Ep 190 - Set the Sale Schedule

Hello, welcome back and happy Wednesday. It's another episode of Electric Purnier Secrets, the Electricians podcast. For me, clay Neumeier, the pleasant peasant, hold the door open for you and thank you for walking through and my esteemed co-host, joseph the sales bot, lou Canny, go live with you five days a week to help you master your sales, simplify your pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. Something I've been known to say in the calls is this thing's kind of the snake eating its own tail. We say it in that order every day, but truly what helps you master sales is that premium service and what helps you drive that highest level of service is getting your pricing right and simplified in a way that you can create that PFM. Joe, what's PFM stand for? Pure freaking magic. Pure freaking magic. Where you're in there had they're thinking oh my God, I've never seen anyone do like this before. How is it possible? They just came up with six options confidently in front of me, priced it and had me confidently selecting one. That sounds a bit magical, doesn't it?

It does and, at the same time, people ascribe it to magic, when they don't understand the science behind it. There's a lot of reasons why we do the thing we do, and something I'm very proud of is I'm very selective with my words. Everything that we put together in the process is handpicked. Every word has its place, every action has its meaning, and you'll be damned if I don't have a why for everything.

Yeah, I love that man, I love that about our process, I love that about the way you teach it. And something, guys, we were just actually talking about in the background before we thought we better just hit live and take this to live chat is it's Action Wednesday and we're putting out value pieces. And one of the big things, right from Zach's big wins that we started the week with, he said, hey, pricing was so huge for me, we wanted to give that to you guys again. So if you're engaged with us in the group, if you're just listening and not a member of the Facebook group yet, you can use our website as well serviceloopelectricalcom or anywhere you're listening to this podcast, you can comment for that pricing tool and we'll be able to send that to you to help you get that price right. This is such a valuable piece of the puzzle. We've continued on with the things that are kind of limitations to contractors, that that we see out there at the different and various levels, but also the various steps of this. But today's value piece I did an exclusive one as well, joe. We were just talking about how we have a highlight, two highlights specifically from last Friday's class. I don't like to pump myself up too much, but I delivered a bit of a speech there that silenced the whole dozen people that were in the room, myself included. You've got them to start putting goats in the chat. It was that good of a delivery. We can only share that with about 10 people. And what that is is dealing with the scarcity mindset and the program that you guys have been really running and what's been programmed into you since kindergarten and beyond how to overcome that and deliver on yourself and your goals, and how to then use the why, what and how and the feedback loop to drive cash in your company faster than we've actually seen before. And that's where our chat left off behind the scenes was. We were just discussing, like it's kind of crazy, there's this aha moment like wow, we've never seen cash added up like this before for electrical contractors. Even you made reference to your own company, Joe. I mean, you saw great growth and record time. Do you want to talk to that a little bit?

Joe Buehler yeah, so I feel like anyone who has a process that they truly have their faith in will lead them to more success, Like with our company. We started off literally my first year we were at $90,000 for this year of sales. That's how bad I was. But we just kept getting better and better and better and better to wear. In a very short period of time it was like okay, 90 to 180, 180 to 350, 350 to 500, 507, 508. And it just kept going up consistently, Joe Buehler, but not like I've seen with them. That is unlike anything I've ever seen in anyone I've trained or anyone I've heard about.

Where people are coming in, like Eric and Mandy, who we interviewed, and doubling up in like five, six weeks with us. It's insane. We're Dorian, we've made an example of him before. Right goes full-time with us and earns 120k in sales in two months the first two full-time months where we see contractors go for a first year or two, sometimes without breaking the 100k mark.

And once again I'm not trying to shame anyone in the background who's in that place. We all work with the tools and the gifts that we're given. If you're at that point, that's totally fine. We'd love to help you get better. But we do want to shine light on those that are unbelievably exceptional when it comes to their level of growth.

And essentially shining light on the code that we've cracked and how that happened, just making the most sense of it Again with that why, what and how in the feedback loop framework that's been able to help people achieve this. It's just crazy land speed records, man. Anyways, today we wanted to dive into setting the sales schedule and how important that is, because it's something we see commonly go wrong in businesses of all sizes, and we've worked with contractors, as we've stated before, from 0 to 10 million a year, and one van to 40 plus vans running consistently, and so with that, we've seen these different levels of problems, but something we've seen across the industry. There's a problem that happens when you get to a client's house, whether it's a demand or an opportunity call. It seems even more common with demand call, though. Have you ever had someone open the door and it's almost like there's a vacuum, like they're just ready to grab you by the wrist and take you right to that fault location.

Yep, and it's one of those months, right, oh yeah, the reason why it's such a problem is you're forced in this situation that you, if you don't prepare for you, get swept up, Because you know the mentality of the customer is always right. Gotta, please, the customer In their opinion, the customer showed up and they need you to do something. They want you to go somewhere and your desire to want to serve overrides your logic and you're like, yeah, no problem, I'll go. But then when you physically get there, you realize that you've given them the entire reins of this call and it's so much harder to get in front of the panel now Because they're like it's just a switch, dude, like it's right here. My knob fell off, my dimmer, that's what it is. Tell me what it cost to change this. It's so much harder to get the panel from there. That's why we put steps into place specifically to say we're going to go to the panel first every time. Non-negotiable.

In fact, I'm going to add to that, because there's this resistance and it's easy to just say that. But to give it the actual context, the words, you might be someone that goes to the fault first willingly, and then actually tries to get to the panel through a safety inspection or an electrical system inspection for their benefit, but then it comes off, just like the mechanic. I mean. You pull into a shop and all you want is your oil changed, but next thing you know they're pulling out 120 point inspection, asking if you want that the inspection's free. What are your thoughts, though, when they ask you that I don't want it because it's a sales routine.

My first thought is okay, you call me in for the $30 oil change. I get that, but this 182 point inspection is going to find something. I don't care if it's a 2023 car, you're going to find something. And now I'm going to be left with a situation where I don't like knowing things and not taking action on it. If you tell me there's something wrong with my car, I'm going to put something in the back of my mind, so I hate being put in those situations.

You can see it coming and I don't know if you've ever seen it, but I've seen it published on national news where shops like mechanic shops specifically, do the inspections, say they do the work, say that it's required Of course people aren't allowed in the back Say that it's required and then not even actually do the work and bill people for it.

That's another level of gross. That's just so gross.

Obviously, that would never happen. Anyone listening to this podcast you would never do that, not with integrity. I mean, you guys are all trying to serve at the highest level with us, right, but the point is, did they see that news too?

Very likely, very, very likely they did and if nothing else, if they didn't personally see it, they know someone who's seen it and if they don't know someone? Who's seen it? They probably know someone who this actually happened to. We all have someone in our network, isn't it? What was it? Six points or seven points of separation? You know everyone in the world.

Yeah, six degrees of separation you got yeah.

Yeah. So along those lines of yeah, you may not know someone right now, but in your network they're someone who's gotten taken advantage by someone.

I gotta ask you is it? Do you think that the skepticism around sales Across every industry is warranted at this point?

Warranties is a strong word. I would say that it's not Unjustified for the people to be concerned because, if you look at the situation more in, the, economy isn't doing great, where inflation is going up at record levels, mortgages are hard to get, the cost of eggs and milk is higher than I've ever remembered in my life. So people are more conscious of their money. At the same time, they also know their providers will raise their rates, but how and when and by how much they raise their rates is the thing that's up to question, because you don't want to be taken advantage of ever, but it's really really bad if you get screwed over even by a few hundred dollars, when those two hundred dollars really mattered.

Definitely, definitely. So we're kind of against the odds from the get-go Mm-hmm. I know we've touched on this before, but given this context with this today, I want to back up from Electrical now and say, okay, sales strategy in general mm-hmm. Every salesperson on the planet To excel in their trade, at their job, to earn the highest level level of commissions, they need to have an agenda for that. Call Correct they have to have a car and They'll do better performance wise, based on their ability to consistently run the play in a way that is wholesome and altruistic.

Correct If you feel bad, if you're a good person but you're in sales. I don't mean to say but you're in sales. I mean, and you're in sales. Yeah, you need to follow abilities that lead to ethics.

If you do things that are unethical, you're poisoning your own well, which eventually you'll have to drink from and so If you're the one with the agenda card, then you are the one that actually needs to take control in this call mm-hmm. Otherwise you're not going to check all the boxes, right?

Correct or, if you do, try to circle back and check the boxes, it's going to come across this and genuine or unjustified, and once the walls of Skepticism start coming up, it's very hard to take them down 100%, 100%.

So even in our own sales call process again, full transparency. I mean we don't push people to buy, we help people make the choice that's best for their business, and people like Eric and Mandy that take that, that jump with us. It tend to see massive results. That's amazing. But just like the the process that we teach our electricians, it starts with common courtesies, really Pre-arrival checks, making sure that you're prepared and your mindset's correct, and Essentially we end up at foyer rapport mm-hmm, building that relationship, exchanging kindness, mm-hmm, starting with an exchange of positive energy. But what follows and rate at this critical mass point Is actually where, even in our process, you've got to set the set the schedule Correct, and that's why I named this today and I want to jump a little deeper into it now. So what do you do then, joe, to stop that client from pulling you to the fault? And and assuming we're all Agreed that going to the fault now is not the right thing to do. So what we would do in that situation is we need to give them.

A reason why we're going to the panel that's directly benefits them and us. The reason why it needs to benefit both of us for transparency Is because some people will say I don't care about that, I don't want you to go there. And now you're kind of like, oh, it was only for you, I'm stuck, I don't have to do so. What we do is say the first area that you we have to inspect Is the main electrical control system, just so we know where the emergency shutoffs are and the emergency shutoffs are and that they're functional. Pretty much in layman's terms, what that means is you want me to look at something electrical, you want me to touch anything. Right, if we noticed back I mentioned earlier, the knob on the dimmer falls off. You know, the right way of doing that isn't just taking the dimmer knob and put it back on. It's taking the cover off, taking the switch off the wall, inspecting wires. Most of us service guys are doing that hot. But if for some of us, there are situations where you open up something's bad, I open things up and I find that there's cloth wire behind it or that it's nubby or it's shorting or they left an inch of copper. It's not safe. So where would you even run to if you knew that there was a fault? You opened something up.

Sorry, I'm not going to interrupt. I was just going to say and to take it to the most extreme reality, just to paint the picture what if you did cause a short in opening that up and moving stuff around and the breaker was failing?

I mean even worse is, let's say you do that and they don't even have a main breaker. Like, let's say, you're in an apartment complex. You go in and you have a lug fed panel inside their apartment, like almost every apartment I've seen has. You then go into a situation you find out God forbid, two wires touch, somehow it happens, and the breaker doesn't trip. How do you kill it? You're physically going to rip it, the breaker off, the enclosure, you're going to rip it off live Probably not a great idea if it's a loose system. So now you got to run down the stairs. Try to find out which meter in the meter bank on the side of the property is theirs. Kill the whole thing. Run back up to the top. Hope that it was the right one. That doesn't sound like a winning situation. That sounds like you're going to look like a chicken when they said cut off, just running around in circles trying to get the sparks from stopping.

And ultimately you're liable. At this point You've got to touch someone's electrical system without validating its safety shutoff, which is from the get go. I mean, I don't need to be an electrician If you explain that to me as a homeowner. Hey, choice A or choice B. One we're going to identify the safety shutoff first. Two we're just going to go after this old school Shoot from the hip like we're on the farm. Don't touch my fucking house, man. Don't even touch my fucking house with that kind of disregard for the safety and well-being of my property.

And the best part about justifying it is you're me people right now that are listening to it that are like, oh, people in my town don't care, they're all farmers here, they all live by the hip anyway. Okay, that's why it needs to benefit both of us. I personally will not touch a system that has electrical current and going through it unless I know that I could safely run to shut something off. Because how many times have you gone to a home and found out, oh, wait a second, they're using their basement as a storage facility and they had cardboard boxes all in front of it, or they had a. I mean, I've seen shelving in front of panels and you've got kitchen cabinets. How many times do you open a panel that's in your kitchen cabinet and you've got to pull out drawers and shelves just to get the lid open? I got to know where I'm running. That's all I'm asking for. Let me know where I'm going, let me see that they shut off.

And that, right from the get-go, to me is one of the differences of actually getting specific trade support versus trying to cookie cut other processes into our trade that don't serve those safety requirements at the same level. And that's not to throw sand at anyone, that's just to say there is a difference. And anyone, anyone could sit back right here, take a breath and logic through this and just say here's the stuff we need to do for safety-wise. And that stuff in large part is stuff that your client doesn't understand why. Because they're not an electrician, the likelihood I mean. Even in my own house my partner still says oh, do we blow the circuit Right? Is the fuse burnt? If you're not an electrician, you don't know. And sometimes it takes a little bit of humble. Just a breath and a thought for that perspective again. And I like to think back again I've made this example before but to a time where I was in carpentry still and I actually had to call an electrician on a demand call and I can remember thinking, gosh, I'm in this home warranty situation. The lady says this receptacle is not working in her living room and I'm thinking I hope this electrician can solve this. Joe, I shit you not. That was my thought. I'm looking through the yellow pages, through a phone book, trying to find an electrician. Date yourself A while back right and I'm hoping he can solve a receptacle not working. Doesn't that spell out the gap of knowledge between homeowner and electrician?

It really, really does, because, once again, you were a tradesperson. It wasn't that you were someone who was just like an accountant or like a middle manager. You were literally working in carpentry. You had experience with tools, you had experience with homes, but you were in a trade that you weren't familiar with. And there are customers who are like that you engineer types, your mechanics, your welders and people who are directly involved in the construction of this world, but not directly involved in exactly what we do, and it's okay to have an understandable gap. We just have to be there to support our clients when they have it 100%.

I think the moral of today's episode is ultimately like without the script, without anything fancy. Here you guys got to know that it's the right thing to do to hold your ground at that door when you're about to walk in, to not follow that vacuum to the fault, to not run to that first and to have on your agenda, on your schedule and in your sales process to find those safety shutoffs first and to set that schedule for the call so that they know, hey, right off the bat, you're the professional, not them, because that flips this whole thing on its head. And it's actually a really good thing when they try to pull right there and you stand your ground and pivot so that they know you're in control. This is no different than walking down the block with a dog pulling you to every telephone pole, versus the person that's able to walk the dog with the loose leash. As long as they're pulling you, they're running that play, they're running that schedule and your outcomes are going to be diminished by that, and not just your sales outcomes, even their outcomes, because what I know that they don't know yet is you're actually able to go in, follow your play and offer six options that will help them improve the quality and safety of their systems and their lives. But they'll never know so long as they're leading the freaking call. Mike, a couple of actions Joe and we're done here today. That's the 20 minute mark, brother. All right, you want basic, or, alistair? I think I did basic yesterday. Okay, I'll take. It Happy to do it.

So the basic action is if you guys were to consider what we're trying to ask you to do, which is go to the main panel first, the argument that some people come to is my clients don't want that or they don't want that here, and that's the first line of defense as to I don't really want to do something new. So my basic action is when your customer says no, does that take away from it affecting your personal safety? It doesn't. It really truly does not. And is your safety worth at least looking Like bare minimum, bare minimum? If you were to just let's say you were going to half-ass this. I just need to see the panel, I need to take the cover off on it. I'm not even going to look at anything, I'm just going to see if there's any active burning there, close the panel, cover. That itself would still mean that you would catch more issues than if you had just said sure, the panel's fine, it's a 1940s house, I'm sure they had it updated at some point. You got to take care of yourself, because if you don't take care of yourself, who's going to pay your injury bill? It's going to be you, it's your insurance, it's your liability, not theirs. You get hurt on their property, they're going to wonder if you have insurance. So, bare minimum, is your personal safety worth taking control of this call?

That's good, that's a good. So like a consideration for the basics. So the All-Star is lined perfectly up with that. Then I just want you to hold your ground. You can do this a few different ways. Some people like to use like an agenda card. We saw that at your place when I was visiting. I love that. Yeah Right, Guy pulls the cards. It's Joe, just so you know. This is our order of operations today. Whatever he worded, this is what we want to do here with you today. Is there wrong of us to want to do that? Essentially and I remember we were like Clay, come on, we're taking a look at this, I was probably like what the fuck is this?

I'm like, no, come here. Look at this, Clay. Take a look at this card.

It made sense. It's easy to follow. I get that. He's in control. He's got a process to follow as well. So, whether you're using a card or using your speech, and just simply hold your ground and make sure that you go to the safety shutoff first, if nothing else and some magic's going to happen that we didn't even get into today but you're going to start seeing more options available. So if you're someone that's having troubles creating options and you're having trouble standing your ground, guess what this is a two for. You're going to get a two for one on this, because how many times have you even gone to the panel? Let's, let's pretend you don't even take the cover off. That's not what I'm recommending but you open it up, the panel schedules half rubbed off from the 80s and you're like shit. Which breaker even controls that bathroom circuit?

There are all 20 more options right.

Like this is not safe. They can't even identify the safety shutoff, nor can you without advanced going into that circuit, pulling it off and actually troubleshooting it. Now, this is crazy not to do. It's crazy to even call this an all star action. So I'm just going to go. I'm just I've said my piece, Joe. That's all we could do here for you today, Right? Yeah, set the schedule, set the sales schedule, set those options out and help people at a higher level. This has been another episode, episode 190 of electric piner secrets, the electricians podcast. We're happy to come back here again tomorrow, as we do five days a week, to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. I'm ready for a drink of water, joe Woo Cheers.