Ep 242 -$1M Launch Series 2024 - Loop Method Pt II - Future Solutions

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to yet another episode of Electric Printer Secrets, the Electricians podcast. We're on episode 242, another episode in this million dollar launch series, and we're on the Loop Method, part 2, which is all about this future solutions component. What does that stick around? Find out. We've got some very important, a few topics to actually go through today. I'm your host, clay Neumeier, with me, as always, my esteemed co-host, joseph Lucani, and we are the Electric Peneurs just a couple of master electricians with business addictions here and ready to serve you with our freemium daily coach call. That's right, it's free. So sit back in the hot seat, take everything we give, just promise to take action and report your wins back to us so we know it's working for you too, joseph, how are you doing today, brother?

I'm doing really good this morning. My feet are currently being cooked off by a nice space heater as we enjoy a enjoyable cold snap and everything's freezing and covered in ice. But life is good and I am a happy man doing what I do best. What about you, my friend Nice? How's your day going?

Yeah, canadian winters, man, lots of indoor time. I'm also downstairs in my office. I do not have a heater under my desk, but I do have some nice slippers Keeping my feet cozy, brother, I'm pumped up for this episode because again we're diving into the loop method stuff. I love the loop method, not just because it's named after us and we made it and it's only here and it's unique and it actually helps electricians serve without coming across salesy not only for those reasons, but because of these future solutions that it provides that repeat business, with repeat clients engaging in repeat transactions, which to me is a win, win, win For you, for your staff and for your clients. So who could argue with that?

I can't think of anyone, and I actually, just in real time, thought of another title that would really work with the situation, because they're also futuristic solutions. They're solutions that, if you were to look at them, they're not common in today's industry. They're not common in the industries that we're used to coming up in, but instead, if you look at how a service company is supposed to operate, on paper, all of these things are in place and it's serving the electrical company of the future.

I like it, man. Good start, Good start Building up some curiosity. So yesterday we talked about, in part one, the seven components we already knocked off for in pricing, trips, deposits and financing all important things. Today we're talking about options, membership and warranty. Oh my God, these are so big. First and foremost, let's kick it off with the options. As people have come to realize, we tend to suggest six. It's not really six options, is it?

No, I mean. What it really comes down to is it's a range between three buyer archetype categories and being able to say, regardless of where the customer typically makes on purchasing, they'll always have a choice between one of two in those archetypes, such as a premium buyer, a mid-range buyer and an economy buyer. So it's not six of the same, it's instead two, two and two, so that, no matter what your customer's mental image of the project's going to look like, you can have something better than what they thought it was going to be and have something worse than what they thought it was going to be. And regardless, when they can control the prices, they win and you win because they've chosen you.

And every choice is a great choice. I love this so much. We've talked about this till we're blue in the face, honestly, if you're hearing it for the first time, please stick with us on this one, because options are huge, huge, huge. I mean, maybe one of the biggest success pieces we see is just in the again from yesterday, like people stepping into the value, claiming that value, standing true with integrity and serving at the highest level. With six options. I mean, if you do those things, everything else tends to when you build enough trust and it goes well just be a landslide victory. I mean massive, massive, massive. So, if I heard you right, we're talking about two options for three buying archetypes Correct? Can I tell you what I love about this, please do. Most electricians are trying to qualify by ballparking price over the phone. Oh yeah, instead we're creating a win, win, win. That third win being the clients in any buying archetype that they may be, so long as they can afford us, even at our lowest economy level. Then we've got a client in front of us and we've got a roadmap with all the other options that we laid out, because sometimes just sometimes other stuff goes wrong for them and or trust builds after we talk a time or two and serve them once, and they decide you know what? Let's put that other thing on the schedule too.

You know. There's one additional thing as well, because I love everything you're saying. Your points make complete sense, but I also want to speak to the person in the background that's already tuning us out because we're not listening. Okay, I want you to listen up, because this is actually going to be really helpful for you. Too often we go to the home and we make an assumption on what they're going to buy based on what we see, and I can tell you that I was that guy as well. I had gone to homes with three feet of grass in the front yard, with the blue tarps on the roof, with the car on blocks in the driveway and mentally said that they're not going to buy, only to have that exact type of customer look at my top option, circle it and hand it back to me. And the best part about it was when I asked why she said because no one else offered this and I know what the house looks like and I wanted it to be done right. You're the only one who made that offer.

So let's use you and if anyone looks right, it's us right. Like that's the point of the loop method. We've got all our ducks in a row from the time they called Now to the time we're articulating that value in person. It's been entirely congruent. I'm literally picturing ducks in a row right now, joe, so, so, so important. So I love that you said that, I love that you brought that up. Options, man, options. Now the other things that we're going to talk about today tie perfectly into this, because it's not just options, it's also the memberships.

Memberships are big.

So if we're talking about the futuristic as you said solutions, how important is it now to tie memberships into this whole loop method piece?

So the thing that I love about membership so much other than the fact that they're really not very common in the electrical trade they're huge in ATAC, they're huge in plumbing, but they're really not very big in electric is because what it does is it does one, it's a great value adder. But the second and the more relevant to this conversation is that it allows you to become their preferred person before they'll even entertain working with anyone else. So to put in perspective, what that means is that when our memberships, we let them know that there's no diagnostic charges, meaning that no matter what they want to call us for, we're going to go and also the fact that we're given the priority service, meaning they go right to the front of the line. So if a customer is in a situation where they're entertaining doing something, wouldn't it make sense both for them and for you that they're going to go and work with the person, that it doesn't charge them to go out, and then, even more so, that we're rolling a sit down and do designs with them, whether they want to use us or not. It's your job to lose now, because if they already like, trust and respect you and you're already into me, they're familiar with their home and you already know they're buying archetype, and then you could present the solutions because they brought you in first and probably the only one who comes in. You now have a lifetime customer who has a vested interest in seeing you succeed.

I love it, man. Great points. Now I've seen resistance around the memberships in a couple of places, but one of the suggestions that we make and I would definitely take to this one as well in our million dollar launch is introducing this club membership from the moment. People call Correct why is that important, do you think?

So the worst thing that someone can feel is that they're being upsold on something, which is why, in our process, the very first thing that we're saying is so, are you a first class past member? And a lot of times someone's going to be like, well, what is that? Don't worry about it, we'll get to that later then, totally fine. I just ask because if you were a member, you would have had that answer. Sure, no problem, don't worry about it. I just want to make sure that you're in the right position into their mind that this is a thing that exists. Then a second time, towards the end of the call, at the end, where you get ready to schedule them, you bring up the benefits of how they can get from the line status and how they can have diagnostics, waves and all those other perks. Then, when it gets brought up again by the technician in his options that's the third time they've heard about it Even more so let's say they didn't buy the third opportunity they're going to call you again and they're going to hear are you a first class past member? So it's a loop. It continuously feeds itself, because every time they call, they hear about it, and every time you come out. They hear about it. It just becomes easier for them to just become a member at that point.

I love that man. Really good justification. Now the third piece then we'll tie all of these together being warranty. I feel like a lot of electricians make a mess of this opportunity. Warranty is something we've got to talk about. Ironically, even for us in our million dollar launch, it's come kind of late, because we're at a stage where we're already doing work. If someone asked us, well, what's our warranty? We may not have had a proper answer yet. We may have said, oh, we just match the material warranty, the equipment warranty, which is usually what? One year, right. So if you are only offering a one year warranty at this point, or it's not articulated yet, a I'm not trying to embarrass or call you out or cast shame, I would never want to do that but B I want you to know that there's a massive opportunity here to again leverage this futuristic, the future solutions, and the loop method helps with that too. So why is warranty so important in your mind, joe? To extend and have a greater process, I guess, is the word I'm looking for with your customers.

No worries. So it really thrives if you look at it in its absence. So I'm going to create two scenarios and we're going to do a pro and con. Is that cool? Yeah, all right. So scenario one you called, you went to a customer's home two, three weeks ago and you put up a ceiling fan for them. Everything's perfect, it's not wobbling, it's got our patented dust free fan installation and everything that goes with it. Great, they're happy. They sign off, they're done. Two weeks later they call and they say hey, the fan's not working. What's your warranty? Well, what I'm going to do is I'm going to. There's a charge for us to come out, but if it's something related to us, we'll take care of it. The first thought is that your customers can be like Well, if it's something you did, isn't this warranty? Why should I pay for you to do a warranty call? It's creates an immediate friction point because they wouldn't have called you if they thought it was their fault. They're calling you because I think it's your fault and by you immediately leading with it's probably not us and therefore I'm going to have to charge. But if it is us, I'll get it back to you. No one ever expects you to get it back to them. They just expect all right, well, I'm just going to have to pay for a service call On the other side if we were to lead with. Well, I'm so sorry to hear that, but once again, that's a huge benefit of working with us because we provide a lifetime crash to guarantee. So of course, I'd be happy to come out there and on the odd chance it's something that's not related to us, then we'll talk about it from there. But regardless, just know we'll come out, we'll do a full evaluation. Happy to help with this. Now the customer sees it as one you're not complaining, you're still prioritizing them. Two, you're not complaining the fact that you have a warranty, you're letting them know. I'm happy to help, because this is why I have a warranty, so it sells them on you working with you again. Then, instead of saying, well, on the chance that it is something related to us, we reversed it and say, on the chance that it's not related to us, we'll have to. We'll talk about a charge at that point, but for now let's just assume that it's something that we did and we'll take a look when we're there. So it's become a much easier way of getting your foot in the door and then you know you didn't do something wrong. So then when you can come back down and be like hey, remember when we talked to you previously, we mentioned that the circuit was outdated because it's 1950s home and that you had the cloth wiring in the ceiling and in some of these higher options we recommended changing it to prevent this problem. Well, what we're noticing is, because the lines are currently outdated, we're getting a short between these two points. Naturally, I can take down this fan and do a maintenance on it, but that's not going to solve the root cause issue. Is it wrong of us, if we reopen the options, to discuss this again, or do you want me to just do a temporary fix while I'm here today, so you were able to get back in. You were able to serve the customer at the highest level. You were then able to better position yourself to upgrade or present future solutions as well.

It's the right thing to do, man. I absolutely love that and something that you called attention to that I want to really highlight this and double underline. It is something we see so often is people actually get anxiety when they get a warranty call. The entrepreneurs out there are getting nervous about it, like they cannot imagine or attach a positive outcome to warranty. That's why I think this is one of maybe the biggest pieces, and what we've noticed in the Loop Method is that when we have this piece just figured out, drawn up on a piece of paper, a process to deal with it just like you've described, we can turn that warranty call. Instead of a place of friction and dismay, if you will, it can actually become a happy call, a place where you get to go serve a known customer again. You get another opportunity to advance that relationship, and that's the only type of warranty call I want to do, joe. What about you?

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense because I've gone to homes where customers are genuinely upset, thinking that we've done something wrong, and then, when I'm gracefully, gracefully coming in and being like you know, here's the reasons why it's funny, because these are reasons directly tied to the reason why we quoted you for larger solutions, more permanent solutions, more turnkey solutions. Would it be wrong of me to represent these options to you, just so you never have to experience this again? If you'd like, I can leave it the way it is. I have no issue with that, and you chose that option. You have complete control over it. But is it wrong of me to at least let you know of what's still on the table? I? love this and now these are just free opportunity. Calls for already a customer who's already in your camp.

So there's a big question that was left out. We've covered the big three the options, the membership, the warranty. There's a way now that we could tie all this together, because we're talking about repeat business through repeat transactions with repeat clients. The big W question here that hasn't been answered is well, when and this is important discussion, right, because there's actually a couple of wins. Use A for the people that didn't take us, that are highest, higher options, who have a problem again, likely it's when they need it, in which case we'll have another opportunity to serve again at the highest level, offering what more than they took the first time. So what? Just like you said with the warranty, so they'll have better outcomes and we'll have more proactive control in the future. Or the other one is like, when's it good for us? Because if we're truly going for a million dollar launch, that means the other thing we need to do is raise our baseline a bit, and that baseline I'm talking about is those low months where the calls don't quite come in. You know what I'm talking about.

Oh yeah, that's defeating slow season with our extreme passion of mine.

Awesome, and that's one of the things I love about this loop method because it does that. So let's go back and let's say you know what? We create six options. We ran the play. Someone takes us at our top option. I love this. Without the club membership, we'd be waving goodbye. It was nice to know you. It was great to identify that you are our top customer. Trust in all right, goodbye. I hope we run into each other again, but with the membership we get to serve them again Now in slow season. This gives me some ideas for prioritizing the order at which I even reach out to people. Do the annual inspections follow up for even warranty inspections or even technical advances with our known good, trusting clients?

Exactly. It's a huge factor because, when you think about it, the winter seasons are usually our typically slowest months, but it's also the best months to come back and do inspection calls because, from a very legitimate concern of well, when things get cold, connections separate, you're more likely to find a problem before it even presented to the customer, in the time when you'd be least likely to have calls on the board. But you're face to face with someone who likes trusting, to respect you and you're able to solve a problem while it's still small, before it becomes bigger. How does this not help everyone involved?

It's massive, man. It's helping your future. It gives your staff that feeling of security, knowing that you've got your poop in a group right. It gives everyone this rhythm in your business and that know-how. And keep in mind, stepping into this value is not just hard for you, it's going to be hard for every person you train Like nine out of ten people probably more men have this same value problem where they need to step into it and learn that they are valuable. We feel it as an apprentice in the trade for the first time, right. You feel it as a journey person. When you get your ticket and really start doing work independently, get thrown in the fire for the first time. You might feel it when you get your master's license and then you're pulling permits for the first time. All these firsts just create anxiety and that fear of rejection. So this loop method is going to help your whole team benefit from that Step into the value, know they're doing exactly the right thing and absolutely rise to the value of your relationships into this long-term future and these solutions. Man, this has been massive. Let's jump into some action items if we can.

Sounds great, and so forth.

You want basic today? I can take either one. Do you want one you prefer? All right, go basic. I'm going to follow you up and it's going to be big man. So be ready to hang on to the all-star today. Hold on to my seats, right, okay?

So the basic really comes down to understanding how memberships work and understanding how warranties work. The reason being is that you need to be in the mindset of your customer experiencing a problem in order for you to articulate it the proper way. Imagine you had an issue like. We're all electricians here. Everyone is listening. I assume you're a sparky, so let's take it outside of our trade and let's say sake of argument, it's cold. We all agreed it's cold. Your heat doesn't turn on and you were now needing to call someone who recently did work in your home. What would you, the customer, be experiencing? Would you be hoping you're able to reach them? Would you're hoping that they're going to be able to come out? Are you hoping that they're not going to be charging or trying to upsell you on things? Your customer experience is the exact same three gears. So if you can be in that mindset as you design and start implementing your warranties, what you'll find is that your technicians are better empowered to serve the client because they understand exactly the mindset they're trying to prevent. So it's not just running the play, it's knowing the play from both angles of the line from you, the technician and the customer looking from the outside in.

Massive, that's massive man. You may have more weight than the all star, I'm just kidding. I want you to continue. Actually, from yesterday's episode. I want you guys to articulate this. That's honestly what we do in the program. We write all these things down on what we call a perfect offer worksheet and literally you'd have this written out so you know, your whole team knows, and what you're going to do as an all star in having that articulated is attach it to your values and your why and we've got some more work coming up on that in the coming episodes. But I want you to start with what you know already. That's what we would do, because I want to actually attach some stories to it and how valuable these have been. Just like we presented with stories and that great articulation for value of why you would want to implement this loop method in your business, you'll want that story and why attachment to train your staff and when you do that correctly with stories, you're going to be able to move people in a way that is absolutely unmatched. Some of the industry experts have said this in the past. I have to reiterate this Using those values, the why and these loop method things figured out so that we can continually deliver this message, for that win, win, win is going to be absolutely critical to your success. Crucial man, it's massive. Joe, we're out of time. Is it cool to wrap this up? By all means, I feel like you've been on fire, brother. All right, this has been another episode of Electric Pinner Secrets, the Electricians podcast, where me and my friend Joe just keep showing up trying to help you master your sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. Joe, these two episodes have been no exception. Dan's doing it, he's rocking it. We've got a million dollar launch to compete with. This is only going to get better as we now get into CSR and again this, why? And that value articulation. Brother, you ready? I'm so pumped, I can't wait. All right, see you on the next one. Bye.