ProTalks – Episode 3 – Jon Marigliano

Jon's first big commission check, around $10,000 selling windows, was the turning point that convinced him to build a career in Home Improvement sales despite the industry's high turnover.

Thompson Creek started new reps on gutters (small-ticket, need-based) before letting them sell windows or siding, and required reciting a three-paragraph pre-close word-for-word in front of the VP of sales or you were cut.

The best salespeople talk only about 20% of the time and let the customer talk 80%; pausing 5-10 seconds after an objection creates productive awkwardness before you acknowledge, isolate, and solve it.

Isolate objections with a scripted line: 'Other than [X], is there anything else that would stop us from moving forward here today?' then address only that concern.

Jon closed roughly 80% of his deals with financing; frame the price as a monthly payment (e.g., '$150 a month') from the start and offer 18-month same-as-cash to convert customers who insist on paying cash.

A Thompson Creek case study found reps collectively closed at a 5% higher clip and higher margin simply by presenting price on an iPad instead of paper.

Technology that auto-calculates waste factor and enforces min/max pricing guardrails prevents deal-killing errors, like forgetting waste factor on a $20,000 roofing sit that wipes out the commission.