Ep 235 - Million $$$ Start-up Series 2024 - Prospecting PtII

Hello, hello, hello and welcome back to yet another episode of Electric Purnier Secrets. This is episode 235 of this new launch series, also known now as the Million Dollar Startup Series for 2024, how we would go about starting a company and getting it quickest to cash sustainable, hopefully cracking that million dollar first year code, joe, and today's all about prospecting Part two. I am your host, clay Neumeier, with me, as always, my esteemed co-host, joseph Lucani. We are the Electric Purniers, just a couple of master electricians with business addictions, still holding licenses, by the way. Welcome, welcome to our daily freemium coach. Call the admission cost for this nothing but your time. So sit back in the hot seat, take everything we give, just promise to take action, report the wins back to us and, of course, during this series, if you're engaging with us live in the Facebook or on your preferred podcast channel, please feel free to ask any questions. We'll try to fit in some answers to that in this new launch series as well. Joseph, how you doing today, brother?

You know, today is actually a pretty interesting day because I know when you and I were talking about prior to getting this conversation. It's like man, I'm tired, man, I'm tired too. But there's another word on top of tired that I wanted to throw in, and that's inspired. I feel inspired today because if we didn't have something worth saying, there would be no reason to show up, and I genuinely think that if we come here and we say our knowledge and we put out in the atmosphere, someone will benefit for it. And that means I'm willing to push myself past that 99% of the will because I think that this is going to be worth an endeavor.

I love that you said that, actually, and it reminds me of a conversation we had with a mentor recently where even it's funny how, in the thick of things, you can get away from your true core vision and your mission statement right and like, just even in realizing and feeling the passion. Like you said, if we didn't have that inspiration to be here, it would be a totally just a flat tire entirely. But that vision for us and really empowering an industry to rise up above this rat race and be something so much more than so many of us feel it currently is, is just absolutely like, relentlessly motivating to us in this podcast. 100% brother. Today's topic is no exception to that because it requires us to rely on that a little bit propelling forward with this Y prospecting part two. This is actually tying into what we started with. Let's do a quick little recap what we suggested at the end of last episode. If you haven't heard it, please go back and listen. Let us know what your thoughts were on starting with the people you already know, and the big reason why is because these are people that already know like and trust you and, as we know, people do business with people they know like and trust. So what would be wrong of us to want to start there, with the people that are already in our influence?

Joe, no, it wouldn't, you know. At the same time, you brought up a scenario that I think there are some people in the background who are listening and saying like I wonder and that was aren't friends and family the ones that are always trying to get the discounts?

Right, and if we're at a premium price certainly don't want to be out there discounting at least as much as possible. But I do want to contextualize and say my drive here is impact. I want the referral and the review really badly as much as the cash, but please, man, continue. What are your thoughts around that objection then?

Well, the thing that came down to it was you know, it really depends on who's actually a friend and who's not right. If you have a friend and you said I'm starting a new business and I'm doing it because I genuinely want to serve the community and I want to get myself out there so we can stop having people cut corners, stop having people rush and get it in and out, and I just want to serve in a way that we didn't get served when we were trying to hire electricians, that kind of friend is going to be the one who's like you know what yeah, come with me, I'm going to pay asking price. When you have people that look at you and say I'm a friend, therefore I shouldn't pay asking price, that's actually one of the worst kind of friends you can have, because that friend is saying, hey, I believe in your dream and I like your dream and I like to support you, but not enough to actually pay for it, doesn't that?

kind of hurt in a way. Totally man, 100% valid. Feel it already from here, All the way from Canada. We feel that especially in Canada, where we hold the door open and thank people for walking through. Thanks for charging me full-rate, no worries.

But the thing is, is that now? How do we actually articulate that? I just wanted to get this out of the way. That way, as we go through, there's no objections to anyone listening to this. Is that fair? Yeah, yeah, All right, Totally so, I want to say. I want to say that, as a customer, you want to establish that you're working off the ability of. I want to be better than you've previously experienced, Like. I'm doing this because I genuinely, as your friend, I want to give you the highest level of service and just as if you don't want me cutting corners for our customers or our other clients people who are not you you also probably wouldn't want me expecting you to cut corners for you as well. So, to make your life easier, what I'm going to do is I'm not going to give you a number. Instead, I'm going to give you a range of options and you can choose whatever you feel is the right fit, with absolutely no pressure from you whatsoever. All I ask is that you entertain these options and if I'm not clearly the right fit, then I'm not going to be offended if you don't want to work with me, but if I did give you something that was better than what you've ever experienced and it cost a little bit more. Would that disqualify me from working with you?

Yeah, great question, right. Most times in that context the answer would be no, at that level of it's just an innocent question. There's not even a number here yet, right, correct?

So the fact is that you've brought up the situation to explain to a friend and say you know what, these are your options, these are your ranges. I may be more because I refuse to cut corners on quality, reliability or customer service, if I refuse to cut those corners in your home. But it costs us to be more of an investment. Is that going to disqualify us? We bring that up because we want them to have an out at the very beginning, because a friend may entertain a presentation, may entertain doing something and then strain the relationship. But if you can put it front and center, just how we're doing in this podcast, like this is the first thing we're going to address the friendship can still be maintained. And then, when you get to actually giving them a price, they've chosen to do it with the expectation you may be more so now there's less risk to the friendship and there's also less risk for someone expecting a discount Because you never polluted. That we're giving you a deal, it's we're finding you the highest level of service. That is our focus.

I love that. I love that. One thing I'm thinking with that is that in this we're actually rehearsing speaking to our vision or mission a little bit here. Because, we did elect for service and of course we're going to elect for premium service because we want to charge a premium rate. And even in saying premium rate it can feel dirty, but honestly it's only that because of everyone else charging so little, that hasn't done the math and realizing what a service provider should charge. So I want to know that I'm charging the right amount, as I just were. Double underlined, bold, italicized and highlight. That's the feeling I need, along with that feel good, that look good, feel good, the confidence we were describing earlier in the series and arriving especially at a friend or family's house, especially at an ex-co-workers or even someone that you buy from consistently. If you've bought from the same car salesman for the last two decades, you should be calling them too. If you support them, they should support you. And I just want to really highlight an important piece of this the reason we would go to the known network first. We've touched on some lies and no like and trust, but we're also looking for a multiplier here.

That's the key.

Let's say you could go to a new market and you could have gone to Facebook groups first. You could have gone to Google first, you could have went right for the website. You could have went to other contractors and we're going to unpack a lot of that stuff in this episode, in the coming ones. But let's say apples to apples, you're going to have the same conversion rate between new found prospects and people that already know you. Prospects, warm prospects. What do you think the multiplier rate difference would be? And I know this might seem like an exact kind of answer math question, but like can you see how there would be a greater multiplier impact on the people that know you? They'd be more willing to refer, especially after witnessing great service from you.

Yes, and in addition, there's one other factor that really comes into play for a long term win. So we have a warm lead, we have someone we're working with, they have rapport, they have trust, they like respect. You've given them the full service. Now, every time someone questions your price in the past, you could say, listen, I completely understand, but I believe in this price and this level of service so much I'd even charge my grandmothers. And the fact that you can say literally my best friends, the closest people in my family, my mother, my father, whoever I'm working with, they get the same rate because I've made it as low as I can to be sustainable, to continue to provide you service in the future. Was it wrong of me to want to deliver that level of service to you?

100% great. Not to mention they're going to be more supportive with any little hiccups that you do have. While you're warming up this process and that's something we haven't even addressed yet we're just quickest to cash, get out there, make some sales, and this, I believe, is truly it, joe, to really start to hone in how we do this and be able to then focus on the development of options, then focus on the rest of the loop training method that we have, right that helps electric burners explode so quickly. And, of course, we're going to go through those things too. Outside of once, we've exhausted the friends and family which, by the way, this list should be in the hundreds, because even if earlier someone disqualifies you at a higher price, they may still have someone to refer you to Because they're still friend or family. It's not like, hey, we're no longer friends because you try to charge me full rate.

There's a long out there.

For many people, this alone could fill up your first year of service. It's that big if you do it well. But then there's the entire service leads now list, just ignoring the marketing. What about the good neighbor program, Joe?

Yeah, the big benefit behind that is and especially if you already know the people. Like, let's say, you're going to an aunt and uncle's house you played in that cul-de-sac as a kid. You know the neighbors already most likely. You know their kids, you know someone. So it's not hey, I'm knocking on this door and that's a previous customer. It's hey, I was visiting my grandma across the street. You know Mrs Jones, of course, and I was actually coming up because I know you as well. And now you blend into the good neighbor program. So even the neighbors of the people you already know likely already know you to some capacity. So even those leads are warmer leads 100%.

So powerful, so powerful. So, as you can see, this all has this multiplier impact and it's much greater, and it's kind of easy to even perceive that from this stance how a new lead is going to be harder to get the actual review that you want and converting it less right? If you serve 10 friends, you should get 10 reviews, am I wrong?

I mean, if they're friends and you did good work, then yeah, I mean the very bare minimum, at least if you follow our process. It would be have processes in place to get reviews at the end of the call. At the very least. Can't they swipe five stars?

Give me something 100%, and who would you feel more comfortable asking if they know anyone else who could use your service? A friend, or family, who you've just openly come into and said hey, this is my endeavor, it's brand new, but here's what we're doing and this is why it's different. Or someone who you don't know, who you often then try to appear like you're not brand new so that they don't get the heebie-jeebies at the checkout.

You know what this actually brings me up to a particular question that some people ask that comes up with friend and family, that I think this would really be impactful. Do you mind if we take a quick little moment?

No, let's do it then.

Sometimes friends and family ask so how is business doing? And the thing is is we have this major reaction to say, oh, business is good. But this is actually the best opportunity to be honest with them and be like you know what. That's actually a great question and I'd love your opinion on how to help on, if I could get your help on this. We would love to meet more great people like you. I'm new with this. You've obviously been around for a long time. Do you think you could help me? Like, do you have? If I want to meet more people like you, where would you start? And the just the shift in the conversation is oh, he needs help compared to he's doing great. If you're doing great, why would they help you? But if you're saying you know I could use your help, actually you know you're a smart person, clay. You've been around the industry for a while. You know people. If I wanted to meet people like you, what would you do? And they may even put up a hand of them. Say you know what, like, I'll introduce you to the neighbor. Yeah, I, you know. I got someone at work who's talking about getting a generator and Now they start coming up with leads for you, but they're happy to do so because it's I'm helping a family member, I'm helping a friend now, compared to he's doing fine, he'll find it out on his own.

Yep, and I know we've mentioned this in other podcasts before, and it only seems fitting to squeeze into this episode too. In my humble opinion, when we bring up bartering, Maybe a level of discount, but trades for services. If there were a time to do this, it's actually now, while the overhead is quite low and you have opportunities to leverage others as well. Now, I think you did something like this with signage in your business. Yeah, right.

Yeah. So what we did was they had actually different opportunities happen a couple different times, but one of them was where a client wanted to barter work and she works for a newspaper and she's like what we'll do is, if you take care of just like it was like two trough lights in her basement Just change the ballast out and then you take care of that, I'll put you on a cover page and we'll have an ad written for you like a description of who you are, what you're about, and I'll take professional pictures of you and then we'll get post those. Then I'm like yeah, my overhead is I would make it 300 bucks a month. You can't even get sure, you know and the benefit, or even you know what. When we first started off, we literally traded at an ice cream shop. It would be like it was an ice cream shop right on the main road. It was like route 32, so like hundreds and hundreds of cars will go back every single day, and we said, if you let us use your dumpster and you let us park in your parking lot, we'll do any electrical work you want for free. And was this? It was like a hundred foot facility, like just a small little thing. But the fact was is they got a ton of free electric work, but we also got a ton of exposure, so much so that when we actually bought our shop and moved, people were like did you guys close down? What happened? We don't see you anymore and we're 32. So it's a great opportunity to barter in some circumstances when it's mutually advantageous.

Love that and it goes without saying with all of this and the prospecting, not everyone's gonna buy now. In fact, we never expected that in the first place. It is a volume game of really shaking your network and just having those meaningful conversations and being memorable. And part of being Memorable is following up, and if we don't start those habits now, then we're not gonna have them later when we really need them, with new prospects that are coming into awareness of us for the first time. And it's even more important than it takes a certain number of touch points for people to trust you, and we should know and expect that from our internet work as well, from this first level of prospecting. That is a superpower. So what would that look like? Well, let's say you'd went through a hundred people and you called them all. Ten of them invited you over. Another ten said you know what Thanks for thinking of me and thanks for for calling. It was great to catch up, but there's nothing we need right now. We'll keep our eyes and ears open for you. Though Most people won't call them back again, I Would absolutely touch base with them again. It might not even have to be a call the second time, but there would be a few touches over the next month or two to make sure that nothing comes up and comes to mind, to make sure that what comes to mind is me and they don't lose sight of that, because it's not that they weren't support of it's that they couldn't think of anything Right now. And I bet you, if you keep showing up, another 10% of those are gonna come through in the next three to six months mm-hmm. There's so much around prospecting, but I think this is a really good start, joe, and I think we're running out of time, so why don't we crank a couple of action items to get this one kicked off, and then we're gonna start tying this right into your full-on marketing efforts and Developing that. That offer training and how we're going to proceed. So there's a ton more coming. Do you have a basic in mind, brother?

I actually have an all-star in mind, if you wouldn't mind.

Okay, okay, he's got the all-star.

I can handle both if you want is whatever you prefer.

I'm drawing a bit of a basic blank today. I'm not sure why got your back. Coffee's not kicking in yet you are not. You want to go.

Yeah, all right, okay. So the basic action that I would start with actually ties in with the all-stars. I'm gonna do one before the other. The basic is are you willing to pick up the phone and simply make this action? Because the first bare minimum is Do you believe that you are worth reaching out to someone? For it's a simple thought. It's if you believe in your business's value, such as I'm never gonna cut corners, I'm always gonna be on time, I'm always gonna be responsible and all those other great things. Do you yourself believe that you're worth hiring? That's the bare minimum action. If you can at least say I'm worth telling people about, then you'll be willing to do the thing. The all star action is a little harder, though, because we can believe in ourselves and still not take action. So belief without conviction or belief without action attached to it is useless. So the all star action sounds a little bit harder. Let's say you had 100 people. Yeah, everyone's got their phone. They've got a thousand contacts, most likely. But let's say you take 100 people you think are going to be good. You can't do 100 all at once, but could you commit to doing 10 a day and then can you actually show up and do it and keep these lists and have this running list and keep checkmarks and tallies. Make an Excel sheet and say I touched it at this date, I touched it at this date, I touched it at this date. And every day, five people get crossed off the list Every day. The small, consistent actions will yield huge results. We just have to one, believe that we're worth it and, two, be willing to do the fucking thing. Just do the thing.

Couldn't have been better stated man, and we're the proof. Honestly, that's how we built a million dollar business in 2023. Was simply through that organic prospecting, helping provide value, creating conversations, making sure to serve any place that we could, and people just buy at that point and they feel good doing so, and that's a superpower on its own. So we're to be wrong of us to want to start there and help you guys and help this young business. Master that first, so that we know how to take care of everyone else that we're going to pay for to get into our sphere of influence. Wouldn't be wrong. Wouldn't be wrong. Takeaways Okay, this has been another episode. We'll see you in the next one, brother.