Ep 227 - How the panel determines the sale (Replay)

Hello and welcome to Electripreneur Secrets, the electrician podcast. We go live with you five days a week to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service. As always, I'm your host, clay Neumeier. With me my partner and esteemed co-host, Joseph, the sales bot, lucani, and today we're working on something very important how the panel actually determines your sale. This is super, super important in the process and I know you look at Joseph you can see him right now.

I'm so pumped.

I'm so pumped to get into this. I was almost nervous to introduce it. Just let me loose.

Let me loose.

Let me loose, okay. So we're actually going to be touching on a couple of places in our process today, and so here's the free value Let us unload on you guys. Joseph, how important is the panel in this sales process?

It is the most important thing that you can possibly be doing, and the reason why is this. What we need to do is we are establishing whether or not this customer is going to believe us as the liked, trust and respected individual in their home.

And let me explain why I feel some differentiation going on. Oh, it's coming heavy.

So every one of us has experienced an unprofessional electrician, but the problem is is that we don't often identify with that person. We always say we're better than that person, but the customer has not seen a difference yet. We need to create the difference in the experience that they've received, Because if they've worked with us and they've worked with them, they would know that we're better. But how can we convince them we're better before they've purchased? And that's the depth in which we diagnose. So I'd like to create two scenarios and I'd like you tell me what your experience of it would be. Is that fair? Sure, let's do it. Scenario one I am Acme Electric. I come out to your home I'm very nice to you, Of course I go down, I look at the panel. If I look at the panel and I open the cover, I don't even take the cover off. I just look at the panel and they go yep, there's space close and I walk away.

Right.

Right, that's a typical experience. The panel they were looking there and saying am I going to have to work too hard on this job? Nah, all right, yeah, okay, we're good, we've got space, we're fine.

Yeah, and for just a second I'd love to touch on that without ruining your momentum. It seems to be intuitive for service providers to have that get in, get paid, get out quick. There's something about the speed of this thing. We always want to expedite it, but that's really not what we're trying to do. It's poison. It's not the hours spent, it's the value put in those hours. If you want to add more value, then I think you want to hear what Joseph's about to introduce you. To Correct.

We've had that level of experience because usually I remember I said he may or may not go to the panel. It's very likely that he has a call and says I know my countertop outlet's not working, I'm going to go to that first. He opens the outlet, finds out that it's one-trip GFI, presses the button, the microwave kicks back on, everyone cheers and you collect your $75 diagnostic. Everyone's waiting except for you, the service provider. Now the problem is this let's say sake of argument, you are this ACME electric guy and the problem happens again. Does the customer going to be cool paying you another $75? Come back out?

No.

No, why would they? You're the professional. Shouldn't this be under warranty? It just came out two, three days ago. The problem is is that you are treating the symptom. You're not treating the root cause. If you can go and get the GFI to stop tripping, great, but shouldn't you look and figure out why it's tripping the first place? I would think so. That's why, in our process, the very first thing we look at regardless of what the customer says is we look at the panel first, go to the panel first. The reason why it's so essential that we need to do this is because, a lot of times, that's the system that's providing the power for everything else, and if the heart or the brain isn't healthy, could we understand that the body isn't going to be healthy as a result? Yeah, definitely. So the issue that we're running into, then, is, if you have it set up to where you're not looking at the panel, you will miss on all the additional safety concerns that could be affecting this. So let's say, sake of argument, you follow Acme Electric. Acme Electric came by, they opened up the cover, they took a look and they're like yeah, it's fine, it got space. Gfi trips we were setting you're good here at service of Blatricle. We show up and the very first thing we do is take off the cover. Now, what do you think the customer is going to say when the other guy didn't even go to the panel? And we're insisting that we have to look at the cover?

Why are they going to say Well, at first they might even be in disbelief, because the beliefs that they now have, because they didn't know before, is that you don't need to do that.

Correct, because how often does the average homeowner understand electrical theory principles?

So they might even ask you why are you doing that? And that is the miracle answer right there. Question oh right, a miracle question. Well, good A miracle question.

You're right, but I had the answer. I'm just, I'm fraught, yeah, yeah yeah, I can't know. So the thing is is that when your customer is telling you, why do you need to look at that, that is telling you the most beautiful piece of information. It means that, whether they've gotten someone or not, the other person didn't look at the panel. So when they say, why did that happen, you can let them know. Well, here at service of Blatricle, we believe in treating the root cause of the problem, not just the symptom of it. And the very first thing you want to look at is the main electrical control system. Even if that wasn't the case, we need to make sure that the emergency shutoffs are in place and that they're at least functional before we touch on electrical energized equipment. Could you blame me for wanting to ensure that you and I are both safe when we're doing this? Not at all. So you've given a reason and a way that it benefits the customer. Now, how many times have we opened up panels and found out that rust on the bottom of it? Now, you guys all know what I'm talking about. Right, you've got a half inch knockout missing on the top left hand side. Yeah, there's a water pipe over the top of it and you know what? Maybe it's not leaking, but it's going to condensate, it's going to drip. It's going to happen, right? What basement has a humidifier on a regular basis? Yeah, so 10 years goes by, water drips into the panel, and now you're in a situation where the infrastructure all the breakers on the left hand side and terminals are starting to get rusted. Could that create a concern? I would say so. It would make sense, right? Water electricity shouldn't mix. So the thing that's going to end up happening is now you're in a situation to say not only that I recognize why this is happening, but I can start to recognize where else it will happen as well. So the thing that we're trying to do isn't just solve the immediate problem. We're trying to give the customer a lifetime value, meaning that every time we come out, they know that we've already inspected for things that could happen in the future as well.

It's the equation of life cause and effect Exactly, and most of us are running around chasing the effect, trying to solve what isn't the root cause, that problem.

Exactly so. There's two different things that we have to address at this point. One is what we, the professional, are doing and two, what is the customer experiencing from it. What they're experiencing is that, if we insist that we have to do this, does it show that we have a process?

Yeah.

And if we have a process, that usually means that we've been trained. And if we've been trained, does that mean that we're usually more or less professional. More so, just by showing that we're going to the panel and we insist that we have to look at it, we're good, yeah. The second thing is by saying why we're doing it. I want to ensure that the emergency electrical shutoffs are in place and that they're functional before I have to touch any energized equipment. Could you blame me for wanting to ensure that you and I are safe while we're doing this? What person is going to look at you and say, yeah, fuck you, I don't want you being safe, go to the GFI.

Yeah, in fact, their question might change. Why didn't the other guy do this then? Ah, in fact, I'm going to ask a bonus question here. How important is the facial signs that you show when hearing that they didn't do it? You're setting me up on this one.

I love it All right. So the thing is I hate to say it this way, but the more surprised you look you can't look angry, but you have to look surprised You're usually a slight tilt to the head and be like, so they didn't. Come and look at the panel, that's interesting. They might say well, why is that interesting? Well, without looking at the panel, how could you be sure that the main electrical control point, this, is where the power starts? Wouldn't it make sense that you check where the problem begins? Wouldn't you want to check it from its source? Or you can even go further and say well, in order to provide you with the highest level of reliability, experience and safety, we have to look at the main electrical enclosures. This is the only way that we can give you a price that will not go up. Did no one else look at this? So, in either situation, no matter what they're going to say, we've not only put the seat of doubt into anyone else that came into this home, while also elevating the reasons why we can't just do it. We have to have a reason why. The why is what's going to get us motivated? Sound good so far. Yeah, love it, keep going. All right. So continuing on with this, we now have to imagine what are we saying when you open the panel. I actually missed there was something I was going to say earlier. There's two directions the customer is going to go, and I only touched on one of them. One is what they're experiencing. The second is what are we seeing? We, as the electrician, now have the opportunity to be faced with electrical problems that both we and the customer didn't expect to have, and if we find problems, do we have the justification to offer solutions? Yes, so by de facto, now we're in a situation that, as an honest service provider, you have found a problem that is either current or future, but it is still real, and you could be anyone really blame you for saying why don't we fix this before there's a problem? Why is that such an important factor? Why do we need to fix it before? How does that actually save the customer money?

Well, a couple of reasons. You don't have to come back if we do it now. Time delay, effort and sacrifice. Tell you what. Why don't we work on this today, so you never have to pick up the phone again and try to solve a problem that arose from this?

I love that. Can I add a little bit of spice to it? Let's do it. So. Let's say you have a. Let's say you're the customer right? This kitchen GFI went out and I didn't look at the panel. Let's say I charged $75 and I'm at 125, 150. I changed the GFI while I was there and you know what. You might have given me a hard time about it, but it is what it is. I had to pay that 150. Well, I took off to meet you there. So there's a cost to my personal paid time off, isn't there? It's not free, it's accounts from somewhere. There's only a limit to it. So I had to take time off, either on a weekend, which is time away from my family, time during the day, away from my job, or time during my personal enjoyment. Either way, I had to put an investment beyond the money, and time does not become limitless. We have a finite amount of time. Money we can make more of, but time we do not get. So let's say, say a argument that's probably happened again. You've already used PTO and now you have to call either call the same electrician or a different electrician. If you have to call a different electrician, you're paying that same dispatch fee, you're paying the same kind of diagnostic again and you're resubmitting your PTO time. The problem with that now is now it adds up to the customer. Because how much would that PTO time be worth them? 100, 200, 300, 500, 500,000? We don't know. But the fact is is that they're missing a day that they're not taking on vacation. They're missing a day that they're not relaxing and unwinding. They're choosing to spend it with you chasing problems throughout their house. So if you don't preemptively solve a problem, you can actually explain to a customer how solving it now is drastically cheaper than waiting to solve it later. Because even if you didn't account for the time, would it make sense that if, let's say, you recognize that they're backstab outlets and you recognize that one of those terminals could go loose, well, I could fix it now. Or, because they're all daisy chained, I could wait for one of those neutrals to burn out. And then I have to take three hours of chasing all the outlets in the house to figure out which one was the one that had the break, and then I've got to actually fix it. God forbid there's any issues. So the customer is paying for way more time, not even the fact that there could be damages. I mean, how many times have you seen a burn outlet with like smoked around the cover?

Yeah, you have to pay for that, which definitely answers the question. I don't believe that those backstab receptacles are a hazard.

I'm going to look at every single one of you and I'm going to say if you're telling me otherwise, you got to be kidding me. Like I get it, it's legal. Okay, nec is legal. But we've all can agree that the NEC is not an instruction manual for untrained people. We just know that's the bare minimum for a new construction contractor to come in to speed wire these things and get them done. But would you truly justify that in your home, even if it was not unsafe let's say there was no issue whatsoever with the spring coils If it ever broke, wouldn't it make sense to at least have them pigtailed so that only one goes wrong instead of the whole chain? Come on, even if it's not illegal, is that the only thing keeping us from performing good service, whether or not the cops are going to come get us?

It's logical to me. But hey, I'm an industrial background guy. I want to pull out a torque screw head and actually write down the exact torque I put on that.

Oh God, I thought two grunts tight counts. Yeah, nothing too grunts tight.

Impact Boom Boom Done. It's cross-threaded, it ain't going nowhere. You said something else before and I know we weren't going this way. But since we're doing more than just replacing that GFCI, wouldn't it make sense to offer that club membership and roll that in today? And since we're rolling that in today, this would also waive all future diagnostic service calls fees. But also, being that we're refurbishing, refreshing that panel, I guarantee you're not going to have any more problems from that place anyway.

So right then, and there you could be offering a range of choices. Like you said, offering a refurbishment or, as I like to say, a reconditioning or restoration of the main electrical control systems. Rejuvenation, I've heard as well.

Rejuvenation is also.

well, there's a lot of things that can communicate what you're doing other than replacement. God guys, stop saying replacement. You can use better words than good. Let's come up with better things. Replacement, fine, but what about restoration, rejuvenation All these things work. Figure out what you're doing. Reconditioning regardless. Communicate the value that they're getting. Sometimes verbally packaged things is the best way to communicate the value that comes from it.

Yeah, love it. Okay. So we've talked a bunch about this, where that fits in the process. How does that affect the sale?

We've established that. I want to make sure that we've gotten that double down, all right. So how does this establish the sale? What it's done is, at the very least, the customer now has a strong differentiation. On one hand you've got Tanktop Terry who came in who said I'm just going to change one thing and get out, and then you have you who are insisting on checking out all the safety systems so it directly benefits the customer. You show that you have a process, you show that you're committed to their safety and yours, and then, after inspecting the system, you're preventing problems before they happen. Just on the same call with the same customer. Have we not created a substantial amount of differentiation? Absolutely. So you now have the entitlement to create options where normal you could not have, without reaching or stretching or being salesy. The customer has seen the additional value of you being there. As you mentioned, even if you had that base GFI, you could be offering your first-class membership as a way of bridging the gap.

So simple math. Their understanding is up, so your expertise is up, so trust is up. Options are up, which means sales are up, and you've offered club membership as well.

So everything across the board has been offered Service, everything it does. Think I'm better than this.

Love it, I love it so the action item is clear. Here we had two. If you did them both, I would say that would be the all-star, or is there more than that? Let's see. So there was definitely. Go to the panel first, not the location of the fault.

Correct. That is a non-negotiable guys, you have to go to the panel first and you have to tell them why.

If you don't tell them why, it's going to appear salesy, and we don't want to be those kind of people, and the second piece was making sure to remove that cover and do a proper inspection.

And the best thing about it I'm going to say you want to hear the all-star action? Yeah, let's go. I'm going to stress this the all-star action is be quiet while you're doing it, intentionally be quiet, and if you're going to say anything, don't say words, just hmm, that's interesting. The best thing about that is you're going to get the customer, whether they're interested or not. I have said those lines before and I've had customers say what did you find? A double tap and suddenly, what does that tell you? That they're expecting you to tell them? If someone says, did you see this or what did you see, it means that they believe that there is a problem to start with. And the second thing is if they say a specific problem, it means that there's someone else was there. So not only have we gotten in front of the panel, gotten there first, opened the cover, but we keep quiet while we're diagnosing. We will not talk our way out of this At this point. It's your job to lose.

So let me get this straight the all-star action is actually not to do much. For once, it was to be quiet, it's to be quiet.

Just be quiet while you're there. Show that curious face. It's the best way Diagnose as if you are a medical professional.

All right. Today I truly believe we delivered in helping you guys master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium-level service. At least enough to have some distinguishments, some distinction. As they say, service to others is the highest form of distinction, so we should make sure you have some intent in yours. That's why we invite you to continue listening to us five days a week, right here in either the Electric Pernur Facebook group or wherever you found us in your podcast land. If you want to tell a friend about us, you can tell them to search Electric Pernur or the Electrician podcast. It's just that easy. I'm Clay Neumeyer. This is Joseph Lucchani. Can't wait to see you guys again Looking forward to it.