Ever wondered why it's crucial to maintain your pricing integrity in the electrical service business? Today, we not only share personal stories about the challenges of keeping a bald head smooth but also dive deep into the importance of standing firm on your pricing. Through relatable anecdotes, we illustrate how discounting your services can lead to customers scrutinizing your work closely, ultimately diminishing the value of your expertise. Learn how to ensure clients respect the premium service you deliver and the pitfalls of being overworked and underpaid.
We then shift gears to discuss the critical role of educating your customers on electrical safety. It's not just about fixing immediate issues; it's about understanding your client's "why" and offering comprehensive service options that ensure long-term safety and satisfaction. Discover effective strategies to build trust and provide clear, actionable choices that bridge the knowledge gap. By sticking to a thorough offer, you can maintain your professional integrity and avoid underserving your clients, leading to a higher standard of service and long-term client relationships.
Consistency is key, and our final segment stresses the importance of a steadfast sales process. Confidently standing by your pricing helps you differentiate yourself as a premium service provider, attracting the right kind of clients who value quality over cheap fixes. We'll guide you on how to focus on your ideal customer, offer options rather than discounts, and ensure every interaction reflects your commitment to excellence. Join us for actionable steps that will help you master sales, simplify pricing, and achieve your business goals in the electrical service industry.
—--------------- Join our community and get access to strategies that’ll help bring your electrical business to the top 🚀 Connect with fellow electricians and tap into a network of support and expertise!
—--------------- Subscribe to our newsletter to receive FREE weekly value pieces packed with strategies, and guides to improve your sales, service and pricing 👇
Ever wondered why it's crucial to maintain your pricing integrity in the electrical service business? Today, we not only share personal stories about the challenges of keeping a bald head smooth but also dive deep into the importance of standing firm on your pricing. Through relatable anecdotes, we illustrate how discounting your services can lead to customers scrutinizing your work closely, ultimately diminishing the value of your expertise. Learn how to ensure clients respect the premium service you deliver and the pitfalls of being overworked and underpaid.
We then shift gears to discuss the critical role of educating your customers on electrical safety. It's not just about fixing immediate issues; it's about understanding your client's "why" and offering comprehensive service options that ensure long-term safety and satisfaction. Discover effective strategies to build trust and provide clear, actionable choices that bridge the knowledge gap. By sticking to a thorough offer, you can maintain your professional integrity and avoid underserving your clients, leading to a higher standard of service and long-term client relationships.
Consistency is key, and our final segment stresses the importance of a steadfast sales process. Confidently standing by your pricing helps you differentiate yourself as a premium service provider, attracting the right kind of clients who value quality over cheap fixes. We'll guide you on how to focus on your ideal customer, offer options rather than discounts, and ensure every interaction reflects your commitment to excellence. Join us for actionable steps that will help you master sales, simplify pricing, and achieve your business goals in the electrical service industry.
—--------------- Join our community and get access to strategies that’ll help bring your electrical business to the top 🚀 Connect with fellow electricians and tap into a network of support and expertise!
—--------------- Subscribe to our newsletter to receive FREE weekly value pieces packed with strategies, and guides to improve your sales, service and pricing 👇
hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode, episode 122. Joe, I keep getting more excited as it grows of the electricpreneur secrets, the electrician's podcast. Now, if you didn't know, if you've been under a rock for the last seven months, if, if you haven't heard of us before and you're just joining us today, guess what. We're here five days a week with you to help you, master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium-level electrical service. Why? Because we're a couple of master electricians with business addictions, and this is my partner, master electrician Joseph, the sales bot, lucani. Joe, how are you doing today, brother?
Speaker 2:
I'm having an awesome day, Though I got to admit I got to throw something personal out here. If that's all good, All right do it, yeah. So speaking of all my bald brothers out there, guys, why did everyone tell us that being bald was harder than actually having a full head of hair? Like it is ridiculous how often we actually have to shave. I'm literally sitting here going like, oh my God, it's getting so long.
Speaker 1:
How often do you shave it?
Speaker 2:
Every two days at the at like the minimum. Every two days has got to get taken down.
Speaker 1:
Is there like a 48 hour timer going down right now?
Speaker 2:
Well, yeah, it's called autism pretty much.
Speaker 1:
I could feel every hair on my head.
Speaker 2:
So it's like, yeah, you can feel it, it's time to get rid of it, let's go. I was just hoping that by this point it would just be like it just disappears. You know Right.
Speaker 1:
And I've seen you. You pull the brush out. You got the boar brush on the desk right, Literally right here.
Speaker 2:
Every single day. What's up with that Always going at it? Why do you love the boar brush so much? So I those of you who might be in the same boat I can feel more things than the average person different sensory, different, nervous, everything like that but, um, I can actually feel the hair on my head. So if I use a board, if I use the brush, I don't feel it anymore and it kind of like takes off the edge. It's like scratching an itch that you can't quite reach, but it gets it just enough to where you can continue on with your day until I can shave it.
Speaker 1:
I find that so interesting because you also don't have as much feeling for how much strength you're exerting. This guy hugs like a horse, ladies. Last time I showed up I think I popped a couple of ribs.
Speaker 2:
Well, it was with love, my friend. It was with love. It's a there's a lot. There's a lot of fun things about being the way I am, and I've I've learned to look at them as fun things rather than man.
Speaker 1:
I'm so fucked up, nice, nice. Well, I appreciate that and I appreciate you and I appreciate all of our listeners and viewers. If you're with us in the entrepreneur secrets facebook group and the vip welcome guys. Thanks for joining us, listen. I want to get right to the topic today because we've got some more important stuff to talk about here. Joe, we've been nailing the offer all week like really hitting it, trying to help people craft and perfect the craft of theirs so they can actually earn what they're worth. We talked about really the offer shift, a belief shift around offers. We've talked a bit about being underpaid and underworked. We're kind of new to the confidence game we're going to tie into that a bit today.
Speaker 1:
Now, yesterday we talked about being overworked and underpaid, which is another serious problem today. Equally important, maybe more sticking to your offer. The deep dive here. How important is this? To stick to your offer. The deep dive here, how important is this? To stick to your offer. And I can't wait to talk about some of the problems that arise around this.
Speaker 2:
So there is nothing more important than sticking to the offer, and I can explain why from personal example. Right, how many times have we been told where we present, let's say, a two, three, $4,000 offer and the customer says, listen, take $500 off, you got the job right? Some of us may say, yeah, I'll take $500 off for this, why not? I promise you like I will swear on anything that I can swear on that that customer will be looking for where you cut the corners. You will never have a customer more attentive to the job you're doing than the job you've discounted.
Speaker 1:
Wow, and I feel like we're really speaking to those underworked and underpaid people right now who might be feeling like, well, what's the harm? It's 500 bucks. I could block this in and have a couple of days work. Joe.
Speaker 2:
And I can explain it so literally. We had a situation once where I had a customer. I had just closed a $22,000 job. Right Now, when I say just closed, meaning that we're sitting there, the paperwork's written up, I'm getting ready to do the job, and he's getting ready to hand me his credit card and he goes listen, we've worked together for a long time, like it's been a while. We've given a lot of work together.
Speaker 2:
This is a pretty substantial job. Can you take $200 off of it? And I literally asked I was like well, what makes you think I can take $200 off? And he got mad and he's like cause I just gave you 22,000. He's like you don't think? He's like should I be getting other estimates at this point? Are you not willing to budge? And I simply smiled and said I understand where you're coming from and would you be open to hearing why I'm not willing to lower the number? He said yeah, sure, tell me, because it's not my money. This isn't going to me. It's not like a pile that I'm sleeping on like a dragon.
Speaker 2:
What it is is I have employees that have benefits and are paid the top in their industry. We have a shop that allows us to serve you better because we're able to stock all the material better. We have a CSR who's always on the phone, who we pay really, really well because she's so good. Would you want me to take away from them to give you the $200? Do you want me to serve you less for $200?
Speaker 1:
Joe, I got chills. That's a great response. That's like a. That's a Emmy Award winning moment right there. If I wouldn't know we had the soundboard, you'd hear the rewind sound right now and we just listen to that again. But you guys are going to have to do that on your own, with your own finger, because I know some people have had some struggles trying to get out of that pickle and usually the discount wins.
Speaker 2:
The funny thing was is the guy actually? The reason why I'm so confident in this statement was he actually said you know what? I hadn't thought of it that way. If you had just told me that you couldn't, I would have fired you. But because you told me that it's not yours and it's going to your employees, yeah, I get it. I got employees too. We're not going to do that. Yeah, okay, full, full ticket, do it right.
Speaker 1:
So what you also communicated was he got the best price possible.
Speaker 2:
Correct he did. For the service we're providing, I'm not going to charge a cent more than I have to. But if I have to charge it, why the fuck am I lowering it? I had to charge it, so do it. Stick to it 100%.
Speaker 1:
And I feel like where the underpaid and underworked person might struggle a bit is if you did your pricing exercise with us, then we know you've got growth built into that rate. But again, let me remind you that if you don't hold steadfast on that rate, there is no growth, you're not going anywhere. You hear the question often well, should I? Do I need a loan to build my electrical business? Do I? I need investors to support my marketing? No, why would you accept outside money to an unsustainable machine?
Speaker 1:
You have to you have to bill for what you need to pay, and if we added that up in a calculator, I don't suggest there's any room for fudging. I think that's what Joe is trying to communicate right here, right now.
Speaker 2:
I would agree. I'm sitting here just silently nodding, I mean, like man, it's nice when we're on the same wavelength and it's like I don't even have to say it, because you're saying exactly what I'm thinking.
Speaker 1:
Wonderful, wonderful. Now the other situation that I kind of tend to see. This is especially when people come into the program and they're adjusting their offer. We get in an awkward place. And this wasn't a planned thing. Again, guys, we throw out of the fancy shit. We just come here and talk for you in front of you. We learn about subjects as we even speak about them. So here we go. This is a real um happening right now. I already have clients. They're part of my old offer structure, the way I used to do options. Maybe it was time and material, I was charging hourly. Maybe I didn't propose options and that means they don't want options. Or maybe it was three options and now we're thinking six. Do you keep going with the old way? What do we got to do here, joe?
Speaker 2:
I don't know if I mean thank God I have sound cancellation microphones, because literally my first thought was like oh, this falls, same fucking stick. Why do people do this to themselves? Now I understand where you're coming from. Right, let's say you're a newer company. You've had customers for a long time that you've been working with and they like the old you right, they're remembering a version of you that doesn't exist or shouldn't exist anymore. Because the thing is is that you have to know your why just as much as you know your customer's why. So let me ask you some questions. Why did you raise your rate? Did you raise your rate to just buy a Mercedes, or did you raise your rate so that you can employ more skilled people? Did you offer options because you're trying to just squeeze more out of your clients or because you feel that you can serve them at a better level? Are you offering warranties, club memberships, maintenance packages? Are you doing them just as cash grabs? For me, it wasn't the case. I did the things because I believe in the service that I'm offering to our clients.
Speaker 2:
When you believe yourself and you believe your own numbers and you're like is it wrong of me to do this for you. You have to ask yourself is it wrong? And almost every time you believe yourself, you're going to say no, it's not wrong to offer these customer choices, because you know what. Picture it this way. Let's say you gave them six choices and your bottom option is you can even say like the 2011 special. It's like listen, I'm going to show up when I can on the weekend. This is my old rate. I can't sustain it. But this is something where I'd be even willing to come out and help you. But just so you know, it doesn't come with a warranty. It doesn't come with really much of anything. This is what you would have gotten six years ago from me. You want to see what you can get from me now. That's five options above it, and I'd be honored to serve you at that level.
Speaker 1:
So how would you like to proceed? Gosh, I love that man, I love that. Okay, I want to pause for a moment and just acknowledge our viewers, our listeners, right now and ask you to do something for you, for us and for this movement that we're going to start right now. We're going to start something right here, Joe.
Speaker 2:
All right, I'm here, I'm on board, I'm on board.
Speaker 1:
Stick to your offer is the name of this episode of Entrepreneur Secrets Hashtag STYO. Stick to your offer. Guys, if you're on the same page with us and you can see how important this is, please go ahead and comment that in the chat right now. Hashtag STYO. Ahead and comment that in the chat right now. Hashtag s-t-y-o. In fact, the next time you're in one of our neighbor groups sister group rebs, any of the other groups that you see us in as well and you see other electricians asking questions around this, just go ahead and hashtag s-t-y-o. Let them get curious and say what the hell does that mean? And you're gonna go stick to your offer.
Speaker 1:
Run the play, joe. I gotta throw in another situation where people tend to get a little bent on this. Okay, we nailed demand calls. Do you remember? It was just a week ago? Demand call lotto. We talked through it a ton, and one of the challenges that we've seen in that is this whole. They called me for one single thing. Now they're kind of acting crazy like I'm crazy and all I want to do is get my options and run the play, but I'm feeling this gap and the trust gap and whatever else. That is like they see through me, like I'm trying to sell something and and all I do is like it's kind of like you mentioned of noticing like a furnace with no power and it was the switch. You remember we talked about that. Yeah, how do we help people with this? We've talked a bit about this in a class earlier too, but how do we help electricians understand how important it is this S-T-Y-O?
Speaker 2:
So the closest thing that comes to mind is that we have to acknowledge that most customers consider that we're sorcerers. They really don't understand how electricity works until it suddenly just doesn't work and they have to call the sparky magician to come and fix it right. The thing is, because they don't understand electricity to the same extent, they don't know what they don't know. And it's our obligation, not just responsibility. We are obligated by honor to teach them the things that could make them safer, or at the very least, to say I'm going to put it in your court you were a grown ass man. I'm going to give you the choices. I can suggest what I think is the right thing, but you'll have a complete range of choices and you choose what you think is best. So let's say, the customer calls and says I have one bathroom switch, right, I got one switch that's not working. There's a lot of questions that usually come around that I always found and said do you know their why? If you know their why, you can allow yourself to get more options available. As I know, we touched on previous episodes. Right For what I recommend. There's always a list of things that you can offer, no matter whether they're handy, or whether they've never even owned a screwdriver in their life. And this is the circuitry identification.
Speaker 2:
The reason why I feel this is so important is because you, as an electrician, if you went to their home and you didn't know where the breakers were or what was controlling what, wouldn't you have to work harder in order to find it. You'd have to do it anyway. Right, yeah, but you're the electrician. You at least know. Hey, the air conditioning is not working. I'm looking for anywhere from a two-pole 40 to a two-pole 60. I know that's probably the one it is.
Speaker 2:
Customer has no idea. They don't know where to find the air handler switch. But if you were to label it and make it clearly identifiable, like I love, qo series home line or, sorry, qo series square D, because they actually have a built-in fault indicator. So imagine changing a panel for a customer and saying, hey, instead of you fiddling around for the breaker, that's off, we had a light right next to each breaker that would tell you which one it was and then directly correlating I have a number on it. You can see that number means this, and every single thing on that circuit is there. Would that be wrong of us to do for someone?
Speaker 1:
no, no, quite necessary. I. I want to piggyback onto this and I tend to carry a little bit of passion about this one, because we're really talking about at least it seems in the conversations we've had is that in this situation it can make you kind of doubt yourself a bit, it can make you feel a little bit crazy, and I just want to reiterate how. That's only because they have the home field advantage, and by they I mean we could be talking about a partner, we could be talking about a single person in this, this home. Maybe there's three people you're addressing, but the greater that number is on this home field advantage, the more crazy you might feel, because they might agree that this isn't what they expected from you. They expected someone to come and flick a switch or put a meter on it and fix it, but but again, they don't even know, they have no idea.
Speaker 1:
I remember pre-trade calling an electrician for a home warranty deal when I worked for a general contractor, and I remember selecting that electrician from the yellow pages in our phone book and I remember thinking, god, I hope he can fix this receptacle because it's not working. The reality is, if our apprentice can't fix the receptacle he's not working at this point, right like plug tester, plug it in tells me there's no neutral. Oh, my god, that wasn't that hard right. So when he did this, it was pure magic, pure fucking magic, joe, long before I ever got into the trade. But that just displays the level of understanding that they truly have 99 of the time.
Speaker 1:
So let me try to correct this for you guys a little bit. You're not crazy. You're not doing the wrong thing. Yes, it, it's their house, but it's your clinic. And if you don't do the right thing, which is run your offer, stick to your offer, hashtag S-T-Y-O if you don't do that, then they're gonna end up underserved. And if we're underserving, then you might as well be fucking tank top Terry, chucking a truck, ben and a Dan. I just made that one up.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I love them. I went in doubt, but there was actually something that I wanted to bring up that you inspired me to say If I can piggyback off what you're saying, let's hit it. In addition to this, if you don't stick to your offer the first time you meet them, you have handcuffed yourself for the next time. They call you, and I don't think people really think of the lifetime value of the client. So let's say you meet a brand new client and you don't run the play, or you, even worse, you offered a discount when they haggled you Either A. If you didn't offer options the second time, they'll never expect second options. And if you haggled the first time, what do you think they're going to do the second time? Because they know how it works now.
Speaker 2:
Oh, I know he's going to tell me $1,000. I'll hem and I'll haw. He'll say he needs to work and I'll take it for $750. Faster, better, cheaper. Man, there's nothing I want less. But when you stick to your offer, when you say I believe in this number, I believe what I'm doing is fair and I believe that I'm doing it for the right intentions. But it's up to you to tell me whether or not you want it, but this is what I'm believing and what I'm going to stick to to stick to that's.
Speaker 1:
Do you want help or not? It's really what it comes down to. Absolutely so, guys, again can't stress it enough we've got to stick to your offer here. This is your play. Keep in mind that offer sets up a sales process which sets up that premium service. This is the snake eating its own tail. Like the whole process is necessary, the the offer intention is necessary.
Speaker 1:
I know in these demand call situations when you're trying for demand call lotto, that that can be a big, daunting challenge. But there's no lotto without the offer. It's got to be connected. You have to present the options. You've got to run this play or else they're going to see you just like everyone else in the same way. Shallow service, quick crook, however you want to see it. The get in, get out mentality no one truly wants that. It's not good for anyone. The only person that could be good for is an electrician hiring another electrician, and in that case I would say they might be part of the 20% for you, the ones you don't want to serve, because they already know what they're doing. They're just not doing it themselves. Does that make sense, joe?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, literally, that inspired me. I remember there was a contractor that actually ended up kicking me out of his home, but he was in the 20% that I didn't want to work with. He literally told me to my face he's like I am an electrician, I already know what you got to do. I don't want to fucking do it. I'm looking for the cheapest price. I don't want options. This is what I want. I've already spec'd it out myself and it was like great, Thank you for telling me that. Let me happily disqualify myself from the situation Happily. And he's like you're not giving me a bid. It's like no, of course not, Not my customer.
Speaker 1:
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:
So knowing who your avatar is is just as important as knowing which player you're supposed to run. You can't win all of them. You shouldn't try to win all of them. Stick to the 80 you can and you know. Let the other 20 go.
Speaker 1:
We got to wrap this one up, guys, but I want to give you an action item right now Toot sweet, as we might say in our French part of the Canadian culture STUIO, hashtag STUIO. Stick to your offer, don't discount, don't vary, don't run a different play than you set intention for. If you feel the pull, I want you to back up and say if this was my staff, would I honestly encourage them to take a shortcut right now? If this was my staff, would I actually ask them to discount our offer right now? And the answer is going to be no, joe. I would never want that. We don't want to create shooting from the hip muscle memories. I want people to run the play to the best of their ability so we have consistent results and consistent delivery, because that's truly productizing your service. Do you have an all-star action for us, my friend? That I do? All right, let's go.
Speaker 2:
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to arm the people who are saying that they don't know how to respond.
Speaker 1:
Typical Americans, always trying to arm people.
Speaker 2:
What can you say?
Speaker 1:
man, we are what we are right. Hey, just a pleasant peasant over here. No arms, no arms, bared.
Speaker 2:
There you go. Please don't let me interrupt anymore.
Speaker 1:
There we go my game Now. I'm just sitting here laughing.
Speaker 2:
You got me. I love it. I love it, but anyway, okay. So when someone comes to you for an offer and they say can you take $200 off? Can you take $1,000? Give me this and I'll do it or give you the job, the question that you can ask is I can appreciate you asking that and naturally I would love to do it better, faster, cheaper too. But do you mind if I ask what have I given you the impression of? That makes you feel like I can take that off and then wait and don't say a damn thing, Literally just wait. The reason being is most people need jerk reaction, ask for a discount. Very few actually push past it when you're like well, that's just not how we do it. But what makes you think that I had that availability If we're here at Service Loop Electrical, we believe, is giving you the best price at the beginning, so we don't have to haggle it.
Speaker 2:
So the number I'm presenting to you right now is already at the bottom line of what I can do without compromising on the service. So this is what we can do. I created a range of choices, from the finest money can buy to the most bare bones you can have. You're looking at this option. But why not entertain the one beneath it? That's $1,000 less that. But why not entertain the one beneath it? That's a thousand dollars less. That's more than what you're asking for. Why don't you consider option like that? And then now you're shifting the offer down and if they say, yeah, I can do that Now you still locked in a full price offer and they saved money Win-win for everyone.
Speaker 1:
Win-win. I love it, man, I love it, joe. We got to wrap this up, but that was an incredible amount of value. Guys, if all you did was listen to these episodes number 122 now and take the two all star and regular action items that we put in each and every episode, you would be a lot further ahead, I hate to say it. So go ahead, take action, be a freemium provider right here, right now. Report your wins back to us and jump over to premium with us, where so many are seeing great success.
Speaker 1:
People come for the transformation, but they stay for the support from me and my partner, joe here, who's literally run this play 10,000 plus times. And guess what I can tell you right now? Joe always stuck to his offer. So, guys, this has been another episode of Letrepreneur Secrets, the electrician's podcast, where we help you, five days a week, master your sales, simplify your pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. Just a couple of master electricians with business addictions here to serve you at our highest level. I can't wait to see you again tomorrow. We'll take another shot at it. See you then.