop doing? And what do you want them to start doing? Cue the crickets. They don't know.

11:40 I mean, it's almost like when we work with some companies and we ask them, what problem do you solve? They don't know. They just have a product. They don't know what the problem is that they solve. So it's like going, you know, deer hunting and bringing home pheasants. Wait a minute here. What are we hunting? Yeah. Pheasants that you blew away with, you know, 30 out of 6. Anyway, okay. Next, experimental, experiential learning is important.

12:04 They need to try this stuff out. You can't just lecture at them and then walk away. Here's some, here's three great sales ideas. And then you walk away. They've got to try it out. They try it sometimes on their customers and it doesn't work. And they damage a customer relationship because they don't know how to do it. So practice it in the training room and then ask them to go out. And that's the next step. Follow up.

12:25 In order to get adoption, you've got to try it out in real life. Let them know that it's okay to make mistakes. Try it out with smaller customers. Don't try it out with your general mills, your, you know, your US bank. Try it out with, you know, your, your general mills. And then you can try it out with, you know, Larry's pretty good foods. And see, see what happens and, and follow up with coaching and we found reporting to be important.

12:51 Tell us what you did. Talk to the team and teach each other. Yeah. And you have to measure it. If you don't measure it, you can't manage it. How are you tracking it? Are you improving or decreasing? You can go in two different directions when you create, create change. So I'm just going to go over those again. I'm going to go over those three steps to training development, develop the fundamentals training and development.

13:13 Customize the training to your strategic goals. Use experiential learning so they try it out in the classroom first. Don't practice it on your customers. Once you've got a little good at it, go out and use it adopted in real life and then talk about it. Follow up coaching. What did I do wrong? What could I do better? So those are the steps and quite coincidentally those are the steps we take in working with our clients to train.

13:36 So the last piece that he wants to talk about is focus on buying behavior, multi-channel management. So I think it's important to see how your sales process fits into the buyer's journey. How are people buying now for your particular product? And one big change I think that we're seeing universally from buyers is that they're doing a lot more checking things out online. So if they've thought of the idea, I want to buy something, they've narrowed it down, they've looked at it and they're not going to call you unless you meet them.

14:05 I see the one advantage there is being if you're called, you're probably pretty much well into the mix of being able to satisfy this customer. But I think if you want to change the nature of things Scott, prospect, if you're doing outbound calls, you're going to catch the person or the company that is starting to think about it and hasn't done the research yet. And they're going to bring you in early and you may have the big advantage because you've gotten their head to the competition.

14:37 So I think that's what's important to talk about with multi-channel management. I agree with that Bill and I think it's what's nice about that situation is that the people have decided that they want to change. They want something different. They're going to buy something different. And if they've agreed to change, you've got to hire likelihood because you don't have to sell the option of changing or the willingness to change.

14:59 It's just like if you're selling advertising, who are you going to talk to? People that have already bought the idea of advertising. You just need to sell them on the idea of advertising with you. That's right. Or buying from you because your solution is better for their problem, challenge, goal, expectations, whatever. Right. If you've got to convince people to need new windows, you've got an extra step. Yes, you do.

15:19 Right. Then you've got to convince them that it's your windows. However, if you convince them that they need new windows, they're probably not going to look at five other options. Probably not. Yeah. So you do have an advantage there. All right. So that's the end of chapter eight next week, aligning strategy and sales, chapter nine. Before we stop into here, Scott's part two about how to close on the first appointment.

15:44 We're going to talk about you having the right people on the bus and in the right seat. So that's kind of what we've been talking about. But there's always a first step before we invest in training. Sometimes it's not about training. It's about finding the right people first. So if you're looking to build your team for 2026 to bring in folks who can hit your activity goals and drive the results you want, it might be time to talk with a recruiter and one that specializes in sales professionals.

16:12 Just head over to mnsales.com slash offers and check the box connected with professional recruiter. There's no obligation just a conversation. If you'd like us to introduce you to someone who can find the right candidates for your team, fill out the short form and we'll be in touch. Invest in your people. Invest in your future. Visit mnsales.com slash offers today. Yeah. Or send Bill and I linked in or give us a call.

16:39 We'd be happy to have a conversation with you also. So thanks for that, Bill. So our topic today is part two of how to close the appointment on the first visit. Now repeat some and review some of the goals from their previous episode. And some say that 70% of sales are closed on the first visit. And if a second appointment is required, the chance of closing drops by 50% or you're investing in a really strong follow up program attempting to close afterwards, which may require fiver or more touches.

17:10 So when you get into an appointment and I really want to make this clear, as you're starting an appointment, you have to decide your goal is to close the appointment today or your goal is to build a strong case for follow up. And you need to decide that right from the beginning. Am I going to have a mindset of closing this commitment today? Or am I going to sense a sense of resistance or some questions that are going to cause that to be prolonged a little bit?

17:39 I better build a strategy of how I'm going to follow up and I need to identify some motivations during this time together so that when I do follow up, there's still in that emotional state as if I was in the living room measuring for blinds and talking to them about putting up new blinds. We need to build a match that emotional state. Anything like that on that? Yeah, I think you're right, Scott. It's all about what you're thinking about before you start.

18:05 And if you're thinking, I'm going to have this be a three step process. Well, that's what you're going to get. Yeah, it is. And you got to be the leader in this conversation. And if you're not leading, then you're obviously following the buyer. So I really want to encourage you to go back and listen to part one. I think it's episode 652. It's just two weeks before this one. We had Dr. Chris Kruehner in the middle. So I don't want to go through the sales process, but I do want to remind people that mindset is really important.

18:35 And your goal is to really bring a reason for them to buy today to the surface and do that in a way that they feel excited about it. So I think we went through the last session. We talked about discovery. We talked about the facts. We talked about the feelings and the difference between those two. And now I really want to start getting into the objections and thinking about it. And thinking about the process that you're leading as a salesperson, you're leading the conversation, working with a prospect who may or may not have ever bought from you.

19:07 What are some of the objections that you hear frequently and to be able to understand, do you cause them in what you say? Or is this something that the prospect has on their mind and on their agenda before you even arrive? I think it's 50-50 on that. I think we create our own objections, but we don't even understand. I love it when I ask people, do you get this objection often? Yeah. Have you ever thought of an answer to it?

19:32 Or do you just let it keep coming? Have you ever thought of where it's coming from? Have you thought about talking about it before they talk about it? Well, I mean, think about some of the objections that people would get on the first visit. You're selling some in-home services. You're selling something that is requiring more of a conversation, a relationship, than a transaction. So are they seeking other quotes? Do you know that at the beginning?

19:55 Is financing going to be an issue or a challenge for them to have to overcome that in order to invest in whatever they want? And are they at a point of repairing or replacing something and thinking about is it worth repairing it? Now, fortunately or unfortunately, that question is becoming a lot easier these days because we don't fix TVs, we don't fix refrigerators, we don't fix home appliances like washing machines. We just replace them.

20:22 I mean, it seems to be that we're disposable economy, one of the things. I've been struggling with getting some dental work done and I don't have a relationship with a dentist right now. It seems like when I call and I want to get an appointment, the first question they ask me is, what do you think it is, Bill? Do you have insurance? I don't think of what a great way to start a conversation. Not about what I'm worried about, not what I'm looking for, not what I'm expecting, not what I'm more fearful of.

20:48 No, we just want to know, do you have insurance? And I really want to use that story to create this point. What are they looking forward to most before they meet with you? What are they going to gain out of that experience together? And what are they most afraid of? What is their fear? And if we don't uncover that sooner than later, we're not really sure what kind of conversation that we're going to have with them, but we really need to be able to know what their expectations are of us.

21:19 And we need to be able to make it clear what our expectations are of them. So those objections, how can we refine our discovery process to really bring those objections to the surface earlier so the prospect naturally addresses them and even disqualifies them before they even have a roadblock in the conversation. So if we bring up an objection during the discovery process, when we're not closing or pitching, and we're talking about a topic that they agree on a certain position on that particular topic, they are removing that objection before they can even use it as a roadblock in the future.

21:57 So objections are unasked questions. And as a salesperson, our goal is to ask as many questions as possible during the discovery stage to be able to uncover what are their expectations? What is the criteria? What's the process? What's the timeline? Everything that is most important when it comes to making a purchase? One thing we did with one of our clients, Scott, which was a drywall company, so instead of calling themselves salespeople, they called themselves project managers, which they really were.

22:23 They were salespeople, but then they would manage the project. And so what it was easier to do was get these questions, these objections out earlier, because now I'm talking about the project and how it's going to go and what we're going to do. And I think we get more honest answers if we're looking at it from a technical standpoint than if we're looking at it from a sales standpoint. Well, I think what you're describing perfectly, Bill, is that we're really framing the issue and we're identifying and defining it early on.

22:56 I worked with a company that did training in the form of performances. And I suggested changing the title of the sales rep from sales representative to executive producer, because they were really the executive producing an experience and finding the right talent to deliver the message, to be able to work with our client on the right location, creating the environment, creating the atmosphere for learning. So they're producing an experience, not just selling a service, and that's framing it differently.

23:32 And then the prospect looks at it differently because then it's tough to compare it against other options because you've reframed it differently. So as we start overcoming the objections that we get into the presentation step, so people buy when they feel that they are in control and offering a structured choices gives them that ownership of the decision. So what will you be delivering at the end of the appointment? Are you going to give them a quote or proposal, an agreement, drawings, whatever that is, strive to be able to build that excitement for them to be able to review that, making them feel like they're in control of the decision and the outcome of that.

24:10 And sometimes creating three options is the easiest way of doing that. So it's basic, standard, premium, good, better, best, however you want to do that and shift the focus from if they'll buy to which one will they buy, because they've already agreed to make a change. Now they're deciding who am I going to change with. And now you want to be that person in that company that they change with. So I just want to add two more points, Bill, and then I'm curious on your feedback on this because this is a presentation step that you do really, really well. You do this much better than I do because you've got a lot more experience in this is frame each option around value, not price.

24:46 And that's very tempting to do value, not price, and then use good, better, best visuals and stories to be able to make the difference clear so they can understand what they're going to get out of it if they pick that option. And they end up not picking up the higher price one. What are they going to give up? Do they want to give that up? Do they really understand what they're giving up? And that's really important too.

25:08 Well, and it's all around understanding what they value. So I think you mentioned it in part one, but the questions you ask are not just framed around how big, how much square footage and what kind of product we're going to use and what kind of painter we're going to use. But instead they're focused around when do you need this done and why is it important for you to to read model this area and what do you want? What is your vision of the future? If you remodeled your whole kitchen, well, more people will come, we'll be able to entertain more.

25:40 Okay, let's talk about entertaining not about how many cabinets we're going to put in where. That's the picture shows them that. Talk about what's important to them is boy, when this is done, you're going to be able to have the family over for Christmas dinner. And here's what you're going to be able, oh my gosh, you're tying into their vision, which is their value. And that's what you're getting them excited about so that now they're not focused on something that really in the long run is going to be done.

26:09 What's the difference going to be the difference in price between three different kitchen remodelers $2,000? It's not going to be, it's two, three percent difference. And you're going to let this go because everyone else is going to talk about price and what the structure is going to look like. Oh, so powerful bill. And you're comparing everything that you're presenting to them, to their desired goal and emotion to making that decision. And the entertainment of family and friends and colleagues and work people is very influential when it comes to what kind of reputation and image are you going to portray when you're having people over to entertain them in your newly remodeled kitchen. We've done work with a landscape company.

26:54 And they say almost all the people they talk to about doing major landscaping work in the spring is they got a graduation party or they got a wedding that they're going to do. There's something coming up that they want to revamp their whole yard. So it's ready for that. And if you don't ask that and build around that, you're separating the construction from the finished product. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's so true on the motivation. And then after we get to the objections and we overcome them and we're getting to the presentation is everything that we've talked about.

27:29 We've talked about everything that's in the presentation too. So there's two sides of that. We do not want to introduce anything new during the presentation step because that's boils the momentum. The guard goes up the momentum stalls and now we prospect feels like they're being sold something that they ever talked about. They don't have no interest in. They don't even know why they would even need that. There's no value in that.

27:50 And we presented to them at the proposals time and it's like, wait a minute. What's this? I don't understand that. Once that's done, we get to the close. So closing is an event. It's a natural step in the entire conversation that has to be built on trust and clarity. So use those trial closes. I know they make sound a little bit traditional, but ask them, how does this sound so far or what timeline are you working with when we're doing that closing?

28:15 And did we agree that our proposal meets the timeline that you're looking for? So once we get the logistics done and the specifications done, now it makes it easier for them to say yes to that because we've agreed to their timeline. Our proposal matches that if they continue with the conversation and timely matter, we'll be able to meet that and then transition to a direct close confidently. When would you like to get started or what would you like to do next or what's the next step that you see us meeting this timeline and then finding out what process they have in their mind and then they might give you some other objections, but you need to work around that on scheduling too.

28:49 And then have your paperwork, your payment plan, your agreement forms, whatever visual cues to make this real presented at that time so they can really engage emotionally investing in something, reducing that emotional risk, feeling comfortable, and people love to buy. They're really, really true. They love to buy. They hate to be sold. And those are the steps of really closing on the first appointment. Bill, anything you wanted to add as we start to summarize this? Well, I've always felt the closing should not be a drum roll. It shouldn't be well. So what do you think, right? It should be a natural question because you asked a lot of questions. This has been a conversation.

29:29 And so the question of, you know, when do you want to start this moves them again from deciding whether they want to do it to the time they want to do it. And you get it on the schedule and you can you can just move past it. So people want, as you say, they want to make this decision. They want this decision to move forward. They really don't want to have 17 different people come and look at this and do quotes. They don't want to go through this forever.

29:53 So if you're close enough to what they had in mind, they're going to go forward with it. So I think it's really important in the closing step to be able to go out to your truck or go out and put a proposal together right away. If you wait, oh, well, I need four days to put that together. You've given them four days to look at other options. Exactly. So what do you know, technology should allow you to have a portable printer in your truck. You should have a system that teaches you how to create a quote or you shouldn't be doing it. You should be able to put that together and do it right away and get that closing opportunity right away.

30:33 And if you wait days, you just are losing the momentum. And if you're not able to do that tomorrow, figure out a way for you to do it the next day. Don't practice on your prospects. Come up with a new system and a new approach of how you're going to engage with your prospects on those first appointments. And I just want to summarize some of the things between the two episodes. So 652, no 692, is the previous one, just two episodes before the season.

30:59 Well, you're only 40 episodes off with that. So that's good. You're close. We've got almost, we're coming up on episode 700, which is really episode 300. But let's blame that. But every week, every week, except the ones you missed. Let me, I just want to remind everybody the goal. The goal is to be able to determine if you're going to commit to try to get a close today or you're going to build a strong case for follow up afterwards.

31:25 Get into the sales process that works with you. Make sure your mindset is that you're showing up with your entire being and attitude and approach and body language and tone and listening skills. So important. Think about what your company reputation is. What is your unique selling proposition? Who is your ideal customer profile when you're selling to them to discovery? The specifications are the facts. The motivations are the feelings. So listen to that episode because we really get into the detailed questions on that.

31:52 And then once we start getting into presenting the options, we're understanding and clarifying expectations. We're doing the close and we're able to get that commitment on the very first visit. And you know what? Your prospect is really happy to cross this off their list and they've decided that they've made a commitment with somebody that they know like and trust. And they're looking forward to having the work done and having it completed at the same time. So as I've kind of bounced around a few different areas during this topic, I want to compare five areas as we're going through how to close on the first appointment is number one.

32:26 Are we going to work on closing on the first appointment? Every appointment has to have a goal and have more than one outcome or more than one goal creates better options for you to be successful. So are we going to close on the first appointment or are we going to build a case of follow up afterwards? So once you know you're not going to be able to do that, build a case to be able to follow up afterwards. Second, what are they excited about before you show up and then what are they looking to achieve after you leave? If you don't have these answers to these two questions, work on finding a way to build a process where you're creating that excitement before you show up. Are they going to be more influenced by facts or feelings? Now, people buy emotionally, they justify it intellectually. So know what the facts are, know what the feelings are.

33:09 What are they looking forward to when they purchase from you and what are they most afraid of when they make this change? Identify what their fears are so that you can reduce them so that they can maintain looking forward to something good. And are they buying on value or are they buying on price? This changes the entire vernacular. This changes the entire conversation. And when you start selling on value and you're able to justify that with a fair price, I think you've got a win-win on both sides.

33:38 And I think the reputation that the company has is going to be really amplified in that experience with the prospect who is now becoming a customer. So I'm really grateful for the time that our listeners have invested in this topic bill and I'm grateful for your contributions to it. So really a fun topic. All right, good job. So our resources on the show notes, the PDF is going to be there of this topic. Seven steps to close in the first meeting.

34:06 So look for that on the resource page. And then I'll wrap up with our golden nugget. This is from Walt Disney, who was quite a visionary in his time. The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. So stop your yapping. Right? Exactly. I had a couple of friends that I started work with and they were really good at aiming and they never shot fire in anything. So quit aiming so much, start shooting, see what happens.

34:36 The antidote to procrastination is action. Do something today. That's right. Everything we talked about will be at winning at selling.com, www winning dot selling.com. So check that out. Look at the show notes on wherever you download your podcast. Next week, aligning sales and strategy and sales, chapter nine. And since Scott keeps coming up with strange titles, I decided to come up with one myself you won't understand.

35:02 What's in the well comes up in the bucket. Please subscribe and share the podcast with your colleagues and on your social media. If you're so inclined, give us a five star review. This is episode 694. Go out and get better one skill at a time. Joyful selling.