Ep 169 - All Hands On Deck: Everyone Is an Installer

Hello, happy Tuesday and welcome back to another episode of Electric Paneur Secrets, the Premium Service Electricians podcast. We're on episode 169, called All Hands On Deck, everyone is an Installer, and this is a great follow up from where we started yesterday, monday. But forget all that for a moment. I'm Clay Neumeyer, your host, with me, as always, my esteemed co-host, joseph the Salesbot, luke Canny, we're showing up for you. In fact, we threw away all the fancy shit except this little lightning bolt. Oh, I got to point the right way, that little lightning bolt there, if you're watching the video, to just help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service. No rehearsals, just great conversations, joe, and bringing the value. Man, we got some great value this week. But, brother, how are you doing this morning?

I'm doing awesome and I got to admit I how you started off this particular podcast. I'm sure he's going to throw some people, because every time you've answered it, the answer is what do I say? It's hello, hello, hello, but today you only gave one hello.

It was just one. It was just one, Just one and done. That's it. Man, I don't know. You know me. I like to shoot from the hip a little bit.

And actually.

Mandy's with us, brian's with us. Hello guys, thanks for joining us today. Actually, I do want to say this about shooting from the hip just a little bit. We've talked about this and I think it's going to tie in with what we're talking about today, even a little bit. Although we teach a sales process although we do have an entire script to help electricians understand the complete flow of demand, call, opportunity, call, maintenance and inspection we do suggest you come through authentically as yourself and I try to do that every day, by tying in my current energy, my feeling, my day, my stuff, your stuff, our stuff, our clients stuff. Of course, brian, tag as many as you want. Brother, brian's with us, live in the Electricpreneur Secrets Facebook group right now, engaging, tagging his friends. Bring them all, brother. Bring them all. So, anyway, that's why the custom intro Listen, it's unscripted. We just come here for the chat, so I love it Again. I'll end the monologue. Thanks for that little shout, though, joe. I love that man. We got some big stuff today, but please tell me how did your day start?

Starting off actually really nice. So I'm the kind of guy that lives for my kids. I love them. I love them more than anything else in the world, and being blessed with them is a great thing. But I started off my day, believe it or not, before they got up. It was this random thing where they decided to sleep past 5am, and it was one of these great moments where I was able to oh, we time me up.

Are your kids robots too? Like they sleep past the time you get up before your kids. Are there any parents out there that are like how the hell do you do it? Maybe that's the real secrets we need to get out today. Parenting Electricpreneur Secrets from Joseph's with Gany.

So literally, the game plan is is I love taking my spiritual time, I love taking my physical time and I like taking time in silence. So if I can do all three things before they get up, I can present as a better husband, a better father and a better person in general. Yeah, because the lessons they learn from us, even subconsciously, are the lessons that they carry through with their lives. So the reason why today was such a good day was I was able to bring my best energy because they were able to cooperate and sleep past 5.

That's awesome then Gyoms with us. Hello, Joe, I want to acknowledge what you said. As a father of two young daughters, you are now, for me, a father of two a little bit older mine 11 and 14. I'm telling you they will sleep past 11 at this age.

Oh God, I can't wait. I literally can't wait, because it's one of those thoughts where I've learned to get up early, so much so that I have a shock watch that like zaps me at a certain time. But Bring it on, let him sleep in. I look forward to the moment where I'm like man I can't wait till they get up.

Yeah, man, yeah, you know what sideways. Little other conversation here. I shared a picture of my new dual chainsaw. I've wanted one of those for a while. Man like salivated for one and really held back. I don't spend on myself all too often, but I shared it in my story post the other day and I was expecting a bunch of people to the Milwaukee crowd to come all over me there and me over here. Yeah, exactly, exactly, you know, I just stayed with the old, trusted, true black and yellow. That's all I can say, for I actually have some Milwaukee tools I probably should sell or buy some batteries for, because they're all gone. Anyways, brother, the next hire. That's the topic this week. All hands on deck. Everyone is an installer, joe. What the hell are we talking about here? Why is everyone got to be an installer?

So I know that there are some people who are reading this, this title, and they're like what are you talking about? What do you mean by everyone's an installer? What I mean by that statement is that everyone should start from the bottom and work their way up, regardless of where they stand in the company. And a reason that I say this is this if you Believe that you're trying to hire for talent verse character you would immediately send people to their departments. But if you're trying to create a culture, they can't just sell what they think they're selling. They need to sell what you truly are. And it's not just Conversing with the clients, it's how they hold themselves, it's how they turn the tools, it's how they show up in the van. Your environment, your culture and your experience is something that everyone should come to know. And how could they really come to know it if they didn't spend time with your team on the ground, boots on the ground, tools in hand?

And so you're suggesting, even if an all-star salesman, electrician comes my way, someone with a record that can sell hundreds of thousands a year, if not break through the million mark on their own, they should start as an installer first.

I would say not that they need to physically be in the van turning the tools, because they may not have the technical expertise, but they do need to understand the product that they're selling. And the product isn't just what shows up in the box. You yourself are the product. How you interact with your clients, how you can like think about it, you show up and before you even get to the call, they had to experience your front end, your office, right? If they don't understand what that experience is like, how could they then call to it later when they say hey, when we talked to our office. Of course we could have gone cheaper by just hiring some 16 year old at high school, but instead we hired someone like Lauren, who really chose to care, was professionally trained on how to help you. We could have definitely saved money and just cutter with that have been the right decision, but if they didn't know what the office was like, how could they possibly make that statement? You know what?

that's super valuable and it it actually makes want to tie back to last week Even, because we had this conversation about how a lot of electricians put that person first, mm-hmm. What you try to do is take someone with all this experience and put them out in the field for you without really having do Attention and training, mm-hmm. And so what you're relying on Is someone who's actually above and beyond you for you to build your company around. Yeah, that actually work Correct.

I mean, if the person was better than you in every capacity, well, I'm not saying you should hamstring them, like if they're truly an all-star and they're leaving you in the background. Okay, that might be something to consider. But at the same time, is it worth bringing on someone who could technically gut your culture? Because you may have someone came in from an industrial background and they know how to fix anything, doesn't matter how big the equipment, doesn't matter how vast, they can bend pipe in their sleep. But then they show up on the site and they're focused on the tools and not on the customer. The customer would actually not be getting what they paid for, even though they have an incredibly skilled technician. You can have a very, very skilled salesperson who knows everything about the product. That knows all knows how the engine works and the ccs and everything, but they don't know about how your process flow works, so they don't know how the product is delivered. Without knowing how the product is delivered, they must speak or they under or oversell what they're getting, and now you have a client who's upset.

Right, and now I'm also an advocate and I just want to say, like everyone needs accountability, mm-hmm, everyone needs training. What's the saying you use about an iron edge in water?

Oh yeah, no, I've heard a quote somewhere that if you were to take any piece of metal and you would drop it into water, within eight hours is going to be rusted, right. So the concept is is that if you don't stay sharp or you don't say consistently improving and constantly sharpen your edge, you will rust, you will lose your edge if you let it sit for even a little bit of time. That's why we always need to improve. And there's actually one other thing attached to that that I want to bring to your attention, which was the culture that your technicians have can sometimes feel different than the culture your salespeople have. Like I don't know if there was ever anything you came across when you were on projects where you had different departments. I kind of kept separated because there wasn't a common ground. One was trying to sell and the sales guys are, oh, we don't like them because they're always over promising, and then what they're talking about? Yeah we have the technicians who are, from the salesperson perspective, constantly losing them, their commissions and whatnot, mm-hmm. But if you have a salesperson who's top tier shop to your office and you make him go on installs and service projects, now he actually gets to prove himself to your technical team and if nothing else, even if he's not an amazing technician, they at least get to break bread and see themselves as equals. They could show and learn respect for the technicians or advice versa.

Yeah, you're right and you nailed something there, because what would happen on the project world is you'd build a culture in a project, the project would end or, as it's coming to an end, your crew gets dismantled and sent to other projects, cross departments even, and next time you get them everyone's back to square one. You've lost your entire momentum, that entire. That's synchronicity, mm-hmm, energy, right. So I get how that can happen. I think that's a really valid point. So Just to go a bit further with that, even if that person came with their own experience and their own process, I mean, let's give this a unicorn exception. Let's say you're running a company and someone who's already been trained by us, who have Actually the the industry's only complete sales and service training, that might be someone you might want to go under a microscope and say, okay, is this training something that could benefit us as a whole, and can we build off that and build that into our program? I mean much like our partnership, joe, honestly. Mm-hmm you and I were two different coaches in slightly different spaces, with the same vision to help Electricians, who have otherwise been the redheaded stepchild of the industry, forced into plumbing and HVC programs, mm-hmm. We had the shared vision, the shared values and we're able to come together and say, okay, let's take the best of you and the best of me and make a program baby in a podcast out of it.

Mm-hmm, and I'm so honored and grateful that we were able to take that path together.

I wouldn't choose anyone else for the world but that's ultimately the unicorn, mm-hmm, that's, that's the, the one, and I don't know what the odds would say. I mean, I would say one in a million and Lloyd Christmas would say well, so you're saying there's a chance.

Oh, my god yeah you're not wrong. Yeah, no. The funny thing is is that, yes, theoretically, there is some business owner right now who is like you know what? I really miss the nine to five and having to be someone else's problem. I can run everything from projects to answer phones to make sales. Just give me a nine to five and a solid paycheck and I'll do whatever you want. That guy exists somewhere, he's out there and you bring them on and suddenly your company doubles because you now have this experience. I get that that does happen, but for the vast majority of situations, people are complaining that they can't even get someone to show up to work, and the best way that you can retain the people who do is by making sure they all believe that they're equals. The worst feeling is when you're a technician who shows up and you shop day after day and you bust your ass for the company and you work your way up the ladder, only to have some sales guy come in who now everyone thinks is the best thing since sliced bread, and he immediately goes right to the head. He doesn't have to clean the toilets, he doesn't have to sweep the floors, he gets the nice van. All his uniforms are taken care of. There's going to be some odds there. But if that person had to show up, lace up his boots as well, even for just a probationary period of time, to say how do you handle under stress? How do you interact with the client? Are you willing to follow our process when it comes to service? Yeah, and then at least they can get through it.

I feel like I need to like fake cough and really reiterate like that probation period is important guys. Make sure you've got one that should be part of your process. Make sure you're able to spend adequate time and training and development of these people. And as you're saying that, joe, something just came into mind. You really have two options with this new hire. If it's someone that's had an elevated experience and residential electrical service, either you're going to adopt what they have to bring or they're going to adapt to what you have to offer. That's really only the two outcomes. And if it's them adapting, then what you're saying is starting at the installer level, especially following our process. It actually makes perfect logical sense because there's parts of the installer process, like the installer upgrade process that we teach, where the installers are getting some slight exposure to client interaction, communication at those intervals and then even an offer with, of course, the proper handoff and knowing the options that you presented at the sales end of this thing in the first place. Can you touch on that? It seems like you got maybe a thing or two to say on that.

Yeah, no, I like the install upgrade process because it gives a lot of reach where you normally wouldn't have it. So I'm happy to talk on pretty much any specific topic, but from what I understand, you want to know more about where that touch point happens between them.

Yeah, and how they can sort of train that transition begins to happen even at the installer. If we could just spend a moment with that installer upgrade process and development.

So there's two aspects of the install upgrade process. One is how the work order is introduced. So obviously you have this salesperson who sold the job. They need to make sure the technician understands what was sold, who it was for and why they're doing it For every single line item it's. So let's take a argument. I'm installing an electronic safety system. Who am I installing before I'm installing it for Pete? Why am I installing it for Pete? Pete likes retro gaming systems and he likes to game on the weekends, sells cars, does all fun stuff. But you know what? The last power outage he had, he blew out a TV and now he has to unplug every one of his consoles prior to that. So he doesn't want to happen. So we're going to install this so he can just do whatever he wants on a rainy day and not have to worry about blowing out a system that he can't get a replacement for. Now, when the installer is there and they're going through it and they're reviewing the work order with the client, they can say hey, I noticed that we have the electronic safety systems going in and you know what. I'm really glad we're having it because it turns out, from what I hear, you're a retro gamer. Tell me about that. That's pretty cool. So now they're creating touch points about specifically what we're doing and why we're doing it, giving them a better rapport, instant rapport, love it. Once we then have the rapport halfway during the job, let's say, sake of argument, we're doing a panel change up. Right Panel is going to be gutted. We're going to take down the existing for a previous frame. We're going to have all the wires exposed. We're ready to do. We're not backing out of the job. At this point, what you'd be able to do is go to your client as the install and say hey, I know, when Joe came out, he talked to you about a lot of different options. There's a whole different range of things you could have done, and I think you made a great choice is when you did Like. At the same time, I know he did offer you a larger system and here's why he did it. Why did you choose not to have that? Or if you want to go even further, you can say now I know you chose the one. You did Just want to make sure that you were aware that there was an option. If you're going to have us do it, now would be the best time, because everything's already taken apart. I'm just going to leave this on the kitchen table and get some stuff for the van. When I come back, just let me know which one you want me to do. Okay, and now you have the ability, where you have the rapport, you know why you're doing what you're doing, you know who you're doing it for and with that rapport, you can discuss an upgrade right there on the spot, which the installer can then do and then receive the portion of, because they were the ones who upgraded the sale.

I love that Really good share and for the most part, if I'm understanding you correct, joe, even going back a step further to okay sales presentation, they chose an option At the top of that presentation. At least, if you're following our methods, then you've also got your observation section and it almost sounds like what you just did. Was you presented to a client, then you likely did your post-call facts and recorded their feedback on that presentation. Then you presented to your installers that presentation with their feedback so that they're now armed to go out there not only to install and meet the quality standards that you've laid out in your business that service loop, electrical of course but also to build that instant rapport just by turning essentially and doing a second presentation of the facts that you already have recorded from that call.

And the best part about it is it doesn't make them salespeople, because if they actually believe that you were offering something that was worth doing, would it be wrong of them to make sure the client doesn't wanna do it? I mean, think about it Like I understand, joe offered you a generator system and I get that you don't need that right now. I hear you. But if you were going to do it, now would be the best time because we're already taking apart the panel, we're already taking apart the meter and we'd have to install the system between the two. So if you were ever going to do it, now would be the time to tell us. I mean, I wouldn't be upset about that. Be like, okay, I either don't want a generator, fine, or at the very least I trust installers. Like, one of the unanimous facts is that you can always lie to a salesperson, but you'll very rarely lie to someone turning tools in your home, because customers don't see them as threats and because they're not. They're just people trying to help, just like any of us. But if they now can leverage that relationship and speak to what you were saying, but just from a different perspective, sometimes it's all it takes Like, hey, you're not selling me, you just wanna help. Okay, let me just listen to what you have to say. I wasn't listening to that guy, but I'll listen to you just for a little bit.

Wow, man, that's really powerful. I love that. I got a new hashtag coming to my mind here empower your installers. Mmm, I love that it's not even like a takeaway to come back and learn to be an installer under an organization such as this, because so much thought has gone into it. This isn't oh yeah, you're the bottom floor. Go to the mailroom and sort. No, of course not. This is as much investment into them and their project, their task, in your company as it is to anyone else at the service or even sales tech levels.

And I'm gonna dive in and say, like the other day we talked about how the CSR is the most important position, right, because they're the voice and the smile of the company at the first interaction. But it's the worst possible experience if you had a great experience at the office and then you meet the sales guy and he's awesome and he closes it and you're all happy and you're clicking his heels into the sunset. You know what I mean? Yeah, and then the installer shows up and it's just a disgruntled dude who's not happy, who does not look like he's in full uniform, who doesn't really seem to understand what's going on. And if you're to do the job Right, does that ever feel good? It feels like you're sold an empty bag.

Yep, not good. Yeah, a missed expectation for sure.

So just by ensuring your installers on point, it's even. It's a much more cohesive experience, and why wouldn't we want everyone to understand that experience?

Super valuable, joe. As we're running out of time, I just want to sum this up and say the benefit of this. We've kind of exposed the problem, talked about the solution, but the benefit is actually even increased sales again, either at the installer upgrade process or the client experience is elevated yet again and they continue to increase their review, increase the referrals and increase their repeatability as a long-term client of your business. This is a win-win and people can be proud to be installers for you and that sounds like something that has a little more staying power than just go down to the mailroom and do your job. You taught, you learned this in school, you learned this at your last job Super powerful. So what do we think for a couple of action items today?

So I actually have a couple of mine. If you don't mind me diving into it, sure, let's hit one, okay. So the first thing that comes to mind is I want us to change our initial impression of what an installer is. Right At ground floor, there are so many people who think installer just means someone who can't do something else and that they're only good at tools. I've met some people who are installers who I consider to be my superior in many ways, because they have the character, they have the knowledge, they have the commitment to it. There's a dedication, almost a zen-like commitment to what they do.

Can I just throw in there quick like a lot of the clients, even that we work with their Queen B roles they consider to be installed, they would like to lead from that field point. They're not as fond of the sales. They want to delegate that and that's okay too and also totally doable. It's your business, please continue.

No, by all means. So, like the first thing was shift your focus. Being an installer isn't an insult. Right Now, the all-star action is. Then what did we actually mean by everyone has to be an installer? Let's put it into terms. I think you guys could follow a little easier and then implement. So, when you're in your probationary period, you've hired someone, they should have experienced every part of your company, meaning that after they've done their onboarding, onboarding should then consist of them understanding how the phones are answered and experience what that's like. They should understand how you get your materials and where they come from, understand the turnarounds and the timeframes of things, understand how the jobs are completed, how service calls are done, because then, once they understand the full perspective of your image and what your culture represents, they could then speak to that from a place of authority. They don't have to guess of what things are going to be done. They'll say that they know, and they actually will know, and that creates a much more competent and powerful salesperson with much more staying power in this industry.

Superpowerman, you've knocked it out of the park. That's a mic drop moment. You guys, this has been a big episode and another episode of Electric Pinner Secrets, the Premium Service Electricians podcast Just shy of 25 minutes. You heard it here first. There, either you're either going to adopt or they're going to adapt. You've got to train people at this level if you want to build that sustainable organization that can scale. You need this training. You need them to follow your lead. So please, guys, take this, take those action items, take everything we give you. Just promise to take action. We'll see you again tomorrow for another episode to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. Cheers to your success. Bye for now. Take care, guys.