Sales Training. Close It Now!

James Hatfield fell off enough ladders running his own painting and power washing company that he fell into technology instead. His last company exited for six billion dollars. His current one, Live Switch, has become one of the fastest growing platforms in the trades, built on a simple idea: the faster a homeowner sees your face, the faster they trust you enough to buy.He calls it race to the face, and it’s the answer to something every contractor has lived through: you call back exactly when you said you would, and the homeowner already found somebody else. Speed to lead got you to the phone. It never got you the job.In this episode, Sam and James break down how Amazon Prime trained every customer to expect instant everything, how a twenty thousand dollar mold job got closed without anyone driving out, and how AI is already writing job reports, translating language barriers on site, and coaching reps in real time, without taking the human part of the sale out of the equation.In this episode:Why speed to lead isn’t enough anymore, and what race to the face actually meansHow Amazon Prime reset what customers expect from every service callWhy letting a homeowner see your face before you drive out builds trust fastReal jobs closed in the five and six figures without ever setting foot on the propertyHow AI can auto-write job reports, translate language barriers on site, and coach reps in real timeThe QR code trick that lets customers request service while you’re still at the dinner tableHow to know which AI features are worth your time at your company’s current sizeJames’s hire, fire, promote framework for scaling a service businessThe one-page MBA: the single thing that matters most as you growConnect with James Hatfield:LinkedIn: search “James Hatfield” Live SwitchCompany: Live Switch, www.liveswitch.comConnect with Sam Wakefield:Website: https://www.closeitnow.netEmail: [email protected]: @therealcloseitnowFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/samuel.l.wakefieldLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/closeitnow/Join the Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/closeitnowBring This Training to Your Team:Sam travels nationwide to deliver on-site training for home services companies serious about raising their close rate and average ticket. Half day classroom, half day ride-alongs. Your team, your market, your systems.Book a call with Sam: https://www.closeitnow.net/contact Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Google. Every review gets read, and if yours gets read on air you earn a no-charge one-on-one coaching session with Sam directly.Google: https://g.page/r/CbfnnDqTCwQdEAE/review

You’re mid-appointment. The homeowner should know the answer. Instead they go quiet, deer in the headlights, repeating themselves, qualifying what they just said. It’s not resistance. It’s confusion, and pushing harder from here only makes it worse.Sam breaks down the exact tool to get them unstuck: the Bucket Method.In this episode:Why “ask more open-ended questions” is the wrong move the moment someone freezesThe real difference between resistance and confusion in an appointmentWhy “I need to think about it” isn’t always a stall tacticThe exact moment to shift from open-ended to closed-ended questionsWhy people correct a wrong label faster than they’ll build their own answer from nothingThe Bucket Method explained, and why an imperfect bucket still worksA full walkthrough of the repair vs replace conversation using this methodA four-bucket approach for handling hesitation at the closeWhy this tool works in any conversation where someone’s stuck deciding, not just salesConnect with Sam Wakefield:Website: https://www.closeitnow.netEmail: [email protected]: @therealcloseitnowFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/samuel.l.wakefieldLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/closeitnow/Join the Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/closeitnowBeyond the Sales Script, December 8 & 9 in Round Rock, Texas:This episode is a preview of what Sam and Scott Sylvan Bell are teaching live this December, the skills that live past the script, the ones that separate a rep who’s mastered the process from one who can read the person in front of them in real time. Capped at 30 seats.Watch the free training replay: https://www.beyondthesalesscript.comRegister: https://www.closeitnow.netBring This Training to Your Team:Sam travels nationwide to deliver on-site training for home services companies serious about raising their close rate and average ticket. Half day classroom, half day ride-alongs. Your team, your market, your systems.Book a call with Sam: https://www.closeitnow.net/contactLeave a review on Apple Podcasts or Google. Every review gets read, and if yours gets read on air you earn a no-charge one-on-one coaching session with Sam directly.Google: https://g.page/r/CbfnnDqTCwQdEAE/review

From Addiction to Top 5% Sales Rep: Kenny Long’s Recovery StoryKenny Long has 26 years in the trades and is a top 5 percent earner in HVAC sales. He is also in recovery, and the two are not separate stories. They are the same one.Sam sits down with Kenny for a conversation that goes beyond sales technique into the place most trades conversations never go: addiction, identity, and what it actually takes to rebuild a life and a career at the same time. Kenny talks openly about the rock bottom that nearly cost him everything, the moment he realized he couldn’t do it alone, and how that same lesson reshaped the way he sells and serves customers today.This episode also gets into what predatory sales practices look like from the inside, why Kenny walked away from a company that was grinding him down even while he was making great money there, and what it means to build a sales career on honesty instead of pressure.What you’ll learn:Kenny’s 26 years across HVAC, electrical, and plumbing, and how he became a top 5 percent earner in the industryThe rock bottom moment that led him into recovery, and why he couldn’t do it aloneHow the shift from self-centered to service-focused changed the way he sellsWhat JCPenney pricing and other predatory sales tactics look like from inside a companyWhy burnout and grind culture in the trades can quietly cost people everythingWhat it means to build a sales career you can actually be proud ofKenny’s advice for anyone in the trades who’s in that dark place right nowIf this episode helped you, share it with someone who needs to hear it, in or outside the trades.Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Google, and if yours gets read on air, you earn a no-charge one-on-one coaching session with Sam directly.Review link: https://g.page/r/CbfnnDqTCwQdEAE/reviewConnect with Kenny Long:Facebook: facebook.com/kenny.long.946517Instagram: instagram.com/heelyeah82Work with Sam:Website: closeitnow.netCoaching & Training: closeitnow.net/coachingEmail: [email protected] be somebody worth buying from.

The First Electrician Episode of Close It Now (with Homer Coffman)Electricians get almost no training content built for them, and most of what does exist is the same rigid script every other trade has been handed for years. That's not what this episode is.Sam sits down with Homer Coffman, owner of HIT (Highly Intuitive Technician Training), for the first electrician-focused episode in over 300 episodes of this podcast. Homer built his entire training model around ride-alongs instead of classrooms, because the guys who struggle most in a sit-down training session are often the same guys who are brilliant once they're actually in the house.What you'll learn:Why Homer stopped calling it sales training and started calling it a service callThe statistic on how rarely homeowners call an electrician, and why that makes follow-up non-negotiableThe "expand" method: how to open up a call without turning it into a sales pitchThe who/what/when/where/why framework for questions that actually get answersThe scale of 1 to 10 question that uncovers what a homeowner really wants fixedA simple AI trick that shows a customer exactly what better lighting would look like before they buy itStaying in the house versus going out to the truck to build options, and why "it depends" is the honest answerWhy personality, not a script, is what actually makes a technician great at thisLeave a review on Apple Podcasts or Google, and if yours gets read on air, you earn a no-charge one-on-one coaching session with Sam directly.Review link: https://g.page/r/CbfnnDqTCwQdEAE/reviewConnect with Homer Coffman:HIT — Highly Intuitive Technician TrainingWebsite: getyourhitt.comFacebook: facebook.com/HLCoffmanjrInstagram: instagram.com/getyourhittLinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/highly-intuitive-technician-trainingEmail: [email protected] with Sam:Website: closeitnow.netCoaching & Training: closeitnow.net/coachingEmail: [email protected] be somebody worth buying from.

Private Equity, AI, and the Future of Home Services with Everett LippelEveryone in this industry is chasing the same buzzwords right now. Provide value. Automate everything. Scale fast. Almost nobody is asking what gets lost along the way.Sam sits down with Everett Lippel, host of So I Was In This House, for a wide-open conversation on where home services is headed. Two guys who have been in this industry for close to two decades, comparing notes on private equity roll-ups, AI in sales and service, and why candor and human connection might be the real competitive edge as the industry gets more automated.What you'll learn:Why "provide value" became a punchline, and what real, authentic content actually looks likeEverett's philosophy: don't trip over bags of cash on the way to your processWhy a phone tree built for office convenience can cost you the customerPrivate equity roll-ups, market consolidation, and what happens when companies chase percentage points instead of dollarsWhere AI and virtual sales genuinely help, and where they gut the humanity out of a businessSam's announcement on the Sales Agoge, a two-day live in-person training with Scott Sylvan Bell, capped at 12 people, this DecemberLeave a review on Apple Podcasts or Google, and if yours gets read on air, you earn a no-charge one-on-one coaching session with Sam directly.Review link: https://g.page/r/CbfnnDqTCwQdEAE/reviewConnect with Everett Lippel:So I Was In This House — Service and Sales TalesYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soiwasinthishouseInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/soiwasinthishouse/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soiwasinthishouseWork with Sam:Website: closeitnow.netCoaching & Training: closeitnow.net/coachingEmail: [email protected] be somebody worth buying from.