Ep 192 - The 4 Whats to Presentation Success

Hello and welcome back. Happy Friday for another episode of Electric Prenuers Secrets, the Electricians podcast where my partner Joseph Lucani and I go live five days a week to help you master your sales, simplify your pricing and deliver premium-level electrical service, even on the last working day of the week. At least it is for us. Health family then business, right, joe.

Amen to that, brother. There's no chance you're going to catch us working on a weekend.

Yeah, there you go. How are you doing today, man?

I'm doing great. I had a really nice night last night and I had a moment where I really felt humbled in a big way. I'm sure you've noticed like I may be overly modest at times when it comes to self-praise and whatnot, but I was really taken aback by the amount of people that reached out to me and, like, said that we've influenced them and we've improved their lives, and they thank us personally and our stories mean a lot to them. I wasn't expecting that kind of feedback and it just really really meant a lot that people care as much as they do. So if you're one of those people that said something and you're listening to this, just know that it really meant a lot and hit me in the feels.

That's amazing man, and obviously you're the king of gratitude. We've talked about that a few times. You're so good at acknowledging and giving thanks to everyone and their forward energy, whatever direction that is. I've found the birthdays online are an interesting thing. A I always make sure to say happy birthday for a couple of reasons. B that I do actually care I just realized I started at B with that. There was multiple levels to it but A I do actually care. B because everyone deserves that. Everyone deserves acknowledgement. I don't think there's enough of it. But also C from a marketing standpoint too, doesn't it make sense to have as much contact with the people you care about and feel you could help as possible?

Yeah, it's true.

I got to wonder if our listeners are checking in with their clients on their birthdays or other holidays that they could be.

Oh, actually, you know what? We actually had that exact situation happen, so my daughter's dentist sent us both a text message and an email wishing me a happy birthday, because I'm listed as the emergency contact and my birthday was listed. But they didn't have to do that. I'm certain it was an automated message, but the fact that they did it was immediately. Like you know what, they are good people. They didn't have to do that. Now I'm going to keep using them 100%, and they are.

That service is fantastic. I mean, how many people actually texted you direct or called you direct and said happy birthday?

Probably under 10, to my text or my phone. A lot of direct messages on Facebook. A lot of direct messages on Facebook, but, like I did get some calls from certain people, I did get some text messages for those who had my private number, but there were a lot of Facebook outreaches.

That said, I want to drive a point home with that, because when I noticed it's a birthday of a close friend, family, client. Those are all situations, partner, where I'm going to make sure I talk to them in person and say it face to face or on a phone call through voice, or I'm at least going to direct message them and not using the app, even a text message. Do you know why?

I mean, if anything, it kind of takes you out of the fog of things because, like if I were to get it like, you deal with it as well. Our Facebook is always pinging all the time. You can get around the messages sometimes and, as much as it's appreciated and I love doing it getting a text message feels different, because you can get 10 text messages and 100 Facebook messages.

Totally. It's different. It also just out of rhythm, takes more effort and I truly believe what you put in you get out. Maybe not at 100% efficiency, but if you want to drive an output, you should first raise the input Right. We all know how simple it is to say happy birthday on Facebook. There's even a choice. You pull up it says right there hey, birthdays today. There's seven of them. You click on the thing. It gives you them all in one place for you easily to just say happy birthday, happy birthday. Happy birthday, happy birthday. And the ones from there that you're really a fan of? You could click on their name and send a message immediately. Happy birthday, sincerely for me. Hope you have a wonderful day, but it's still. I could send seven happy birthday messages in about eight seconds flat.

Yep, copy paste, copy paste, copy paste, copy paste and send Right, it's so convenient.

When you go the extra steps, it is actually telling someone something additional how much you really care.

I got to see, I get to figure out who really cares about me. It was nice, it was really nice to see.

Yeah, it's amazing, and I hope I'm not derating any of those comments in any way, shape or form, because the next thing that happens on our birthdays we count how many. What a vanity thing to do, right, vain? You're so vain, we got what. I don't know your birthday. How many did you have, joe? Do you know the number?

No.

Good for you. Yeah good for you.

And this might sound a little sad, but in my mind I didn't think I was making it 33. I didn't think I was going to make it 25. I didn't think I was going to make it the 20. Every year that I survive, I'm in bonus rounds. I'm already in bonus. So if people decided that I was worthy enough to take time out of their day to acknowledge me in any capacity, I'm grateful, Because I wouldn't say dead man walking, but I'm someone that I'm grateful for the time that I have.

I love that about you, man. Super, super gratitude dude here. That could be your next nickname Gratitude dude Joe. There's something about today's topic that I wanted to touch on before we get right into it, but let me explain, if I can, quick. We've been talking about sort of these pivotal moments within your sales process all week, these little action pieces that you could take. I mean, this is day five of it, so technically there were about five to seven things that you could be doing, taking action on immediately to see massive results that we've proven and shown success through our clients. To do things like double your revenue in weeks, very, very short time, to have those kind that amount of goal realization. So really powerful stuff. Today's no exception in what we're calling the four what's to presentation success. And this was actually one of those things where heads came together and one of our clients said it and it became something that stuck. And the reason why we wanted to bring it up today is because, a at the presentation step, there tends to be some real difficulty for electricians to articulate, to communicate the value that you're offering, and if you don't get that right communication being a two-way street if you don't get it right, what it means is they're not receiving what you're sending.

And that's what you should have.

You're right If you ordered like, as a really oversimplified analogy of this, a parallel to it. Imagine you ordered something on Amazon that was expected to be this great big box and when it arrived it was a teeny, weeny little box with a bow on it. What's your immediate thoughts about what just happened?

I mean, the funny thing is, my first thought was like well, they sent me something of equivalent value. I better see a block of gold or an 18 karat diamond in there or something like that.

Yeah, to me it's like that's not what I ordered. To me it's immediately. This is not what I was expecting. We can actually shrink the size of our value just in the words we're using and the presentation aspect. Let's give a real example. What happens when I email it over? Joe?

I'm sorry you get that immediate revulsion. Look from me when you say just email it over. But if you have a presentation or you have a quote and you say I'm just going to email it over to you, you have to assume that you're writing enough detail that a lay person could understand multiple options at enough of a technical level to make an educated decision. But at the same time they now have to do your job for them. They're doing your job for you and you're also arming your competition with the means of knowing exactly how you do your job. So you've taken away from the relationship, you've taken away from the customer service, you've taken away from the propriety of things and, as a result, you're in a situation where this customer is not likely going to move forward because you took so much away from the experience they could have received from you, and in there lies the principle, too, that I wanted to dig into first, when you said the education part.

Everyone learns in different ways. We all have different styles of communication, different ways of interpreting and retaining information. Even what we're talking about today the four what's to presentation success the four what's isn't necessarily what Joe or how Joe learned or articulated this originally, but it's what we found others were able to extract from and use as an anchor so they could recall. And so the interesting thing about coaching strategies everything we're going through communicating value to your customers is also that it's a two way thing. There's the what I want you to know about this and feel about this, and there's the what you'll actually receive, based on how I communicate it to you. Isn't that complex?

It's really amazing, though, if you think about it, though it may be complex and not complex at the same time and you're not understanding your view of it. I'd want to say I need to make sure that every customer that I communicate with knows more and has a better grasp of what I'm trying to offer them than when I walked in the first time, before I even give them a price. We have to have that understanding, because if it comes after the price now, you're just almost defending yourself when you're coming across as a salesperson, compared to just the conduit to their solution.

Digging. I'm sure we've all felt that before Trying to add value after the price Yikes. That's a slippery slope and one of the golden rules that I've implemented in my sales. My process has actually been quite simple and it speaks to even what you just said Simply asking a question versus telling more. One thing I've noticed is when I'm trying to articulate value, one of the easiest things to do that people overlook all the time is just check in and ask hey, does that make sense? Do you have any questions on that piece right there? A lot of times people will actually ask the right question for them. Most times they will to get to the answers they need to complete a sale anyway.

Wow. In addition to that, if you want to go even further with it, you need to ask questions, because if you don't, have you ever been in a situation where someone's trying to tell you something and you have a question but you don't want to ask because you think it's going to make you look bad. So they keep talking, but the whole time you've got a question that needs answering, and then, when they're at the end, they said it makes sense. You're like uh-huh, yeah, yeah, it makes sense, but the whole time they had an objection they needed solving, and then, when it comes time for presentation, they give you an objection that doesn't make sense in your opinion.

And, as you say that I'm thinking, or they just have that bias to be stuck in the question that they have. And so even if they're not shaken and they are going to ask a question and not just agree, they're still stuck back where you left them, with where the question began. So if you don't check in enough, they didn't hear. The next two, three, four, five minutes starts to feel pretty long when you're monologuing. Yeah, you're right, I would know, but if that question existed at moment one, what are they thinking about moments two through four? And then you ask I feel her.

No one likes listening to fluff. Some people are just like just shut up and tell them what the price is going to be. I don't need to hear this anymore. Just get to the point man.

So questions are a big one. The four what's to presentation success? This is really speaking to the observations that you have, and it's this moment before you present options. Right, correct? You want to dive into it, or do you want?

to jump right in. No, do it. All right, no worries. So what the four what's are is it's our way of designing the presentation and designing the observation so that it communicates information in a way that a customer could slowly absorb, so that by the time you're done with the observations, your top option is now justified. Now, the four what's are this what did they call you for? We're going to use the example of a main panel change out. So customer called because this is actually a situation that came up today, so I'll use a real-life example. Customer called because there was a flickering light in their bathroom and we found out that when we were there, the reason was because all the neutral terminals were loose. So the what is what they called you for first. Then it's what else? What else is directly connected to the thing that they called you for? Hey, clay, I know you called me for the kitchen, but for the bathroom light that you mentioned was flickering. The reason why it's flickering is we found out that all the actual connected points that distribute the power throughout the house there's an improper connection in one of those circuits. That's why it's actually posing to be a hazard and a concern. The what more is now. While we were here, we also noticed that this is a federal pioneer, meaning that this is an outdated system. It hasn't been in circulation since the 70s and early 80s and is recalled because it was known to start fires. So now we're giving them this is what you called me for. This is what's directly connected to it. Then what's good? The reason why we want to give them something good is if we always are in a situation to where it's bad you call me for the bad light. You have bad light and you've got a bad panel and you have no grounds in the house and there's aluminum wiring and there's nob and tube. People stop listening after a while. So you need to give them something good so that they don't feel like this is just a. I'm just steamrolling you into a presentation. Here's the light. It's flickering. Here's why it's flickering and this is what's directly connected to it. The good news is that when we open up the circuits, we found out that they're all copper, meaning that the wiring infrastructure is still good. Great, I'm happy to hear that. Then the last is what's more? What or what else? What else could be offered that's still justified to do so? That ties back to their original reason. Hey, I know the reason you called was because you wanted the lights to stop flickering. That is a high. That is an LED light which has an internal control driver in it, meaning that the same thing that could affect your computer could affect this. To justify that, we also know that you have these same style lights throughout the majority of the house. So, to make it easier for you, what we did is we're offering an electronic safety system. That way, if you ever have any additional electrical concerns from the outside coming into the house, it protects all your lights so that this gets damaged, instead of you having to replace all the lights in the house. So it's directly connected to the thing they first called for. So what we've done is we've created a perfect circle and everything within that circle is contained and understandable and directly relatable to the first thing they called you for.

I love that. It's got the feel of constructive criticism, framework, compliment, sandwich, yep, or even, in essence, sometimes you might say it's like an objection handling framework, like where there's just these few points where we're connecting and acknowledging, adding to that, giving them some good feedback, but then opening the doors for more as well.

Yeah, there's actually a formula for objection handling. It's really just acknowledge and agree, like I understand what you're saying. That makes sense and that's a fair point to bring up Refrain. Can I explain a little bit about what I personally believe on this? Or can I explain the way I'm seeing it, that we can come to a good level of understanding and then lastly ask again. So, with that being said, how would you like to proceed?

So, tying this back to the first what and what you just said about the objection handle, the acknowledge and agreement, how important is it to really put that first, what they called for and that acknowledgement of that first.

Okay, it makes more sense when you see it with its absence. So let's say we take that same situation right. You called me because your bathroom light was flickering, but the first thing I tell you about is how you have a bad panel. First thing, I don't even talk about the light. Life's the end of the story right.

What am I doing? Yeah, you're ignoring what I wanted and you're telling me you're on your agenda, not mine.

Exactly. And if I'm running my play and if that play doesn't benefit you, why are you going to listen to me? Not at all, of course. It would just make sense. I wouldn't listen to you, you wouldn't listen to me. So by putting the thing first that they asked for and acknowledging I understand. This is what you called me for and this was the main reason. It shows, one, I'm an active listener, I care about the things that you're saying. Two, it also demonstrates that I'm willing to take your needs and your priorities as my priority. Those two things alone are very, very valuable when it comes to persuasion. Because the same thing. If you take the two things and you run them in parallel, why is the agreement and acknowledgment in the observation and why is it the same in the presentation? Objection, handle the reason why it's there is. Imagine you tell me Clay, you're expensive. I say no, I'm not. Let me explain why you're wrong Versus. Well, yes, can I explain why?

Yeah.

Which one you're more likely to want to listen to.

Yeah, much better, much better.

Yeah, yes and or yes, I agree. But can I explain my point? You need to be on the same side of the line for both a presentation for an objection handle, for any situation where you need to convince the customer to see your side of things. If you're looking at them, there's a problem. If you're looking at the problem together, you're a server survivor.

Yeah, yeah. As I've heard in many of the classes and client dealings, when someone's bringing their scenario forward, whether it's reactively or proactively dealing with the options and the presentation the way you've handled that that I've really come to admire. That is visible even through this framework, is often someone will present a quickly hey, this happened, I'm in this situation and I only presented one option. Can you help me?

Mm-hmm.

Almost always, I hear people skip over why they called you in the first place. As logical and as simple as this sounds, I really wanted to highlight how important this is, not to lose sight of it, because in between each of these, what's the next logical framework in that understanding and building options is a little why between them. Mm-hmm, we did a podcast on that we referenced earlier in our class I think it was Episode 85, how that why gives you the what to offer Knowing what they called you for and then, well, why, knowing what else you found and then being able to tell them, well, why, that's a problem. Mm-hmm, knowing what's good. It wouldn't be enough to just say what's good but then saying, well, why that's good, I agree. Then I agree with the options, with that little why at the end. I've heard you do that. I'm not sure if you even noticed it in those frameworks, man, but extremely powerful stuff. I just encourage everyone, if you're listening to this, engaging with us, live in the Facebook group. If you put this to use in your presentations, then what it also means is that you've used this framework behind the presentation. If you've truly got those four what's and the little why is between them. Wouldn't you also have a full page of options right now? You really would. The why is what sets you free? Super intuitive. At that point, joe, I want to thank you and I want to close this one out. What can we do for a couple of action items today?

It was like basic, all star.

You take basic, I'll try to follow you up.

No worries. If we were going to say there, what is the bare minimum action that you can take, it's going to sound silly, but I would say the easiest thing is this how many years do you have Clay? How many years?

How many years? Two, I believe last.

I checked Right and how many mouths do you have? One, so wouldn't that imply that you should be listening twice as much as you talk? The most basic action is this I want you to listen, not to respond. I want you to listen to actively hear. The difference between the two is, if you're listening to respond, you stop listening to the customer what they're saying, you're just trying to find words to grab on to to speak your point. If you're listening to the customer, to hear them, you can often notice the subtleties and their voice inflections and their tones in their body language. When you understand why they're doing the thing they're doing, you now know the real levers to turn. But you can't do without a simple skill. So my bare minimum action is listen to actually hear.

I love that. You know what I want to add to that just quick. It's not even an action, but an understanding. When you listen really good to people, they often feel more heard Mm-hmm. Doesn't that seem so simple? When they're talking, more they feel heard Mm-hmm. It actually is simple math. But we lose that somewhere. We talk too much and it's often when we're anxious, we're nervous or something's going on. We're uncomfortable in that situation and we just fill the void with technical jumble and it does not serve you. So I can't speak enough praise about what you just said and just how simple that is been as an all-star action Today's actually really simple. Then Anyone can knock this out of the park. Write down this framework, the four what's If this spoke to you. Write this down and put it to use. If you currently don't have a framework that you follow for your presentation and your options design, you're going to need one in order to be consistent. You're going to want one in order to be a measurable and manageable case in your sales process. So why not have this down? Why not listen to this whole week, follow all eight, all 10 of the actions we've given now forgive my math and why not take action on those action items and watch your sales grow and then give us some feedback and let us know how it's going for you. We'd love to hear about your wins playing on house money, taking our strategies for free from this podcast and going out and making something with it. That would be incredible. This has been episode 192 of Electric Purners Secrets, the Electricians podcast, where we show up five days a week to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. Bernard Dime will be back next week with more Cheers to your success. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you all soon. Keep up the good work.