Ep 267 - STOP Pressuring! Every Choice Is a Great Choice!

Hello, hello, hello and welcome back to yet another episode of Electric Printer Secrets, the Electricians podcast. Electricians this is for electricians, by electricians. I'm your host, clay Neumeier. With me is always my esteemed and yesterday, great looking co-host, joseph Lucchani. We are the electric printers, just a couple of master electricians with business addictions, here and ready to serve. We're trying to take you to the top. We're trying to help you master your sales, simplify your pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. This episode, episode 267, is no exception. That's almost a rhyme. Welcome to our freemium daily coach. Call the admission for you. Sit back in the hot seat, take everything we give, just promise to take action. My goodness, joe, how are you doing today, brother?

Man I'm doing really, really great because one, if I can give a little announcement I thought it was so funny how we ended today's class with a bye-bye-bye instead of asking, started with a hello, hello, hello. Oh gosh, that's my whole day has been made. Let's just put it that way. That's embarrassing, brother, it's not. I was going. Hey, if you can tell me that I could post lightsaber videos I could talk about that the thing is.

You're passionate about lightsabers. I'm really not passionate about NSYNC, I'm really just a Justin Timberlake guy. That's it.

Ah, I get you Tim. No wrong with that, no wrong with that.

Mike Law watching live in the Facebook Latchapriner Secrets Group. Thanks, mike, for joining us, brother, as always happy to have you, mike is the absolute man. I love you, Mike. Listen, we're going to tag into something Two tags actually. This is like tag squared, because we're tagging into yesterday's episode how I kind of went on a rant about businesses, loyalty programs, upping the ante even for the middle class, and why those options are so important. But then in class today, this discussion really erupted about this power of recommendation, If we should really use that, and so we named this one consistent with that. Really stop pressuring, because that's what we're going to talk about today and how every choice is a great choice and really the concept behind that and how you can use this in your favor. I think something I want to say on your behalf, quick, Joe, just to light this up is when you designed this specific sales process that we teach in this Loop Method, it came from a place of caring, and not just caring about the person but caring about the relationship over today's sale. I think it's important for people to recognize that and just how coincidentally that's how people enjoy being sold to these days. Can you speak to that a bit for me, brother?

Sure, a lot of what we did was obviously. I learned from multiple different trainers across my career and what I found was the best consistent theme was that when you apply pressure and when you make it so that you're trying to chase a certain sale or a particular option that you want to sell, you actually push them away from trusting you rather than bringing them closer. A lot of times we as electricians were like well, I see that the panel has got burn marks in it, I see that we have to change that. But in the customer's perspective, they called you because their countertop's not working. So you pushing them for something they were and expecting to be here, even though you know it's the right choice, actually takes you away from both helping them and helping them in the future. So go ahead.

I just have a question. I mean they called you, you're a master electrician, you're in their house. Where do you think the general trust eroded in this situation that you can't even make a recommendation that they can accept wholly?

So it's not that they can't trust you, it's really the why should they trust you at this point? They don't know you. You've come into the home, yeah, ideally you've built a relationship and ideally you've gone and you've showed the value of working with you. But at the end of the day, any choice they make with you is the right choice, because I know my quality of electric work. I can judge myself on my quality of work, but I can also judge myself on the quality of my intentions. The moment that they go to work for someone else, I no longer have control over those two things. So, even if they take my worst option, I'm doing it with integrity, I'm doing it with care, I'm doing with professionalism. I'm not going to cut corners, regardless of what they spent. So I want them to use me because I know I'll treat them the way I feel they deserve to be treated and by using me and getting that experience, they're likely going to continue using me. So whatever option they pick is going to eventually lead to us having a relationship, and isn't that the best win you can get?

Yeah, man, yeah for sure. I made this post the other day, and you remind me of this, where I kind of joked about if you need help, make like a premium service provider and reach out. But that ties into exactly what we're saying here, because by relieving the pressure today and just being there and showing up and improving that with your salesmanship, servicemen ship. You're not attached to a big ticket today, you just want to serve and in fact the lower they go in your options, the more roadmap you have to later pursue in that follow-up, in that follow-up care when you reach out like a premium service provider should Please continue.

You know, I think a really good example of this is when customers call for generators. So many times people have, like this, immediately triggered to be like, oh, they need a whole home automatic system. But what I would do is I would design portable options. I'd have automatic, yes. And then the customer came in and, yeah, they may have expected a $15,000 price ticket, but I'm presenting something as low as 1,500. And now they look at me like, well, why would you offer that? Because I want you to have control over the budget. I want you to have control over the quality and the expectation. Whatever you choose, as long as it's me, you're making a good choice. So how would you like to proceed?

So do you mean to tell me in that situation there's no generator included?

So in the bottom option.

Yeah, that's what I mean At that 1,500.

Yeah, so at the bottom option let's talk about it would have been perfect for your situation. Remember, you didn't really lose power very frequently but you had to run down to Home Depot or whatever supplier got it, go in, create a cheater cord, get the heat to work, get the computer to work. What if, at our bottom option was, I'm going to have an interlock, I'm going to have an inlet on the opposite side of the panel or opposite side of the side of the meter, the very bare minimum. I know that if you lost power you could borrow it from a neighbor, you could get it from wherever supplier, you could rent it, but all I got to do is plug it in, throw a switch and you could safely have power. I'd say for someone who doesn't really lose it very frequently, that's a very valuable option.

So there's a superpower in this and I love where this went. Organic conversation, ladies and gents, I don't know. I love where this went. So, in spite of a customer calling you for a generator estimate, you recognize the why behind that is because they've lost power and caused some inconvenience to some degree. That's caused this action to reach out. So, where everyone else provided a generator estimate, you provided an outside the box solution. That surprised them, where they realized, hey, we could come in at a more affordable level and instead of pushing this top option and trying to sell some big ATS 20 kilowatt beast, you've just given them a way to power it without the big expense up front.

Exactly Because the why is the more important part than the what. I want to figure out. What are they going to use it for? But why do they feel like they need it? No one just wakes up in the morning and says you know what? 5.15,. What should I do? I should get a generator quote today. Yeah, we never lose power. I feel like spending some money. There's always a why. There's something that usually plagues people for one to three weeks prior to making that call, and when they do, I want to solve that emotional pain. I don't want to just drop a system in there and say this is all you get. You ask for a generator and give you a generator. We want from me. I want to solve the emotional pain that you have, and if it's solved through a generator, then that's a win. If it's solved through an interlock, so you're just prepared, that's also a win, Because when you win you'll call me back, and when you call me back, I win. So it's a continuous loop, a service loop, if you would.

That little bit extra for future service ability. Amen, just, I mean, I mean, put that in there under the rug, man. No, no, that's huge Because, again, not really a betting man, but what are the chances that someone actually takes that lowest option? It's not likely that 1500 was, you know, for a generator install a price that they had in their head. I mean that might even be less than an Angeli's suggestion for this service, which is pretty low right. So you were able to prove that you're not about the money, and I think that in that situation it opens up the discussion about what else you could provide based on the experience and the trust that you've earned anyways, and your record in sales kind of suggests this, doesn't it?

Yeah, I mean. The goal was is I don't want to be a homerun hitter, I want to be a consistent hitter. So what I'm most proud of is the high consistent closing ratio of 80%, because if I can create myself to be in a situation where I'm letting others win and I'm solving their emotional pain points and I'm able to understand the why is, I can both win now, but also again in the future, because I don't have to churn my clients. The clientele base only grows in scales over time, thus leading to a more scalable business.

I love that. I love that and I love that from a marketing standpoint, which is what our focus on on Facebook has been today. In the action posts you guys may see going out where many companies are trying to utilize a free inspection to just gain entrance into a home and generally inspect and try to find something. It's very, very unattractive to homeowners. People are on to this. It's this generalist sure, come look at my stuff and then offer something right. But what we're talking about here is a specific solution working with people who are problem aware, and that's where this ties perfectly back into that. Because, even if they take us at our bottom option, we were the right choice and we are dedicated to continuing to be the right choice, and being a premium service provider means that I never want you to experience the negative side of things. I'm trying to be proactive with that relationship anyways. So when I follow up seasonally, when I ask or perform a happy call right, or when the CSR does more appropriately, and we follow this up and make sure that the system's running smooth, can't we also tie back? Oh, and, by the way, you chose this option because right, but have those other things burdened you at all? Is there anything else there that you yourself weren't able to do and or that we would be able to provide you with? And that's a more problem aware conversation that's already been discussed and never really left the table. They just chose something lower and that's perfect, and it's perfect for your future schedule as well. Does that make sense?

It really does. And to add on that and kind of put it in a little more context, it could be all right. This customer called for a generator and let's say they decided to. We provided six options top options or automatics, bottom options or center locks and they chose the bottom option. You now have the ability of having a one year or six month anniversary and saying, hey, I know that you installed the system for you because you were planning on having some power outages. How has it been working out for you? Have you lost power at all? Because obviously the goal would be, if I never lost power, then great, let it collect dust. I'm happy for you. You made the right investment then. But if they've lost power more now we have the ability of serving them at a higher level, and that could be. We can provide a generator now that has either remote start or has electric start or now has an upgraded transfer switch like a home link, or we could even scale it up higher and say well, if you've lost power six times this year, that's a lot more than you lost recently. We could either continue and you can just keep going the way you have been, or we can talk about more permanent solutions. How would you like me to proceed? Yeah, I love that and they invite you to now do it, but you couldn't have gotten in that position if you push for the higher sale, like you know. Listen, clay, I know that it's been a while. You remember, sandy, when you lost power for eight weeks. You wanna go through that again. It just it feels bad. No one likes that Absolutely me.

I'm gonna tie back to something I introduced there and just say if you're listening to this and wondering how you can get your messaging a little more on the specialist side, a little more niched in to be problem where speaking to the actual needs, desires and problems that your clients are facing, then we give away a free guide on this. So, whether you're live with us in Facebook or listening to this on your favorite podcast channel, go ahead and just send us a message that says specialist checklist and we'll get that sent out to you. Otherwise, joe, we gotta wrap this up with a couple of action items. Brother Basic, all Star what would you like today?

Both. I'm fine with whatever you prefer. I can do both if you need Okay.

Light this up with the basic and let's go from there.

So the very bare minimum to all this is to understand not just pushing the sale but being able to control the fear that you have which is causing you to push that sale. Because the reason why I say that is most people don't intend on being pushy. We got into a trade not to be salespeople. We did it to be good electricians. But when you feel that you need to make a sale, you have an internal pressure to close. I'm saying, at the very most basic action, at least they acknowledge that fear is present and don't let it be present at the table with you. When you're with them, mind like water, we can only focus on serving them, and sometimes serving them the highest level means not getting this job and letting someone else botch it up, but we need to make sure we are not afraid of needing that production. I'd say it's a very solid basic for the situation.

Yep, I love it, man. So I'm gonna throw in a big all star today and I think this is huge and we've encouraged this many times. But I have to double down on this.

I think I go for it.

It can't be just about today. Big business, sustainable business, your dream business, premium service business is actually about tomorrow, and that means we've gotta take a few steps to really help us with that. For example, did you know, across all industries, one third of your customers will buy something else? That's at the checkout and in the follow up, one third of your customers, statistically across all sales. What that means is there's a huge opportunity to do better than that too. So the fortune is in the follow up. You've probably heard this before. Know that if they're choosing you, that is absolutely a win. Like Joe said, it's not about home runs, about consistent hits and what we do after that consistent hit. That helps continue to fuel this relationship, keep us engaged and, again, keep them looking to work with people they trust. So make sure that even on a basic sale, we do the post call facts and we upload that, the options information, your sheet that you presented. Make sure that gets on file and make sure that we put that in a way and let the team know and discuss those so you can refer to them and put them in your marketing later. Grab that specialist checklist from us guys. I'm out of breath, joe. Thank you very much, man. This has been another episode, episode 267. Stop pressuring your customers to buy so much today. Stop with the recommendations. Start just providing options that all are your recommendation and let them choose. It's massive to you, to us and to everyone in this industry and this has been another episode to help you master your sales, simplify your pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. We'll see you guys again tomorrow. Nothing but a pleasure, gents. Look forward to talking to you soon.