Episode 13 - 3 Things Salespeople Should Know To Be Successful With Devon Murphy

Service MVP Sales Training Podcast with Joe Crisara

"If that goes into your mindset every single day, and you know if you're offering a good quality service, and you're going in there with pure motives, you'll find that you feel better about yourself and that level of happiness or contentment will transfer into your following days…"

- Devon Murphy

Devon Murphy from Peterman Brothers joins Uncle Joe on the podcast today. Devon discusses The 3 Things Salespeople Should Know In Order To Be Successful. This is a must listen to episode of The Service MVP Podcast!

Contact Joe Crisara Service MVP.

Podcast Episode Transcription:

Alright everybody welcome to the service MVP podcast and I am Joe Crisara America's service sales coach and today we have an exciting guest for all of you who are in the sales position in a service company and my guest his name is Devon Murphy it is with Peterman brothers in Indianapolis IN Devon say hi to all the people who listen to this show hi all the people who listen to the show well it's pleasure to have it here Devon is a course one of the past students and work with me in the before and he's one of the guys who listened to everything we do and definitely he has applied it Devon once you tell us a little bit about how you got here and got yourself in a great position to work with a great company and just give us a little thumbnail about a little bit about you yeah so I'm actually going to go back to getting fresh out of high school so right now graduated high school is approached by a guy who was trying to recruit me into heating and air and I looked at him and I said I will never work in heating and air so I just wanted to throw that out there for everybody after that after a couple failed career attempts and things of that nature end up finding myself homeless in August of 2018 and I had to move down to Los Angeles CA you know and the first job that I was able to get going down there out of necessity which was an appointment generator at a local heating or contractor down there you know I started off as like I said an appointment generator in about 8 weeks I had accomplished with the other five had done in the previous twelve months combined again because I was operating under a better swim and not drown after doing that the owner approached me and said hey how would you like to run the service department even though you know nothing about heating air and service so I went into digging into books reading learning as much as I could and then in the next 12 months we actually had a profitable service department pacing pretty darn close to what the residential replacement side was doing after that we had met this wonderful man by the name of Joe Coursera sometime in in 2019 there and started applying his peer mode of service to our service department where we were really absolutely crashing and so come April of 2020 our sales guy kind of phased out of the company and I let's go over the sales department lead sales guy and I actually went through total immersion with Joe virtually thanks to thanks to COVID there and I was able to in seven months of actual production due 2 1/2 million in residential replacement with a 60% closed ratio or $19,500 average ticket only after going through your program so a lot of thanks to you after quite some time at that company I ended up separating ways I moved out here to Indiana doing some coaching myself actually for a contractor that was a competitor peterman and I knew a guy named Seth year he introduced me to a guy named Jesse Baldwin right here is actually the sales manager here at peterman and we met we got to talking and he took me behind the back alley roughed me up a little bit and told me I need to come over to Peterman was too serendipitous to not be here so I started here in April of last year as the training project manager and have recently been promoted to run the new callback call project so that's how I ended up here well Devin definitely that is a very rapid rise to do the top toward the top right you're still he's always still reaching for the next thing and you know right now he's in the process of taking all the things we teach from teaching it to hundreds of people who work at that company and definitely they are fortunate to have you Deb so today's meeting is going to be about Oh my pleasure and by the way thanks for giving me a shout out there nice to hear I have a little bit of a step on the way up the ladder I could give you a boost there thanks a lot for that I appreciate that uh next I'd like to talk now about the three things that you think so you went from this rapid rise word appointment center to actually doing some sales and now you're teaching people how to do sales according to the metamorphosis if you will so as you're teaching people and what you've learned yourself what are the three things that helps people should know to be successful for themselves what can they do from going from mediocre to getting traction let's God so what's the first thing you think is important for sales people to know that they should consider doing if they want to start moving on that road to success I think first and foremost follow events mark I call it from Joe and follow a benchmark or any process really for that matter and make sure that it's something that you can measure and it's something that you can do consistently and that way you can kind of measure where things go right or wrong right the next thing that I would look at would be hold on hold on hold on here so with the benchmark sheet so having the benchmark sheet is important or some kind of a process laid in front of you I agree that is important how does the salesperson utilize that so I know it may sound obvious to you because you're a rapper is as you could tell everybody he's wanted to move on to number two yeah we're going to run out we're going to we're going to run things to talk about right so anyway I I know I want to milk this out a little bit but nonetheless I how would somebody use that so are you got the benchmark sheet you've actually got to learn the process obviously so benchmark obviously in the beginning is used for the very what's the first there's a couple of different ways you can learn that benchmark sheet what's the first step about that benchmark sheet they think would be instrumental for people to look at when they look at their benchmark it it's going to come off like a commercial job and I don't mean to do for your listeners but I would say the first thing you do is buy a ticket to total immersion or talk to your boss and make that happen I took it I took it virtually the first time and quite frankly being in a in a group of your peers and learning that benchmark in a in an organized setting with instructor LED feedback I think is is number one and that way you know it's really easy to think you're doing something well or read off of a sheet it's a whole different process when you actually have to graduate in front of a group and go through the role play and take criticism and feedback from somebody who's done it before and who's better than you are so I'd say find a mentor and that um that's where I would start after doing that I would take that benchmark and place it somewhere where you see it on a regular basis read through it practice it when I first started learning the benchmark I actually made it a standard practice for every single one of our service meetings and sales meetings to practice one piece of it whether it be you know the initial introduction or whether it be the danger line or whatever it was and we focused on one particular piece every single day without fail to make sure that it's ingrained in my soul next once you once you get really good at that focus on making it your own so that it doesn't sound scripted and then after that just keep up daily and regular practice and then in the end you're using it to evaluate every time you go to call right you're using as an evaluation tool to see where on that part of it is that makes sense yeah absolutely so yeah that's really wise I mean first of all the benchmark sheet is nothing other than a space of paper to get a partner or a learning buddy or somebody who has used it before it doesn't have to be it could be somebody who just you know like a Devin Murphy that's what people do they run things by Facebook all the time I'm like there's a guy who's helping he's got paramotors service he's trying to help people right so you get a mentor or somebody who can help you and hold you accountable to doing it step two let's put it in place and let's teach it for training purposes for the whole team so the whole team can kind of spread viral and then #3 is like let's go ahead and use it to evaluate what I'm doing in every call and so to have a process that you can train on use as a team and to evaluate that would be step one you would say there won't work sorry didn't mean to fill in the sentence I want to sure I kind of sum it up for people because it is because it is the brilliance that comes out of your mouth is great I just want to make sure I can for the normal person kind of sum it up make sure they get all those points because that's only step one guys that's what imagine when step two and step three are gonna be like for the keys to sales success for sales people OK now Devin does that do you want anything else you want to add to that or is that we cover everything there yeah I want to touch on that self reflection piece and that measurement piece using that benchmark for measurement I think it's critically important and you bring up a really good point there and that's something that I carry a little planner around with me whenever I'm working in the field or now when I when I go to ride alongs and help other guys I'll keep a little planner and after each called you kind of an assessment of what things we could have done better we offer each other feedback and so I would say that you know it's really good to have consistent check-ins and measurements on every I think that's is critically important great great well thank you so much for that let's go on to #2 what's the second thing people can do after they get that birthday using it practicing it evaluating with it what are some of the things that you know can do for #2 and the second key to success for this service person sales person to be honest with you you got to take a look inside yourself and you got to realize what your motives are you talk about pure motives and you break them down in a very spectacular way but there's another piece to it that I've come to realize and that's you know when you chase money or you chase sales they tend to run away but when you try to create solutions and help people money becomes you know abundant and your sales become abundant and so when you when you turn inward and you look at what your true motivations are I think that you'll have much greater success to give an example of that I recently had a technician of mine probably one of the best technicians here in all of peterman he you know we were going through the process we were learning and he calls me after two or three weeks of great success and he's like man I'm just not selling anything I'm just not you know these benchmarks not working it stopped working I don't know what happened and so we had a moment of alright you ready for some feedback and he said OK yeah I'm ready for feedback and I said what are your intentions in these calls what are you trying to accomplish well I'm trying to sell tickets that's your problem go in there provide the best customer service you possibly can educate the customer as best you possibly can and find problems provide solutions and and that's how you'll gain success he called me after his next call and you know I have had a $5000 ticket on a on a maintenance I mean there's a lot of a lot of that in there yeah I think it happens to me all the time I tell people all the time I go on a call I try and show off and say I'm going to show people I can sell bunch of stuff and I always flop and I'm like you know what I'm just going to do I'm going to make a friend with people I don't care I'm not going to care what I sell I'm just going to worry about making a friend and see if I can help these people find a solution that's right for them and then all of a sudden I sell 42,000 it's crazy how they solution crazy how that happens isn't like that yeah no 100% it's it all comes down to it all comes down to what you're trying to do and the customer can read off of that as well they can they can sniff out your I don't know if I can curse on here but they're sniff out your BS real quick right they can they can feel your intentions and to give an example of that actually I I went up head-to-head with peterman but this is part of why I'm here now on a on a sale where they were quoting about $45,000 for a new replacement I was able to sell a $91,000 job to the same customer because I took the time to really solve their problem I listened to the customer and I wasn't there to make a big sale next thing you know big so absolutely I think the big the big sale arrives when the big and the great relationship arises because really that's it the only the only thing that can differentiate us is that emotional contribution what do you feel about that Devin I mean when you sell people that kind of job what's the relationship like where you at the end of those calls you know it's funny that you that you say relationship I think there I think they also have to walk a fine line with relationships I think you have to establish yourself as a professional and you got to show that you truly care but I would say that the level of relationship that I have with that person is a lifelong friend now and they feel like I'm they're going to sell your words they feel like I'm their personal concierge it's a great service and so you know it's all the difference it really is again they can smell your intentions they can tell you care for them and their family and that makes that makes for a great relationship well thank you David so that's step number key #2 which is the attention of the motivation the gulf parables of course Simon like no matter what we always you know the biggest thing about peer models I think is that even if we don't get the job at least we know we went about it in the right way and that our intentions were good and nobody could say we tried to overcharge them or gouge them it's like we know what we are doing and the reason why we're doing it and I think if we could live I mean how important is that we can look ourselves in the mirror Devin and say you know they may not have gone with us and they may have said some things that I didn't really like but I could still live with myself at the end of the day what do you think about that no absolutely I agree 100% I think that you know that goes into your mindset every single day right you know if you're offering good quality service you're going in in there with pure motives you'll find that you feel better about yourself and that that level of happiness or contentment will transfer into your following days so I mean absolutely so those of you who are struggling I'd say you know what first of all let's stop worrying about selling something the first thing is getting people to sell themselves on the fact that they have somebody who is looking out for their best interest and not yours that's number 2 #3 Devin it's kind of it's always say good times good times start on time but great ones underline I'm done we're going to have a hard time with this because you have so many golden Nuggets here for us if you don't mind let's go on to #3 now Devin what's the third thing you think a key to sales success would be in the service business you know it's funny I had to I had to really when you started this whole thing you prefaced with three things and I really had to think about it and it it really comes down to the relationship with your team I think that you know we we can promise all of this great service and we can offer all of this great service but without our team to fulfill that service and without them having trust in us and us having trust in them we can't we can't offer we can't truly offer a great service and stand behind our work and our reputation is very difficult to build our credibility is very difficult to build but it is very quickly the first thing that could be torn away from them so I think that having the relationship with your with your installers with your turnover technicians with your dispatch with everybody as a sales professional is critically important training them to maintain the level of quality making sure that you're aligned on speaking the same language and then again making sure that we know what we can do better to make it easier for them to fulfill our ourselves yeah because you know I've always noticed that the salesperson who struggles is kind of put some stuff on an island away from the team and I think that's a good point right there that you know you you're coming into a or you're making a phone call at the very minimum to explain the job you sold to the installation team so they know what's at the heart of what was the what was the intention and this cell was like take #2 and transfer that to the installation team so they have they got a little fire in their belly to do things with the same motivation that you intended right number not even the service tax that makes sure the service tax are you know you can't if you don't help your service tax and you are trying to help them they're not going to help you with the lead turnovers right so obligation that sort of takes place with that and then the management of the company is like yeah you need to make their job easier by making sure you have all the data the photographs that the information that's needed so the customer history can be kind of vetted out so the people in the office love you too so they I think if you give to the office the information that they're supposed to get like now this guy makes it easy on us we love this guy the service people like this guy helps me sell even repair calls and they doesn't even ask for anything but I'm not feel obligated to give them a lead to another and the installation people like it's a pleasure to do this guy's jobs right I mean seriously if you did it that way you are I mean it's really I mean I know you said a little simple thing but on expanding on this probably too much I love it but I but I but I but I think when you put yourself not on the island but as part of a circle that works as a unit really there's no way a person can fail because everybody's now rooting for you and finding ways to help you succeed we just say that's important I was like when you do that together everybody's trying to help you not just the wind is at your at your back and not at your face makes sense absolutely so the less the more that I can empower my team the more that I can educate my team more that we can work together the better service and the more service we can provide but also you know one of the things I made a habit of is every install I would bring add order pizza and uh you know food and sandwiches breakfast burritos whatever it was and I made sure that I always took care of the install time and we'd actually go out and you know and I'd open up a bar tab and let them let them eat drink and do whatever they needed to do because when I had to call them on a you know a cold Saturday morning to come out and do a same day install when they plan on taking it off and spending it with their family that law of reciprocity kicks in it's you know OK well I mean he's willing to buy me food he's willing to take care of me he's willing to listen to you know what I've got going on in my life I can I can sacrifice a Saturday for him and for a customer and come out there and provide a good quality service same thing with Sunday installs and so that really kind of catapulted me ahead of other you know salespeople and comfort advisors because again I had built the relationship they would they would drop everything they can do an insult them so that relationship is critically important and that also goes into your dispatch right as much as I hate to admit it I did give a little bit of favoritism so sometimes when it was like alright well already credit ready and they no it's going to be 40 grand well who are you going to send it doesn't make sense to send out because it's way over here but you know what he actually bought me breakfast today and took care of me I think I'm an offer to him first we're going to get him over here right they find a way to work in your schedule and so again you know you as objective as they try to be this is a subjective business so be good to your people but I think it's like I think really if I look at the theme of this call it is the friendship and relationship you create with the clients you know with your coworkers if you do that that really wants us to clients of peterman you know I mean let's let me just backtrack here a guy from LA who worked in a call center making up our calls to come some hotshot sales guy from about seven months then moves his way out to Indianapolis I imagine people in Indianapolis like who's this dude I can imagine the skepticism that the team must have had when you landed on the ground and why did we hire this dude why is this guy we're listening to this and you know it's like the credibility you've built by saying you know what I'm not going to worry about me and my job first part of my job is to establish this friendship and my team let my team know that I support them and that that I need their support too that it's It's a it's a it's a game it's a team game I think more salespeople would realize that it's like if you just would enroll the support of your team and do something with the character you have to do to earn that respect that would put you in a favorite position so many times so many ways Devin why don't you give us some final thoughts here before we wrap it up we got we got some funny got some timers so take your time give us some final thoughts on what do you think if you if you had if you were with me at one of those bars you had open tab so it's like a tempting proposition there and we're not going to lie you know so have to do that next thing we have to do that sometime go ahead and tell me a little bit about what kind of what's your overall anything else you'd like to say to those people sure so you actually reminded me of how you know I was able to build that credibility so absolutely when I first started at peterman there was like a uproar and ripple effect of who the hell is this guy and why is he here and what's he's doing and why is he trying to change all this stuff and so the only way to overcome that I was really to get to know each person and see what I could do for each person so I made it a point to meet with each department head and have one on ones with as many people as I possibly could and say hey what's a pain point for you and how can I help well this isn't you know in your JavaScript and it doesn't matter how can I help right and offer as much help and feedback as possible to everybody to get that buy in and support and now I have a great relationship with the entire team who is skeptical about bringing down in the first place so I'm glad you brought that up it really comes down to that relationship and when you look at pure mode of service and you look at any the greatest purpose right the only purpose really is service to others and you have to be willing to put in that work before the lacrosse prostate kicks in so that's pretty much all I have there Joe and as far as the open bar tab I believe that since we're coming out to total immersion yet again or we're coming out to the trainings yet again we're going to be there is gonna be your open bar tab but I'm more than to take that well we could we could we could definitely work that out at that you can elbow up to a have an adult beverage with you and definitely be worth every single penny I it's an investment Devon don't worry about it I know it's like an investment every dollar you put this way every dollar that every time every minute I've invested in you has come back thousandfold and every dollar you've invested in us I hope has done the same thing for you absolutely in fact when we first started this relationship with Peterman what was it you said to me you said it's kind of like the first taste first taste is almost like it's almost like a drug dealer right you know you get a little head and you just keep on coming back so it could be the give it a good stuff to try some of the good stuff right and then you'll probably want to come back and get more Devon thanks so much for taking your time have your busy day to be here with us and our listeners thank you and I thank you thank you very much appreciate the opportunity.