Replay - Portable Generator Enhancements

Transcript

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Welcome to Entrepreneur Secrets, the electrician podcast.

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We're here five days a week to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service.

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I'm your host, clay Neumeier, with me, as always, my esteemed co-host and partner, joseph the sales bot Lucani.

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We took a break yesterday from calling you the sales bot.

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You did, and there was a conversation prior to the show which I poured my heart out to let you know why, but during yesterday's show I did not explain why.

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Joseph, you are the most heart-centered person I've ever met and worked with.

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Every time we're in a call with people on a meeting on a podcast, met and worked with.

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Every time we're in a call with people on a meeting on a podcast, I've never seen you fall short of aiming to your absolute potential, of your ability to serve someone.

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So there's nothing robotic about that.

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You're all heart, brother.

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That's why I said that.

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Well, it means the world, honestly, having having someone like you that I get to work with and that I get to share my talents with all the electricians that we talked to.

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I couldn't have asked for a better dream.

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You know, this is where I really feel like I'm living the life that I've always wanted to live.

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Love it, love it.

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So today, optional Friday, we got some great stuff for for listeners, for the viewers If you're not with us, live in the Facebook group yet on the electric printer secrets Facebook group, on the Electropreneur Secrets Facebook group, where you can engage with us, share your wins, even ask questions and get help with your options and objections.

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You might want to join.

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It's a pretty big deal in here.

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I want to thank all of our VIP engagement and listeners that are in that group already and welcome those that aren't.

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What are we talking about today, this optional Friday, joseph?

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You already know when I'm rubbing my hands together.

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Take a wild guess what we're talking about.

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We're doing generators.

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We're portable gens.

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Right, that's what we're doing.

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All right, let's give these guys something they can put to work today.

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I'm going to do one better.

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I'm going to give you guys that if you take action on this, not only will you start to dominate your generator market, but you're going to start becoming more differentiating than any of your competition, therefore making you the safe bet in every opportunity.

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So the thing about this, can I just jump into it?

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I'm like froth.

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Yeah, go for it, man Go right in.

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Oh boy.

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So the thing that I found that really blew my mind was that not enough people get into portable generators, right?

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There's some where they're just like oh I know what we're going to do.

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We want to just do automatic or we're going to offer an interlock, and there's very rarely anything in between.

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Now, last time we talked about the home link, the transfer switch, that allowed to bridge that gap between interlock and automatic.

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But there are so many enhancements that you can offer, and a lot of them aren't stuff that you can buy.

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There's actually just services that you can perform, and that's what I feel is going to be really, really important.

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Now, the first thing you have to consider is who is going to be using this generator?

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Right, it's not enough just to say I'm going to give you a generator, it's now.

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You have to walk through and say if this customer was going to have to use it, what would that experience for them be like?

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So the first thing that we have to take in consideration is what time of day would it be?

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So the first thing that we have to take in consideration is what time of day would it be?

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A lot of times, if they're using their portable generators.

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I mean, do they usually?

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have lights around the house when their power's off?

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Of course not.

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If they did, they wouldn't have a generator in the first place, right?

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Definitely.

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So something that I found was extremely helpful was imagining if I was in that customer's home and power was lost at 12 o'clock at night.

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What would they do?

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Technically, the picture that people have is they have a guy holding a flashlight going to this transfer switch and lowering the breakers down, and it works.

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Why should your customers ever have to own a freaking flashlight?

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We're electricians.

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We should be giving them power every opportunity we can.

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So there's actually something that I took from commercial experience that we were able to bring into Resi, and that's automatic emergency backup lighting.

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Now imagine this scenario.

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Instead, customer loses power, but they're still at home and they know that their panel is in the downstairs basement.

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Normally they would have to go downstairs with a flashlight, hugging onto one railing, going all the way there.

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If their basement's crowded, they have to walk around things, find a path, get to there.

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Then they have to remember how to use it all by flashlight all with one hand.

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Don't forget all the things they stored in front of the panel oh naturally.

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Oh yeah.

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People who say three foot clearing space, it's like come on, have you ever worked in a house before?

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like you know, there's no three foot clearance in canada we call that a meter, by the way oh a meter of space you need, yeah, working here.

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Well, question do you need a meter of space in front of your meter?

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all right, yeah, you do.

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Yeah, we just call it a meter squared.

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All right, there you go, we're good.

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So, going back into this, the question that we'd have is you can install automatic or emergency backup lighting that would kick up in different intervals as your pathway.

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So code requires and I don't like the word code, but sometimes code can be in our benefit too.

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The code requires that we have to have a light and a service outlet next to your panel.

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That's something that has to happen, but what's stopping us from making that light an automatic backup light, so when the customer loses power, it automatically kicks on, and now you walk towards the panel and you don't need your flashlight anymore?

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There was actually a lot of times where we would sell these packages, where we would say we give you runway level protection to where what we would do is we would actually install these backup lights where the customer would have to go.

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So it would be at the top of the basement stairs, at the bottom of the basement stairs and then anything in between from the basement stairs to your panel.

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Can you imagine someone not wanting this?

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Well, not really.

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No, and one of the things we've touched on this before, but I'll say it again and again and again we know that a big barrier electricians face in creating options is getting stuck in tech brain.

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Yeah, we get stuck in technical brain, in code brain, in what am I looking for in in material brain.

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Even trade I can think of for options is swapping materials.

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But as soon as we get out of that and go into homeowner brain, all of a sudden we start seeing all these other needs that aren't being met, and not just your standard, like it's not a big deal kind of needs.

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I mean needs that after you left they would likely lie awake in bed at night thinking about this stuff.

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At some point going, we should have thought of that.

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And when we're stuck in tech brain, we're just not able to help them with that You're completely right.

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Go ahead, sorry.

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No, no, by means.

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I would want to interrupt you, man that's.

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I should apologize.

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Quit it, then Quit it.

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All right, there you go.

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So the thing is is that I've actually heard some customers say that where they're like man you know what man?

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After this was done, I don't even know.

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I can't even believe that you offered it, because as soon as you offered it I was like, yeah, I need that.

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So the thing is is that this not only helps our customer from a convenience standpoint, but it also helps them from a safety standpoint, because if they were going to go up down the stairs and then trip, now they have no power and they're sitting at the bottom of the stairs Not a fun place to be right.

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No, all right, so that's for backup lighting, but that's not the only thing we're going to talk about Now.

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Another thing that comes with portable generators is people steal them.

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They do.

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One of the biggest things that happened was during Hurricane Sandy, at least in New York.

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This was very common because we got destroyed.

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Between New Jersey and New York.

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There was a lot of circumstances to where thieves would come with a trailer and cheap motors.

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Whether it was lawnmowers, snowblowers, leaf blowers, didn't matter what it was.

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What they would do is they would park the trailer in your driveway at night when your generator was running, because they can hear it.

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So all they had to do was just follow where the buzzing noise was.

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They would park the trailer in the driveway, they'd start the lawnmower.

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They'd then turn off your generator, wheel it into your trailer and drive.

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Because it was 12, 1, 2, 3 in the morning the odds were.

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You were asleep so you wouldn't have noticed.

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And if you lost power you'd be like, ah, I hear the generator running, you know what, probably low on gas.

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And then you come downstairs and have an old motor in there.

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It's actually brilliant execution on their part.

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It is.

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I'm slightly mad and impressed at the same time.

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The lawnmower touches is nice, but how shitty is that to lose your portable generator now.

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It's heartbreaking for a lot of people because generators aren't cheap.

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They're really not.

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I mean, yeah, you can go to Harbor Freight and you could buy a $500 Predator generator.

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They exist, but no one's really going to complain about stealing those.

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The people that's going to be upset is when they spent and they bought the XP Generac for $2,600 and they're like oh yeah, I bought the best one for all the compatibilities and now it's gone.

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So what we did is we actually thought of something here and we would call them anti-theft anchor points.

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What we would do is we would drill down to get a Homer bucket those Home Depot buckets they're about two feet by one foot and we'd bury it about two to three feet in the ground.

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Then we would actually have a metal rebar hook, like a circular hook, that go into it that would stick out of the ground.

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We would fill the hole and the bucket with cement.

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So now the customer only sees one little loop.

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It's a very small loop and look, you can choose any done.

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It doesn't have to be rebar, you can use stainless steel, you can do other things to make it look better, but now you have an anchor point.

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What you would do is you would have your inlet where the generator gets plugged into, and then right around this location you install this anchor point.

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So when the customer wheels their generator out and they plug the generator into the inlet.

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So when the customer wheels their generator out and they plug the generator into the inlet, all they'd have to do is take a bike lock or a chain and they loop it through the anti-theft anchor point and now it's one level of preventative service.

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The thing about a thief is this A thief, for the most part, doesn't want to be challenged.

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The thought is, I'm willing to steal something from you as long as there's minimal risk to me.

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So even if they show, yeah, no, you're right.

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So even if they go and they find out, oh, he's got a bike lock and all it would take is a pair of bolt cutters Maybe they didn't have a pair of bolt cutters, but I see next door, I could take the neighbor's generator.

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So screw, deterrents are the way to do it.

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It's like the difference of you have a locked door compared to a gun behind it.

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We actually talked about this yesterday when you recommended hey, on opportunity calls.

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We believe in a two-call close.

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The reason why people don't default to that is because of the additional time and effort.

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Everyone wants money today, electricians and thieves alike.

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I would like to retract that statement and pretend I never compared electricians and thieves alike.

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I would like to retract that statement and pretend I never compared electricians to thieves.

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The joys of doing a podcast live.

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But seriously think about this right, we're all wired the same.

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It's an opportunity for for theft as well, and if it's easy and I'm looking around, the conditions are right I mean, put yourself in those shoes for a minute.

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It only makes sense to go for the easy.

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They don't want to do a two call right and the stuff you see on the movies where people plan it and plan it and it's not a heist it's a different level of uh sophistication you're not anyways didn't want to interrupt you there, but I had to to put those two cents in and and uh say something regrettable on the podcast this week.

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So once again.

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If anyone should ever apologize for interrupting, it is me 100.

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It is a problem I have.

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I know I have this problem, I try to fix it and I appreciate your patience with it cheers, all right so we got the anti-theft anchor.

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Okay, we got battery, backup lighting, anti-theft anchors.

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Now the next two things are things that people may not think about even further, because how many times do people think about providing the generator for your customer?

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A lot of times we don't.

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In some circumstances they say, oh, they already have one.

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And you go there and you see it doesn't even have wheels, it's just barely assembled.

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It's an old generator on a rolling dolly and we're like yep, that checks out, we have no issue with this whatsoever.

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Or Gladys, the little old lady on the block, she's got a pull start generator, but she's got arthritis.

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What is wrong with us?

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Why are we okay, making this customer pay all this money for the interlock or the home link or all the additional services, but then they can't use it when they need it?

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Or, even further, are your competitors even considering offering it?

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So there are different enhancements in the portable generator that you should be looking out for, and I'd like to talk about some of them now.

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There are dual fuel generator systems that run on propane barbecue tanks.

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The reason why that would be beneficial is gasoline breaks down over the course of two to three years unless you add stabilizer to it.

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Propane doesn't.

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Propane does not break down and, as a result, you'll always need it if you have a barbecue tank.

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So the fact is is that you can store about five containers of propane inside your house with less risk than you could storing five, five gallon containers of gasoline.

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It just it makes sense.

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And the thing is it's less volatile volatile in different temperatures too.

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If you have sun directly hitting gasoline, that vapor is going to expand, and if it blows, it's a serious problem, whereas the propane is in a solid steel container.

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Plus, it's a cleaner burning fuel, so you actually get more kilowatts out of it than you would with other base fuels.

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So the first thing to think of is what kind of fuels are going to use and how is the customer going to store it.

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If they're going to be out for three days, they need to have these things stored out.

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For three days, they need to have these things stored.

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So your two directions are either A, set them up with a dual fuel generator or B, if they're going to stick with gasoline, you can actually provide them a pump, a physical, storable, containable pump, where you can store up to 25 gallons of gasoline into it.

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It physically has a manual pump that comes out.

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You add stabilizer to it as necessary, and as long as it's local to where your generator would have been, you can even put that on a dolly wheel that outside, pump into your generator as necessary, wheel it back inside.

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Think for your customers.

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Think about the things they're going to have to need.

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They need to fuel it.

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Why aren't we thinking of it for them?

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Next is you think to yourself how are they going to operate it?

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Once again, how many people are using the pull chart?

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Whenever we think portable, we think better, have a good shoulder.

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But did you know that they actually have remote controlled portable generators now too, where literally all you can do is let me walk you through this.

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Imagine you have a storm that you know is getting ready to come right.

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I mean, that happened during Sandy.

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Everyone was ready for it.

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It was a weekend.

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We were like all right, everyone be ready, be on call, we're getting a bad one.

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Those kinds of customers could have taken this portable generator, wheeled it outside, plugged it into the inlet, connected it to the anti-theft anchor and had the key fob ready.

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Then all they would need to do is, when they lose power, press on.

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They wouldn't even have to leave, step outside.

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The generator would automatically come on once it receives the code.

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You go downstairs to your panel, press on on the home link, two buttons and they have operation.

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That sounds pretty damn close to an automatic, if you ask me.

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Absolutely, and if you haven't heard that in fuller detail on our episode two weeks ago today, we did that home link focused episode and you discussed that in full.

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So yeah, huge convenience factor Makes perfect sense.

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In addition to it.

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Then when you think about the generator now you also have to go by and say, well, why not do electric start?

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I mean, electric start's the easiest possible middle ground.

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I mean, not everyone can afford the remote control options, but you can almost always have a generator that has an electric start.

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By allowing them to do that, what you're doing is you're saying you won't have to pull start this thing.

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That's only available in the backup and in case of emergency, but as long as you keep the battery charged, all you'll have to do is on.

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That's not a bad thing to do for a lot of your customers.

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Sometimes your customer won't want to buy the portable generator because they've been told all the propaganda from all their neighbors of how terrible they are.

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Oh, it's cold, you'll have to go outside and rip the cord and you got to turn breakers on and off.

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That's what your competitors are describing to them too.

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If you can describe a turnkey solution to where you do everything and they do nothing, you become the safe bet and they'll go to you exclusively.

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And who doesn't want to be the exclusive person, right, I do.

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All right, just being honest, I want to be exclusive, absolutely.

00:18:08.365 --> 00:18:12.803
You want to stead fully apart from your competitors.

00:18:12.803 --> 00:18:15.711
Apples to oranges, as we say, exactly.

00:18:16.580 --> 00:18:19.049
In addition, there's even more things we can do on these enhancements.

00:18:19.049 --> 00:18:24.952
So the next thought then comes down to is where is your generator located?

00:18:24.952 --> 00:18:27.288
Where are they going to power it Right?

00:18:27.288 --> 00:18:44.308
Sometimes the typical contractor I'm not going to say the handyman, but a typical electrical contractor says I know I do generators, I've got an interlock on the panel and right on the opposite side of the panel I'm going to put my 30 amp inlet and you know what?

00:18:44.308 --> 00:18:48.049
You'd be better than the average person, because some people aren't doing it at all.

00:18:48.049 --> 00:18:51.048
But now walk through what your customer has to do.

00:18:51.048 --> 00:18:53.344
If they lose power.

00:18:53.344 --> 00:18:56.352
They now are taking this 200 to 300 pound unit.

00:18:56.352 --> 00:19:01.632
If it's raining, they're now dragging it through the mud to get to wherever that location is.

00:19:01.632 --> 00:19:05.150
Or if it's snowing, they've got a shovel to get it to where it is.

00:19:05.150 --> 00:19:08.349
Or if it's icy, they're dragging something and slip and hurt themselves.

00:19:08.349 --> 00:19:10.666
Does that seem like an ideal thing to do?

00:19:12.903 --> 00:19:15.044
No, it doesn't Sounds like a terrible experience.

00:19:15.685 --> 00:19:17.371
Yeah, it would be, it really would be.

00:19:17.371 --> 00:19:26.410
So the thing is, is that what we can do is we always put the inlet where the generator is going to be stored, at least as an option.

00:19:26.410 --> 00:19:33.005
The reason being is that at the very bottom of our choices this is you do everything, I'm just providing the material and the bare minimum electrical connections.

00:19:33.005 --> 00:19:37.628
At the very bottom of our choices, this is you do everything, I'm just providing the material and the bare minimum electrical connections.

00:19:37.628 --> 00:19:47.076
On the higher end, we're providing a complete white glove turnkey experience where you do nothing, we do everything.

00:19:47.076 --> 00:19:48.325
You just have to write the check.

00:19:48.325 --> 00:19:53.907
So let's go into that a little bit further, because there's still so much more we could do.

00:19:55.872 --> 00:19:58.616
Why aren't we tuning up portable generators?

00:19:58.616 --> 00:20:00.921
Why are we not offering that?

00:20:00.921 --> 00:20:03.534
We would offer it if it was an automatic right.

00:20:03.534 --> 00:20:07.267
We know that the system needs to be tuned up.

00:20:07.267 --> 00:20:12.920
It needs its oil change, it needs its spark plugs, but what do we usually tell our customers to do?

00:20:12.920 --> 00:20:15.853
Oh, just bring it to your local engine shop.

00:20:15.853 --> 00:20:20.742
Okay, so they're going to take this generator that weighs 200 pounds.

00:20:20.742 --> 00:20:26.673
The strongest of you are you taking a 300 pound generator, lifting it up and putting in the back of your car?

00:20:26.673 --> 00:20:27.938
You might.

00:20:27.938 --> 00:20:28.820
I'm not arguing.

00:20:28.820 --> 00:20:32.232
Some of you are pretty damn strong, but are your customers equally as strong?

00:20:32.232 --> 00:20:34.421
How are they going to get it into their car?

00:20:34.421 --> 00:20:38.233
Do they even have a car compatible with transferring a generator?

00:20:40.138 --> 00:20:44.423
It's a door, it's an opportunity you want to lock clients in anyway.

00:20:44.423 --> 00:20:52.844
Right, this is the inherent risk with service work that people feel there is anyway before ever understanding this industry.

00:20:52.844 --> 00:20:57.856
Home service electricians right, because it makes perfect sense.

00:20:57.856 --> 00:21:02.634
After I'm done installing that receptacle, what, what's the next service that's required on it?

00:21:02.634 --> 00:21:06.604
Yeah, I mean 10, 15, 20 years, if ever.

00:21:06.604 --> 00:21:20.343
We have to be thinking outside the box on this stuff, and this is yet another area of strength and opportunity for you to maintain prolonged engagements with and and create lifetime customer value.

00:21:21.710 --> 00:21:23.193
Correct, beautifully said.

00:21:23.193 --> 00:21:25.680
So painting the picture a little bit further.

00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:28.817
Let's look at this from, as you like to say, the 30,000 foot view.

00:21:28.817 --> 00:21:29.539
Right?

00:21:29.539 --> 00:21:33.090
So you have a customer in the perfect scenario.

00:21:33.090 --> 00:21:34.535
They've purchased.

00:21:34.535 --> 00:21:35.698
They said you know what?

00:21:35.698 --> 00:21:37.701
We want to get an automatic, but we can't.

00:21:37.701 --> 00:21:39.615
It's $25,000.

00:21:39.615 --> 00:21:44.863
I can't swing that right now, not a problem, but they still need power.

00:21:44.863 --> 00:21:46.791
They still have a sump pump that goes out.

00:21:46.791 --> 00:21:48.356
They still have a well that goes out.

00:21:48.356 --> 00:21:50.131
They still have a fridge that needs to be powered.

00:21:50.131 --> 00:21:51.333
They need heat in the winter.

00:21:51.875 --> 00:21:55.522
Okay, so you set your customer up with a portable generator.

00:21:55.522 --> 00:22:02.794
You have your home link transfer switch and you have the inlet where it's powered directly where the generator needs to go.

00:22:02.794 --> 00:22:08.095
You have all your emergency backup lighting so the customer can easily see how to access it.

00:22:08.095 --> 00:22:12.172
They have their anti-theft anchor point so that no one can steal it.

00:22:12.172 --> 00:22:16.422
And now what you're doing is now you're offering to maintain it for them.

00:22:17.730 --> 00:22:18.653
This could continue.

00:22:18.653 --> 00:22:31.903
This relationship could continue for several years before either A the generator eventually is going to wear out, like all mechanical things do, or until they can get the funds to upgrade to an automatic.

00:22:31.903 --> 00:22:37.940
Either way, in any of these circumstances, this still works in our favor.

00:22:37.940 --> 00:22:48.540
Because if you put in the home link, unless you're intimately familiar with it, you're probably not going to have a competitor say oh yeah, I'm willing to work off someone else's work and install an automatic.

00:22:48.540 --> 00:22:53.142
So if the customer ever wanted it, you're already halfway through the installation.

00:22:53.142 --> 00:22:54.212
You're more likely to lock in.

00:22:55.395 --> 00:23:01.279
But even if they don't want to upgrade to automatic, you have the ability of contacting them as a maintenance customer.

00:23:01.279 --> 00:23:07.563
When you have a maintenance customer, you now have the right to check in with them on a regular basis.

00:23:07.563 --> 00:23:10.298
So imagine this level of service.

00:23:10.298 --> 00:23:20.411
You're getting ready for a major storm and you contact your customer in advance and say hey, clay, I know that you were actually planning on getting a hurricane this weekend.

00:23:20.411 --> 00:23:27.438
It may or may not hit, we're not quite sure yet but I wanted to just check in and see if you were looking for us to come and just get it ready and tune it up before.

00:23:27.438 --> 00:23:29.413
Would that be something you'd be open to?

00:23:29.413 --> 00:23:33.612
Or would it be wrong of me to want to make sure you were protected before the storm comes?

00:23:34.773 --> 00:23:35.273
Absolutely.

00:23:35.273 --> 00:23:37.498
If we're expecting something, why wouldn't we?

00:23:38.278 --> 00:23:38.499
Yeah.

00:23:38.499 --> 00:23:52.592
So even if the customer hasn't purchased a maintenance agreement, you have the ability of having a maintenance agreement set up or you can offer them, and you would actually be like, wow, this company really cares, they're really thinking about me, I'm important.

00:23:52.592 --> 00:23:57.844
Taking this even further, imagine this is a first-class customer.

00:23:57.844 --> 00:24:15.530
Imagine they're a club member, and now you say, hey, as a first-class member, you're actually included in our storm watch, meaning that whenever we have these major power outages happening, we're going to make sure that all the first-class members get notified in advance and they're going to be the ones that get access during the storms if they need it.

00:24:15.530 --> 00:24:22.012
Now, just by offering a generator maintenance, we're actually also enhancing our club membership.

00:24:22.714 --> 00:24:24.038
Yep, Giving them some assurance.

00:24:24.038 --> 00:24:37.270
And if you're like Rob in our Facebook group feeling like, hey, I wouldn't want to service generators not my own and not my customers I hate, hate, hate doing mechanical work passionately, what would you say to that Joseph?

00:24:38.454 --> 00:24:39.397
I would say I agree with him.

00:24:39.397 --> 00:24:40.622
I don't.

00:24:40.622 --> 00:24:41.404
I don't blame him.

00:24:41.404 --> 00:24:43.775
In all honesty, rob, I'm speaking directly to you, man.

00:24:43.775 --> 00:24:45.077
We're in the same boat.

00:24:45.700 --> 00:24:55.513
I don't want to tune up a snowblower, I don't want to tune up a generator, but that's exactly why we have to, because if you don't do it, who is?

00:24:55.513 --> 00:24:59.539
Someone has to tune this thing up.

00:24:59.539 --> 00:25:08.082
And the thing is you can charge a premium for it, not saying you should overcharge by any means, but you can charge what your time is worth.

00:25:08.082 --> 00:25:15.255
And if you're saying you know what, it's $300 an hour for me to come out and do something, then charge your $300 an hour to do it.

00:25:15.255 --> 00:25:20.630
Because, at the end of the day, if you don't, your customer is either A going to have to do it themselves, and they may or may not do it.

00:25:20.630 --> 00:25:23.913
Because at the end of the day, if you don't, your customer is either A going to have to do it themselves, and they may or may not do it right.

00:25:24.596 --> 00:25:26.541
I mean just in the oil base itself.

00:25:26.541 --> 00:25:38.797
I mean, if they put in the wrong oil not even like, let's say, it's 10W30 versus 0W20, suddenly now you've got a difference of what temperature this engine is going to be compatible for.

00:25:38.797 --> 00:25:43.065
So if you want to make sure it's ready for the cold, you've got to treat it for the cold.

00:25:43.065 --> 00:25:49.711
If you're not frequently firing it up and it's run with gasoline, you know the carburetor is going to get gummed up.

00:25:49.711 --> 00:25:53.221
It just has to happen unless it gets flushed on a regular basis.

00:25:53.221 --> 00:26:04.663
So you have to be the one who does it, otherwise someone else will, and when they do, that relationship now belongs to them instead of with you.

00:26:05.503 --> 00:26:11.708
I want to add to that, because this is actually a common theme, especially as we begin to embrace service at the highest level.

00:26:11.708 --> 00:26:19.719
If your platinum options are consistently going to mean that all they have to do is sign the check, everything's taken care of.

00:26:19.719 --> 00:26:24.895
Unfortunately, there's always collateral consequence to our work.

00:26:24.895 --> 00:26:29.022
We're always in and out of drywall right.

00:26:29.022 --> 00:26:31.011
We're always adding systems.

00:26:31.011 --> 00:26:39.396
If you're offering generators, you're always going to have these systems to be serviced, and there's a dozen other examples we could come up with.

00:26:39.396 --> 00:26:44.952
In fact, this should be its own podcast episode, because we're not about to drop like a hot, freaking bomb.

00:26:44.952 --> 00:26:49.042
Here is shouldn't we all have that relationship in house?

00:26:49.042 --> 00:26:51.798
Someone who can handle that stuff for us?

00:26:51.798 --> 00:26:57.395
Whether it's third party 10, 99 in someone W two, I don't care how you do it.

00:26:57.395 --> 00:27:01.016
Everyone craps on the handyman, yet it seems like we all need one.

00:27:03.891 --> 00:27:04.673
Believe it or not.

00:27:04.673 --> 00:27:12.741
Remember the story that I came up with, where I described, when we did our door hanger campaign, that one customer ended up delivering and he was over 30,000?

00:27:12.741 --> 00:27:19.791
Yeah, that customer specifically said when I asked why didn't you call the other company back in the first place?

00:27:19.791 --> 00:27:23.682
He's like they don't maintain them, they just install them, they don't service them.

00:27:23.682 --> 00:27:31.291
As a result, if that customer was a serviced customer, I would have never had the opportunity to work with them.

00:27:32.433 --> 00:27:48.980
How many opportunities are we missing by saying, yeah, I don't want to tune up a portable generator, but every time you go to that customer's house, you have the opportunity to look at their panel, you have the opportunity to do a load test and, as a result of doing a load test, you have permission to go through their house.

00:27:48.980 --> 00:27:56.314
So you have the more opportunities to go through the home, to interact with them, to see when they need you most.

00:27:56.314 --> 00:27:59.541
You're going to find other opportunities to help them.

00:27:59.541 --> 00:28:08.656
Doesn't mean we're looking for problems, but we're looking for ways to solve them before they happen, and the only way to do that is be front and center with the customer more often than not.

00:28:09.417 --> 00:28:12.304
Convenience sells, amen, yeah.

00:28:12.304 --> 00:28:29.090
If you can provide all of that in a timeframe that works for them and their desired timeframe and the probability of success In other words, the risk of using you as a service provider is low, then the sale is yours to mess up Exactly.

00:28:30.193 --> 00:28:35.375
Now there are actually some other enhancements that I have, but I don't want to take too much time.

00:28:35.375 --> 00:28:36.519
Do we have a little more time for one more?

00:28:36.710 --> 00:28:38.617
We're down to like our last few minutes here.

00:28:39.431 --> 00:28:41.496
All right, then I can always save them for another time then.

00:28:42.357 --> 00:28:44.551
Okay, you don't want to cram anything else in there.

00:28:44.551 --> 00:28:45.955
A few minutes isn't enough.

00:28:46.576 --> 00:28:47.480
I'll screw it, I'll give it a shot.

00:28:47.480 --> 00:28:50.394
I'll give it a shot, all right, all right.

00:28:50.394 --> 00:28:54.713
So the one last thing that comes to mind is surge protection.

00:28:54.713 --> 00:29:00.587
Now I know you guys are thinking okay, like everyone does, surge protection, but are you doing it the right way for a portable?

00:29:00.587 --> 00:29:02.576
The reason why is this?

00:29:03.230 --> 00:29:10.508
When you have a portable generator, really what you're doing is you're taking the most essential circuits and you're transferring them to another panel.

00:29:10.508 --> 00:29:20.525
Right, if you have a whole home surge protector, normally it's connected to the main utility, right, it's in that main panel.

00:29:20.525 --> 00:29:25.882
But when you switch to manual, suddenly it's a completely derived system.

00:29:25.882 --> 00:29:36.541
Now that system no longer has surge protection and it no longer has surge protection and is being powered by something that may not have stable frequency.

00:29:36.541 --> 00:29:39.211
I mean, portable generators are different.

00:29:39.211 --> 00:29:40.272
They're not like automatics.

00:29:40.272 --> 00:29:41.976
They don't have to stay at 65 Hertz.

00:29:41.976 --> 00:29:48.422
They have a fluctuation of going from 60 to 68, I believe is the top that they're going to be going at.

00:29:48.422 --> 00:29:51.054
I don't think it goes full of 70, but I know it goes 60 to.

00:29:51.054 --> 00:29:53.661
I think 68 is when acceptable portable would be.

00:29:54.769 --> 00:29:58.674
Now, if you have any phase sensitive equipment, now you have an issue there.

00:29:58.674 --> 00:29:59.817
If you have any phase sensitive equipment.

00:29:59.817 --> 00:30:00.577
Now you have an issue there.

00:30:00.577 --> 00:30:05.585
Or if you ever had the generator itself spike or drop, it's not protected.

00:30:05.585 --> 00:30:17.130
So an extra enhancement you can do is to say not only are we installing an electronic safety system for your main panel, we're installing a secondary for your transfer system.

00:30:17.130 --> 00:30:19.638
That way all the essential circuits are protected.

00:30:19.638 --> 00:30:28.174
And then if the customer doesn't want two surge protectors, that's okay too, but if you're going to install it, install it in the MTS.

00:30:28.174 --> 00:30:40.577
That way, at the very minimum, you can justify to your customer and say all the things that you've considered to be the absolute, most important, the things that you said that you needed in case of an absolute emergency.

00:30:40.577 --> 00:30:43.751
Those are the things that we're going to make sure get protected.

00:30:43.751 --> 00:30:48.751
Can you blame me for wanting to make sure that those things had safety on them or that they wouldn't be risked?

00:30:50.515 --> 00:30:51.376
It makes perfect sense.

00:30:52.358 --> 00:30:56.050
Yeah, so I wanted to just tap on that last thing about search protectors.

00:30:56.050 --> 00:31:07.096
I know that some people are yeah, I know some people are in a may not think that the most valuable thing in the world, but where you place them becomes very, very valuable Makes a lot of sense, man.

00:31:07.698 --> 00:31:08.539
Well, thank you for that.

00:31:08.539 --> 00:31:09.781
The great shares today.

00:31:09.781 --> 00:31:12.256
I think you just gave a ton of value away.

00:31:12.256 --> 00:31:27.461
One question that comes to mind for the absolute newbie to this, to offering portable generators at all, is how do I begin to identify if my client might want a portable generator or need one?

00:31:28.872 --> 00:31:29.252
I love that.

00:31:29.294 --> 00:31:34.442
That's a great question, and we can tie this right into the action, because it's a starting place that anyone can take.

00:31:34.442 --> 00:31:36.232
You're completely right.

00:31:36.933 --> 00:31:45.932
So the thing is that we say a quote that happens a lot and I'm sure everyone has heard it before is that you miss a thousand percent of the shots you don't take.

00:31:45.932 --> 00:31:50.080
Every single shot that you do not shoot you will not make.

00:31:50.080 --> 00:31:55.417
So when you say, how do I know if my customer would want it, offer it.

00:31:55.417 --> 00:32:12.193
When we design what we do, we offer on premium, mid-range and economy levels of options, what's stopping you from saying my top option is a home link with an easily connected inlet right where the generator is going to be stored.

00:32:12.193 --> 00:32:18.715
My option two is just going to be a basic interlock with the inlet right behind where the panel is going to be.

00:32:18.715 --> 00:32:27.021
And then the other options beneath are whatever you would have charged anywhere, whatever you would have offered in the beginning, there's no risk to you whatsoever by offering them.

00:32:27.021 --> 00:32:33.794
But there's only upside, because it shows that you truly care about the customer and you can be in their shoes enough to support them with it.

00:32:34.997 --> 00:32:36.138
I love that for sure.

00:32:36.138 --> 00:32:42.362
At least, if you take that approach, you're going to certainly offer it to every customer.

00:32:42.362 --> 00:32:51.029
As we've talked about before, one of the benefits of the six options is getting to that platinum, the best of the best right.

00:32:51.029 --> 00:32:53.097
So doubling down on opportunity.

00:32:53.097 --> 00:33:03.853
Really, across every business in every market, we should all have a VIP offer offer because again, you'll miss 100 of the shots you don't take.

00:33:03.853 --> 00:33:06.739
If you don't have it, you can't sell it.

00:33:06.739 --> 00:33:10.292
So for you, what is that ten thousand dollar?

00:33:10.292 --> 00:33:11.635
What is that twenty thousand dollar?

00:33:11.635 --> 00:33:13.761
What is that thirty thousand dollar offer?

00:33:15.934 --> 00:33:24.602
adding a portable generator doesn't sound like a bad idea to me and if you think about the numbers of what goes into it, let's say we were providing the generator.

00:33:24.602 --> 00:33:32.642
Adding a portable generator doesn't sound like a bad idea to me, and if you think about the numbers of what goes into it, let's say we were providing the generator right and you have all the costs associated with that, as well as the labor of assembling it and shipping it.

00:33:32.642 --> 00:33:47.894
You have all these enhancements of now a new MTS with the inlet, as well as now an anchor, anti-theft anchor, the battery backup lighting, the dual surge protectors, the remote starts, the electric starts, all these things, the yearly maintenance Doesn't that sound like a hell of a top option?

00:33:49.898 --> 00:33:51.722
Absolutely, it's massive.

00:33:52.569 --> 00:34:06.282
There's a lot of value left on the table, guys, and I want to make sure that we do everything we can to not only benefit your customer's lives, but also benefit you, the electrician who's going to be in place to serve those customers.

00:34:07.390 --> 00:34:07.611
All right.

00:34:07.611 --> 00:34:09.054
So we've got a ton of options today.

00:34:09.054 --> 00:34:11.521
First action really is just offering it.

00:34:11.521 --> 00:34:15.320
Make sure that you put it out there so that someone can buy it.

00:34:15.320 --> 00:34:18.579
What's the all-star action here to really see this thing take off?

00:34:19.110 --> 00:34:20.184
The all-star action and this, might this thing take off?

00:34:20.184 --> 00:34:26.233

Replay - Portable Generator Enhancements

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