Ep 224 - Run From the Path of Least Resistance

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to yet another episode of Electric Preneur Secrets, the Electricians podcast. This is episode 224. We're asking you to run from the path of least resistance, which is really a bit of a continuation from yesterday, where we uncovered some great topics with some great engagement in our Facebook group, where you could be joining in on the action and getting your questions answered. Live with us as well. I'm your host, clay Neumeier. With me, as always, my esteemed co-host, joseph Lucchini. We're the Electric Preneurs, just a couple of master electricians with business addictions, here and ready to serve you with this free coaching call. The admission fee is actually quite simple Sit back in the hot seat, take everything we give, just promise to take action and report the wins back to us so we can help you at an even greater level. Joseph, how are you doing this fine action Wednesday, brother?

It's a beautiful day, man, or, as I could say, it's a great day to have a great day, definitely feeling blessed, but you know it's fun. Can we share some of the nerdy things about our relationship that I think some people would appreciate?

Sure man Hit it.

Like literally just in the previous just call that we just had. I remember we said you know, we've been banging out pot and we've been banging out work. We got to have a quick break and a stretch my legs. I'm like you know what? I literally sent a lightsaber choreography video that I made on the fly to clay and be like there you go. But it's just, it's one of those fun things where I'm just glad that you and I get to have such a great relationship that we can have fun and do the fun things in between.

I appreciate that too, man. You know, amongst the values of health, family, business, we're really focusing on on trying to keep things light and fun and simple, simplifying things. For a lot of people out there listening to this right now, simplicity is kind of the last thought, as electricians were were, oh man, tenacious perfectionists with overly complex systems and everything. We can always simplify and we can always have a little more fun with what we're doing. So encourage you guys listening really to do more of what we are preaching as well. I mean, it really helps to just lighten it up. And at this time of year, brother, just to end the rant, I got to say I'm feeling light man. I'm feeling like I love the Christmas spirit, like I said in the last episode, love to share and be caring at this time of year, and not so much the winter. But hey, looking forward to a little Cuba trip next year. Nick, beautiful, I can't wait to hear you talk more about that. All right, brother, let's jump into this again. Continuation from yesterday, and I think I could start us off. I mean, the challenge really was like are we concerned at some point with kind of the cost benefit analysis of, well, how much time do we spend with a customer just to get to the sale? And I think even in that, in that context, the same question kind of loses power a bit, because all of a sudden now we're talking about the sale again, and that might be fundamentally what's wrong with this idea in the first place, and how I feel this connects to the title of this episode running from the path of least resistance is that there truly is I mean, if we look around, there truly is just so many people doing the same things as everyone else because it's kind of what's easiest. It's the easiest, quickest thing. But, as we know, we're kind of trying to do the opposite. I'm not trying to just burn and turn clients, I'm not trying to just get in, get out. As much as I feel that pressure to, I can also acknowledge, right here, right now, with you and you help me speak to it Is that really service at the highest level? And if we're not serving at the highest level, is that really serving us? And if I'm really focusing the amount of time I'm spending with a client based on the sale, this immediate sale, not lifetime value, is that service at the highest level? I mean, help me unpack this, joe, I'd be happy to.

So really I'm seeing it from two different angles. If you look at it like a sale, then your goal is to say what is the minimum amount of interaction required to get them to swipe or sign the line that is dotted. The problem is, is that the sale that you may be trying to chase is only a fraction that the relationship could deliver. We're not in the business of closing sales. We're in the business of fostering relationships and those relationships asking to buy from us. That's going to be the key difference. But let's say that that didn't play into your account and you're like you know what? Maybe I am just a sales guy. I can explain in logical terms why doing it the way you've been doing it actually costs you more than doing that third call. Would it be okay if I dive into that?

Yeah, man Jump right in.

Okay, call comes into your office. You had to pay for the lead somewhere, right? Someone paid for the lead. Office takes a call. They booked the call. You assume that lead as well, yeah, you then dispatch out to the call. You have your time spent with them. Then, assuming that you're not making a presentation on this fly because it is a opportunity or it's a long laundry list and you need time for it you go back to your house or you go back to your shop and you've taken the time in that time going into presentation. That could be an hour, that could be 30 minutes, it could be two hours, I don't know. Depends how slow or quick you are building options. You have that time associated as well. You could either A email that option over from there to cut your costs. Wouldn't that be the quickest, most easiest way of doing it? You don't. Why don't people do that Clay? Why would you just send it instead of? Why book the presentation in the first place?

Again. It just becomes outside of your control. You lose recency bias. It clearly demonstrates that you're just like everyone else, taking the path of least resistance, doing what's convenient for you. I would just challenge that. Even if homeowners feel like, well, that's the norm and that's what I expect, that just doesn't help you stand out or be anyone of no. Notability. I guess is the word maybe I'm looking for. Where is your difference if we keep doing what everyone's doing because it's easy?

No, we need differentiation, it needs to happen. We're in that situation now where, okay, assume you don't email it over, you can take the next step. You're going to physically go and present. Okay, let's say they narrow it to two choices. They like you, they're just not sure which one to take, or they don't. They like your choices but they're not quite sure how this that could have been someone else If you leave the call right now. They're in the same circumstance. They were on the first call when, if you had just emailed it over, they couldn't see the difference. You help them see a little bit further, but maybe not enough. If you stop the call right here and you email it over. You've just taken all this time invested For the chance that they'll do it. And if you want to get into some of the numbers of it, the difference between having a 20 to 40 percent closing ratio on an emailed presentation after having one visit Versa 60 to 80 percent chance of closing when you're in person. So if you took the metrics of going to that third call and having an 80 percent close, you would find that even doing less calls or more touches to one customer, you would have sold more, more consistently at higher values with a longer lifetime. Value relationships Because you chose to see it as a relationship.

Can I, can I add to this, to the level of mastery, like the advanced level? I gotta say the additional piece there is that if someone's choosing you Through the email presentation, the email it over, they're choosing you for the wrong reasons. Mm-hmm, and I can speak to you listening because you're listening to us and again, we're a premium service podcast If you didn't have interest in serving at the highest level and then, of course, being served at the highest level. By the way, serving at the highest level includes your staff Right in the culture there to serve your customers, who then serve your business by becoming long-standing stakeholders of it. And maybe the biggest challenge here is trying to Quantify what that really feels like. How much will this customer be worth? And that's where another big F word comes in, because earlier you said fostering. Well, this is faith. You got to have faith. As we mentioned yesterday, king George IV said Service is the highest form of distinction. You're gonna have faith in that. You've got differentiation just by running from this past path of least resistance. And so I challenge you full circle back. If you're getting a job that 30 to 40 percent, maybe you're lucky you're hitting 50 or 60 just on. That usually means the numbers are a bit low, because what people are bias on is choosing by price and you don't want to play that game. That's actually why we're here. In the first place is a price and value articulation problem in society, and it starts with you having faith in being able to design a life worth living, a business worth living, like everything that you want, and then shining brightly to have it. I'm gone on a complete motivational tangent here. Joe, I hope you don't mind. It's all good, brother man, I trust you. Imagine now you get the email and over job. Imagine you get that customer. What are the chances now that they're a pain in the ass? What are the chances that you didn't connect on the right pieces? Because even if you're a premium service provider, doing a shortcut and emailing it over, well, they didn't necessarily sign up for premium service. How do I know that? Because that's not the reason they made the decision to go with you if you emailed it over, and that in itself changes your future. So all these seemingly insignificant seemingly I'm saving myself an hour or two here is actually massive. I'm actually massively detrimental. And to take it fully back now and say, okay, so if we're acknowledging that this is really a price and value articulation problem, where the path of least resistance seems to keep coming back to person to person conversations. Then we acknowledge that it also starts with price and it starts with belief in your value for that price. And if you truly had that and you truly knew you served at the highest level, then everything else off the table. Why wouldn't you come back in person? If this is your mother, do you go back in person or do you email it over? If it's your dad, your brother, your best friend, do you just send it over or would you go and explain it to them because you love them and you care about them making the right choice? Shouldn't we treat everyone that way? Wouldn't that be service at the highest level?

In addition to that, not only would it be service at the highest level, but people I really feel would see that differentiation because the thing that comes down to is you said would you treat your mother this way? Would you treat your father this way, your brother, your best friend? To simply put your customer in the same context as you would with that close immediate family shows where your mind at is at play. I love that about you, because what you're saying is I'm going to treat this customer like she is my grandmother. I'm going to go the other mile to ensure that she gets the service she needs. The last thing I ever want to risk is her seeing three estimates side by side and she doesn't know which one's the right one Because she's on fixed income. She goes to the lowest, thinking they're all apples to apples, Then ends up going with handyman Chuck because he was lower and she thought it was the same quality work. Now we have to come back two years later fixing what he did plus doing it again the right way.

Yeah, man. In fact, you know what Not showing up in person to me is introducing risk to them, the risk of sacrificing Well, what Great communication Reliability though. Someone that actually shows up when they say they're going to right Safety, like, isn't that important with electrical Can we know that this was a safe installation, with proper view of the entire system to help them understand at least what those options are? I mean to me? I mean bias, right, we've been in this now. We've been working together on this. We're helping people with this. We see the number of people that sets free to have this understanding. I just couldn't imagine leaving it to someone and just saying you know what, Go ahead, make your best decision, and just kind of leaving it to chance.

Get back to when you're ready that cycle without the BAMFAM?

Yeah, it just it doesn't even compute, joe. There's another place that we see this path of least resistance, because I actually already alluded to this a little bit. We see it in all the places where there's one-to-one interaction and an investment of time into a relationship. Ironically, that's where we see it Like if you truly as we've talked about before like if you truly had a fail-safe electrical biz where you understood the why, you truly understood the what of your exchange and you knew the power of that exchange, like we do, like the confidence we have in our product, in our program, in helping electric burners see their greatest premium level service, if you truly had that and you would stand on top of a mountain or in a podcast or in a networking group and tell the people in the room, if you truly did that, wouldn't some people believe you, wouldn't. Some people want to see it for themselves? Right, wouldn't some people start calling you guys? But that person-to-person interaction is terrifying for us, the Good Neighbor program. If you just serve the neighbor and we all know the number one complaint in all of your markets is getting an electrician to actually answer the phone or call them back you truly served someone and we've given you guys away the Good Neighbor program. Shouldn't you go to the neighbor and say, hey, we just served Joe next door, knowing these homes were all around the same time? I wouldn't be surprised if you were experiencing some similar stuff, and it's in our process to always make sure we take care of the neighbors too. So no pressure. I just wanted to come introduce myself. Let you know we were in the neighborhood and if you needed anything we're here. Right, like that's it. But how many people actually do it?

I mean, if you think about it, the right decision, if there's two paths. The wrong decision is a back-to-back, bumper-to-bumper traffic, the path that usually leads to where people really want to go. It's got hills and bumps and because of that it doesn't look as clean and people would say I want to take the easy path. Everyone else is doing it, why shouldn't I?

Truly, man, truly Now. On one hand, this is sad and we say it's got this slower energy to it, it's dropping down here, but on the same, in the same breath, this is exciting. This is really good news for anyone listening to this to be motivated by and to take these actions we're about to spew here. Because if you just do the things that are not burn and turn, if you just do the things that are not about how do I just see if they'll pay me the money I want and then leave, if you do the extra things, like the Good Neighbor program, if you'll go speak your way and you're in networking groups, if you'll do these personal relationship investments, then you're going to stand out like a sore thumb in a very good way. It's going to be remarkable, just like Dorian, just like Eric and Mandy, just like Zach Bennett and just like Alan this week who are going to be interviewing and you guys get to join us with that tomorrow. Oh man, this is incredible, joel. Let's crank out a couple of action items and wrap this one up. What do you say, brother? Do you have anything in mind? Yeah, I do.

So I want to appeal to the logical electrician out there, because those are the ones that are. I mean, it's like most of us, unfortunately like well, I'm not going to book that third appointment if my margin doesn't dictate it. Would you rather a consistent singles hitter who goes and can always hit the ball Doesn't matter what pitch, he just hits, it Gets on base. Or would you rather the person who's just you know what I'm not going to swing this as a home run and he'll strike out, strike out, strike out, strike out. Well, it wasn't the right pitch. It wasn't the right pitch. It wasn't the right pitch. You have the option to be the consistent singles hitter if you're willing to take the steps that people before you were not willing to. Which do you want to be?

That's big, that's big man. I'm going to be super simple and just say do the thing, not anything, fight anything. Fight the pole. Really, look at a situation and think about this for a moment. Am I rushing this? Am I doing the thing? You guys, this is going to help, maybe on the biggest level we could ever hope run from the path of least resistance. Another huge episode in an effort to help you master your sales, simplify your pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. This has been another fantastic action. Wednesday, I cannot wait to share this interview with you guys tomorrow, with Alan and all of his growth on his journey towards 2 million and above man. This guy has been an absolute dynamo and we've loved working with him and we just want to share this with you so bad. So we'll see you again tomorrow. Guys, take care.