Words That Sell: How Your Language Transforms Home Service Calls

Communication might be the most underrated skill in the home service industry. While technical expertise is essential, how you speak to homeowners often determines whether you close the sale or walk away empty-handed.

Jefferson Fisher, an attorney and communication expert, offers a perspective-shifting insight that could transform your approach: "The person you see isn't the person you're talking to." When you step into a customer's home to fix their AC or repair a plumbing issue, you're entering a private world layered with stresses that have nothing to do with HVAC or plumbing. They might be dealing with a sick parent, financial pressure, or workplace stress. Recognizing this hidden dimension and leading with empathy isn't just good manners—it's good business.

Your words function as tools just as important as your wrenches and gauges. The distinction between saying "this is your only choice" versus "let me walk you through some options" can completely transform customer receptivity. Through powerful real-world examples—including the story of a technician who proved his thoroughness by pointing out an intact cobweb across a crawl space entrance—we see how authentic communication builds the trust that leads to sales. The most successful service professionals don't just fix problems; they create comfort, security, and peace of mind by approaching every conversation with empathy, choosing their words carefully, and genuinely seeking to understand their customers' needs.

Ready to elevate your communication skills and close more calls the right way? Listen to discover the three key takeaways that can transform your approach to in-home sales. And if you've found value in this episode, please take 30 seconds to leave us a five-star review—it helps other service professionals discover these insights and level up their skills too.

https://www.jeffersonfisher.com/

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Gratitude
• 3:58 The Person You See Isn't Who's There
• 6:18 The Power of Words Spoken Aloud
• 9:55 The Crawl Space Cobweb Story
• 14:09 Three Key Takeaways for Service Pros
• 16:12 Closing and Call to Action

Transcript

Corey Berrier: 1:25

Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast. I'm your host, Corey Berrier, and today I am solo today, which I'm super excited about. Just wanted to say really, really grateful for you listening to the show. If it weren't for the people that have supported this show, it wouldn't have grown, it wouldn't have reached more people Just like to express my gratitude for listening to the show. So today we're going to be talking about so there's an attorney, he's an author and really this podcast has contributed to him, because this is going to be a lot of his information, which I think is just unbelievable for salespeople. It's amazing, it's amazing.

Corey Berrier: 2:12

So the goal here is to elevate service professionals, specifically plumbing HVAC technicians, and the goal is to help you to communicate with homeowners in a way that they can understand whether you're selling, educating or resolving a problem in the home. How you speak matters just as much as what you know. And so today we're going to be talking, we're going to be diving into Jefferson Fisher's some of his insights around communication. He is, like I said, he's an attorney communication expert whose words have real meaning for anyone working with face-to-face with customers. So what Jefferson says is the person you see isn't the person you're talking to. This really hit home for me. And it hit home because just think about that the person you see isn't the person you're talking to. You might be thinking well, corey, what in the hell are you talking about? So when you walk into someone's home and you're stepping into their private world, you may be focused on a busted water heater or an AC unit that's down, but the homeowner the homeowner might be dealing with a sick parent, a stressful job, financial pressure, and what you're really walking into is often layered with stress that has nothing to do with plumbing or HVAC. So how do you sell effectively in that environment? How do you build trust fast? You lead with empathy, you slow down, you look for the human behind the homeowner. When you start from a place of understanding, acknowledging that there's more going on than meets the eye, you shift from being just another technician to being someone they trust, and trust is the foundation of every successful in-home sale.

Corey Berrier: 4:53

So the second insight that I want to talk to you about is there's power, word spoken out loud. Now, before I dive into this, if you're in sales, you know that 55% of how you communicate is your body language. 37% is your tonality and how you say would you like to buy my product? Or would you like to buy my product? Or would you like to buy my product? You see how the different tonalities there, and then about 7% of this is the words that we use. And you think, well, corey, if 7% of the words, then the words don't really matter that much. But this gentleman, jefferson Fisher, has shifted my perspective on the power in a word spoken out loud. So, as a technician in the home, your words are your tools, just like your gauges, just like your wrenches, and the way you explain a repair or present options matter. If you say, as an example, this is your only choice, that creates resistance. But if you say, let me walk you through a couple of options, you then invite collaboration. You're asking that individual to work with you. That's what collaboration means. Opposed to, you only have one choice, and I hear this quite a bit with look. I'll tell you a story. I hear this quite a bit with look, I'll tell you a story.

Corey Berrier: 6:56

When I first started working with a local company and I'm not going to mention their name, I guess it was about a year and a half ago One of the things that I did as the sales manager is I called the six people that we were in competition with. I called them out to my house. I used a fake name because I wanted to understand what my competition was like in the Raleigh area and I was blown away at the amount of time people were here. I was blown away at their presentation. I was blown away by the way they showed up in terms of what they look like. I was blown away at the ineffective sales process that they used. And so, out of those six people, one of which worked for the company that I was working for, but, like I said, I used a fake name, so he didn't know he was coming to my house until I opened the front door and I and he went, and I made him go through the entire process just like he would in the home, and his name was Caleb Hawley.

Corey Berrier: 8:16

And out of those six people, Caleb was the only person that crawled under my house, in my crawl space, and this is how I know and this was key how he did this. It was perfect. So what Caleb said was he said I'm curious if you, I'm curious how many people showed you pictures under the crawl space and talked about your duct work. And I said oh, I don't know if they showed me any pictures, but they said that my duct work was okay, that it would be okay. He said let me show you a picture, Corey. He said you see this picture of your crawl space door. He said do you see how that cobweb goes from the top to the bottom? I said yeah. He said there's no way anybody's been under your house because there's no way they could have gotten in that crawl space without going through that cobweb. And what he did there was he earned my business because he showed me that he was honest, that he did all the steps that he said he was going to do and that he was going to be able to give me a fair price option to replace my system and my duct work was messed up, actually, and so the importance of being honest I know I went off on a tangent here is so important.

Corey Berrier: 9:55

I had one of the guys come in. From the time he stepped in my door to the time he walked out of my door was 21 minutes. 21 minutes, 21 minutes. Now, if you know anything about running an HVAC call which you should if you're out to replace a system, you need to be there, probably on average. If I'm not mistaken, the average is about an hour and a half to be effective.

Corey Berrier: 10:25

I had another guy from Blanton's, will super, super great dude, and he came in, ran the process, ran the Nextar process to an absolute T. Now the reason Will didn't go under the house is because he recognized me from this podcast, so I didn't really. He knew who I was as soon as he walked in the door and he asked me so wow, you look really familiar. I'm like, yeah, no chance that we know each other. He kind of looked at me funny and he kept talking, kept going through the process, even though his brain was saying I know this dude and so I. So we went outside and check Facebook and we were friends on Facebook and he comes back in. He was like he said you look a lot like this guy named Corey barrier that I follow on Facebook. I'm like, okay, I'm dead in the water. He realized what I was doing, so there was no, he would have went out of the house if it wouldn't have been a different scenario.

Corey Berrier: 11:32

Then I had four other guys come out three, I guess three other guys at this point and none of them. None of them, they were rushed, except for one guy. He did a really good job and, ironically, his name is Jacob. I wound up hiring Jacob at the company I was working for, and I'll tell you why Because Jacob was. He was so disarming, he was just super kind. He was so disarming, he was just super kind, he was empathetic, he didn't rush, he went over the information, he wasn't pushy. And I'm going to tell you right now he is the number one guy at the company I used to work for as we speak. His name is Jacob Harper. He is a phenomenal sales guy, phenomenal sales guy just like Caleb. Caleb is a phenomenal sales guy for two different reasons, but both of their communication is spot on is spot on. So if you have intentional speech, it builds confidence, it puts the homeowner at ease and, most importantly, it opens the door to decisions based on value, not just price. So if you're in the trades, if you're in plumbing, hvac or electrical or roofing, for that matter here's the three takeaways from this podcast Empathy and communication.

Corey Berrier: 13:19

Assume there's more going on than what you see. Approach the conversation with patience, not pressure the power of words. Use language that empowers. Replace you need to with. Here's what I'd recommend Choose clarity over jargon. Make it easy for the customer to say yes and do business with you.

Corey Berrier: 13:54

Number three have intentional dialogue. Your goal isn't to just talk. It's to understand. Ask questions that show you're listening. Frame your solutions in a way that makes sense to them, not just you. In-home sales is not about pushing products. It's about building relationships. When you approach every conversation with empathy, choose your words carefully and aim to understand, you transform your role. You're not just fixing problems, you're creating comfort, security, security and peace of mind in someone's home. So thank you very much for joining us today on the https://successfullifepodcast. com . If you could take 30 seconds, if you're on Apple, scroll down to the middle of where you find all the podcasts. Leave us a five-star review. Leave us a review. Let me know what you'd like to hear, let me know who you'd like for me to bring on. But it's really important that you leave us a review because it really helps other people find the podcast and so it helps more service people level up, just like you, and it helps level up their communication. Close more calls, the right way. We'll see you guys next week.