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Articles by The Service Contracting Sales Whisperer...Joe Crisara

Leave your mother in the truck, success starts now.

The Hour Of Sales Power Is Back! By Joe Crisara

August 23, 2010 at 12:08pm

Closing a “Favre-Type” Buyer

Helping Your Customer Decide

How To Close the Indecisive Buyer – We are excited to bring the Hour of Sales Power back to you again LIVE and unfiltered. Here are the facts about this exciting event…

WHEN: Thursday Night, August 26th at 8pm eastern – 5pm pacific time

HOW: You must reserve your spot by filling out the form below.

NOTE: This event is public and does not cost anything to watch, however you MUST reserve your spot by signing up to join us below.


The Hour Of Sales Power WATCH IT LIVE!

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Some Managers “Tired” Of Being The Boss By Joe Crisara

August 08, 2010 at 8:18pm Tags: , , ,

“Tired” Of Being The Boss

I know I may be dating myself but I remember an old Randy Newman song called “My Life” in which Randy in the song, speaking in the voice of Bruce Springsteen utters these words that still ring in my ears. He sang, “Randy, I’m tired of being the boss. Can you be the boss for awhile?”

Being the boss is difficult and especially so regarding managing sales people or front-line employees who have been given the chore of listening to customer problems that clients have and then selling the solutions.  Of course in the service world, problems are just opportunities to serve.

Over the years I have observed a few characteristics of the mediocre sales manager.  These people are definitely “tired” of being the boss and it shows through their ineffective styles of management which leads to poor results by their people.  Here we begin to explore why these managers are so tired.

Service Contractors Greatest Challenges By Joe Crisara

June 02, 2010 at 7:07pm Tags: , , ,

This is a video of some our ContractorSelling.com members sharing their stories about the greatest challenges facing service contractors today. Watch this fascinating segment of how keeping an open mind can change your life.

The Art Of The Sale Lesson One By Joe Crisara

May 27, 2010 at 8:14am Tags:

Watch this funny video about a sales manager who is trying to describe the most important aspects of selling his service. Although it is hilarious. I think many sales managers can find some of themselves here.

Is Sales & Service Really a “Soft” Skill? By Joe Crisara

May 11, 2010 at 5:27pm Tags: , ,

Are These Skills Really “Soft?”

One of the things that has always made me crazy is the labeling of sales and customer service as a so called “soft” skill. If sales and service are soft then why is it so hard to get your team to put them into practice?  I often wonder, “Who was the dunderhead, that coined this term?”

My best guess is that it is probably someone who has a very strong technical skill-set that has failed to develop equally strong customer skills. This person (Probably a guy) then trying to justify this weakness, downplays the importance of customers by labeling this uber-important skill as “soft” which implies that it is not very important.

It Doesn’t Cost Anything To Listen By Joe Crisara

April 23, 2010 at 5:59pm

It Doesn’t Cost Anything To Listen

I love this video of world famous entrepreneur Richard Branson because it illustrates a principle so simple yet so elusive to most business owners in the service contracting industry. The principle is the ability to listen to the ideas of others rather than making assumptions that you think you may already know everything you need to about being successful. Watch the video and contemplate your ability to listen to your employees, customers or others who may give you some clues to be more successful.

Don’t Be Stopped By Sales Terrorists By Joe Crisara

April 21, 2010 at 2:48pm Tags: , ,

Don’t Be Stopped By Sales Terrorists

I received a call from a service contracting sales person named Fred about a situation he found himself in that really took his confidence down a notch. Fred is the top performer at his company and has achieved a 73% closing rate with a 55% gross margin on his jobs. By all measure of success he was a doing a great job.

Then he had a call where after presenting his customized solutions, his buyer lit the fuse on a sales-bomb and completely devastated Fred. The buyer listened to Fred’s presentation and

Plumbing, Electrical & HVAC Student TI Testimonials By Joe Crisara

April 20, 2010 at 3:46pm Tags: , , , , ,

Total Immersion students who attended a recent HVAC Plumbing & Electrical sales training summit discuss a range of topics starting with their greatest challenge, their expectations from sales training and what they thought of the training and “Uncle Joe.” In the end, everyone is asked to rate the training on a scale of 1 to 10. Watch and enjoy the excitement of these students.

CASE STUDY: The Upturn Guy in a Downturn Time By Joe Crisara

April 19, 2010 at 1:11pm

A Time To Be Different

Human nature leads us to follow the crowd because it’s comfortable and, let’s face it, that’s what we do. But when there’s an economic downturn that batters your industry, following the crowd is what you want to avoid. Then it’s time to be different if you don’t want to share the pain of declining sales and profits, says Bill Jones, who with his wife, Deb, owns Jones Service Co. a plumbing , HVAC and electric company that services the Hudson Valley.

Testimonial: Electrician Charles Ostott By Joe Crisara

April 14, 2010 at 12:54pm Tags: , ,