The Home Service Expert Podcast
The Sales Reframe That Changes How Every Technician Thinks About Their Job
26 May 2026
Chapter 1: Why do technicians resist being called salespeople?
We're not completing what's involved with sales. When we just say the word sales, you're bringing it down to the most shortest element and the thing that seems negative, like somebody's pushing me. What I'm really in the business of doing is selling people on the notion to allow me to take care of them. complete the sentence when they say the word sales.
I want to sell people on allowing me to be their friend, allowing me to find a permanent solution. I want to sell people on giving them choices and not ultimatums.
All right, guys, today I got an amazing guest. He's been on the podcast several times. He's done a lot of training with us. His name is Joe Crisara, and he's an expert in sales, business, home services. He knows a lot about HVAC. He's the guy in the home closing deals. He's based out of LA.
Service sales coach for plumbers, HVAC technicians, comfort advisors, electricians, and even garage door companies. Service MVP. He's known as America's service sales coach. Joe Grisara has been transforming the way home service contractors think about sales and business management for decades.
As the founder of ContractingSelling.com and the creator of Total Immersion Sales Summit, Joe has helped thousands of owners, managers, and technicians triple their results while creating happier customers. Joe isn't just about theory. He's about real-world results. Joe is helping contractors across the country earn more, serve better, and build businesses that thrive.
And he wrote an amazing book. It's right here. And it's one of the things we make our technicians read, What Should We Do? And I'm a big endorser of this book.
Tommy, thank you. Thanks for inviting me here again. You know, it's like when I first met you, Tommy, I remember when we first met, I thought I was just going to meet a client. I had no idea I was going to have somebody change my life and definitely become a great friend, too. I didn't know I was going to get a friendship out of it. That was a bonus, Tom. So thanks for...
Thanks for giving me your friendship and your support and your respect. Honestly, I, that, that book over here would not be possible without you. So definitely you're a major part. He wrote the forward, by the way, read the book and you'll see, you want to read Tommy, he'll see the forward in there too, by the way, you know?
Well, Joe, I'll tell you, you know, the methodology, I'll have you break it down. But this idea of just giving people options, and I think I stole this from you because I say it almost every day. If you're not giving options, you're giving ultimatums. And, you know, your ego is not your amigo. And I just sent out a video to a bunch of sales reps, like the whole entire team.
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Chapter 2: What is Joe Crisara's five-step sales system?
But you go in humbly and you smile and you say, I'm a hard worker and I love this company. And the stories you did with the tire store, we'll share it in a little bit. But tell us a little bit about you. I mean, the audience, they don't know who you are. They've been living under a rock. But how did you get where you are? What are you excited about today? And what does next year look like?
First of all, thank you, Tommy, for that great introduction. I think you're right. By the way, you cannot steal what I've given to you, so you can't steal, Tommy. You can't steal what I give you. Let's get that clear. You're not a thief. You're somebody who has collaborated with me. I learned just as much from when I went to A1 Garage Door and I
did training over there every time i go there i learn so much from you too so uh so it's a collaborative collaboration between the two of us um but you know um i think what we're doing now is to uh make sure that we know the concept works and it's options not ultimatums the new project we're working on is called option builder ai which will uh take what normally takes
a half an hour to an hour to list the problems with a garage door or HVAC system or a plumbing system or even garage floor. I'm working with garage floor companies now, Tommy. What's the problem we're solving? You got to write that out distinctly and that's what the program does. It also creates the solutions and ties it to your flat rate program.
Instead of making the technicians chase down the prices and try to write them all up and service tighten or in any kind of a program, it does it for you in seven seconds. It's a great idea of taking technology and making it work for the technician, not replacing the technician, but to work for it.
I know AI, we're all getting sick of AI, honestly, but this is something that we're not sick of because it makes our life easier. And that's really what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to, now my next phase, Tommy, how can I scale things to make the solution so easy that you'd be stupid to try something else. It doesn't make sense to try something else other than what I teach. Does that make sense?
It does. It does. I just break down your, you know, if you had to give your sales methodology in a couple minutes, and I know it's a big book and what you did in this book was, which was amazing. People tell me all the time, he gave everything. He didn't hold back. Like he gave everything he had. You literally like laid it out.
But, you know, if somebody doesn't want to pick up the book today, they're listening to the podcast. They will. They've got to buy the book. But if you just wanted to break it into a few minutes of the methodology. Sure.
I mean, number one, Tommy, you've always known, you said the way to become successful is not by yourself. It's with other people.
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Chapter 3: How does financing play a role in sales for home services?
And that's where we start in the book. The book starts with how do we give our friendship and support and respect and care to our clients, give our friendship to our clients first and connect with people first. So that's the first lesson in the book really is how do we make that personal connection with people? Cause we're going to use that connection later. And number two is,
How do we diagnose not just the symptom of the problem, but the thing that caused the problem so we can create a permanent solution to the problem? So how do we diagnose the whole system? Not just like in garage door, not just the torsion spring, the weather stripping, the rollers, the opener, the track, everything has got to be diagnosed.
And then number three, how do we create the premium mid-range economy options to solve that stack? There's gotta be a problem stack, which we're gonna show you how to do in the book, and also a solution stack that solves the same problems that you found. And then you need to customize and use that personal connection
to make a personalized customized element inside the premium mid-range and economy solutions and then bring it to a conclusion with the words what should we do it's uh here's the prices what should we do that's a lot of money i know it's a high investment so what should we do And you know what, I've never seen a person do this before.
I've never seen a husband and a father like you who takes care of their family either. So what should we do, right? So the bottom line is that make a friend, diagnose the system, make the options, make them personal, and then what should we do to get a yes, no, another appointment?
Any company that's out there, even A1 Garage Door, one of the things we start to fall, it starts to slip, is getting the outcome. A1 garage door doesn't deserve to get a yes to every job, but they do deserve to get a yes, no, another appointment. When we get a no, we learn just as much from a no as we do from the yes or from the other appointment. So those are the three outcomes to every call.
If you did that, you'd close 92% of all your jobs because you wouldn't be chasing down leads after you gave a presentation. Does that make sense, Tom?
Absolutely. I got a question for you because I learned on the podcast that this is why I started it is basically, I guess you're like counseling me. Tell me the best way to get that next appointment or to get the no or the yes. Can we walk through that?
Well, yeah, at the end of it, it's just like, well, at this point, somebody is like, you know what? Can you email to me and I'll call you back later? And I'd say, sure, we're going to do that in a few seconds. Right now we're in the selection phase. So at this point, are you interested in the solutions I have? No. Or are you not interested?
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Chapter 4: What are 'magic moments' and how do they create customer loyalty?
Nobody wants to tell you no and lose your friendship when I just gave you mine. Does that make sense?
No, it does. It makes a lot of sense. How much do you feel like in this economy financing is the key?
Well, because there's a reality of the economy and the amount of money that people have versus the amount of money they need to get the job done right, it's a gap, it's a conflict that happens. Anybody who doesn't use financing, is it's really bad service, honestly, because we should, Tommy, at the heart of service is to anticipate what's gonna happen when I present something to somebody.
So if I said to do the garage door for 18,000 with new weather strip and just really did this job the right way and did a 12 year or 15 year service agreement, I can anticipate that somebody would say that's too much money. So I'd say, you know what? That's why I did the bridge loan so you could get it done for $197 a month for a 15-year loan at 8.9% interest.
So financing is not just a nice idea. It's the primary offer that you should be giving people, the gift of affordability. That's what you're giving them when you do financing. So financing has to go from the back seat to the primary way we do things. Does that make sense? You have to get rid of the discretion of like, I think I'll do financing as an afterthought. Financing is not an afterthought.
It's the primary offer that we should be doing in the service industry.
When it comes to one of the most important things, and I've learned a lot from you, but I really, really, really love the magic moments. Can you walk us through the magic moments?
Well, you know, there's all kinds of methodology to try to connect with people. You probably heard of form. Those are kind of shortcut ways, like a beginner's way to connect with family, occupation, recreation, and material possessions.
So it's like, and that's a good kind of like a kindergartner's way of doing it, honestly, because the problem is material possessions and all the rest of it there, It's like a thing that's risky if we just praise them.
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Chapter 5: What self-esteem issues affect underperforming technicians?
You had to get the paperwork, the effort it took to fill out the paperwork to adopt that dog, to make sure you got the training for the dog that was necessary so the dog could behave properly.
those are the things that little things that people do and you're surprising people that you actually noticed how hard it is to adopt the dog and take care of a dog or to take care of your kids or to take care of your mother who's going through cancer or to take care of that classroom you got does that make sense so really if you said tomorrow with all your people
Let's try to make a list of all the things that our clients are doing for their families and for their pets and for their job and recognize and praise the effort they make to do that. You'd be well on your way to a magic moment. That's what I would tell you. Make sense?
It does. One of the things I always talk about, we say MELLO the customer, and it's kind of an acronym. What does MELLO mean? It means, you know, we always heard this phrase, they got to know, like, and trust you. And I think that's the easiest one. The other one that people miss is they really got to love the company.
So the company story of why you work here and why you're happy and why you believe in this company and why they've had your back in good times and bad. And the third one that I think you really emphasize on is the customer needs to feel heard and loved. You need to laugh at their jokes. You need to let them talk. There's this old saying of this teacher.
He's pouring tea and it's cold tea in this kid's cup. And he goes, hey, stop, it's overfilling. And the teacher says, yes, just remember the cup must be empty for you to learn, meaning that you got to be ready to accept the information. What are your thoughts on that as far as like, like you, like the, you know, love the company and feel heard and loved?
Well, here's the fact, Tommy, nobody can believe, nobody can sell anything they don't believe in. So if you don't believe in it, nobody can even offer it. Or if you don't believe it's a problem that you're seeing, you're not gonna be able to, you probably won't create a solution even, make sense?
So the first thing is like, I have to look at something like something like a weather stripping missing from the bottom of a garage door.
and say that's not healthy or safe that can let water snow that's a that could create a slip hazard that could let insects and rodents come in the house and create bacterial growth i believe that has to be fixed like i don't look at it like yeah we should take a look at it i like dude that's got to get fixed uh that's not even i'm not negotiating i'm not going to leave till we get that like i believe that something like weather stripping on the bottom of a garage door
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Chapter 6: How can pure-motive service improve sales outcomes?
We had 50 technicians and installers graduate this month. We got the same amount coming back next month. You worked with some of the best sales all-stars that make customers raving fans. One thing we know is the customers that spend the most also tip the most, and they love us the most, and they brag about us the most. It's just, that's what we've seen at this company.
How do you identify somebody that's going to just automatically pick up your tools, the pure motivation? What do you look for? Because I think a lot of people right now are like, I can't find great people, but they don't have the system. So I know the system is so important. You talk about the system. You put the system in place, but still, not everybody is created equal. What do you look for?
What's the things that stick out when you see all-stars coming on board?
Well, it's funny because I've heard about a guy named Dale Steele who used to work at Gettle. And I met him at Pantheon last week for the first time in history. And the funny thing is we start just like sharing a few stories. And Dale sells like 15 million or whatever a year. And it's the first time we've ever met, honestly. He's like, oh my God, I've been looking forward to meeting you.
And I said, I've been looking forward to meeting you too. So we start talking about stuff and it's like, man, we both believe the exact same thing, right? So I think that's what it is. Number one, I think the owner of the company has to be firm in their beliefs so you know exactly what you're trying to achieve. We are going to make a friend with every client.
We are going to diagnose the whole system. We are going to make premium mid-range economy choices that are customized and relevant. And we are going to get a yes, no, another appointment to every single job. that's what's gonna happen. And I talked to Dale, he's like, dude, that's exactly what I do. And I said, that's what I do too. And he's like, yeah, we should do it.
So we're gonna do a podcast with me on Friday with him. And he doesn't do any podcast. I'm gonna do it, but let's just talk about that part. So let's do that. But the bottom line is I think that's it. It's like when I interviewed Dale, I'm like, this dude is like a brother from another mother. When I met you, Tommy, I felt the same way.
I'm like, this guy is like, I feel like I'm already working at A1 because I'm working on the same principles and the same thing. So number one, we're going to look for the same value system, right? And you could give people a chance to be responsible. I think
enthusiasm to learn like if i there's some people out there right now tom that are using the audiobook version of this to say hey i'm going to give you the audiobook because i i'm you're one of the finalists i want you to go through the audiobook and give me three things you learned in the first like five chapters just listen to a few little sentences to work here and see what you cut what you come up with what are some of the things that you got from this
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Chapter 7: What are the key elements of building a personal connection with clients?
No, no, no. I know that. I was just kidding.
It's the resources. I know it is funny, but it is the resources that you're giving the church to be able to foster and help other people that are in need. And so that's something that you did for other people. And so that's service, right? You did it without looking for something in return or any glory. You just did it to help people, right? And that's what service is about. It starts with that.
Of course, if you help enough people, they're going to pay you for the service because you now give a chance to invest in that service. So I think number one, Tell me about a thing you've done for somebody where you just did it because something at your church, something at your home. What have you done for somebody else where you didn't get paid for it? Tell me what that's like.
That would be a good question to ask somebody. Hey, when something went wrong at the last job, what happened on that one? If they talk about how much their boss sucks and everything like that, I would just say, what was your piece of the dysfunction? Was there anything that you were part of it that you could have fixed in yourself?
If he says, there's nothing I could have done, well, then that's not somebody who takes responsibility. Give somebody an opportunity to take responsibility and see what they do with it. And I would ask the person, would you be open to taking responsibility if I told you some things you could have done different? Or would you have a closed mind about that?
Yeah, I would like to hear what I could have done better because honestly, I was frustrated. That's what we're going to teach you at A1 Garage Doors, how to take responsibility and not blame other people, but take responsibility for what you can change. Would you be open-minded to that or would you be closed-minded to that?
Because that would be the kind of thing, give somebody an assignment to do something to see if they would listen to an audiobook, to see if they would, you know, role play with you during an interview, that kind of a thing, right? If they're not open to role play, you know working in A1 is going to be role playing.
If you aren't open to reading a book, you know at A1 we're going to give you a book on the first day you start here. Does that make sense, Tommy? You're kind of testing people before they start, I think, what you're looking for. And by the way, That can be part of the marketing. You know, we're looking for pure motive service providers who aren't looking for a job.
We're looking for people who want to serve other people. That would be a great marketing ad. I didn't even write the ad, but I'm already saying that sounds pretty good to me. Does that make sense, sir, Tommy?
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Chapter 8: How can a positive mindset change the sales approach in home services?
I was like, I had to write that one down. That's a good one. Show me your friends. I'll show you your future. I think that really applies to it. I think you got to think of that way when you're applying for coworkers and even with customers. Honestly, guys, you're letting that customer into your company. That's when you're going to be your new friend.
If that's somebody who's going to be a terrorist who's going to screw up your company and sue your company, don't even let them into the company. I would say sometimes you got to learn how to say no to customers when they're trying to be toxic themselves to begin with, right? So both toxic employees or might be possible employees, toxic customers.
Sales is about having a boundary, Tom, that we don't let toxic people into our life, both the company life
in our personal life because if we do all the rest of the company's got to pay to support that toxic customer or that toxic employee so there's a high duty when it comes to that and it's a very uh i take that duty very seriously and you know the day i met you tommy is the day i knew that uh that's somebody i would invite to my house uh invite to my house and i would come over to his house too uh and spend time with you because i know that uh
My parents would be proud to have you come to my house, Tom. So I knew that. And Brie, especially Brie. Now you got Brie involved.
Yeah, I know. She makes me look good. You know, there's... I was just thinking about... Where did I want to go with this? The technicians that... Don't own a house yet. And look, I didn't buy a house until I was 30. So we've got a lot of 22 really great people. But they don't necessarily...
There's something from a tech, because I was a tech, even though I owned the business, I was out in the field. And originally I thought if I pay a dollar and sell it for 10, I make $9.
I didn't think about the marketing or the overhead or the insurance or the workers' comp or the computers or the air conditioning we have to flow into this warm building and the trainers I would need and the recruiters. And it goes on and on and service tight and all these different tools we use. And- I think sometimes technicians have a way of thinking, well, the parts cost this.
They pay me this. How could we charge these prices? And they have a hard time buying in. And they probably, you know, the cobbler's kids with no shoes. you know, they wouldn't do this to their own home. They don't believe in it that much. Like, if you're in water quality and you don't have a water system at your home, like, you know what I mean?
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