Ep 203 - How Low Call Volume Serves You!

Hello, hello, hello and welcome back to another fantastic Monday, another fantastic week, Joe, on another episode of Electricpreneur Secrets, the Electricians podcast, where your host, Clay Neumeyer, the pleasant peasant north of the border holding doors open and thanking people for walking through, this is a mouthful, and my esteemed co-host, Joseph, the sales bot, Lou Canny, go live with you guys five days a week to help you master your sales, simplify your pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. Joseph, how are you, brother?

I'm doing amazing, but I have this awkward moment that I happen just before we fired off the podcast. Okay, and remember where you're, like, hey, you're with me. And then I immediately got off camera. Yeah, I want to share a relatable moment that I'm sure every single person's experienced. Okay, have you ever tried throwing something into a garbage can, missing going, grabbing it, getting closer, throwing it and then realizing you missed again and then saying fuck it, it stays on the floor, that's where it's going to be until.

I'm done so. That's your Monday. That's how the week's starting. You're over two Over two on this thing.

But. But I'm going to say how, actually, the 75E challenge set me up for the best possible success this morning. So I get up and obviously my role is to beat, beat the girls before they get up, and I don't know, I have to get, I have to get up before they do. So it's like a race to see who gets up first. Yeah, but I was able to get up, luckily. I got up even earlier. It's starting at 430 now instead of 445. So I'm going to be at 430. I was able to have a long, great session, really just sat there and really sat in it for a while, had a good workout, got a good pump. It was arms day, so I had a good pump, got the house cleaned, had a big breakfast and they happened to sleep in. So by seven o'clock seven o'clock I was able to have my day ready to go, primed better than ever has been. So I'm feeling. I'm feeling top of the world man.

Nice. So, despite the offer to, you got a good start.

Oh, it was a great start today and you know what, after that class this morning and then, how could you not have the momentum build?

I was going to say you batted a thousand in the class, so that's going to count for something. You know what?

It's like it's silver lining in all things. I'm looking at it like you know what me missing? That little shot makes me more human, and that's something I got to work on anyway.

right, Speaking of class, Ben Davis back for more. Hello brother, Thanks for joining us.

Mr Fantabulous himself.

Some of this actually came from class Friday. Our topic today how low call volume serves you? Let me say that again. Yes, the title is correct, guys, that's what we're talking about. Low call volume actually serves you and your business. The question becomes do you know how? Do you know why? And I'll just preface this by saying this Monday you've got a bit of a treat. This is mindset, this is motivational, but it's also marketing. You're getting a triple threat here today. How low call volume actually serves you, joe? Can you think of? Anyways?

Yes, I'm sorry. So one of the things that comes up is sometimes you have to slow down to speed up. Now that happened a lot in my own business. When, before we mastered the process of establishing a less of a slow season, such as managing the first class memberships and all that, we would find that the months of December, January and February were slowest. So instead of making it like a dead season, we transitioned that to that would be the season of rebuilding and training. So I would always go for training events in February and we would always do restructuring in December and January. And the benefit was is that, because we hadn't expected quote unquote slow season, we could take that time and reinvest it into the business so that when spring came we were as primed and ready to go and well trained as possible.

Yeah, man, I agree 100%. I think this question comes up. We've talked about this many times before. If you're listening to this, ben says it forces us to work for leads, but if you're listening to this or engaging with us live sorry, I get so energetic, I tripped my own words. I want you to ask yourself this does life happen to you or for you? For you every single time? And things that are bad, perceived, bad things like low call volume, just happening to you, or are they happening for you?

Can I touch on that, of course, because I feel like that in and of itself opens up a lot of perspective that I don't think people really touch on enough. Can you imagine going through life every single day thinking that things are constantly happening to you and that somehow you are in a conflict with the universe?

Yes, I can't imagine that, because I used to do it. I was in bed with the devil every day. Blame excuses to now, brother.

And I don't blame you. I was going to say I've been in that situation too, but I can't imagine staying in that race long term, because when I was doing it I thought about ending the race. I can't imagine someone pushing through it and saying you know what I'm choosing to believe. The universe has it out for me and I'm going to survive that. The thought that things are happening for you I mean, yeah, you can believe in the divine purpose, that's great and I'd be one of them. But at the same time, you have to believe that things are happening for you, because have you ever had a bad situation or quote unquote, bad situation that five years later you backed that and you're like, yeah, you know, if that didn't happen, I wouldn't have been here.

100% men, I'm thankful for everything and if you've heard my interview go back about 170 episodes, then you know I went through some shit, but I'm thankful for every single thing that happened because it led me here. I love what we're able to do. We get to serve electricians all over the world and somehow that's directly relative to me being a high school dropout.

It works.

The logic of that's directly relative to me, even being in trouble with the law for a while.

But I think that actually served you in a big way Because, just like how you and I have a bit of darker pasts, I think that allows us to connect with people on a better level, because if I have a dark past and I'm working with someone who's squeaky clean all their life, I'm not going to believe that what they're saying is going to work for me. I'm coming as the perspective. That's why I'm so honest with who I am and I love that about you that you're so honest about who you are, because someone can look at us and be like well, what are you about? Like, just listen to the episodes. We tell you everything the good, the bad and the ugly, especially the ugly. So I'm going to double down on this podcast and say it from my heart that every single one of you that's listening, any situation you feel is happening to you, I want you to spin this and instead say how is this happening for me? What could this possibly be doing? What silver lining could I see that would make me say you know, thanks be for this 100% and we're gonna build this up a little bigger than marketing.

But since you mentioned, like the program and our purpose, even Even us showing up and having all these episodes, apparently we still don't communicate it well enough, because one of our new clients who signed up last week actually just said this and in his onboarding call. I wish I would have known this a year ago because I would have signed up Right. So we still got some work to do, a marketing too. But hey guys, things happen for us, not to us. Here's an example Car breaks down on the way to work. What do most of us do? Hands up in the air, we're swearing, we're pissed right off and the whole day goes to crap. Mm-hmm, right. Makes sense Someone calls and backs out of a sales call with you today.

More cringe right in the car accident.

I agree right, we show up to a call and there's a stain on our shirt and our spares being washed right now. That would be against process. But yes, ipad dies when you get to the clients. There's all these things that happen, that are shitty, granted, but they're telling us something that needs work. Mm-hmm right, the. The latter two were just pre-arrival process and, ironically, when we speak to that, that's how most people learn to actually start. Following the pre-arrival process is by one of those things actually fucking them at some point, exactly well, I was gonna say there's two things.

I want that. That one is that specifically why I came up with that list, because I would remember all the things, like every scenario that's there you have ever heard the situation of a sign only exists cuz someone f'd it up somewhere? Yeah, that was me. I'm the guy who f'd up on every call. I tell you to bring chargers cuz my iPads have died and I've had to ask for chargers.

I've had the codebook.

Yeah, I was gonna say it's literally there, you know. But like, I've asked customers for a gallon of gas before, like, and I teach you these things so you don't have to do what I've done. But another way of looking at it as well is how many people, when they're late and they rushing to work because they over slept, are Blaming the person in front of them for not having a place to go. I Heard a great analogy that really stood out, which was why are you mad at the person in front of you when they're merely the reflection of behavior you don't want? You feel like they are not rushing to where they're gonna go. When you were the one who could have gotten up and left early, you could have beaten the school bus, you, but you didn't because you wanted to sleep in for another five minutes.

Huge man, huge takeaways. Here's how low-call volume serves you. It's telling you something very, very important. You know all the customers that already bought from you. Call them. Call them and serve them more. They already like you. They already know like and trust you to an extent that they paid for you, and only you, to work on their electrical system. And since your phones have been ringing off the hook, you've completely ignored them. How dare you Call them Right? Is that crazy?

No, it's not crazy because, if you think about it, which relationships are the ones that are most likely to purchase from you? The ones who've purchased from you behalf. They've already purchased from you. They already like trust and respect you. If nothing else, it's one of the reasons why we like the first-class membership pass. Hey, clay, it was so great when we came to your home and you let us take care of your hot tub last spring. How are you enjoying that? By the way, I want to let you know that, remember, we're doing the lifetime crash measure guarantee and everything we've touched. It's almost been a year since last we came out and I want to offer you that whole home electrical service One of the best time I can come back to ensure that everything's going to be working perfectly for the rest of your life.

Yeah, let's book a time.

Man, wouldn't you let me in your house? At that point, like, why not?

It's so, so, so important, Joe. This can't be understated because we see it so often People, it's a glass half full, mentality, right? Uh-oh, call volume's down. The immediate thought is a scarcity mindset around scheduling, right, and that leads to scarcity around money financial. Yet almost every electrician who comes into our program has sales just sitting in the pipeline and they have no idea how to reach out and engage their existing clientele. We actually have a tool for it, which is our Action Now or Service Leads Now list, and it's a massive two, two and a half page document that gives you something to do every single day of the week. So when no calls come in, I challenge you to instead have a different mindset about it, have a positive mindset and go. We know what to do here. We've got a plan for this, and what that's going to do is change your entire organization and the energy that's around you, because you'll get rid of the scarcity and it'll open the door of opportunity. Oh great, We've got a chance to serve people we already know, or the people our people that know us know we get to dig in now. How risky is it really when you think about where do calls come from? Where do most of our clients calls the incoming calls. Where do they come from?

I mean, my first thought is that people are calling you from the network of those who've already used you, but then also those within your closest circle.

So referrals, yeah, but the majority of the contractors that I've found, at least on the calls, are Google. It's simple Google LSA, and most people have experienced the rush of. LSA. People come into the program all the time and talk about oh yeah, we know we signed up for LSA and actually you know we got 100 leads this month. Google has been an excellent tool to create an inrush of new leads, who are essentially cold. By the way, they don't know you yet At all. They've picked you from a list. That's why they went to Google and searched and now it's become your priority to try to warm them up through a sales process, starting with on the phone, and then to try to close that sale. But is that your most likely sale? How could it be if it's almost cold? Wouldn't a warm lead or someone who's already bought from you, an already existing client sell that much easier?

It's always better to sell from someone who already likes trust and respect you, of course.

So think about the risk now that we're talking about, where most contractors are entirely reliant on Google LSA and, by the way, at the same time usually complaining about the price if they're also into SEO, paper click and other ways that we cause strangers to call us. What if there was another way? That's all I'm suggesting. And what if that other way Actually comes through fruition when your low call volume gives you a chance to focus on that a little bit? So here's the hard question for the day, and call this the first action item. Joe, how big would your business be if you had more than just leads from Google LSA and referrals, but you also had strategies for direct outreach to people who are proven to like you in your business?

I feel like sorry, go ahead.

No, I was just going to repeat the question how big would your business be then?

The first thought that I have is, if I'm hearing that as if someone who already doesn't have it, I feel like that would be a breath of confidence into my business, because the biggest struggle that a lot of people have is when that scarcity comes and they're like I don't know where the leads are going to come from. That's when they start to scramble to grab the things. But if you always knew you had a break glass in case of emergency situation, you could invest heavier in your business, knowing that there's always a lever you can turn on.

Totally, man. These things are meant to make you better, not bitter, right. This doesn't have to be a glass half full situation. How low call volume serves you is. It gives you a chance to invest in better ways to engage with already customers and soon to be customers and dig for referrals and to work on your content in your Facebook, to work on digging for more work, and that is something that can serve you because once you've done it, you don't stop doing it. Once you have a process in place, you don't stop and go oh, call volumes back up. We won't do those things anymore. No, you do it like the good neighbor program, which we talked in large part about in this class this morning with our clients. There's so many people that feel like that's a wasted opportunity, like a waste of time. Maybe it's desperate to go talk to the neighbors. When you serve someone, I personally feel like you've got the carte blanche here. You know exactly what their problems are likely to be. You know exactly what you can do. You know exactly how much time it will take maybe five minutes. Go ahead, man.

Yeah, I was going to say for anyone that may be questioning the situation, like maybe they don't want that, maybe they're not interested in that, I want to give a very specific scenario where this play is actually in your best interest and in the best interest of those you knock on the door. So anytime you're in a condo development or an apartment complex this was similar or you can even be in any kind of cookie cutter neighborhood, we would do service calls for this one condo development and we found out through the constant working in that development that they all had similar Bryant panels. They all had them and they were all around the same age and they were all causing a similar issue where the kitchen and the dining room lights would flicker. So now when we knocked on their doors, it was hey, I know why your lights in the dining room and kitchen are flickering. Do you want to know about it? People would open door but like how did you know that was happening? You're going to want to talk to us then? So if you genuinely knew something that could make you stand out but would also serve them, whether it's a quality, a safety or a liability, or a service or convenience why shouldn't you tell them? Would anyone be mad that you're genuinely telling them something that could make their lives better or safer?

It shouldn't be man. It's incredibly powerful and a great example. A great little story about this. I'm gonna zoom out one more time here and just say if you knew why you're committed to serving homeowners premium service if you're listening to us right, you're probably interested in that you knew what your offer entails and how you're doing that exchange, then the only logical next step is that conversations, more conversations equal more work, right? Because if you're passionate about what you're doing, wouldn't you tell them why and what you do?

Naturally.

And if you were passionate about it and you truly had your why and your what figured out, wouldn't you say that with a little more umph than everyone else at, let's say, a network meeting? Oh yeah, so wouldn't you stand out if you attended a network meeting like your local chamber B&Is various different groups that all work together to create volume for each other but if you truly stood out in that room? More conversations equals more work, right? 100% Low call volume is serving you, because relying on incoming calls from strangers is actually a bad plan to begin with. It's great as a supplement, as a part of your strategy, and awful as a sole relying factor. Could I be more clear with that? I love it.

I think you did a really good job on that one.

Thanks, man. Well, I appreciate your help as well. With that, do you have an all star action.

I do All right and this one requires you to look a little more inwardly in order to make the most maximum impact. So the simple action is things happen for you, not to you, but I want to give it context that you can actually apply to your life. So one of my things was I started a new construction and I ended up transitioning into a service company before starting my own, and I really don't have anything good to say about the management, the quality of work or anything about the organization itself. But at the time I left because I thought they were terrible. But looking back, I realized that being exposed to the dark side of what the industry could be made me want to create a better company to fill those gaps. If I had never been part of that company ever, I would have never saw the vacuum for customer service and, as a result, would have never left to start my own team. If I had never left and started my own team, I wouldn't have had the ability of creating these accolades and reaching these high closing ratios that I did and, as a result, from there, wouldn't have been in a position of authority to start this business with Clay. So, looking all the way back, the thing that I regret and resent was actually the biggest stepping stone to showing me exactly where I am right now, and it lets me help people that I never would have been able to help. So anytime you're in a situation where you feel like something bad is happening to you, I want you simply just hold in your mind that there could be something larger at work that you may not see for a year or two or three or ten, but simply having the faith that there was a purpose and a reason for this activity and I may not know now, but I will know looking back and sometimes that alone can give you the grace and the confidence to say you know what I'll chalk this up Today's going to be a great day 100% men, constraints or insights, powerful, powerful message.

Thank you guys for joining us on episode 203 of electric printer secrets. How low call volume is actually serving you to ask you to step up for more? You guys, you can do this. We believe in you. We're going to be doing this for you guys a week to help you master your sales, simplify your pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. And we've got more tomorrow, so stick around.

Thank you.