Ep 154 - How Generators Solve Your First Floor Problems

Hello, hello and welcome back, happy Tuesday. This is another episode of Electricpreneur's Secrets, the Electricians podcast, where a couple of master electricians with business addictions go live for you and with you five days a week to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. This week is certainly no exception. We're on one of Joe's absolute pride points here as we discuss generators and all the angles that we can and really dispel some common myths, and today we're talking about how generators solve your first floor problems. Man, you guys are going to want to stick around for this because, again, we're bringing some great information. We know there's some naysayers out there. We know there are coaches out there pushing, pushing out there for you not to do generators for reasons of profitability, and we're absolutely going to dissect that to the best of our ability in this nice half hour show today. First, without further ado, let me again introduce you to my partner, joseph the Salesbot Lucanian. Ask how are you doing today, my good brother?

Honestly, I'm having a great day. I love throughout the day. You and I always have our interactions, we're always talking, and I really really do love all the time we get to spend together building this great thing. It's really great. So, for anyone listening in the background, imagine working in a job that you love, that serves the best possible mission that you can think of, but you're also doing it as someone that you genuinely love and respect. That's my reality right now.

I love that man Uplifting, uplifting. The whole team's excited, they're all behind us and we're just helping a team of electric pernurs do the absolute best they can, following our guidelines, which, if you saw our posts today on social media, you've seen a couple of things. One is talking about generator profitability, as we're here to discuss in full, and the other is talking about the new, recent re-release of our bronze program, where you can get all of our content, the entire roadmap step by step, play by play, in a one-year membership without the coaching and additional support more of a DIY thing and people are finding that this thing is a hit. We got some incredible feedback, one of which will give a special shout out to our new clients, eric and Mandy, who said, hey, they've been with several different coaches now but they have not seen anything produced to this level, and I'll be happy to share that in our content and on our site here very soon. Guys, of course, if you're not with us, on the inside of the Facebook group, electric Perner Secrets is what we're called the Electricians Podcast. You can find us there in a simple search or on our website, serviceloopelectricalcom. What a fine day to talk generators, joe, we've got to jump into the problem, and I can't wait to get to that. But first I just want to help our listeners and our viewers understand what this title is First Floor Problems what are we talking about with the first floor and what problems? Let's dissect that for a moment.

Yeah, so realistically, the first floor of a business has a couple of different struggle points, like they struggle finding a niche, and then saying like what can I do and how can I do it best? They're not specialists in any particular category and realistically, in those circumstances, if you don't have a specialty and you don't have a niche, you end up being this generalist electrician that's like, yeah, I do electric work, anything in particular, anything electrical, what you got for me.

And can I give that clarity even?

Yeah, by all means.

Because there is actually you know what like being a residential specialist, as many of us are or aspiring to be, is a niche, right, it's just we're even saying you can it even further to speak to a specific pain point, because a residential specialist is still servicing a grand variety of items, everything that belongs in a home, around a home, electrical system. And this first floor reference I want, really want to give it do credit it comes from, if you guys have ever heard Michael McAllowitt's profit first, we've referenced him a couple times love Mike stuff. And this is another reference from him. In another book that fewer have listened to read, I studied, and it's called fix this next awesome book. In infix this next, he gives an awesome, awesome parallel to Maslow's hierarchy of needs which you've heard us talk about, with your personal and your staff journeys in that management. But it's more the business hierarchy of needs and it starts with the ground floor, which is sales. Now, when I give this a little additional context, that ground floor of sales that Michael speaks to, we actually add to that a bit in our program. We really teach electricians how to build systems for this ground floor, use our systems and automate these systems so that you can move up the ladder To stage two, which in Michael's references Profit and profitability. Now what doesn't make sense here? And let me finish my thought by saying, when we look at that first floor, sales, we also see the offer and the marketing. So sales, offer marketing In fact we've got a little saying the sum of your revenue comes down to the sum of your business, sales, order marketing that's the first floor. So what doesn't make sense? Joe, ever played pool before?

Yes, not very well, but I do understand the mechanics and can occasionally slice of all every now and then.

Have you ever been shocked by someone?

oh yeah, I was gonna say it's one of those things where I have a competitive nature very much so more. When I was younger and my remember my uncle had a pool table and it was one of those things where every time we go over Thanksgiving it was always, hey, let's get together and play. And I was always the kind of person say, hey, let's put something on this, let's put something on this. And I lost every time.

Yeah, and so the principles of sharking are pretty simple. A lot of times they'll miss a couple simple shots to show you the lack of complexity in their game, but then they quickly come back by lining up the future shots. This is a reference I want to give our discussion today, because this happens in business a lot, where we see business owners electricians out there who don't have a process for their sales, to maximize their client journeys and the exchange for the cash that their business lives on. They don't have a solid process for their marketing or a niche that they're speaking to to consistently generate and attract new leads to their business, and they don't have their offer specifically mapped out to play it out right so that each and every staff, including your office management team, understands the exact offer that it is that you conduct that exchange on. And without those three pieces, you're always, as a business owner, required at the first floor. So now that we have context, we can get begin to build this back up again and talk to how generators actually solve this first floor problem so we can get to a place where profits back in the conversation. Don't worry, we're still speaking to it in this conversation today. So, joe, how can the generators begin to solve our sales, offer and marketing issues here?

Okay, so it's a big topic to unpack, so I'm going to start firing off and please stop me where you need me to stop, because otherwise I'm just going to go like a fire hydrant. You got it. So the question comes out to how do generators solve this first floor problem Realistically? If generators are positioned and done right, you establish yourself as not only not a commodity, but a service. In addition to that, as you get better and better at working with generators, you start to differentiate yourself between other people, because very few know how to maintain a generator, even fewer know how to service a fault generator and even few beyond that are able to say I know why it's not working, I know how to solve it and I can also predict the future faults, so that you, the customer, don't have to deal with future repairs. So where this helps you with your marketing is if you can position yourself as the go to electrical specialist because of your intense knowledge and your training and all the processes that you've built to make it an amazing experience for your client. It starts becoming no brainer. I could work with ACME Electric and have a generator installed for probably 7500. I could work with service electric and it's going to be a $15,000 job. But we're going to do the poor propane coordination or the fuel coordination. We're going to do all the maintenance agreements. We're going to have better warranties, like a lifetime crash, to guarantee we're going to have the winterization, the electronics protection, the flood ready bases, the cobblestone pathway around it, the landscaping, all of it. I'll even take Carnival Wax and I'll wax your generator every year, like there's a certain level of expertise you get and it becomes very tangible and very visible, like what are you doing and why are you doing it better?

I love that. I love that and I know we've talked about this many times before. But to reinforce again how electricians can often find themselves, kind of sticking to our own lane, if you will, yeah, and we don't want to exceed those boundaries or go about creating the conveniences, some of which you just mentioned, like maintenance, like landscaping, like any painting, waxing, cleaning, winterization stuff. But I have to again just say, guys, I urge you to reconsider. If you're doing the exact same thing that all the other electricians are doing, how are you different? How?

do you stand?

out and how do you create a unique package? Because I perceive one of the problems here to be again a race to the bottom as more and more competition rises up. But that's no different than any residential service electrician, just like any opportunity call that we spoke to Go ahead, please.

So the biggest glaring issue that I've seen in both other businesses and even myself when I first started out with it was the biggest glaring issue that I've seen in both other businesses and even myself when I first started out with it, was that when people try to get into generators, they're not familiar enough with all the subtleties that are connected to it, because getting trained is a process right Going to the dealerships, getting their in-house training, having the years of experience I'm working with systems, so they look at it almost like a construction company. I can't make money on this maintenance. I can't do this. It's an hour's install and I'm doing it for $119. The materials cost me $45. I pay my tech next year $60. And then if there's a problem, I'm stuck with the warranty. Like it's a fair argument for some people, but where they're missing the ball is that your money's not made on the maintenance but you want to sell maintenance. The money is made in the relationship. The thing that generators really do better than anything else I've ever experienced is that generators are the ultimate relationship creator. What you've done is you've identified a person who has a very specific need, a need so specific that they were really going to raise their hand and say I'm willing to invest thousands of dollars to prevent this problem. You then learned about the client, and you learned exactly which one of those people is the best, and you would introduce it, as I'm offering this to you because you offer a multi-year service agreement, because what are they going to do? They paid $15,000 and now they're just going to let it sit and rot in the backyard. No, they're going to want to maintain it. And here's where it gets interesting, though. You now have a multi-year service agreement. Any generator specialist knows that when you test it, you don't test it in manual, you test it in auto, meaning that you're going to physically turn off the power to the home and you're going to walk through the home with generator providing it. And now you have an ethical reason to check the panel, to check the furnace, to check the AC, to check all the electrical components that were backed up, make sure they're connected right, make sure they're safe, and if they weren't, would you be wrong letting the customer know hey, I saw a problem and I can prevent it before it happens. Is it wrong of me to want to bring this to your attention?

Not at all, not at all. One of the big pieces here is it's just not sexy to look at the lengths, the duration of a relationship and the multiple transactions that happen down that pathway. And we're taught that actually by the marketing that's around us. And we're guilty of it at times too. And the only reason I even say that I just realized my name is still pleasant peasant on here. If you're watching the video, my nickname is at the forefront. The reason this is prevalent, honestly, is because it's what we consider to be sexy and what we're constantly referencing ourselves versus others and making those comparisons on is like well, what's your average ticket, right? What's your revenue per month? What are your revenue targets per week? That's all sexy, and what the industry is lacking is the realization that the client journey, the duration of that, the number of touches, the number of reverals, reviews and repeat transactions are a massive piece of your success. And generators are a huge compliment to just that, as they help you build and leverage trust as a niche specialist with enhanced education and information, and for some reason there's a bias association that well, if Joe knows more about generators than the other ones, the other contractors Andy's a master electrician. He probably knows more about electricity as well. Go ahead, I saw your hand up, joe. Jump on in there, brother.

So I love that as well, and I feel like I almost lost my train of thought, so forgive me. I could pick it back up as need be.

Oh, and I saw you changed your name to the sales bot. Yep, I don't represent the Nick Mayers now.

Full solidarity. Oh, I have what it was.

Okay.

Okay. So the main thing that I would always take apart is this when you talked about how generators enhance your marketing, the thing about generators as well is that they market for you, because imagine this I'm just going to paint a scenario During Hurricane Sandy, we knew exactly who had a generator and who didn't, because you would literally just be able to go outside and listen and you would hear generators running all over the place. And the thing was, is that? Imagine you're a neighbor who didn't have power. Right, you've paid for a lead. You paid for everything to go into. You installed a generator for Mrs Jones. You had a maintenance agreement and she's happy with you. Your neighbor says Mrs Jones, I need help. Who did your generator? Oh, service of electrical took care of it. They were awesome. Well, what did they do? What did it cost? Well, I don't remember exactly what it cost, but I know that they did everything and it was the easiest experience that you could have ever gotten. Hey, I actually have one of their cards Now your generator, because it specifically solved a need for someone. They're like I need power. I don't have it. I know my neighbor has it. How do I have what my neighbor has? So, every generator you install and service professionally, not just service. Service to such a level of professionalism that people remember your name Any time there's another power outage in the neighborhood. They will be talking about you. And that's specifically how in my company we actually had multiple neighborhoods that we put one generator in and then all the neighbors over the years bought from us Because they would lose power and say you know what, who'd you go with? Who'd you go with? Well, if all these people have gone with them, I'll go with them too.

Yep, 100%. I want to move on and help justify this a bit financially now, as we promised at the beginning of the episode. Sure, because again, referencing the first floor to second floor and that challenge of like, where does the profit fit in this then? Why are people saying it's bad? Why shouldn't we do generators and how are we overcoming that to say, well, we should really consider this Sure. So one of the challenges is obviously a 10 to 12 hour day spent on a panel upgrade versus a generator installation. There's much more parts component to the generator installation than there is the panel upgrade and that can kind of skew your numbers a little bit. But again I want to reflect back to this is still profitable work. We don't have anyone in our group, joe's, never done a generator job that you lost money on.

Not that I can recall.

This is the prime example of missing your first shot. To line it up, to line up what's left with the eight ball and there's probably some pool sharks out there with better language than that, but to use that pool metaphor again, have you ever done that, Joe? I've done that a lot. Man Like oh, I'm seeing two to three shots ahead, but I missed the one in front of me and the whole plan was a waste because I'm back to square one.

I've literally had those situations Like I like playing. I like playing dominoes. For anyone who likes playing bones, like I like playing dominoes. So I would like set up my moves and then realize I picked the wrong move and then my whole line of play is gone.

This is kind of that. It doesn't actually make sense to focus overly on that balanced profit margin. And even just in the complexity of this don't worry guys, don't let me lose you just yet Let me let me finish this thought In the complexity of comparison of materials versus labor and the components that go into that balanced gross profit margin, and if this were even to skew it at all I'm just going to use if, because I'm not using direct numbers, we're on a podcast let's say, if it skewed it at all, I can testify it is still going to be a profitable venture. And what that means is, and really comes to a question should we do it? And now, if the benefits outweighed the cost, here the risk, then we could probably all agree that this is a worthwhile expense.

I would agree with that.

Yeah. So leveraging that and all the good in these solutions we're talking about and the leveraged relationships and how it's going to improve your marketing, improve your immediate sales, getting you more opportunities, more memberships, more maintenance agreements, bigger options, bigger revenue and thus more profit. Plus, combined with the fact that when your offer is right again first floor right sales offer marketing. When your offer is right, then your pricing is built off the company you aim to be sustainably. There's future expenses worked into this that you haven't even had to spend yet. The profit is out of the question if you're properly established on your first floor. Here, guys, that's the most important thing. Here's the ultimate asset test to prove McAllowitz's logic. Are you ready for it? I'm always game. Let's hear it, joe. How long can a business survive without sales? This first floor.

I mean I'm going to answer this literally and it really depends on what assets they have and how liquid can they make them.

Sure, but ultimately without sales. Is it even a business?

No, I mean it's a charity at that point.

Right, if a boat has a hole in it and it's taking on water, is it still a boat that anyone's interested in?

Unless you've got a pump.

But no, not really. So one of the biggest speaking points to a profitable business and having all your ducks in a row is the sales value on the market. What is that business worth to sell someday? But if you never figure out the first floor problems, no one's going to make an offer on this business anyway, because it's the wretched boat with a hole in it. Does that make sense as an analogy?

Yeah, no, from what I understand. If you don't mind me trying to touch on this again, as well. So the thing that comes down to generators that I really feel like we need to hammer down a little bit harder is that with generators, they produce multiple solutions to multiple problems in one installation, and that's the main benefit behind them. It is an initial, profitable installation. It is also a continuous source of touchpoints with your clients. It is a touchpoint between their neighbors and their friends. It becomes a means for you to continually go into home and continue inspections and it allows you to be seen as a specialist in the area. And I'd like to touch on one particular way of how if that's okay, if that doesn't take a few far off topic.

No, hit it. We're running low on time, just a few minutes left, but absolutely go.

I wanted to go over the actual fault notification program that we ran and how that particular could be leveraged to help in so many different ways. Sure, yeah, absolutely. So we transitioned into COLA. I worked with Generac for years and years and years and for quality purposes and also premium base, we decided to go fully COLA. Cola had a really great function where you were able to remote log in to every customer's unit, do a full diagnostic check and see any kind of fault report from your office, which did two things One, if there was a fault, you knew exactly what parts to bring and you were prepared to solve it faster. Or two, you were able to ensure that had a clean beam of health and if it did fail, it would notify you. So what we did was we created an email list where all these customers were already to be logged into and once a day we would check. And the benefit was we could, if we ever saw a fault, imagine your company calling you saying, hey, I know you don't have power, I know you didn't lose power or anything right now, but, as we agreed, we're monitoring your generator on the daily basis and we see that it's showing a sign that it needs a routine maintenance that's going to come in your future. Would you like us to schedule that for you, just so you don't have to be inconvenienced in the future? What would you think about that company? Does that sound like your typical contractor at that point where they're monitoring it for you and calling you in advance and even providing jobs?

No, but again, this is where most get left behind, Because when we think too much about today, we do lose sight of the future, and this is where the pool in allergy does come back. What we're trying to do is line up the next shots and our first shots. We're trying to make sure there's congruency between them and keep it going. Does that make sense when all we do is focus on today's ticket? It's an unhealthy culture and I've seen it spread like cancer in teams before and even today. There are people currently that are so focused on their own commission checks, so focused on what they take from the day instead of what they give. I could tell you that that's just not the way. To the top of this game. Service is the thing that AI can't replicate, Not to the level that you can, Not to the level that you can. In the client facing out there running the play and so to speak. Joe, let me back it up 30,000 feet and just say what you just spoke to was one part of that play. Looking at this from the media box up top over the Super Bowl here now looking down at the field, there's a play being ran and the question comes down to, on this first floor. How many times are you running the play and how are you leveraging it every time? If we just keep doing that as consistent as possible, then your beautiful little service business is on a conveyor belt like a factory line with a nice little bow wrapped on every single one coming out as consistent as possible. So clients know what to expect when they call service loop electrical or whatever your business name is, Mr Electrician. Whew, that was a mouthful. It was kind of a mic drop moment, I'm sorry.

No, I love that. No, I actually love that. I really feel like it's not enough to say that generators just get you off the first floor. I would be willing to say that generators are the best tool to get you off the first floor because, when done intentionally, there is so much fruit on this tree you just have to be willing to say do I have a ladder tall enough to reach it?

Hmm, I like that. And you know what. To be fair, we minimized it today. We actually made it look unprofitable just to focus on the first four things. But it's just not, guys. That's not the case. You're going to make money off it, You're going to have continued relationships off it, and that's how it's going to help you escalate through McCallowitz's hierarchy of business needs, from sales, profit order impact all the way to legacy, leaving something behind that. You know what you get to be the mentor. You get to teach others. You get to do the shop tours. You get to have everyone look through your vans and do your role plays with you and maybe do even a ride along right as a mentor to them. Get to spread that message. Joe, this has been a value packed episode. I cannot even wait to deliver what we have planned tomorrow. As we mentioned yesterday, tomorrow's value piece is huge, guys. We did a three hour workshop at the end of May that had amazing feedback and a 95% retention rate. For a three hour workshop in the middle of like a Wednesday, we only lost like three people over three hours. That's how valuable that thing was stacked, and tomorrow we're giving away the notes from that session. The replays were never given to any of the people who attended. No notes were given to anyone that asked to be in attendance and wasn't able to make it. So this is the first time we're unleashing that value, and again you can grab that in the Facebook group or on our website. Reach out to us, Contact us there. If you're not on Facebook, hey man, Facebook's just a great place to have a conversation with you guys. So that's why we continue to leverage it. Joe, a couple of action items today. Do you have both for us again, since this is your humble niche?

I was going to say I'd almost be insulted if I wouldn't be able to take both of them, because I love this shit so much.

All right, set us up, let's do it.

So bare minimum like I, because I want to have two different levels Bare minimum is I don't even know if I can do this and I'm just trying to figure out if it's something I can pull off. Right, I mentioned last time that the first thing you should do is learn how to maintenance generators. If you can learn how to maintain them, then eventually learn how to service them, you'll be at a higher tail. Today's basic action is are you comfortable and do you understand what's required in a minimum installation? Right, the reason I say minimum installation is where generators thrive is through their enhancements and through their additional warranties and all the different services and all the connection points you have. But you'll never get to that point if you can't put one in. So my first bare minimum of assignment is do you know how to install a generator? Have you ever installed a generator? If you haven't, youtube is amazing. Leverage us for all I care. I would be happy to send me a message. I'll be happy to talk to you about base generator installation. The All Star Action. This is where I get excited. The All Star Action is this If you understand what are the bare minimum installation habits, it's not enough to just know the enhancements Because anyone can say, oh, this is something I can offer, I'm going to throw it in. The real All Star Action is saying how does this enhancement specifically prevent a problem in this customer's life? So giving you a quick example of that being in New York, the coldest weather I ever had to work in was negative 33. I remember it was going down there. It was specifically, I think, in early January. I went out at two in the morning because a drunk driver took out a telephone pole Negative 33, I literally got frostbite trying to hold onto this pole because I had to take off my gloves because I couldn't make the connections. But I thought to myself, if it's negative 33, and this is something that has happened in this area, as climate change is a thing we found out that generators are actually known to fail below zero degrees. That is their thing. They usually run on 10W30 or 5W30 full synthetic, which has a threshold below certain temperatures. So what we would end up doing then from there is saying I'm going to always offer a winterization because now it guarantees it to negative 55. So now, if you ever work in these cold climate areas, instead of saying I'm just going to give you a cold weather kit because that's what I should do, I'm able to say I'm installing a full winterization system for you because I personally have experienced weather that would have caused this generator to not start and I wanted to ensure that your family always had heat, regardless of the intense temperature. Was it wrong for me to want to have this option included. That is, the all-star option, knowing not just what but why?

Nice touch man? And this, being episode 154, means that we've given over 300 actionable podcasts With two actions right, two actions each that you could be leveraging to better your business. And the best part is it was free. It was on the way between your jobs. You caught it at your favorite podcast site, whether that's Spotify, google, apple or what's the other one. There's another one there too. Anyways, we're there where you guys are here to help you five days a week to master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium-level electrical service, and we cannot wait to join you again tomorrow for another episode of Electricpreneur Secrets. I'm Clay Neumeier. This is Joseph Lucchani. We'll see you guys again tomorrow. Take care, friends.