Jimmie Jayes: Hiring & Building A Team Of HVAC Professionals

Sam Wakefield: Hey, Sam Wakefield here. Welcome back to Close It Now, the podcast where you can tap into the next level, of psychological thinking about sales. We get all the way down to the nuts and bolts, the nitty gritty, but also, um, you know, what is not. In any other place that space in the industry that I have found.

And if you found some recommend it to me, because we all learned from each other is thinking about HVAC sales on a different level. And that’s why I like to bring in so many people from outside the industry because it forces us to think outside of our box. So my guest today, I’m super excited to have him.

He is a, if you haven’t heard the last one. Go back to the podcast that we did before five essential networking connections on how to get more leads with Mr. Jimmie Jayes. He is back and I’m super excited to have him back here as a, definitely given a lot of his time to us to be able to, uh, to next level. You know, who doesn’t want a next level, your game?

If you’re a half a million-dollar-a-year salesperson, it’s time to be a millionaire. If you’re a million, it’s time to be two. If you’re two, it’s time to be four and it’s all possible in the industry, if you’re four it’s time to be 10, right? So a quick introduction for Mr. Jimmie Jayes I’ve known him for quite a while.

He is. A business coach currently working with a company called Apricot Solar. He’s a business coach for the company and also works in the field himself. So he is, it’s not just coming at this from a, um, you know, overview trainer manager perspective. He also is walking, fleshing this out, walking every single day, doing sales himself, his, uh, his coach, this company though.

And here are these numbers that are going to blow your mind from zero. The company started to $134 million in a single year. In five years alone. So that’s one of the main reasons I reached out to him. It’s like, you know, anything, anybody that can help a company see that type of growth, uh, has serious wisdom they can impart to us in here on the Close It Now podcast, his goal is to create 12. Solar millionaires, solar millionaires, 12 solar millionaires in just over 12 months. So in a year, somebody’s personal income goes from zero to a million bucks in 12 months. So that’s his goal. Clearly, he can, if he can, if you can scale it on a business level, you can scale it on an individual level.

Um, I’m excited to talk to him today. Uh, Mr. Jimmie Jayes, welcome to the episode.

Jimmie Jayes: Thank you so much. Great to be here and, and, uh, excited to be talking to your Close It Now community.

Sam Wakefield: Yeah, absolutely. Man. It’s it’s so cool when we. You know, w when you develop, a group that is so focused on one thing, it’s mind-blowing what they can accomplish.

The things we’ve seen, our, our network, uh, support each other and help each other learn and grow in this last couple of years of since Close It Now out started, we’re now entering year three. So this, uh, last about that April. Well, I was, this is June, we’re in June. Now this year was a two-year anniversary.

So we’re a couple of months into year three, which is exciting. So we’ve got a fun topic today. Uh, this one is going to be a good one. I know a lot of people, you know, when they talk about scaling and growing the business, their biggest thing that I hear from my business owners, from my managers, all the different people always reach out to me.

How do we find good people? You know, there’s so many of the biggest complaints is there’s just a lack of qualified people in the industry. How do we find them? So today’s topic hiring and building a team of HVAC professionals. Um, how do we do that? You clearly, can’t build a scale this fast by only finding people within a specific niche.

You’ve got to, you’ve got to go outside that. So let let’s unpack that. Let’s break that apart a little bit. What are your thoughts here?

Jimmie Jayes: Yeah, well, first of all, uh, the very first thing that I would say is I know that you’ve got a diverse audience of listeners and there’s people on the line who are companies, owners, and there’s people on the line, or maybe are just getting started in HVAC and there’s people on the line that, you know, you know, do a million or tool, uh, you know, in, in sales every year, uh, just working in the field of HVAC. So what I want you to know is that this conversation applies to everyone. Okay. This conversation applies to everyone. Doesn’t matter if you are a business owner or not.

You want to think like a business owner and unless you plan to crawl through addicts until you’re 50, right? You need to have some sort of a way to get leverage, to get leverage. And it doesn’t matter the space. If there are people in pest control, like, do you want to knock on doors until you’re 50? If there is, it doesn’t matter the space.

Okay. You got to find a way to get leverage. Otherwise, you’re going to work until the day that you. So you really need to learn. How do you, how do you find and build effective teams of people in whatever industry you’re in? And again, if you’re, if you’re just selling right now, that’s okay. Like how can you find and train great people to bring into the company to help your company grow?

If your company grows. That you’re working with, right. There’s going to be more leadership positions. There’s going to be more opportunities. So think like a business owner, even if you don’t own the business, and think about what can do to help this company grow. And if you get good at finding and recruiting and training people, you know, who can be, you know, closures in HVAC, um, I promise you, there will be opportunities that come your way.

So the first thing that I would say is it doesn’t matter where you’re at. Um, this is a relevant conversation for you unless you plan on, like I said, doing sales and crawling through addicts, when you’re 50, you’ve got to learn how to be able to get leverage. You gotta be, learn how to be able to, to train people and to hire people.

Sam Wakefield: Sure. Absolutely. So what are some ways to do that? Because a hundred percent agree. I mean, if you just keep doing the same thing, you’re going to get the same results. We all know, especially in the, in our industry, the, uh, you know, there’s a limit, you know, there’s only so many hours in the day that a single person can put in and see a return on that.

Jimmie Jayes: Awesome. Yeah. So, um, it comes down to a couple of different things. The first thing is, um, you just have to have, uh, an eye for it, so you need to be looking for opportunities to meet people. All right. So just like, uh, when we were talking about the five essential networking connections we talked about, uh, in the previous podcast that most people just look for, uh, ideal clients.

Like, are you a client? No. Are you a client? No. Are you a client? No. Are you a client? No. And they’ll go to a networking event and it’ll be. You know, do you need an HVAC? You need services, right? And if the person says no, then they’re dropping a business card on their lap and they’re going to the next person as quickly as they can because they haven’t trained their eye to look for the other four essential networking connections.

Right. The referral partners, the influencers. So again, go back and check out that episode. If you haven’t, um, through, uh, through Close It Now. But it’s the same sort of a thing when it comes to, you know, team building and training people, do you have an eye? Are you looking for people who know how to sell?

Right. So that’s the very first step is you have to start to train your brain, um, and say, where do I find people like that? If you’re, if your company has recruiting events, then then great. Like bring people to them and people get so caught up on, like, how much am I getting paid for this? How much do I get when I bring in somebody?

And you might be able to work out something with the owner of the company, that if you bring somebody in that you, you know, get some sort of compensation for that. But again, A business owner, right? If the company grows, it’s good for you. Sometimes you get this scarcity mentality of like, well, somebody else comes into the company, then they’re going to be taking my leads and my appointments.

Right. And it’s the wrong way to think you bring people in and you get good at training. Um, I promise you, there’s gonna be more opportunities for you. Uh,

Sam Wakefield: What’s that old expression, a rising tide raises all ships.

Jimmie Jayes: Absolutely. Yeah. And the person who does more today than what they get paid, we’ll soon get paid more than what they do.

Sam Wakefield: Absolutely. Yeah. I’ve adopted that from early on in my career was, you know, I’ve always, um, you know, done more take it basically, just like you’re saying, taking ownership and treated everything. I touched it as if my name depended on it. Not necessarily the company in the name and, you know, it’s amazing. That’s what happens when you give your, make life goals to give more value than you take.

Jimmie Jayes: I love it. So the first thing we want to do is you want to make sure that you’ve got an eye for it, that you’re looking for it. All right. Um, the second thing, um, that you want to make sure that you’re doing, um, is a saying that I use is become the person you want to attract. So, if you want to attract somebody into your business, if you’re a business owner, if you’re in the field and you’re training people, right?

Are you practicing what you preach? If you’re preaching, follow up, follow up, follow up, and you’re not doing any follow-up. You’re not going to attract what you teach. You’re going to attract what you are. Right. So, um, you want to make sure that you’re becoming the person you want to attract. And, um, I actually learned this from, from John Maxwell leadership author who wrote the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, um, and was fortunate enough to be in a kind of a round table with a small number of people.

And, uh, I got to be able to, um, you know, meet John through Zoom, um, and he’s going through an exercise and he said, make a list. What are the 10 characteristics? What are the 10 qualities that you want in HVAC professionals in your team? Okay. Sure. So take a minute and do that. Like, think about, even if you’d write down two or three, what are some of the characteristics that you want that you’re looking for?

Is it somebody who’s coachable? Somebody who is hungry? Is it somebody who’s self-motivated? Is it somebody who follows up, like just make a list of what are those characteristics that you want? And then you had to share them. And I was like, oh yeah, here’s, here’s what I want. Right. Somebody who’s, self-motivated someone, who’s a leader.

Uh, somebody who’s faith-driven and like somebody who’s, uh, you know, takes time with their family and that they play all in and business time. I made my whole list, man. I was like, it’s a good list. I’m gonna get some good people. And then he says, now turn the page over. And now I want you to rate yourself on a scale of zero to 10 in all of the areas you just wrote down.

Ooh. Oh, John, you’re doing me dirty right now. Right? Like how, how, how coachable am I? How strong am I in my faith? Right? How, uh, how, how much do I follow up? Am I a self-starter? One of my big ones is resourceful. Am I Right? Am I waiting around for somebody to solve this problem for me or that problem for me?

Or am I solving it myself? Right. So the idea is to become the person you want to attract. Are you developing yourself daily, uh, into the person you want to attract and sort of the great things about this, Close It Now, community, right? I’m kind of preaching to the choir here that you guys are here. Um, and you’re learning and you’re becoming the person that you want to be.

Okay, so thing, number one is to have an eye for it. Thing. Number two is you want to become the person you want to attract and thing. Number three, I’m talking mostly right now to the business owners on the line. I said that this whole, that regardless of where you’re at, um, that this whole conversation, you know, applies to you, I’m going to talk to it for a second of the business owners.

Sure. If you’re a business owner, Listening in right now, right? Listen to the podcast. Maybe you’re at the gym. Maybe you’re on your way. Driving somewhere, like paying attention. If you want to attract high-level people, you will never retain someone with the same or greater level of skill than you have, unless they have the same or better opportunity that you have to grow a company.

Let me say that again, you will never retain and attract somebody with the same or higher leadership ability as you unless you give them the same or better opportunity as you have in the field, you have to create an environment, right? Where rather than having this old school belief around the business of the more that goes out, the less that comes to me.

Rather than thinking about how can I lower my expenses, including lowering my commissions, right? I pay to the field so that I can keep more of the pie. As backward is backward. You got to think about how can give higher commissions. How can I give higher levels of ownership? How can I give higher levels of freedom?

Right. In, in, uh, coaching with Dave, um, in the solar company, as, as a for instance, um, one of the first things, um, in our, in our consulting that we did together is said, how can we create an owner’s profit pool? Where are people who are not owners of the company, right? Can get to a certain place. If they do enough volume, they, if they produce enough, they can actually get paid in some of the percentages of the profit of the company.

Wow. And you might say, well, but it’s my company. I take on the risk and I listen, they’re going to leave. You’re going to lose them anyway. You will never retain somebody long-term unless they have the same or better opportunity as you. And so you can spend your time taking five years, 10 years training somebody, coaching somebody, showing them everything, and you’re just training your competitors unless you give them the same opportunity.

That you have. So find some sort of a way to be able to incentivize people, right? Reward that loyalty, because you know, there’s a point where people come in and you know, you’re doing a lot more for them than they’re doing for you. But over time, that pendulum starts to swing and it gets to a point where they’re doing more for you and for your company, then you’re doing for them.

And they could very easily go start another company. And they have to wake up every day and decide, am I going to be loyal to you, the business owner? Or am I going to go get the same opportunity that you have because they can’t have? Sure. As a business owner, you have to find ways to not make your people make that choice every single day.

Right? Give them the same opportunity that you have, find some sort of a way, um, hierarchy, if you need to, uh, you know, figure out a way, right. That you can give them the same opportunity, um, and where your goal is, how do I pay more money to the field? How do I have more success stories, uh, inside of HVAC and usually, um, You know, in the, in the path and the process of doing that, you’re going to scale your business and scale your profits to a point where all of a sudden your, um, you know, your costs are actually lower as a percentage.

And so you can pay more out and still be able to make a lot of money and be able to retain a higher quality people.

Sam Wakefield: Wow. This is, you know, there’s an old adage in the industry that I’ve heard for years and years. Honestly kind of forgot it a little bit until you mentioned this. The adage is, you know, so many business owners complain and say, well, what if I train my people and they leave?

And then the course of the rebuttal of that is, well, what if you don’t train them? And they stay, we know which is worse, but at some point we all that, that’s kind of a paradox because we know. That is what we’re battling against getting to that place. We’ve trained them enough and you know, they see us driving the nice car because the business has grown and now they want to go buy their Ferrari.

Um, so I love this conversation, man, dropping bombs today. This is, literally this concept is turning the, if any of you out there listening are actually hearing, what country are we staying here? Talk about turning our industry on its head. This is how the Ken Goodrich’s of the world and so many others, uh, you know, that have scaled to such amazing, uh, volume and, and huge, you know, huge size.

This is the concept they’ve adopted now. I don’t know anyone else. Who’s grown a company to a hundred and over a hundred million dollars in five years? So the man, this is so applicable. To what we do. So man dropping bombs today, man. I love it. I love it.

Jimmie Jayes: Well, here, here’s a mind-bender for you. When I started coaching Dave, he was in the field knocking on doors, selling solar.

Alright? So what it means is that there is a company owner. That Dave was working for and they were just keeping all the profit. Uh, Dave was investing his own money in advertising to get his own appointments in solar and he just was underappreciated. And, you know, people who were at the company were, were just keeping most of the profits.

And so he didn’t want to create his own company. He created his own company, uh, out of necessity. Um, and he became the owner that he wished he had. He became the owner that he wished that he was working under. Um, and so in creating his own company, um, there was just, just a little while ago here. Um, you know, you’ve heard that, um, company $134 million last year, I believe, uh, that $89 million a year before that, I believe they’ll, they’ll do a, uh, a billion dollars, uh, in calendar year 2022.

So, you know, a ton of growth, and yet. Right. Uh, you know, David, the owner of Apricot Solar is putting so much money back into the field, right? Spending money on appointments, spending money on, on commissions, and putting a whole bunch of money back into the field to the point that, um, just recently one of the sales, um, you know, associates inside of the company, um, like literally bought a Ferrari for Dave.

Sam Wakefield: Oh, my gosh.

Jimmie Jayes: Geez. We’re talking like hundreds of thousands of dollars. Like it’s a Spyder, a super nice car. Right? And here’s the thing David had bought himself one multiple times over as the, as the owner of the company. Right. He literally spends more than that in advertisement every single month to keep, uh, people in the field, their calendar is full with appointments.

So. That’s the level, right. That, that he’s giving it. And, um, and so there’s somebody in the company that’s like in, in the field making the kind of money that they can afford to go buy a Ferrari and give it to the owner to thank the owner for what they’re doing. So if you’re an owner right now, how can you be in that sort of a position?

How can you give so much to the field, right? That the people in the field are buying. Right. And when you do that, when you create that space, that’s how you’ll be able to scale. Rather than you train somebody, they grow, they bring in sales, they leave, and they start their own company. They take a handful of people with them, right?

Then you say, Hey, anybody who wants to stay, I’ll make you the new leader and you work with them and you rebuild the team. And so you have this replacement model rather than the scaling model. Okay. So if you’re, if you’re an owner in the room, understand this, it’s, it’s easier right now than ever before to start for somebody to start their own business.

It’s easier now than ever before, for somebody who’s a salesperson in your organization to think that they know what it takes to run a business. Now they don’t and it’s harder. And you know, the last one we know that. Okay. But that’s not what, you’re what you’re fighting against. You’re fighting against somebody, you know, reading a blog, or post, watching a YouTube video about you should go start your own company.

And then they leave and now it’s hard for them to come back. It’s hard for them to build their own business. And so just, as an owner, I’m begging you to find ways. If you really want to scale, if you really want to grow right by my coaching hat on right now, find a way. You can show people high levels of appreciation, and find ways that you can give people the same opportunity that you have.

Maybe that’s a profit-sharing pool. Maybe that’s actual, you know, shares or ownership of the company, but you have to find ways. Um, you know, it’s just different now than it used to be 10, 20, 30 years ago. You got to find ways, uh, to be able to give people the same opportunity that you have, if you really want.

Sam Wakefield: That’s it. I mean, what, what’s all of the studies where they say people stay for the culture, not because of the income necessarily or anything else. They stay because they like it. Not anything else. And that’s it’s they like the people they work with. They like the leadership that like the culture and man giving them, that peace.

Wow. What a crazy concept. Everybody listening, give, giving, giving your company, your individuals who are performers, a piece of ownership at some level, what better way to develop the culture that they can become owners in the company to develop that owner mindset? Wow. This is, this is thinking on a different level.

This is that next-level thinking like I mentioned, I love having Mr. Jimmy Jay is on this podcast because it forces us to think differently to get different results. So, wow. That was, that was powerful today, brother. I am. I’m just so stoked that you, uh, that you had a few minutes to, uh, to share with us.

Um, my gosh man.

Jimmie Jayes: If you’re owner on the line, it doesn’t have to look like giving away ownership. Okay. What it needs to be is that they have to have the same opportunity that you have. If you want to be able to retain people at the same or higher, you know, uh, levels of leadership that you have. And if you’re somebody in the field right now, um, like fair warning to you.

Okay. I’ve worked with a lot of businesses. Most businesses fail in their first five years and a lot of people give out and they try to start their own businesses. They’re good at sales, but they try to go out and all of a sudden, you know, they got to deal with payroll. They need an HR department.

They gotta be able to float money for ads. They have to spend time doing income statements balance sheets and statements of cash flow. And there’s all this behind-the-scenes stuff. That you don’t know about. So if you are not an owner on the line, you want to think like an owner, you want to think about what can do to grow this company.

Even if you don’t own it act like you’re an owner act like, um, you know, respectfully don’t don’t, uh, uh, be trying to do things your own way. If there are business owners tell you to do it one way, do it that way, it’s their business. But what can you do to add value to the company? What can you do to grow the company?

And if you’re thinking that way, It’s and you’ve got an abundance mentality, understand that there will always be a position for somebody who knows how to create profit in the company. Uh, and so just treat it like an owner. Um, and fair warning, you know, it’s a lot of work. If you go to start your own company, uh, maybe you’re great at the sales part and you think you can do everything.

Uh, and then you spend none of your time in the field, right? You spend all of your time doing all this. And, uh, you know, you know, in, in the example I just gave you, uh, people in the field selling solar, uh, up until recently all drove way, nicer cars. Um, then the owner of the company did, right, because he’s reinvesting money back into the company probably the same thing inside of the HVAC world. So, um, if you’re in the field, being an owner is not all it’s cracked up to be. If you’re, if you’re owning a company, um, you want to make sure that they have the same or better opportunity as you that’s it. Whether that’s ownership, whether that’s a profit sharing pool, um, whether that’s, you know, their ability to make money with commissions.

Structured in a way, um, where they’ve got up mobility, uh, where they’re not tempted to leave and go and, and make a bad decision, trying to start something from the ground up.

Sam Wakefield: I love it. I love it. That’s excellent wisdom. And especially for somebody who’s worked with so many companies, as I know you have, so we are wrapping up today.

I know you’ve got to, uh, thank you for your time. I know you’ve got to bounce here in just a few minutes. Um, in the last few minutes, one question is how does everybody get ahold of you? How do they contact you, um, the best and to find out more about your coaching or whatever you’re offering right now? I know you do so many things and, uh, yeah, last, you know, few parting words that you’d like to leave with us.

And thank you so much for being on the episode today. It’s been, it’s been a pleasure.

Jimmie Jayes: Yeah, my pleasure. Um, if you want to get ahold of me, probably Facebook’s the best way I’m going to Close It Now, Facebook groups. So I just searched Jimmie Jayes, uh, in the private Facebook group. And you can probably find me that way.

Um, so

Sam Wakefield: everybody that is a J I M M I E.

Jimmie Jayes: Yeah, so you can find me there. You can, you can if you can’t find me, I’m sure you can, uh, shoot Sam a message and we can connect it up that way. Um, as far as coaching goes, um, I do have a handful of coaching clients, but I’m not actively taking on, uh, coaching clients right now.

Um, and like I said, in the intro, my intention is inside of the solar space to create 12 solar millionaires, meaning so 12 people who’ve made a million dollars in commission per year, um, over the next 12 months. So, uh, obviously, uh, crazy focused in order to, uh, to be able to make that happen. Um, and yeah, if there’s somebody on the line and, you know, uh, I know salespeople know salespeople, so if you know somebody who’s, uh, you know, a documented.

Um, basically, you know, for me, uh, really what I do is, is rather than trying to train people from, you know, the very beginning of the road, um, and help them, you know, become into great salespeople. Uh, the only way that you’re able to create, you know, 12, uh, solar millionaires in 12 months is finding people that already have a high competency when it comes to sales when it comes to leadership.

So, uh, if you know somebody, uh, like I said, salespeople know salespeople. So if you know somebody who’s a documented closer, um, It doesn’t have to be in the solar industry, whether they’re in the, you know, uh, pest space or, uh, if they’re in a, you know, door knocking or if they’ve done, um, you know, roofing companies or anything like that, if you know of a documented closers unhappy, uh, I always think about it like kind of the.

Single A, AA, AAA, you know, MLB. Right. I think about a kind of little terms like that of, uh, uh, if there’s somebody who’s got, you know, great numbers in depth in a single lane, they get called up to double life. They got great numbers in AA. They get called up to triple-A. So if you’ve known somebody who’s got, you know, like their closing statistics or closing numbers, Uh, and not based on what they say, but that they’re documented that they’ve, they’ve been closing, you know, consistently for a while.

Um, and, uh, you know, they think that may be a good fit for the solar industry. I definitely love to, uh, you know, to talk with them. Um, so that’s how you can get in touch with me. And, um, Sam was talking about maybe doing a Facebook live or something to, to answer some, uh, uh, you know, some Q and A in the group.

So if there’s any way I can be of service to you, um, you know, in the HVAC industry, I’m definitely happy to do that and that would be, I guess my final tip is as you’re meeting people in other industries, as you’re meeting other salespeople or meeting people in the Close It Now group, um, you know, don’t be trying to, you know, recruit those people into your company.

Um, but be building long-term relationships and finding ways to help each other out, uh, never know, right? You can learn something from them. They could be a referral partner. They could refer you your next, they refer you your next closer. Um, so build long-term relationships for life. And that was probably my best advice.

Sam Wakefield: I love it. I love it. Long-term relationships for life. There’s an old book called How To Swim With The Sharks Without Getting Eaten Alive by Harvey McKay. So here’s the book recommendation for the day springing right out of that. Uh, of course, it’s written in the days of Rolodexes, but the value of it carries through even today.

And it’s exactly that. So. Thank you for being on the podcast today. It has been just so my gosh. So mind-altering mind-bending, like I said, and just the value that you brought is much appreciated. Everybody makes sure to, and like to be mentioned, if you’re not already in the Facebook group, go join the Close It Now Facebook group, you can find a link directly from the website, which is CloseItNow.com. Close It Now. And sin or, and if you want to get ahold of Jimmy directly, um, shoot me an email, sam@closingnow.net. That’s Sam@closeitnow.net. Um, so that website and the email, she popped me a message. I’m happy to get you connected.

And, uh, yeah, everybody go out there, use this knowledge implemented immediately because remember success happens at the speed of implement implementation. All right guys. And ladies go save the world one heat stroke at a time. It’s been a pleasure, Jimmie. Thanks man. We will. I’m sure. We’ll talk to you again soon.

Jimmie Jayes: All right. Thanks. Let everybody become the person you want to attract.