S2:E52 Steve Stencil – A Proven Sales Process That Works

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter.

Learn a time-tested sales system that will help you turn more leads into sales.

In a second podcast with the founder of Leap, Heidi J. Ellsworth and Steve Stencil share their love for sales theory and practice while discussing how roofing contractors can increase their closing rates. This podcast is a must-listen as Steve shares his proven sales process that includes four commitments salespeople need to close a deal. These commitments are product, price, payment and timeline.

Steve's passion for selling started  when he was a kid selling candy bars during annual school fundraisers. “Sales is in my blood,” said Steve. “I was always number one with the school fundraisers selling candy bars. Everybody was selling them for $1 and I was selling them buy one get one free at $2 each.”

Steve often found himself bored with school and decided to go into a computer information technology work study program in his junior year of high school. “I was like, ‘Okay, I'll do the computer information technology program and by the 11th grade I can get out early, half day, and go to work.’ So, I got a job at my favorite store at the time, which was Best Buy, selling computers.”

Working at Best Buy was Steve’s introduction into sales at age 16, selling printers. Steve and his best friend to this day, Josh, developed a package selling system and began selling the printers with all their needed accessories like ink, paper and a warranty. Soon Steve’s department skyrocketed in the rankings, catching the attention of corporate leaders in Best Buy who visited him and his friend at the store to see what they were doing differently.

“All we were doing was selling packages. People would come in for a $399 computer, and we were selling, I call it ‘Lifestyle Selling’ or ‘Solution Selling.’ We were selling them a solution that solved all of their needs,” said Steve.

Steve was eventually offered a job on commission to sell home improvement. He started making more money and began utilizing what he learned from his time spent with computer technology to better track his work and predict future sales.

“70-80% of what I sold was roofing. We sold one roof system and I was really good at selling that system,” said Steve. “I knew all the ins and outs of it. I knew all of the warranty details. I knew how it was manufactured. I knew what materials went in it. According to me when I was pitching it to you, it was the greatest roof system that you could ever get.”

Steve admitted to a few challenges associated with selling home improvement as opposed to computers, “It’s fun to get a new computer. A roof, it's like’ hey somebody steals $10,000 out of your bank account and your house feels exactly like it did the day before that your roof was installed.’ There's a bit of a challenge to build a need for the roof. So, over time I came up with this thing called 3PT,” said Steve.

3PT stands for product, price, payment and timeframe. Over the seven-plus years Steve worked selling this roofing system, he perfected his 3PT method and his presentation. The company he worked for at the time was a one-call close company, so if Steve didn’t sell that day, he didn’t get paid. Steve developed a presentation that he would do verbatim every time he entered someone’s home to sell them a roofing system. He developed his 3PT formula based off of the similar objections people had to buying the roof system.

“My objections, I could categorize within four things: the product does not meet their needs, the price is too expensive, they don't have a way to pay for it and timeframe. It's just now is not the time that they're ready to do it,” said Steve. “Before I would do any discounts or anything, I would give them my price and then I would try and get commitments on all four of my bullet points.”

Listen to the entire podcast to learn more about Steve’s 3PT sales system and to hear a role play of a sales call.